Fairy Hearts and Fangs

Oh... Hello Father

Chapter Seven
Oh... Hello Father
The man who stood before me, I had not seen in several months. My duffle bag fell to floor as I said, "hello father, I didn't expect to see you here so willingly." "It seems some of the members here were convincing, but what really helped was receiving your letter. I do care about you Lucy and your safety." "Sure you do," I mumbled. I felt Natsu place a hand on my shoulder, with how amazing his hearing is I knew he must have heard what I said. "Father, this is Natsu Dragneel. Natsu this is my father, Jude Heartfilia." "It is nice to meet you sir." Natsu reached out his hand to shake my father's. "Are you a friend of Lucy's?" My father asked. I lightly nudged Natsu with my elbow hoping he would get the hint. "Ow, oh yeah, I am a  friend from school and also a member of the guild." "Well... its been a long day and week with finals and everything so I think I'm going to go rest in my room. Natsu can you show me where it is?" "Of course, it's one of the guest rooms on the second floor." "I'll see you later father." He nodded his head as I grabbed my duffle bag off the floor. I followed Natsu to the back of the guild and up the stairs. "Is my father's room close to the stairs or at the far end?" "Ummm I believe Mira said that his room was the first guest room, so closer to the stairs. "Would it be possible to have the room farthest from him?" "Yeah, there's the last guest room at the end of the hall." We started walking down to the room. The first door we passed was the door to the guild's infirmary, the door after that was Makarov's office, then the first guest room, which was my father's. We passed two more doors that were two more guest rooms. When we arrived at the last door Natsu asked, "why did you want the room farthest from your father?" "You know how my father and mine's relationship is not the best. I do care about my father, but I just feel better farther from him." Natsu opened the door and I stepped inside to set my stuff down.
The room was amazing. When you walked through the door there was a closet to the right and the another door after that for a bathroom. The bathroom had your typical toilet and sink with mirror, but also had a jacuzzi tub and a rainfall shower. After the bathroom in the middle of the room was a queen size bed that faced the door. A few feet behind the bed were a set of French doors that led out to a balcony. Along the left wall was also a wardrobe and a dresser. Against the right wall was a beautiful oak desk. "Natsu, are all the rooms like this?" "Almost, the only one that's different is the room your father has. That room has a king size bed and also an armchair in it. Gramps really likes making guests feel welcomed and at home." I set my duffle bag in front of the wardrobe and flopped down on the large bed. The mattress was heavenly. It literally hugged your body so perfectly it was like floating in air. I felt the mattress dip lower and opened my eyes to that pink haired boy grinning at me. "I take it you like it?" "I don't think I ever want to leave this bed," I joked. "I'm glad you wanted a room farther away." "Why's that?" "Let me show you." He grabbed my hand and pulled me off the bed. I sighed looking back at the bed, missing it already. He pushed open the French doors and I felt the chill of the night air. I held onto the railing of the balcony astonished by what I saw. The sun was very low in the sky causing the tree line to be only a black silhouette. The beautiful pinks, oranges and purples sinking behind those silhouettes. Above the silhouettes the dark night sky was setting in. The glow from stars twinkled so brightly and the light began to bounce off the pond way back in the forest. "It's the only room in the guild where you can see the stars bounce off the pond." I turned and looked at Natsu. "This is so way beyond beautiful." Pushing some of my hair behind my ear Natsu whispered, "you're beyond beautiful." He lifted my chin with his finger and gave me a sweet, but passionate kiss. After a few minutes Natsu said, "I should let you get settled in." As he turned to walk away I grabbed his hand and looked down to floor. "Please don't leave me alone," I said quietly. The reality hit me. I was truly in danger and did not want to be left alone. Natsu just nodded and pulled me in to his embrace. Almost as if he read my mind he whispered, "as long as I'm here Luce, you have nothing to fear." Wrapped in his embrace, that night I slept very peacefully.
