Some quick notes: this is actually a companion piece to midnight, a one-shot in my Jerza compilation sugar sweet so feel free to read that for background for fun—although this can very well standalone. This story is actually inspired by tumblr friend mags-duranb. She actually had made a headcanon for that Jerza piece that eventually came to be this one-shot. So thank her for this piece, haha.

And most of all, I want to take a quick second to thank all of you for your undying support. Seriously, the NaLu community is always fun to write for to because of all of you enthusiastic readers! I love you all.

Finally, a fair warning. I apologize if I'm using titles and getting all that wrong. I know shit about royalty and much less hierarchical systems.

Well, now that's said and done. I present Princess Lucy:

Closet Monsters

"I can't believe we went all the way to Alvarez for you to come back without any marriage promises," the King of Fiore seethes, his two hands raised in fists.

His blonde daughter tucks in a half-amused smile.

Her father did get quite riled up quickly, especially when it came to her, and especially because he had been trying to help her find an appropriate suitor—one that would treat her respectfully—ever since she was declared the heir apparent of the Kingdom of Fiore after her mother passed when she was a young child, barely able yet to say words.

The King continues to rant. "After the Royal Family invited us over to their grand ball, I was certain that we could wed you to the Prince—and that would have been a great win for both of the kingdoms, wouldn't it have been?"

"It's honestly okay, Father," the princess says, trying to mollify her father. "I didn't really mind that the Prince—"

"The Prince of Alvarez didn't even take a look at you!" the king interrupts, bellowing loudly in complaint. "We had you all dressed up nicely and you were very courteous and I can't believe that that prince didn't even turn his head in your direction when you were very clearly the most beautiful person at the ballroom party that night!"

Lucy blushes, taking her father's compliment. The king did often pamper his only child though, so she qualifies his statement as she runs her fingers through the ends of her hair.

"He did seem rather occupied with someone else," she says softly, thinking back on earlier that night.

She couldn't help but feel joyful for the other royal child—knowing all too well the pressures of finding a spouse. After all, the blue-haired Prince of Alvarez seemed to be the happiest man in the ballroom that night when he was dancing with the scarlet-haired woman—

Lucy suddenly realizes that she doesn't even know the name of the scarlet-haired woman, who had definitely come with them on the same ship as the rest of them that left from Fiore.

The princess frowned slightly. How was she fit to rule a kingdom if she barely knew its people?

"And my hair looks a bit strange, I reconcile," she admits, bringing herself back to her late night conversation with her father.

"Nonsense! Your hair is only one of its kind—in the grand ballroom that night, you were the only one with golden hair. And surely, in the entire world, you are the only one with such flaxen hair!"

She forces a smile. "The fact that it was one of its kind probably didn't help," she excuses for the Alvarez heir apparent. "Blonde hair might be seen as cursed there."

"Lucy, my dear—" the King of Fiore tells his beloved daughter, his eyebrows furrowing. "How can you say that about your hair? Your blonde hair is how you take after your mother."

This quiets the princess. "I know," she says.

"Your hair is the most beautiful thing, surely you must be able to see that!" Her father's gaze looked beyond her shoulder. "Right, Natsu?"

"Indeed," a tenor voice says behind her.

"Natsu!" she exclaims, turning around.

The knight looks up and his eyes touch the princess's gaze. He smiles grandly, the young Dragon Slayer—named so for his great feats in battle and rumored to be able to slay dragons with just his breath—and bows deeply to the last two descendants of the Heartfilia Royal Family of Fiore.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Princess's hair," Natsu assures the king, while maintaining eye contact with the princess. "In fact, if there is something at all wrong with her, it must be her head for not realizing that!" he adds, giving the blonde gives a smirk.

One of Lucy's hairs stood on end, popping out of its neatly combed place. "WHAT?!" she asks, enraged.

"Now, now, please don't fight," the King asks them, covering his mouth with one hand in soft laughter. He turns to his daughter. "It's getting late and we just came back from a rather disappointing party. You should be going to bed soon so that you don't sully your beauty."

The Majesty turns to the Dragon Slayer. "Natsu, since you're here, can you please escort her to her room?"

