To Kill A Dragon

The Ties That Bind

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, Tiamat is loosely based on Tiamat from Forgotten Realms which Belongs to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The traits of the chromatic dragons have been altered to match the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail Universe. Drakan belongs to Surreal Software.

Chapter 19: The Ties That Bind

Lucy and Gray were on their way to check on Former Council Member Hogg. He lived a fair distance from Magnolia so they'd had to borrow a mount to get there quickly. Lucy was sitting behind Gray with her arms wrapped around his waist to keep herself from falling off the flitting feline. They were riding through a desert like area and the oppressive heat soon had both of their thoughts turning towards Natsu. Gray decided to try to heed Makarov's words and work things out with Lucy, at the very least it kept his thoughts from wondering what idiotically reckless thing his mate could be up to.

"I'm sorry that you had to find out about us like that." Gray said and he honestly did feel badly about that. He could only imagine how devastated he would have been to walk in on Natsu kissing Lucy.

"It's ok, it was just unexpected but it was our fault for barging into your room.", Lucy said taking great care to keep her words even, "I should have handled it better. Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask whatever you want, I can't guarantee that I'll answer."

"Have you always been in love with Natsu?"

Gray laughed. "We met when we were 10. He was larger than life, even back then. He came into the guild bragging about being raised by a dragon, he was so damn cocky and Gods that pink hair! He pissed me off from the moment I laid eyes on him. So no, that came later."

"When I first started having feelings for him I was angry at myself and at him. I thought that there was something wrong with me because no one else around me seemed to have feelings for someone of their own gender. Hell, when Gramps gave us the sex talk he never even mentioned it as a possibility. I blamed Natsu for somehow causing these feelings even though he truthfully didn't do anything but be himself. That's when our fighting started getting out of control. I wanted to push him away thinking it would make them stop but at the same time I couldn't stay away for long. It was a hard time for me, but as the years passed and it never went away I just accepted it. He felt the same way about me, I just didn't know it. We've always been drawn to each other, I just didn't understand why until now."

"Gray, what you're thinking of doing, you do know he's not going to agree to it?", Lucy said.

"Of course he is, it's the only way to save him."

"That's a horrible reason to do what you're planning."

"He's my mate, that's reason enough." Gray felt that if she was going to be involved she should know at least that much.

"Mate? What are you talking about, didn't you guys just get together?"

"It's a little deeper than that. Dragon Slayers take upon certain aspects of dragons as part of their magic. One of these aspects is mating. Dragons have only one mate that they remain with for their whole lives and so do dragon slayers. They don't actually know who that is until they've had their first heat. Tiamat forced Natsu to experience his first one when she gave him that solution. Even though I'm his actual mate, because she forced herself on him if we don't do something soon to challenge her claim, I might still lose him. I'll stop at nothing to make sure she can't touch him again."