Here is Fairy Tale! I can't believe we're on Day 3 already! You've all made this a fantastic week, and I don't want it to ever end!

This one is going to be a two-shot.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

"Fair maiden! I, the noble and all-around fantastic Sir Infeh of Shun have come to rescue your glitteriness from the foul clutches of - AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Thick, roiling clouds of maroon poison jetted towards the ridiculously armoured man. With that, the 'noble and all-around fantastic Sir Infeh' turned tail and fled at top speed, screaming and flailing madly. His armour bounced and jangled against the man his entire journey to the hill's slope - where he tripped upon a small stone, fell over, and proceeded to roll down the embankment.

Atop a stone tower, lay a coiled dragon. Rough scales the exact shade as the poisonous smog from before coated the creature from snoot to tail tip. Wings, gargantuan when spread to their full length, rested against the dragon's back, furled for the moment. Ivory horns curled back from the massive, plated head containing rows after rows of serrated fangs. Wisps of poison trailed from flared nostrils, and lingered around its formidable maw. Claws, cast in the same iridescent material as its fangs and horns, flexed against the stone edifice.

Slowly, the giant head of the dragon swung down to a window cut into the side of the tower upon which it reclined. "My apologies," the creature rumbled, the words sounding foreign for being pushed through lungs of far greater capacity than any human's, and forced past a tongue and teeth not suited for the language. It peered within the opening with a single, vibrant indigo eye - the other permanently closed due to a massive, thick scar that cut through it. "I didn't think you needed to be consulted on that one."

A blonde crown of hair lifted above the windowsill. Eyes of warm honey-amber regarded the fell beast with old fondness. "That's alright, Cobra," the young woman told the dragon. "I could kind of tell that he wasn't the one from the way he spoke. I mean... 'your glitteriness'? Really? Where is my father finding these buffoons?"

Snorting in approval, the dragon regarded the woman standing there in just a simple, white shift. "It's still early and rather chilly out," he - for the creature was indeed male - informed her. "I would suggest wearing something warmer."

The woman nodded, smiling brightly. "You headed out, Cobra?"

"I'm hungry," the dragon rumbled. "Think you can fend for yourself until I return, Top-Heavy?"

In indignation, the blonde stomped her foot, much to the dragon's continued amusement. "I've been here a year, already! You can at least call me by my name!"

"I forgot," he teased, his jeweled eye aglitter. "Remind me again what it was?"

"Lucy!" she yelled. "It's not that hard to remember, you Geriatric Dragon!"

"Low blow," the dragon responded. "But what did I expect from someone who only comes up to my ankle?"

Lucy screeched and her scaly companion let out a booming laugh that shook the old fort's foundations. "Stop that!" she ordered. "Oh for goodness' sake just go already, would you? You great flying lizard!"

"I object to being referred to as a lizard," the dragon sneered at her. Swinging his head away from the window, he unfurled wings the same shade as the rest of his scales, the morning light filtering through the webbing illuminating the veins and casting strange, shifting shadows below. "I do agree that I'm great, however."

Unable to stop herself, Lucy grinned. Leaning against the stone sill, she propped her head up with one hand. "I'll add conceited to your list of foibles, then."

"Do."

With that, the dragon bunched his muscles and launched himself from the tower, in a scattering of dust and small pebbles. Sunlight caught his scales in a dazzling, prismatic display of colour. Powerful beats of his wings drove him forward and up, until he caught a thermal and began a more gentle ascent. His tail, a giant rudder, thrashed in the air behind him.

Wistful, Lucy watched her guardian, her protector, her friend disappear into the morning sky. How she longed to ride those same currents, too. Sighing, she eventually pulled herself away from the portal to the world outside. She had morning chores to get to.

As she changed into working clothes, Lucy contemplated how much her life had changed in the past year.

Growing up the daughter of a wealthy merchant, her life had been full of expectations for her. Her life had been laid out before her on a platter. Emulate the ladies of higher standing in everything, she had been ordered. In choice of attire, in her conduct, the foods she ate, the studies she undertook. All in pursuit of a husband of higher standing, to elevate her father's social position.

It had been a vast, golden cage. No more, no less.

One that Lucy Heartfilia had desperately longed to escape.

So when a dragon had razed several fields and absconded with several farmers' herds... Lucy had volunteered herself to be the sacrifice made to appease the monster.

Anything was better than this life she currently led, she reasoned. And dragons were supposed to be intelligent creatures. Maybe she could reason with it, offer to polish its scales or hoard or something.

It was a weak argument but it was her only chance to escape, and find her freedom.

Amidst great fanfare and praise for her 'bravery,' Lucy had been tied to a pole in the middle of a field and left there for the dragon to find.

