Chapter 8

Natsu's POV

I woke up this time filled with energy, the kind of energy that could keep me going for days. I looked up at Luce who was thankfully still on top of me to see her lust filled eyes looking hopefully at me. I crack a grin pulling her in for a kiss, "More?" I ask her already feeling that I was as hard as humanly possible at that moment. 

I feel her lift her hips just a little before plunging down again. I did not feel a need to sleep again for several days, I don't know what happened but Mavis life could not have been more amazing. 

Lucy's POV

I can't help screaming his name again as for once we climax and I can't seem to move after. I'm panting hard and I could feel myself shivering and shaking from exhaustion and satisfaction. I feel myself tip over, unable to stay on top of Natsu any longer and I lay there. At first he starts to freak out but I wave him off. I'm finally satisfied I roll over on my back still panting before looking back at him. 

I can still see lust clearly in his eyes, I can't help smiling at him before motioning him over. "You want more?" I ask him hoarse from all of my screams. I see him nod barley as he nuzzles into my neck trying to get closer somehow. "Then get in here," I whispered as if it were a secret. 

We made love slowly this time, it seemed much more natural and when we came this time we dozed off in each other's arms. Natsu slowly went soft and slid out as he did. 

Natsu's POV

I wake up to Luce sleeping soundly in my arms, I hold her close for several minutes before I untangle myself from her. Whatever magic made that all happen has my thanks. Taming a dragon is not supposed to be easy and I was more than worried that I would have hurt her. When I finally get free I start a bath and as I am filling the tub a bottle catches my eye; Pheromone shampoo and body wash. It was unopened though. I grin to myself, Luce... Oh the things I'm going to do to you.

I come back to the bedroom to find Luce awake and cleaning. I guess she has the same thought I did; we stink. Really bad. How long were we going at it? 

"Natsu help me air out the clean mattress please?" she asked me having taken one end of it already. I help her and we continue to clean her room. The smell of sex was almost gone and with the window open, it should take care of the rest. "I need a bath!" Luce stretched as she finally stood up. 

I smiled and waved a hand towards the bathroom to which she giggled taking it and pulling me with her. We did not have sex only cleaned each other. I couldn't help hugging and kissing on her in the tub though. I even teased her about the shampoo. "Seriously though do not use this without telling me first." I couldn't help being stern with her about it. If that bottle does half of what it says it does then I could really hurt her.  She was only too happy to agree and said something about a trip while grinning at me. I splashed her and while we were laughing I pulled her in for a real kiss. 

"My mate." we purr together, which only made us smile and kiss again. I feel all sappy and well, warm. I can't say I have ever felt so complete before. To know without a doubt that I am not alone and never will be again, it's powerful. 

Lucy's POV

Natsu and I spent far to long in the tub to not be having sex but oh well. When we got out and dressed we put the bedding back together and made the bed back up. He didn't even complain about helping me clean. Is this really what having a mate is like? I like it. No, I love it. Knowing Natsu will always be there for me, but I guess I already knew that. Just now he knows it too.

It's not until we are laying on the bed that I realise that there have been several times that we were not touching and he didn't break down in pain. 

"Natsu, what is the change that Gajeel was talking about?" I asked him both curious and at the same time I felt like it wasn't a big deal. At least not anymore. 

"The change is when a dragon has already picked who they want as a life mate and their body will no longer let them put it off. They can either ask them or bear the pain for a few weeks. At the end of the pain they will no longer be able to ask, ever again." 

"So, when you found out you were going through the change...?" I left my question unasked. I guess I didn't really need to know. "Natsu I love you and I'm glad you asked me." I sigh instead snuggling into him. 

"How long have we been here?" he asked after a while. 

"I don't really know." I think for a moment and summon Succubus and Incubus thankfully Natsu and I are fully dressed this time. 

"Yes, your Highness?" they say together bowing slightly. 

"How long did Natsu and I?" I ask not willing to finish but knowing they knew. 

"Well, it's been three weeks since we made our contract and you two slept for only a day. If you catch my drift?" Succubus winked when she finished talking.

"You used a lot of magic too. You should rest more, thankfully her," Incubus pointed at Succubus before continuing, "'blessing' has finally run its course." he finished. 

"New spirits?" Natsu asked, a little confused but still snuggling into me. I told him about the 'blessing'/test and he laughed a little before trying to stand up. "I should thank you, it's not easy to tame a dragon." He laughed, unable to get up because of my grip. 

