**Fairy Tail isn't mine. It belongs to Mashima. Same with the characters.

So... here's the next chapter of Fiery Jade. Hope you enjoy! The plan is to update Lost next and then Exploring the World with You. Hopefully that plan goes well.

Oh, and before I forget, if you would like to vote on which story I start next (once this story and "The Size of His Heart" are complete), there is a poll on my profile page.

But before you go there, make sure to read and drop a review :D I love all my readers :D :D :D **

"Hisui. When are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Hisui sighed as she turned away from her father, Toma Fiore. King of Fiore, and the mastermind behind her arranged marriage to Natsu Dragneel. The fire dragon slayer who she was currently royally pissed off at.

She'd expected him to be excited about her announcement. She'd even thought it could be the catalyst that would help him recognize his feelings for her. But no. Instead he'd been shocked. Horrified even. Was she that revolting to him that the thought of having a child with her affected him that way?

"You need to tell me sometime," her father's voice cut through her thoughts. "You've been this way since Natsu left on his guild's last job request, and it's been affecting your duties."

"I don't think it's affected my duties," she retorted. Sure, the fresh image of the shock and horror painted on her husband's face was still fresh in her mind, but that didn't mean the way she did business changed. After all, there was nothing that she did as the princess of Fiore that required her to actually be happy.

"Maybe you don't think so, but everyone else can see it clearly." Toma reprimanded her. "Even in the way that you greet nobles and dignitaries you were once very close to. You're not as open or cheerful as you used to be with them."

"Who says I always have to be cheerful around these people?" Hisui turned away again. "They're just spoiled rich kids who were born into wealth and status."

"Those 'spoiled rich kids' provide much of the wealth and trade for our kingdom," Toma replied, moving around so that he was in her field of view again. "And though you may have forgotten it, you aren't exactly much different."

"At least I took some time to get out there among the common people," Hisui replied earnestly.

Toma sighed. "Look, I'm going to drop this for now because it's not really important. I know well enough that these aren't your real reasons for acting differently. So I'm asking you again, what happened between you and Natsu that has you so angry?"

"What makes you think this has anything to do with my husband?" She growled, turning away from him again.

"Your response right here for one," Toma replied. "But as I said, your change in attitude started the day Natsu Dragneel headed out on that latest job request with his team, and it's been getting steadily worse since."

"Maybe I'm just not happy about him going on a job with his guild."

"Is that the reason you're so unhappy? Because if it is I can make sure he doesn't do any more job requests."

Hisui frowned, looking at the ground. "No. I miss him when he's gone, but I don't mind him going on requests. I know that's how he tries to get stronger."

"So what is it?" Toma pressed, clearly unwilling to let this go.

"If you really need to know, father, I announced something to him when he left. Something I thought he would be happy about. But he wasn't. In fact, if I had to guess I'd say he was actually pretty horrified."

Toma's brow furrowed for a moment, but then it settled into something that Hisui recognized as understanding with a hint of sadness. "What did you tell him?" He asked quietly.

"I simply told him that I've been off my contraceptives for a while, and I missed my period last month…"

He didn't look surprised to hear that answer. "Ah. Congratulations to you then, my daughter."

Now it was her turn to be inquisitive. "You didn't seem at all surprised to hear that, father. Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"What? Oh. No. Just… don't judge Natsu too harshly. I'm sure he had his reasons for reacting the way he did."

"And you really have no idea what those reasons are?"

Toma turned away from her. "Just try to forget it happened that way. If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure he'll apologize to you as soon as he comes back."

"What would make me feel better is knowing what this is about." Hisui felt the anger building within her. She could tell her father knew exactly why Natsu reacted the way he did. And she wasn't happy to discover that both her father and her husband were keeping secrets from her.

Her father sighed. "I'm sorry, but I think it's better for you to remain unaware of the reasons for Natsu's behavior…"

She couldn't believe him. Better for her? Who was he to decide what was better for her when it came to her husband, and apparently her child? She forced her heart rate to slow. Her breathing to even out. She forced her brain away from anger and into solutions. She needed to know. There had to be a way to get her father to tell her.

