Future

There was nothing worse than feeling like you had no future. No hope, nowhere to go.

It made it hard to keep going.

For most of her life Lucy had known exactly what she wanted, but had never been able to get it. Whether it was her father's affections or to see her mother again, it had all been just out of reach. The worst part was she could always feel it, just under her fingertips, but still she couldn't touch it. She was stranded in the middle.

Things were different now.

Everything she saw, everything before her seemed to lie under a rose tinted filter that she knew she hadn't put there herself. The people she loved, her friends; her family. She couldn't say they were perfect, but they were everything she had ever wanted.

Well, that wasn't strictly true.

Was it?

She wasn't sure.

The people in her life she loved dearly. They were everything to her.

But sometimes she wondered, when she forgot herself and couldn't quite tear her eyes away from the man who should be her best friend, what there was yet to come. If anything would change.

Whatever happened, she hoped it was good. She hoped it happened fast.

Lucy looked down with a soft smile to the pink haired dragon slayer that had fallen asleep on her shoulder.

And she hoped it included him.

As she thought this, the girl picked up her pen and gently slid a notebook out from underneath a sleeping blue cat. Then Lucy Heartfilia began a story, about a princess and her passionate, burning love for the knight in shining armour that slayed the dragon that took her.

Her pen wobbled as the boy stirred on her shoulder.

"Lu-cy?" Sleep drew his words out as he looked up at her, endearingly bewildered. They had been on the train for some time now, though after a while he had fallen asleep, thank goodness.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty." Her voice was light, teasing, but not entirely false. He really was beautiful, the golden sunset streaming through the window and dripping from every facet, every eyelash and strong, angular curve of his jaw. Lucy swore she could look at him forever.

Natsu stirred again, his eyes closing again as he wrapped an arm around her and lay back across the seat, pulling her down with him so that she lay on his chest. Her notebook and pen clattered to the floor, but the cat on the other side of the closed carriage did not stir.

Too stunned to react properly, Lucy breathed in sharply but allowed it to happen. A blush formed on her cheeks as she stared at the boy beneath her, still so beautiful.

One of his eyes cracked open, and Lucy did not miss that his cheeks warmed too.

"You need to sleep too, right?" He mumbled, oddly gruff. "You're always writing. Take a break."

Lucy smiled, shifted a little to press her lips to his cheek, and settled back down with her head on his chest, their legs entangled and her avoiding his eyes.

"Thank you, Natsu."

The future might be good. It might be great.

The princess didn't care.

Right here, right now, with her knight in shining armour.

She was happy.