Hey there ya'll. If this is updated by the 24 of November then that means I've figured out how to update chapters. Now I have a few things to address: 1- About 3 people want Lisanna dead and 1 person wants her alive so here's my proposition, Lisanna dies in her designated fairy tale but because of Bixlow's love for her she comes back to life in the real Magnolia world. So she dies in fairy tale, but survives in the guild because of Bixlow's love. That cool with everyone? 2- How long do you want my chapters to be? They can either be about 3,000-5,000 words long but only take 2-4 chapters, or they can be 1,000-2000 words long and take about 7-8 chapters per fairy tale. I'll leave the choice up to you. I'm writing this during my math class because it's technically a study hall for me because I'm an eigth grader waking up an hour early to take freakin' geometry honors at a high school before I have to go to my k-8 school. Now for the words I can never forget…

DISCLAIMER: FAIRY TAIL BELONGS TO HIRO MASHIMA. I OWN NOTHING!

CHAPTER 3: Unexpected Meeting (Not Really)

Natsu would never admit it, but he was lost. He can't remember how many days have passed, but he thought it must be close to a week. His clothes were ripped and shredded. The peasants' clothes were still worse though, which was why they still chased him when they saw him. "I never should have left the palace," Natsu thought. He was a prince for crying out loud, the son of the most powerful man in the world. His stomach grumbled and Natsu sighed.

"I wonder if father noticed whether I was gone or not," Natsu whispered to himself, trying to distract his mind from the thought of food. His thoughts drifted to the day he escaped.

…Natsu turned over in his moiré and charmuese covers. They felt so soft and smooth. He clenched the expensive fabrics in his hands. "I will get out of this prison today," he vowed. When I do I'll be able to eat grilled chicken, which really does taste better a bit burnt, drink soda, all we have in this dang palace is water. I'm getting sick of all that water…"Natsu's thoughts trailed on. Then he rolled over and got up.

He started walking towards the giant windows in his bedroom. Very dramatically he tore the very thick silk curtains off the rail which held them. The fiery red curtains pooled around his feet, the ripples in fabric make resemble a pool of blood. Natsu took no notice of this and instead stared out the windows to see the majestic sun rising, lighting up the sleeping world.

"Man, I love how warm the sun is. It reminds me of Igneel," Natsu said sleepily. For you see, Igneel was the prince's favorite of the four dragons. Sometimes, but very rarely, Igneel was able to fly over towering walls surrounding the palace undetected and visit Natsu. Natsu frowned. His father always added more security and made the looming walls taller because he hated to be disturbed. More security meant fewer chances Igneel had to visit him. Then Natsu grinned.

"Whatever. After today I can go visit Igneel almost anytime I want. That is whether I decide to come back or not."

As far as Prince Natsu knew, he wasn't ever planning on coming back. He had spent a month weakening a section of one of the jade walls surrounding the Jade Palace. Today should be the day where the wall was weak enough to collapse in that one area so that he could escape. Natsu has always wanted a taste of freedom. He was tired of being surrounded by different shades of green.

Natsu walked over to his wardrobe and he almost started rampaging at what he saw. His father took away and probably disposed of his favorite outfit that Igneel brought him. A black vest with the outline of it in a gold nylon fabric, a cheap leather and silver belt ,puffy bull denim pants with two flaps made from the same fabric of his vest that were secured from his belt and went to about his knees, and a pair of stiff leather sandals. Natsu's hand went up to his neck.

"Grrr…*sigh* At least I still have the scarf Igneel gave me." Natsu then started examing the hundreds of clothes he had. Most were long flowing robes native to the royal family. Natsu knew he wouldn't be able to go far in such troubling clothing. His eyes landed on the outfit that he received as a gift from an aristocrat of the celestial part of the kingdom his father ruled. It was easy to move around in and was light-weight. "Perfect," Natsu thought.

