Flame twisted above Natsu's fingers and made the image of a girl. She had hair as long and as fine as wheatgrass. It was gold and swirled around her hips when he bid her to twirl in a circle. She could have been collecting bets or she could have been dancing. Natsu thought he'd like to see her dance.

Zeref cleared his throat noisily. Natsu looked up and saw his brother was pursing his lips. He used to do that when their mother would put a sour salve on his thumbnail to encourage him to stop chewing it. He'd only refined the expression throughout the years. Natsu snuffed the fire but didn't shake Zeref's gaze. It was probing, wondering not only who he was making fire art for but why he couldn't wait until their duty to the citizens of Alvarez was over.

He snuffed out fire-born Lucy and started plotting. Wasn't there anything he could tell one of the guards outside the antechamber? Anything at all to get out of there, from beneath Zeref's glare and onto the street where he could hunt for her again?

He'd sent Happy out twice today already to look for her, combing the poverty district and the middle class. He found nothing. The next step would be the noble houses but if she was a nobleman's daughter, Natsu thought he would know.

"Natsu."

"What?"

Zeref's eyebrows came down. "Listen."

Right. He looked away from the large double doors and better focused. There was a woman in front of him on her knees. She was in threadbare clothing and had a basket of eggs on the marble floor in front of her. "Repeat that?" Zeref's eyes flashed with anger that Natsu ignored.

Her already pink cheeks turned the colour of fall apples. "If it pleases Your Highness, please accept these eggs from my farm." They were large brown globes, dull and nestled together.

"Because…?"

"She wants funds, Natsu. The river flooded last week and drowned most of their hens. This is what's left," Zeref repeated so the woman didn't have to.

Shame licked Natsu's cheeks. "Oh. Visit the Finance Minister. He'll give you what you need."

The woman washed him with praise before leaving. Attempting to avoid Zeref's glare, he leaned forward in his smaller throne and took one of the eggs out of the basket. It was flecked with gold and cold from the long hours it'd spent away from the hen.

"Where is your head today?" Zeref didn't usually get angry but he was close just then.

"I'm tired," Natsu said. Three hours of sleep before his manservant woke him with a basin of boiled water for washing was not enough.

"What were you out doing?" Zeref asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Natsu said too quickly. Zeref looked at him more thoroughly. Natsu was very aware of the gentle bruising below his eyes, the last remnant of his opponent's wicked punch, the stuff that Lucy and her spirit just couldn't heal.

Zeref faced forward again and barked, "Next business!"

There was a commotion out in the hallway, yelling and a clatter of armour. Natsu stood. It wasn't very often they had any entertainment at all. A man was pushed into the antechamber. A beggar with shoes far too nice. Natsu knew those leather boots immediately. They'd been his, after all.

"What's this?" Zeref asked his guards drably.

"We found this one with shoes too good to be his," said one of the guards. "He's a thief."

The beggar opened his gap-toothed mouth and pleaded. "Please, Your Maj'sty. T'wasn't like that. A boy just gave 'em to me. Said, 'Sir, you're a fine Sir, Sir. Take'em boots, Sir. You'll do alright.' And so's I did. I ain't no saint but I never stole from nobody."

Zeref was the picture of boredom, his chin resting on his knuckles, his eyes hooded. He swirled a glass of deep red wine. The stuff made Natsu's skin flush and his head pound. "Men don't just give boots away, do they, brother? The punishment for stealing from a noble-born is…?"

"No lights," Natsu said. "But—"

"Put him in Cthulhu's Palace."

A pit without windows. No doors. Just a hole in the ground with a latch on top. Men were thrown in with no food or water and left to rot. Their bodies were never retrieved. The bones were decades thick, child molesters, rapists and kingslayers.

"That's not necessary," Natsu objected.

"He probably killed the owner of those boots," Zeref informed him. "Once the body's found, we'll need to tell his family and they'll want justice." He was already planning ahead. The beggar wept on his knees, repeating himself. He was no killer; he was no thief.

"I gave him the boots," Natsu said.

"Don't cover for him, brother. If we release him, he'll just go out and do it again." Zeref waved to his guards.

