A/N: Hey guys! Like I promised, here's my next update. FYI, I might not be able to update very fast for this week as I'm busy with work and all furthermore I'm going for interviews! Enough about me, I would like to thank everyone for your reviews and also getting followed and favourites. I get so excited when I received the email notifications, smiling to myself like an idiot^^

The Princess and the Dragon Slayer

Chapter 7

I quickly went back to work after settling my dispute with Lucy. I didn't want Loki to be nagging at me for over using my break time. It's great seeing her happy again. I don't understand myself but seeing Lucy smile and laugh, just makes me happy.

I think I was daydreaming, reminiscing about Lucy actually that I didn't realized Loki was standing in front of me.

"Oi!" Loki snapped his fingers at my face. Okay, I was definitely snapped out from whatever trance I was in. "Stop smiling to yourself, it's creepy."

I just blinked a few times at Loki's back as he walked away. Did he just say I was smiling to myself? Was I really doing that? I've never done such thing. I decided to shrug it off and went back to work.

The end of work was nearing so it was time to top up the horses' water and food before we could go off. I took a look around and Loki was nowhere to be found. Where did that ass went, leaving all the work behind to do myself. I just growled before proceeding to do my job.

I was done giving them their food and when I was about to refill their water, Lucy came walking in.

"Hey Natsu."

"Oh." I paused as I rubbed the sweat from my forehead. "Hey Luce." I said before walking over to grab the pail of water.

"It's time for dinner."

"Almost done."

Then there was an awkward silence between us as I top up the horses' water bowl. Don't know why and don't understand why there was. I thought the tension has been resolved earlier. I decided to take a peek at Lucy and saw she was walking to a white horse.

"Hey baby." She said as she patted the particular white horse.

Is that hers? I didn't even hesitate to ask. "Is that your horse?"

"Oh." Lucy half hearted laughed. "Yeah, she is. Meet Plue, she's been with me since I was a small little girl." Lucy finished off the introduction with a smile.

Plue… What a name was what I'm supposed to be thinking of but I thought of how cute she was when she was being shy with me. I walked up to the beautiful white horse and decided to give her a pat as well. "Nice to meet you too… Plue." It seemed like the horse understand because she neighed back in reply.

Lucy giggled. "It seems like she likes you."

I turned and looked at Lucy. "Oh really? It must because I'm the one giving them food and water on time unlike Loki, who went missing suddenly."

"Maybe but please understand Natsu. Loki has other jobs to do also. He's like the 2nd hand of Capricorn."

Oh that goat face, no wonder. He's Lucy's bodyguard right? I should be doing his job instead. I will be doing a better job at it and furthermore I can be around her all the time… eh wait! What the hell am I thinking? I smacked my forehead which I think it got Lucy to notice.

"Er… Natsu?"

"Nothing, please just ignore me." I paused to look back at her. "I'm okay, trust me." I can't be telling her that she's the cause of it right?

Lucy stared at me for a while before shrugging it off. Since I was done, we proceeded to walk out of the horses' stable and head over to the dining area. I guess she took my answer for it because she started to talk to me about various stuff.

Once we got to the dining area, I saw Loki was already sitting at the table with the rest. That guy, he left me with all the dirty work while he sits here goofing off.

"Hey guys-" Lucy stopped as I think she got distracted when I walked ahead of her.

"Oi, orange head!"

Loki turned around and gave off a smirk. "Oh Natsu, the name's Loki for your information."

"You just left me there to finish off the work… ALONE!"

I just heard Loki chuckled as he stood up, hands in his pockets. "Sorry Natsu, but I thought you could handle such jobs by yourself?"

"I sure can do! But I definitely can beat your ass up as well." I was getting fired up already. I didn't know why I was picking a fight with him for just a petty issue but Loki's guts just sometimes pissed me off.

"Natsu!" Lucy grabbed my arm as she whispered shouted at me. "You don't want to get a fight with Loki. He's strong."

"Really?!" I turned around and looked down at Lucy. "Awesome, that is just getting me fired up!" I cheered as I jumped out from her hold.

"Then bring it on Natsu." Loki said, accepting my challenge as he moved into his battling stance.

I saw Lucy face-palmed herself while the rest stood at her side, starting to cheer for the fight.

