Her ≫ Fairy Tail Fanfic

*** Chapter 18: Dragon Mating Season ***

"Don't be sad. Tomorrow and forever, we'll be together.

Until we aren't."

Waking up, Natsu felt a burning pain all throughout his body. Brushing it off as a cold, he got up to prepare for his day. When a sharp stab of agony ripped a scream from his throat, the pink-haired dragon slayer trudged to the guild as fast as his feet would carry him to get Wendy to check up in him.

--

Bursting open the doors to the guild, Natsu attracted their attention immediately. Most guild members, who were crowded around something -- someone, maybe two someones -- and watching intently, all whipped their heads around to look for the source of the noise. When they spotted Natsu, gasps could be heard, loud and clear. Or more precisely, when they spotted something behind Natsu. He turned around, only to find some rapidly growing, burgundy-colored, dragon wings on his back.

"Natsu-kun, w-w-what is g-going on?" Lisanna, his girlfriend, asked as she approached him. Upon reaching the spot where the dragon slayer was, she tentatively touched his arm, sending a blot of pain through him.

Reflectively, Natsu jumped back, snarled at Lisanna, and tried to refrain from attacking her. Her touch had only added to the pain that was still coursing through his veins like a spreading wildfire that was quickly gaining momentum.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!!" He roared, something that caused many guild members to run towards him and his girlfriend.

'What's going on with me?' Natsu thought, confused. 'It's not like I don't have a grip on my emotions, I'm yelling at Lisanna willingly, and all love I might have had towards her is completely gone. GONE. She just feels like... a friend, or maybe verging on enemy now that she's caused me pain. But not all the love is gone from my heart, I still love someone, but-'

His thoughts were cut off by two similar roars -- not the magic, the sound -- not unlike his own, accompanied by a shrill yell from the second floor balcony.

Sting and Rogue from Sabertooth had shown up uninvited, unexpectedly, and Master was yelling for everyone to quiet down.

"BE QUIET, YOU BRATS! WHAT'S CAUSING ALL THE COMMOTION?!?!"

The crowd parted in various areas to show five dragon slayers writhing in pain.

'Oh,' Natsu thought. 'That's who they were crowded around.'

The two people that had been cocooned in masses of guild members when Natsu had first walked in were Gajeel and Laxus. Also dragon slayers, side note.

Makarov looked around and realized. Today was the start of Dragon Mating Seasons, but most of the dragon slayers were in pain. He then looked around for Wendy, and found her sitting happily with Romeo at the bar, sipping a smoothie, both lost in their own little world.

He sighed. 'At least the little one has her mate. Wait...' he pondered, confused and slightly flustered. 'Oh. They probably kissed or something, right? Yeah, that's probably it.' He then turned to the guild hall below him that was encased in chaos, and yelled again.

"WHY DON'T Y'ALL SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME?!" He paused -- one, for dramatic effect (cuz' obviously Master Makarov just has to be a drama queen), and two, to wait for everyone's attention to move to him, not the dragon slayers.

"As you may or may not know, today is the start of Dragon Mating Season." Makarov began, only to cause many whispers of surprise and confusion.

"Dragon Mating Season?"

"What's that?"

"Do the dragon slayers all have mates?"

"Why are they in pain?"

And Lisanna/Laki/Cana latching onto Natsu's/Gajeel's/Laxus's arms, causing pain for the dragon slayers and in turn a bunch of feral snarling and yelling at the three unwanted girls from the dragon slayers. Even so, the girls remained unaffected...

"OBVIOUSLY, I'M NATSU-KUN'S MATE!!" Shrieked a certain white-haired mage.

...and as snobby as ever. Well, we all know who that conceited b**** is.

Sighing, Makarov opened the book about dragons that he had borrowed from the library a day ago and called for the dragons slayers -- including the Sabertooth ones -- to come up to the second floor.

After Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, Sting, Rogue and Wendy were standing beside him, the guild master continued.

"Dragon Mating Season is the time where both dragons and dragon slayers, no matter which generation, search endlessly for a mate. It is decided at birth who a dragon -- or a dragon slayer -- is supposed to mate, as it is a choice decided and deemed by fate. Never once has a dragon or a slayer rejected their mate and vice versa, since they are meant to be together.
First, if it's a slayer, he or she will grow small horns, small wings, minimal scales, a small tail, and small claws. These will continue to grow larger until Dragon Mating Season is over. Then comes pure possessiveness. The dragon or the slayer will feel possessive towards their mate, and focus purely on their mate. Following, the dragon or slayer is prone to being aggressive at whoever harms their mate or whoever attracted to their mate. Continuing on, the dragon or slayer will need to mark their mate. Last but not least, they will need to fully complete the mating process, which is to mate.
In the slayer's case, if they're away from their mate for more than an hour, they will start to feel pain, which grows more and more intense until they pass out. This does not have any effect on the mate, only the slayer. Fortunately, the pain will cease to only a small pain after 24 hours, and will be replaced -- but the small pain will stay -- by the extremely quick speed that the horns, wings, scales, tail, and claws the slayer attains at the beginning of Dragon Mating Season will grow. They will grow at a speed much faster than they normally would if the slayer had his or her mate with him or her. Also, if any person of the opposite gender touches the slayer, it immediately sends a jolt of pain through the the body of the slayer. After a year of being apart from their mate, the slayer will attain permanent, fully grown horns, wings, tail, and claws. However, if the slayer's magic level is high enough, they will be able to make some alterations. Their scales will have had grown the up the majority of their arms, snaking around their torso and chest, and completely covering their waist and below. If the mate returns to the side of the slayer, the pain will cease."

Silence was all that could be heard throughout the guild. No knew said a word, and the on,y sound was the ragged breaths of the slayers in pain, until Erza decided to ask the big question. No, she didn't propose, Jellal is gonna do that in a few years -- uh, never mind. Anyways, she asked the question that everyone wanted to ask.

"Who are the mates of the dragon slayers, then, if they're in so much pain?"