Summary: Rewrite of Cinderella. Natsu shall go to the ball!
Pairings: Mira/Natsu friendship, Natsu/Lucy, implied Loke/Lucy, implied Juvia/Gray, implied Happy/Charle, mentions of Natsu/Lucy/Happy friendship, implied Gray/Lucy, implied Gajeel/Levy, implied one-sided Jet/Levy/Droy, implied Jellal/Erza, implied one-sided Ichiya/Erza, but mostly just Natsu/Lucy.
Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for giving me over TWENTY FOUR HUNDRED reviews, and so quickly since we reached twenty three hundred as well! I'm so grateful and happy to know you're enjoying this so much.
Natsu was irritated, frustrated, exhausted, and knowing that these morons were making him miss the ball really pissed him off.
It's been a year since Zeref's and his demons defeat, and Fairy Tail has never been more popular. More importantly (irritatingly) Natsu has never been more popular. He was in high demand for virtually every single fucking job and it was beginning to take its toll. Especially since he couldn't take Lucy for the last five since she too was in high demand in other places.
It had been two weeks since he had seen Lucy. Two weeks! And now he was going to miss the newly made traditional ball (as of this year, they were all in agreement on this….okay, the boys and Cana wanted an all-night rave to celebrate the year since the greatest evil was destroyed but they were somehow out voted by the girls and Freed….he can't remember how but he strongly suspected being able to see down Lucy's top influenced his vote….) because of these fucking bandits that just had to be stopped now and not next week, Damnit!
Now his Lucy was at a party, probably looking really pretty in a nice dress, and he wasn't there to ensure that no sleazy arsehole made a move on her. He just bets Loke was dancing with her now and trying to put his hands where he shouldn't while pretending to be a charming prince.
Grr!
With a furious snarl and an impatient growl, Natsu whirled round and knocked the rest of the bandits out…..and then fried them a bit just to make sure they were definitely out. With a satisfied grunt, he piled them up and was ready to drag their arses to the council's local headquarters to claim his reward money when he saw something strange.
A small, bright, white light started to bob up and down in the air, getting brighter and bigger the closer it got to him until -
"Hello Natsu!"
Mira appeared, big beautiful smile on her face, and the most hideous, sparkly, dress. It was all poufy, and pink, and made her look like she was wearing a pink glitter meringue.
"Gah!" Natsu yelped as he leaped away. "Mira, what the hell are you wearing?" he asked flabbergasted that she was even here. "How are you here?!"
"Oh this," Mira gestured at the dress in disgust. "I took down a fairy godmother that had turned evil and absorbed her soul eons ago," she said as if that explained everything. It probably did but Natsu didn't get it. "I don't use this form very much but for true love, I'll do anything."
"True love?!" Natsu yelled horrified. "Look Mira, you're family but-"
Mira suddenly smacked him over the head with a pink, sparkly, star wand. It hurt. A lot. "Not us, you idiot!" she barked, she sounded more like a demon than a fairy. "You and Lucy!"
Natsu went as pink as Mirajane's dress. "Shut up!" he snapped embarrassed.
"Fairy Godmother knows all!" Mira said smugly. "Now then, Natsu, you have a ball to get to."
"Yeah," Natsu agreed, "but how? We're on the other side of Fiore. Not even one of this evil metal beasts from hell could get us home in time."
"Trust me," Mira said soothingly, "I have the answer to everything. But first," she grimaced as she took in the sight of him, his clothes were a bit torn up, he was also covered in four days' worth of muck having not taken a bath since the last time he stayed in a hotel, and he was a little bruised and cut up round the edges, "we're going to need to tidy you up a bit. Hold on-"
Mira then chanted some silly nonsensical words that made Natsu giggle, and then tapped him on the head with her hand, a bright light blinded him, and when it finally vanished he was shocked to feel clean.
Really, really clean.
In fact he even smelt like soap.
"Oh you do look dashing," Mira cooed admiringly, "Lucy will swoon for you."
Natsu pulled a face. "Why would I want her to swoon for me?" he asked. "I want her to spend time with me not lay on the floor getting dirty and being boring."
Mira rolled her eyes at that. "Never mind!" she snapped lightly. "Let's get back quickly or someone who I have not approved will snag Lucy for themselves."
"What!" Natsu yelled. "Isn't Happy keeping an eye on her?! He promised me he would!"
"Happy is either distracted by Charle in her new dress or all the fish that's on the buffet table," Mira pointed out, "you were better off asking Juvia, she would have gladly kept Lucy away from Gray and the others."
"WHAT'S THAT ICE BASTARD DOING SNIFFING AROUND MY LUCY?!"
"He's not, now grab my arm," Mira commanded gently. Natsu obeyed but mostly because he was too busy fuming to realise what he was doing. He was calmer he would ask why he needed to grab Mira's arm. "Hold on really tight. It won't do if I accidentally drop you in the ocean or something."
"Wha-"
Natsu's question instantly died as he was sucked into some sort of bright tunnel and everything rushed past him until suddenly he appeared right outside the guild building where the ball was still going strong by the sounds of it.
"Awesome!" Natsu enthused. "We're home and without having to get on an evil train or anything!" he hugged Mira quickly. "Thank you Mira, you're the best!"
