Summary: AU! Lucy is brought to Demon King END for a sacrifice. To save her life she begins to tell him a thousand different stories.

Pairings: Natsu/Lucy

YouTube Prompt: Natsu/Lucy video to 'Come to Me' by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Lucy trembled with fear as two, over-grown, heavily-armoured, soldiers dragged her across the dark, dank, corridors towards the bed chamber of the Demon King END. Long before she could remember the Kingdom of Fiore had been firmly under the control of Tartarus and its demons and recently the new King of the Demons has been demanding sacrifices.

Young, virginal, beautiful women have been taken from their homes, held in the dungeons of Tartarus, before they were taken up to the throne room….never to be seen again.

Lucy was just the latest in a long line.

The great big doors slammed open with a bang and Lucy was shoved in so hard that she staggered across the stone slab floor before her knees collided against the cold floor and she found herself on her hands and knees staring up at the most terrifying person in the world. He was….

…..breathtakingly beautiful.

He was slim and lean, and he had muscles carved into his body by a sculptor and then decorated with shimmering red scales, his skin was warm, tanned, and glowing, and his eyes were a stunning dark green as an unruly, spikey, mop of the prettiest pink hair flopped over them and framed them. His horns and demonic wings, great big red, scaly, things that looked as if they belonged to a dragon rather than a human, just added to his allure and beauty.

It was rather unfair that something so evil could be so good looking.

The Demon King blinked down at her and she blinked back. There was a deafening silence as dark green and warm brown bore into each other deeply. The atmosphere felt thick, and heavy, and terrifying. Lucy's heart thumped rapidly as she struggled to breathe because she was so fucking scared.

"Yo!" the Demon King said cheerfully. He grinned down at her and Lucy shrank back as she saw his razor sharp teeth. Her heart hammered hard in her chest as she felt panic bubble up within her. Her mind desperately grabbled at an idea, any idea, to delay the inevitable. Her lack of reply made the Demon King falter slightly as he stared at her hesitatingly. "So then…."

"Once Upon a Time!" Lucy suddenly blurted out. "There lived a lonely pink dragon!"

"Eh?" the Demon King blinked dumbfounded. "What are you on about?!" he yelped in confusion.

Lucy almost felt sorry for him. If he doesn't recognise the common opening of story-telling then he mustn't had many stories told to him growing up.

Perhaps that's why he is evil?

"I'm telling you a story." She explained with patience and calmness that she most certainly did not feel. "I thought it would be nice."

She had thought if she told him enough stories like Scheherazade had, then this Demon King might just let her go without harm.

The Demon King blinked again. "Oh….." he mumbled, he looked and sounded astonished at the idea. "All right then!" he grinned brightly as he suddenly threw himself on the floor in front of her. He sat cross-legged and looked as eager and sweet as a little boy. "Go on!" he commanded with a wave of his hand. "Tell me the story."

"Right," Lucy said taken aback, "well as I said there once live a pink, lonely, dragon. He had no family and no friends and wandered the earth all alone. Then one day he encountered a blue, talking, cat…"

Lucy threw herself into her story as she told of the silly antics of the pink dragon and the blue cat as they fought over the same fish. She made up a last minute adventure in which they became friends, and then she told how they set out to rescue a golden-haired maiden in return of a reward of the best, biggest, fish the town had to offer.

It was a terribly, last-minute, hastily put together tale as she said whatever came to her mind as she told it. She regretted starting with an original story instead of something as simple as Cinderella or Snow White, but she was desperate and for some reason each word she said seemed to just enrapture the Demon King all the more….so she couldn't knock it.

"The pink dragon and the blue cat were nearing the tower in which the maiden was being held by the dark sorcerer when suddenly a great, big, beast made of iron appeared jumped out upon them and then…." She trailed off tantalisingly as the Demon King leaned in eagerly like a child. "I'm tired," she yawned, "I'll tell you the rest tomorrow."

