~ Ch. I ~

~Kingdom of Dragone~

It was a quiet evening. Slight snoring and heavy breathing could be heard through the doors of the servant's quarters. Everyone in the castle has gone to bed at this hour, but the king's advisor refuses to sleep until his majesty returns to his chamber and the candlelight is out. He's sitting in the corner of the king's study with his majesty across from him, a table overflowing with papers between them. While he's polishing his pocket watch, the king is silently reading through documents that arrived at his study late.

The crackle of the fire and scribble of the ink-dipped quill filled most of the silence in the small room. The advisor looked up from his watch when the scribbling sounds stopped and watched the king reread the same letter for the third time. He saw him let a exasperated sigh escape his lips. The king scratched his head tiredly.

"Should we call it a night, Igneel?"

King Igneel raised his head slowly at his silver haired advisor, Metalicana. He shook his head no, muttered something along the lines of after I finish, and read the letter once again.

Metalicana sighed and rolled his eyes, letting his cold attitude show through. He continued to polish his pocket watch. In the brief moment of silence, Igneel finally said something.

"Your nephew is one troubling boy…."

"What did Natsu do now?" Metalicana asked, looking up from his watch.

"Nothing really, but it's what he wants that's troubling."

Metalicana raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"See for yourself."

Igneel held out the document he kept rereading to Metalicana. Metalicana tucked his watch back into it's pocket and took the paper. Igneel watched Metalicana's eyes dart from one edge of the paper to the other. When he lowered the paper, his face was contorted into a confused stare.

Igneel chuckled. "See?" he asked playfully. In a more serious tone he pressed, "What do you think we should do?"

His advisor reread the paper and after a while he sighed. "Might as well do what he asks."

"Yeah, but how?" Igneel interrogated.

Metalicana remained silent. He slapped the document down on Igneel's desk and said, "It'd be best if you asked Grandine about this. I'm not good with these kinds of problems."

"Come on, you got to have some idea. I don't care if it's stupid. I rather take one stupid idea from you instead of a crazy one from her," Igneel pleaded.

"Have faith in my sister. She has some good ideas once in a while."

"Metalicana, you for one know that I love her to death, but be real. It's much less than once than a while."

"Well…"

Before Metalicana could finish, the door to the king's study swung open and there stood a lady. Her messy blue hair told the two men that she just got out of bed. Under his breath, Metalicana muttered speak of the devil and returned to his seat in the corner.

Igneel strained a smile and said in a gentle voice, "Gra-Grandine! My queen, why are you still awake?"

"I should be asking you two that!" the queen boomed, addressing Metalicana as well.

"Grandine please lower your voice. People are still asleep," Metalicana shushed in a tired tone.

But the advisor's plead only angered the blue-haired queen further as she yelled even louder than before. "I know very well that people are sleeping now and that's what you two men should be doing now!"

"I will, we will!" Igneel quickly responded. "Just let me finish my work…"

"What can be so important that you refuse to sleep with your very own wife?" Grandine marched over to the desk and snatched the document off Igneel's desk.

"Wait, Grandine!" Igneel tried to snatch the paper back from Grandine, but fell onto his desk as Grandine turned away, quickly scanning over the sloppy handwriting printed on the paper.

Her dark expression turned to light when she realized who this letter was from. "Natsu wrote back!" she squealed.

Igneel nearly leapt over his desk to snatch the letter back from Grandine and to keep her from reading any more, but Grandine quickly caught on of his efforts and lead him on a chase around the study.

Metalicana amusingly watched his sister and brother-in-law fight over the letter. In the end Grandine managed to read to the end and stopped dead in her tracks when she read the very last word. Igneel was an inch from crashing into her back when Grandine suddenly stopped. He made no effort to take back the letter when he saw his wife quivering.

"Grandine? Sw-sweetheart?"

Igneel placed a hand on Grandine's shoulder and slowly turned her around. Her eyes were overflowing with tears when she screamed towards the heavens, "My little prince is finally growing up!"

