Chapter 1

If Ever There Was A Chance For Dreams To Come True

The days were always boring. Day in and day out, the same routine, over and over again. Natsu was beginning to get bored. When he first found out that he was the long-lost Fire Dragon Prince he was ecstatic, jumping for joy at the thought of no longer being an orphan, of being able to live in the arching gray-stone and gold castle that he'd gazed upon wistfully for the first eighteen years of his life. Now, on his nineteenth birthday, he had everything he'd dreamed of, but yet he was not happy.

He dreamed of new things now—adventurous, dangerous, even illegal things. He dreamed of dark blue eyes, and evading the police; of cold fingers, and running through the forest. No matter how Natsu looked at it, that's where he wanted to be. He wanted this unseen person—a beautiful girl, he was sure—and he wanted to act like a stupid teenager again. Perhaps they'd be a sort of Robin Hood, using his status to steal money and giving it to the poor people of the kingdom—the one's who had raised him.

As Natsu stared out the window, watching the bustling streets of the kingdom—his kingdom—he wondered where his mystery girl could be. Maybe he'd already met her, or perhaps he was going to meet her soon. He hoped so. Lately all he wanted to do was sleep, to immerse himself in his dreams, but he was afraid that if he clung to this fleeting hope of a girl, he'd miss the real thing when she came.

"My Prince!" Natsu turned as he was called, seeing his favorite chambermaid, a little blonde thing that went by the name of Lucy, with a large bust for good measure, trotting towards him, her pretty crimson dress flowing in waves around her feet as they moved. His small, oddly blue cat named Happy, trailed behind her, giving off little titters of sound as they moved closer. Natsu smiled at them and held out his hand, allowing the bubbly girl to take it. Happy quickly jumped up and, using Natsu's clothes as leverage, made his way up to Natsu's shoulder; it was a precarious perch, but the cat seemed content. "My Prince, your father would like to speak with you," Lucy chimed.

Natsu nodded and moved her hand up so that she was grasping at his crooked elbow before making his way towards the grand staircase, with her in tow. As he thought about it, he decided he wouldn't mind very much if Lucy was his mystery girl, but her touch was much too warm, and her eyes were not that enticing dark blue that Natsu saw when he closed his eyes. No, Lucy was much too naive for the adventures he dreamed up.

The trek down the staircase always seemed as if it was a million miles long, and though it was not difficult for Natsu, who made an effort to stay in exceptional shape, the sheer monotony of the trip winded him. Whenever he went with Lucy it was bearable—she would hum soft little tunes, and would focus on that, and even hum or whistle along if he recognized one. The long hallway one had to walk along after the stairs felt much the same way. It seemed like such a lengthy trudge just to get from the foyer to the throne room.

The looming thrones of the Lightning Dragon King and his wife still intimidated Natsu, even after a year of living in the palace and viewing these people as his parents. The King—a bulking blonde with a scar across his face who went by the name of Laxus—sat on a gold-upholstered throne, his elbows nesting on his knees and his face laying inattentively in his hands. The Devil Queen sat with a straight back, hands clasped in her lap, looking every bit as regal as a queen should. She was a petite woman with hair that resembled freshly fallen snow, who went by the name Mirajane. However, despite her sweet exterior, around the kingdom she was known somewhat affectionately as the She-Devil for reasons Natsu did not fully know, other than because it was technically her title. The rumor was that if something did not go her way, she was a match fit for Satan himself.

"Son," Laxus boomed, taking his head out of his hands and leaning forward, an act that would make others fearful, but that Natsu had learned long was nothing more than a ruse. "Happy birthday." Natsu had to refrain from snorting at the sentiment. He was sure that the only reason Laxus remembered was because Wendy or Levy, his dearest palace librarian, had reminded him.

"Happy birthday, darling," Mirajane chimed in from beside her husband, her voice sounding as sweet as birdsong in the mornings, and sent Natsu a kind smile that made him smile back. Mira was always his favorite of the two—probably everyone's favorite of the two—if only because he could tell that she honestly cared for him. Natsu was fairly certain that Laxus either didn't believe Natsu was his son or didn't want him to be. Natsu didn't mind, however. According to Sting, Laxus had never been much of a father.

Since coming to the palace, Natsu had learned that he had four siblings, who were all supposed to be at the party; an older brother by three or four years named Gajeel, disowned for crimes Natsu had no knowledge of, another brother named Sting who he had talked to very briefly, only older than Natsu by a year, but he didn't live at the palace because he was the product of Laxus's unfaithfulness, and a final brother the same age as Sting who Natsu knew as Rogue but had never met, this one the product of Mira's unfaithfulness—apparently they'd had a falling out at that time—and Natsu's favorite, a younger sister named Wendy. He could see the small girl enter the room from the corner of his eye, her deep blue hair done up all pretty, with a dozen sparkling pins, and pieces curled to frame her face for the celebration planned later that day. He turned towards her and grinned goofy, making the girl giggle. "Happy birthday, bubba!" She called out to him as she made her way across the room to wrap her arms tightly around his middle, her head barely coming up to his chest.

"Thanks, Wendy," he chuckled, petting a part of her hair that wasn't in the elaborate up-do Lucy had probably done that morning. The little princess beamed up at him before releasing her hold and standing next to him with her hands clasped in front of her, looking every bit like her mother with her chin up and enough confidence radiating off of her to perk Natsu up.