"WHAT?!" the Demon King bellowed indignantly. "But I want to know what happens next! Does the pink dragon and blue cat defeat the big beast? I bet they do! C'mon!" he whined childishly. "Tell me!" he commanded with a pout.

"Tomorrow," Lucy said softly, "I will tell you tomorrow. But first I must sleep and rest my voice."

The Demon King nodded solemnly. "Okay," he beamed, "tomorrow. Yosh!" he pumped a fist in the air. "I can't wait. See you tomorrow…what's your name again?"

"Lucy," she murmured, "my name is Lucy."

"Nice to meet ya, Lucy," the Demon King grinned as he shook her hand, "I'm Natsu."

She didn't say it was nice to meet him in return despite all the manners and pleasantries she had learnt…it was something she couldn't lie about. She was still utterly terrified. She was still escorted by monstrous, demonic, brutes of guards and she was still thrown in a cell, and she was still under the threat of being sacrificed….

But she had brought herself another day of life and that was something.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

The next day the Dem- Natsu, was waiting for her with a big, eager, grin on his face as he bounced around on his feet. His face lit up all the more brightly when he saw her and as soon as his guards left the throne room he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her down towards the ground as he eagerly jumped down and crossed his legs.

"The story!" he ordered. "The pink dragon and the blue cat were about to rescue the golden maiden when they were suddenly attacked," he prompted her, "and then?"

"And then they fought…" Lucy threw herself into an epic battle description. She had been locked in a cell all day and had plenty of time to plan out the rest of the story. She detailed a graphic battle of fire and metal and friendship triumphing over all. "…and so, the pink dragon, the blue cat, and the golden maiden set off in the sun set for new adventures. And they all lived happily ever after. The End."

"So that's it?" Natsu asked looking incredibly disappointed. "That's the end of the story?" he asked with a pout.

"Yes…." There was a heavy silence as Natsu sulked childishly. Lucy then realised belatedly that her distraction was other and her death was immediate if she didn't come up with another one. "Have you ever heard the story of the Fairy Queen who was a warrior?" she blurted out her latest idea. "She was a beautiful red-headed woman who could wield a sword better than any man."

Natsu perked up instantly. "No!" he cried out. "Was she a friend to the pink dragon, blue cat, and golden maiden?"

"…Yes," Lucy decided belatedly.

"Tell me!"

So Lucy launched into another story and once again stopped at a crucial point in order to prolong her life. Her life itself was thrown into a mundane routine of spending her days in her cell plotting out new stories and linking them together before she is dragged out once more by thuggish looking guards and shoved into the bare throne room in which she sat on the cold floor with Natsu and told her new tales before stopping at another cliff-hanger to keep him interested.

Sometimes she went back to the classics, Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Red-Riding Hood, but she quickly learnt that Natsu found it more interesting if there was a dragon in the story. So she started to re-write stories to add in dragons….and to make the dragon the hero, she also learnt very quickly that Natsu didn't take kindly to dragons being villainised.

"My Dad was a dragon," he explained. Lucy gaped at him in shock and surprise at the sudden openness he was displaying and at the fact that he, a humanoid demon despite his dragon wings and horns and scales, had a dragon for a father. Actually…she really shouldn't be surprised about that bit when she thought about it. "He was the greatest guy ever. The nicest person in the world. So I don't like hearing dragons being slagged off."

"I can understand that," she said softly, "but I find dragons to be a lot like humans. There a good ones, like your Dad, and bad ones, like Acnologia." Natsu's face darkened at that and she gulped loudly. "I didn't….I mean….Please don't take offense!" she squeaked.

He blinked at that and suddenly an almost innocent, and sweet, grin appeared on his face. "Why would I take offense to that, you weirdo?" he asked. Genuine amusement and bewilderment rolled off of him and Lucy couldn't help but relax at the warmth and general niceness this so called Demon King was radiating. "You're totally right. I just don't like Acnologia. He's an arsehole."

"You know Acnologia?!"

