A/N:To be absolutely honest with you, I don't really like romance, gender benders, or Gratsu (with or without fem!Natsu). So why on earth have I decided to publish this fic? Because I've wanted to write this fanfic for a long time. After reading some decent gender bender fics, I had been inspired to try writing one myself. But I wasn't interested in regurgitating the canon, so I decided to make an AU. Now, here I am, publishing my first Fairy Tail fanfic. The purpose of this fic is for me to share this story, learn how to write good characters (To me, the most important part of a story is good characters and good character relationships. Sadly, I'm bad at both of these), and learning good character development (Another one of my 'must haves' in a good story that I'm bad at doing). With that said, I'm going to warn you right now that this story contains possible Gray/fem!Natsu, possible Male!Lucy/fem!Natsu, male!Lucy, fem!Natsu, Jerza, and other popular pairings. The focus of this story will be the developing friendship/relationship between Natsumi and Lukas (Fem!Natsu and male!Lucy). Also, I do plan on pairing Lukas up with somebody. I'm just not sure who that somebody is yet... so yeah, I'm open to suggestions as to who Lukas should be with. I'm also open to constructive criticism. If you see or have any problems/concerns/opinions/ect with this, feel free to leave it in a review! I won't freak or anything. In fact, I'm asking you to be as critical as you want. With that said, let the story begin!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, this would be considered canon...

Prologue

For over a hundred years now, the Heartfilia and Dragneel Kingdoms have been at war. Thousands upon millions of people have died in battle and at this point, both nations are weak, devastated, and unable to fight. Realizing that neither of them can win or gain anything from continuing to fight, the rulers of each kingdom have agreed to finally end the war. But both countries are going through a depression and are dangerously vulnerable to attacks from other kingdoms as a result of the war. Because of this, the two kingdoms have not only ended the war, but have also decided to create a union together. To solidify this new alliance, it has been decided that the heirs of each kingdom are to be married.

Their names are Lukas Heartfilia and Natsumi Dragneel.

And they are not happy with this arrangement.

Lukas sat in his chair rigidly, looking as handsome and alert as ever in his elegant, but simple blue outfit. Every once and awhile, he would nod in approval at a statement or hum in agreement as his father conversed with the others in the room. He had a most pleasant smile plastered on his face all the while, looking and acting like the perfect prince he was supposed to be. Nobody could've guessed how bored or irritated he actually was at the moment unless they looked at his eyes, which were currently staring into empty space.

For the past hour or so, his father had been talking with Igneel, the King of the Dragneel Kingdom about the terms of their alliance, but Lukas had no interest in listening to any of it. He had other things to worry about. Like the fact that he was getting married to a stranger from a kingdom that had been his sworn enemy just the month before.

Even now, he was just as angry as he had been before, when he first heard of his father's plans.

He had nothing against ending the war or even the Dragneel Kingdom. This "Natsumi Dragneel" that he was supposed to meet soon was probably a nice enough person as well. What made his blood boil however, was the fact that his father wasn't giving him a choice in the matter. He had already planned how Lukas was supposed to live his life for him. He hadn't even bothered asking him if this marriage would cause any problems for him.

Or if he already had a girlfriend or not.

Lukas clenched his fists. Don't think about her... It's too late now anyway.

A wave of bittersweet memories threatened to flood his mind, but was thankfully stopped as the doors to the conference room they were in, flew open.

A scrawny messenger stumbled into the room before hurriedly bowing before the room full of noblemen and royalty.

"M-my lord! I'm here to inform you that Lady Natsumi has just returned." The young man stuttered out nervously, his voice trembling despite his best attempts to keep himself calm. Igneel nodded calmly, either ignoring or not noticing the poor messenger's obvious terror.

"Very well. Tell her to report here as soon as possible in a proper attire." The King said. The messenger nodded eagerly and hurriedly left the room to do his job. Lukas raised an eyebrow.

Proper attire? That was new. All the noblewomen he had met the past were always adorned in the most expensive dresses and jewelry of the land. What could King Igneel mean by "proper attire"?

Questions about Lady Natsumi started forming in his mind as his father and Igneel continued talking. About fifteen minutes later, the doors opened once more. A servant, one more experienced than the previous messenger, entered the room first and bowed.

"Your majesties, I present to you Lady Natsumi." At the servant's words, a pink haired girl stepped into the room.

Lukas would be lying if he were to claim that he didn't find Natsumi attractive. With her long pink hair tied in a braid, wild, messy bangs, and sharp black eyes, the Princess of the Dragneel Kingdom was a pretty yet seemingly battle hardened woman. And in her simple black and red dress, Lukas had to acknowledge the fact that she seemed a lot less concerned about her appearance than other noblewomen.

Both his father and Igneel stood. The King of Dragneel gestured towards his daughter.

"Jude, I'd like to introduce you to my daughter. Natsumi Dragneel." The pink haired Princess curtsied to the King of the Heartfelia Kingdom politely, although her face remained blank.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you sire." She said, her voice surprisingly rough voice said apathetically. Jude nodded at her.

"The pleasure's all mine." He replied and nodded at Lukas, signaling for him to stand. Lukas obliged reluctantly. "This is my son, Lukas Heartfilia."

The prince bowed and gave Natsumi a charming grin. "Greetings, my lady. I look forward to working with you this evening to create and strong and peaceful union between our kingdoms."

