**I don't own Fairy Tail. Or the characters. They all belong to Mashima. Standard disclaimer stuff.
Sorry it took so long to put this up. Also, sorry that it's a bit rough. I haven't had as much time to write these last few weeks, but I felt like I needed to get this out, so I didn't take the time to proofread and edit.
Anyway, here's chapter 7. Hope you like it. If you do, drop a review. If you don't and you have something constructive to say, drop a review.**
Natsu sighed as he approached the palace, giving little thought to the blue exceed walking by his side. He really missed the carefree days of living as nothing more than a wizard of Fairy Tail. Things were so simple then. Fight hard. Grow strong. Protect the ones you love.
And yet he was happy to be coming back to Hisui. She was as much a part of his family as anyone now. Well, legally and technically speaking she was more a part of his family than anyone. But resolved though he was to fulfill his vow to love her, he still wasn't sure how he felt about his wife. He had fun whenever they spent time together. He loved seeing the cute, childlike side of her that she could never allow to shine through in public. But did he love her like a man was supposed to love a woman he was married to? Natsu Dragneel had to admit he didn't know.
"Welcome home, Natsu." A smile crept across his features as she greeted him in the courtyard. Her regal composure couldn't prevent a small smile from gracing her delicate features, and he saw a little of that childlike spirit emerge in her eyes. He set his bag down and pulled her into an embrace.
"It's good to be back," he told her before pressing his lips gently against hers in a chaste kiss. Displaying affection toward the princess felt more natural than it had a few short weeks ago.
"So how was the job?" Hisui asked when he released her from the embrace.
"Meh," Natsu shrugged, leaning down to pick up his bag again. "The train really sucked, but the mages pretty much sucked. I only got to fight one guy who was even a challenge." It was really disappointing. When they were commissioned with taking out the supposed strongest dark guild he'd really expected them to put up more of a fight.
"Well, I wouldn't be happy if it was too dangerous," Hisui's voice had a rare softness to it. She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. "I want my dragon prince back in one piece you know."
"But how am I supposed to get stronger if its not challenging?" Natsu groaned. He knew she was a princess, but shouldn't she at least know this much about magic?
"I've heard the stories of your past exploits, Natsu." Hisui looked worried as she searched his eyes. "I don't want my husband coming back with wounds that are too deep to heal. Or even worse, not coming back at all."
"Well, if you've heard about my past you should know I'm so awesome I'll always come back. Even after getting wiped out by a dragon's breath attack!" Natsu grinned at his wife, trying to reassure her that he would always come back. His confidence extended to any battle he might encounter. Well, any battle except one. And that one was inevitable.
"But what if you don't come back?" Hisui asked, her soft green eyes still full of worry. "What if one of these times you come up against an enemy you can't beat?"
Natsu laughed. "That's why I have a team," he said cheerfully. "Even if I can't do it alone, together we've always been able to finish whatever we started."
"I suppose your team is impressive," Hisui said, her eyes getting a thoughtful expression as she considered his words and his trust in his team. "But still, there's got to be something out there that you're afraid of."
Natsu froze, hoping she didn't know him well enough yet to see the faint sadness behind the confident smirk he flashed. "Only thing I'm afraid of are those disgusting flying fish we had to eat that one time." What he was most afraid of was the confrontation with Acnologia that was coming up. He didn't doubt his power. Never had. But whenever he thought of the dragon, all he could think of was that brilliant white light engulfing not only him but the entire island of Tenroujima, along with his guild.
"They were that bad, eh?" Good. She bought it. Natsu didn't know whether it was comforting or not to realize that his wife still didn't know him as well as his team, or even Mirajane or Elfman for that matter.
"Terrible," he said, forcing his mind away from Acnologia. He would just make sure the princess stayed on her birth control magic for another year or so. That would give him plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming battle. "They were so bad even Happy couldn't eat them."
"Happy refusing a fish?" Hisui asked, wide-eyed. "I don't believe it!"
"You've never tasted the winged fish!" Happy said, tears coming to his eyes at the memory. "I don't even think they were real fish. There's no way a fish could taste that bad!"
"Alright, enough about fish." Natsu smiled as he started walking again. "We've got to put our stuff away from our trip. And it would probably be good to shower before the meeting. When is that anyway?" he added, looking at Hisui.