"Yeah," Natsu scratched the back of his head, "you can't live as long as I have without bumping into that prick once or twice. I'm surprised you know of him, he ain't exactly the most sociable towards humans."

"My mother used to tell me stories about him," Lucy felt the typical pang of sadness that she always felt when she thought about her mother. It had been many years since Layla Heartfilla's death but it still hurt to think about it. "She used to tell me all sorts of stories about Celestial Spirits and Acnologia was one of their greatest enemies."

"Yeah?!" Natsu perked up with interest. "Could you tell me one of them?" he asked eagerly. "One of the Celestial stories?"

"Of course!" Lucy smiled. "Once Upon a Time there lived a great lion, Leo…."

From that day onwards she was able to tell more stories without dragons which was a ginormous relief because she was at a serious loss on how to write in a dragon in the Little Mermaid.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

It had been months since she had been captured by Tartarus. Months since she had seen her friends, months since she had eaten anything other than bread, months since had proper facilities for her hygienic needs, and months since she had clean clothes.

But she was alive.

She was thinner, dirtier, smellier, and a great deal more worn out and paranoid than she had ever been, but she was alive and that was something to hold onto.

Natsu was quickly becoming something else to hold onto as well with his warm, kind, yet mischievous grins, and the childish joy in his eyes when she told him a particularly excellent story, and the disappointed pout when a story was finished or put on hold, there was something undeniably human about him despite his demonic appearance. In fact he was the least demonic demon Lucy had ever met. She had been terrified by Jackal and his cronies, sneered at and threatened by the likes of Lamy, and intimidated by Mard Greer, none of them appeared to have a shred of humanity in them like their King.

And no, Lucy did not think she had Stockholm syndrome. She knew for a fact that she didn't because Natsu was the most annoying creature in the world.

"Tell me another story," Natsu order as a cheeky glint entered his eyes and another grin lit up his face, "Luigi."

Lucy's eye twitched as she was unable to bite back her response. "LUCY!" she barked furiously. It was Natsu's latest favourite thing to infuriate her, to mangle her name in this manner, and damn it, it was working! "MY NAME IS LUCY!"

"Jeeze, there is no need to get all worked up, you weirdo," Natsu said with false innocence, "That's exactly what I had just said," he paused to send her a despicably smug smirk in her direction, "Luigi."

Lucy growled at that. "Why you little-"

She was immediately interrupted by a knock on the door and before Natsu could reply it opened to reveal Mard Greer in all of his cold beauty and glory. Lucy found it ironic that Mard Greer looked more human than Natsu did with his clear skin, plain dark eyes, and long black hair neatly groomed into a ponytail…and yet there was no doubt about it, Natsu had more soul and warmth than this persona of evil could ever hope to aspire to.

Mard Greer shot her a disgusted look before he bowed deeply in Natsu's direction. "Begging your pardon, Your Majesty," he said in a sickeningly slick voice, "but I have come to escort the prisoner back to her cell."

He shot another pointed look of disdain and disgust in Lucy's direction. It was blatantly clear that he believed Lucy should have died months ago.

Natsu, however, frowned.

"Prisoner?" he repeated dumbly. "She's not my prisoner, she's my friend!" Natsu cried out furiously. Lucy's jaw dropped at that. Friend? He thought she was his friend? "Friends don't live in cells," Natsu snarled disgustedly, "They live in bedrooms. Lucy, you great, big, weirdo, why didn't you tell me that you were living in a cell?"

"Because," Lucy's eye twitched angrily, "it was rather bloody obvious, you great, big, idiot!" she screeched back.

"How dare you!" Mard Greer barked. "How dare you speak to the great and mighty END, like that? On your knees, you worthless worm!" he hissed as he pounced towards her. "And grovel for forgiveness."

Lucy closed her eyes immediately bracing herself for whatever pain and agony Mard Greer was about to inflict upon her but nothing happened.

Absolutely nothing.