Natsu then headed for the dining hall for breakfast. Today he felt like roasted peacock covered in Sauce Financière. Next to him sat a glass filled to the brim with water. Three square ice cubes sat in that glass as well and the top was rimmed with sugar. There was a bowel on his right filled with different types of nut covered in a light honey sauce. On his left was a basket filled with breadsticks. There was also a bowl of rice with shrimp on the top. He devoured all of his breakfast except for three breadsticks in under half an hour. Slouching uncouthly he rested his hands on his bloated stomach and burped.

"Ahhh… Now that was good," he moaned.

"Natsu, that is no way for a prince to act," a sickly sweet voice called out. Natsu quickly sat up and turned around. His mother was walking through the doorframe. As always a dark green veil covered her face. An attendant train followed her.

Natsu started panicking in his head. He rarely saw his mother. Last time he saw her was four months ago when she was taking a stroll in their palace's rock garden. The last time she spoke to him was when he turned fifteen and she softly muttered, "You are becoming a young man; please do not betray my expectations. You are destined for great things. Make this country great. You can do that by either fear or love." Natsu still had no idea what those words meant, but he could tell by her voice that she was in favor of fear. He was in favor of fear as well, since he never understood love. He understood fear very well.

Natsu started stuttering, "W-well…ummm… I-I mean good morning mother." He could feel his mother glaring at him with disapproval through the veil. She gracefully glided over and sat down at the opposite end of the long table from where Natsu sat. A servant filled her glass with wine. She took a sip and Natsu began to say more. "Mother how-"

"Silence," she cut him off. "You will not address me until you become worthy of the title 'my Son.' Am I clear?"

Natsu was so shocked and in despair he couldn't even nod. His mother swiftly got up and had her train escort her out of the room. As soon as she was out of sight Natsu's fist hit the table, breaking it. Silent tears streaked down his face. He felt so alone, with his mother not accepting him and all. Now he was starting to rethink his plans of escape. His mother didn't want such a rowdy, undisciplined son. He should act the way she wants him to.

"Natsu… You can only be yourself and no one else. Do not take into account what others may think of you. You are you, and you are a person with a strong heart, undying loyalty, and a fierce courage."

Natsu's eyes widened when he recalled these words. Igneel told him this when he was very little. Natsu gave himself a small smile. "I'm coming Igneel, whether you like it or not. And just to prove it…"

Natsu was back in his room with flint in one hand and steel in the other. He walked over to where the curtains fell. He squatted down and grinned evilly. He then started clashing the flint and steel together, making sparks. Soon the red curtains were ablaze. Natsu stared excitedly at the fire. He had always loved how destructive and free fire was. "Soon," Natsu thought, "I will be like fire myself." He quickly left the room.

He was now facing the wall. Not even taking a deep breath he just started punching the wall. With the force he was hitting the wall with his knuckles were starting to bleed. "Right, left, right, left…Rrahhh! I will take this wall DOWN!" Natsu screamed to himself. Natsu started focusing all his energy and will into his right and left hands. "Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist!" Natsu himself couldn't even keep his eyes focused on his punches. He just felt the sheer joy of having the power of destroying something once he saw cracks appearing on the wall. Getting even more pumped up Natsu just started screamimg. "Yaaaaaahhhaaaaahhhaaaa!" His right fist connected with that part of the wall and a huge hole appeared. "Alright!" Natsu exclaimed, giving a thumbs up to no one inparticular. Cracking his bleeding knuckles Natsu started walking.

"Found him. C'mon!"

Natsu looked up, startled. He couldn't believe someone found where he was hiding, "I mean, who would look for me after I ran into a maze of alleyways?" Natsu thought. "Well, I'm not going without a fight," he muttered angrily. He quickly jumped up, but felt unbalanced and unfocused because of lack of food and water. He looked at his enemy again. Eight more people were beside him. "Nine, eh? This shouldn't be a problem," Natsu tried to convince himself.

The man Natsu labeled as Man #4 started walking toward him. The man was tall, muscular, and seemed to be in his thirties. Man #4 started running towards Natsu with his arm pulled back, ready to deliver a powerful punch. Just as it was about to hit Natsu's face, he dropped to his knees and lunged past the man and then he heard a large cracking noise. The punch that had meant to hit Natsu's face had hit the wall instead.

