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Lucy was very thoroughly in over her head.
This wasn't anything new, really, bluffing her way in and out of jobs she wasn't anywhere near qualified for was basically her signature move at this point.
But even for her standards, sneaking around a dragon's lair with nothing but a whip and some camping supplies was. A really bad idea.
Too late now, though. She was already neck deep in the task, she couldn't back out now- she had a princess to rescue!
...And a hefty reward to claim...
Salamander- the mighty Flame Dragon who had kidnapped princess Hisui E Fiore in broad daylight- made his nest in a winding tunnel of caves in the nearby mountains, a long-dormant volcano that still held an unplaceable air of warmth regardless of the actual temperatures at play. It had been... worryingly easy to make it this far, almost to the hear of his den, only seeing a glimpse of his tail for on, heart-stopping moment...
Good.
The centre of his den came into view, faintly illuminated by floating wisps of flame. The room was piled high with trinkets- not the golden treasures stereotypically expected of a dragon, Lucy noticed, but an electic mix of seemingly everything, especially swords and, of all things, shirts...
No sign of Hisui. Had she calculated wrong...? There were side paths leading further... was this just a prelude to the real hor-
Lucy stumbled over something in the dim light. With an almighty crash, the teetering pile of swords came crashing down.
...shoot.
Immediately, she turned back the way she came, bolting for the exit. The dragon roared behind her, the magical flames roaring from soothing embers to an angry blaze.
Lucy hoped she was taking the right path- she'd navigated her way in by following the strongest concentration of magic, but there wasn't nearly enough time for that now-!
A slitted amber eye blocked her way.
Lucy immediately fell back, scrambling for her whip and scanning for another route- the other paths had to lead out of here eventually, right?!
The dragon huffed, his breath just shy of painfully warm.
"...and then he threw me out of my cave- had the audacity to just toss my bag out after me to! Like I wasn't even the slightest bit of a threat!" Lucy ranted, more focused on setting her tent than her new friend. "Which... Okay, I wasn't, but he could at least pretend!"
"Sorry, sorry, I'm struggling to follow-" Natsu- a kind hermit who lived nearby, from his own description, gasped out between laughs, "Did you want 'im to make crispy fried Lucy...?"
"No!" Lucy immediately snapped. "But he could've like... let me run away on my own feet at least!"
"Ah, don't worry about it Luce." Natsu laughed, finally starting to calm down- at least one of them found the dragon's arrogance funny. "'Salamander's' one of the toughest dragons around! You didn't pick an easy one to start with, that's for sure!"
"Is there such a thing as an easy dragon to fight...?" Lucy sighed, dropping beside the fire Natsu had built, tent mostly set correctly. "Even the Sky Sisters are terrifying when they're mad, from what I've heard... and they're healers!"
"I mean... One of them is a god..." Natsu looked dangerously close to laughing at her again... "But hey, I'll let ya' in on a little secret: ...Black Steel ain't shit, beneath his tough guy persona, I can take him, anyday!"
...Oh, he was insane then. That made sense.
"I'm not fighting any dragons, anyway!" Lucy replied instead, digging into her bag for the food she'd packed- only a few days worth, she'd have to hunt if she wanted to stay here too long... "That's the whole reason I volunteered when the king asked... by all the Knight's account, Salamander only speaks Draconic, it doesn't seem very fair to break into his house and beat the heck out of him without being able to understand his side of it..."
"...Huh." Natsu muttered, leaning back. "Not in it for the glory and dragon scales then?"
"Of course not!" Lucy snapped, barely stopping herself from leaping to her feet. "Dragon Hunters- poachers, more like- are every bit the monsters they say dragons are!"
"...Is that why you didn't fight back when he kicked you out?"
"Well... I can't claim it was all some iron-clad code there..." Lucy sheepishly chucked, sitting back down. "I'm pretty sure I lose that fight no matter how it goes..."
"...Right. I've decided!" Natsu jumped to his feet, pulling her up beside him. "I'll keep you're camp nice and safe, and hunt for you 'n stuff, and you can focus all you're energy on getting beating Salamander's ass! Deal?"