She stood there in the cold, damp, throne room with her eyes screwed shut, and she felt absolutely nothing touch her apart from the smallest of breezes. Slowly, with great reluctance and fear, she opened her eyes, and her jaw dropped wide open.

Natsu stood between her and his own demon subject.

His back was towards her so she saw nothing but his great, big, wings spread out as if to hide her from harm, but she strongly suspected there was a furious, almost animalistic, snarl fixed on his face as he squeezed Mard Greer's wrist to breaking point.

"Lucy," Natsu said coldly, "has nothing to apologise for. She is my guest and friend here, and it is up to us to make her feel at home." He flung Mard Greer onto the floor and his wings tucked themselves back down as he casually threw himself back into his throne, feet over an arm, as he lounged there with great arrogance. "You can make amends to Lucy, Mard Greer, by finding her a nice bedroom with a bathroom and everything."

"But, Your Majesty-!"

"Now!" Natsu ordered. "Or I shall make you grovel on the ground like the worthless worm you seem to think Lucy is."

A bitter scowl crossed Mard Greer's face but it vanished as quickly as it appeared as Mard Greer suddenly straightened up and bowed obediently. "As you wish, Your Majesty," he said politely, "I will ensure Lucy," Lucy shuddered at the inflection on her name, it sounded like a threat and an insult all rolled into one, "will have no need to ask for anything."

Lucy felt cold dread flood her stomach at that. It sounded very much like Mard Greer was going to arrange a shallow grave for her rather than a bedroom and she was petrified to be alone with the man….

…but Natsu followed her and Mard Greer, and she was soon escorted to a fine, if rather gloomy looking, bedroom with marble floors, black satin sheets on the four poster bed, blood-red roses filled in all the vases, and a gorgeous view of the night sky in windows framed with heavy, black velvet, curtains. She was shown to a beautiful bathroom with a working, gigantic, bath stocked to the brim with bath bombs, shampoo, and other toiletries, the great, big, heavy oak wardrobe was also equally filled to the brim with clean, beautiful, clothes made of rich material.

Her circumstances had changed for the better now she was firmly placed under the Demon King's protection. With the label of Natsu's friend she could now enjoy a comfortable bed, a warm bath, decent food, and almost all the comforts of home…

…but she was still a prisoner.

There was still guards at her door that would kill her if she tried to leave.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Many more months dragged on and Lucy had lost count on exactly how many stories she had told. She had told every fairy tale and book she had ever read, she had told many stories that she could think of, she was even beginning to tell him stories about herself.

Where she had been telling her stories was the only real change. Instead of being dragged to the throne room, Natsu now came to her, and she told him stories while curled up on the bed or as she sat at her new writing desk while he did something stupid like sit ups on the floor.

This had several drawbacks, for example Lucy had to pace her room to get some sort of exercise, and Natsu now believed this meant he could have a story any time of the day. There had been one time too many Lucy had woken up in the morning to find Natsu lying beside her with an impatient scowl on his face (unfortunately her screams were nothing compared to the ones coming out of the dungeons and the torture rooms and the labs and the…why was she trying to survive here again?) or have Natsu burst in on her while she was dressing or showering with another demand of a story.

Her Lucy Kicks in retaliation to that served to amuse Natsu even more.

(Thank God! She didn't want to think what sort of consequences Mard Greer would like to inflict on her if Natsu took offence to being kicked into a wall.)

Yet, despite the drawbacks, Lucy enjoyed the comforts and the intimacy far more than she did sitting in a cell utterly terrified she won't make to the throne room this time round. No one else came in and bothered her and she didn't go out to encounter the other demons.

She was truly and fully under Natsu's protection.

"So tell me the rest of that story," Natsu said loudly into Lucy's ear one evening. She had been lost in her own world as she tried to think of a new story when suddenly the blast of Natsu's hot breath against the sensitive skin of her ear, and the loudness of his voice, and just the fact there was demonic shadow behind her own shadow on the wall, all scared the crap out of her. She screamed and almost fell out of her seat if she hadn't grabbed hold of the edge of the desk in time. "I want to know if that snotty brat is going to say yes to Lord Fancy-Pants' stupid proposal."