Natsu's eyes widened and felt the familiar feeling of fear, only this time it was on an entirely different level. The man had easily smashed his hand through the stone and had created a bigger hole than the one Natsu created when escaping the palace. Natsu took a deep breath. "I can do this. There is no doubt about it. It will not end here," he told himself. Man #4 turned around looking as angry as Natsu when he had to miss dinner at the Jade Palace at times.

Another punch came Natsu's way, but he stepped to the side promptly and caught the man by his wrist. He crudely twisted the man's wrist making a snap resonate through the air. A scream of pain came next. Man #4 knelt on his knees while clutching his broken wrist with his other hand. It wasn't just his wrist that was broken; Natsu also fractured his entire arm and broke his shoulder. Man # 4 was down for count. That only made matters worse for Natsu. He knew this when he took a glimpse at the man's companions. They were all running toward him now.

Natsu took one step back because he was unsettled by the number of people coming at him. He debated whether he should run or not, but the moment the thought appeared he disregarded it. He was going to fight. Natsu decided that the best tactic would to start by getting above them. Natsu saw that his right side was clear and so he ran to his right, up the alley wall, and did a backflip off the wall so by the time everybody was where he had been on the ground, Natsu was ready to do some damage.

"Fire Dragon's Blazing Elbow!" Natsu called out, hitting everybody pressure points with his elbows. One of the men grabbed his ankle and flung him onto the ground just as Natsu jumped from a man's back after hitting his pressure points. Natsu hit the ground hard. Blood started flowing down from the left side of his head. The blood started obscuring the sight of his left eye. "Tch," he muttered as he swiftly tried to recover, but just as he stood up someone punched him in the gut hard enough to throw him back and hit the other alley wall. Blood sprayed out of Natsu's mouth. Still knowing he couldn't take a break he yelled, "Fire Dragon's Sword-Edge!"

Rushing forward Natsu never felt so alive. One by one he saw his opponents falling by his hands, feet, and even head. With his combination of punches, kicks, head-butts, and tackling he felt unstoppable. "Wahahahaha! This is so much fun!" Natsu shouted.

"He looks like a demon," everyone he was beating up thought.

Natsu felt a presence behind him, but couldn't react fast enough. A hard object collided with the back of his head and a sharp pain shot through it. His vision went blurry as he fell to the ground and just before he completely blacked out, he heard laughter mocking him. _Lucy was sitting down at the side of the road near the entrance of the city that led to the Jade Palace. Even the people who lived there had forgotten the town's name. All that mattered was survival. "I hope mom is making it through alright," Lucy thought.

Above her the sky held the usual sun which radiated tremendous amounts of heat. Lucy wiped the sweat from her brow. "I guess that dragon lied. Why did I believe it in the first place?" Lucy knew why she trusted it. His eyes held pureness and had clearness showing that he wouldn't deceive her. She wildly shook her head to erase the image of those eyes from her head. "Well, the sooner I get to the Jade Palace the sooner I can beg for food, water, and medicine." Getting up she started a steady pace into the city, her cloak's hood keeping her face in shadows.

People crowded the streets. Lucy hated the feeling of being crowded around by strangers. The same way she hated to be all alone. Her mother was the only one who chased away that feeling. Lucy was pushed to the ground when someone was shoved into her.

"Ergh," Lucy said in a high pitched squeal. Nobody took notice of the hooded figure on the ground; after all, her cloak was as shabby as their own clothes. Lucy quickly got up and backed against a stall.

"Oi, you, do you want to buy something or not?!" an angry merchant started shouting at lucy.

"Ohh…," Lucy was about to refuse, but she saw he had water she said instead, "How much for the small vial half filled with water?" Lucy only was able to bring 600 jewels.

"3,000 jewels."

Lucy's eye started twitching. This was going to be hard. "Who can afford that outrageous price? I'll give you 300 jewel," Lucy said in her silkiest, most seductive voice. The merchant's eyes widened for a second when he recognized it was a girl, but then he clenched his jaw.