Warm arms wrapped tighter around my waist as my eyes began to flutter open from the morning light. I felt a light kiss on the back of my neck. "Good morning dear." His voice was so husky in the morning, I loved it. I rolled over to face him, "good morning." I stared into his onyx eyes. 'I could get lost in those eyes forever,' I thought to myself. Natsu grinned and said, "should we go get some breakfast?" I got dressed and we headed down to the main part of the guild hall. I saw my father was already awake and talking with Makarov. Natsu and I sat down at the bar and I asked Mira for some eggs, bacon and toast. Natsu only ordered a small plate of bacon. Gajeel and Levy showed up shortly after Mira brought us our food. "Good morning Levy." "Good morning Lucy. I see it was a pretty calm night last night," she giggled. I smiled, "yeah, thankfully nothing happened." I continued eating and talking with Levy. The guild doors were then forcefully swung open and Jellal came running in. "Master! Master!" He was yelling. "I'm over here child, what is it?" Jellal raced over to the table where Makarov was sitting and placed his hands on the table top catching his breath. "Master.... it's.... Sabertooth." Makarov closed his eyes and I saw Natsu and Gajeel's ears perk up. "Where is Erza?" Makarov continued. "We found in the forest there were some spies. She ran off after them to track them down," he answered, now having caught his breath. "I see. Jellal you go ahead and find her. I don't want her out there alone with them and take Wendy, Carla and Elfman with you." Jellal nodded his head and walked away to find the others. Makarov closed his eyes again and I heard my father question him on the seriousness of this guild. I looked at Natsu and asked, "I've heard of Sabertooth before, but why is Makarov so concerned about them being by here?" "We came across them once before and had drove away they're guild master. They are another dark guild. They're violent, have no remorse for what they do and they treat each other like tools rather than partners or family. We hadn't heard much about them after we drove away the guild master, but a few days ago it was brought to our attention a new master had taken over the guild and nothing was changed, still the same rules and actions." "Who became the new master?" Levy asked. "I didn't want to say anything to you guys because I didn't want you to worry during finals. I also asked Gajeel and Gray not to say anything also. Sting became their new master. He is actually the white dragon slayer." Levy and I looked at Natsu in complete shock. "Sting is their master?!" We both shouted. "Don't worry shrimp I won't let him get anywhere near you," Gajeel said placing his arm around Levy's waist. "Gajeel we better go check in with Gramps," Natsu said. Gajeel nodded and they both walked over to Makarov's table. "Lucy what are we going to do? What if Sting finds out that we have been coming here? Are Rouge and Jet members there as well?" " I don't know Levy. We'll have to see what information those two come back with." I looked over at the table and thought, 'what else can possibly go wrong now?'
After a little bit Natsu and Gajeel came back over to the bar. "Hey shrimp, can you come with me? I need to talk to you." Levy nodded her head and they made their way to one of the empty guest rooms. I watched them walk up the stairs then turned my attention to Natsu. I gave him a 'care to explain' look. He scratched the back of his neck and had that nervous grin, "so... Gramps has a theory that Sabertooth may be working with Grimoire. He believes Sabertooth spies were sent here to check up on us and see if we may have any involvement. He's hoping the spies didn't see anything or you more importantly." "But that doesn't explain anything about Levy and Gajeel." I heard light footsteps running to the other end of the guild. I saw Levy, she was running towards the stairs, but passed them and ran straight to the area of the library. "Shrimp where are you going?" He started going down the hall towards her. I giggled at the nickname Gajeel gave her. Levy hated her petite form, but allowed the nickname since it was Gajeel. "This is so fascinating!" She shouted back, "I have to learn more about this." And with I heard her run into the library and Gajeel not too far behind. "I guess it went well," Natsu said casually. This time the look I glared at him was a 'you better tell me or I will explode you with my stare'. "Ha ha, ok, ok I'll tell you. Just stop killing me with your eyes." I grinned at my victory. "So to continue with Sabertooth which involves those two. Since the new master is Sting, Gramps felt it would be best for Levy to stay here as well so nothing happens to her. And well you know what that means." So Levy now knows the secret. Judging by what I just saw, she seemed pretty excited about it. That doesn't surprise me one bit for that bookworm. "Gramps isn't too happy about it. He's had to make more exceptions than he's wanted to." I just nodded in agreement.
