~Dragon's Past~

Song; Icarus

"I want you to punch me in the face, Lucy."

"You want me to punch you in the face?"

"Aye."

"You should have called Gray. He'd love too."

A tick mark, bright and red, appeared on Natsu's forehead. "I'll burn that icy bastard before he can touch me!" Lucy chuckled, "Calm down before you burn down the Garden." A puff of smoke flowed from his mouth. "Come on, Lucy, hit me." His eyes flashed with a mischievous light. "Or are ya too afraid?"

Lucy's eye twitched, "Afraid of what?"

Natsu smirked, "Of hurtin' a defenseless Dragon." Lucy couldn't help but scoff. There wasn't anything defenseless about him. "Don't go crying when I knock a fang loose." She warned, cocking back her arm, balling her hand into a fist. "Oh, now I'm scared." He mocked.

Lucy pursed her lips as she let her fist fly. Her accuracy was on point, her knuckles were going to smack right into his cheek bone, fracturing it.
Only nothing happened when her hand connected. Well, except for the quiet crack that came from Lucy's hand.

She gasped and brought her hand back to chest. She stared down at her hand that was quickly becoming red. "Ow!" Lucy cried, flexing her aching fingers. Her eyes shot to Natsu who hadn't even moved an inch from her hit. "Ohhh! You make me so mad!" She yelled, shoving her index finger in his face. He blinked, "Is your hand okay, Lucy?"

"Yes! No!" She whined, rubbing at her sore hand. Natsu sighed as he took her hand in his warm one. "You're not only weird, but you're difficult, too." He told her, much to her annoyance.
"What are you-?" Her words died off when she felt his hands beginning to heat up. The warmth seeped into her hurt hand, slowing getting rid of the ache that had been there.

After another second, Natsu let go, and pulled back, a grin on his face. "There, all better!" Lucy flexed her fingers experimentally, surprised to find that it didn't hurt any more. "Thanks, Natsu." She breathed, staring at her hand, transfixed.

"Huh huh," was his distracted reply, he was working on tying his scarf around his head. Once he was satisfied with securing it, he held up his hand, palm up.

"Hit my hand now." He instructed.
Lucy narrowed her eyes at his hand with distaste. "I'm going to break my hand." She deadpanned. "Nah, I just want to see your power." He curled his fingers in an 'come on' gesture. "I want you to hit my hand as hard as you can."

Lucy bit her lip as she hesitantly balled her unused hand into a fist. "If this breaks my hand, I'm coming after you, Dragon." Natsu laughed, "I'd better get my wings ready, then." Lucy let her arm fly and her knuckles hit the palm of his hand. A squeak came from her and she rocked back, clutching her hand to her chest once again. "For the love of Mavis!" She cried, blowing on her hand that was burning.

"What is your hand made of? Rock?!" Lucy shrieked.

Natsu chuckled and rubbed at the back of his head up, "Scales, actually."

Sure enough, when he opened up his hand, there were little red scales scattered around his fingers and in the palm of his hand. Anger took over her face and her blood boiled. "I'm going to hurt you!" She screamed, leaping at him. Natsu swiftly moved out of the way from her claw like nails and bolted. "N-n-now, Lucy!" Natsu stammered, ducking away from a kick aimed at his head. "You don't wanna hurt yourself!"

"Me?!" Lucy yelled, throwing a punch at his side. "Don't you worry about me!" She went down low and came up with a spinning kick. "You on the other hand," her kick was deflected by his arm. "Should be very afraid!"
Lucy was sure he already was.
The way his face had paled as he dodged and blocked her attacks brought Lucy great amusement.

"Hold still!" Lucy seethed, going in for another hit, this time she used her elbow. Natsu ducked and flipped away. "Would it put you more at ease if I closed my eyes?" He asked, a smirk lighting up his face.

He's having fun?! Lucy thought with outrage!

He closed his eyes and stood still, his head tilted to the side. "I'll show you!" Lucy growled, lifting up her leg to deliver an infamous Lucy Kick. Her leg came zooming through the air, her target; the side of his head. It was a perfect kick, the form was perfect, the hit would be clean and powerful.
With his eyes still closed, Natsu instinctively grabbed her foot before it could connect with his face.

