Summary: AU! Lucy is a typical eighteenth century socialite while Natsu is your typical Highway Man. Or are they?

Pairings: Natsu/Lucy!

YouTube Prompt: a tribute to Fairy Tail to Celine Dion's 'Because You Loved Me' because…well the song is about people who love one another being each other's strength and isn't that what Fairy Tail is all about anyway?

Lucy was on her way home from Court. She couldn't wait! She hated the stuffy, overbearing, Court with their tyrannical rules about how one should speak, or walk, or dress, or even how one went to the bathroom. Lucy always felt like she lived in a gilded cage at Court….well it was no different at home but at least at home she wouldn't have to wait on the Queen's permission to pee!

Her Father had chosen to stay at Court, as he usually did to keep favour with the King, and continue making political connections with the new Prime Minister. Undoubtedly he was seeking for some lord to become her husband but he was so critical that would likely take another year or two at least, and therefore this allowed Lucy a large amount of freedom she would usually never have.

She took in the lovely countryside as her carriage flew across the bumpy road, rocking, shuddering, and even pausing on a particularly large stone here or there, it was rather exciting as she bounced up and down in the carriage. Her lady's maid Aries, didn't seem to think so as she looked rather green round the edges of her beautiful and delicate face. Her other maid, Virgo seemed unmoved by the whole exciting ride as she seemed unmoved by everything.

Virgo would make a wonderful lady in Court, her indifference would be something to aspire to.

Suddenly the carriage halted to stop. Lucy almost fell out of her seat if it hadn't been for Virgo's arms catching her. "Thank you, Virgo," she said as the pink-haired maid helped her back into her seat.

"It was no problem, Hime," Virgo said monotonously, "but I didn't catch you as quickly as I should. Should I be punished?"

Before Lucy could tell her maid that she shouldn't keep asking for punishment each and every single time she did something that she (Virgo, not Lucy) thought was wrong, as she had many times before, there was an ominous clicking noise outside. Lucy, cautiously, peered round the window to see – oh Lord! A Highway Man!

"Stand and deliver!"

The man was dressed completely in black and held out two guns in each hand. Taurus, her driver, would have no choice but to step aside and allow them to be robbed. He may be big, and strong, and lethal with an axe, but he wasn't quick and he needed to be fast to evade a gun.

The Highway Man approached them and Lucy couldn't help but note he wasn't very tall for a man. Perhaps only a few heads taller than her but she has definitely met taller men. He made up for this with his lean yet somewhat muscular body (there was only so much a loose shirt and cloak could hide), and he, like her maids, had pink hair as well, but his was a darker, more vibrant, shade, and he tried to hide it by yanking it into a ponytail with black ribbon and shoving a hat on it. He looked amusing and yet oddly alluring at the same time…

His hand landed on the door on the carriage with a loud thump. Aries screamed and Virgo calmly pulled out a large hunting rifle from underneath the seats, Lucy didn't blink an eye at that ,she had gotten used to her indifferent maid being able to do odd things like that.

"No," she chided her maid gently, she didn't want this to turn into a duel with guns. "It's all right."

He opened the door and then bowed down at her mockingly. She could tell, his lips were twitching in amusement, and his eyes were bright with sort of jeering cheer. "My Lady," he said courteously enough for a thief "If I may."

"I suppose I have no other choice, do I?" she raised an eyebrow at him. He merely smirked n return which she easily translated as no, she did not have a choice. If she resisted she had no doubt he'll apply force on her to get what he wanted. "Very well," she held out her hand and he took it swiftly into his own and pressed her knuckles to his lips.

She tried to smother a gasp. His very hand dwarfed hers as expected but it was incredibly warm, and she could feel the callouses and burns that suggested a working man as he indecently wore no gloves! And his lips! The mere brush of them seemed to set her skin on fire. This man seemed to be burning and it seemed highly unfair.

He gently pulled her out of the carriage and guided her behind some trees away from the road. She had to admit, she was nervous, after all what if he was going to do something to her virtue?

"Is it necessary to take me behind the trees and bushes?" she blurted out without much thought. "If you are going to rob me surely the open road is just as a good."

"I wouldn't want to something your modesty and virtue," he mumbled, not looking at her at all.

She blinked in confusion at that. "I beg your pardon?"

He shrugged. "Something Erza kept lecturing us on," he said, "I don't understand it but apparently the others have…erm, taken liberty with the women they have robbed." She flushed at the implication but he seemed oblivious to it. Instead he just waved a hand out to her demandingly. "Valuable goods," he ordered with the imperialism of King George. "Now!"