Lucy hadn't counted on the dragon taking as long as it did, however, and by the time the sun began to set, she was parched and her skin was burned from the intense rays of the sun that had beat upon her the entire day.

It was almost a relief when she spotted the silhouette of the scaled monster in the sky.

Dust swirled all around Lucy as the dragon swooped closer to her. Shutting her eyes against the grit, she waited until the winds died down and she felt the shudder the earth below made when the heavy bulk of the dragon settle upon it.

Blinking furiously, she'd opened her eyes to a creature that made her heart stutter and stop.

The dying sun behind it painted the dragon's scales a dark, rusty red and threw iridescent shimmers along the ivory of its wing claws. It's single eye, a prick of light cast in shadow, swept over her.

Lucy suddenly felt very exposed indeed beneath the dragon's gaze. Self-conscious, and dirty. But she swallowed dryly around her parched throat, and lifted her chin to meet its gaze head-on.

"Defiance?" the dragon rumbled, tilting its head to the side to better see her. "Unusual. Though not nearly so unusual as finding a sacrifice within my territory." It's lips pulled back and its jaws opened to fully display all of its very, very sharp fangs. "Especially since I cannot recall ever asking for one."

Undeterred, Lucy rasped out, "My town decided to offer a sacrifice to you in the hopes of appeasement. Our fields have been burned, and we cannot afford to lose more of our crops or livestock lest we all starve."

Staring at her intently, the dragon was silent for several, very long minutes. "I'm afraid..." he rumbled, "that you may have the wrong dragon."

Stomach dropping at the dragon's words, Lucy felt despair begin to well up inside of her. "W-what? This... this is your territory, though, right? There can't be more than one dragon around."

"I see you possess some knowledge of my kind," he remarked. "Yes, it is true that we cannot abide intruders within our domains. However, we do make exceptions." Pausing a beat, he then inquired, "You said your fields were burned, correct?"

"Yes."

"I take it this occurred about a week ago?"

Lucy nodded. "Five days."

The dragon lifted one large paw off the ground, and Lucy flinched thinking that she'd been wrong to correct the vicious predator and that her life was now at an end.

Only for the dragon to unexpectedly smack itself in the faceplate with its claws and let out a deep groan of exasperation.

Bewildered by the action, Lucy couldn't help observing how oddly human-like the gesture was.

"Natsu!" the dragon growled. "That fucking moron!"

The suddenly coarse language startled the gentle-bred young woman into silence.

"What does he think he's doing inside of someone else's territory?!" the dragon ranted, dropping its paw to the ground. "I've known him for how many centuries? And yet he still doesn't fucking learn! You can't just raze fields and slaughter livestock willy-nilly anymore! This isn't the Dark Ages! There's etiquette and treaties to consider!" It began to furiously pace in front of Lucy, kicking up dust. "Next time I see that uppity flame-brained scaly piece of shit I am going to bite him. I will. He's not getting away with his colossal idiocy this time!"

Lucy held back a cough at the debris in the air, blinking rapidly to continue to watch the dragon as it proceeded to leave its anger behind and enter full-blown panic mode instead.

"More than that, how am I going to explain this to the Elders?!" he lamented (Lucy assumed it was a male dragon from the gravelly voice). "Never mind that it wasn't my fault. The blame is still going to be laid at my claws, now that I'm his clan leader!" He abruptly collapsed to the ground, sending a fresh cloud of dust billowing into the air, and then covered his head with his claws. "I regret ever meeting that damned, fire-breathing, scatterbrained, destructive monstrosity!" A noise suspiciously like a sob emanated from dragon. "I don't care that his adoptive father is the Flame Dragon King Igneel himself. I'm going to wring his scrawny little scaly neck. Snap it, and be done with him once and for all. I really am going to fucking do it this time, I swear. First he demolishes half my home, then he obliterates part of my hoard, and now this. What did I ever do to deserve this?!" Keening sounds warbled out of the dragon's form. "I've followed the newfangled, constantly fucking changing rules. Done everything that's been asked of me. Turned over a whole new fucking leaf. So why does the shit only ever rain down upon me?! In particular?!"

Somehow it had never occurred to Lucy that the dragon might be having issues of his own. Honestly, it sounded as if his life was a bigger mess than hers was. Especially since he now had his face buried in the dirt was by all counts screaming obscenities into it.

The maroon scaled head suddenly raised from the ground and turned to look straight at Lucy. "Shit. The sacrifice. I forgot about you. What the fuck do I do with you?"

Coughing, Lucy suggested, "How about get me down from here, if you aren't going to eat me?" She swallowed thickly, feeling much more confident than when the dragon had first alighted in front of her. "Also, I need to find some water. I've been up here all day, and I'm parched."