A shriek escaped her lips when he tugged forward and she lost her balance. Lucy brought her hands to her face to protect it from being smashed into the dirt. She braced herself for the impact that was sure to take her breath away. Only, the impact never came, and when she slowly opened her eyes, she found herself being hung upside down. Her ankle was being held in Natsu's hand, suspending her a couple inches off the ground.

Lucy's scowl and Natsu's grin clashed together.

"Put. Me. Down." She ordered.

"Nah, I think I'll keep ya like this." Was his playful reply. "This way you can't hit me."

"I thought you wanted me to!"

"That was before you went all crazy on me."

"Cheeky bastard."

Natsu laughed, "Is that any way to talk to your Master?"

"M-master?!" Lucy stuttered unbelievably. "Who said you were my Master?!"

"What? I like the title!"

Lucy launched up and smacked his hand away from her ankle, successfully freeing herself. Only for her back to hit the ground painfully. She groaned as she rolled over, rubbing at her back to ease the pain.

"See?" Natsu hummed, looking down at her. "This is why you should listen to your Sensei." With an enraged shriek Lucy leaped up, grabbed her whip, and narrowed her brown eyes at him. Oh, Lucy had had enough.
She had reached her limit.
Natsu was going to pay!

"Come on then, Sensei," Lucy thrashed her whip, making a cracking sound in the air.  "Let's see if you can keep up!" She threw back her arm and flashed her whip forward. Natsu leaped away just in time to escape the end of the whip. It struck the ground instead, causing dirt and dust to fly.

"Nicely done, Lucy," Natsu praised, raising his arms, and rocking back and forth on his heels. His childish attitude seemed to melt away and a serious one took its place. Even his loose speech went away. Natsu grinned and brought up his fists to shield his face, "Whoever knocks the other down, is the winner!"

Lucy smirked, "You are on!"

"Let's see what you got!"

It was a deadly dance between the Princess and the Dragon.

With each crack of Lucy's whip, Natsu always slipped away just before it hit its target. Sometimes he would come running up to get into her space, making it impossible for her to use her whip. When he did close range attacks like that, Lucy was forced to relay on hand to hand combat.

Natsu threw out a punch and she dodged, only to come back with a punch of her own. She aimed it as his middle but he brought up his leg to cancel the hit. That's when Lucy saw her opening. She quickly ducked down, swung her leg out, and hit the leg he had been balancing on. Lucy saw his eyes widen before he started to fall. His arms windmilled around himself, trying to find a way to stop his fall.

Lucy saw the moment he found a way.

Natsu bowed his back, slammed the palm of his right hand down onto the ground behind him, and used his momentum to propel himself through the air. He flipped through the air and landed only a few feet away. He straightened from his shallow crouch just as Lucy did. She took a breath-and he was right in her face. Her eyes couldn't track his attack and it was too late. Natsu had dropped down just as she had and knocked her feet out from under her.

For the second time that day she began to fall.

Her arms flew out in front of her, fingers grasping for anything to halt her fall, the world spun around her. Then a hand wrapped around her wrist and stopped her descent. Lucy blinked up at Natsu and relief surged through her. He straightened her up with a tug and offered her a grin.
"Ya almost got me there, eh?"
Lucy nodded breathlessly, her lungs ached for breath, and her muscles hurt when she moved.

"How come you didn't let me fall?" She rasped.

Natsu looked down at her with a confused look, "I wouldn't let ya fall, Lucy." She told herself her heart stuttered because of her exhaustion from her intense fight.

Lucy bent over and put her hands on her knees to regain her breath. So, she just gave him a thumbs up. As she began to stand up after heaving for breath, her eyes caught sight of a dark, wet patch on the front of Natsu's shirt. "Ah!" Lucy panicked, frantically pointing to the area. "You are bleeding!"

The Dragon's eyebrows furrowed before he looked down. "Huh," he muttered, pressing a hand to his stomach. "That sucks." When he pulled his hand away, it was painted red. Lucy looked around until she spotted a smooth boulder to sit on. She grabbed his arm and quickly led him over to the spot.

