Author's Note: I would like to just thank you very much for all the reviews that have been left so far, they really are wonderful and I appreciate every single one ;_; I don't always have time to respond to them, but just know that they are super appreciated guys! You have no idea how much they make my day!

Thanks again to my beta, nighttimelights, and to chikaede for the great cover art!

Heaven Sent

A Fairy Tail Fairy Tale

Chapter 7

Later that evening, Natsu sat at the head of his table in the great hall feeling impatient for more than his dinner for once in his life. He was flanked on either side by what members of his council lived in the castle, as well as various nobles and people of state, all of whom chatted among themselves as they waited for the first course to be served.

At his left hand, Gray watched him fidget impatiently with some amusement, but looked around when the object of his study suddenly straightened in his seat as the door at the far end of the hall opened.

Natsu's face lit with hope when Erza appeared, dressed in a long, sapphire gown for dinner, but his expression fell just as quickly when the doorman shut the door behind her before anyone else could appear. She caught his eye as she walked down the length of the table to the place that had been left open for her, and gave a subtle shake of her head at his unspoken question.

The Princess would not be joining them.

"Sorry, Natsu," Happy said from his special made seat at the Prince's right hand as the man sagged back in his seat, a disappointed frown on his face.

Speculation as to why Lucy had declined his invitation yet again occupied his mind all through dinner, leaving him uncustomarily quiet for the length of the meal. This, in turn, prompted several members of his council to ask what weighed on his mind, which only served to irritate the prince further.

Before the imminent explosion could come to fruition, Gray stepped in and deflected attention from the prince and onto himself. The kindness of the gesture wasn't lost on Natsu, and he managed to crack a grateful smile at the other man who only smirked and turned to ask Makarov about rumors of recent trouble amongst their northern neighbors.

Finally left to himself once more, Natsu let his gaze drift down the length of the table as he ate. Many familiar faces sat there, some he liked more than others, and none of them could keep his attention at the moment. He sighed, suddenly annoyed at himself for the way he was acting. He had never been the type to languish when things didn't go his way, and he wasn't sure he why his was allowing himself to do so now.

A small voice in the back of his head suggested that he had never so painfully wronged someone before, but he ignored it.

What he needed was a little pick-me-up, then he'd be able to get back to business as usual. Maybe a short jaunt outside the capital to take in some fresh air and do some good would do the trick…


Sitting on the roof of the south tower beneath the light of the waning moon, Lucy wondered if she had made a mistake in turning down Erza's invitation to dinner. As the Commander had pointed out, she had already been introduced to many of the people who also regularly attended, so it wouldn't be as though she would be completely among strangers.

Still, if she had gone, she would have been obligated to speak to him.

She was being a terribly rude and an ungrateful guest to the Prince, Lucy knew, but she still hadn't been able to bring herself to exchange more than a few words with the man since the night of her arrival without feeling physically ill. The thought of trying to eat dinner with him was simply unbearable.

The Princess sighed and lay back against the roof, her wings safely tucked away in the magical 'between' space all her people used for that purpose so that they would not hamper her movements. The hard tiles dug into her back and thighs, but they were still pleasantly warm from the sun even an hour after sundown, so she ignored the minor discomfort for the time being.

As inexorable as the tide, Lucy's thoughts drifted back to Natsu. She didn't think that Levy and the others could fully understand the extent of the wrong he had done to her person, her very being. There simply wasn't a human equivalent. She knew they were doing their best not to become frustrated with her in the face of their differences, but she had a feeling that their patience was beginning to wane. She and Happy had taken to sharing evening flights around the castle and the surrounding countryside each night for the past week, but tonight she had received a message from him via a servant that he was otherwise occupied for the evening, and wouldn't be able to make it. There had even been a postscript that he might not be able to for the next several nights…

Yes, perhaps she really had made a mistake in snubbing dinner that evening.

The thought of losing what friends she had begun to make in this place didn't just hurt, but frightened the princess.

Oh to be home again…

A sharp pang echoed in Lucy's heart as she stared up at the waning moon, and brought tears to her eyes. She wondered what her sisters were doing, and what they had told their brother and father when they had returned from their trip to earth without her. It would be another two weeks before travel between the Celestial Kingdom and Earth would be possible again, and even then, she wouldn't be able to make the trip unless her robe were fully repaired. She doubted it would be by the time the full moon returned, the damage done to it had simply been too extensive.

For the first few days, she had been terrified that her robe wouldn't heal at all, but after near constant and compulsive checking on it, she realized that it was slowly mending itself. Even now, as it rested in a locked box at the foot of her bed, some of the holes in it's ephemerous fabric had closed, and it had regained some small fraction of its glow.

There was still a long way to go, though.

As she wondered idly if she should attempt the trip back to the springs in hopes of meeting her family when they inevitably came looking for her, the sound of distant voices reached her ears.

She ignored them, at first, until one briefly became raised enough for her to realize that it belonged to Gray. Her interest peaked, Lucy sat up and leaned forward so she could see over the lip of the roof, curious as to what the man would be doing out so late.

