Chapter 6

The Other Half of the Story

"Oh, shit."

"Excuse me?" Lucy said sternly, narrowing her eyes in appalled distaste as her hands moved to rest on her hips reflexively.

Realizing what just came out of his mouth, Natsu quickly slapped a hand to his lips, eyes widening with a new flurry of regretful emotion to mingle with his overall state of confusion and disbelief.

Lucy shook her head as she let out a sigh, unsure of what to say next. Clearly the boy wasn't going to answer her question any time soon with an iron grip preventing any new incriminating words from escaping. It would have been very easy for her to be angry for his disrespect. Nobles and especially royals have punished normal citizens for far less. However, she found only warmth in her heart. Despite his profanity and despite her outwards disapproval, the princess found herself in good spirits at his appearance. She had, after all, spent a good portion of the Ball thus far hoping that he would arrive and now that he had, he could probably say anything and she wouldn't be too angry.

"I see you found something else to wear besides the suit I bought you." Lucy said, not dropping the accusatory tone in her voice. He didn't need to know she was going to let him off the hook so easy.

"Uh…" The pink haired bow drawled. Even though he dropped his hand, he was still unable to form a coherent sentence, preferring instead to scratch the top of his head with a confused expression accompanied by a wrinkled nose and furrowed brow, causing Lucy to drop her act entirely act the cuteness of it.

"Look, I understand if you found something you liked better. That gold jacket might have been a bit much…"

"Uhhh…"

"And don't worry I'm sure I'm the only one that heard you, so you aren't going to get in any trouble or anything, but I'd keep the crude language to a minimum if I were you. It's really not appropriate and I'm sure my CCC wouldn't hesitate to throw you out for it."

"Wait so your name isn't Marla?" Natsu asked, still with a blank look in his eyes. Lucy raised an eyebrow. He was a bit slow.

"No, I'm Lucy."

"Princess Lucy?"

"Yes."

"Is your middle name Marla?"

"No."

"Then what's your middle name?"

"I don't have a middle name."

"Last name?"

"Heartfilia! My name is Lucy Heartfilia! Not Marla."

"Then who's Marla?"

"THERE IS NO MARLA." Lucy cried out, her frustration bubbling over into a tone much too loud for the polite setting, causing several curious glances to be thrown in her direction. Steadying herself with a deep breath, she forced herself to calmly spell it out for the boy in an easy to understand manor. "I lied to you earlier. I didn't want you to know that I was a princess, so I made up the name Marla. Is it that hard to understand?"

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but allow some exasperation to leak into her tone at the end of her explanation. She half expected Natsu to remain oblivious, but his expression changed to something much more surprising. His features hardened and he crossed his arms across his chest, all silliness and idiocy vanishing into thin air.

"Yes." He stated. "It is hard to understand. It's hard to understand why a princess would pretend to be anything less than royalty."

His tone was cutting and bitter. Lucy stiffened at the sudden turn of events. She understood Natsu's open displeasure with nobility upon their first encounter, but she had no idea that he would insist on acting so unfiltered at a royal event knowing that she was not only wealthy, but also the heir to the throne. He clearly wasn't the type to hold anything back, but as Lucy felt her heart beat quicken and her face flush red, she remained firm in her belief that there were definitely times where you shouldn't just blurt out whatever crosses your mind. If he was going to attend her ball he should recognize some measure of common courtesy.

"Of course you don't understand." Lucy replied coolly. "You don't know what it's like to be a princess, to have your life constantly examined by a million people under a microscope, to have your own wishes deemed secondary when compared to the wellbeing of a nation. You don't know what it's like to be me, so you have no right to judge me for my actions."

Natsu raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"I wasn't judging you." He said much more casually than before, oddly amused at her outburst. "I was trying to understand you. It's not every day a princess stumbles into Oakdale."

"Oh." Lucy said quietly, now embarrassed for overreacting. "I apologize. I didn't mean to imply-"

"You really don't need to apologize." Natsu waved her off with a simple shrug. "You must have people judging you all the time. Why would I be any different?"

