Italic = narrating

"Speak"

- Thought

"CAPS LOCK" = SCREAMING

Disclaimer: not owning Fairy Tail nor the original fairy tales


Jellal and the armor clad princess

The fact that she was only on defense annoyed her. There was no way she could win if she didn't fight back. Dodging yet another of the man's wild swings, Lucy saw an opening and kicked her opponent as he passed her. He quickly spun around however, but now it was Lucy's turn to be on the offensive.

Taking two quick steps to follow up her kick, Lucy closed the distance between herself and her opponent. She struck with her sword, but he blocked it. Feinting to the right but kicking on the left instead, blocked again. Several times Lucy tried to get another hit in, but he kept blocking her. She was still on the offensive and he on the defensive however, which was to her advantage.

Lucy swung low, but to her surprise he actually jumped over her sword instead of taking a step back and while still in the air he kicked the shoulder of her dominant arm. With the force of the kick, she followed her sword in the direction of the kick and landed heavily on the ground. She didn't let go of her sword and quickly rolled around but before she could get up, she saw that the man held his sword with the point of it to her chest.

"Winner, Natsu Dragbuster", Laxus declared and the man, Natsu, sheathed his sword. He then held his hand out in front of Lucy to help her up.

"For a moment there I thought you would defeat me, I'm still new at this", he said sheepishly.

"Me too", Lucy answered quietly, in a darker voice like earlier. This time he didn't laugh however.

"Oh, really? Good job then, thanks for the match."

"Yes, thanks for the training", Lucy smiled but then realized he couldn't see her face.

They left in two different directions, he back to where he came from and she to exit the arena and to watch her sisters matches, cheering them on.

"Semifinals, huh? Good job, flame brain", Gray told his brother when Natsu arrived back at the waiting area. More of a compliment wouldn't have been expected from the brother.

"Yeah", Natsu grinned. "Let's see if you can get this far too, stripper."

Gray rolled his eyes just as his name was called next. In his hurry to enter the field, he forgot to put his helmet on again.

"You're up Juvia. Good luck", Erza squeezed her sister's hand and Juvia nodded before putting her helmet on and entering the field.

Juvia reached the middle at the same time as her opponent. She had kept her eyes at Gildarts Clive, the referee, to see if he was sober – since his daughter was Cana Alberona, a lovely girl but known for being a heavy drinker, Juvia had suspected that the girl's love for drinking had come from someone and she wouldn't be surprised if the known womanizer Gildarts was the source – but confirming that he didn't seem drunk, she turned her eyes to her opponent, Gray Dragbuster. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw his beautiful face.

- What is this feeling? Is this what they call love…?

"Ready? Begin", Gildarts said and Juvia quickly unsheathed her sword as if a reflex.

She blocked the strike from Gray's sword. In a countermove, she punched him in the face.

- Oh no! Juvia hurt him! Juvia didn't mean to, it was a reflex! What should Juvia do?!

However, Gray shook his head and placed a hand on his face. Letting out a sigh, he shook his head.

"Who am I, Natsu? Forgetting my helmet", he muttered as he gripped his sword firmly and readied his stance. It all just took a few seconds, but Juvia could have waited forever, watching him. "I won't lose, I won't disappoint Siegrain!"

He lunged forward and Juvia dodged.

- I'm sorry my love but Juvia doesn't want to disappoint Erza-nee.

Gray spun around and faced Juvia again, but this time she was first to attack with newfound resolution. She attacked with three quick slashes which Gray all dodged and then he followed up with a wide slash aiming for Juvia's upper body. As he had expected, Juvia dodged it since blocking would have been useless, but as he was about to attack again, Juvia had thought of the same and their swords clashed together. She felt the vibration in her arms from the impact and had to harden the grip of her sword. Even if it was a one hand sword, she gripped it with two in order to not drop it when their swords clashed again and again. The fight didn't seem to be going anywhere as both of them played it more on the safe side. To change things up, Juvia followed up with a kick to his side as their swords clashed again and it did catch him off guard. He lost his balance for a second, but Juvia was unbalanced herself. They regained their balance about at the same time and once again their swords clashed. However, Gray who held his sword at the lower point, pushed his sword upwards. Juvia's sword slipped a bit in her hands, but she didn't drop it. Quickly following up his move, Gray kicked Juvia at the side of her knee causing her leg to automatically fold itself. Having her unbalanced he then slashed at her with his sword. Juvia tried her best to block it but the force in his swing caused her sword to fly over her head and her to fall backwards.

"Watch out!" Gray screamed and gripped her wrist, pulling her towards him instead of having her fall backwards. Juvia glanced over her shoulder and saw how her sword had somehow landed with the blade up, meaning Gray just had saved her life by pulling her in the opposite direction. "Are you alright?"

Juvia was about to thank him for saving her life when she turned her head and found his face close to hers. She realized she was being held in his arms and the last thing she saw before fainting was his beautiful but worried face.

"OI!" Gray called out to Julien as the man went limp in his arms, but no reaction came.

"The winner is Gray Dragbuster!" the referee quickly called out and then turned to the confused Gray. "Seems like he fainted. I'll take care of him."

And before Gray could react, the referee picked Julien up and walked off the court with him, going towards the infirmary. Gray stood grounded to the court in shock for half a minute before he returned to his brother.

"Semi-finals now, huh?" Gray said as he took place next to his brother.

Before Natsu could answer, the voice telling the next match called out.

"Next up: Natsu Dragbuster and Ezra Titan!"

"See you in the finals then", Gray said and held his fist out to his brother.

"You bet", Natsu answered with a grin, fist-bumped his brother and entered the arena once again, pulling his helmet on.


A real pain to upload this one - apparently I can't use Microsoft Word anymore :( But I managed to get it up! Hope you liked it, hopefuly the next chapter will be up soon!

(Side note: anyone reading the manga who can share my heart-break?!)

To my guest reviews:

Fireblem: Thanks a lot for the ideas, but I already have the remaining fights figured out ;) especially the idea of Natsu and Gray being disqualified is hilarious (but they won't fight). I'm glad you like the story and thank you so much for your review!

Fireshifter: I'm glad you liked it, I'm keeping up the work of course and thanks for reviewing! :)

Anonymous 13: Yeah, I'm back again but I know I've been absent for long (I'm so sorry), but no need to worry - everything is fine with me, just had a lot in school and such but now I'm on summer vacation ^-^ I'm sorry I worried you though! That you worried isn't stupid, just really sweet, thank you ^^. That this is one of your favorites makes me so happy! And of course your puppy dog eyes works, next chapter is on it's way! As always, thanks for the review ^-^