Lucy forced him to sit down before she lifted up his soaked shirt. Sure enough, one of his wounds had opened, and was oozing out the crimson liquid. By this time, Happy and Plue had come trotting over, curious as to why they had stopped their battle. Natsu's blue kitten stared up at him with wide coal black eyes, he meowed pitifully, as Plue whined.

"Don't worry you guys," Natsu grinned, placing his hand on the wound. "I'm a Dragon, remember?" Lucy watched with wide eyes as a sound like rock moving against rock sounded. When Natsu removed his hands, a set of red scales had covered the wound. "There!" Natsu cheered, leaping up. "It should be alright now."

Lucy eyed the scales that concealed the wound from her prying eyes. "Are you sure you are alright?" She asked, standing up to face him. Natsu nodded with his signature grin, "Positive, Lucy." He started to bounce on his heals, full of energy once again.
Lucy hesitated a moment, studying the Dragon closely, before sighing with defeat. Once Natsu was up and hyper, there was nothing she could do to calm him.

"Okay," she relented, "But if you feel faint or dizzy, you tell me immediately!" She told him, pointing her index finger at him to emphasize her words. A nod was all she got before she was being dragged to the center of the clearing again.

From then on, till the sun was dimming, and sinking out of the sky, Lucy and Natsu trained together.
Natsu taught and showed her many different fighting moves and helped her, until she had perfected the move.

He taught her how to knock out an opponent, how to bring one down with one move, and how to use just one finger to put someone to sleep. Lucy hadn't believed that one, but Natsu swore that it worked.

Lucy fought and trained till she was on the ground, staring up at the bleeding sky, slick with sweat. "I'm...done..." Lucy gasped, flickering her wrist in the air to show just how done she was. The orange and red sky was taken from her vision by Natsu, who was leaning over her.
"Aw, already?" He pouted at her.
"Yes...it's not my fault that...I don't have...energy like you..." She rasped, rolling over onto her stomach before hauling herself up.

Natsu barked out a laugh before he scooped down to pick up Happy, who climbed up onto his head. "Pays to be a magical creature, eh?" Natsu asked, watching her with amusement as Lucy shuffled to the boulder from before. She practically fell onto it with a huff.
"My legs no longer work," she informed him with a dramatic air. "You will just have to leave me here."

Natsu cocked his head to the side, causing little Happy to go along with the movement, "But I wanted to show ya something, Lucy." She cracked open an eye, "If it's another frog, I don't want to see it, even if it is a pink one." The Dragon rolled his dark eyes and shook his head. "Nah, no frog. Even though that frog was really cool..." He muttered.
"This is something I'm sure you'll like!" Natsu persuaded with an excited grin.

Lucy slumped down on the rock, and swung her numb legs, she winced when they gave a sharp ache. "You can show me when I get my legs back. Right now I need a nice warm bath and-ehhh! Natsu!" Lucy cried with surprise when she was suddenly being lifted by him. "What are you doing?!" She buried her nails into his shirt so she wouldn't fall.

"Taking ya on an adventure, Luce!" Was his happy reply. Natsu spun around on his heel and began to head off. He walked to the end of the Secret Garden and stopped when the heavy thicket of brush stopped him. "Natsu, there isn't anything here." Lucy said, looking up at the tall hedge. Natsu's grin only widened, "Just cause you can't see anything, doesn't mean anything isn't there."

With those words as her only warning, Natsu crouched, and with a powerful jump (that made Lucy shriek), he cleared the tall hedge and landed on the other side smoothly.

Lucy's eyes were wide and shaking, along with the rest of her when Natsu sat her down. Her legs gave out and she fell into the soft, golden grass. Happy jumped off his Dragon's head and landed nimbly into the grass that shown like sunlight. Lucy paused as she looked down at the beautiful grass curling around her fingers. Her eyes began to track up and up, until she saw what Natsu had wanted to show her.

In front of her, in her and her Mother's Secret Garden, stood a tall, magnificent, cherry blossom tree.