"25 minutes," she said with a rare smirk. "Better hurry, my prince." She emphasized the last word with a smirk.
Natsu gulped. This was going to be his first meeting without the assistance of the King or Arcadios, and Hisui was already directed not to say anything either, though she would be there.
"You know, scratch what I said earlier." He said with his trademark grin. "There are two things I'm afraid of… fish and meetings."
"Aaaww, is poor widdle Natsu afraid of the big scary Alvarez delegates?" Hisui teased, ruffling his hair like he was a child as they walked. "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you."
Natsu punched her lightly on the shoulder, a half-playful scowl darkening his face. "You know I hate it when you talk to me like that. If I can take out the guild master of a powerful dark guild without even trying, I'm pretty sure I can handle a couple bureaucrats from Alvarez."
"Well, then you have nothing to be afraid of." Hisui said with a smile as Happy stared at Natsu his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.
"What's wrong Happy?" Natsu asked.
"You… said… bureaucrat…" Happy said, his words coming out slowly as though his mind was having trouble forming them.
"What of it?" Natsu asked, irritated by the exceed's strange behavior.
"Since when did you know any words longer than 6 letters?" Happy asked.
"Since a long time ago," Natsu glared. "I knew Acnologia."
"Doesn't count. That's a name, not a word."
"Whatever." Natsu arrived at the door to their room and flung it open. Throwing his bag next to the wardrobe, he hurriedly grabbed some clothes and a bath towel and headed into the shower room.
~~~The Meeting~~~
"So, what does your highness think of the proposal?"
Natsu continued studying the map and the papers that were set before him for several long minutes before he looked up.
"I think everything looks good…" He paused, waiting till the ambassador opened his mouth before he narrowed his eyes. "Is that what you expected me to say when you presented this?" He just managed to cut himself off before 'bullshit.'
"Y-your highness?" The ambassador's face twisted into a look of genuine confusion and surprise. "Is there a problem with Alvarez's proposal?"
"Why don't we look at your proposal and decide that for ourselves, shall we?" Natsu asked, keeping his tone carefully neutral despite his irritation. He took a pen and tapped lightly on a line drawn in the ocean on the map. "This is your requested 'military operation zone.' Do you think that it's normal for a country to allow a recently conquered aggressor to perform military operations close enough for them to strike without warning? Or perhaps you are under the impression that the prince of Fiore is a buffoon?"
"Your highness," the ambassador sputtered, and Natsu could tell it was the latter. "There is no way a ship could reach Fiore from that position in less than a day…"
"Do you take me for a fool?" Natsu allowed a little of his anger to creep into his tone. Not as much as his old, careless self would be showing at this moment, but enough to let the ambassador know he was not pleased. "A normal ship would take a full day, yes. But a ship with magic-augmented speed? Well, with the power we've already seen from your nation you could be there in a matter of 2 hours."
Natsu then took his pen and traced a new line, two hundred miles closer to Alvarez than the original proposal. "This will be your border for military operations. If any military ship or aircraft crosses this border without Fiore's authorization, Fiore's military will have every right under this treaty to use any and all military force to neutralize the threat."
"Now for the second major problem. Your trade treaty looks good on the surface, but in section 13 of the trade treaty, subsection j, there exists a provision that "Alvarez will reserve the right to raise tariffs paid by Fiore merchants against all imports from Fiore should the current terms of this treaty prove detrimental to the economic well-being of the Alvarez Empire, with tariffs not to exceed 15% on all goods or moneys exchanged." Later, in section 15, subsection c, there exists a provision that "The Kingdom of Fiore will be bound by this treaty to levy a tariff of no more than 3% of the total value of any goods or moneys exchanged." Perhaps you can see how I might think this would not be advantageous to my people."
The ambassador was sweating bullets now, and Natsu sighed inwardly. This confirmed his suspicion that they'd prepared this treaty knowing he was to be presiding at this meeting. Clearly they believed him incapable of properly exercising his role as prince of Fiore. While it may be true that he could be dense sometimes, he wasn't exactly stupid.
"There are some other changes that I think should be made," he said, leaning forward a little and narrowing his eyes while carefully maintaining a neutral expression otherwise. "But we won't go into the details now. Because what you're going to do is go back to your country and revise this treaty proposal till it looks like Alvarez was the defeated party in this war and not the conqueror. I expect to see your revisions in two weeks time."