"Fine…" She said after a few minutes. "If that's really what you want, I'll just refuse to speak to Natsu when he gets back until he caves. Maybe I'll even take a separate room…"

"You can't do that!" She heard the worried edge to the king's voice. "You know how Natsu would react. He wouldn't be able to focus on anything till your relationship was resolved!"

"Exactly," she said flipping her hair back with a grin.

Toma sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I guess I'll tell you why Natsu was so upset to hear that you were pregnant…. Basically, there's a major threat that he's going to have to face, and it's tied to the birth of your first child."

"What threat?" She pressed.

The king sighed. "If you and the baby are to live, he's going to have to defeat—"

Suddenly the door burst open. "Princess!" A guard blurted, but was cut off by a sharp elbow by another guard. This guard bowed deeply.

"I apologize for the interruption your majesty, your highness," he said respectfully. "But we have just received alarming news concerning the prince."

"Natsu?" Hisui instantly forgot the current conversation. "What's happened to Natsu?!"

The guard kept his head down as he answered. "The reports were very brief, your highness, but it appears that one of the prince's former enemies infiltrated the guild and attempted to assassinate him. He's currently in a comatose state at the local healer's hut in Phaela."

Hisui's eyes widened in shock as she took in the news. Natsu's own guild mate tried to assassinate him? Maybe she needed to insist that he refrain from going on job requests after all. This never would've happened if he stayed at the palace with her.

"How long do they think he'll be asleep?" She asked, fearful of the answer.

"They don't know," replied the guard. "They said if not for Wendy, the sky dragon slayer, he would've been dead long ago. But he could be out for as little as a week or as long as a year."

Hisui's face paled at that response. A year? He was definitely never going on a job request with his guild again! How could they let this happen to him? How could they bring an assassin in their midst? She was going to have a pointed talk with Natsu's regular team.

"I need to go to him," she said quietly. "Inform Arcadios that I require him to accompany me to Phaela."

"I'll send the Garou knights as well," Toma said. "If anyone else has heard that Natsu is injured, it's likely they'll try to take advantage of this to get to him through you."

Soon Hisui was on the way to the town of Phaela, escorted by her small, though powerful, entourage.

~~~~~~Fairy Tail~~~~~~

"What do you mean you don't know when you'll be back?" Makarov asked, frowning at the communications lacrima in his hand. "I thought you completed the request successfully."

"We did," Erza's voice sounded strained as it came through the lacrima. "But we ran into some problems, and the short of it is Natsu's pretty badly injured."

Makarov paled. Nobody wants to hear that the prince of the realm was injured while in the care of his guild. "How… how bad was it?"

"Wendy managed to heal him, but the doctors don't know when he'll wake up. They say two weeks would be optimistic."

"And how long do they think is realistic?"

"They don't know for sure," Erza's voice sounded tired. "But up to a year."

"A YEAR?!"" Makarov gulped, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "Erza, the last thing I need right now is for the royal family to be angry at us."

"I apologize for this failure, master. You may strike me when I return."

Makarov clenched his fists in frustration. "That won't help anything. Just how powerful was the fire drake? I would've figured Natsu could take care of it without much difficulty."

"The drake wasn't a problem, master." Erza said, her voice agitated. "Which brings me to the other matter of which I must inform you. It seems that Katya wasn't who she seemed to be. As soon as Natsu and Wendy finished dealing with the fire drake, Katya… Well, stabbed Natsu while his back was to her. Only shortly after that we found out she wasn't really a 'her.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Makarov sweat-dropped.

"Ummm… Basically… Katya was actually Jiemma and transformed into 'Katya' just to join Fairy Tail and kill Natsu. Gotta' go. Bye." Erza said really fast before they were disconnected.

Makarov took a moment to process the information that was just fired rapidly at him before his face slowly started to become red with anger. "WHAT?!" He screamed at the disconnected lacrima.

"Dear Kami, I was hitting on Jiemma!" Macao and Wakaba looked extremely horrified. It would've been funny if it weren't for the situation they were in.

"Do you realize what this means? We sent an assassin out with our team and he almost succeeded in killing the realm's prince!" Makarov wailed. "With the way the council feels about us, having the king on our side was the best thing we had going for us too!"