Lucy tilted her head and let a small smile grow between her cherry red lips. All of her previous tension was gone and she allowed her body to relax in Natsu's sunny presence. Although he was dressed in black, he seemed to exude fresh air and sunlight in the stuffy Grand Hall, warming the space around him with a refreshing casual glow that sharply contrasted with the artificial perfection of the surrounding Ball.

"You are different." She said softly, feeling light and bubbly herself as she looked directly into Natsu's eyes.

"It's called not being rich." He replied bluntly, breaking the eye contact by tilting his head to the side in an annoyed glance that completely shattered Lucy's sunny bubble. "I bet you have lots of guys to entertain. I'll leave you to it."

With that, he started to walk away, hands tucked behind his neck as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"That's not what I meant!" Lucy protested. Natsu stopped in his tracks and the blonde let out yet another sigh of frustration. "Jeez, what is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how many mixed signals you are sending right now?"

"I thought I was making myself pretty clear." Natsu turned around to look back at her.

"That's rich. First you tell me all about how you hate the wealthy and would never come to this Ball. Then you let me buy you a suit and come to the Ball- and in a different suit than the one I got you might I add- and act like an idiot. Then you judge me then you're nice to me and now you are back to judging me again!"

"I'm not judging you." He repeated himself.

"Yeah, you are."

"Am not."

"Are too!" She insisted, stamping her foot on the floor like a spoiled teenager. Natsu grinned.

"Better be careful, or you'll break those fancy shoes of yours."

"Thanks for the advice." Lucy spat sarcastically, but she couldn't resist peeking down to her feet to make sure there weren't any cracks in her glass slippers.

"Whose idea was it to make shoes out of glass anyway? Seems like it would be pretty uncomfortable if you ask me."

"There you go judging again."

"Alright, so maybe I'm judging you a little." Natsu conceded.

"I knew it."

"But it's your own fault, really. Throwing this whole ridiculous Coronal Contests thing is basically begging for people to judge you."

"If it's so ridiculous, then why'd you come?" Lucy asked, not only to prove her point but also because she was curious about why someone who hated nobility so much would venture right into the heart of Fiore castle. In spite of herself, she couldn't help but hope that the reason had something to do with a girl named Marla. "And if you hate luxury so much, then where did you get that suit? It looks even more expensive than the one I got you."

The corner of Natsu's mouth lifted in a crooked smile, but it wasn't the kind that held any amusement or warmth. It was almost wistful. Sad.

"My kid sister Wendy is a bit of a dreamer. Princesses, castles, fairy tales, she loves all that stuff. So you can imagine how excited she was when she heard that ordinary civilians were going to be allowed inside the castle for a royal ball for a night. She wasn't eligible to go, of course, but I was. There was no way I could have stayed home, not when this is something she's dreamed about for so long. My job tonight is to relay every detail back to her. That's why I'm here.

"Oh." Lucy said softly, not failing to hear the warmth and love in Natsu's voice when he spoke of his sister. She immediately felt silly for thinking that he would be here for any other reason than one like that…

"But my stepmother wasn't too crazy about me coming. So she sabotaged me and pushed me into a pool of mud so that the suit you got me would be ruined. I'm not trying to spite you by not wearing it, I just had to find something else under the circumstances."

Lucy let out a small gasp and automatically raised her hand to her mouth in surprise.

"What? Who would do something like that?"

"She's not a very nice person." Mischief and resilience danced in the dark pools of Natsu's eyes as he spoke what had to be the euphemism of the year. Lucy shook her head in disbelief, still not able to comprehend that level of cruelty towards a son or daughter.

"Why did she not want you to come? Surely, it could only be beneficial for her if you were successful in the Contests?"

To her surprise, Natsu let out a laugh.

"You'd think." He said. "I could write a whole book about all the reasons that woman wouldn't want me here, but nobody has time for that."

"I do." Lucy said firmly, instantly stopping the pink haired boy's stream of laughter. He looked at her in curiosity. "You said earlier that you were trying to understand me. Well, I'd like to understand you too. You've said that we are from different worlds and can't get along, but maybe that's just because we each only have one half of the story. I'd like to hear your half."