Natsu stepped off the dais. "No. They're mine. I gave them to him. He has them rightfully. Take them off," he ordered.

The guards held the man tight until Zeref waved them on. The beggar did as he was told. His feet were over-large and wide and sockless. There were calluses and scars all over the soles. He'd already started to wear the inside of Natsu's boots. He walked too often, searching for food and shelter.

Natsu put one of the boots in Zeref's face, showing him the evidence. ND was carved into the leather and the bottoms were crafted with special fire-retardant wooden sole. "Mine. I gave them to him. And as you can see, I'm alive and doing fine."

Zeref drummed his fingers on his throne.

"Sire?" asked one of the guards.

"Send him back from where you got him," Zeref said.

"And the boots?"

"No one wants to wear them now, do they?" he snapped. "Throw them out."

"Thos're mine!" the beggar squealed when the guards held him down and started stripping him of his acquired goods.

"I can give a man boots if I want," Natsu protested. "Leave them."

The guards paid him no mind, not when they had a direct order from the king. Natsu swivelled on his brother. "What are you doing?"

"A kindness."

"You're taking the only thing he has of any value!"

"Leave us," Zeref barked and everyone filtered out of the chamber. The door closed. Zeref sat forward. He needn't stand to be intimidating. "Do you know how I found him? The King's Watch was patrolling the city and came across a gang of gutter rats just like him, all armed with broken stakes and glass and bricks. They had their eyes set on those boots, Natsu, and they weren't going to leave until he was dead."

He didn't think about the trouble he'd bring when he traded shoes. Zeref saw it in his face. "Why did you see fit to risk his life?"

"I was just being kindly." Natsu was ashamed of his blunder but he wasn't foolish. He wasn't going to give up the chance to go back to the ring.

Whatever goodwill had been in Zeref's expression withered. "You're scheming something."

Natsu put on his carefree smile. "You're paranoid. I really was just feeling kindly."

Zeref shook his head and leaned back into his seat. "I will hear about it. I hear about everything."

Not this he wasn't.

A tapping on the door redirected Zeref's attention. "Enter."

Happy came in and bowed low to Zeref. "Your Majesty." He turned to Natsu and bent at the waist again, shallower. "Your Highness."

"What is it, Happy?" Zeref asked impatiently.

"It's time for His Highness's community service," Happy said.

"Is that not done yet?"

He had impatience in his voice that made Natsu wary. "Almost. Another couple of days and that's that."

"I'll tell Serena that you're finished now. I have other things for you to be doing."

"What kind of message does that send?" Natsu asked. "The Crown Prince scorched a confessional, he needs to be punished."

"The Crown Prince is a Crown Prince and should act like one and not make little flame creatures for his amusement," Zeref countered. "We wouldn't be in this situation otherwise."

"I was bored," Natsu said. "Now I need to pay for my actions." He was already halfway out of the room.

"When will you be back?"

"Late, likely. Serena loves his tomes," Natsu called over his shoulder. Out in the hallway outside of Zeref's hearing range, he asked Happy, "Did you find the maid?" Zeref had a favourite.

"Yeah."

"And you stationed her outside his room?"

"He'll run into her."

And she'd keep him busy for the night. "Good job."

"Natsu—"

"Did you get the funds from my chamber?"

"Yes, but only the loser can see her, you heard the announcer last time."

"Then I'll lose."

"You want her to see you lose two fights? Because she snickered when she was fixing your nose."

"Then I'll win," Natsu corrected. "And then I'll pay for her to patch me up so Zeref doesn't know."

"I don't think just anyone can be healed by her. There're rules—"

"I'm the heir to the throne," Natsu said cockily. "I make most of them."

Happy puffed up his cheeks. "Out there, you're not even Natsu."

He was right. If the only way to see her again was to lose, there were worse things than looking foolish. Fantasizing about a half-remembered girl cast in golden light. Ceaseless distraction. He needed to be back out in that ring, whatever the cost.

I know it's not really canon but I'm playing off the depictions of Ophiuchus as our healer here. I'm going away for a week. See you after Christmas, likely.