~~~~~~Phaela~~~~~~

"Your highness!" Lucy exclaimed, getting up and bowing slightly. She then nudged Gray, who did the same.

"No need to be so formal Lucy, Gray." Hisui said as she came in. Arcadios and the Garou knights were positioned outside the building. "Where is my husband?"

Lucy pointed to a hallway to the right. "He's down there. Last door."

"Thank you," Hisui quickly made her way down the hall to the last door. As she was about to open it, she heard a female voice on the other side.

"I'm sorry Natsu… If we hadn't brought Katya along this never would've happened. It's all my fault you're here…"

Opening the door slowly and cautiously, she stepped in to see Erza sitting beside Natsu's bed. Though her long, scarlet hair covered most of her face, Hisui could see the tears that still dripped slowly down her cheek. Her hand's clasped one of Natsu's tightly, as though she were trying by sheer willpower to awaken the pink-haired dragon slayer from his coma.

Hisui moved slowly up to the bedside, looking down at Natsu. His features seemed a little pale, but she silently thanked the gods to see his chest rising and falling gently. He was breathing. He was stable. So he could recover.

Her sigh of relief must've alerted Erza to her presence, because the scarlet-haired mage turned to face her before letting out a startled gasp. "Your highness!" She instantly moved away from the bed.

"How is he?" Hisui asked, not looking up from Natsu. She wasn't sure what to think at the moment. She felt a very deep bond with Fairy Tail after the events with the eclipse gate, and for that reason she felt a measure of respect and friendship toward Erza. But her guild – her team – were the ones that brought the assassin that almost killed her husband out. And she'd just seen her in a near intimate moment with Natsu. Damn pregnancy hormones. I shouldn't have this much trouble remaining calm…

"He'll… He'll recover, your highness. Please forgive me for allowing him to be put in danger."

Hisui remained motionless, still staring at her husband's figure on the bed. She wanted to cry out. To scream at the woman and her team mates for bringing Natsu into such a dangerous situation. But she was the princess. She needed to hold it together. She worked to keep her voice steady, but failed to completely do so as she said. "Please leave me alone with my husband now."

"Y-yes your highness," Erza quickly left the room, letting the door close hard behind her. Hisui waited till she was out before taking the chair, allowing her head to fold onto Natsu's chest as the tears finally came.

"Natsu, please come back to me… I still don't fully understand why you acted the way you did, but I don't want those to be my last words to you…" Her eyes closed as she remembered her harsh words as they parted. Maybe I made a mistake marrying you…

The steady beat of his heart was comforting. But with the warmth naturally exuded by his body it threatened to lull her to sleep. She raised her head a little, looking down at his calm features.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there before she heard the knock on the door. "Come in," she said quietly. Arcadios entered, bowing to her as he approached.

"Forgive me for the intrusion, your highness, but the healer said it will be safe to transport the prince back to the capital in two days time."

"Two days?" Hisui looked back at Natsu, concerned by this information. "He looks like he should be healed enough to transport already."

"I think it would be wise to heed the healer's instructions," Arcadios said. "But there's no need to be alarmed. The Garou knights will be here, and I will inform the Fairy Tail guild members they will also be required to stay until we're able to move the prince."

"Thanks Arcadios," Hisui said. "If that's all, you can go now."

Hisui looked at the small timepiece she carried with her. It was only 3 hours past noon. So why did she feel so exhausted? Could it be that even though she was barely more than a month pregnant, it was already affecting her this much physically and emotionally? She sighed softly. A large part of her wanted to crawl into bed next to her husband's warm body and get a few hours of sleep before dinner. Another part screamed that if she wanted to retain her dignity as princess she must resist the urge to do something as undignified as taking a nap like a little kid. Plus, now she was mad at him for almost getting himself killed.

But the bed looked so comfortable… And it felt like forever since she'd slept next to her dragon. And sleep just sounded soooo good right now. Especially as she watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his muscular chest, half obscured by the bandages.