Natsu narrowed his eyes and examined her closely, trying to understand why a princess would want to hear about his life. Lucy felt slightly uncomfortable beneath his intense gaze. Her body was hot and her heart was pounding out of her chest. There was something about him that she had never experienced before, something wild, something dangerous. He didn't bow down to her and he didn't treat her with the polite respect she had known her whole life. She had asked him something deep, something personal and he felt no obligation to comply like the majority of her people would. He was now determining whether or not to trust her as a fellow human, as an equal. That was what was wildly exciting about that moment.

"Sure." He finally said. "But we gotta get out of here first."

"What? Why?" Lucy said, thrown so far off guard that she didn't even have time to feel the joy of approval that fluttered through her stomach at his agreeance.

"Getting to know me isn't going to happen inside a stuffy Ball room, you know."

"I don't think I'm supposed to leave." She said hesitantly, suddenly unsure of herself.

"I thought princesses could do whatever they wanted to."

"You really have a lot to learn about me as well." Lucy scoffed. The biggest part of being a princess was that you couldn't do whatever you wanted to.

"Then let's go." He said simple, holding out a hand.

Lucy hesitated, flashing her eyes between his outstretched hand and his eyes, daring her to break away from her responsibilities, if only for a few moments.

"Live a little." He said, almost teasing her with his carefree smirk and daring eyes.

"Fine." She said with a gulp as she placed her hand in his, frightened by how delicate it seemed in his strong and calloused grasp.

But even more frightening was how utterly right it felt.

XXX

Natsu was probably one of the few people who felt more comfortable with the stench of dirt and animals under his nose than the more fragrant perfume of soap and sweets.

Remembering where the boy earlier had led his horse to, Natsu got Lucy to follow him to the same place: The Royal Stables. Having escaped from the blinding luminosity of the castle and into the dim lighting of a somewhat familiar setting, the pink haired boy was able to relax his shoulders a little and give off a more genuine smile. Grant it, these stables were nothing like the six pack of stalls he had back on the ranch. The Royals Stables were broad and wide with multiple aisles that seemed to stretch on for days that were covered by tiny bronze tiles matching the warm oak of the support beams lining the arched ceiling. The stalls themselves were well kept and sectioned off with wooden doors painted a sparkling white. Every once and a while a majestic steed would poke his head out to peer towards the newcomers before disappearing back into his cozy room of luxury.

Nevertheless, Natsu was back in his element. The same, however, could not be said for the Princess.

"What are we doing here?" She asked sharply, flickering her eyes between her stunning red dress and the monotone browns of the stables, feeling ridiculously overdressed.

He flashed her a quick smirk but for the most part ignored her question for now. Moving with a cheerful bounce in his step, he began walking down the aisle, peeking into the horses' stables as if he were looking for something in particular.

"Jeez, you guys must have people out here all day cleaning all these stalls. I guess that makes sense though. There is a billion of them."

"Well, of course. We have specific group of 30 servants who tend to the stables alone." Lucy answered promptly, switching into a formal tone, struggling to keep up with the boy's brisk pace, her glass heels clicking rhythmically against the tile floor.

"30? Damn, that's a lot." He said. More quietly he added something to himself. "Never thought I'd be jealous of Royal Servants."

"What was that?" Lucy strained her ears to hear him better this time, but Natsu had finally stopped dead in his tracks outside of a stall towards the end of the line as his face lit up with a pleased surprise.

"Presley!" He exclaimed with a smile. A heartbeat later the head of a beautiful brown horse poked out of the stall's window. Natsu reached out and patted the horse white-tipped snout and the animal responded in turn by nuzzling his cheek, happy upon seeing her old friend. He laughed at the display of affection before turning his head to look at Lucy. "This is Presley. She's the horse I road here on. We've been together since she was born."

"She's beautiful." The girl replied honestly, admiring the deep chocolaty eyes of the mare.

"And a total slob." Natsu replied with a certain playfulness in his eyes. "If there's one thing I can count on, it's that Presley will make a mess in her stall. Let's take a look."

He swung open the door and stepped inside to take a better look around. Lucy followed behind him, but didn't dare actually walk inside where the tiled floor of the aisle changed into a soft bedding of hay more comfortable for the horses.

The stall was a mess. Not only was the ground soiled, but Presley had managed to spread horse feed all over the floor as well as spill a couple gallons of water out of the trough along the side wall. Lucy let out a small gasp of surprise, but Natsu just threw his head back and laughed.

