A/N: Welp, guess I'm posting this now.

I'm gonna be honest with you straight from the bat: This probably won't be updated very quickly, but we'll see. Togetherness readers can vouch for slow updates.

I'm posting chapters 1 and 2 right away because the preview of chapter 1 has been up for ages.

This has been a long journey and it's not near done yet, but I hope you enjoy and will stick around :)

"That is all. You may return to your bedchamber, Lucy."

"Yes, Father." The seventeen-year-old woman bowed out of the room. She put on a stoic face as she headed towards her room, nodding to servants as she passed in recognition of their bows. She tried to walk as she was expected to, lightly and lady-like, but all the servants who saw her couldn't help but notice that her steps were heavier than normal, her strides were hurried, and her nods were curt. They could tell that she hated whatever her father had said.

Lucy was finally to her quarters. She opened one of the huge double-doors and tried very hard not to slam it. "Virgo?" she called. "Please fetch for me my nightgown. I think I shall be retiring for the night." It was only seven, but Lucy was emotionally exhausted from trying to hide the anger she held for her father. Lucy lounged on a velvet loveseat within the first of her rooms and closed her eyes as she massaged her temples.

"Yes, Princess," the pink haired maid said as she appeared with her mistress' favorite raspberry-green tea to cheer her up. Virgo had not been immune to figuring out Lucy's anger. The girl was always angry after visits with her father. Lucy thanked her maid, took a drink of the fruity delicacy, then sighed.

"I am not a princess. I'm only a duchess, and I don't even want to be that." Virgo often called Lucy by the nickname and while it was odd, it normally didn't bug the blonde all too much. But right now, Lucy wanted nothing to do with it.

"The Heartfilias are next in line for the throne after the Dreyars, so you're almost a princess," Virgo pointed out. Lucy shot her a glare. Giving Lucy her nightgown, Virgo sat down beside her. "What happened this time?" The girl asked bluntly. Lucy shook her head, not knowing where to start. "Would you like to take your anger out on me with punishment?" This time Lucy shook her head at the maid's ridiculous suggestion. "You received letters from both Lady Scarlet and Princess Dreyar," she commented, holding the mail. Lucy gestured to the vanity. She'd read her friend's messages later. "Shall I retrieve Lady Levy, Princess?" Lucy took another sip of her tea as she nodded. Virgo nodded back, then stood from the loveseat and bowed herself out to retrieve Lucy's close lady-in-waiting and friend.

As she waited, Lucy strode to her bathroom, changed into her night clothes, and brushed her medium-length, golden hair out of its ornate style so that it was straight. "Ow!" Lucy yelped. She frowned, then pulled the hidden pin out of her hair so that it wouldn't yank again. By the time she was setting her brush down on her exquisite vanity, her maid and lady-in-waiting had both arrived back. As usual, the bluenette that was Levy had a pile of books in her arms. She must've been in the library before Virgo fetched her, Lucy thought.

"What'd he say this time, Lu?" the blue-haired friend asked, getting right to the point.

Lucy sent Virgo away, then sighed. "The heir of the Prominence family will be arriving tomorrow, and I'm 'expected to show that I'll be a good wife', so that the 'Heartfilias can continue to prosper with the wealth your possible marriage will give'! I haven't even met Lord Prominence, and he already expects us to get married! Fiore and Kasai have moved away from that custom, but he just has to stick with it! All these stupid suitors I've seen are from Bosco and beyond, because no one from our own alliance follows the 'arranged marriage' and 'marriage interview' ridiculousness! I mean, shouldn't that fact tell him something!?"

"Wasn't Prominence supposed to marry the lady of the Titanose household of Bosco?" Levy started. This was not really the time, but her curiosity could not be willed away.

Lucy understood her friends love for learning, so she didn't worry about not getting advice yet. "It was called off. I'm not sure why, I just heard something about 'bad behavior'."

"Oh. Alright," although Lucy could see that Levy was not quite sated and would certainly be delving through documents for more information. Luckily, the advice came next as Levy sighed and shook her head. "I've told you: if you hate it here, then you should run away! I'll even come with you so you won't be alone! It would be just like this book I re-"

"That's just it, Lev! I'm not in a book! I wouldn't know the first thing about living outside of the manor, even if you are there! I have no skills! For all my years, I've had everything I need and have barely been allowed to do anything for myself, so what would I do when I couldn't get things at the snap of a finger!?" Levy grew quiet. She just didn't know what to say or what advice to give. "And besides," Lucy started again, her voice returning to the steady tone that told Levy her next sentence would be one that Lucy practically rehearsed to herself to justify staying. Levy noticed that it did sound a tad regretful, though. "I need to be ready to run the kingdom should something dreadful become of Prince and Princess Dreyar." Lucy sighed.

"You know as much as I do that it's very unlikely for Mira and Laxus to be rendered unable to rule anytime soon. And stop talking so formally. I know you hate it."