"Oh my..." Lucy breathed, absolutely memorized by the tree. She slowly got up and as if the tree was calling out to her, she began to glide through the grass to get to the tree. The wind suddenly picked up and carried through the branches of the tree. The cold element swept the petals free and the blossoms twirled toward her. Lucy opened up the palm of her hand to catch some of the silky petals.

Lucy turned to Natsu, who was looking up at the petals falling around him, a peaceful smile on his face.
"Thank you, Natsu." Lucy whispered, turning back around to join in with the petals as they did their soft dance. The blue kitten was leaping into the air to snatch some of the petals. Lucy turned on her heels and moved her arms in a airy type dance, feeling the petals brush against her bare arms, and placing light kisses onto her cheeks.

What a beautiful place to be.

Later, after Lucy's dance with the cherry blossoms had finished, Natsu, Happy, and her now sat underneath the tree's branches. Tired and feeling at peace. That is, until Lucy felt the familiar nagging feeling of questions bubbling up. What kind of Magic granted someone the power of Dragons? It had been bugging her ever since Natsu had crashed into her life.

Lucy knew he wanted to keep what he was a secret. She hoped that perhaps one day he could learn to trust her completely to tell her everything. But...Lucy needed to know. She was a writer after all and writers always wanted to know everything.
Lucy sat underneath the cherry blossom tree, battling herself mentally.

She lost.

"Natsu..?" Lucy began softly.

"Hmm?" He hummed, his eyes were closed, and he was leaning back against the tree.

She swallowed her nerves and took a deep breath before she asked, "What are you and your Magic called?" As soon as the words that had been screaming to escape finally met the night air, Lucy wanted to take them back. Her heart was beating hard in her chest, fueled by her nervousness.
By the time Natsu had cracked open one eye, she was ready to tell him to forget it, but before she could, he spoke first.

"I'm a Dragon Slayer, Lucy."

The Princess could only stare at him.
She couldn't believe it. He had actually answered her question that had been one of his most sacred secrets. "Ya wanna know more, don't cha?" Natsu guessed, shifted to get more comfortable. Lucy wanted to say no. She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to tell her anymore.

She lost once again.

That's when Natsu began to weave her a story about his Magic. He told her about how Igneel, his Father, the King of the Fire Dragon's,

had gifted him this Magic Power. This Magic that was gifted to him was rare and unique. His Father had warned him to use this newfound power wisely, carefully. There would be horrific consequences if he didn't.

"I've never been one to follow rules." Natsu said jokingly, but his eyes had become haunted. Happy, sensing his friend was distraught, crawled into Natsu's lap, and curled up. The pink haired boy grinned down at his Exceed, grateful for Happy's concern for him, and laid a hand on top of the kitten's head before continuing.

One day, about ten years ago, Natsu's home, had been found and invaded. He wouldn't say how or why, Natsu stayed sadly silent about that. The two Kingdoms, Tartaros, and...Lucy's own Kingdom, Celestial, went up against the Hidden Kingdom. In the end, the Demons of Tartaros had been too powerful, and had wiped out the Hidden Kingdom. Natsu's Father had fallen by the claws and talons of a rouge Dragon that had betrayed him.

And, Natsu, alone, and the last of the Dragon Slayers, did the only thing he could do. He tapped into his Dragon Force to go head to head with the leader of the Demons. Only, he overworked his Magic, used too much of it, and slowly, his own Magic, took him over. Leaving him with the scales, talons, wings, and the horns of a Dragon. Even with this power, he was still so young, and was beaten.

Natsu had fled and had found refuge in Fairy Tail.

"It has taken me a while but I have learned to control it." Natsu said on a exhaled breath. "Now I can switch it on and off as I please. My scarf," He brushed his fingers against the white scales of his treasure. "Helps me restrain the Dragon." He huffed out a dry laugh. "Dad gave me this scarf, ya know. He must have known that I would do something stupid."