"I knew it."

"Wow. It seems you were right. Your horse does have an affinity for… chaos."

"You got that right." He said. "Anyways, we better get started."

"Started doing what?" Lucy asked in surprise, not sure what the boy was talking about.

"Cleaning the stall." He replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was hard, however, to keep his straight face when he saw the look on Lucy's. She tried laughing at first, certain that he was telling a poorly executed joke, but when he didn't correct himself, the features of the princess's face stretch with an incredulous stupor.

"You're not serious."

"Sure am."

"That's really not necessary. I can call someone to do it for you. I insist-"

"I thought you wanted to get to know me?" He cut her off with a frustrating look of superiority across his smug complexion.

"I do, but that has nothing to do with-."

"I live on a farm. Every day I wake up at 5:00 AM, feed the animals, work out in the fields, and clean the stalls at the end of the day. Every day. If you want to know what it's like to be me, the only way is for you to get your hands dirty."

The reluctance on her face was palpable, but to Natsu's surprise, she didn't give him an outright no. She looked at her hands and bit her lip in contemplation.

She's actually considering it? Natsu thought in awe. Never did he expect the Princess would actually go through with this…

"Alright, fine." She declared definitely, squeezing her tiny hands into determined fists. "I'll do it."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Really." She stated with the upmost determination. "If this is what it takes for me to show you that I'm not so different, then so be it."

"Sweet." He said, finding a new respect for the Princess that he didn't expect to ever discover. "Grab a shovel."

"A shovel..?" Lucy trailed off as her eyes caught a particularly foul smelling substance inside the horse's stall. Inwardly she wanted to belch. "Oh no."

"Oh yes." Natsu replied. "Come on, I'll show you what to do."

And he did. After moving Presley out of the stall and securing her to a post not too far away, he showed Lucy how to separate the soiled bedding from the unsoiled bedding, shovel out all the old hay, dispose of waste into a wheelbarrow that eventually would need to be rolled outside for disposal, clean out the food bucket, add new hay to the stall with a handy pitchfork, and fill up the buckets with fresh food and water before leading the mare back inside.

To her credit, the Princess worked without complaining. Even when she dirtied her red dress a little, she did little more than sigh in frustration. She always kept a smile on though, doing her part with a steely determination, eager to prove that she could handle simple chores such as these.

"I can't believe you have to do this every day." Lucy said, panting as she pulled her working gloves off of her hands. Sweat was trickling down her neck and she wore a look of utter exhaustion on her face. They had finally finished and Lucy was utterly grateful that cleaning stalls was not in a Queen's job description.

"Well the horses usually spend most of their time outside, so technically I only clean out their stalls every other day, but the pigs are a different story."

"Pigs?"

"Yeah, now those guys are really messy."

Lucy laughed.

"Well I certainly could not do what you do." She said.

"You could if you had to." He replied. "You weren't too bad, you know. I was expecting a lot worse."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"Little bit of both." Natsu replied cheekily.

Bidding goodbye to the chestnut mare, the two teens wondered off down the row of stalls to the door, where a very perplexed looking guard dipped his head politely to the princess, holding the door open for her as she exited.

"Alright, now there's a place I want to show you." She said, the glimmer in her eye sparking not only from escaping the stuffy confines of the stables into fresh air, but also from a much more mischievous idea.

Lucy led them back inside the castle, but instead of returning to the Grand Hall, she walked in the opposite direction.

There wasn't much time for talking along their journey for Natsu was too busy being captivated by his surroundings. The hallways Lucy led him through were winding and confusing, but intricate in their own way. Although the walls and floors were both lined with stone, the periodic lanterns hanging on the walls gave a shadowy warmth to the passageways, lighting the various paintings and sculptures that decorated what would have otherwise been dull corridors.

Eventually, Lucy took him down a short flight of stairs and pushed open the door that stood at the bottom of it. To Natsu's surprise the door lead out to a beautiful courtyard. The small grassy area was surrounding by four tall walls of dark gray stone adorned with dark green ivy climbing up the heights and speckled with arched windows that provided a quaint view of the scenery below. A thin path lined with benches and patio tables circled around a small, round pond with smooth water that shone silver beneath the light of the moon above.

