~|~ Prolog ~|~
His pink hair was covered by a thin black hood. His eyes followed the target as he walked across the ballroom's extensive floor.
'The target…' the pinkette thought, '…is the Prince of the northern lands of Fiora. Gray Fullbuster. First Heir to the throne and the title of King. '
Natsu had been given this mission when he returned from his last one a long time ago and was told to travel north, to the frozen lands, and murder the Prince. He was only given a brief description of why and only a month to do so.
Following the blue haired Prince through the massive stone castles windows, Natsu slowly got up and glared down at the guard he had captured earlier while sneaking in.
The man was dressed as any other knight would be- in a helmet, breastplate, gauntlets, and armored shin guards. An eight pointed white snowflake stood out on the dark navy blue background that covered the majority of the guard's breast plate. The seal of the Fullbuster's.
Natsu had gagged the guard with a piece of cloth and bonded his hands together with a piece of rope he had on him. He squatted down, leaned towards the captured man and muttered, "I will take the cloth out now. If you make any other noises besides answering my questions, I will murder you." The guard stared into Natsu's cold green eyes as he nodded his head slowly.
"How do I get into one of these…parties?" he asked softly while glancing back through the windows of the ballroom. He reached over and yanked the cloth out of the guard's mouth and the pinkette stared into his eyes, waiting for an answer.
"Y-you have t-to be p-p-personally invited by the Prince himself." The guard quickly said the last part in a hushed voice.
Natsu raised his eyebrows, "How do I get one of these, invitations?"
The guard stared at him, his face turning pale as he shook his head slowly, "I-I don't k—", the guard was cut off by the pinkette shoving the gag back into his mouth and shoving a dagger into his gut.
"If you can't tell me anything valuable, then just die." He pulled the dagger out as he heard the thudding of boots coming towards his direction.
The guard smiled and Natsu stared at him in shock. "What did you –"Natsu barely avoided the arrow that grazed by his head. He was too preoccupied with questioning the captured guard to not hear the arrow flying at him. But he heard the next one and quickly flattened himself. The thin piece of wood flew above his head and Natsu jumped back up and stared at the new people in front him.
It was a small group of four people, one women flanked by three men. Each man bore crossed swords over the Fullbuster seal on their armor. The lead female did not wear heavy armor like the others but wore grey chainmail instead. She bore two daggers, one on each thigh, and an empty sword sheath on her hip.
She had the sword pointed at the pinkette. Her crimson red eyes scanned every inch of him, sizing him up. Natsu shuttered a bit under her glare.
'It's been a while since someone this intimidating approached me…' he thought, returning the female warriors glare.
"My name is Erza Scarlet," exclaimed the warrior, "head Knight of the Kings Royal Army." She took a step forward, her chainmail not making any noise. "You are charged with murder and are hereby under arrest." She took another step forward, the sword tip only inches away from his neck.
Natsu stared at the four people. He could take the three men in the back; they didn't look that hard to beat. Two of them held swords, the other had an arrow already nocked in the bow. Natsu gritted his teeth and looked back to the ballroom. No one seemed to have noticed what was going on yet.
The only real problem was this Erza. She stood before him, unafraid, unwavering. He stifled a smirk. If he could disarm the female, he might be able to get her to submit through pure force. He glanced quickly at her daggers and then back up into her eyes. They were both close enough to her waist that even if she was disarmed, she could quickly grab a dagger and slice his throat with it. Natsu mentally shook his head, he didn't want feel like dying in this country.
He glanced over the small wall, it was about a 14meter drop to the ground with nothing to grab onto but the wall. He quickly glanced back to the female warrior.
'I have three choices,' the Pinkette thought, 'One, I could charge them and fight, risk my life and probably end up dying. Two, I can jump off the wall and try to grab ahold of the groves to help slow my fall down.' His eyes looked over at the man with the bow, 'No, they seem to have a skilled archer. He would shoot me off the wall in no time.' He took a deep breath and then there was choice three.
Natsu unceremoniously dropped his dagger onto the ground and raised both his hands into the air, a smirk crossing his face. "You caught me," is all he said as he raised his head pointing his chin at the proclaimed Captain.
If the Captain was surprised, she didn't show it.
Her scarlet eyes ran over him, examining him to see if there might be any more weapons on him.
"What's your name?" Erza asked sternly.
"Why should I tell you?" he responded joyously. A wide smile replacing the smirk on his face.
The red haired warrior's eyes stayed on his as they looked stared at each other.
'They said they would be sending an assassin but he looks like a kid…' she thought, her mind rereading the letter she had gotten earlier that day.
Her hand gripped the sword hilt a little tighter. 'He could still be a kid, but he could also be very well trained…like me,' she added.
She tilted her head back, not breaking eye contact with the killer, "Lock his hands up," she ordered.
The two brutes moved forward and tied a rope tightly around his hands. The pinkette stared at her still, not wincing once when the rope was tightly knotted.
"Follow me," she said sheathing her sword.
He twirled her, her light blue dress swirling in a gigantic circle, encompassing her like the sea would a fish. Her eyes met his and they smiled. He dipped her down as the music came to a close, her face was a bright shade of red when he bent down and whispered in her ear-
"Juvia, I-"
Gray was interrupted as the large oaken doors to the ballroom where thrown open and in marched his red haired captain, Erza Scarlet. Behind her were two people of her personal guard, each of them stood taller than the female warrior, but when it came to skill- she would beat them in a heartbeat. No one in the whole kingdom could compare to her.
The room got eerily quiet and the only sound that could be heard was the thudding of boots as the three soldiers walked across the room, coming straight at him.
