The Dragon's Mark

Fish is Fish

"Lucy," Natsu addressed again, this time, pulling her over to him so that she ended up on his lap, enveloped in his arms. He hugged her tight. "You know I would never hurt you - I would never WANT to hurt you," he said, his voice muffled as he buried his head in her hair. "Maybe I should go away until..."

"Natsu," Lucy spoke, pulling herself from his arms. "Didn't you listen to the master? You need to trust me. You chose me as your mate," she said, blushing at the term. "You said dragons only choose one in their lifetime." She leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips, pulling away quickly. "I love you. I'm honored that you chose me, that you feel the same way I do. There's no way I'm going anywhere. But you need to trust me. There's no one else I want breaking into my apartment, stealing my bed, eating all my food, but you," she finished with a grin.

Natsu reached up and pulled Lucy's hair to the side, studying the mark on her neck. He squinted his eyes. "It does kind of look like a dragon, doesn't it?" He tilted his head sideways. "There's its head and there's its tail."

"Um, could we NOT sit here and analyze the hickey on my neck?" she said, embarrassed.

Natsu frowned. "Not a hickey," he complained grumpily. "It's your dragon mark. MY mark."

Later, in a small corner of the Guild Hall:

"So, master, you're saying that this is a dragon slayer thing?" questioned Erza. She glanced over where Levy was sitting with Gajeel and Lily. "Should we expect the other dragon slayers to do the same?"

Makarov sighed, knowing where Erza was looking. "Each dragon finds its mate at some point in their lifetime. I'll have to look up more about it, but once they do, they go through a small period of time where jealousy overrides even their common sense. We just have to ride it out. What we don't want to do," he cautioned the small group around him of Erza, Grey, Happy, and Juvia - who never strayed too far from Grey, "is try to separate the mates. The dragon would become highly aggressive and we have enough damn bills as it is!"

"Yes, master," nodded Erza. She glanced up and watched Natsu and Lucy walk down the stairs together and head for the Guild Hall door. "So should we not include them on any jobs for awhile?"

"I mean, we did just make a pretty penny at this last one," Grey shrugged. "Give time for the lovebirds to get to know one another and have Natsu less possessive about the whole thing." He too watched the couple walk toward the doors and out of the Guild.

"What does this mean for me?" Happy asked sadly. "I mean, Natsu, Lucy, and I always hang out..."

"Give them some alone time," Juvia spoke up, surprising everyone. Even Grey, for a brief second, had forgotten she was there. "Don't worry, Happy. They still love you. It's just something new they're both dealing with. You're still in the family," she assured the blue cat.

"Hmm," replied Happy. "So kind of like Natsu offered Lucy a fish and she finally took it," he pondered, glancing over at a certain white exceed sitting with Wendy.

"Exactly like that!" grinned Grey. "Come on Happy. Let me buy you a fish - I bet Mira will fix it up just the way you like it."

"All right!" cheered Happy. He glanced towards the guild door, still a little sad he wasn't with his two favorite guild members. But then again, fish is fish. If he couldn't have love right now, he'd love his fish!