It was Lucy's lazy-day, the only free time she got away from her fellow nakama in order to treat herself to some goodness. She was currently sitting in a slumped position on her living room sofa, her feet firmly placed on the side of the coffee table. The toenails on her left foot sparkled in a light green, while the toenails on her right foot still waited for their new coating. She was about to continue when suddenly the doorbell rang. Immediately the blond girl shot up, almost toppling over in the process, she practically sprinted to the front door of her apartment and wrenched it open. The young male on the other side looked a bit startled as he handed her a small package. "Thank you." She smiled at him and slammed the door shut.
"Yes, finally it's here, I have been waiting for this way too long." She did a little happy dance while ripping up the package to get to its contents, which turned out to be a book with a bright red cover, the title was displayed on the front in wavy golden letters: "A summer night romance". Just then she spotted a letter on the floor, she must have dropped it during her frantic act to reach her new book. "What's this?" She bent down to pick it up, turning it a few times in her hands before opening it. Quickly she scanned the letter's contents. As she did so, her jaw slowly started to drop. "Oh my god…" She stuffed the letter into her vest pocket, grabbed her keys and darted out of her apartment.
Moments later she stood at the entrance to Fairy Tail, panting heavily, her eyes reflected the anger and hurt she felt boiling up within. "Natsu!" She yelled; the pink haired male stopped mid-laugh and turned a surprised gaze towards Lucy. "Hey Lucy, I thought today was your day off, what's wrong? You don't look too good." She took in a deep breath. "We need to talk." All heads turned her way, the expressions of her fellow guild members were mixed, anything from mild curiosity to bitter confusion. Natsu stood up from where he was sitting, all humour wiped away; he obviously understood that this was a serious matter. Slowly he walked over to the entrance and past Lucy, motioning for her to follow.
In utter silence the two walked out of town, up a grassy hill and finally stopped below a large apple tree. Natsu turned towards Lucy with a worried expression. "What's going on?" He asked rather timidly. "My father's dead," she stopped Natsu before he could advance on her to give her comfort, which she knew he was aiming to do. "There's more." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "This document states that we are officially engaged. It has been signed by the both of us, which means that you are also from a royal family." The more she spoke the quieter her voice became, Natsu looked rather dumbfounded. "I am engaged to you?" He pointed his finger at Lucy for an added dramatic effect. Suddenly he started laughing, so loud that Lucy stepped back a bit. "Natsu, this isn't funny." She folded her arms in front of her chest and tried to hold back the tears that were about to spill over. "I … just can't … imagine you … marrying me." He managed to say between breaths.
Lucy pulled out the document and shoved it at him. He stopped laughing and stared down at the yellowish paper. "That's my signature." He whispered. "My name is Natsu Windsor?" A humourless laugh escaped his lips. "This isn't a joke is it?" He asked, looking up at Lucy with hazy eyes. She shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I can't believe my father did something like this to me." Tears stung in her eyes, she started to sob quietly. Natsu took a few steps towards her and pulled her into a warm embrace. "I'm sorry." He whispered, Lucy didn't know why he was apologizing, but the feel of his arms around her seemed to blow away all her worries.
They stood like that for a long time. It was Lucy who pulled back first. "What now?" She asked. Natsu shook his head. "I don't know. This contract is magical isn't it? We can't get out of this, can we?" It was Lucy's turn to shake her head. "No, we can't, it's official." He sighed, looking down towards where Fairy Tail stood. "Then we have no other choice than to get married." She looked at him for a long moment. "We need to see your family first. You need to find out about your past, you can finally find out who you really are." He turned to look at her with a frown. "I'm afraid to find out, especially after seeing how mean your father was." He immediately regretted what he had said when Lucy started to sob again. "I didn't mean it like that, come on; smile, please?" He put on a wide grin. She sniffled for a moment, then slowly a smile framed out of her lips, a poor excuse for a smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. "That's better. Come on, we need to pack up, and we should probably let everyone else know." Before she could protest he already had her by the hand, dragging her to their guild.
For the second time that day she found herself standing at the entrance of fairy tail, panting heavily. "Hey guys, we have something to announce." Their fellow guild members stopped their drunken chatter and games to look over at Natsu. "There they are, what have you two been up to, huh?" A male voice chimed from the crowd. "Yeah, is there something going on between the two of you?" A female voice asked this time. "Let him finally speak his mind." It was Erza who had spoken; she stood up from her table and gave Natsu a nod, telling him to proceed. He laughed for a moment before settling with a wide grin. "Lucy and I are getting married."
There was a long moment of silence, then suddenly everyone started laughing, except for Erza and Grey, they knew right away that Natsu was being serious. Lucy didn't like that her fellow guild members were laughing, it hurt more than anything. Was it really that ridiculous? "Quiet down, he's serious." Erza suddenly yelled. Immediately the laughter stopped, instead it was replaced by a flood of shock and awe. "When did this happen?" Someone asked. "Congratulations." Another called. "Here let me explain." It was Lucy that had spoke this time. She stood straight and wore a serious expression while explaining what had happened. The entire guild was quiet, listening to what she had to say.
Once she was done everyone broke out into excited chatter. "We are going to go visit my family." Natsu added, but only few were still listening. Erza and Grey walked up to the two, both wore bright smiles. "You two truly are something." Grey mumbled. "I hope I can be your maid of honour." Erza whispered into Lucy's ear, making her turn a deep crimson. "We will talk about the wedding stuff later, first things first." She turned towards Natsu. "Ready?" He nodded his head and took her hand. "Let's go." And off they went, settling with heading to Lucy's old home first to find out more about the Windsor family.
The trip had been like any other, with Natsu lying on the ground of the train, groaning in agony, while Lucy couldn't help but shake her head at his one and only weakness. They were heading for the Heartphilia Mansion, which now stood empty with both her father and mother now gone. "This place always brings back so many memories." She said, as the two walked up towards the Mansion entrance. "We will probably be staying here for a while, I am sure we will have to comb through the entire library to find out everything we can, if there even is any information on them. I don't know why I don't remember your family, its kind of odd." She sighed, Natsu just walked in silence beside her.
The mansion looked spotless from the inside, Lucy called out to see if anyone was there, but no one answered. "Looks like were alone." She led the way to the top floor and opened a door, revealing a large bedroom. "You can stay in here." Natsu took a look inside and started to laugh. "Whoa, this room is huge." Suddenly he took a big leap and was standing on top of the bed, bouncing around like a little child. "Natsu stop that, you'll ruin the sheets!" Lucy knew her complaints were to no avail to this little kid that was to be her husband soon. "Quit it!" She dropped her things on the floor and stomped towards him. Just when she reached the corner of the bed she was swooped up into the air along with Natsu. "Come on, you probably never did this when you were a kid."
They were jumping so high that Lucy had to hold onto Natsu in fear she would fall, he snaked his arm around her waist and held her tight while they jumped. Lucy felt butterflies flapping around in her stomach, not because of the jumping, more due to the fact that Natsu was holding her so close. She looked over at him with a small smile. He was handsome, she had always thought so, maybe a little childish, but good-looking nonetheless. Natsu looked her way, he smiled shyly, and ever so slowly they moved closer, of course by now they had already stopped jumping and were standing there arm in arm, getting lost in each others deep pools of emotion.
