Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

Feedback is always appreciated!

(So this odd little story popped into my head one day while skimming through some NaLu images and thus here it is! Looked over by the lovely Ice Fata but there may be a few things that have fallen through the cracks, regardless, I hope everybody enjoys it!)

Natsu really hated the tower.

Lucy couldn't understand it, puzzling worriedly over the cylindrical building with its pointed roof and quaint little window with a sprawling balcony. "But that's how it's supposed to look!" She assured him anxiously, still tilting her head this way and that at the sight of the run down, abandoned castle she had taken him to. "It says so right here!" The female continued, putting down a thick volume of fairy tales before him with magnificent illustrations penned with painstaking detail over each sheet of paper. "So I must be doing it right!"

"Luce, I'm also supposed to be a Princess, not a Prince." The pink haired boy sighed miserably, tilting his head up to take in his fidgeting dragon companion who flicked her wing dismissively.

"I'm not the one who was wearing a dress and tied to a stake at the edge of the city." The she-dragon sneered in annoyance, her lips peeling back to show off perfectly carnivorous teeth, a flicker of star fire licking along the pearly whites. Lucy was still clearly miffed that she hadn't actually captured a real princess it seemed.

Natsu had the grace to look a little embarrassed, looking way from his dragon kidnapper, to scuff at the ground with his sandal, "Hey it was a Coming of Age party or some nonsense okay? It's just that that Polar Popsicle, Gray, got the drop on me while I was... A little bit drunk. Anyway! Who goes around mistaking a prank for a sacrifice?!"

"Hey! I told you that I was new at this!" She shrieked, though it came out as more of a roar, her wing appendages spreading up and out in a full display of dazzling feminine anger while her long spiked tail lashed like a tortured snake. She lifted a taloned paw to swipe at him, but refrained from accidentally gutting and sending her irritating captive flying with a great effort. "I'm trying to do this by the book to break this stupid curse!"

Natsu sighed, lowering himself petulantly to the ground as the she-dragon stalked off to explore the abandoned castle they had stumbled upon, her golden visage glimmering as she slipped under the entrance gate that had a bizarre stylised logo of a fairy with a tail carved out of cherry wood. He supposed his life could be worse, he snickered to himself, raking around in his backpack for some venison jerky, he could be Gray trying to explain to his father how exactly a fumbling golden dragoness had dropped from the sky and so easily kidnapped a fully trained Dragon Slayer.

Lucy was relatively harmless, he had discovered with relief, when she had eagerly landed a few mountains over to inspect her prize, throwing a tantrum at fate over the gender confusion of her captive, before insultingly accusing him of being a cross-dressing pervert.

It was more out of necessity that he followed the cursed woman turned dragoness around afterwards, watching her look so torn and squeamish over killing an old stag with her draconian might. If anything, his ability to hunt was doing her a favour if nothing else. Besides, he was having the most fun he had ever had in his life, even if they did bicker like an old married couple.

She returned an hour later with an evil glint in her admittedly serenely beautiful big brown eyes, causing him to hunch his shoulders and reach up to loosen the white dragon scale scarf at his neck nervously when she leaned over him imperiously, lizard tongue flicking out with a teasing hiss. "Natsu." She cooed sweetly, batting half opened wings, "Guess where the only usable bedroom is."

"In the dungeons?" He asked with a grin so wide it was obviously fake.

"It's your favourite place!" Lucy continued, ignoring his yelp when she grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and lifted him, almost prancing like a show horse under the welcoming gates and rearing up to toss him ungracefully onto the Princess Tower's balcony, the dragoness half hugging the tower to remain on her rear legs, watching with gleeful enthusiasm as the Prince dusted himself off and peered about his new sleeping quarters with distaste.

The tower was clearly meant for a girl, much to his frustration as he took in the billowing bright pink silk curtains that were only slightly torn, even after having been abandoned for heavens knew how long. Inside was even worse, almost as if someone had barfed up all the shades of pink imaginable before tipping it over the circular room. "I hate you." He hissed, turning to glare at the snickering dragoness, though his bad mood lightened a little at the fun Lucy finally seemed to be having, even if it was at his expense somewhat. As he watched his new friend giggle, Natsu had a nagging feeling that he would love her smile in her true human form.

"It matches your hair!" Lucy cackled, lifting a brown talon to her reptilian eye and mimicked wiping away a tear. "Oh, my Mavis, this is the best!"

"First thing tomorrow you are flying me to the nearest town to buy better sheets." He growled, remembering he was still supposed to be mad at her.

"Do I look like a donkey to you?!" Lucy immediately snapped back indignantly, her snooty upbringing shining through.

The salmon haired man frowned, slyly smiling at the conflicted anxiousness that began to cloud his kidnapper's eyes as he let the moment drag. "I also need some money."

"Well aren't you lucky that I found the remainder of a horde a vault!" Lucy brightened after a moments more contemplation, "I'll go get some for you!"

Her chocolate coloured talons skittered over the marble of the tower as she settled back onto all fours, forcing Natsu to peer over the balcony railing down at her large frame moving towards a big barn like structure at the back of the complex, the thuds of her sizeable weight disappearing as she lowered herself to skitter into the dark.

The cursed girl returned after sunset, her golden head popping up like a new sun over the white marble, startling him into dropping his meagre supplies they had raided from a bandit nest after Natsu had demanded to get out of the nauseating yellow dress he had been kidnapped in. "Damn it!" He cursed, dropping an old battered cooking pot that bounced and rolled around on the balcony, stopping by Lucy's head as she opened her maw and let a rain of gold metal cascade from her tongue to flood a section of the balcony with loose coins. The old currency jumped and spun upon the ivory slabs, rolling between the gaps in the carved railing to twinkle like falling stars to the courtyard below with sounds like a choir of bells.

"Ta-da!" Lucy squealed happily, bobbing her horned head in a self satisfied manner, ignoring her companions disgust at the saliva coating the gold pieces. "And this is only a mouthful of the stuff down there!"

"You're such a weirdo, Luce." He complained, wincing as he sifted through the generous pile, pulling away his fingers coated in dragon drool. "Couldn't you have just carried this in a bucket or something?"

"Excuse me?!" She rumbled darkly, dark eyes narrowing in offence, using the tip of her muzzle to push the iron cooking pot back over to the grossed out Prince as he began to put the gold into the utensil. "This tower is really high you know! This is as far as I can reach!"

"Still..." Natsu grumbled, wincing at a particularly slimy doubloon as he tossed it into the pot. "Anyway... Thanks, Lucy."

He couldn't help but smile in return as the Princess turned Dragoness bared her fangs in a dragon's grin.