The ambassador glared at him from across the table, but there was nothing he could say about it, and he knew it. "Yes your highness," he said, his features twisted into an uncharacteristic scowl. Natsu smirked inwardly at the knowledge that the ambassador's failure made him break his composure to such an extent.
"Oh, one more thing," Natsu said off-handedly as the ambassador and his escorts rose. "If the terms you return with in two weeks are not agreeable to me and to my advisors, Fiore will require you to sign a treaty that we draft. And I can assure you if that happens, your 'empire' will be on the losing end. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, your highness," the ambassador seethed.
"Good," Natsu said, smiling as he also rose. "Then I look forward to seeing your revised proposal." He dismissed the ambassador and his escorts with a curt nod.
After everyone was gone, Natsu and Hisui headed back to their bedroom to clean up before dinner. As soon as they were alone Hisui drummed up a stuffy suit voice and said, "And I can assure you if that happens, your 'empire' will be on the losing end. Do I make myself clear?"
"Oh, shut up…" Natsu said, punching her lightly on the shoulder.
"Who knew you had it in you?" The princess giggled. "I'll make a real prince out of you yet."
"I'm already a real prince," Natsu pouted. "That happened as soon as I married a princess."
"The title, maybe," Hisui said, and even though he knew she was intentionally pushing his buttons he couldn't help but growl a little at her response.
"Yeah, well I don't need to be all stuffy to be a real prince." He retorted. "I'll prove that you can be a prince and still have fun."
"I don't know, you sounded pretty stuffy to me…" Hisui's mouth twisted into a sly, teasing grin. "I almost fell asleep during that meeting."
"Alright… That's the last straw!" Natsu reached down to the princess's ribcage and started brushing his fingers softly and teasingly across her ribs.
"Natsu!" The princess tried to hold back the laughter that threatened to erupt as the dragon slayer tickled her. "Not in the halls…"
Natsu redoubled his efforts, and in moments Hisui lost control of her body, laughing and gasping for air as she collapsed. When Natsu finally relented, he looked up to see a guard gaping at them as he walked by.
Natsu smirked, narrowing his eyes to slits and allowing his magic to seep out with an ominous aura. "You didn't see anything," he told the guard.
"Absolutely not. I didn't see anything, your highness!" The guard squeaked as he turned and shuffled quickly away, terrified from the display.
Natsu grinned and returned his attention to Hisui, who was still catching her breath on the floor. "Come on princess," he smirked. "Get off your ass or we're gonna' be late for dinner."
She looked up at him with a cute little pout on her face, not saying a word. After several long moments he sighed. "You're lucky you're so damn cute," he said as he extended a hand to her. She quickly caught it and pulled herself to her feet. "Now let's go."
Fifteen minutes later they were all cleaned up and sitting in the royal dining room. The king, Arcadios, and the defense minister were also there. And Toma was the first to speak.
"That was a fine job you did there, Natsu," Toma said with a smile. "But I must admit that I'm surprised. I didn't think you would handle things that well."
Natsu just grinned. Not his wide, toothy grin that he'd always used for the guild, but a more reserved grin that seemed more appropriate to the current atmosphere. "I had help, your majesty."
"But even with help," Arcadios said, his eyes betraying a hint of guilt. "I must confess that I didn't believe you were able to properly evaluate the treaty conditions, let alone handle the meeting as well as you did."
Natsu smiled before responding, "I can't really blame you. Six months ago I wouldn't have believed it either. But I kinda' figured out that everything in politics is like a good fight. Only instead of magic and fists, you're using words and pens. So just like I have to be able to read my opponent in a fight, I have to be able to see what my opponent is doing in treaty proposals or meetings. And I have to figure out a way to counter."
"Plus," he added, "their deception wasn't very subtle. I think they were counting on me not being able to see anything beyond face value."
"Indeed, it seems they underestimated my Natsu," Hisui said with a small smile.
"People seem to make a habit of that," Natsu said with a smirk.
"Indeed they do." Toma said, looking thoughtful. Defense Minister Darton just scowled. Despite everything that happened, he clearly wouldn't accept Natsu as prince still.
