Hey. Sorry this one's just a bit of a filler to help build some stuff and whatnot. Anyway you know the deal.
Natsu surveyed the room as several of the guards began to move away from him. He noted that one contingent of guards quickly ran to their comrade. He rolled his eyes as they grouped around him. Had they not just learned their lesson? Natsu groaned as one of them rushed forward. He was, however, surprised when the aforementioned guard was stopped. Natsu recognized the pointy nosed man as he held out his blade in front of the guard. He didn't seem to be interested in fighting. Natsu brushed it off. The least he could do was be cordial.
"Natsu Dragneel was it?" the man spoke quickly but carefully, "we were briefly introduced earlier. You may recall my name is Arcadios, captain of the Royal Guard and personal knight of the Princess Hisui. As a representative of Fiore, I must apologize to you."
Natsu rubbed the back of his head. This was taking a strange turn, "For what?"
"You have unfortunately been caught in the midst of an ongoing power struggle between the King and his council," Arcadios spoke, "I wasn't able to put a stop to the trial earlier as the king had not been informed of the situation. As soon as he understood what was occurring, I was ordered to halt this trial to try and avoid further diplomatic incident."
"And what does that mean exactly?" Natsu asked as several of the guards started to look around between each other.
"The king has requested your presence in his chambers to issue an official apology on behalf of the country of Fiore and you will be allowed to make a request of him. So long as he finds it reasonable, he will fulfill this wish."
Natsu blinked. This was an interesting turn. He smiled good naturedly and laughed, "Works for me."
"If you would accompany me, we will go see the king," Arcadios said cordially.
"Sure but I need to find my friend first," Natsu said as he looked around.
"You mean Mirajane Strauss, correct?" Natsu nodded, "Then she will be there. She and Princess Hisui both left some time ago in order to avoid any... issues that may have stemmed from the council's overzealousness."
Natsu nodded dumbly and went along with it. He was no stranger to the will of the council being different from the will of the king. With dragons, it was just a bit more fun, "I take it the king doesn't like his council?"
Arcadios had a slight grin as he spoke, "What king is?"
Natsu smiled as the two were quickly escorted out of the room towards a separate hall. He noted the way that this hall seemed to have far more valuables and the way that there were guards stationed every ten or so feet. A part of him was glad to see it. His draconic side slightly bristled because that meant they didn't think him worthy of using the nicer passages. Oh well. There were certainly worse things to be done. Natsu grinned as the guards stood a bit taller whenever he walked by. Some of them tried to look stoic while others looked at him with curiosity. A few looked bored but he couldn't blame them. He couldn't imagine there was much worse than having to stand around all day in armor just to go to sleep and wake up and do it again.
His eyes wandered to the large set of doors at the end of the hallway but quickly diverted his attention elsewhere as he was steered down several other different passages and halls. He was glad he didn't live here. He easily strolled behind his escort and barely batted an eye as the doors swung open. Grandiosity was nothing new to the prince of dragons. He stared at the room in front of him. He glanced around before locking onto the relatively short man seated at the throne. He hardly reached Natsu's waist and Natsu wasn't even that tall. He had a kind face that was riddled with age and stress lines. He seemed pleasant enough and he had a rather wide grin plastered on his face. Natsu imagined he might like this guy. Now the question was: Where was Mirajane?
Sure he could have figured it out himself but the guards did that for him as someone announced the entry of both the princess and Natsu's barmaid. He glance over in the direction of the footsteps and wasn't exactly surprised to see the two talking animatedly. She'd always been rather personable. He grinned a bit as the platinum blonde looked at him and smiled. Natsu's ear pricked as he heard Mira say his name. The princess glanced over at him and seemed a bit embarrassed. He shrugged it off and fixed his eyes on the throne. He noted that the throne-room and throne itself didn't seem to show the same opulence as the rest of the castle.
He had the sneaking suspicion that the king was not like the pompous brat he'd met earlier. That was good. Natsu was quickly proven right as everything began to settle down. The king had insisted that they all sit over dinner and relax due to the "stressful circumstances of Natsu's arrival". Natsu wasn't one to complain about free food and quickly found himself being escorted off to a room so he could refresh himself before dinner in an hour. As the doors behind him closed, he rolled his eyes. He'd been allowed to talk to Mirajane briefly before they'd both been steered in separate directions. Apparently she was going to be with Hisui in her personal chambers. Natsu was unsure what that entailed but he shrugged it off. That left him alone in a rather large room.