"This is my favorite spot in the whole castle." Lucy told him sincerely, glancing almost nervously at his face to search his expression for his reaction. "I like coming here to relax, read, or just get some peace and quiet."

"It's beautiful." He said, in yet another state of awe at the sheer luxuriousness of the world that he had stepped into. He had expected to see grand ball rooms and fancy sculptures, but he had no idea that he'd be encountering a space the captured the quintessence of nature so well. It was as though he had stepped into a land of fairies, magical and natural.

Lucy motioned Natsu forward to a swinging bench that stood at the bank of the pond, overlooking its moonlit waters and perfectly still surface. They sat in silence for a few moments, taking in the beauty of the night. However, Lucy felt the need to break the silence with a question that had been burning at the back of her mind for a while now.

"So you've said how you take care of your farm, but you never mentioned who helps you do all the work." She said quietly, raising her pitch at the end of her statement to make it sound like a question. Natsu smiled. He was guessing she already knew the answer.

"Nobody." He admitted. "My little sister takes care of all the inside work and I handle the outside. That's how it's been for years now."

"What about your stepmother?" Lucy asked.

"Who knows what she does with all her free time, but it's definitely not any sort of work." He said. "The same goes for my two stepbrothers as well…"

"But- How is that fair?!" Lucy burst out. She could imagine a stepmother not wanting to get her hands dirty, but to hear that Natsu had two perfectly good brothers who could be helping him out made the fact that he had to take care of an entire ranch by himself even more baffling.

"It's not." He replied bluntly. "That's sort of the point."

Lucy let out a small sigh and began to stare at her feet.

"Look… I understand if you don't what to talk about it with me, but… What happened to your real parents? How did things get like this with your family?"

Natsu's first instinct was to respectfully decline answering that question. It wasn't something he liked to talk about and he certainly did not imagine spilling out his screwed up family history with the princess of all people. But at the same time, looking at the blond girl with compassionate brown didn't really feel like he was looking at a princess anymore. She seemed more like a… person.

"Well I guess the first thing you should now is that my real mom died when I was six." He said slowly. Lucy's placed a hand over her heart and her eyes grew even wider with pity.

"Oh, Natsu, I'm so sorry I had no idea." She said, stuttering out the generic sequence of words people normally used whenever they heard about his childhood circumstances. He responded with a smile, letting her know that she didn't have to feel bad for him.

"Not long after that, my dad got remarried to the woman that is now my stepmother." He continued on. "That greedy psychotic woman took advantage of him and his money in his time of grief and married him, bringing her two sons with her to live with us. Things sucked, but at least I still had my dad. Or at least, I did. When I was seven my dad just left, disappeared. Didn't tell me where he was going and didn't say goodbye. I have no idea where he is or if he is even alive. My stepmother, of course, got all his property and money. And my sister and I, we've been living with her ever since."

When Natsu finished his anecdote, he was met with silence. Lucy was at a loss for words. Her lips were parted open slightly as if she were searching for the right thing to say, but came up blank. Natsu decided to save her the trouble of responding.

"You don't have to say anything." He told her quickly. "There's no need to. I'm fine. You just wanted to know, so now you know."

"I have to say something." Lucy shook her head firmly. "I just- I just don't know what to say. Your story… you're right. We are from different worlds. I can't imagine what you must have gone through, what you're still going through."

"It's no big deal." Natsu shrugged it off like he usually did, throwing the depths of his problems over his shoulder, discarding them like dead weight, hoping it wouldn't catch up to him.

Lucy saw through his act like it were glass. Nevertheless, she decided to let him act brave for now and ask a different question instead.

"Why do you stay?" She asked. "Can't you just run away? It can't be any worse than what you deal with now."

"Wendy and I can't leave." He said, shaking his head. He wanted to tell her more, but he couldn't just spill out all his secrets no matter how nice the princess was being. He couldn't imagine the look on her face if he were to reveal that he and Wendy were wizards and were hiding from the law. One thing's for sure is that they wouldn't be hidden anymore.

"Why not?" She pressed, now extremely curious.

"I'm hungry. You got any food around here?