The rest of the conversation was pretty boring, at least until Happy joined them from his own special feast.
"Oh Natsuuuu." He groaned, his eyes rolling up in his head. "The fish here are soooo good."
"That's great buddy," Natsu said, laughing inwardly at the exceed's exuberance. Happy said the same thing after every supper… and breakfast and lunch for that matter. Despite living in the castle for months now, he still raved about how delicious the fish were. And of course, next he would say…
"We need to invite Carla to live here."
Yep. There it was. "We will, buddy. Maybe Wendy can move here too. She is sort of my surrogate sister, after all," he grinned.
"Aye!" Happy cheered. "When Carla tastes the fish here, she'll love me for all eternity!"
Hisui giggled. Toma laughed. Even Arcadios couldn't help cracking a smile at the exceed's antics. The defense minister just scowled.
Natsu sighed. It was clear from the beginning he would have an uphill battle with this one, but he was even more stubborn that the dragon slayer originally believed to be possible.
Oh well, he could always hire a new defense minister. Yeah. That sounded like a good solution. A new defense minister. Yeah. That would solve all his problems! Natsu internally fist pumped at his ingenuity.
Dinner was over before he knew it. Soon he was heading back to the bedroom with Hisui. The walk was quiet. Hisui was subdued, and Natsu was thinking about the mission with his friends from the guild. Now that he was in the palace, he really missed the time he spent out on adventures with his friends from his guild. But when he was out there, he missed spending time with Hisui. But why did he miss spending time with Hisui? Most of the time they were doing formal, rigid stuff that he hated.
"Natsu?" Hisui's voice broke his thoughts as they entered the room. "How do you feel about me?"
Natsu blinked, surprised by the bluntness of the question. How did he feel about her? He still couldn't answer her fully. He decided to at least try to put some of his thoughts into words. "Well, to start with, you're really an amazing person. I mean, you act just like a princess should, but you've got this really cool side to your personality too. You know how to have fun when we're alone. You're definitely beautiful, not to mention sexy. And you always do what you think is best for Fiore."
Hisui smiled, but there was a searching look in her eyes as she met his gaze. "Well, thanks for that Natsu, but you haven't really answered my question."
Natsu sighed, debating whether to try to talk his way out of this or tell her the truth. He finally opted for the second choice. "Well, to be honest I don't fully know yet, Hisui. I'm married to you, and I made a promise to love you. You should know I fully intend to keep that promise, but to be honest I don't know if I feel that way toward you yet. I really do like you a lot. At least as much as Erza, Mira, Gray, and Lucy, and even as much as Happy. And you're really attractive. But I don't really know how I feel fully yet."
The princess sighed and looked down. "I suppose I can't expect anymore, Natsu." She said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Natsu moved forward on instinct, wrapping one arm around his wife as the other tilted her chin up so she could see his eyes. "I'm sorry that I can't say the words you want to hear right now, Hisui. But I made a vow to you on our wedding day that I would love you, and it's a vow that I intend to keep. I don't want to try to force it. And I sure as hell won't lie about it. But I know that it will come, and in the meantime I'll treat you the way a man should treat his wife. And you also know I'll never lie to you, Hisui. So when I do tell you that I have feelings, it'll be for real."
A solitary tear slipped down her cheeks as she returned his embrace. Natsu cringed, inwardly. There were few things that he hated more than seeing the people that he loved cry. And Hisui was one of those people. He desperately wanted to be able to say the words that she wanted to hear, but he knew that he couldn't yet.
"I love you, Natsu Dragneel," she whispered as she clung to him. "And I'll wait as long as it takes for you to be able to answer my feelings…"
Then, to his surprise, she took a step back and slipped out of her royal attire, then continued to shed the silky green panties and bra that covered her private areas. Then she grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the shower with a seductive wink. "If you can't return my feelings just yet, the least you can do is perform your husbandly duties."
The sudden change surprised Natsu. But he caught a slight tremor in her voice and realized this wasn't a sudden change. It was a distraction for her. Something to take her mind off the more pressing topic of love. And despite the sorrow he still felt at being unable to return her feelings at the moment, he was more than willing to go along with her. After all, it was the least he could do.
Ah fuck, who was he kidding? He would enjoy every fucking moment of it.