The paper was thrown over her shoulder as she wrapped arms around Igneel and cried into his chest. The letter floated to the ground by Metalicana's feet. He picked up the paper and read it once more, just to make sure his eyes weren't fooling him.

Dear Father,

I am writing to tell you that I'm doing well and that the war is going smoother than I expected. I estimate the war will be over by the end of the month and foundations for a new city in place of the fallen kingdom will be up and ready well before I return. How's Happy been doing? I hope you remembered to feed him. If I come home to find a starving cat, you'll get it! Also when I do return to the castle, I wish to begin my search in finding a "special someone". Please aid me in this decision.

That is all, Natsu

The next night, Igneel was back in his study politely listening to Metalicana reporting what he had heard from the guards.

"…and according to the guards on the west wall, they claim to hear a voice whispering in their ears while they sleep saying things like…" Metalicana stopped speaking when the door slammed open. The blue haired queen came bursting into the study with a big smile stretched across her face. She was hugging a flyer in her arms. It was quite the change of scene compared to last night.

The queen cried out enthusiastically to her husband, "Igneel! Igneel!"

Igneel raised a hand to Metalicana telling him to stop for now. Metalicana narrowed his eyes at Igneel, but said nothing and stood silently next to his majesty. With his chin resting on the palm of his hand, Igneel replied, "Yes, Grandine?"

"I found a solution!" she proclaimed, waving the flyer in the air.

"A solution to what?" Igneel inquired, confused on what the actual problem was.

"A solution to the flying cat infestation in our pantry," Grandine said sarcastically. She placed a hand on her hip. "What do you think it's to?"

"That's why I'm asking."

Grandine sighed and presented her paper to Igneel. "I've found a solution to find our son's lover!"

A moment of silence came from Igneel, then, "Come again?"

Grandine smiled and shoved the paper into Igneel's face. Igneel's eyes bounced from Grandine to the flyer in her hands before sighing and reluctantly taking the paper. Metalicana leaned towards Igneel and read the flyer over his shoulder.

When he was done reading, Metalicana merely straightened his composure and looked out the window. Igneel, on the other hand, stared blankly at the paper. He made eye contact with Grandine and saw the smug smirk on her face. She was getting ready for the shower of praises she thought she was going to get. Igneel opened his mouth and what came out wasn't a praise.

"This is a joke, right?"

Grandine narrowed her eyes, feeling insulted. "How mean!" she yelled.

Igneel realizing that this crazy idea was real, retorted, "You're insane!"

"How is this insanity?!" Grandine snapped back. She plucked the flyer out of Igneel's hands and pointed at the bolded print. "It's the perfect solution to the problem at hand! And besides, I don't see you coming up with anything!"

"That's because I didn't think this was a problem in the first place! When he said for us to aide in his decision, I was thinking of suggesting a couple young maidens for him to pick from, not notifying the entire the kingdom and planning a extravagant ball to go with it!" Igneel yelled. He closed his eyes and sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Well, I'm relieved you came to consult me before you did anything else…"

Grandine remained silent as she tried to busy herself by playing with the ribbon around her waist.

Igneel peeked at Grandine when he noticed her silence and sighed again. "You posted this around the kingdom already, didn't you?"

Grandine smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I may have leaked a couple copies to the public…"

"And by a couple, you actually mean thousands, don't you?"

Grandine's eyes flickered to Metalicana who spoke and flashed him a guilty smile.

Igneel sighed once again. "I feel like I heard this story before…" he muttered to himself, vaguely thinking of the classic Cinderella story.

Outside the kingdom stood a cloaked woman, her gaze fixated on the night sky. A cool night wind blew across the landscape, causing grit and dirt to swirl around her feet and her hair to fly in the wind. Her cloak fluttered and swayed as a flyer came fluttering past.

Before the wind could pick it back up, a shoe came down on the paper, stopping it from flying by anymore. The cloaked woman turned around and saw a man bending over to pick up the paper.

She watched the man's hazel eyes skim over the flyer and gradually grow wider and wider. A smile danced on his lips and his eyes shined with mischief. He looked at the cloaked woman in front of him and said, "Do you want a chance to 'dance' with the prince?"