She carefully took out her ruby earrings, and the matching pendant her Father had given her for her fifteenth birthday, and then slipped off her bracelet, and the two rings that she wore. Those she regretted. They had been her mother's. He glared at her knowingly and she sighed, obviously she was not the first who had hoped to fob him off with a few jewels.

She gently took out the clasps in her hair that were easily disguised as the gold blended with her hair and placed them in his hand. He dumped them, and the rest of her jewels, uncaringly in a satchel. "I still think you're lying to me," he muttered darkly. He then began to feel her for money. His large, warm, hands scorching their way through her many layers as he patted her waist and then slid his hands up to her breasts, squeezing them boldly. She slapped him hard for that.

Those are not valuable goods!"

He smirked. "They are to me," and for some reason she believed they were, and not because they were a pair of female anatomy but because they were hers. "Now, strip!"

"WHAT/!"

"Your dress," he rolled his eyes beneath the black mask that was wrapped round them. Her own couldn't help but be captivated by the odd shade of green. She had never seen that colour of eyes before. "It could probably feed a whole village for a month. The silk alone…"

Lucy had to agree with that. Her dress was a rich, pink, silk, and embroidered with gold thread, embedded with pearls, and encrusted with jewels within the flowery embroidery. Can you believe this was the simplest dress she owned? Well the simplest her Father would allow her to wear. Her plain cotton ones were not to be seen outside the house.

"Probably could," she finally vocalised her agreement. He seemed startled that she would agree but then perhaps many he robbed didn't agree on the principal that they were busy being robbed. She suddenly had a rising suspicion that none of the things he steals were kept for himself. Perhaps it was her imagination getting the better of her but she was beginning to believe he was a Robin Hood character come to life. "Fine!" she huffed in order to disguise her sudden curiosity and longing to learn more about him. It cannot be helped he was literally the most exciting thing that has ever happened in her life. "But you'll have to help."

She then turned her back to him and waited impatiently for him to undo her ties. He laughed at her and leaned in, his hands once again scorched her as he carefully undid the laces of her stomacher, his mouth definitely burnt her ear as it brushed against her lobe as he spoke.

"You're not like most ladies," his voice went deep and low at that, somewhat seductively, "most would have screamed and fainted by now, and they would have definitely worn those stupid big wigs covered in food."

Lucy's lips twitched at that. Those terrible wigs were considered the height of fashion. Lucy, herself, was considered unfashionable because she kept her natural hair uncovered. Why would a young lady want to wear a grey wig? No matter how many fruits, jewels, ribbons, and feathers that decorated it, it still made a woman look old.

He lips skimmed her neck and she jumped. "No silly paint on your face either," he said admiringly. "I was beginning to think all rich ladies were fools.

She agreed with him on that point as well. So many covered their faces with thick white paint with thick red on their lips and black, fake, beauty marks as if that would make them as beautiful as Aphrodite. It made Lucy even more unfashionable that she insisted on her natural appearance but in Lucy's opinion it meant she was far more beautiful than half the ladies of the Court.

Finally her dress was yanked down to reveal her ridiculous layers of petticoats, and her padding for her hips and bottom, and her corset.

He burst out into childish laughter at the sight of her, and although she blushed, she couldn't help but laugh with him. It was ridiculous.

"And you're not like most Highway Men," she observed, "I am certain that most are cut-throat and dangerous but you have been nothing but polite, kind, and rather amusing."

"I can so be dangerous and cut-throat!" he said indignantly. There was something so delightfully childish at that exclamation that Lucy giggled. "I can!" he insisted. "Watch!" and he then pulled out a dagger from the sleeve of his shirt and hacked away at her layers, pulling them off as if they were made out of the fragile tissue paper Virgo usually packed them in, rather than strong and fine linin.

Finally the last of her hindering layers were gone and she was left solely in her shift. It was simple, white, and very light in comparison to everything she had worn above it. Lucy felt embarrassed and terribly naked now as she felt the smallest of breezes go up her legs and onto her backside.

The Highway Man's mouth dropped open and he seemed stunned at the very sight of her. His eyes were black from the dilated pupils and he didn't seem to be breathing he stood so still and motionless.

He then reached out and brushed the strands of her hair out of her face….and that was when the last remaining shreds of their control shattered….

There was a rustle from the bushes and Virgo, Taurus, and Aries looked up eagerly only to see Lady Lucy, dressed only in her shift, being helped onto a horse by the Highway Man, before he too clambered on, and suddenly they disappeared from view.

It didn't surprise Virgo at all that Lucy ran off with the Highway Man….though she did wonder how to explain this all to her father.