Lucy just sighed in response. She had dropped some of the formalities after leaving her father's study, but she was still a tad stuck in it, apparently. She also knew Levy's first words were true. Both members of the couple were formidable fighters, the Princess Mirajane possibly moreso than her husband. For a while, Mirajane had stopped fighting and refused to look at her weapons, but that had changed again as of late, luckily. If anyone were to attack them, it wouldn't turn out great for the one doing the attacking. They'd probably be announcing an heir to the throne sometime soon, as well. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep. Thank you for talking with me. Good night." Lucy stood up from the loveseat and went into her main bedchamber, closing the door behind her. Levy sighed. Perhaps she could find more books for her friend. Those always help her escape, if only for a short while. With that thought, she left, hoping that she could cheer her blonde friend up somehow.

Lucy slumped onto the foot of her bed. Sighing deeply, she climbed under her thick, woolen covers. She rested her head on the fluffy feather pillows billowing at the head of her bed and pulled the covers up to her neck, curling up into a ball under them. Trying not to think of her father, Lucy closed her eyes and drifted into dreamland, hoping for some adventure there.

oOo

The woman found herself in the clearing of a forest. Or, what she imagined a forest to be like. Oak trees surrounded her and a plethora and variety of plants spread across the ground. Vines crawled up the trunks of the trees, releasing a mystical feeling into the clearing. Being a noble, she hadn't spent much time traipsing in the wilderness, so it all had to be arranged from descriptions in stories. Lucy loved to read. Epic fairy tales were her favorites. The adventures in them were exciting, and she so desperately wanted to go on such epic quests. Just as she had told Levy earlier, though, she had no clue how to. One of her favorite stories, as well as her mother's, had had fairies in it. As a child, she had often dreamed of going to forests and searching for fairies. Her mother had promised they would do just that sometime. Unfortunately, such a trip had never happened, and never could. Her mother had died when she had only been a little girl.

Lucy saddened a bit at the memory of her mother and the trip that could never happen. With the death of her mother, she'd been left without a proper parent figure. Her father hadn't been a parent to her ever, so perhaps the closest she'd had after her mother had been her butler, Capricorn. Capricorn had been very close to Lucy's mother and had thus always been there for Lucy, too. Lucy smiled at the memories of Capricorn before she heard a long groan and a loud crack behind her, followed closely by a crash. Turning around, Lucy saw that a tree trunk at least four times her width had fallen through the edge of the clearing to create a wall across it.

"Cool! I just knocked a tree over!" A voice called. Lucy watched the owner of the voice, a boy that seemed to be her age, jump onto the trunk and pump his fist in the air proudly. At the sight of him, she immediately felt a strange relief and smiled softly, but also felt a pounding feeling in the back of her head and a sort of fluttering in her heart. She ignored the sudden headache and strange feelings in favor of studying the man, though. He had bright, spiky, pink hair covering his head, and eyes that shined with excitement, but when Lucy's eyes were drawn to the cheery grin on his face that seemed to exude excitement and happiness, Lucy noticed that her own mouth widened to mirror it. His grin was too contagious to not react in such a way, and she had the strangest feeling that she'd seen that grin before. She was certain she would've remembered this strange-seeming boy, though, had they met before.

Suddenly, the log lurched, causing the newcomer to slip and fall off, landing on his back with a dull thud and a groaned out 'ow'. Lucy was concerned for a bit, about to race over to him and see if he was okay, but then he darted up off the ground and started waving his fist at the log.

"You want a piece of me!?" he yelled. "I'll teach you to make me fal-" He was interrupted by a fit of giggles and turned around to see a blonde girl, holding her sides and bent over at the waist with laughter. The boy felt the same relief and pulsing in the back of his head as the girl had, not that either knew of the shared feeling. He hardly noticed it, though, used to having headaches from falling, fighting, and simply being whacked in the head for being stupid. The boy couldn't help but smile. The jovial and bell-like sound of her giggling was too contagious for him to avoid laughing along with her, and it even sounded a bit familiar to him. Why was that?

The two's laughing slowly rolled to a stop. Once it did, Lucy let out a shaky breath and wiped at her eyes. She winced a little at the pain in her sides, not used to laughing so much. Her father thought that laughter was such an obnoxious sound, so the most she could ever do was giggle lightly when with a friend. "I'm sorry for laughing," she apologized with another shaky breath, "You just took me by surprise, and then the tree-" Lucy giggled again, causing her partner to also snicker once more.

"It's fine! It was pretty funny. I'm Natsu! Who're you?" The pink-haired boy, Natsu, asked. Lucy blushed a little at his forwardness, but Natsu had a certain air around him that made her feel comfortable, as if she were speaking to her best friend. She felt she could trust him. She felt like she was home again after a long time gone around him.

"Hello? Are you gonna talk anytime soon, Weirdo?" Natsu snapped his fingers in front of Lucy's face. Lucy jumped with a start as she realized that she had been staring into space and completely silent while she thought. Her cheeks puffed put in annoyance when she realized what he had called her, and Natsu decided that seeing that was almost as great as hearing her laugh, and just as oddly familiar.

"Weirdo!? Maybe I won't tell you my name!" Lucy suggested, with both an angry tone and a joking tone in the words.

"Well, I have to call you something! If you won't tell me your name, then I'll have to stick with 'Weirdo'!" Natsu grinned as he teased her, causing Lucy to not only roll her eyes, but also blush again.