Pain zapped through Lucy like a bolt of lightning. It struck her heart and latched on. Already, tears were streaming down her face. She should have kept her mouth shut. She shouldn't have opened the gate that would leak his dark memories.
"Oh...Natsu..." Lucy sobbed, putting her hands to her cheeks to wipe away the tears.

Natsu had been staring at the midnight blue sky when his name brought him back. Shock hit him hard when he saw Lucy's tears. "Ah! Wha-? Why are you crying, Luce?" He yelled, waving his arms in front of himself. "I'm sorry," Lucy whispered. "I-I didn't know...I shouldn't have said anything..."
The Dragon Slayer stared at her, uncomprehending why she was still crying.

Natsu knew his past was a nightmare, but he didn't think that his own pain would affect her as well.

After a moment, Lucy calmed down, and wiped her glistening tears away. Her voice quivered when she asked one last question.

"Natsu?"

"Hmm?"

"The day I found you...

you mouthed something to me...what was it?"

Natsu's eyes took on a cloudy look and his expression darkened like it had before. He was silent for a moment, staring up at the petals that danced through the air, before he said quietly.
"I asked you to end it."

The wind carried away his words and the blossoms from the tree entwined with them. Concealing them and taking the horrendous words far away. Lucy wanted those ugly words to never go near him. She didn't ever want to hear them again.

"I wouldn't have done it. Even if I had heard you," Lucy paused and looked at him with a fire in her eyes. "I wouldn't have."
Natsu studied her for a silent moment, before a small grin appeared. "Yay, I guess you wouldn't have."

Lucy looked up at the tree then. A legend that she heard long ago began to trickle into her mind.
And, she began to tell it.

"I heard that, if someone's heart is as pure as the stars, a cherry blossom tree will glow for that person if they are under its petals at night."

Natsu's eyes gleamed with excitement as he hurriedly looked up at the tree.
"Really?! Have you ever seen it?"
Lucy smiled, she hadn't liked the way his normally bright eyes had dimmed.

"No, I'm always in my room when night falls. I'm not allowed outside when the sun is no longer at play." She answered a bit bitterly.

Natsu turned to her then with a bright smile, "Let's stay together and watch the glowing tree."

Lucy laughed, "Natsu, I'm sure the tree doesn't even glow. No one has ever seen the tree's petals glow-"

Suddenly, a bright flash of light flooded the Secret Garden, causing Lucy to shield her eyes. "Lucy..." She heard Natsu breath. Carefully, she blinked open her eyes and moved her hand away. What she saw took her breath away. The tree was indeed glowing, and it was the most beautiful thing Lucy had ever had the pleasure of seeing.

The tree was a rainbow of colors. Cobalt blue, crimson red, sunshine yellow, midnight blue, light pink, sapphire purple, and emerald green, all shown brightly from the tree's many blossoms.

Natsu turned to her with a smile illuminated by the rainbow tree's light, "It's glowing for you."

Lucy was speechless as she stared at the tree that his words almost escaped her. She had to rip her eyes away from the tree's memorizing glow to face Natsu and say, "It's glowing for you, too, Dragon."

Natsu's smile began to widen-when he suddenly froze. The green that had begun to take over his eyes was suddenly leached of the color, black being the dominant one. His eyes narrowed to black slits, his lips curled away from his sharp canines, and smoke started to flow from his mouth. Happy's head jerked up and he leaped away from Natsu with a hiss.

"Natsu...?" Lucy muttered as he leaped to his feet, his attention directed towards Lucy's Father's castle, his body stiff and muscles tense.

"Did you hear that?" Natsu growled.

"Hear what?" Now Lucy was starting to worry. What is he hearing that I can not?

Natsu looked at her then, his onyx eyes dilated, and his face grave.

"The screaming."

🔥🌟

After a long day of training, the Dragon has shown the Princess something magical.
A tree that glows upon finding a person who's heart is deserving of a place among the stars.
However, even the most purest of Magics can be corrupted by a dark force.
Now, after the Dragon has shared his horrific past, a new horror is rising.
The Dragon has taught the Princess all he can. He just didn't know how soon she would have to use those skills.

Let the Adventure Continue!

This Chapter is for
Prism_Dragon