This time it was Succubus who laughed, "Little dragon she already had you tamed a long time ago. She just didn't make her claim on you until now." We chatted for a few minutes and then they returned to the celestial realm. 

"We should go to the guild today, maybe pick a job?" I breathe out content with how things are. Then I frowned, "I guess I should really pack up so we can move first." 

"Yeah, we need to get your stuff into the house so your crazy landlady doesn't bother us." Natsu yawned happily. I feel like this should be some huge discussion, to move in together, but honestly no; not really. We cuddle for a few more minutes and I look at the clock. It is still early morning. If we hurry we could do both. 

I summon Loke, Virgo, and Capricorn and they help us pack everything, storing it in the celestial realm until we are ready for it. The room is completely empty and Natsu and I eat what food was left out before taking out the trash one last time. I talk to my landlady and sign off on the fact I am no longer her tenet and we walk to the guild. We can unpack whenever we are ready, there is no rush so we decide to go on a mission first. 

Natsu and I are just talking about random things from the weather and the fishermen nearby to past missions. "I could really use some action." I sigh.

"Then let's pick a good mission! With something we can fight!" Natsu cheered as we went through the doorway. Yelling out our usual greeting. To say the guild hall was silent would have been an understatement but we ignore it and go to the mission board. 

"This one! We can totally beat a group of six bandits!" Natsu cheered. I couldn't help laughing and agreeing to it. 

We were walking towards Mira to get our mission stamped when I got hit around the middle. It felt like all the air was knocked out of me but Natsu caught me keeping me from falling. It turned out to be Wendy and she looked up with tears running down her face and she kept crying saying how sorry she was and that she never meant to hurt us.

"Relax Wendy, we are fine." I tell the sweet blue haired girl hugging me tightly. She looked between both of us and continued to cry. I just pet her head softly for a few minutes waiting until she relaxed again. 

When she did Natsu put an arm around her and pulled her in for a hug and she cried even more. Now with Natsu petting her head to try and relax her. The rest of the guild stayed silent watching the whole thing unfold. Clearly hearing Wendy cry about how sorry she was. 

Natsu's POV

I just held her for a while letting her get it out. I don't really get why she felt so bad about anything. It's not like she forced me to go into the change or anything. Oh well, if this helps her feel better than so be it.

When she was done crying I tell her how Luce and I were going on a mission and that we would see her later. I also told her not to worry so much. But I don't think she listened to me at all. 

Mira just silently stamped our mission flier and let us go. It wasn't until we were outside that I heard Romeo ask why she was so sorry. 

"Because, now Natsu can never know what love is and it is all my fault." I couldn't help raising an eyebrow at that. What is she talking about Luce is my mate, what greater love is there than that? But Luce is pulling on my hand and leading me to the train station and I don't even care that I have to get on the damn train. I can't be happier than being with her right now. 

We got on the train and took our seats and Luce was talking to me trying to distract me when suddenly I realised that I didn't feel sick. "I don't feel sick," I say dumbly. Luce looked at me for a minute and she seemed to realize that the train was already moving, yet I looked fine. 

"Maybe finding a mate cured your motion sickness?" she suggested. I can't help smiling at that. Life just got a whole lot better in so many ways!

The mission didn't take long and honestly it was kind of disappointing. We were already entering the guild again and heading to the board when we heard Mira drop a tray. "Mira are you okay?" Luce asked her, concerned for our friend.

"Yeah, it's nothing, don't worry about it." she stuttered a little bit and Luce and I looked at each other and shrugged. 

We went to the board and this time found a mission to defeat some kind of ape man thing that was attacking women a few towns over. I hold it up to Luce, "Remind you of anyone?" I ask her laughing. She nodded laughing with me. We take it and go to Mira and she stamps this one too. 

Before we could walk out though Happy flies into the guild with Lily. "Natsu! Lushie!" He cries as if he hasn't seen us in forever. His little face is covered in tears and he slams into Luce's chest making me raise an eyebrow. Why is everyone acting so sad and weird?

"Hey Happy, how's it going?" Luce asked him, smiling and hugging him as if her life depended on it. Oops I hatched Happy's egg and raised him, he is practically my son. Luce is now my mate so she is probably getting hit hard with the mommy feelings. 