"Lucy!" She suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"My name! It's Lucy!"

Natsu stared at her for a bit with a blank look, then smiled to her once again. "Okay, Loony!"

Lucy's eyes bugged out. "Excuse me!? I'm over here, deciding that I can trust you enough to reveal my name, and you have the audacity to make fun of it!?"

Natsu, instead of being apologetic, as Lucy expected, just looked confused. "Odd Ass City? Where's that?"

"What!? No! Audac-" Lucy shook her head, not wanting to bother explaining, and decided to just yell, "You're an idiot!"

Lucy had expected him to get defensive, but the strange boy just chuckled and gave her his bright grin again. "I've been called that before!"

Lucy scoffed. "That's to be expected! You are one!"

"You seem nice," Natsu said. "I like you." To Lucy's surprise, there wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice. It had been a genuine comment. Lucy's cheeks became tinged with pink again.

"Well, I like you, too. You seem nice as well." Lucy could see him smile at the comment, and she couldn't help but smile back.

Very suddenly, Natsu felt the sensation of cold water washing over his face, and he disappeared from the forest and from Lucy's dream, putting an abrupt end to their conversation. "Natsu?" Lucy called. "Where'd you go?" She turned and checked all around her for the pink-haired man and came to the conclusion that she was alone in her forest of dreams. Then, the scenery around her began to fade, and she found herself in her bedroom, awake and in the dark.

"Natsu?" she quietly questioned the empty room. Lucy shrugged and decided to lay back down and go back to sleep, but she still had lingering thoughts of Natsu left on her mind. Is he real? And if he is, then who is he?

The rest of her night went dreamless.

oOo

Natsu jerked up out of his dream to wake up in a courtyard. Lush, green grass was speckled with brown patches of dirt. Who was she? Lucy had been her name, he could remember. She had yelled it at him pretty clearly. She was weird. At that thought, he smiled. He heard a snicker beside him and looked up to see a man with dark hair above him, holding an empty bucket.

"What's with the smile?" the man asked with a smirk.

Natsu scoffed and sent the image of Lucy away. "Nothing," he claimed, making the asker wonder what had happened. Natsu scratched the back of his head and felt that his hair was cold and wet. Tch. So he did dump water on me, he thought, remembering the bucket. "Why'd you wake me up, Gray? And when'd I fall asleep?"

Gray, the man with the dark hair, became straight-faced. "The king would like to see you in his study. He has too much paperwork to do, or he would've gotten your ass himself." Then he smirked again. "And to answer your second question, about five minutes into our duel when I knocked you out." Natsu hated the cocky look on the speaker's face, so he punched him just there. "Hey!"

Natsu ignored the indignant call of his rival and stood up. Looking around, the eighteen-year-old spotted his sword a little farther away and picked it up, putting it into the sheath attached to his belt. He loved his sword. It was a broadsword, although he didn't use the advantage of a one-handed sword to carry a shield; a shield would just weigh him down. If he was fast enough to dodge, then there was no need for a shield, which was part of why he chose a broadsword. It was lighter than some of the other options. Another reason he loved the sword so much was the hilt's design. The hilt was fashioned as a dragon, with the wings acting as a guard and the dragon's open mouth leading to the blade. He didn't know what the blade was made of, but he liked it. The metal was a slightly reddish color and was very shiny, giving it the awesome illusion of fire when it glinted in light. All those features caused him to dub the sword "Fire Dragon".

Gray, nineteen, often made fun of Natsu's sword, but Natsu personally thought his was much cooler than Gray's. Gray's sword was a claymore, which he had called "Icecalibur". Besides being inspired by some legend that Natsu never cared to remember, the name had partially come from the light blue gems that sparkled along the guard, almost giving it the appearance of ice. The blade was of another bright, shiny metal that Natsu didn't know the name of, but it didn't have the reddish tinge of the Fire Dragon's blade. It was just a plain silver colored metal.

Gray also had a strange, black magic within him, but whether it was a curse or not, no one really knew. If he was ever in an extremely tough battle, he could use the magic to bring forth extra strength and make him generally tougher, but it caused one side of him to become nearly covered in a strange black marking. They had to assume it was a curse, as no sort of magical blessing would look like that, but it hadn't given him any repercussions through use yet. They didn't know anything about it or why he had it, and Gray was cautious in using it. He wouldn't use it when just sparring, and only use when training to make sure he could keep a check on the power. The need hadn't called for it yet, but he only wanted to use the strange magic when he was losing a battle that mattered.

Natsu gave his friend another punch before heading into the castle from the courtyard. He would have to fight Gray again later, but make sure to knock him out in the first five minutes. After walking through some long, red-carpeted hallways and climbing up some tall, winding stairs, Natsu had arrived to his destination. He opened one of the heavy wooden doors and went in. At the large, regal, wooden desk covered in paperwork sat a red-haired man: King Igneel Dragneel of Kasai. Natsu cleared his throat and called to him.

"Hey, you wanted me, Dad?"

A/N: Remember, chapter 2 is also going to be up shortly.