The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. Levy spent a good part of the day in the library researching the new information she had just learned. Natsu and I talked with Mira at the bar and to my surprise my father and Makarov have been talking all day. 'Maybe this is what my father needs' I thought. The guild doors swung open, breaking the rare calmness in the guild. Jellal walked in first, Wendy behind him holding Carla and then Erza and Elfman walked in, each holdIng an arm belonging to... Jet?! "Take him down to one of the holding cells. I'll be down soon to have a chat with him. I'm glad you are safe my children." Jellal nodded at what Makarov said and Erza and Elfman followed Jellal down a set of stairs behind the bar. Wendy carried Carla and came over to sit by us. "Hi Wendy, hi Carla," I grinned. "Hi Lucy, Natsu, Mira," the small blunette said. "You guys left this morning and are back by sunset. He has speed magic. I'm surprised you caught him that fast," Natsu said. "Yeah, it wasn't easy, but Erza used the clear heart armor so she would be able to catch up to him. Once she was able to Elfman knocked him out and I was able to block his magic for a little." "Wow Wendy you're getting stronger and stronger with your dragon slayer magic." "Thanks Mira," Wendy smiled. "Wendy you're also a dragon slayer?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm the sky dragon slayer," she said with a grin. "Somehow our guild got lucky and has four dragon slayers," Natsu began to say, "I'm the fire dragon slayer, Gajeel is the iron dragon slayer, Laxus is the lightning dragon slayer, and well you now know about Wendy." "How many dragon slayers are there?" "Well, we know of seven, but we don't know if that's how many there are in the world. Other than the four here, there is Sting, his friend Rouge, who is the shadow dragon slayer, and a few months back we came across information about a poison dragon slayer named Erik, but goes by the name Cobra," Wendy answered. "Interesting, but just one more question, Natsu I thought you were just a fire mags?" Natsu blushed a little and scratched the back of his neck. "That's what everyone at school thinks. When Igneel left my search for him began and that's how I ended up here at Fairy Tail. It was late one evening, I was tired, hungry and I had been searching for days non stop. I came across Fairy Tail and Gramps took me in. When I started school he told me it would be best not to tell them what my true powers are. He didn't see the need to cause a commotion. However, I can't wait to graduate so I can become the best fire dragon slayer that I was meant to be." "So was Igneel a fire dragon slayer too?" Natsu laughed a little bit. "No my dad was a dragon." My eyes widen and my mouth dropped. "A dragon?!" "Yeah, the council fabricated stories about the dragons so people would live in fear that they would come back. They reassured everyone that these 'dragons' people where telling stories of were nothing more than great mages who exceeded the limit of their magic and achieved a new level. This calmed the people down and my dad was made to look like a great fire mage who was able to achieve the power of turning into a dragon. When really he actually was a dragon." I stared at him dumbfounded. I turned to Wendy, "so Wendy, were you also raised by a dragon?" "Yeah, her name was Grandeeney. After I joined Fairy Tail I learned that she disappeared the same time that Natsu and Gajeel's dragons disappeared." "What about Laxus' dragon." "Well Laxus is considered a third generation slayer," Natsu began, "his father inserted a lightning dragon lacrima in him when he was a child and that's how he became a slayer." I looked straight ahead and said aloud, "wow, this guild keeps getting more interesting by the minute." I heard both Natsu and Wendy laugh.
Later that night Makarov came up from the basement, after having a talk with Jet. He came over to the bar and climbed on top. "My children," he began, "protecting Lucy and her father has now risen to a higher level. Jet informed me that Sabertooth is working for Grimoire as spies and that in the woods he was not alone. This is now serious. We do not know what information has been told to Grimoire and if they now know that Lucy and her father are here. We all must be on high alert children." The guild became loud with everyone talking and asking questions. Levy, who had come back a little while ago from her research in the library asked, "what are we going to do? Will Lucy be safe?" "She will be safe," Natsu said looking down at the bar, "she will be safe because I wont let anyone get near her!" He finished by hitting his fist against the bar. I placed my hand on top of his fist and said, "Natsu it's getting late, how about we get some sleep." "That sounds like a good idea Lucy," Levy said, "Come on Gajeel." "Right behind ya shrimp." "Goodnight guys," Levy waved. "Night," I waved back and they went up the steps to one of the other guest rooms. Natsu nodded his head in agreement and we got up to retreat for the night. "Hold on Natsu," I said then turned to go to the table where my father was still sitting with Makarov. "Father?" I paused and waited for him to look at me. "Yes Lucy?" "I am going to go to bed. Goodnight." "Goodnight sweetie, please be safe. Oh I brought these for you too." He handed me two gold keys. "Gold keys? This is Sagittarius and Leo. Where did you find these?" "I found Sagittarius along my travels and your mother wanted me to give you Leo when the time was right. Right now seems like the right time," he sweetly smiled, "your mother use to call Leo Loke. Why? I never knew." "Thank you father." I smiled, bowed and went back to meet up with Natsu at the stairs. I went into the bathroom to change into some sweatpants and a tank top. Natsu was already in bed when I left the bathroom. I pulled back the covers and climbed in next to him. He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in close to him as I snuggled against his bare chest. As he laid his head on top of mine he said, "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." Then he kissed the top of my head. "I love you Natsu." "I love you too Luce." We both drifted off to sleep unaware of what trouble was looming ahead for us.