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Lucy isn't quite sure what wakes her up, but whatever it was, she wanted it to go away. Her head felt foggy and when she swallowed, her throat felt like sandpaper. She furrowed her brows as she opened her eyes to the bright light seeping in from the window.

When did Michelle open the curtains? Lucy thought as she squinted into the light. Normally the young woman woke Lucy when she did that. Nevertheless, she did not at all feel like getting up, and instead buried her face in her pillow and inhaled deeply.

Wait a minute.

While she didn't have a habit of smelling many things, she knew that this was not her pillow. It smelled clean, but it had the scent of someone other than her. Her eyes snapped open, fearing that her awful dream may actually have been real. Upon pulling away from the pillow to look down at it, a strand of hair caught her eye. It wasn't hers, because she certainly didn't have pink hair. She sat up quickly with a loud gasp, eyes wide as they looked around the unfamiliar room.

"Ah, so the princess finally awakens," came a voice from a dark corner of the room. Which one, she wasn't sure, as she couldn't see whoever had spoken. Then, she heard footsteps and out from the shadows stepped the man she had caught a glimpse of back at the castle in her mirror, only this time, she could see color, and what she saw, she wasn't at all expecting.

Not pink hair, at least.

"It's salmon," the man said, an edge to his voice that Lucy could only understand as annoyance.

"Wh-what?"

"My hair. You're looking at it, quite rudely, I might add - as a princess shouldn't you know better than to stare? Anyway, you're thinking it's pink, but it's salmon, thank-you-very-much," the man said.

"I wake up in a strange place after being kidnapped by a strange man, and you think I'm preoccupied by the color of your hair?" Lucy asked incredulously.

"Well, am I wrong?" he asked, leaning casually against a bookshelf, arms crossed over his bare chest. She wanted to flush, not used to seeing men in such a state of undress. At least he was covered from the hips down with white trousers and a strange white and black scarf tied around them as if it were acting as a belt. Lucy cleared her throat and looked away.

"Um… well…"

"Exactly," he said. Lucy then suddenly remembered the situation and looked to him again.

"Now hold on! Don't change the subject!"

"I don't think we were on a subject to begin with," he said. He was so snarky and Lucy could do nothing but glare at him from where she sat on the bed.

"I figured it was obvious enough. Where am I? Why did you kidnap me? Who are you?"

"Well, none of those are easy to answer, so if we could just not discuss them, that would be great."

"You cannot just expect me to not want to know! I have every right to question it!"

"I should have known you wouldn't make this easy. All right, fine," he said with an annoyed sigh. "You're in a tower built specifically to accommodate you. We are not in Fiore, but I can't say we are very far from it. As for why I brought you here, long ago, my father, Igneel, told me that there would one day be a princess who needed to be protected. She harnesses great magical power, but an innocent heart that can easily be manipulated into the darkness." He spoke as though he were boredly reading from a script. "That princess is you, Lucy Heartfilia."

Lucy's eyes were wide, but not for the reason he figured they would be.

"W-wait… You said your father is..."

"Igneel."

"Igneel?"

"That's what I said."

"Y-your father is Igneel…"

"Wow, you really aren't a very smart princess. Aren't you guys supposed to be more privileged?"

"B-but that's impossible! He was a dragon, and you're a human!

"Well, sort of. Right now, at least," he said, looking down at himself as if to confirm that he was, in fact, a human.

"That's not possible!"

"Hate to break it to you, princess, but it very much is."

"Why should I even believe you? You kidnap me, and now you're telling me that a dragon that lived thousands of years ago is your father? Impossible! Igneel only had one son!"

"That he did. Look at you, knowing all your facts and stuff," he said with a childish grin.

"I'm not stupid! Igneel's son is Dragneel. You know, the dragon," Lucy said.

"I'm not stupid, either. You don't seem to be taking in all the information, though. When I took you from your room, I jumped from the window. Now, I know for a fact that you weren't unconscious at that point, so you must have noticed we didn't fall to our deaths." Lucy's memory was foggy, but she wracked her brain to try to recall everything. She gasped.

"You… the wings! What the hell was that about?" she shouted, and the man seemed to grow frustrated. Instead of responding, though, he merely moved away from the bookshelf, taking a few steps closer to the center of the room, held out his arms as if to put himself on display for her.

Red wings sprouted from his back.

Dark horns poked out of his long, wild hair.

Red scales crept up the sides of his face and down his arms and the tops of his hands, and along his sides.

A tail flicked from behind him.

Lucy screamed.

"You really know how to make a man feel self-conscious," he said as he lowered his arms to his sides.

"You… You're… What happened to you?"

"Well, I think - and I might be wrong, but this is just a hunch - I think I'm a dragon. Well… Partially, at least."

"Will you stop being so snide?"

"I don't think so." Lucy glared at him, and if looks could kill, he may just be dead, but they couldn't kill, so he didn't care. Lucy then shook her head, pressing the balls of her hands against her eyes. "I know you've read about this. I took the liberty of reading those lovely records of yours by your bed while I waited for you to come back to your room."

