Dragon Boy and Princess

Chapter 5

Lucy swung herself over her balcony and scaled the wall. She had the big brown bag full of food slung over her shoulder. She dropped to the ground and broke into a sprint until she reached the forest's edge. From there, she walked. She was thinking about what had happened earlier today. She was this terrified and he hadn't even gotten that far! It was different from when Cana would do it as a joke. She could feel the hunger and malice radiating off of him in waves. All in all, the experience was terrifying and not something she would want to repeat ever again. She would never let her guard down again. She couldn't afford to just let habit take over like that any more, she had to be on the lookout for signs when she met those snobby, sorry excuses for suitable suitors. Her habit of retreating into herself wasn't the only thing that caused her to let her guard down... She had never spent all day courting suitors. Normally she spent only half the day or less than that meeting them, but today her father had forced her to stand all day while keeping up her "royal" posture and dealing with those annoying suitors. But that was still no excuse!!

Lucy shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. She couldn't let this affect Natsu. So, she squared her shoulders and started up into a jog despite how tired she was.

When she got there, Natsu looked like he had been expecting her.

"Yo, Lucy!" he greeted cheerfully.

"Hey!" she said trying to put some emotion into her voice, in vain, obviously.

"What's wrong, Luce?" Natsu asked with a frown.

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

Natsu looked like he was about to push the subject, so Lucy hastily pulled the bag open and brought the food out. That shut Natsu up, even if he still looked a little suspicious. Lucy watched him eat for a bit before her stomach grumbled loudly, surprising her.

"Oh, yeah. I didn't eat anything today did I?" she muttered to herself.

"You didn't eat anything all day?!" Natsu exclaimed.

"No and neither did you," she pointed out.

"Who cares about me," he said waving away her statement like it was no big deal he didn't eat anything the whole day either. "Why didn't you eat?"

"My father made me meet a bunch of... suitors the whole day and I didn't get to eat anything," she explained sheepishly.

"That's horrible! How could he?! What are suitors?"

"Suitors are supposed to be princes that are presented to a princess to marry, but really they're just a bunch of snobby, rich people who are full of themselves with money and power," Lucy said with a scowl.

"Wait, so you have to decide if you want to marry one of these snobs after meeting them only once?!" he asked incredulously.

Lucy smiled when he said snobs instead of suitors.

"Yeah. It's pretty bogus, huh?"

"Absolutely! Does this have something to do with why you were acting strange and why you smell like... like fear?"

Lucy didn't really know how to answer that. Partly because she didn't really want to tell him, and partly because he just told her he could smell her fear. She was debating what to tell him when she was saved by her stomach growling, demanding her to feed it.

"Never mind, eat," Natsu said pushing some chicken towards her.

She picked the chicken leg up gingerly and raised it to her mouth to take a bite when Natsu said, "But don't think you're off the hook. I expect an answer when you're done."

She sighed in defeat and nodded before taking a bite into her chicken. He deserved to know. Plus, it's better to let it all out than to keep it all in and just wait to explode. She also felt strangely at ease when she talked to Natsu, conversation came so easily with him, and she loved it.

So, as promised, when she was done eating her fill, she started telling Natsu what happened. With every word that came out of her mouth, he seemed to get angrier. She probably shouldn't have continued, but she couldn't stop the flow of words coming out of her mouth, and when she was finally finished, she felt strangely... relieved. Like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She warily looked up to see his reaction. At some point during her retelling, her gaze had shifted towards her hands. His face was contorted in anger and his face was dark. Frankly, he looked really scary and intimidating. Lucy gulped.

"Natsu?" she tentatively asked.

"I am going to kill that bastard," he growled and tried standing up, his face contorting in pain as he let out a moan.

Lucy quickly got to her feet and stood in front of Natsu.

"Its fine, Natsu. Really. Well, no, its not fine, but I told you, my friends took care of it."

"I don't care. I'm still going to beat the crap outta that bastard."

He took a step forward and stumbled. Lucy caught him in her arms and sunk to the ground from his weight in her arms. She could feel him shaking from anger.

"How are you going to beat the crap outta him if you can't even walk," she whispered gently in his ear.

"Damn it," she heard him say in frustration as his hands balled up into fists.

"I don't need you to beat the crap outta him. I'm satisfied already."

"How are you satisfied?"

"Because you care, and that makes me very happy," she said truthfully.

She felt his muscles relax from on top of her. Then he surprised her by wrapping his arms around her, then his wings, despite his injury. She was frozen at first, then slowly leaned into it, resting her head in the crook of his neck, her cheek against his scarf. It was soft and warm and smelled like... warmth, if that even makes sense. It was a mix between fire, something spicy, and a hint of something sweet. That was Natsu's scent and she loved it. It made her feel electric and want to snuggle closer to him. She felt more than heard Natsu take a deep breath in, but his face was in her hair. What was he...? He did it again and it hit her. He was smelling her. She blushed but wasn't she pretty much doing the same thing to him? Yes. Yes, she was. Lucy felt her body completely relax in his arms/wings...? Whatever, his embrace, and felt her eyelids start to droop. So... tired... She tried to force her eyes to stay open, she wanted to stay awake with Natsu a bit longer. But her attempts were in all in vain, and she soon felt herself slip away into dream land surrounded by Natsu, his scent, and his warmth radiating off of him and his fiery red scales.