Well, Natsu thought as he yawned, there was never a better time to take a shower. Sure he'd taken one earlier but since he'd discovered them several weeks ago, he'd been rather obsessed with them. As a kid, he'd just gotten in rivers. While it was nice, something about the water felt quite nice and relaxing. Mirajane had laughed at him when she found out. Natsu smiled a bit as he thought about his friend. He briefly recognized that he was, once again, thinking about his best friend but easily moved past it. He knew exactly why so it didn't exactly bother him. He had said he was going to be proactive about talking to her about it. Besides, it wasn't as if he was un-based in his assumptions about her feelings. The more that he thought about it, the more sure he became. This was his best friend after all and if he knew her as well as he thought, there was no way she'd let him get away with the things that he did. And even more so, there was no way she'd do some of the things she did if she didn't have any form of feelings.
At the very least, Natsu found solace in the fact that regardless of his own feelings, Mira's would be completely her own. As such, he didn't have to worry about his own magic influencing her in any way. He grinned as he thought about it. He'd never been one to plan things but he was perfectly willing to make an exception. While he was sure that Mirajane would be happy even if he just sat her down and talked about it that night, he was also sure that there were better ways to go about it. While he was certain she wouldn't want something grandiose or overly complicated, he felt that he owed it to her to do his best to make it special.
He tilted his head back into the warm water and sighed in content. He imagined he still had most of his time left and so he simply let his thoughts wander as he let the water beat down on him. Dragons were really missing out. Maybe he could convince Igneel to have one built for him when he went back. Natsu's eyes cracked open as he began the process of washing himself. He briefly recalled his first time with human soap as he ran the bar across his skin. Mirajane had described it as a bar of rendered animal fat and he'd promptly attempted to take a bite out of the bar. It was not as tasty as he thought it would be. He grinned at the memory before running his hands through his hair and standing in the running water for a bit. Mmm. He could get used to this honestly. Maybe buying a house wouldn't be such a bad idea.
He stared warily at the controls for the shower. Did he really want to get out? He groaned and turned the knobs until the flow of water was stemmed. Oh well. He stepped out of the shower and easily flared his magic. The sound of water hissing filled the room as steam cascaded off of him before rising up to fill the room. He had always liked the way that the steam looked. It was one of his small indulgences in life. He grinned as he opened the door of the bathroom to change. While he could have changed in the bathroom, he'd always found that the steam he created got trapped in his clothes which was a bit annoying. As he walked out the door he went about pulling a fresh set of clothes out of his requip dimension. It was at this point that he became acutely aware of the sound of breathing. And the sound of blood rushing to someone's face. He turned to the bed near the back of the room and blinked. His best friend and a princess were sitting on it. Hisui's face was flushed a brilliant red and Mirajane seemed to be staring at him rather unabashedly.
"Uh," Natsu said as he rubbed the back of his head, "Why are you guys in my room?"
Hisui started to say something but couldn't stop herself from stuttering. She eventually shook her head and buried her face in her hands. Mirajane giggled a bit before seem otherwise unbothered. He easily began pulling on his pants before turning back to the two. He was unsure how to interpret the look on Mirajane's face. Was she upset about something? No she seemed more contemplative. Maybe she was disappointed? Natsu brushed it off and went about clothing himself. He turned to look out the window as he slipped into a fitted shirt. It was a nice view. The scenery seemed quite nice. He had an excellent view over the gardens and a decent portion of Crocus in general. He looked back over his shoulder and grinned at his friend before making his way over to the bed. He easily plopped himself down at the edge so he could face the two.
He sent a questioning glance at Mira and cocked his head in Hisui's direction. She just shrugged and grinned a bit. He did the same before reaching out and carefully poking Hisui's arm. She looked up carefully but as soon as she locked eyes with Natsu she blushed bright red. Mirajane laughed heartily and he smiled easily. They never did answer his question.
