Chapter 13

Lucy's POV

It's the first day of the tournament and thankfully Natsu and I were no longer gold and glowing. We were back to normal and Happy made sure to tell everyone for us when we decided to stay home and train. He would go to the guild without us but he always returned a couple times throughout the day everyday to make sure we were alright or more likely that we were still there.

Natsu and I held hands as we walked to the guild Happy singing about all the preparations that they had done and that Master had even invited the other guilds. In fact all of Fiory had been invited to watch if they bought a ticket. Magnolia was crammed with people and eventually Natsu gave up trying to walk to the guild.

He picked me up princess style and jumped above their heads, I couldn't help giggling since I could have easily done the same myself, but I just wrap my arms around his neck and snuggled into him breathing his sweet cinnamon scent in. We arrived far quicker than I wished but Natsu didn't bother trying to put me down as he just walked into the guild head held high. I watched him in awe as he grinned his signature grin and greeted our comrades.

"Ready to get your ass beat?" he laughed still holding me as he talked with those around us. I'm still tired and lay my head on his chest. Celeste had given us this morning off since we would be participating in the tournament anyway but she had been particularly tough yesterday insisting that we train three times as hard.

"Looks like flame brain decided to show up after all!" I hear Gray call out. I roll my eyes and threw a fireball at him myself. Which only left Natsu a laughing mess.

"I wasn't talking about you Lucy!" Gray yelled as he dodges the fire. I extinguish the flames before they hit the surrounding area though. No one noticed the three figures, whom we invited for what we had planned, slip in behind us.

I hop out of Natsu's arms and bound up to Master to speak quietly about something Natsu and I had discussed. We wanted to put on a private show for guild members only, using our flames. He nodded happily and made the announcement that Natsu and I would start the tournament with a small show.

Natsu and I took our places on stage him on one side, myself on the other. We raised our flames making the whole stage appear to catch fire. When we were ready we lowered the flames to look tall as grass waving in the wind. Natsu started the show by waving his arms carefully and concentrating hard he formed a fairly large dragon for everyone to see. We heard several people gasp in the audience but ignored it.

"There was once a Dragon known to all the other dragons as the Fire Dragon King, Igneel." I started narrating the story. "One day Zeref the black wizard came to him begging for help. His baby brother Natsu was refusing to learn or grow after he had resurrected him," Natsu now created a figure that resembled his brother with a small child.

He then had Igneel raise his head up and down as if he was agreeing to something. "Igneel agreed to adopt the baby boy and teach him his magic and to raise him as his heir." I heard a few more comments in the crowd but ignored them. Natsu allowed Zeref to disappear and only allowed the child to remain. "Igneel, did his best teaching the boy everything that he could. From reading and writing to magic even basic survival skills." Natsu showed the dragon and the boy going through the activities as I listed them off.

Then I took over the flames and Natsu started narrating, "Igneel taught me the laws of the dragons. Dangerous things that no human outside of a dragon slayer should ever know." I let the flames flash on the stage and recreated a now larger boy sitting on the ground with Igneel talking to him, no sound of course.

"Natsu, there will come a day that you will have to announce to the world who you are and by that time you will no longer be a prince, but a King." Natsu voice was both strong and deep as if imitating Igneel. "But I don't want to!" I showed who had been talking for each part Igneel and then Natsu. "You have to live forever, so we can be together." Natsu's voice became weak as he begged his father.

"It's okay, Natsu, you won't be alone. You will have your queen with you someone who makes you better. Someone who makes you whole..."

My flames again flash to show a bit of a time skip. Now there is a little girl on the stage running around slowly growing she ran to an older woman who looked remarkably like myself and the audience watched as the woman collapsed leaving the girl in tears. I showed the woman sick and in bed the little girl by her side as the woman disappeared signaling her death. The little girl then grew taller and eventually forming into what everyone could recognise as myself.