"I don't have any water," the dragon stated. "But I can get you down. Hold still."

"Can't do much else," she informed him.

The dragon broke out into a feral grin, his glimmering fangs on full display for Lucy's benefit. "I like you!" he declared. "You're far more fun than other humans I've come across. No wonder they tried to sacrifice you."

Assuming he meant it as a compliment, Lucy gave him a minute shrug. "I volunteered, actually."

A single claw extended, the dragon reached for her ropes and muttered, "Now why would you do something that crazy?" Once the tip of his talon brushed the rope, the scratchy threads disintegrated. He repeated the action to free her other arm, and Lucy dropped her arms to her sides.

"I don't know," Lucy said, wincing and rubbing the raw flesh. "It seems to have worked out fairly well, I'd say."

"If your definition of 'well' is sunburned, dehydrated, and more or less at my tender mercy, I'd hate to see what your definition of 'bad' is."

Lucy left off worrying her arms. It wasn't doing her any good.

"I suppose you should be getting back now," the dragon suggested, making a shooing motion. "Tell them I appreciated the gesture, and this won't happen again. It was a rather large misunderstanding and I'll try to figure out how to fix it. I would take you there myself," he added, eyeing Lucy's condition critically, "but humans don't generally take too kindly to my swooping in unannounced. Fuck, they're not so good when I announce it, either, come to think of it."

Nodding, Lucy quipped, "I can imagine. I'm not going back though, if it's all the same to you." The dragon was watching her with seeming interest, so she continued, "If I return, they're not going to believe that you really sent me back. Everyone will just assume I lost my nerve and ran away. Then I'll be out here again tomorrow, this time with iron shackles, I'm guessing."

A low growl rumbled through the maroon dragon. When Lucy raised an eyebrow at him, he rolled a shoulder at her. "I don't like shackles," he stated, but did not expound upon it further.

The young woman decided not to push the issue. "Besides, if I do go back it's shackles of a different kind for me." When her scaly companion looked confused, Lucy clarified, "Arranged marriage. And judging by the candidates my father was considering..." Lucy grimaced. "Well, I volunteered to be a sacrifice for a dragon. That should pretty much sum that up for you."

"It does." After another moment, the dragon asked, "So what will you do now, Failed Sacrifice?"

Lucy placed her hands on her hips. "Okay, first of all let me get this through your horned, scaly skull. My name is Lucy."

Silent, the dragon swept his barbed tail across the ground in an agitated manner. To Lucy, it appeared as if he were locked in internal debate about how to deal with her assertion.

Maybe talking back to the gigantic apex predator was a bad call. Especially when a single bat of that tail could turn her into a bloody smear on the ground.

"Cobra," he finally said, tail slowing its movements. "You may call me Cobra."

The blonde woman stared at him, incredulous. Partly because - unlike her father and his circle of associates - the overgrown lizard didn't seem to mind her sassiness and outright challenges to him. Then again, there was also the issue of...

"You're a dragon," Lucy bluntly affirmed. "Named Cobra."

"Apt observation."

"...It's not your real name, is it?" she guessed.

Cobra shrugged slightly. "An epithet. Which is close enough. The name of my birth... is even less suited to a dragon, to be honest."

"But why Cobra?" Lucy persisted.

"Because I'm a poison dragon," Cobra informed her. He grinned at her. "And fairly venomous, besides. So even if I wanted to, I still couldn't burn down your fields as I have no flame breath. Although," he added on as an afterthought, "I could still burn them down by setting individual blazes manually. But that's a little more effort than I generally feel like putting forward - especially when I could just poison them."

Lucy was suddenly grateful that this particular dragon hadn't seen fit to do precisely that. Fire was one thing - the fields would recover in a season. Poison was a whole other obstacle. The fields would be unusable for years if attacked by this dragon. Let alone the decimation that would occur if any got into the ground water and the wells.

Mentally, she shrugged it off. It hadn't happened. And if Cobra's earlier panic attack was any indication, he would be unwilling to go to those lengths due to repercussions in the dragon society.

"So," Lucy said, changing the subject, "it sounded to me as if you were in some need of help regarding your home being destroyed. Let's discuss the terms of my employment."

Cobra's head lowered, until his eye was directly in front of Lucy. For the first time, she was able to see that it was a deep, beautiful indigo in colour. Much like the sky as the sun set behind him.

"I hear you."

The blonde woman smiled to herself as she made her way through the dilapidated old fort. Less run-down now, after the year of hard work she and Cobra had put into restoring the place after Natsu's latest rampage.

Latest, because the salmon-pink scaled dragon had a horrendous habit of destroying everything he came into contact with and was a frequent visitor to Cobra's home.