"I know," Mira giggled, "now you go and have fun."
"Aye Sir!"
Natsu then ran off leaving Mira by herself in the street. "Hmm," Mira frowned to herself as she stroked her chin pensively. "I can't help but feel that I've forgotten something. Oh well, it can't have been that important! Now to find Jellal!"
With a poof of smoke she disappeared to play fairy godmother to another hardworking Cinderella.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Lucy was bored stiff.
She was insanely regretting ever thinking the idea of a ball would be fantastic fun. Her good memories of the one with Natsu at Crocus had wiped out the memories of years of other boring and horrible balls she had ben too. Here she stood, in a beautiful gown that made her itch a little, far too dolled up (it really wasn't worth it if the person she wanted to look pretty for wasn't even here), and bored stiff as everyone else was having a good time around her.
(Okay, Ichiya looked seconds away from death while Erza seemed to be on the verge of murdering someone, Laxus looked like someone had stuck Max's broomstick up where the sun didn't shine, and Jet and Droy were weeping over the fact Levy had danced all her dances with Gajeel this night, but other than that everyone else was having a good night.)
Sure, she had people asking her to dance. Far too many people. Far too many boys from Blue Pegasus who were a tiny bit on the sleazy side. And Loke kept appearing too much to her annoyance, but none of it was fun or worth it when she couldn't even have one single dance with the person she wanted to dance with the most.
She missed Natsu terribly and would give anything to have him here now. If he was here now she would definitely have fun even if it was wearing a pumpkin mask again and having to stop another fight between him and Gray, it would be worth it just to have an evening with him after two weeks apart.
Someone tapped her shoulder and she was on the verge of snarling at them that she didn't want to dance when she instantly swallowed her words upon seeing him.
He looked gorgeous, even more so in the white shirt/black waistcoat that he always wears at formal occasions, and she couldn't help the skip in her heart beat and flush of pink that spread across her cheeks.
"Yo!" Natsu grinned.
"Natsu," Lucy breathed unable to describe the joy at seeing him. "How-"
"Let's dance!" he interrupted her instantly and before she could protest or even say hello to him properly, he grabbed her hands, and dragged her onto the dance floor. She collided against him and for a moment they stood there staring at one another, his arms around her waist, their chests pressed against one another, their hearts racing in unison, and their faces mere centimetres apart. "Come on," Natsu pulled away, "let's show them how it's done."
Lucy grinned in reply. "Aye Sir!"
And that was when she was swept away for one of the greatest nights of her life. After making her feet weep out of exhaustion with so much dancing, they ended up playing games with everyone else (they avoided the drinking competition Cana seemed to have set up in a corner of the room), ate a lot of food with Happy, Lucy had to stop three fights between Natsu and Gray, and reassure Juvia that neither she or Natsu have an interest in Gray, there was teasing Erza about her tall, blue-haired, masked prince, and then running away from Erza after having teased her, and then of course, there was just being able to talk and laugh with one another having being apart from one another far too long.
Eventually the party began to die down a little bit, and with Happy crashed out on a plate clutching a fishbone to his chest (and muttering about fish and Charle in his sleep), Natsu and Lucy decided to take advantage of alone time to have a nice walk in the gardens and a proper talk.
"I've really missed you," she murmured, "you know? It wasn't the same without you. I actually got my rent paid for once."
He laughed at that. "I missed you too, Luce," he draped an arm round her and she willingly sunk into the warmth he offered. What? It was chilly! "I've been thinking. It shouldn't matter who these people request. They're lucky to get any of us from the guild," Lucy nodded in agreement. Everyone was so swamped with work that they barely have time to actually have a drink and catch up with their closest friends let alone the wild parties they used to have. "So they shouldn't moan that when they ask for Natsu Dragneel or Lucy Heartfilla, that they get both Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilla."
"And Happy," Lucy reminded him.
(If the blue cat knew they had forgotten him, he would out-cry Juvia.)
"And Happy," Natsu agreed. "We're partners. We've been partners from the beginning and we should be partners to the very end."
Lucy's heart thumped harder at the implication. "Natsu…."
"Lucy…."
And that was when they had the moment. The moment where she knew there was no going back. They were going to kiss, the very first proper kiss…..without little children ordering them to do so, she leaned in slightly, and slowly he leaned in as well, and it became a very long-drawn out event as neither of them could keep their eyes off of each other and then –
DING-DONG!
Natsu's clothes vanished.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Lucy screamed as she leaped away from Natsu. "WHAT THE HELL, NATSU?! YOU PERVERT!"
"What?" Natsu looked momentarily confused and then he felt the draft around his private bits that caused him to look down. "WHAT THE HELL?!" he roared. "I SWEAR TO GOD GRAY'S STRIPPING IS CONTAGOUS!"
"NATSU YOU CREEP!" Lucy shrieked. "WHAT SORT OF GIRL DO YOU THINK I AM?! LUCY KICK!"
"Ara!" Mira clasped her face in horrified realisation as she saw a flying, naked, Natsu in the sky. "Now I remember! The spell only lasts till midnight and then his clothes vanishes! Oops…"