"Don't change the subject!"

"What? I was just saying that I'm hungry. I never did get to see what kind of snacks you have at your Ball-"

"Why can't you answer my question?" She asked, only getting more frustrated when her repeated inquiry was once again met without a response. "If you don't have anywhere to go, you and your sister could stay in the castle. We have plenty of room and if you are going to be a part of the contests anyway, it makes sense."

Natsu froze. He hadn't been expecting her to say that. Was she being serious? Would the princess of Fiore seriously let a couple of farm kids stay in her castle? He considered the possibility for a moment. Wendy would absolutely adore the idea. Living in a castle would be like a dream come true for her. Just imagining the never ending grin that would be plastered on her face every day was almost enough for him to impulsively say yes to Lucy's proposition.

But then his common sense kicked in. It was already dangerous enough in Fiore for a couple of renegade wizards. Staying in the epicenter of law enforcement of the country seemed positively reckless. It was a very good possibility their secret would be let out within the first month. More than that was the issue of his stepmother. He already suspected that she knew that her stepchildren were trained by Igneel to be wizards and if Natsu was to take Wendy and run away to the castle, there was no way she would let them leave quietly. She would spill the secret and sell them out in a heartbeat.

"We can't do that either." He sighed, feeling the equivalent of a knife piercing through his heart as he was forced to turn down what would be a much happier life than the one he was currently living.

"You're not making any sense!" Lucy exclaimed incredulously. "Why do you want to stay there?"

"Because." Natsu said, quickly realizing that Lucy was not going to be satisfied without a definite answer to her question. And so, he gave her the other reason why he couldn't leave his home, the one that he usually kept to himself. The irrational reason that he never allowed himself to admit was true. "It's my father's farm. I know I always say how much I hate that place, but that wasn't always true. When both my parents were alive, the ranch was so happy, so light, and I loved every part about it. The best memories of my life are on that farm. If I were to just leave, if I were to let my stepfamily do whatever they pleased with it, then all my dad's hard work would be for nothing. There's a part of me that still hopes one day I'll be able to get rid of my stepmother and take the farm back for my real family. I want to make it a place where Wendy and I can have good memories again."

"I see… Wait no." Lucy changed her mind mid-sentence, realizing that something wasn't adding up. "I don't see. I understand how you feel about your father's farm, but that doesn't mean that you can't leave for a while and then take it back from the outside. What you're saying makes no sense."

"I wouldn't expect you to get it." Natsu said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You have two perfectly good parents and a perfect life to match. You don't understand what it's like to lose all of that. You don't understand what it's like to see everything you have disappear in less than a year. If you did then you would understand why I'm trying to preserve what little I have left from when my life was still complete."

Natsu allowed his words to spill out, speaking his mind without any filters. He wasn't trying to hurt the Princess's feelings, but she needed to learn how to let things drop. The blonde, however, was clearly not ready to do any such thing. She squeezed her hands into fists and bit her lip.

"Maybe I don't understand what it's like to lose a parent, but I will. And I definitely know what it's like to have everything fall apart." Lucy said, looking Natsu right in the eyes, unflinching and unblinking. She took a deep breath. "My dad is trying to downplay my mother's illness as much as possible. But the truth is that she is dying. The EIV Disease she is inflicted with is incurable and the doctors say she has less than six months to live. When my father and I got the bad news, he immediately told me that it was my duty to become the next Queen. Fiore law says that there must be a pair of married monarchs at the helm of the country at all times. My father is loyal to my mother, so as their only child, it is my duty to find a husband as quickly as possible and become Queen once my mother dies. That's why I'm going through these Coronal Contests. So yes, I know what it's like to have everything change."

Natsu broke eye contact with the girl and ran a hand through his hair, ruffling his spiky pink locks in understanding. Things were starting to make a lot more sense.

"I'm sorry about your mom." He said quietly. "That sucks."

"It does suck." Lucy agreed with a sad smile at his word choice.

"So you're going to be Queen, huh?" He shifted his gaze up to the stars as he added onto his question with a slightly bitter tone. "And you need a husband to be your King."

"That's the plan."

"So then what are you doing out here with me?" Natsu asked bluntly. A look of confusion spread across Lucy's face.

