The Runaway Rhapsody of Rivals in love
When they told each other they loved each other, it meant something completely different from its initial meaning. One day, I love you might actually mean i love you. Lucy x Natsu
"Sir Natsu Dragneel."
"Miss Luigi Heartifilia."
It all began at a ball held by a neighbouring kingdom, which both the Heartfilia and the Dragneel families were invited to.
Large brown eyes met with dark onyx eyes as they gave the other party a glare. The atmosphere was thick with tension, so much so that surely a knife could cut through it. The young Heartifilia heiress was the first to break their eye contact and turned around haughtily, her beautiful golden hair whipping around as she did so. Natsu stood on and crossed his arms across his chest regarding her with sceptical eyes. Lucy did not bother performing a customary curtsey with her pink frilled gown, and Natsu in return had not given her an expected bow.
"What brings you here Luigi?" He pestered.
"My NAME IS NOT LUIGI!" She yelled at him. She couldn't hit him. It would stain her family name. She had to keep up her lady-like image. No matter how much she disliked him.
"Sorry Lu... Lucinda."
Lucy held in a sigh and settled for lacing her fingers together. Spectators had a glance at the scene and when they witnessed the two rivals at each other's throats again they waved off it as the usual. Everyone in Magnolia knew of the relationship of the Heartfillia family and the Dragneel family. They were business rivals and sworn enemies from birth.
"Dragneel, your manners are as poor as usual. Pray tell why you approached me having known that we would end up bickering as usual?"
"Answer my question first Luigi."
"Lucy..."
"That's what I said Ludene."
Lucy couldn't decide whether he was trying to get her mad or if the four letter name was simply that hard to remember. Option one was plausible seeing as the Heartifilias and the Dragneels were the two most prominent families in Magnolia and have been enemies for generations. Option two was equally as reasonable seeing as from a young age; Lucy was constantly reminded of how vulgar and ill mannered the members of the Dragneel families were. Not to mention rude and rather lacking in the intelligence department.
Same can be said for the opposition. It was no secret that children of both families were brainwashed at a young age and were constantly made to listen to insults aimed at the opponent. As a result the young ones grew to harbour hatred for each other. No one remembered why such a tradition was carried out for both the Dragneel and Heartfilia family, but as Natsu and Lucy were the heirs for their respective houses their relationship was the worst.
"This is out of the ordinary; you don't usually attend these events."
"That is true... It is simply because I cannot stand looking at you." She gave him a fake charming smile. "Your manners are vulgar and you stuff your face full of food, I have heard rumours that the entire kingdom needed to be put on rations to satisfy your appetite."
She could see a vein pop from his forehead and she snickered to herself.
"Lighten up Luigi, you're such a bore, heck if we were to believe what rumours say then most of the kingdom would run away at the mere thought of your tediousness." He directed a bored and annoyed glance. "But you always flaunt yourself to higher ups to try and gain their favour. Pretending to be someone else is ugly."
Lucy forced a laugh. Only he would call someone as beautiful as herself ugly. She could be a little vain at times but other than that she had no choice but to sometimes suck up to the higher ups. He didn't know enough to accuse her of flaunting.
"Well enough of these rumours, I only came here for business purposes."
Natsu raised a brow and Lucy frowned.
"Are you not here for the same reason?"
The salmon haired heir turned around and stared up at the glass case sitting on top of a flight of stairs covered with an extravagant red carpet. A spotlight shone on the glass display as if the host wanted heads to turn towards it. Natsu let out an 'oh'.
"The famous Magnolia crown right?"
"I was trying to bargain with Lord Laxus Dreyar, the host of this ball, to selling it to our house."
"Right, it would enhance your economic status and give you a rather hefty reputation boost."
"It's a shame that the negotiations failed." Lucy sighed and found herself following the young man to the table of extravagant dishes. "You?"
"Yeah, on our side, negotiation didn't go as planned as well."
"It seems like he is not willing to sell it to anyone."
Natsu began mounting his plate full of food. "I bet this party was held just to show off."
Lucy frowned. "I'm almost thinking that I should steal it and save me the troubles of trying to bargain for it."
The blonde ignored the whispers of her outrageous statement. She was in too much of an annoyed state to care what people thought of her tonight. Negotiations failed and meeting up with Natsu had made her feelings sour.
He shrugged at her suggestion and began to wolf down a large amount of food.
"Stop eating so much, you're at a party sir, have you no shame?"
Natsu rolled his eyes. "Its comfort food and what else is there to do at a party?"
Lucy glanced at the dance floor filled with couples waltzing to a violin and piano duet. "Well, I suppose you dance at balls..."
She laughed briefly to herself. Why was she bringing up the topic of dancing with such a man? She highly doubted that he had the mental capacity to dance the waltz.
Natsu glanced up in thought. "Hmmm? Really?"
Lucy thought that, which was why it surprised her when he offered her his hands and gave her a slight bow. "Miss Heartifilia, would you dance with me?"
Her lips had parted with her shock and instinctively she raised her leg and brought her heeled foot down on top of his. Natsu cursed in pain and Lucy turned around and ran away from him. Both her hands were lifting the hem of her dress so she could get away from him that bit faster.
That surprised me, he actually asked me to dance.
Lucy decided she would go home and ran down the stairs to exit the large building.
Why would he ask for a dance, we're enemies... why?
She saw two guards at the entrance and raced towards them.
He must've been making fun of me...
"Let me through!" She yelled at them.
They held up their hands forcing Lucy to halt before them. She glared at them.
"Can't you see I'm in a hurry to get home?"
"Why are you in such a rush to get home?" They asked suspiciously.
In that moment a yell came from the ball room which had Lucy and the two guards turn towards the disturbance. The music had seized only to be replaced by loud murmurs.
"IT'S GONE!"
"SOMEONE HAS STOLEN THE CROWN!"
Lucy blinked in disbelief and sure enough the glass case had been smashed and the crown missing.
What?
"Guards make sure no one escapes!"
The ball was in an uproar. Royals and patrons of high class were gasping and chattering loudly. Their prattle rang in Lucy's ears.
Suddenly a hand roughly grabbed her wrists and Lucy looked up confused.
What?
"We have a suspicious suspect here!" One of the guards yelled and Lucy looked around terrified. "She was trying to escape just before the stolen crown had been announced!"
"That's right she talked off stealing the treasure just minutes before." Someone in the crowd confirmed.
Lucy watched the crowd turned towards her with accusations in their eyes. Clearly they didn't want to be the one charged of such a crime so they pinned the blame on her.
Everything happened in a blink of an eye.
While everyone was pointing at her, deeming her the culprit the guards began to escort her out of the vicinity. Her mind remained blank, refusing to function.
The crowd had swallowed her, but in that sea of people one person reached out their hand.
"Lucy!"
Instinctively she took the hand and felt her body pulled away. She looked up.
Her brown eyes widened at the person who had just come to her aid.
He was her biggest enemy.
They hated each other.
But out of all the people in that room, he was the only one who offered his hand and helped her.
"Natsu Dragneel..." She finally breathed out, and then two nobles rushed out of the ballroom and into the night.
Argh, all my hardwork... my finished chapters... all gone :'(
As in my computer crashed. This happened to be one of the only finished pieces which had been left on my usb.
Time to start working on them again :(
Bleh, too depressed to start on them right away.
Btw, some the ideas of this story came from a manga... I can't remember what it was called. Dx Bleh, when i find it again i'll put it in my disclaimer.
-A very sad rabbit T.T
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Hiro Mashima.