Four Years Ago

"Natsu! Natsu! Someone's coming!" Happy announced, flying down from the rafters towards the fifteen-year-old dragon and the twelve-year-old princess.

"Eh?" the pink-haired Protector asked, pausing in the act of shoveling breakfast into his mouth.

"Someone's coming!"

Lucy blinked. "What, like a bad guy?"

"No, like a suitor!"

"A suitor?"

"Happy!" Natsu chastised the ball of light having finally swallowed. He glanced at Lucy, who was glaring back at him.

"What does he mean 'a suitor'?" Lucy demanded, crossing her arms.

"Can we talk about this later?" he asked, hastily wiping his mouth with a napkin and dropping it on the table as he stood, his jaw set.

"Natsu!" she complained, stomping after him.

"Lucy," he shot back in his serious voice, making her stop. His eyes shifted over to his companion. "Take her upstairs and out-of-sight, Happy," he ordered. "I'm not taking any chances with her safety."

"Yes, sir," the ball of light said, pulsating as he went behind Lucy, pushing her gently towards the staircase.

"Wait, Natsu!"

He stopped, turning back to her. "Yeah?"

She bit her lip, worry turning her stomach over. "We're talking about this later," she said firmly.

He spared her a toothy grin. "Whatever you say, Princess."

Lucy wasn't brave enough to watch his first fight. She was confident she could slip Happy's notice if she really tried, but the idea that someone was here for her… she shivered. Natsu and the servants had been telling her for years that someday men would come to take her away, but Natsu had only ever called them bad guys.

"Happy?" Lucy said, from where she was hidden under her bed.

The bobbing blue light appeared next to her. "Aye?"

"What you called that man before… a… a suitor? What does that mean?"

The light hesitated. "Maybe we should wait for Natsu-"

"Just tell me!" she ordered, clutching her skirts tightly.

"A suitor is a person who is competing for a lady's hand in marriage," the light told her. "And suitors have been fighting for your hand for a long time. This is just the first time one has gotten this far."

"Does this have something to do with why my mother and father left me here?" she asked, feeling the familiar pang in her heart as she thought about her parents.

"... a little," the light said warily.

"Happy-" Lucy sighed, but she let out a gasp and silenced herself as she heard footsteps approaching.

The little light bobbed closer to her, entangling in her hair so that no light would emit from under the bed. Lucy scarcely breathed in the musty air under the bed, tucking her legs even closer to her body as her wooden door creaked open and the heavy footfalls of a man entered the room. Her whole body trembled as the boots got closer and closer to her bed. She felt tears well in her eyes as she scooted her body back. Then-

"Oy, Luce, what are you doing all the way under there?"

Lucy flew out from under the bed and into Natsu's arms, clutching him tightly, still trembling as a few tears fell from her eyes.

"H-hey," Natsu protested, hugging her back tightly. "Why are you crying?"

"I didn't think it was you!" she explained, trying to wipe away the tears. "I was just… I was scared," she mumbled miserably.

Natsu pulled back, looking at her seriously. "There's a reason I'm the one protecting you. I don't lose, Luce. Not now or ever. You have to believe that."

She sniffed, nodding. "But Happy said… with the suitors…"

"Eh?" he said, guiding her to her bed to sit down and sitting down next to her.

"Is that why my parents left me here?" she asked quietly.

He sighed. "Princess-"

"You promised we'd talk," she said, some of the fire returning to her eyes as she faced him.

He looked down, nodding. "I did. Your parents… they knew Heartfilia's rebellion was bad. It was getting to the point where even the Palace and the Royal City weren't secure. That put you in danger.

"You know that my father is Igneel, right?" he asked. She nodded. "He was the one who engineered all of this. He had been training me for my entire life, even since somebody performed the spell that made me… this," he said, waving up and down his body. "A dragon, and left me on his doorstep. He knew I was made for this kind of thing.

"So he built Fairy Tail Keep with his magic. He contracted servants from the Palace - ordinary people who were fiercely loyal to your mother and father - to become the enchanted objects which serve us here. They would never need to eat or sleep so they could always help us and help me stay alert. I was the final piece. He needed someone that he knew would absolutely die to save your life.

"Dragons are naturally protective, especially over things in their care. I was the best chance. So I was sent here to stay on alert. The plan was only to go in place if your life was directly threatened," he said, taking a deep breath. Now he had to tell her something he had intended on keeping secret for as long as he could. But it was time. "I was here for a month with no word… then the kingdom fell."

He waited in silence before her brown eyes, uncomprehending raised to his. "Heartfilia… fell?"

He nodded. "To the rebels. The Royal City was invaded. The Queen… er, well, the whole Palace worked to get you out. It was my father who rode you to the battlefield where your father the king fought. Together, the two of them set out here and left you in my charge."

"Natsu… I don't understand," she said, shaking her head. "I was left in your charge so people didn't try to take my life as my father's heir?"

He nodded. "You are precious to the kingdom's future. Even now, your father fights to reclaim Heartfilia for you. As long as you are here, and you are safe, your father still had strong claim to the throne and the kingdom's support behind him. Nobody wants to risk that."

"Then why the suitors?" she asked, her lower lip sticking out petulantly.

"Oh," he said, scratching the back of his head. "That has to do with your father's orders. He had always intended on marrying you to a powerful ally. That hasn't changed. The man that can defeat me will earn the right to your hand. But first he will have to find the castle and then pass through a series of tests to even get within our gates. Hardly any will ever reach me. When they do though… we fight."

"So… one of them is trying to… to k-kill you?" she asked, her lower lip wobbling dangerously again.

"Yes," he said seriously. "They will have to. Because as long as my heart beats, I will fight for your life. I won't give you up so easily, Princess."

Her eyes started welling up again. "But… b-but… you can't just die for me."

He considered her with a sad smile, reaching up to place a hand gently on her cheek. "Princess, I would gladly die for you. Let any man come who dares. He may stab me, slash me, break me, or step on me… but it will only be if he is truly worthy that he will ever defeat me. I've never met such a man, Princess," he said softly.

"Promise?"

Something about her brown eyes in that moment made his breath catch in his throat. His heart throbbed, suddenly lurching to a much faster pace that it had be as his grip on her face slightly tightened.

He suddenly had the strongest urge to kiss her.

Instead, he swallowed hard. "Promise."