...One of these days, Lucy's trusting nature was going to come back to bite her.
But not she thought today!
"Deal!"
Lucy's plan this time was flawless.
Sneaking around had proven mostly fruitless- and she could swear that dragon was laughing at her every time he set her outside his cave entrance now!- and so, she needed a new approach: distraction.
She didn't think Salamander would be particularly susceptible to her Sexy Charms, so she had a different plan to get him out of the way long enough to find and rescue Hisui.
Carefully, she set off the stack of pans she'd set up as bait.
Sure enough, Salamander came racing towards her, heat and scratching noises heralding his arrival.
He turned the corner in a blast of flames, roaring a challenge. Her persistence (stubbornness, more like) had, at the very least, made him take her slightly more seriously...
Just a few more feet...
And he dropped perfectly into the pitfall she'd spent the better part of a day digging out.
Perfect! Now she just needed to bolt for the centre cave in the time it took him to clim-
A flap of his wings, and he was right in front of her.
...Oh, he was definitely laughing at her.
"Not. A. Word."
"You forgot the dragon had WINGS!"
"I didn't forget!" Lucy shrieked back, muffled slightly by the pillow she'd been screaming into. "He never seems to use them! I figured his wingspan was too wide for his cave or something!"
"Yeah, sure, in the tunnels- not in the perfectly sized pit you dug!" Natsu laughed, clutching desperately at his side with tears in his eyes.
...Lucy just groaned, thoroughly out of excuses.
...She really wasn't cut out for this. She was barely a mercenary- and even the greatest of the Knights hadn't managed to rescue poor young Hisui...
"...Hey, I'll stop laughing, promise." Natsu said, nudging her gently to sit up, desperately stifling the last of his chuckles. He offered her a bowl of something warm that smelled delicious. "I caught a deer earlier- made a stew. And I didn't put a whole tub of spice in this time, promise!"
Reluctantly, Lucy sat up.
"It's really good." Lucy quickly assured him at his eager stare- and sure enough, the stew was amazing- and seasoned to a nice degree of heat, as opposed to Natsu's tastes of 'single handedly keeping the spice merchants in business'. His cooking had been... interesting, the first few days, though Lucy had been polite in favour of keeping the free food. But he'd come on leaps and bounds in the last few weeks... always waiting with a warm meal for her whenever she got back from the dragons lair. "Thank you. For... all of this."
"You're welcome, Luce!" Natsu beamed. "So! What's your next plan? Traps are a really good idea! Even if that particular one, uh, didn't work out..."
...Natsu believed in her.
"Ugh... I'm trying to figure out another non-harmful trap and I'm drawing a blank..." Lucy groaned, staring into the fire, "Nets are always a good one, but I've heard some horror stories about wings getting mangled in them... plus it needs to be something he can get himself out of eventually, but if he gets out of it too fast I'm back to square one... plus he'll probably wise up to that trick now, I'll have to think of something else to get his attention..."
"See! You can always think of something..." Natsu grinned. "You can do anythin'!"
...It wasn't just the fire, keeping Lucy's face warm.
Lucy seriously had to wonder what Salamander got out of this.
It had been weeks now! And still even her best attempts had only gotten her safely deposited outside his cave- occasionally with a boulder blocking her way in, when she tried one too many times in a single day, or when the shadows got particularly long before she was ready to call it quits, but it was always removed come morning...
...Was he bored? That would make sense... It could be an explanation for the initial kidnapping, for that matter...
She couldn't exactly say she didn't like this game between them...
...Something felt wrong, today. The mountain had been too still, the forest surrounding it less lively than usual.
Natsu had been missing when she awoke.
...He was a grown man. He could handle himself- he probably just woke up early and wandered off to go hunt. He seemed to enjoy it, after all.
Something was wrong.
She approached the cave, ready to enact today's plan- try and sneak her way in again, now Salamander'd gotten used to her tricks and traps, and hope he mistook and actual misstep his keen hearing noticed as bait.
She was glad it was.
"Bring him down, men!"
"No backing out now, charge!"
"Shields up!"
The clashing of steel echoed down the cavern walls.
...The Knights had finally arrived.