I'm running around until Natsu and Happy appear on the stage with me. We seemed to chat and run around together. I show all sorts of silly things from me Lucy kicking him to him and Happy sneaking into my bed just for me to kick them out again. I show myself yelling a lot. I even show one point where I am free falling in the air as he catches me.

"My queen," Is all Natsu says throughout this demonstration. Finally I show us getting into a really short train and he starts talking again. "We left to do a job, a simple one to demolish some buildings for a mayor in a city in Pietra. They had us take a special train that should have gotten us there in three days."

I showed the train moving and a storm followed above, I showed some destroyed tracks stopping the train.

"By this time, we were a couple and happy to spend a few more days alone together," Natsu grinned at the memory and I heard a few people cough in the audience awkwardly.

"When we arrived we finished the job in minutes instead of weeks like the mayor had assumed we would take," I show myself as well as Natsu doing a fire dragon's roar for a moment. Sweat was starting to form on my face and it had nothing to do with heat. This was the part of the story that neither of us really wanted to tell.

"We..." Natsu's voice broke here and I looked at him and nodded.

"We were invited to stay for the Star Dragon festival, in fact we were offered double the reward money if we did," I supply for him taking over the narrating again. "So we stayed."

I show us in our yukatas walking around; playing games and sightseeing. Multitasking narrating and controlling the flames. Natsu helped with the flames doing most of the work while I just focused on the details.

"Finally it was time for the festival to end and they asked us to take part," I pause catching my breath. The entire guild is entranced by the story hanging off every word that was spoken as they watched the flames dancing before their eyes. Even Cana who would normally be drinking was watching, her drink forgotten.

We showed the procession and that we were all the way in the back. We quickly showed everyone go up and walk away from what looked like a dragon but it did not move. "Celeste," I introduce the figure waving an arm relaxing now that Natsu took over the flames completely.

Natsu showed a bright circle surround us as we stood between her feet. "She 'blessed' us," My tone cracked a little but I continued on anyway. "It came at a cost and without warning." Natsu shows our figures collapse and I spark a few flashes of light showing time passing again.

"A cost that we never wanted to pay," my voice was deep and scratchy as Natsu showed us rising up, his own flame picking mine up and walking back the way we had come only towards a train instead of a hotel like building. It shows us boarding the train and I flash three more flashes of flames for the three days that followed. He showed us returning to the guild and some general motions. We left again. He showed us walking in grabbing something and leaving again. Flashes of light every time.

Then a day that we came in sitting in a booth, kissing each other. He showed Gajeel walk up whom I glare at from the stage. He showed him talking and my outburst. "The cost was far too high for us, and it will take time for us to heal," I finished the story as Natsu and I swirled the fire around ending the scene in front of them.

The stage much to Masters surprise was completely unharmed from the fire. We didn't let them collect their thoughts though before the story continued. We extinguished the lights in the guild hall and we used our Celestial dragon powers to coat the windows and doors, sealing the room tight. The room was now pitch black at only noon.

I lit a small flame on my index finger it was the only light in the building. "Do you really want to know what price we had to pay?" I whisper the guild completely quiet, waiting, as many held their breaths; suspense hanging in the air.

Natsu's turn to get all dramatic, he flashed his flames around us creating a circle that only illuminated us. He kneeled down in front of me as tears began to fall from our eyes. I remain standing as he hugged my stomach his shoulders shaking as he tried to hold back his sobs. I made the fire circle disappear.

From the darkness I started talking again, "Dragon slayers can only get pregnant during mating season. It happens once a year." I lit up little flames in the shape of butterflies and had them dancing in the air around us. Natsu still on the ground his arms still gripping me tight. Everyone could see enough to know that he was crying, silent as he was.

"Dragon slayers first mating season after claiming a mate is very special, so special that most believe it is the only time that they can bare children at all. If you miss the first year's mating season you are all but guaranteed to not have children at all," My voice shook and cracked while I spoke the dreaded words. Knowing most of our family still didn't understand what we were saying.

"The 'blessing' prevented us." Natsu's voice was rough and it broke as if he were hissing the word blessing instead of speaking.

