midnightstar | (no subject)

Spending day after day in the cabin Natsu had built near the Guild, going on missions and living, being WITH Natsu was plain and simple, pure. Heaven. Lucy could genuinely not think of any time she was as happy as she was with him. It still amused her to think of the times she was too flustered to acknowledge her feelings for him, until things came to a head.

And then the kids came along during that mission - Nev and Justine, along with their 'mom' Regine. If Natsu becoming an integral part of Lucy's life was like completing her, then the kids and Regine were the added frosting on a perfected cake. Yeah that metaphor was all over the place. GRANTED it was a little difficult to get time alone with Nev and Justine almost demanding their attention a good amount of the time, but she didn't mind, and didn't think Natsu did either. They had their evenings together, and their little hiding spots to sneak away to, sometimes just for fun.

Meanwhile the first rays of light were beginning to filter in through the window-shades of their room, with Lucy snuggled up against Natsu's side, an arm wrapped around him with a faint smile on her lips. Not quite awake yet, but in that in-between point of just about to rouse. The birds had barely even begun to chirp when the distant BAM! of a door swinging open, followed by barely hushed giggling voices and scampering feet could be heard by Dragonslayer senses with ease, obviously heading towards said cabin.

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He'd better. That's the only glance Lucy gives him as she watches him dash off at a ludicrous speed only he could achieve, before turning and heading off at a slower pace with Regine, towards where she hoped the Guild was still standing.

Meanwhile, Natsu, you're getting all sorts of familiar scents and feelings zooming through even at the speed of light. Places you've been and seen, though though they obviously don't look anything like you remember them. But as you get closer, there's one scent that really begins to stand out. Familiar and not at the same time - of course there's also the scent of dragon getting strong, so that scent may be getting a little mixed up in that too.

Thanks to sensitive dragonslayer hearing, you can also hear the faintly mumbled words of the people who were apparently in hiding from the dragon. There's a mix of fear and anger in the voices, but the loudest is a female, who sounds both furious and frustrated, occasionally shifting to pleading.

When you reach the spot the dragon is.. it's big. Not as big as Igneel was, but it's also much younger than Igneel was, so it wasn't fully grown. The dragon looked like it'd been in a number of battles before too - scales red and dull, its wings half furled - and it does have a few scars here and there. It hadn't started an attack yet, but it was still in the clearing near the buildings, an angry growl in an undercurrent to its breathing as it surveyed the area restlessly, flames starting to trickle out of its mouth.

The closer Natsu got, the more puzzled he got over the state of the Town. But that was not all. The scents were also confusing him further. Some familiar but also different in a sense.

But the dragon was his priority and within a few heartbeats he landed behind the creature eyeing it sharply from behind not doing anything to draw its attention yet.

Only to open his mouth and call out.

"Who the hell are you anyway, scale face?"

The dragon swivels his head at both the arrival and the challenge, golden eyes narrowing at the small Dragonslayer. Almost easy to mess is the scar along the right side of its head as if something sliced it there too and when it GLARES down at you Natsu, there's that split second where that feeling of familiarity intensifies.

... and then there's a massive amount of fire exhaled in your direction - though it looks like it means to just block off the tiny human anyway.(pff as if that's a worry for you!) But there's no response, verbal or otherwise, beyond that growl. The voices in the building do cut off with a number of screams from the people inside though, and then pounding footsteps of one person, who may be rushing to see what was going on.

"Hey you had business with me not them!" Natsu bellowed before he started sucking in air and with it absorbing the flames he'd just laid at the entrance. Dragon Fire was a rare treat indeed yet he also felt how filling the magic was as his own powers soared to their peak the more he sucked up.

Oh very filling, yes! And ... yet the taste was ... ODD. Proobably not something you'd want to inhale again, though it's more of an acquired taste kind of thing. And fortunately does not conflict with your own powers. The red dragon snarls down at Natsu, ,, tongue flicking out into the air briefly before his tail whips out - smacking several trees down and meaning to swat Natsu aside if he was silly enough to stay put.

As if he was never there, Natsu disappears from sight. But he wasn't flattened or thrown aside by the tail. Instead the Dragon will feel its tail gripped with startling strength as one word slipped out of Natsu's mouth.

"Gotcha~"

The dragon snarled when Natsu was not in fact, flattened or pinned or even smacked aside - though maybe surprisingly when Natsu grabbed hold of the tail, the dragon was already looking at where he reappeared. It's a tug of war! Because the dragon doesn't want him touching his tail thank you very much, and raises a claw, raising it in the air -

Aaand that's when the sound of a door being SLAMMED open is heard, followed by very quick, very light footsteps and a -furious- girl's voice, "GEt the HELL away from him, you bastard..!" as someone runs straight THROUGH the flames and at you Natsu! Heads up!