Mirajane smile down at the sight of her children, and Natsu felt his chest swell with a feeling of love and attachment. "Are you ready for the celebration this evening?" Mira asked. She looked to Wendy first. "I'm assuming you're going with Romeo, of course." She turned to Natsu. "And you? Who are you taking?"

Natsu grinned cheekily at his mother. "I'm going stag," he said mischievously, "that way I can dance with all the beautiful young women that gather to celebrate my birthday."

Wendy giggled at his antics and Mira simply rolled her eyes. "Natsu," she scolded, "you are nineteen. It is time for you to choose a bride, not to have frivolous affairs throughout the kingdom with everything on two legs."

Natsu saw his sister blush out of the corner of his eye and chuckled. "Believe it or not, I do have standards, mother-dearest." He grinned up at his parents. "But I am hoping to find her soon. Tonight, preferably."

Laxus raised his eyebrows. "Tonight? Half of the kingdom and three others are going to be in this very room, and you want to scavenge for a suitable royal through that chaos?"

Natsu shrugged. "Why does it even have to be a royal?"

The party was in full swing—half of Magnolia and three or four other kingdoms were twirling around the throne room. Even the twin princesses from Edolas had made an appearance—at least they told everyone they were twins, but really one of them looked suspiciously like Lucy and the other like Cana, the nice girl who owned a pub near the bottom of the palace who'd helped Natsu out a time or two while he was on the streets. Though he could see people from other towns among the crowd, the only other royal he had seen so far was Lyon Vastia, an Earl from Galuna whom his parents had wanted him to befriend for the longest time, but he hadn't gotten around to it.

He had however met his three brothers. He'd caught Gajeel—the Iron Dragon Prince—swiping drinks from the other guests, and had quickly put a stop to it. Mirajane and Laxus had left with him to either talk some sense into him or escort him out, but Natsu didn't mind either way. He wasn't even sure why Gajeel had been invited when, according to Mira, Gajeel was no longer considered family. Sting and Rogue—the Light Dragon and Shadow Dragon Princes, respectively—had been another matter entirely. Mira had encouraged Natsu to introduce himself, so he searched them out. He'd found them leaning against the far wall, looking uncomfortable at such a large gathering, where Mira and Laxus were effectively ignoring their respective sons. It was obvious to Natsu by the way they stuck close to each other, shoulders or hands always touching, that they were more than friends, which they admitted to Natsu. It had seemed weird at first, since both were his brothers, but he kept reminding himself that they were not related to each other. Rogue was quiet, especially when their relationship was brought up, but Sting seemed more than happy to show off his boyfriend, and smirked at the way Rogue squirmed in discomfort. All in all, they were a weird couple, but Natsu liked them just the same. Later they went to find their respective parents to say hello and good-bye. They'd promised to visit Natsu in the near future before they had left.

After all that excitement, Natsu was perfectly content sitting at the bar with a small glass of some kind of juice Cana had concocted when he'd told her he didn't want to get drunk. So far, the only people that had bothered him were Wendy when she'd asked to dance and Lucy, who also asked to dance, but probably more so that he would do something instead of just to dance with him on his birthday. Now he could see Wendy dancing with Romeo, a bright blush on her cheeks and a large grin on his face. He could also see Lucy and Erza—the head of Magnolia's large cavalry—dancing discreetly in the corner of the room. Lucy was laughing animatedly, and Erza looked enthralled with everything the blonde was doing. It made Natsu smile knowing they were happy, even if people may disapprove o their relationship. He'd noticed the Cana look-alike eying him from across the room, but he refused to make eye contact or acknowledge her. Just because his father wanted him to marry a royal didn't mean he was going to fling himself at any one of them who gave him goo-goo eyes.

Natsu kept scanning the crowd for a head of soft black hair and startling deep blue eyes, but he had yet to find the girl that kept haunting him in his dreams. Even if in the end nothing worked out, he at least wanted to see what she looked like, to have a bright, brave face to go with the adventures she took him on every other night.

"Nice party," came a deep voice from his right. Natsu looked over to see a head of black hair, and his throat caught but he quickly gathered himself. After all, that voice and that body were not those of a pretty young woman. However, that deep, gravelly voice and carefree body that was slouched over the bar, a drink held to his pale lips with a strong arm, were nothing to laugh at.

"Heh, yeah," Natsu forced out nonchalantly, downing the rest of the juice that he just realized must have been raspberries and some other fruit. "It was kinda forced on me, though."

The man looked towards Natsu. "You're the birthday boy, then." A statement. "Natsu, right? Just turned nineteen?"

Hearing his name fall from those lips—which were now smirking at him, drink forgotten and resting against the bottom one—made a chill run down Natsu's spine.

"Y-yeah," he forced out, setting his glass down when he noticed his hand was shaking and standing straighter. "What about you?" he breathed, desperately hoping that this man's name was as breathtaking as the rest of him.

The dark-haired man chuckled. "I just turned 21 myself," he told the prince. "I'm Gray," he murmured, bodily turning towards Natsu and holding his hand out. "Happy birthday."

It wasn't the man's name that had Natsu rooted to his spot, even though it was beautiful, especially in that voice. It was what he saw when Gray's face became more visible.

Dark blue eyes.

And when Natsu finally found himself and remembered that it would be odd not to shake his hand—

Cold fingers.