"Celeste tells us that it doesn't matter that we can still conceive next year..." My voice broke refusing to allow me to finish.

"But it is unheard of for our kind to be given second chances like that," Natsu finished for me. The butterflies I had been using to light the room went out. I felt Natsu rise up standing next to me. We let our bodies catch fire and as if the flames were pulling themselves away from us they separated. Leaving a real Natsu and Lucy as well as a flame Natsu and Lucy.

The flames caressed each other's faces and pulled each other in for a kiss. We turned the flames around and as they were turning I enlarged my flame counterpart's stomach. Showing a very pregnant Lucy and Natsu had his flame pull mine close and dance around the stage. Soon the flames flashed leaving two normal versions of us as well as a baby. Soon though the baby vanished leaving the two heart broken.

The flames died again. I lit a fire circle around Gajeel who I was now standing beside. He was on his knees his face in his hands as tears streamed down in little rivers. There was already a wet spot on the floor. He pulled his hands away staring at his fingers. Eventually he looked up at me, "Why would a dragon knowingly do that? They know! They all know," His breathing was jagged his voice rough and tough as it usually was now soft and gentle. The whole guild saw this pillar of a man literally on his knees, crying for us and our loss.

I pat him on the shoulder and he wraps me in a hug not unlike the one Natsu had been giving me only minutes before on stage. I let the fire circle extinguish and Natsu lit another while standing next to Laxus the ring circling them just as it had Gajeel and I.

Laxus was on his knees his lightning sparking almost uncontrollably around him as he sobbed. Natsu just walked up to him and put a hand on the older man's shoulder. "Why?" Laxus begged for an answer before he grabbed Natsu for an awkward hug. Natsu let the flames extinguish and next we are both standing next to the mini tornado in the room. We still lit the circle of flames just giving more space away from the whirlwind.

Wendy was silently howling using her own magic to prevent the sound from reaching us. Her broken image shocking even those closest to her as they saw her on her knees tears streaming down her face appearing to scream to the heavens above.

Natsu and I step closer and we each force one hand through her whirlwind grabbing a shoulder each wincing at the slight pain we felt. But really it was nothing compared to what we already felt. We left her letting the fire die around us. Next we are next to Sting and Rogue, they were holding each other silently sobbing into each other's shoulders. The fire revealed them to our guild members some surprised to see them but no one dared to say a word as they each grabbed one of us forming a small group hug.

When we let the fire go out again we went silently in the dark to the top railing lighting the last fire circle around us and Erik formally known as Cobra. His shoulders shook uncontrollably as he latched onto us hardly breathing.

Natsu and I had been letting our silent tears fall throughout the procession not interrupting any of our friends as they grieved for us. We silently returned to the stage and let the darkness go; unsealing the guild hall and lighting the lights up again. The room showed the faces of our many friends and family members with tears running freely many covering their faces a few trying to wipe them away, but everyone was crying.

The dragon slayers all came forward kneeling on the ground in front of us their heads bent. "The King and Queen are mighty. The King rules just, the Queen rules with wit. The King and Queen are mighty so says we," There was a pause as Sting and Rogue came forward and kneeled again before us.

"The choice was ours and we took it knowingly, the choice denied to you." They stepped back again. Gajeel stepped forward and kneeled again.

"My choice is hard, I do not deserve but I can't stop from wanting," He then returned and Laxus took his place.

"Fear prevents my choice, but a choice I still have."

Erik took his place and bowed his head, "My choice is silence, silence is my choice. I do not deserve my choice."

Wendy stepped forward she collapsed on the floor before righting herself into the same kneeling position as the others, "My choice is far off yet, but a choice I will have."

When she returned to the others they all started talking at the same time again, "The King and Queen are mighty. The King rules just, the Queen rules with wit. The King and Queen are mighty so says we. The choice is made." They all look up tears still flowing down their faces. "King Natsu and Queen Lucy!" They shouted and we simply nodded our heads accepting what had happened.

They just elected us Queen and King of the dragons.