Gray swallowed and released Juvia from his embrace and turned her, "I'm sorry about this. I promise I will make it up to you later." She smiled at him and he turned away and started to walk to the newcomers.
"Prince," Erza stated loudly as she lowered herself onto one knee, "we have captured an assassin trespassing within the castle walls. We believe that your life is at stake and you need to be escorted to safety."
Gray stared at her, shocked by what he was just told. 'There is an assassin within these walls…coming after me…'
He stared at the scarlet warrior as she stood up and faced him with her usually brown eyes. She was waiting for an answer while Gray glanced around and quickly looked to see if anyone heard what she said, and they had.
The people within the ballroom began muttering louder with every passing second.
"There's an assassin in the castle…"
"Are we even safe here anymore…?"
"What are they going to do...?"
"Have they caught them!?" shouted one guest in the back of the room.
That one comment put the entire room into panic. Some people started to burst out into tears and others began to drift slowly towards the door. This was new for them, all of them. The northern part of Fiore, especially the Fullbuster Kingdom, was more reinforced with defenses to counter the winter colds and storms. Ever since the assassination of Gray's mother 15 years ago, never has another assassin set foot in the entire Kingdom. Gray's father, the King, made sure of that.
Gray turned his attention back to Erza, "Did you capture this assassin?" he whispered through clenched teeth at his captain.
"Yes, Prince. He was captured and thrown in seventh floor of the dungeons. I have five of my best guards posted to keep him from doing anything," she said, her voice rising above the others so everyone could hear.
Gray sighed in relief. The seventh floor of the dungeons was roughly 700 feet underground and almost unescapable without the help of torch light. To make it worse, the King had guards trained to fight in the darkness and placed them throughout the bottom four levels. The first level was only meant to hold petty criminals, the next two were for criminals that assaulted those in the kingdom. And the bottom four were meant for murders. The deeper they were, the more notorious.
The Prince turned back to his guests and said loudly, "The castle is fine. This assassin is thrown in the dungeons and made to never see the light of day again. You may leave if you wish, but the party may continue." His eyes drifted to Juvia after he finished. He smiled to her and mouthed an 'I'm sorry,' before turning back to face Ezra again.
"Talk with me in the Council Room here in five minutes, I'm going to go change and we will discuss what needs to be done about this said, assassin."
Erza bowed lowly, "Yes, Your Highness." The two guards behind her mimicked her actions and Gray brushed by, heading off to his quarters.
"Yo, Lucy," said the blond guard next to her.
"What is it, Sting?" She sighed as they walked to leave the ballroom. She had been given a curfew by her father for midnight and he had sent Sting to guard her.
"I'm going to hang around for a bit, you can leave and get home by yourself, right?" He flashed her one of his smile as his eyes wandered over to the group of women that were smiling in his direction.
Lucy sighed and waved him off as she headed for the large oak doors again.
Once she was out of sight, Sting turned to the girls and shot them a dirty look while rolling his eyes. He stalked off to the wide glass door that led outside and opened it.
Pushing the door open with his shoulder, Sting walked out into the cold night air. Snow was lightly falling and he did not seem to care as he stared down over the edge of the balcony at the snow covered ground, watching the guests come and leave.
He crossed his arms over the railing and gazed out into the endless horizon, his thoughts trailing back to the girls. His face made a look of disgust as he remembered how they stared at him with lust and how he had to return it with one of his smiles.
'I only want…' Sting's mind had wandered off from the frilly girls and onto someone else, '...the rumored pink haired warrior- Natsu.'
Sting had never met this person before, but he heard rumors about them during a tournament once. How no one was able to beat them, and then suddenly- they disappeared without a trace. Most people thought that person had died.
But Sting didn't think so. He still believed that this person was still alive and he heard a rumor about someone seeing a person that looked like Natsu, heading north, and that's where he went.
Sting heard a knock above him and quickly jerked around staring up, his hand already on the dagger that he concealed inside his cloak.
"I want you to take me to see this assassin, Erza. I need to see them for myself to make sure that they aren't that major of a threat for the people of my fathers' kingdom," the Prince said.
Sting gently released the knife and a smirk crossed his face, 'Maybe I can get some information out of the assassin…they should know something.'
"Your Highness," said a worried female voice, "this assassin, it got in without any of the guards detecting it. Not even the sentries posted along the walls saw it enter," she took a sharp intake of breath, "I recommend you stay in your room until I have thoroughly investigated the matter."
"That's nonsense, Erza. You know I can hold my own in a fight. What is the harm of meeting with an already caged killer?"
Sting heard a soft sound as Erza rustled her armor, "It is from the Assassin's Guild- Dragon Slayer. And," she said before Gray could interrupt, "It has pink hair. The same color as the one that killed her mother 15 years ago…."
Sting zoned the rest of Erza's lecture out as a giant, toothy smile spread across his face. They had a pink haired assassin in the castle. Maybe the rumor was right about Natsu heading north. And if what Erza was saying was true, then that could mean that Natsu was close enough for Sting to see…or even touch.
He didn't think about it much longer before he walked back through the ballroom, his face a mask of stone as he walked towards the giant ballroom doors.
Rin: First time doing an Au..woot. I planned on this being GraTsu, but now it feels like there will be multiply pairings after what just happened in the this intro...
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and characters are owned by Hiro Mashima, I only take credit for some plot elements.
Genra's: Fantasy, AU, Action(coming soon...), romance, drama, angst(?later on?)
Pairings(TBE): GraTsu, StiTsu, NaLu, GruVia
Follow if you liked it and Review what you guys thought
Edited by Laura {3.7.14}