In the end, her heavy eyelids won the battle, and she crawled slowly into bed next to the dragon slayer, not caring that it would probably wrinkle her dress. She laid her had gently on his chest and allowed his warmth to pull her into dream world.

~~~~~~A Week Later~~~~~~

Hisui came into the room that she shared with Natsu to find Wendy sitting next to his bed again. The young dragon slayer had barely done anything else since they got back from the small town of Phaela. She even refused to go exploring again with Happy and Carla on many occasions. Hisui could tell that Wendy blamed herself for his current condition, even though she was the reason that he was still alive.

"I'm sure he'll be back to his usual self soon enough," she told the bluenette as she came in. "Natsu's not the type to give in to anything."

"You're right," Wendy said, her usual smile gracing her features. "It would take a lot more than this to put Natsu-nii down."

Hisui frowned, remembering what her father told her about the dragon slayer's reaction to her revelation of the child she was carrying. What upcoming test or challenge could cause Natsu to look so horrified? What could he possibly be afraid of? This was the same Natsu who shouted out a message of encouragement when they faced the dragons that came through the eclipse gate. The same Natsu that rushed off to face Zeref himself in the war with Alvarez. What in Earthland could that Natsu possibly be afraid of? And how was it related to the birth of their child?

"Nee-chan, please don't judge Natsu-nii too harshly." Wendy's voice cut through her thoughts. "I don't understand it myself, but I know Natsu-nii well enough to believe that his reaction wasn't what it appeared to be."

"You heard that?" Hisui asked, surprised. Wendy had been a good distance from them at the time. In fact, Hisui was pretty sure she'd already started heading for the palace gates.

"I'm a dragon slayer too," Wendy said, looking at the ground.

Of course. She forgot that this girl was a dragon slayer like Natsu, and could probably hear, see, and smell much more than the average person. She sighed, looking down at the sleeping form of her husband. Even though her father gave her reason to believe that Wendy was right, the pain of hearing those words from his lips pushed her to demand more. She'd all but forgotten it when she first received the news of his injuries, but now that he was stable and she had a lot of time to herself, the memories seemed fresh again.

"If he really had a good reason, don't you think he would've told me beforehand?" She said quietly. "Instead of waiting till I made the announcement, shouldn't he have let me in on whatever this is? This is my future too, not just his, dammit! If there's something that he's afraid of, I should know about it! I'm his wife. How could he keep a secret so big from me?!"

"He probably believes it's for your own good…" Wendy deduced quietly.

Hisui clenched her hands in frustration. "How is it for my own good?" She almost yelled. "If this is really something so serious, maybe it would've affected my decision to stop taking my birth control! I thought we were ready for a child! I was even hoping this would bring us together!"

Wendy continued to look at the floor, the smile long since gone from her face. "I'm sorry Hisui-san." She said quietly. "I'm sure Natsu-nii will explain it to you when he wakes up."

Hisui frowned. It hurt a little for the girl who just recently was comfortable enough to refer to her as a sister to revert to a more formal honorific. But she didn't deserve to be treated like a child by her father, and especially by Natsu. If this was important enough to affect their thinking on her children, she should've been aware of it.

"I'm going to the gardens," she said a little curtly. "Please inform me if my idiot husband wakes up."

Not waiting to hear a response, she headed to the royal gardens to try and clear her mind again. She almost hoped he didn't wake up today. She wasn't sure she was ready to deal with it yet. He infuriated her. First he conspired with her father to keep some big secret that affected her and her future children. Then he went off and nearly got himself killed with a bunch of his old friends from the guild. Just when she thought they were finally connecting, she learned that, at the very least, he was holding back. He didn't trust her fully. She hoped, no prayed, that she wouldn't have to confront these feelings again till she had time to sleep again.

She'd just stepped into the gardens when a guard came rushing in after her. She froze as she turned around, almost terrified to hear the only news that would send a member of the royal guard to her in such a rush.

"Your highness! Prince Natsu just awakened!"

**So there it is. Natsu is awake, but how will his return to consciousness pan out for him? Will he be able to handle Hisui's wrath?

Dear kami, I'm starting to sound like a random anime voice at the end of an episode of DBZ. Somebody shoot me.

NO WAIT! I DIDN'T MEAN LITERALLY! STOP!

AT LEAST LEAVE A REVIEW BEFORE I DIE!

X.X