"Of course, your Majesty," the pink-haired knight says, immediately stopping his play fight with the princess and bowing. "I would never trust her Royal Highness to find her own way back anyway."

"NATSU!" the blonde erupts once more.

The knight would never let her hear the end of it—ever since she got lost in the castle when she was seven and he had to take her back to the dining hall one night, the knight had never stopped joking around about her bad sense of direction.

She quickly bids her father goodnight before crossing her arms and harrumphing, starting down the hallway to her room—which she was very sure the correct way to her bed.

The knight walks her down to her room and she thinks to herself while they make their way to her domicile. Their walk is quiet, except the occasional clack of her heels and click of his armor, a scrape of metal against his sword sheath.

"Natsu," she suddenly asks. "Will you give me your honesty on something?"

The Dragon Slayer shifts his head to glance at her, a slight questioning expression on his face. "Honesty is all I will ever give you, Princess," he finally tells her.

She forms the words in her mouth before asking, "Do you actually think my hair is beautiful?"

She sees him wrinkling his nose, observes him turn his eyes up at the ceiling of the hallway. "Yes…" he muses, and she can tell he is choosing his answer carefully.

So she doesn't take his word for it. "You think it's weird too, don't you?"

"I'm not going to deny that," he admits, looking over at her. "And yes, you are the only person that I know in this entire world that has blonde hair."

She nods, looking down at her floor.

"But I think it's special," he suddenly adds. "And so it fits you."

Surprised at his kind words, she blushes lightly, her hand unconsciously twirling her golden locks.

She wonders why his words reassure her.

After another several feet, they stop in front of her bedroom door, and the knight makes certain to tell the princess so that she knows where she is.

She instantly bitters. "I know where I am!" she exclaims, giving him a threatening glare. "Don't act like I'm stupid all the time!"

He just gives her a soft smile, taking her abuse. "Goodnight, Princess," he says instead, gentle and soothing. "I'll see you in the morning tomorrow."

She wishes that she would have elicited more of a reaction from him. She isn't quite ready to bid him goodnight, but she doesn't know what else he could do besides wish her a good sleep.

Regardless, her hand reaches the door so that she could end the evening and have the rest of the night to think to herself about what had gone on that day. But she pauses suddenly before she opens it, seeing her hand shaking a bit as she recalls to mind something that had been bothering her for a while.

"N-Natsu?" she asks, stammering.

He senses the quiver of her voice. "Princess?" he asks, taking a step closer to her.

"Do you…" and she tries her question again "…do you mind looking into something for me?"

His eyebrows furrow. "What is it?"

She is afraid of what she is about to admit, but for some reason she is a slightly more afraid to admit that she is afraid of something. She doesn't want to seem like the helpless princess all the time, and she doesn't want to always need to be calling for the knight's help.

"There's…been scratching at my closet door. It's been going on for…a few months."

He looks at her with all seriousness for a moment, before he suddenly bursts out in laughter. "You? Afraid of a monster in your closet?" He continues laughing, clutching his stomach.

"Sh-Shut up!" she scoffs. "I'm not scared! I'm just…I'm just wary!"

His cackling doesn't cease.

Lucy opens her bedroom door angrily. If he is going to make fun of her, so be it—she at least confessed to be afraid of something, unlike the Dragon Slayer, who tried to act fearless all the time—even when she knew that he was absolutely terrified of riding in carriages or other kinds of moving vehicles aside from his own horse.

He followed her into the room, nevertheless, his guffawing echoing into her chamber. Still, she was glad for the company, rather than just being greeted by the solitary stripe of moonlight on her bed. The blonde turned to turn on the light switch and cautiously looks toward her closet door.

"Go check the closet for me," she commands him, trying to contain her irritation at his seemingly infinite amount of sniggering.

The pink-haired knight finally quiets himself, but only to murder her with another scorching remark. "Princess Lucy is too scared to check it for herself—and didn't even try to do it in broad daylight?" he teases.

She crosses her arms, but not before shoving a large ring of keys in his face.

"H-Here! Try one of these keys!" she says.

He takes the ring in his hand, wrinkling his nose again as he shuffled through all the golden keys.

"Which one of these is the key to the closet?" he asks her.

"The bronze one."

"What are all these other keys for then?" he continues to question, as he selects said key and approaches her closet to open it for her.