"Records?" Lucy asked, raising her head to look at him. He had gone back to his normal human look and Lucy briefly wondered if he really changed at all. Unfortunately, she knew he had. The man picked up a book from a nearby table and flipped it open.

"It stood at the end of the alleyway with an evil grin," the man read, "It was surrounded by a black and green aura and parts of its limbs shimmered with metallic scales. Its hair was long and black as night with horns protruding from it, the same color as the scales adorning its body. Perhaps the most haunting attribute to it was the most inhuman of all, and certainly the most demonic - its wings that slowly waved as it stood there. I found myself unable to move for the longest time as it stared at me, just grinning."

Lucy's eyes widened as she realized he was reading from the dragon record book she read so often. She remembered that she hadn't put it away before she went to dinner.

"But that description is nothing like you," she said, shaking her head. "At least, not the colors."

"There are more dragons in the world than just me. Not all of them can turn draconic, or even human, but some of us can. This guy is one of them, and damn, did he make an impression," he said with a small laugh as he closed the book.

"Wh-who was it?" she asked.

"Eh, doesn't matter. He's not as cool as he sounds," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "So do you believe me now?"

"I-I mean, I don't know what to believe… Yeah, I've read about dragons, and even the draconic man mentioned there, but…"

"But you don't believe I'm Dragneel," he finished, and she looked at him with a slight nod. He sighed. "I don't know how else to prove it to you. Maybe you'll believe it over time."

"Over time? Just how long do you plan to keep me here?" she asked. He raised an unamused brow.

"I do hope you didn't think I kidnapped you and brought you here just to show off who I was, then bring you back home. I mean, I have reason."

"From a dragon who has been dead for almost three thousand years!" she shouted, but from the look he gave her, she almost wished she hadn't.

"That dragon was my father. Maybe show a little more sympathy?" he bit out. Lucy ducked her head.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I just… I don't know what you want with me. If it's money, I can assure you my father would rather have you keep me."

"I'm not after anything. Look, I told you: Igneel said that there would be a princess with great magical potential. She would have a heart that could be easily manipulated to darkness and use her magic for evil and bring chaos and destruction upon the entire world. Only one guy can do that, and it's my job to keep that guy away from you."

"Magic? But I don't have any magic. You clearly have the wrong person," Lucy said.

"You are Lucy Heartfilia, are you not?"

"Yes, but-"

"Daughter of Layla Heartfilia?" Lucy froze.

"How do you know my mother's name?"

"Other than the fact that she was the queen of Fiore? It's been prophesied, that's what I keep trying to tell you. Your mother harnessed great power, too, but upon having you, she passed it all, and more, into you. Not intentionally, I don't believe, but it happened." Lucy still looked at him in disbelief. He sighed and grabbed something something from the top of a nearby dresser. "Who were your friends growing up?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Just answer the question," he said impatiently.

"Michelle and-"

"No, not them. Your friends. The ones who were ripped from you by your father." Lucy's eyes widened. She shook her head slowly.

"There's no way you could possibly know about them," she breathed out.

"So much of what you believe to be impossible is very wrong, princess." With that, he tossed at her what he grabbed, and she managed to catch it. However, upon seeing it, she dropped it onto the bed as though it burned her.

"Where did you get that?!" she cried out.

"I suggest you be a bit more careful with those. I did spend a very, very long time looking for them."

"But my father… he threw them into the Calm Sea!"

"As I said: I spent a very, very long time looking for them." Lucy slowly reached out and picked up the one thing she valued most over everything else handed down to her from her late mother.

The golden ring of Zodiac gate keys.

The man watched as tears began to fall from her eyes, deciding it best to give her the moment. It was obvious she had cherished the keys given to her by her mother, especially since she had passed away so long ago.

"You have a very large amount of magical power within you, Lucy," he said, voice soft. "You were just unable to use it because you didn't have what is your power."

"My father… he took these from me about a year after my mother had passed away… I tried to get them back, but he pulled me to the cliffs overlooking the Calm Sea and made me watch as he threw them into the water. I was helpless as the waves carried them away…" Lucy said quietly, her voice shaking. She looked up at the man. "A-are they… do they work?"

"There's only one way to find out," he said with a shrug. "But do know that they cannot break you out of here. They can be summoned, but their powers won't work against this tower." Lucy nodded, watching as he walked to the door to leave. "I'll be back later."

"W-wait!" she called out before he could close the door. He turned to look at her. "Do you have a name? Other than Dragneel?"

"Natsu," he said.

"Thank you, Natsu," she said with teary eyes. He gave a nod, then closed the door. Lucy looked down at the key ring and picked up the key with an orange marking. She held it up with a shaky hand, taking a deep breath before speaking quietly, "open… gate of the lion, Leo."

A bright flash filled the room, making Lucy shield her eyes with her arm. Once it subsided, she lowered her arm and gasped with wide eyes as the man before her gave a warm and charming smile.

"Well, well, Lucy. Long time no see."