After a moment's squinting against the long shadows cast by the walls surrounding the main body of the castle, the Princess spotted Gray not far from the stables. Though she could no longer hear him, the man appeared to be arguing with a cloaked figure he had cornered next to a wagon stacked high with hay bales.

Concerned that the man she was quickly coming to consider a friend might be in some danger from the suspicious looking individual, Lucy stood and spread her wings behind her. With a graceful leap, the Celestial Maiden dropped from the roof of the south tower to that of the main hall, her long skirts fluttering around her legs as she descended.

A second leap brought her to the far end of the stables, and a third to the place just over the head of her quarry. Crouching cautiously on the opposite side of the roof peak so that the light of her wings would not give away her presence, Lucy prepared herself to jump to Gray's defense. As she paused to listen, the Maiden was surprised by what she overheard.

"Dammit, man you can't just leave, not now!" Gray hissed in a low tone. As Lucy peaked over the roof down at him, she could tell by the set of his shoulders just how annoyed he was.

"Why not?" The man before him demanded, and the woman was shocked to realize that it was the prince hiding beneath the cloak, rather than some would-be assassin or spy. "Everything's fine. You'll get on without me fine for a few days," Natsu insisted.

"Or weeks," chimed in a third voice.

"Shut it, Happy," Natsu said, poking his companion, who squeaked and squirmed in his place under the Prince's hood.

So this was where the little Exceed had gone to that prevented him from meeting her? Well, him being out of the castle would certainly make that difficult.

While Lucy was a little hurt by this, her anger at the prince quickly eclipsed it. Without thinking, she jumped into the air and landed on the edge of the cart below with the quiet thump of bare feet on wood. She towered over them, perfectly balanced, as the two startled men who now stared up at her, mouths agape.

"You're just leaving?" She demanded as she glared down at Natsu, her hands clamped into tight fists at her sides as she scowled down at him, suspicions running rampant through her mind. "What sort of treacherous Prince are you?"

"What?" Natsu asked dumbly, still staring at the fierce woman who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, glowing like a star as her wings flared behind her. Her words finally caught up with him after a moment, though, and he hurriedly said, "Wait, what? No! I'm not-" only to be cut off.

"And Happy, I thought you were my friend," Lucy said, expression turning from furious to hurt when she looked at the Exceed, who was peering out at her from beneath Natsu's hood.

"I am your friend!" The little winged cat hastened to say as he scrambled out from his hiding place and hovered between her and Natsu, as though to shield him from her wrath. "We're just going on a little trip is all!"

"And what happens to me when you're gone and not here to be held to your word?" She asked Natsu, narrowing her eyes at him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Whether he's here or not, his word does still stand," Gray interjected as Natsu tensed beside him, seeming offended by the idea that he might go back on his promise to the Princess.

"I thought you were just trying to stop him," Lucy asked Gray with a frown. "Now you want him to go?"

"No," the dark haired man said with a put-upon sigh. "I want him to stay, but trying to stop him is like trying to make the sun rise in the west."

There was such a deep seated aggravation to the way Gray said this that Lucy couldn't help but soften towards him. This fact did not go unnoticed by the prince, who glanced between them, then said, "Well, if you're both so concerned, why don't we all go?"

"What?" Gray and Lucy demanded in unison, turning to stare at Natsu as though he had grown a second head.

"Natsu, that's a great idea!" Happy exclaimed brightly as he flew dizzying loops around the group. "It'll be fun!"

"You're not gonna drag me and the Princess into thi-" Gray began, but was cut off when Lucy unexpectedly said, "Fine!"

Natsu blinked in surprise, and then broke into a tremendous grin at the Princess' declaration. Gray simply stared at the woman as she stepped off the wagon's edge and landed before them, looking at the both of them defiantly, as though she expected both of them to try and stop her.

The young lord considered it for half a moment until he saw how enthusiastic the Prince was that his invitation had been accepted.

Despite the regularity with which they argued, Gray was Natsu's closest confidante. Happy may have been the Prince's closest friend, but it was Gray with whom the Prince debated his personal choices, the one he relied on to take him down a peg when he needed to be made to see reason (though sometimes that job was too much for the young Lord, and he would have to send Erza to do it in his place).

That being the case, Gray was one of the first people Natsu had gone too with his concerns about Lucy when she refused to see him. So, in his Prince's place, he had gone out of his way to befriend the strange woman to be sure that she had everything she needed.

He hadn't expected to become quite so fond of her so quickly, though, and watching the two royals stare one another down now (one cheerful, the other wary), he wondered how he had wound up in the middle of such a mess.

Again.

"Alright, fine, we'll all go," Gray said, sounding every inch of exasperated as he felt. He was forced to raise his voice over Natsu and Happy's cheers to tell the Princess, "You definitely can't go dressed in that, though," as he pointed at her dress.

"Excuse me?" She said, startled as she glanced at him, and then down at her dress. She seemed to catch his meaning, though and added, "Well, no...I suppose not."

Natsu nodded his agreement, then turned to Happy and said, "Quick, to the laundry!" And ran off, cloak flapping behind him as he ran.