The dragon would find itself swiping at its own tail as Natsu slid around the tail so that it was between the dragon and the Slayer. That was when someone suddenly charged out of the building and through the flames. He...really didn't expect back up but there it was so things had just gotten complicated to say the least.

Darn right it was back up, and you and the dragon aren't the only ones able to use fire, it seems! And the figure, now that it was out of the building, was clearly female, dressed in a pleated blue skirt and a white blouse with a blue trim, her pink hair tied back into a ponytail, with brown eyes narrowed, full of fury and fire. "If you think you're going to lay another finger on my FATHER, you're..." She stops short.

... So. Putting aside the whole dragon is her father thing, this girl looks VERY familiar. Frighteningly familiar, the way those brown eyes are narrowed. And the clothing looks familiar too, come to think of it... Well, maybe familiar isn't quite the word to use, but there's a certain resemblance..

Natsu was holding on tightly to the Tail but was still positioned just right to get a good look at whoever was coming out to join the fray. Only for his eyes to widen. That style of clothing was one he recognized right away. But the one wearing them was not. No that wasn't quite right. Her features carried some sense of familiarity but not because he'd ever met this person before. No the answer was....much simpler yet he couldn't reach it. It was a good thing his arms had locked around the tail before this one appeared or else Natsu would have actually gotten flung off.

The girl seemed just as stunned, staring at Natsu like she saw a ghost. "... Dad....? How.." Wait, how could he be standing there hanging onto her father's tail like that - when ... she glanced over her shoulder to the dragon behind her, who looked like he still wanted to flatten Natsu. No, he was too angry to acknowledge any similarities.

The girl turned to the dragon, raising her hands, "Dad, Dad! Calm down! Stop for a second -!" It took her several tries, but the dragon did settle down, glancing down at the girl as if seeing her for the first time. Then he lowered his head and she was able to put her hands on his nose, soothing him. And now that flames were being hurled every which way, those scars on the dragon? Same spots as the scars Natsu himself sported.

"Dad?" He repeated curiously. She was looking at him but he was pretty sure he wasn't a father to anyone but Happy and maybe the two kids that had disappeared at the hands of that damn fairy.

Yet no because in the next moment she was calling the Dragon Dad. Point when Natsu's surprise had him let go of the tail before he floppwed on his back in the dirt.

"Wait that dragon is your dad?" Lets just put aside the fact that she was clearly dressed up like Lucy. He picked himself up from the floor and then he saw it. The scars. Scars that gave Natsu an even bigger shock as he put his hand to his own cheek.

"What the...."

The girl turned back to give Natsu a strange look, clearly weirded out by him being there. Weirded out and wary, looking him over from top to bottom. ".. Yeah, he is. Who are you?.. and what the heck is going on here...?"

"That's my line. What the heck IS going on here? Why's the sky red? Why's everything all blown up and why am I a dragon and standing over there?!" seriously he needed Lucy to come make sense of all of this because even with his recent experience this stuff was blowing his property damage inclined mind!

"If you don't know that, where did you even come from?" She would be in total agreement though, her mom was the most level headed after all! She kept glancing between him and the dragon, trying to make heads and tails of this -weirdness-. "This is too weird even for me..!" She pointed at Natsu...er... the human one... "You look just like you did before... that happened." Pause. "...no, younger, I think." About two years older than the girl herself looked.

Dragon-Natsu snorted slightly, apparently uninterested in the conversation between the two, but then lifted his head, his eyes widening a bit, glancing around. Suddenly he moves so quickly that he actually knocks the poor girl over, though he took a few steps back, preparing to lunge into the air.

The girl glanced over her shoulder, scrambling to her feet, "What? Wait wait, where are you going?" Dangit dad, always rushing off to places.

"Hey! We're not done here!" Natsu snapped after...himself before turning a perplexed look to the one who looked so much like someone took him and Lucy and fused. But wait she called the Dragon Dad and that guy was definitely him. So then....

"My head hurts." He groaned in defeat before he looked after the dragon flying away only to narrow his eyes.

The girl SIGHED, probably used to him rushing off on his own by now. Or he picked up on something that's caught his attention more than the two. "He's headed to the guild." She mutters to herself, starting to break into a run - then pauses and glances at Natsu. "Come on!" She's not letting this Dad But Not Dad person out of her sight either!

"The guild?! But that's where Lucy is!" As if he needed any more reason to run. But at least he's not going Fire Lightning dragon mode and leaving the girl behind. But he does end up overtaking her prettty quickly.

"What?!" Okay pls her brain is going to explode from the level of WTF going on in the past five minutes. Her dad's a dragon but also human, Lucy's here - agh. SHE NEEDS ANSWERS DAMNIT.

