The Dragon and the Princess

Chapter 15*

Chapter 15

"Lu-chan," Levy whispered to Lucy, so their dates wouldn't hear them. "Natsu and Gajeel are acting really weird, and I guess Laxus is, too. They seem more..."

"Yeah," Lucy whispered back. "Perverted? Seductive? Smarter? Nicer? More sophisticated?" She came up with words that could complete Levy's sentence.

"Exactly. Any idea what's going on?" Levy whispered. Then Mira came over and scolded them for not having fun.

"Sorry, Mira!" They both said together.

"Shall we dance?" Said Natsu to Lucy, and walked her over to the dance floor.

"I heard you guys talking about us." Natsu said, and smiled. Lucy blushed and stuttered out an apology. "It's okay! The reason for the dragon slayers behavior is because dragons are kind of like birds. There's a mating season, and that would be now. Dragons instinctively act differently and more mature during mating seasons. Our dragon senses are also much better. Didn't you notice it last year?" He asked.

"No," Lucy said, thinking back to the year before. "You went on a mission alone, and you wouldn't let me come or tell me why." She remembered that she had been dissapointed and thought that Natsu was mad at her. 

"Oh. Well, that was because I didn't want to do anything stupid, but now that you know I love you and you love me too..." Natsu said, sounding more confident and sensitive than usual. Lucy blushed, but she wasn't sure if it was because of his blunt phrasing or something else.

"Is that wrong?" Natsu asked when he saw her red face.

"No, it's just... Weird hearing you say it that way." Lucy replied. "What do you mean by 'stupid'? And why isn't Wendy acting differently?"

"I didn't want to do something I regretted later, because knowing me, I would have. As for Wendy, she's a girl. I'm not quite sure what happens to girls. And she's young. I didn't start acting differently until I was at least 15. I think she's 11." He said.

"Think of it as dragon puberty, but it goes on until you find a mate. Another thing about it is that once we find a mate, we're very protective, we never leave that mate, and we know who it is right when we first see them."

Lucy was jealous at this, though she knew that she didn't really need to be . "And who is yours?" She asked in an oddly flirtatious tone.

"I think you know." He said, being purposely ambiguous. 

Natsu then decided that to be a proper boyfriend, he had to get Lucy drinks at parties, so he went to go do that. The timing probably had something to do with the fact that Gajeel and Laxus were over bu the punch bowl, too. Lucy, Mira, and Levy were sitting at a table nearby, so Lucy decided to join them.

"So, did they tell you about mating season?" Mira said.

"Oh. That's why the timing was so perfect." Levy said, obviously referring to the timing of the dance.

"No, no, Laxus only told me today!" After a quick glance between Lucy and Levy, they decided that she sounded truthful enough.

"Yeah, they told us." Lucy said. 

The rest of the dance went perfectly until the end, when it started raining. No one really cared, though. It had turned out that Cana spiked the punch, so everyone was drunk. Gray and Juvia were making out in the field, soaking wet. Natsu and Lucy were starting to walk home, and Mira started crying, and Laxus kidnapped her so Natsu and Lucy could escape. Gajeel and Levy were already gone, but when Lucy brought it up, Natsu laughed and murmured something unintelligible. 

When they were back at Lucy's house, she decided that a warm bath would be nice after the interesting night she had.