She ran towards the fight.
She didn't know why. Logic dictated she run in the opposite direction- head back to her camp, track down Natsu and say goodbye.
Something in the dragons eyes had become achingly familiar...
The main chamber was alight. Not just the floating flames he used as light sources- the stone itself was burning, only the stacks of treasures were in tact, and they shimmered and danced from the heat surrounding them.
And, in the centre of it all, Salamander. Surrounded by knights, chains and blades flailing around as he roared and tossed aside the Knights holding them.
This... wasn't the harmless and mischievous dragon she'd gotten to know.
This was the beast the Fire Dragons called King.
...he was magnificent.
"Pin his body! We need his wings in tact!" one of the men snarled.
...they weren't wearing the Fiore heraldry.
The realisation hit like ice. These weren't knights- they were hunters.
She had to help him!
Before her brain could act, her body took initiative. Quickly, she put two fingers to her mouth, whistling as loud as she could.
The room turned to her, Salamander taking the distraction to throw off the chains they'd managed to keep on him. Even as their eyes met.
She jerked her head to the side, bolting down a particular tunnel.
She had to hope he'd take the hint.
Her lungs burned, as she sprinted through the winding paths that had grown so familiar. Vaguely, she was aware of heat rising behind her- heat and the cries of angry men.
Good.
She skidded to a halt, hastily throwing the dusty covering over the trap.
Scratching of claws and a rising heat...
Salamander burst through the tunnel with the pitfall trap in a roar of flames once more, easily leaping over the pit-
And the men chasing him weren't nearly so lucky.
"...I... can't belive I just did that..." Lucy panted, grabbing her knees as she desperately tried to catch her breath. She could hear some stragglers further down- but without the numbers advantage, they didn't stand a chance against Salamander, even without the dozen other traps and turns now between them and their target. And with neither his wings nor his claws, the pitfall was much more effective on these humans...
Unthinking, Lucy raised a hand. Without hesitation, Salamander returned the high five.
And then he grabbed her.
"Wha- oh come on!" Lucy whined, futiley trying to escape. "That wasn't even an attempt!"
Salamander just chuffed, giving a toothy grin at her protests.
Strangely, he didn't stop at his caves exit. He gently soared down the mountain, snickering whenever yelps sounded from the echoes of his caves. Landing delicately in... her camp.
He set her down delicately, lowering his head to eye level.
...Those amber eyes were so...
Familiar.
"...Natsu?"
A swirl of flames, and sure enough. Fangs and scales were replaced with a sheepish grin and pink hair.
"Hey Luce!"
..."You dick!" Lucy laughed, closing the gap between them and weakly thumping his chest. "Oh, I'm sure I could come up with a way to outsmart you- if you weren't my sounding board for every plan! You asshole..."
"Hey! I had to get a edge on ya' somehow, didn't I!" Natsu laughed, clinging her tight like two puzzle pieces slotted together. "You could run circles around me otherwise! Sorry, dinners gonna be a bit late today..."
"It better come with a side of kidnapped princesses to return..."
"Technically, it's not a kidnapping if she asked me to do it..." Natsu sheepishly murmured, "At least, she keeps sayin' that's how that works..."
"It really isn't- and I'm not even gonna ask why she wanted to be kidnapped..." Lucy murmured, gently running a hand over his chest. "Are you... okay? They didn't manage to hurt you, did they?"
"'Course not- I'm Salamander, ain't I?" Natsu chuckled, breath sending Lucy's hair aflutter. "...Thank you. For the help, and... for stickin' around this long. I know you've got more dragons to beat and princess' to save, but... I'm glad I got to know you."
"...And why, exactly are you talking like this is a goodbye?" Lucy breathed, leaning closer with a smirk. "'And you focus on beating Salamander's butt', that was our deal, right? Last I checked, your butt is very un-kicked... you're not getting out of cooking that easily..."
"...Promise?"
"Promise."
There were... a lot of logistics to think about. Details to hammer out. Beds that weren't a camping mattress Lucy would give her right arm to get off of to aquire.
But...
Lucy cast all those thoughts aside, closed the distance between them, and kissed Natsu.