Lucy adored him. It was only through that tendency of his to accidentally set random things on fire that had enabled her to be in this place to begin with. She would always be grateful to him for that. It helped that he was just an overenthusiastic bundle of energy, too. Genuine kindness existed in spades within his large, ridiculously shaded form - more than she'd ever glimpsed from her former circle of acquaintances. He had been deeply apologetic when he discovered that the fields he'd burned had belonged to someone. Same with the livestock he'd devoured.

To which Cobra had inquired if nothing but ash resided within his skull.

Natsu had retaliated by attempting to kidnap Lucy. Which hadn't ended well for him - the pink, fire-breathing dragon had wound up at the bottom of a ravine, severely poisoned and unable to move.

Cobra had reassured Lucy that the nuisance would eventually recover. Natsu shared a few genes with cockroaches, he expected.

It turned out that the castle had been infested with those, too, actually. Much to Lucy's horror, not even Cobra's poison seemed to affect them.

After a couple of months of living with the snarky poison dragon, Lucy had discovered that the freak-out session she'd borne witness to was actually a fairly rare occurrence. Under normal circumstances, not much could figuratively or literally get beneath Cobra's scales. Natsu, however, was not normal. All but one of Cobra's tantrums and psychological breakdowns were caused by the fire dragon. The other incident was when Cobra's second, Laxus, decided that the proper way to greet the Council of Elder Dragons was through electrocution.

Although, now that she thought about it, there was one day… when Wendy the Sky Dragon accidentally caused a hurricane, Gajeel the Iron Dragon attempted to eat an entire mountain (because he could), and Sting the White Dragon decided to challenge his partner, Rogue the Shadow Dragon, in a series of aerodynamic feats that led to the obliteration of another dragon's abode.

Cobra had thrown a fit that day, too, dealing with the fallout. Completely with flailing tail and profanity-laced roars of frustration. (Lucy was taking her deep amusement at this to her grave.)

Of course, the very next day was when her father had starting sending people to the fort to "rescue" her from the "evil dragon," having somehow caught wind of the fact that Cobra hadn't eaten her (she blamed Natsu. By that point, Cobra had rubbed off on her, and she'd had the dubious pleasure of meeting the destructive dragon. Everything was always Natsu's fault, somehow. Everything).

No matter how she tried to tell her potential suitors that she was quite happy right where she was, thank you very much – and no matter how she tried to explain that Cobra was not evil, just a snarky piece of shit most of the time, they never seemed to believe her. The first time one of them had swung a sword at Cobra, only for it to bounce harmlessly off his scales, the dragon had given her the most unamused expression she had ever seen. From dragon or human. Then he had, effortlessly and almost absent-mindedly, snapped the blade in twain.

The look on Lucy's would-be rescuer's face had been hilarious.

At that point, dragon and "captive" had reached an understanding that all potential suitors were to be vetted by Cobra.

Once Lucy reached the bottom of the stone steps, she pushed the heavy door just wide enough to slip through. Before her lay the gardens – three separate and distinct areas that Lucy tended on Cobra's behalf. One was a flower garden, much to her delight. The other was full of vegetables. And the final contained all poisonous plants, to supplement Cobra's diet. This was in addition to the various fruiting trees scattered about the fort's grounds.

Lucy loved these gardens. They had already been there, but had become overgrown and full of weeds prior to her arrival. Under her care (and the use of books found in the surprisingly well-warded library), the gardens had flourished. They were her pride and joy.

Rolling up her sleeves, she glanced at the sky. Wondering when her erstwhile companion would return. Sometimes he would just soar for hours, not arriving back until the sun was near to setting. Other times, he would quickly return to the fort.

She was hoping it was the latter, today. Lucy felt that enough time had passed that she might be able to broach a sensitive topic with her draconic friend.

Namely, that she wasn't ever going to go with one of those men that her father sent after her.

The young woman was, instead, content to remain alongside her crotchety old dragon for as long as he let her stay. This place with its poisonous gardens and drafts, Natsu and the other dragons, and Cobra – most of all, Cobra – were all home to her. Far more than the mansion in which she'd grown up.

A snapping twig roused Lucy abruptly from her thoughts, and she whirled to face the source. Had someone lain in wait until they saw Cobra fly off, and taken the opportunity to sneak into the fort?!

No! She wasn't going back! They would have to drag her, kicking and screaming to do so, and she had put on a good bit of muscle since her departure so whomever it was would have a fight on their hands.

There was indeed a person there, in full armour. Lucy readied herself to put up a struggle, but then froze when the figure staring at her in turn removed their helmet. She would recognize that hair and face anywhere.

"Erza?"

"Lucy?"

And I leave you there until next week. Have a fantastic CoLu week, everyone!