"What do you mean?"

"If it's really important for you to find the guy who can be the next King of Fiore, then why the hell are you wasting your time talking to me? Shouldn't you be back in that Ball with the princes and lords that could rule without actually blowing up the country?"

"I doubt you could actually blow up the country-"

"There's actually a very good chance that I would."

"Your kind." Lucy told him as she gently shook her head, getting very serious. "You're spirited. You work hard. You know what it's like to live outside of a fancy castle. I'm not convinced you wouldn't make a good King."

Natsu considered her words for a moment before brushing them all of with a playful smirk.

"Are you asking me to marry you right now?" He teased.

"What? No!" Lucy immediately protested, a crimson blush invading her cheeks and she shook her head vigorously back and forth. "I wasn't saying that at all!"

"You sure? Cause it sure sounded like you want me to be King."

"I want you to start considering things that may be unfamiliar to you. Just like you wanted me to do." Lucy quickly collected herself and even rose to her feet, picking up the skirts of her dress as she did so. To Natsu's surprise she held out her hand. "And since I left my comfort zone to clean a disgusting horse stall, I think it's about time you get a little glimpse into my world. May I have this dance?"

"Dance?" Natsu echoed in confusion. He perked his ears up for any sign of music, but only heard the soft chirping of crickets and stillness of the night.

"Surely you didn't think you could attend a royal Ball and get away without a dance, did you?" She said with a smile.

"But there's not even any music playing." Natsu said begrudgingly. However, despite his words, he stood up to his feet and took her hand.

"I could get a whole orchestra out here in a heartbeat if that's what's holding you back."

"Hell no." Natsu quickly said as a shiver was sent down his spine at the idea. Still holding onto the Princess's hand, he pulled her closer to him and placed his other hand on her narrow waist. Lucy smiled and rested her free hand on his shoulder, pleased that she didn't have to make any more threats for him to go along with her idea.

They swayed back and forth slowly, but Natsu couldn't help but feel a bit ridiculous. While he was normally agile and light on his feet, they suddenly felt extremely heavy and clumsy as he focused on not accidentally treading on the Princess's delicate heels of glass.

"I have no clue how to dance." Natsu said, not bothering to pretend like he wasn't totally out of his depths.

"I can tell." Lucy teased, giggling a little bit at his discomfort. "But there really isn't much to it."

Lucy shifted closer to him, guiding his movements into a more rhythmic motion. She smiled that smile of hers once he got the hang of it and he couldn't help but return a grin back at her.

Natsu was suddenly fully aware of the contact between them. He like the way her small hand fit into his and he really liked how his hand resting on her waist was able to guide her body towards his.

It was then he started thinking that maybe dancing wasn't so bad.

Lucy was looking up at him with her big brown doe eyes, her lips parted into the ghost of a smile that she probably didn't even know was there. It was pretty cute. She was pretty cute.

Natsu could have stayed in that moment forever, breathing in her scent, warming in her gentle presence. Subconsciously he leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers, locks of pink and gold mingling together beneath the starlight.

He wasn't thinking anymore. In that moment he forgot where he was, who he was with, and he couldn't even remember to breath. All he knew was that he wanted to get closer. Closer to her. There wasn't much space separating them, but it still felt like too much. What was now only a tiny gap seemed comparable to the widest ocean. He had to cross it.

But just before he could lean even more forward, he say something flash out of the corner of his half closed eyes.

It was an arrow.

A lethal arrow shot from a powerful bow. And it was speeding directly towards Lucy.

"LUCY!" He hollered, his sudden yell startling the princess whose eyes flung open with shock. Not having any time, he flung his body forward, tackling her to the ground milliseconds before the arrow whizzed through the pocket of air she had occupied a moment earlier. He collapsed on top of her against the grassy ground, but they both were unharmed.

Natsu quickly looked to see where the arrow had come from. It was only for a second, but Natsu clearly saw a dark figure move inside one of the castle windows that overlooked the courtyard. A heartbeat later, the figure disappeared and would probably be long gone by the time the castle guards could react.

Someone tried to assassinate Lucy. His stomach boiled with anger at the thought. He wanted to pursue the assassin himself, but he knew it would serve no good. He didn't have a shot at properly navigating the castle and wouldn't even know how to get back to the room the figure shot from.