Much to Lukas' surprise, his winning smile and pleasant voice didn't seem to have any effect on Natsumi and the Princess' eyes had appeared to darken at the mention of the soon to be union.

She gave him a curt nod in acknowledgment before taking her seat beside her father.

The rest of the evening went by uneventfully. The terms of the peace treaty and union were sorted out smoothly and without much debate. Lukas suspected that the treaty would be signed within a week.

The only thing he found vaguely interesting that entire evening was Natsumi, because he saw something in her. Something very familiar. It was something only a person who had gone through the same pain could recognize. The eyes of someone with a broken heart.

It was those eyes that made Lukas resolve to find out exactly what had broken the Princess' heart.

His chance came the next evening, when Igneel decided to hold a celebration for the start of a new era of peace. They had been in the ballroom and Lukas had to struggle through the crowd of nobles and love struck girls to find her.

When he finally caught sight of the Princess, he saw that she appeared to arguing with someone. He continued approaching, and eventaully saw that Natsumi's companion was a dark haired young man in a rather cheap blue suit.

"Excuse, am I interrupting something important?" He asked in his most diplomatic voice when he finally reached her. Natsumi turned, looking a bit surprised.

"No." She then said, looking back at the dark haired man. "Ice Queen here was just about to leave."

The dark haired man rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll be on my way now. I have things do and places to be at the moment anyway. But don't think this over yet, Flame Brain." He then proceeded to leave. But as he passed Lukas, the Prince of Heartfilia saw an unmistakably hostile glare sent his way. The message was clear.

If you dare to lay a finger on her... Lukas gave a small nod in acknowledgment.

Then, it was just him and Natsumi.

An awkward silence stretched over them.

"So what do you want?" Natsumi asked, finally breaking the silent shell between them. Lukas gave her a glaringly false smile.

"I suppose you already know about the arranged marriage our fathers have planned for us..." He began, but was interrupted as the Princess frowned and cut him off.

"Lukas, I mean absolutely no offense when I say this, but I barely know you. I'm not particularly keen on talking about this subject at the moment. And the fact that our country had been at war just a month ago doesn't exactly help. Believe it or not, I'm a commander in my own army and I know that a lot of the pain and suffering my men went through were caused by you." Her face then flashed with uncertainty. "What's more, I'm not really sure if I want marry you now or ever." The comment kind of stung, but Lukas knew exactly how she felt and was quite certain that he knew the cause of those feelings.

"That man in the blue suit, Ice Queen as you called him, is quite close to you, I presume? After all, it's not like anybody could talk to the Princess of their kingdom like that." Natsumi blinked, not expecting Lukas' question, before scowling as a blush colored her cheeks.

"What are you implying?" She snapped. "Gray is just a friend. Nothing more." She looked down at her feet and seemed to struggle convincing herself of her own words. "Nothing more." Lukas studied her for moment, before arriving to the conclusion that she was lying. Even so, he wisely chose to proceed carefully.

"You know," He said. "This marriage isn't exactly convenient for me either. I had loved somebody about a month ago, even dreaming and preparing for a marriage of my own." Natsumi looked up at his words. "But now, it will never be. Even if this marriage is cancelled, she has been banished from my kingdom forever. You see, my father found out about our relationship and decided that there was only one way to end it. I thought he wouldn't actually go to such extremes, so I didn't act, thinking that I could fool him into believing that we were never together. Then, I woke up one day, only to find that she had left me at sunrise. I didn't even get to say goodbye and now, I'll never see her again." Although his expression didn't change, Lukas felt his already cracked heart break even more. He had already known these facts already, but saying them out loud seemed to solidify it.

"I'm sorry for your loss..." Natsumi said uncertainly, after a pause, placing a cautious hand on his shoulders. "I can only imagine how painful that must be." Lukas go the feeling that comforting people wasn't one of the Princess' strengths, but appreciated her effort to help him all the same.

"It's okay. I've accepted that she's gone awhile ago." He said, taking a deep breath to keep his composure. "But I'm hoping that I could help spare you the pain of losing a loved one. I don't how I'll do it, but maybe if we work together, we can somehow get out of this arranged marriage." A brief pause.

"Maybe so." Natsumi then said thoughtfully. "Maybe so..."

And that's how it all began.

A/N: Yay! I'm done! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have anything you'd like to say or have a piece of constructive criticism, please leave a review. I'm really concerned about the pacing of this chapter, so I'd especially appreciate some feedback on that. With that said, favorite/ follow if you like this story! Also, I'm not completely certain on the pairings for this fic. Right now, I'm thinking of pairing male!Lucy with fem!Loke, fem!Laxus, Juvia (since Gray is taken), or fem!Natsu (I can see it happening. I do ship NaLu after all...). So if you have any suggestions as to who you want Lukas to be with, please tell me! I'll pair her up with anybody except for Erza and Jellal since Jerza is my otp. Also, no yaoi or yuri. I have nothing against either, it's just that writing romance is already awkward enough for me as it is. I seriously don't need to add yaoi or yuri to this. I'm also considering leaving Lukas without a soulmate, but nobody wants that, do they? So yeah, tell me if you have any suggestions! With that said, I'll try to update weekly or biweekly. See you soon!