Igneel is reading a book at his dad chair next to the fireplace, sighing contentedly when Natsu comes flying into the room, "Dad! DAD!"
He groans and looks up to see his son in disarray, "yes, son, the prince of my Kingdom, what can I do for you," he asks with an amused expression. In answer, Natsu points to his hair.
"How the hell do you do this? I look like a rat, like how-,"
"Aw, but an adorable rat that you just want to put out of its misery," the two turn to the doorway where a shirtless man with black hair and grey splotched wings stood, arms crossed with a seemingly eternally annoyed face.
"About time you got here Ice Princess, I need help, where have you been? I need to get Lucy in like less than an hour" and with that, and a few shoves and jabs, the two boys were gone.
"They grow up so fast," Igneel mutters into his book.
"Dude, you need to calm down," a long-haired rocker with millions of piercings said while ruffling through Natsu's wardrobe.
"I agree, maybe a steaming cup of ass-kicking would help," Grey added, unhelpfully.
"Can you shut the fuck up? You need to just help me, I need new hair,"
Grey rolls his eyes, "you have fine hair bro, you just need my help," he pulled a strand of hair straight out and inspected it, "maybe a little bit of moisturizing? Am I doing this right, Gajeel?"
"If you're asking, then it's a no. Do these go together?" Gajeel asked, bringing out a leather jacket and, somehow, leather pants,"
"Pfft, um, buddy, I don't think so, 'if you're asking it's a no',"
"Can you two maybe switch positions?" Natsu asked, earning two incredulous stares, "what!? All you guys do is ask each other for help anyways, just, do what you know how to do," He looks up at Grey and rolls his eyes, "I mean, other than stripping,"
"Oh, shit,"
"Yeah, that'd probably help a lot actually, What the hell,"
"The Princess's making him smarter already,"
After some time, the two lead Natsu to a mirror to see if their teamwork actually worked. Natsu stretches his arms out, "Damn, I look good in a suit," he says with a grin that falters for a second, "I should've stretched my wings beforehand,"
"You can go a few hours without it, just don't think about it too much," Gajeel pats his shoulder.
"Thanks guys, knew I could count on you,"
"Yeah, no problem, just give us a little heads up next time, not call us thirty minutes beforehand, flamebrain,"
After a long internal argument about taking transportation instead of flying, Natsu decides against it. He'd rather walk anyways. When he (finally) arrives at the Fairy Castle, he can't help but be struck in awe by how easy it is to approach, it only has one single gate, which he rings and is immediately buzzed in, and makes his way up the path to the Castle.
Lucy is outside waiting in a lightweight long pink dress, "Hey there," she smiles, "you're a little late,"
"Walked," he says, a shy smile forming.
"Why?"
"Couldn't ruin this suit, Grey would kill me, and me and vehicles don't mesh," he says, "And walking is nice, the country's beautiful,"
"It really is," she sighs, and jumps like she just remembered something, "You have to meet my father, and say goodbye, and our reservation are gone now I would presume,"
"Yes, the princess would be turned away, of course,"
"I'd rather not use my position to cut in front of others," she says with a small smile and puts her hand on the doorknob before opening the door, immediately running into Jude.
"Oh, hello Natsu, nice to see you again," he outstretches his hand.
"Hi King Jude," he replied, taking his hand, "we're heading out and are going to wait in the line over at the big restaurant down the road, our reservations are void because I was late," he says, rubbing the back of his neck and his ears turning pink.
"Oh, then just stay here, we have an amazing cook and I would love to get to know you, son,"
"Oh, uh," he looks at Lucy,
"Well, dad, we-"
"That'd be great! Right, Luce? I wanna get to know your old man too," he looks back up at Jude, smiling.
"Delightful," Jude replies, walking towards the dining area.
Lucy looks up at Natsu and whispers, "sorry, he's very… convincing," she smirks.
Besides a few awkward topics, mainly politics, and pauses, the dinner went on without a hitch, Jude in between the two, and Lucy trying to keep topics lighthearted. After an hour and a half, dinner is over and Lucy decides to walk Natsu to the edge of the "Fairy Realm," as Natsu had called it.
They stood, the Fairy Princess on her side, and the Dragon Prince on his.
"I'm sorry you're stuck with me," Natsu blurts, "like, I know you can say no, but our dads wouldn't like it so I don't know-"
"Hey, Natsu?" she cuts him off, mid brain-dump.
"Yeah?" he says, quietly, almost scared of what was coming.
"I know the truth now, we both do, and we can either fight it, or come to love it," her eyes flicker down to his lips, "We'll be fine. I should go, it's been very fun, thank you,"
And with that, she turns away and starts walking. "I'll see ya around!" He calls after her.
He hears her laughter, like bells, "yeah, Natsu, I'll see you soon,"
He practically runs his way home, up the stairs to his room and out onto his balcony to admire the lights emanating from the Fairy Kingdom which seem to always be a constant landmark. "Stupid, I'm so stupid, I could've kissed her, could I? Urgh, I don't know how to deal with-"
He was cut off by a series of groans from behind him. He whipped around to see a taller, hunched over man in a black cloak, "What do you want," he demands.
The man looks up at him, locks of black hair stuck to his forehead in sweat, and a pained smirk on his face "Hey little bro," he chokes out and promptly falls into Natsu's arms.