I smirked before I crouched a bit down and ran towards Loki. Loki also started to run towards me. We jumped when we were reaching each other and I was just about to plumber the lights out of him but only to be interrupted by an angry yell.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

Loki and I seized our fighting and landed back on the ground. I looked for the voice who was the cause for interrupting my fun and it just had to be goat face.

"Loki, can I ask what is going around here?" Goat face asked as he walked towards us.

"Chill Capricorn, we were just having some fun." Loki answered him as he waived his hand in front of him.

"It seems like you guys were battling it out more than having fun." He said as he landed his eyes on me.

It seems like goat face is waiting for an answer from me. I saw Loki turned around and gave me a face to go along with him.

"Yeah like what Loki said, we're just having some fun." I said it nonchalantly.

Goat face looked at Loki before looking back at me again. "I hope that's the truth as you know I will not tolerate any nonsense." He said before turning around to leave the dining area.

"Geez, what's his problem?" I said as I placed my hands behind my head.

"That's Capricorn for you, Natsu." Loki answered me as he stood beside me. "Let's have that battle very soon." Loki brought out his hand and I gladly accepted it for a shake.

"Hey!" Lucy screamed as she came in between us. "You guys are so inconsiderate. How can you let your dear princess starve?" Lucy said as she stared at us.

"Yes, yes Lucy." Loki said as he patted Lucy's head. "This is like the first time you addressed yourself as a princess." Loki looked down at her and all she did was gave him a pout.

After that, we settled down and had dinner together. Everyone was there except goat face, thank GOD. Then once we're done, I stood up and looked at Lucy.

"You're done?"

I honestly swear I saw her blush. "Er, yeah." She stood up after wiping her mouth with her napkin and walked to my side before we left the dining room together.

Little did we know, our departure from the dining room together left her friends sprouting some comments.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but the pink hair looks good with Lucy, tsk-ed." Aquarius said and she rested her cheek on her palm.

"It'll be great if Lucy is able to fall in love with him." Aries added in.

"Don't' worry." Loki answered them. "I think they're already falling in love with each other."

And so the walk back to her room was pretty quiet between us so I decided to break the silence.

"So Lucy, what else did you do besides reading today?"

"Nothing much… It's either I read or write my novel."

"That's all?" I couldn't help but to ask because honestly, just by doing those two things I will practically be bored out of my mind!

"Yes, because I was mad with someone." Okay, my bad.

I half heartedly laughed it off before churning the situation up. "But we're cool now right?"

She stopped and faced me. "Yeah, we're cool now." She smiled before continuing. "What about you? Besides taking care of the horses and almost trying to bash Loki up…"

"Hey! That guy deserves it." I exclaimed back in defense.

Lucy planted her hands on her hips. "Look here Natsu, you can't just go around bashing up people. What happened if my dad was around?"

"So… what can I do to bash people up?"

Lucy let out an exasperated sigh before continuing. "Nothing Natsu, unless you join Scorpio and Aquarius forces then you can find yourself a real fight out there."

This time, I let out a huge sigh as we continued to walk back to Lucy's room. "How I wish I was assigned to their section. Seriously, I think that goat face hates me."

Lucy laughed before raising her hands up in reasons. "Don't get me involved with your rivalry issues."

Before we know it, we were already standing outside Lucy's room. Damn, and here I thought the walk was actually supposed to be longer since the castle is big.

"Oh well, here we are already." Lucy laughed it out half heartedly. "I guess thanks for walking me back though I hope the walk back was a bit longer." With that, Lucy looked down as her back faced her door.

I looked at her, stunned. We were actually thinking about the same thing. I blinked a few times at Lucy though she can't see it, wondering why no words were able to leave my throat at that point. Was I that shocked that we might be feeling the same to actually spend more time together?

"I guess I'll go in now." Before Lucy could open her door, I did something so hasty that I didn't expect to do.

"Wait." I said as I grabbed her wrist. Lucy looked up at me and I took a while to build up all my confidence before I could actually look at her in the eyes.

"I feel the same way."I paused before looking away. "Do you want to stay out a bit longer, to talk I mean?" I decided to look back at her and I saw her smiling.

"I thought you will never ask Natsu." And with that, we walked to the nearest window to take a seat there and continue our conversation.

A/N: And that's it for this chapter people! How's the story going so far? There's a NALU moment here. Hehehe. Anyways, I can assure you that the next few chapters are going to get really interesting. Please leave a review before you go thanks!(: