Children Of Dragons

~Five~

Lucy's POV

I was the first to wake up.

So what did I do?

I went out and bought a giant map of Earthland, came back, sat down in the kitchen area and tried to search my memories while trying to ignore the boys' sleeping. It was, in short, impossible.

I groaned and buried my face in my hands. My elbows rested on the table where the map was spread out. Annoyance creased my forehead, and I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming.

"Morning, Lu!" Aisha chirped, walking into the room with a yawning Gaia trailing behind her.

"Hey," I flashed her a quick smile before going back to staring at Fiore. The bluenette slipped into the seat beside me, following my gaze. Gaia hopped up onto the table.

Excitement laced Aisha's features. "Are you locating a--"

"Yaaaaaaahhnn!"

I glanced over my shoulder to see Natsu sitting up, yawning loudly. Happy was also awake and rubbing his eyes. Beside me, the bluenette beside me narrowed her eyes.

"Be quiet, will you, Flamebrain? Lucy is doing very important work!" She snapped.

"What did you call me?" Natsu said, jumping up.

Happy sprouted wings and landed next to Gaia, right on top of the part of Fiore I was scanning. "What are you doing, Lucy?" Gaia gutted.

"Looking at a map. Now move," I mumbled as Natsu and Aisha began bickering.

Happy looked down before hopping backwards a couple of times. Gaia sighed and muttered something like 'Baka' not too quietly.

"I'm glad someone agrees with me," I looked up as Carla entered the room, arms crossed, with Wendy and Erza right behind her. She came over and stood next to Gaia. The two started chatting with Happy trying to join in.

"Well this is a turn of events," Erza commented, watching Natsu and Aisha. I only hummed in response.

"What are you doing, Lucy?" Wendy asked curiously.

At this, Aisha turned away from a now fuming pinkette and smirked. "This amazing, talented, awesome, smart, funny, kind - did I mention talented? - girl is locating a portal to the dragon realm, where Nami and the other dragons probably are!"

"Really?" Wendy gasped.

"Is that true, Luce?" Natsu asked, rushing over to me.

"Yeah..." I said softly.

"Out of curiosity, what brought this on?" Erza asked, crossing her arms.

I glanced at Aisha, chewing on my lip. "Well... I guess having four dragon slayers missing their dragons made me feel kinda guilty for not trying to help them before this, you know? Besides, I might not find it at all..."

"Pffft," Aisha grinned at me. "Of course you will, you're the--" I gave her a look and she paused. "-- the smartest person I know! I know you'll find it!"

"We should probably give her some space to work," Erza said. Wendy, Aisha and the exceeds nodded and all wandered off. However, Natsu stayed. He leaned over my shoulder, his breath fanning against my neck. I tried to ignore him and carry on working, but he was just... so... Ugh!

"Could you just, like, maybe, you know... Not do that?" I asked, looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Do what, Luce?" He asked.

"Leaning over my shoulder like that... It's just... Ugh, Natsu, if you want to see Igneel again then I need some space to try to figure this out," I said. He opened his mouth to reply, but whatever it was that he said I didn't hear it because another memory assaulted my mind.

~~~

X777

"I don't wanna swim anymore!" I whined, kicking my legs to stay afloat. Nami-san and I were heading back to the mainland so we could go to the dragon realm with the other dragons, but we had to swim! I was REALLY tired.

"Well, if you want to see Acnologia and Stardust again, you've gotta keep swimming!" Nami-san said, flicking her tail and spending a spray of sea water into the air. I kept myself from giggling and gave her a big smile.

"Okay!"

After a while, we got to the shore and I saw Acno-san, Star-san, Igneel-san and the other dragons waiting there. I got to ride on Star-san because I was tired from swimming and we had to go all the way to the jewel cave outside Magnolia Town where the portal to the dragon realm was.

~~~

"--ce... Luce... Luce... Lucy!!"

I blinked, coming back to reality. "Huh?"

"You zoned out," Natsu informed me, his face inches away from mine. Why? I had no idea. Maybe he was trying to get me to snap back into reality? But then why...

"Lucy!" I jumped. Natsu frowned. "Are you okay, Luce?"

I waved my hand about. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." I felt a little heat rise to my cheeks as I realised Natsu still hadn't moved back, and I quickly turned my head away.

"No, seriously. You keep zoning out and Miss High-And-Mighty over there said you fainted yesterday. You feeling okay?"

I narrowed my eyes. I thought I'd told her I was fine. I sighed as my thoughts drifted to my journey with the dragons to the portal outside Magnolia... Wait...

The portal was outside Magnolia! In the, err... In the jewel cave!

"I've got it!" I cried, leaning over the map. I ran my finger over the mountains outside Magnolia. It's there somewhere...

"Huh?" Natsu asked, confused. I grinned at him as the others rushed over.

"I know where the portal to the dragon realm is."