"I…I don't know," she says, and when he looks back at her briefly, she seems troubled that he had asked her this question.

"Why do you have so many keys on this keychain when you don't know what half of them open?" he presses.

She's a little offended. "You know that those are the only things I have left of my mother," she reminds him simply.

His eyes widen when he remembers this. "S-Sorry," he apologizes, immediately feeling a pang of regret for not bearing this in mind at all. He conquers the tension of the silence by turning the lock and handle of her closet door, swinging it wide open so that the blonde princess behind him can also see the contents clearly within.

There aren't any monsters, but he takes note of the dried meat on the second shelf of her closet.

He also can't help but notice a familiar ribboned-and-boxed gift just above it on the third shelf—a present he had given her for her birthday earlier that year.

Her birthday had been at least a few months ago—and he is surprised, maybe a bit hurt, that she had left his gift untouched.

He ignores these feelings, thinking that there must be a reason why the princess hadn't opened the gift, and brings himself back to the present, helped by the suddenly very hyperactive white dog that came running to his feet from its nap in the corner of her room.

"Look, Luce," he tells her, his childhood nickname of her slipping out of his mouth. "—Princess," he corrects himself. She looks his way, not noticing his verbal mistake, and he motions down toward the package of meat in the closet before nodding down at the small white dog panting below. "Plue is just smelling this delicious stuff in your closet and so he's scratching at the closet because he wants some!" he explains to her.

"Oh," she says, blinking and coming towards him.

Natsu tries his best to veer his sight away from how the silken linens of her evening gown rested softly on her curves, and how the white gown matched the flush of her soft peach cheeks.

"You…really shouldn't keep food in the room, you know, Princess," he tells her, looking back into the dark closet. He avoids looking at not only her, but also at his unopened birthday gift.

She passes him and picks up the dried meat. "This was a gift from one of the nobles," she says, looking at it for a moment. "I didn't know what to do with it."

Given these words, he hopes that she hadn't thought of his gift to her in the same way.

Without warning, the princess suddenly opens the package, pulling out a piece of the dried meat—the knight can smell that it's really good quality meat because of his excellent nose—and passing a chunk to her scrambling and excited dog.

"There," she says, closing the package again and placing it on her nightstand—tall enough for Plue to not topple over in the middle of the night. "That should last Plue the night."

They watch the white dog wrestle at the meat for a little bit before retreating to its corner of the room, carrying the delectable meat to its cozy bed. Afterwards, she returns to her bed and Natsu makes his way to the bedroom door, his hand over the light switch.

"Natsu—" she calls out to him suddenly.

Her honey brown eyes look a little scared. He can't bear to leave her like this.

So he confirms her wish before she even voices it.

"Yes, Princess," he says, nodding his head and stepping back into the doorframe. "I'll watch over you tonight."

Her face softens into relief and she smiles—a sight he loves to see.

"I'm sure that Plue will come flying out of the closet coming to attack you later tonight. But don't worry, I'll protect you from all harm," he adds.

She pouts at him and he just laughs.

"So…" she says, hesitantly. "You'll stay the night here with me?"

The knight takes her hand and leans in close to her, looking her straight in the eye.

"Of course, Princess," he tells her.

The knight doesn't mind that she's asking him to watch over her at night, forfeiting his own bed for a hard wooden chair in her room. He doesn't mind that she might be asking a bit much from him.

After all, he is her dragon slayer and he would do anything to protect her from harm—

Even if it does end up being Plue.

But wait—what was that smell?

Damn. I'm way over my word limit. Fuck it. Also, whoops, it seems that I've ended up switching POVs in the middle of this, haha! *sweats* Hope y'all don't mind. And you can ignore the last line of the story, too, lol. It concludes better that way, haha.

Also, yes, I'm sorry. I know you're asking for sequels or continuations! And I know I keep opening new cans of worms and I keep making promises but daijoubu, shinpai shinaide kudasai! I'm still trying to figure out where I would post continuations haha, because I'm starting to have a bit…too many stories on FanFiction and I don't want to get my organization all messed up.

I'll probably end up posting them on my tumblr first, lol. Actually, do y'all have any preferences where I should publish? :P

All my best,

thir13enth