Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or any of its associated characters and lore. That right belongs to Hiro Mashima.
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The Princess' Dragon Guard
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Hargeon Town, Fiore, Ishgar, Earth Land, July 2, X784
Having arrived in town earlier in the day for the sake of being among the common people of Fiore, Princess Hisui E. Fiore as well as her childhood friends and protectors, Natsu Dragneel and Happy, came across the conman, Bora, using both illegal Magic and Natsu's own epithet to kidnap many of the local women in order sell them into slavery at Bosco. As distasteful as the whole ordeal was, it did lead to Hisui and her friends meeting an unlikely acquaintance, Lucy Heartfilia, the missing heirless of the Heartfilia Konzern that Hisui and her father had dealt with positively in the past. At first, Hisui was glad to see that the daughter of her older friend, Jude, was all right and was looking forward to reuniting the two. The complication, however, was persuading Lucy to patch things up with her father.
At Hargeon's train station, Lucy exhaled a tired sigh as the four talked. "I know what you're trying to do, Princess, but whatever side of my father you know isn't the side I've known my whole life."
Hisui showed sympathetic eyes. "I know that Jude's not perfect, Lucy, but he really does love you just as he also loved your mother."
Natsu then piped in. "Yeah, I guess with the whole big business management thing of his, he just never had the time to actually be there for you all, no matter how much he wanted to otherwise."
Happy then said. "It's probably hard for someone like him to attend to his family when he's got another legacy that's arguably more fragile."
Lucy bit her lip for a moment as if conflictive, but then narrowed her eyes when a thought came to her. "Is there a chance he picked out a fiancé for me and you're playing around for improving the economy, foreign relations, or whatever?"
Hisui frowned at the accusation, but then sighed seeing her point. "Jude was in a bad situation with the Junelle family, who I believe you're acquainted with, but after I talked with him and my own father, Duke Sawarr agreed to call off the marriage."
Uncertain, Lucy asked. "Why?"
Natsu answered. "Because your family's Konzern is now being invested personally by the royal family. Granted, a lot of the local nobles weren't happy that King Toma was giving his support to "new money" people, but hey, he's the King."
Happy then inputted with a more reassuring smile. "And now that the Konzern isn't having a lot of money problems, Mr. Heartfilia could spend more time with you."
Lucy still didn't appear convinced until Natsu placed his hand on her shoulder. "I know it sounds hard, but if it was my dad, I would do anything and everything to make up with him. Just come with us to your home and we'll see how it pans out."
Lucy sighed, but then showed a sad smile. "Well, I have missed looking at my mother's grave."
"Fair enough." Hisui replied with a smile which Natsu and Happy showed as well.
The party of four then made their way in getting to the Heartfilia family mansion. Along the way, Hisui left a kiss on Natsu's cheek for helping as always.
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I actually don't dislike Lucy. She's a nice character with a good figure and more potential as a fighter than maybe even she herself realizes, but I just can't help but get tired every time I look up FanFictionNet and see her and Natsu as a pairing in every "vanilla" story and don't get me started about the lack of different pairing fanart on DeviantArt. Just because I can't imagine a boyfriend for Lucy other than Natsu, doesn't mean that I can't imagine a different girlfriend for him than her. Broadening people's options for romance is why I make these one-shots around pairings.