She's not the least bit surprised when Natsu shoots past her, giving him a calculating look as they run to catch up with the dragon, who's speed increases until he's out of sight (of visual senses at least).

A few minutes after he's out of sight, and there's a sudden pair of shrieks. But the reason for it isn't nearly as worrisome as expected, because the moment Natsu catches up (probably almost instantaneously after those screams), he'll see the dragon ...probably predictably trying to get a good whiff of Lucy who'd pressed herself against a tree, more confused than anything. Regine had a hold of Lucy's arm and was currently trying to tug her free because that dragon did .. not want to move away at ALL. In fact, that was borderline, 'Mine' behavior.

Aside from that the guild was, surprisingly, still standing, though one might notice the faintest outline of a barrier encircling it, and several glyphs on the ground.

Natsu didn't answer right away but the scene they burst upon was nothing short of boggling. Only it actually made sense in a way. If that big scaly bastard was him then he'd definitely be drawn to Lucy. To the point that Natsu just puts a hand over his face. A gesture Lucy has shown him so many times.

"I should've known he'd go straight for her..."

The girl bursts onto the scene, and almost bumps right into Natsu, staring over at the dragon - and the person it was practically purring at. "What th.."

Lucy was of a similar WTF, though when she saw Natsu, she gave him a baffled, 'WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON' look. I mean. Thank GOD it's not a violent dragon trying to eat her, but STILL WHAT IS GOING ON.

Regine gave one more tug, this time managing to pull Lucy clear, though the dragon still tried to follow - Lucy put her hands on its head and shoved as hard as she could - nope, not budging. "Jeez, you're so stubborn.." She glanced over at Natsu, "What's going on?"

"That's what *I* want to know." The girl protested, sounding more confused than angry at this point.

Regine glanced at the group, from dragon, to man, and then both girls, her gaze lingering on the pink haired girl a moment, then looking at Lucy and Natsu again. "... I think we should perhaps start by introducing ourselves." Everything just seemed to happen at once.

The pink haired girl, almost unable to take her eyes off of Natsu and Lucy, finally looked at Regine, almost relieved that she didn't recognize that woman. "... That's a start I guess." She pointed over to a table outside the guild hall, taking a seat. Lucy sidled around the dragon, giving him a pat on the nose before she moved over to Natsu's side.

Something told him this was going to be a looong story. So he decided to just walk on through the barrier. If this was really the guild and it didn't react to the dragon then it hould let him through just fine.

"Before we go in, did you come across a boy and a girl, young ones that appeared out of the blue?" He said turning over to the fusion of himself and Lucy a short distance behind him.

More than likely. The girl can summarize it if you want. Maybe. In any case, yes, everyone is able to walk through the barrier with no problem whatsoever, though Regina does pause to examine the glyphs curiously at first. Though she immediately narrowed in on the question Natsu asked.

The other girl looked thoughtful, "Hm...No, we didn't see any children, but," she glanced over at her father, who was sticking close to Lucy. Who has at least gotten used to the idea of Natsu Dragon but at the same time, was very glad HER Natsu wasn't a dragon for many reasons.

Natsu-dragon settled down to curl up in a half circle around Lucy (which made it difficult for her to actually go anywhere), now looking a bit more lucid and attentive as he watched the group. In particular, his human self.

"Before I saw you da-- I mean... you, my father and I sensed a magic that was disturbingly familiar to something we've been investigating a short distance from here, but when we got to the location, there wasn't anyone around."

Well tehre were some benefits to meeting a dragon version of yourself. It allowed you to tnot worry whether the dragon would act up and detray them. Since it still Natsu after all right?

"Maybe that shitty Fairy actually sent them to our home instead of this place then. In which case it has a looot to answer for."

Regine glanced at Natsu, "You mean it might have sent them to the correct place after all..?" Where they might be safe and just...scared and alone and wondering where everyone was and how to get back? "I'm.. not sure that's better." At least if they were here, she could keep an eye on and protect them - who knows what's happening to them if they're somewhere else.

The other girl on the other hand, looked puzzled, "Fairy?"

Lucy nodded to the girl, "Yes, that's how we ended up here and..." She paused, then grinned slightly. "Sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves have we?"

The pink haired girl shook her head, "You don't have to. I would know both of you even if I were blind.. you're my parents." A pause. "Um... much younger than my current parents... and not counting dad being stuck as a dragon right now. Oh! But I should introduce myself at least. Though it's kind of awkward having to introduce oneself to their parents. I'm Luna.. Luna Dragneel." And... judging from the frozen look on Lucy's face, she paused, then glanced at Natsu, her smile fading somewhat, "..wait are... you guys not together on your world?" She scratched her head, "Ah, jeez, I just made it awkward didn't I.."