"Gah!" Lucy choked out as she clutched her heart. "Natsu!" she screeched. "Don't sneak up on me like that! I almost had a heart attack."

"Eh," Natsu shrugged, "you're so weird, Lucy."

"And it's Elizabeth Bennett!" Lucy corrected him (her eye twitching was the only sign that the weird comment affected her whatsoever as she crossed her arms and bit her tongue). "Not that 'snotty brat' and its Mr Darcy, not 'Lord Fancy-Pants'. Did you pay attention to anything I said last night at all?"

"Of course I did," Natsu stretched out on her bed lazily. Like an over-grown, scaly, pink, cat. "But snotty brat and Lord Fancy-Pants suit them better." Lucy face-palmed, she had quickly learnt recently that Natsu had no appreciation for the classics (he didn't get why the story had to go the way it did or why the characters were such snobs) but he still wanted her to tell the rest of the story regardless…if only so he could criticise it. "Come on, Luce," he patted the other side of the bed, "tell me the rest of the story."

Lucy felt her heart flutter at the pleading, warm, voice and the deceptively sweet, begging facial expression, and immediately shook her head.

She did not have Stockholm syndrome, Damnit!

"All right," she sighed as she crossed the room and sat down beside Natsu. His face lit up gleefully and Lucy ignored another weird heart flutter. (Perhaps the lack of exercise and the sudden rich diet after so many months of mouldy bread was giving her a heart condition?) "As you can imagine Elizabeth Bennett was utterly furious at the insult of her own person, family, and social status, and therefore did not take kindly to Mr Darcy's proposal…"

She droned on for a good hour retelling Pride and Prejudice in the shortest, simplest, way while trying to actually remember the rest of the story simultaneously. She only ever stopped to take a sip of water or to answer one of Natsu's abrupt interruptions as he asked question after question.

"I don't get why that Jane girl took back that wet blanket," Natsu complained when Lucy finally finished, "If he was weak-assed to be persuaded to leave her then he didn't deserve her in the first place." Lucy shrugged in reply. Her voice ached and she was too tired to try and explain Jane Austen to Natsu. Natsu was utterly unbothered by her lack of reply as he yawned loudly, stretched out, and suddenly laid his head on her lap. "Tell me another story," he commanded. "Another one about you this time. I like those the best."

Lucy flushed at that. "Well, okay," she mumbled, "let's see…when I was really small, about five or so, my parents brought me a doll for my birthday. I named her Michelle and declared her to be my little sister…"

Lucy then launched into the most mundane story about all the silly little things she used to do with her doll. She rambled on for ages when she was suddenly cut off by a snore, her eyes widened as she looked down to see that Natsu was fast asleep with his head in her lap and her hand petting his hair!

Her eyes bulged out at that as her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

"Erm…." She whispered nervously, "Natsu?"

Natsu snored in reply.

She couldn't help but giggle at that. "All right," she whispered, "good night, Natsu."

She then pulled her hand away from his hair and was just about to lean back when a sudden, hot, hand grabbed her wrist. "Don't stop," Natsu pleaded, "I want to know how it ends."

Lucy jumped slightly, rather startled that he wasn't completely asleep, but one look from his droopy, sleep-filled, dark, green eyes, and she relaxed instantaneously, and couldn't resist a small smile down at him. "Okay," she said, "so as I was saying one day Michelle and I had a tea party and…."

Natsu snuggled deeply into Lucy's lap with a content smile on his face as he listened to her story.

Lucy's eyes met his, and her heart skipped a beat.

Okay….she might have Stockholm syndrome after all.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Lucy told hundreds and hundreds more stories. She retold every story she read, every fairy tale, legend, myth, and fable, every childhood adventure, and everything and anything she could make up on the spot. She told so many stories that it was miracle her tongue hadn't fallen out of her mouth out of exhaustion.