Surprisingly she let him go easily enough and cleaned his face. In fact she was treating him like normal for the most part. Wait does that mean that she already saw him like a son? I think back and yeah I think so. She only got violent when he stepped over some kind of line and where a mother would normally spank her child or put them in the corner she tried but it is kind of hard when the blue exceed could fly out of reach. I can't help smiling at the thought and just watching them hugging and laughing joining them when they do. 

"Sorry Happy we were about to take a mission. Are you alright staying here?" Luce asked him shyly. 

"Of course, I'm not a baby you know!" Happy puffed out his chest and smiled really big for her. 

She started to tear up a bit and Happy immediately tried to make her feel better. She just shook her head and hugged him again before saying, "It's just that you have grown up so much since we first met." She smiled at him and hugged him again. I could see him smiling like he somehow won a grand prize, which made me smile. I'm happy they like each other so much.

We said our goodbyes and left for our mission. It was exactly the same as the first time when we saved Romeo's dad. This time it was a villager who was turned into the ape and we defeated it with ease. Honestly the longest part of the job was getting there. 

"Luce, this is kind of boring. I was wanting a harder mission," I pouted at her.

Lucy's POV

"I know I was too." I can't help frowning. Did we really get that strong over the years that these missions seem so easy? We were walking towards the mission board for the third time today. 

"This time let's pick two or three missions close together and then we can just spend the night at a hotel." I suggested to him just to find him easily agreeable. We did as we planned and headed out again but not before I heard Levy say to Gajeel, "Why are they so normal then?" How exactly am I supposed to take that?

I looked at Natsu as we ran to the train station and after we got on the train and were comfortable I turned to him. "What do you think Levy meant? I know you heard her too."

"I honestly don't get it. First Wendy and now Gajeel they should both know what our marks mean. Why do they assume that we didn't mate? he responded just as confused as I felt. 

I shrug and look at his mark again and realise, "Our marks are kind of hard to see. So maybe they didn't see them?" 

His eyes lit up, "That must be it! Now that I think about it I can barely see them at all on either of us. It's almost like they are meant to blend into our skin." I nodded in agreement. 

"Somehow, I'm okay with this." Natsu sighed, laying his head down in my lap. An old habit I have no desire to break. 

"Me too. I don't really want to hide it from them but I don't want to announce it either," I ran my fingers through his hair as I talked. "I don't want to make a big deal out of it." He nodded and we purred as we rode on in silence. Not caring that we probably looked either like love sick teenagers or a crazy couple. Not that anyone could see us anyway in our little cabin.

"Then it's decided, we won't tell them but we also won't hide it from them either. If they see us or walk in on us we will just act like it is their fault for not bothering to notice before." I nodded in agreement to his words. We also decided that we would go ahead and move in together and even hire someone to make the house more comfortable for us. 

"I would like to have kids one day." I sigh dreamily as I run my fingers through his hair. I don't know why we were having all of these heavy conversations now. It just felt natural somehow, we are already mated so these things just kind of came with it.

"Me too. Lots of them if you're okay with it?" he asked me and I agreed quickly.

"I hated being the only child and the thought of having a large family, well it's like a fantastic dream." I tell him in a hushed tone. 

"We can pretty much pick when we want to have kids, as a dragon slayer I can you know..." Natsu got quiet and after a moment he was turning red. 

"Natsu Dragneel are you trying to tell me that you have your own birth control built in?" I ask him, surprised. He nodded weakly and I bust up laughing. "Well then I'm throwing away mine, they make me sick most of the time anyway."

"Then why take them?" he asked confused. 

"In case a certain fire dragon slayer decided he was interested and I didn't want to tell him to put a condom on." I teased him. "We should probably wait a couple years to have kids, get settled and get a nice large house with plenty of space for them to play in first." I continued on in a dreamy way. 

"Then lets do it. Let's put everything we have into building a new house on my land and then we can fill it." He wriggled his eyebrows at me in a silly way, "The fun way."and we both laughed. 

"I love you, Natsu Dragneel." I told him wishing he would come up so I could kiss him. 

"And I love you Lucy Dragneel, my mate." he actually sat up and kissed me. How could I have ever thought he was dense before? We were in a private cabin and I kissed him in return without worrying about holding back. 

