Enemies at Heart // Natsu Dragneel

On one knee (43)

Get ready, this is a big chapter. Not just in length, but story. All I'll say is I hope you all like it.

When I arrived at the guild, it was eerily quiet. Like, beyond quiet, you could hear the sound of your own heartbeat like it was thunder, your breathing like it was a wild storm. There wasn't a single light on, only the small spotlight that shone at the entrance, but that light was never turned off.

There was no movement in the guild, not laughing or no quiet humming from Mira as she cleaned. The only sign of life was Lucy standing at the door, blocking the entrance protectively. Her eyes lit up as she saw me, she skipped towards me and grabbed my arm, linking our arms together.

"Hey Y/N! You're with me first." First? Oh, please don't tell me I'm going to be bounced around like a hot potato. I will go on a murder spree if that's the case. "I'm thinking we could go to lookout mountain," She said with a sadistic smile, slowly leading me to a cab that was parked nearby.

"Oh, I haven't been there since I went with Natsu-" I paused as went silent, realising what she was doing. No, this is not happing. "Lucy no. No more meddling in our love life." I pointed a finger at her, jabbing her cheek softly.

"I'm not meddling!!" that's all she said before the turned away from me with crossed arms, it didn't last long though, she quickly turned back to me. "Hey, what's the red mark on your neck?" Lucy asked, gently poking the patch of red scales on my neck, eliciting a small whimper from me.

"Stop that, those aren't for playing. You know they're sensitive," I glared as I covered my neck, shifting uncomfortably in my seat.

"Just tell me!" My god, not this again.

"Lucy, we've been through this, don't make me explain it again..." I sighed deeply, she's always going on and ON about how 'cool' our dragon instincts are. Maybe I should just tuck and roll out of the car and walk the rest of the way there.

"If you tell me I'll leave you alone for the rest of the car trip." We probably only have five minutes to go, but that's five minutes of silence, and that's an offer too good to refuse.

"FINE!! Dragons mate for life, as I assume you know?" She nodded in response, watching me intently. "As a sign of 'ownership' -if you could even call it that-, dragons often mark each other, it's a sign that they're mated for life. It's mainly to keep possible rivals away, but it can just be a romantic gesture." Lucy already knew all of this, I had to explain it the day Natsu and I came in with suspicious scales on our necks... yet she's still making me explain all of this.

"Go on."

"Since Natsu and I are Dragonslayers, we have some of these tendencies too... and that's as far as I'm going because I do NOT want to explain how you mark someone." I would probably combust from embarrassment if Lucy made me go into detail about Dragonslayer mating rituals.

"That's fine with me! We're here anyway, byeeeee!" Lucy yelled before kicking me out of the car, not literally but she pushed me pretty hard. I landed on the tough grout, grazing my knees as the palms of my hands as I braced my fall. Before I could turn around and yell at Lucy, the car took off as she drove away, laughing to herself under her breath.

I thought back to our conversation, pressing two of my fingers to the hard patch of red scales on my neck, they were radiating a small amount of heat, kind of like a painless sunburn. I smiled to myself, rubbing the coarse mark and thinking about how Natsu had a matching white one at this very moment. Mine.

"Y/N! You made it... and you're on the floor..." Juvia yelled as she ran up to me, pausing as she looked down at me, not really looking that surprised if we're being honest. "I'm so excited for you!" She said, gripping my hand and pulling me up off the ground.