So it was the inevitable, really, that the stream of creativity would dry up.

"Tell me another story."

"I…." her mind went blank. Completely and utterly blank as her eyes widened in horror and her breathing sped up. She had no more ideas! She was officially out of stories! "I…I…I…I…" could she tell him the same stories all over again? No, Natsu may act a little on the thick side but he had astonishingly good memory when it came to her stories. She tried to tell him several twice in the last few weeks and he had reminded her that she already told him that one. "I don't know anymore," she admitted shamefully. Natsu looked disappointed but didn't say anything. Lucy ducked her head as she waited for the inevitable that she had been fighting for so long. "So now I have nothing left…..I suppose you'll kill me now."

Natsu's jaw dropped open at that. "Kill you?!" he yelped as his eyes bulged out of his sockets. "Why the hell would I want to kill you, you weirdo?!" he squawked indignantly.

Lucy blinked dumbly. "Isn't that what I'm here for?" she asked hesitatingly. "Some weird virgin sacrifice."

"Hell no!" Natsu barked.

"B-b-but all the other girls!" she stammered. "They all disappeared."

"Yeah," Natsu scratched the back of his head, "But I didn't eat them or anything weird like that. I let them go each time they were brought to me which I would have done for you too but you started babbling nonsense about dragons and talking cats and I thought it was kinda cool and decided to keep you." Lucy almost collapsed at that. She wanted to shake him and scream in his face. She had wasted months and months of freedom when she could have left any damn time she wanted to….she swears someone up there hated her. "I don't know why the demons keep bringing girls to me," Natsu muttered darkly to himself.

"It's an evil clichéd thing," Lucy explained absentmindedly.

"It's an evil weird thing!" Natsu retorted back.

There was a beat of silence as they stared at one another. Everything has suddenly changed. Lucy was no longer a prisoner, she could leave, she could live, and…and…and she didn't want to leave Natsu behind.

Oh damn, she really did have Stockholm syndrome.

"So…" Natsu mumbled as he shifted awkwardly and looked anywhere but at her. "I suppose you're going to go now," he grumbled.

"Yeah…." Lucy breathed, "Yeah I am," Natsu physically drooped in disappointment at that as a sulky scowl flickered across his face. "….come with me!" she burst out impulsively.

Natsu's head shot up at that. "What?" he asked stunned. "You….you want me to come with you?" Lucy nodded, her cheeks burned bright pink in flustered embarrassment. "I...I can't…" Natsu mumbled.

"Why not?" Lucy challenged. "You obviously don't like it here," she heard enough disgusted comments about his so called subjects and his disdain for the whole evil thing was apparent to a blind person, "and they can't exactly stop you, can they? You're the King. You can do whatever you like."

"Heh," he smirked, "You're right. I can do whatever I like. All right then, one moment," he yanked open Lucy's bedroom door and stuck his head out. "Oi!" he bellowed down the corridor. "Mard Greer!"

"Yes," Lucy tried not to jump and shriek at the cold, taller, demon's sudden appearance as Mard Greer bowed deeply in Natsu's direction, "Your Majesty."

"You're in charge now," Natsu said simply as if he was ordering dinner or something, "I'm leaving with Lucy."

Mard Greer's eyes bulged out of his sockets. It must be the most emotion Lucy had ever seen him express other than disgust or hated. "What?!" he yelped.

"Well, being King of the Demons is really boring," Natsu shrugged, Mard Greer's jaw dropped open at the insult. "You'd do a much better job than me. I'm off to have some adventures with Lucy here, later." He grabbed Lucy by the wrist and began to drag her out past Mard Greer when he suddenly halted to a stop. "Oh," he grinned childishly, "and tell Zeref to not wait up for me."

And with that they ran out of Tartarus, hand in hand, giggling like mad children.

It was now time to write their own story.