Natsu's POV

It's been a few months since we made our plans and we just hired a contractor to work on the house. Happy is almost never there anymore and is almost always with Wendy and Carla but I told him I was having some work done and that he needed to stay away while they worked on it. 

Luce and I didn't stay idle waiting either. We kept going on mission after mission while they worked and a few times the rest of the team came along too. 

"You two have been really busy lately. We almost never see you." Gray said while we were riding on the train. I didn't want to deal with either of their questions so I was trying to sleep on Luce's lap. I felt Luce's fingers comb through my hair relaxing me again. She always seems to know when I need her touch. 

"Always looking for an adventure," Luce responded. I could hear the smile in her voice before she even let the first giggle slip. I can't help snuggling into her at that. 

"Natsu seems to have calmed down quite a bit. He didn't even fight getting on the train like usual." Erza stated as if she were somehow glaring at me. I felt Luce shrug but she didn't stop her fingers at all, making me sigh in comfort. 

"It sounds like he is perfectly fine where he is." Happy chimed in. 

I felt as the train slowed down and came to a stop. Luce still shook my shoulder gently and I got up and stretched pretending I didn't hear anything. The job turned out to be simple. We had split up and Luce and I didn't even wait for Erza and Gray to rejoin us before taking out the bad guys. In fact we were already turning them in when they arrived. 

"Why didn't you wait for us?" Erza demanded, I could tell she was angry. 

"We just didn't need your help. Sorry we dragged you along for no reason." I shrugged and Luce also apologised. We split the reward evenly and made our way back to the train station. Luce and I up ahead of the others. 

I could easily hear them talking, "Somethings not right. How did they take them down so easily? I heard a guard say that they were super hard, maybe even borderline S class." Gray whispered to Erza and Happy. 

"Something doesn't sit well with me. I thought that Natsu almost died a few months ago. Why is he so relaxed now? And why is Lucy so relaxed?" Erza asked, mostly talking to herself. 

"True and if he was really going through the change then why is he and Lushie so close now?" Happy pondered. 

"Happy what is the change?" Gray asked after a few moments of silence.

"It's kind of like a dragon/dragon slayer puberty. Basically he was forced to make a painful choice and lived as if he were in hell for a month." Happy answered while eating on a fish. I roll my eyes, little buddy you're not supposed to tell people that I want to groan as I think to myself.

"What choice did he have to make?" Erza asked next. Okay I do not blame him one bit if he answers her. She is too scary not to answer. 

"Basically, he had to choose to withstand hell's fire for another or not. The change kind of took that choice from him. He was forced to withstand the fire because the other person didn't choose him." He explained. How has Happy not noticed that Luce and I are always together yet?

"What do you mean?" Gray asked next. 

"He had to tell a girl he liked her and if she didn't like him he would be tortured with his own fire from inside himself." I heard Happy stop for a minute before continuing. "Lushie didn't pick him but I guess she stayed by his side the whole time and took care of him. I guess that's why they are so close now." 

I looked over at Luce and saw her looking back at me. Since she is my mate she has many of the same abilities I do. She had slowly been gaining them since we mated; she is not easily burned by fire now and she has heightened senses like I do. She can't use my magic or anything but close enough. It also helps that she has been learning Romeo's rainbow fire so in a fight it looks like we are using the same magic sometimes. 

"So flame brain had a thing for Lucy huh?" Gray sighed as if it weren't a big deal. 

"DON'T!" Happy hissed angrily making both Erza and Gray stop in their tracks. "Don't ever make fun of Natsu again! He will never know what it is like to be married. How can you make fun of him for that?" Happy cried. 

"Wait, what?" Gray asked shocked as Luce and I walked further ahead pretending we didn't hear anything. 

"Dragon slayers only get one chance. They mate for life and if they say no they literally go through hell for a month until the feelings they already have are burned from their very souls." Happy was in tears and I couldn't take it anymore. 

"Hey what's going on back there?" I called out to them. "Happy come on buddy we still need to get on the train before you start sleeping." I try to laugh and smile at them like I was unaware of what they were talking about. 

He quickly cleaned his face and yelled, "I'm coming!" ending the conversation there. 

"Happy! Have you been crying? Come here and let me clean your face!" Luce scolded him. How has he not figured it out yet? I wondered to myself seeing both Erza and Gray giving each other side looks and giving us weird looks. 

Oh well they will figure it out eventually, right?