"No,no, that will not do , you have to pay-"

"Then how about 600 jewels? Puh-leeaase?" Lucy took her hood off. She could see the controversy in the man's eyes. Finally, he sighed. Lucy recognized it as a sigh of defeat.

"Alright, hand the jewels over. Here, here, take the vial." He gave her the vial reluctantly. Lucy licked her lips.

"Doumo arigatou gozaimasu," Lucy said sweetly while putting her hood back up. She carefully placed the precious water vial on a piece of string she tied around her neck. She made sure to have her cloak cover it so she wouldn't be mobbed. Then because of her dislike of crowds she decided to make it to the palace by traveling through the nearly deserted alleyways. _A whip cracked a scream of pain entered the air. No one could hear the scream except for the people wanting to do this to him. Natsu grit his teeth, trying to control his breathing. This has been going on for hours. Not only was he tortured with a whip, but also with rusty knifes that were used to trace his bones, electrical currents running through his body from old wires, and they shoved glass shards in his mouth which he was forced to swallow. His whole mouth was filling with blood and his throat was raw. Now his blue outfit was dyed red.

"Boss, weren't we gonna rob 'im?" a short man asked the guy who was holding the whip. His supposed boss gave him a deadly glare.

"I already checked him. He has nothing except the clothes on his back. We can still probably sell the clothes for a decent price though. After we've had our fun of course."

Natsu glared venomously at their leader. The boss just let out another wicked laugh and pulled back his whip. Once he cracked it again it made a long diagonal lash from Natsu's left temple to the bottom of his left cheek. He cried out in pain once more. An underling then burst through the door of this group's hideout. "Boss! Someone is coming this way down the street!"

"Does he have anything of value?"

"Doesn't look like it. He's wearing a cloak."

"Tch. Well even though it's just one man let's not take any chances, Lt us disperse into the town and come back later."

"And what about him?" The underling gestured towards Natsu.

"We leave the brat here. Now, somebody gag him so he can't call for help!" The underlings quickly obeyed their master's orders. Not only was Natsu tied to a pillar, now he was gagged. "We leave now! Let's hurry!" They all fled the room. _Lucy saw a large group of people run out of a ruined, yet still standing, building. She just silently stared at them as they ran away from the building. Once she saw that they all left, Lucy cautiously entered the building. She silently walked down some steps until she reached a basement floor. Her hands instantly went to her mouth at what she right before her. A pink haired boy tied up and gagged, bleeding a profusion of blood.

She quickly ran up to him and tried untying the ropes. When she couldn't she looked around the room and found a glass shard. Lucy used that as a knife to cut his bindings. Right as she cut the last rope he fell forward straight into her arms, Lucy then pulled the cloth gagging him out of his mouth. He started gasping for air right away.

"Who-who are you?" the pink- haired bot asked weakly.

"I'm Lucy," Lucy whispered. The boy started coughing up blood. "Hold on!" Lucy said hectically, removing her hood and taking out the vial of water from around her neck. His shaking hands shot out and grabbed the water. The boy drank it all in one gulp.

"Hey! Who do you think you are!?" Lucy exclaimed angrily.

"Natsu," the pink haired bot responded, looking a bit stronger after drinking the meager amount of water.

"Natsu…" Lucy whispered.

So how'd you like this chapter? Too romantic? Either the next chapter or the chapter after the next one will be the last chapter for this couple so who do you want the next couple to be? And I do want to know how long you guys want my chapters to be this one is over 3,100 words without my introduction and closing comments. I feel really devoted to my story. I spend at least 5 hours a day making a new chapter for this story. I think I should just do it weekly… I apologize if I totally screwed up your mental image of Natsu in this chapter. I promise I'll try to make him stronger next chapter. Any questions, concerns, critiques, or compliments of my story are highly appreciated. Also, for guest reviewers, from now on I'm going to try to be sure to respond to your comments in my intros, kay?