"Guards!" He shouted instead, raising his voice so that anyone nearby could hear him. "Can we get some help over here?!"

Within seconds a small group of four iron clad castle guards burst into the courtyard.

"Is the princess alright?" One of them asked hurriedly through his metal helmet, the red plume sprouting off of it bouncing as he rushed onto the scene.

"There was an archer from that window." Natsu said as he pointed to the place he saw the figure. "He tried to kill her. You have to find him now."

The guards nodded and rushed off. Two of them were headed directly to the scene of the crime while the one other went to spread the word and get more help. The fourth and final guard stayed behind to watch over the princess.

The princess, who was still lying beneath Natsu's body, wasn't saying a word. The pink haired boy let out a breath and looked down at her face, searching for any signs of fear it may contain.

He found none. All he saw was shock. Her eyes were bulging wide and her body was stiff.

"You okay?" He asked quietly.

"You saved my life." She replied, voice equally soft.

"What, you mean this isn't what usually happens at these royal dances?" He joked with a gentle grin, feeling victorious when a small smile crept across her lips in return.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys! It's been a bit longer than usual, but there you go! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Personally, this one was a little tough for me to write and since I had to knock out bits and pieces of it whenever I got a chance to over the past couple weeks, I'm a little worried that it may have seemed inconsistent or choppy. A part of that (especially at the beginning of the chapter) was definitely on purpose. Even Lucy calls Natsu out on the fact that he's sending a bunch of mixed signals. And he is. At that point Natsu isn't quite sure what to think of Lucy, but he does pretty much figure it out by the end of the chapter.

AND OH MY GOSH SOMEONE TRIED TO KILL LUCY!

You know I really wasn't planning on doing the assassination attempt until later on, but honestly I just noticed that I had typed around 6,000 words of Nalu stuff and decided to end this chapter with a little more zest. I know some of the emotional conversations may have seemed over the top, but they're necessary in order for two such different people to form any sort of a workable relationship.

Sorry if Natsu seems OOC to you. Yeah, he's supposed to be. I mean anytime a character's past is changed and that character grows up under far different circumstances, he/she is never the same. Imagine a Natsu who doesn't have his Fairy Tail Family for love and support after his father leaves him. I think he would act a little closer to the Natsu in my story, rough and a little bitter, but still fiery and fiercely protective over what he cares about. You'll probably see him become more Natsuish as chapters progress.

Anyways, since it's been a while since I've posted a chapter, I'm in the mood to write a really long Author's note, so props to you if you actually make it through this whole thing. I just wanted to share with those of you who cares a few thoughts that have been dominating my mind these days. Oh, and when I say random, I mean RANDOM.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

1. Acid Base Chemistry is the worst thing ever invented. Nuff said.

2. A friend was telling me about how it was "Love Yourself" week in her dormitory earlier this month and the first day of the week was declared "No Mirror Monday" in which the mirrors in her community bathrooms were covered so that the girls couldn't see their reflections. Am I the only one this makes zero sense to? I mean isn't the whole point of loving yourself to have enough confidence to appreciate yourself for who you are? Covering up the mirror, to me, feels like admitting our self-deprecation in order to forget about our ultimate shame for a little while. I'm not trying to argue that enjoying one's looks are the end all be all of self-appreciation, but covering up the mirror is definitely not going to help in that regard. Of course, this irony was only highlighted by the theme of the following day being "Take a Selfie Tuesday".

3. I'm finally starting to understand why people like politics. This is the first year that I've actually been involved in following presidential campaigns and have actually found a candidate who I identify with and support. Like seriously, I've been following caucuses and primaries, reading extensive news articles and have discovered that political SNL skits become infinitely more hilarious when you actually understand the inside jokes.

4. My favorite pen ran out of ink today. You have no idea how devastated I am. My handwriting was practically calligraphy with that pen. Whenever I didn't want to take notes in class, I would allow myself to break out The Pen and I would instantly take the best notes ever written. It's not just about the ink, it's about the confidence. I'm going to miss that pen. May it rest in peace.

As always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing. You guys are awesome.