A/N: Hey guys! So sorry for the lateness of my update but pls do forgive me as I was so busy with work. Its the long weekends here in SG due to CNY so I finally gotten the chance to upload my next chapter! Anyways enjoy(:

The Princess and the Dragon Slayer

Chapter 8

The next few days carried on the same. Lucy will barge in my room in the morning to wake me up and after a few desperate tries, I got up and then she will head to the dining area first for breakfast while I get ready and meet her there.

After we were done with breakfast, I will head over to the horses' stable for work while she will find and do whatever she can which is most probably heading to the library to read or write as she waits for my work to end. She will be so excited to pick me up from the horses' stable but she will cover it up saying she wanted to meet Plue.

I still remembered that shy look on her face when she talked to me. "Hey Natsu, and let me get this straight that I'm not here to see you but see Plue okay? But since it's the end of your work too, let's head to the dining area together."

If I could talk horse language, I'll be asking Plue whether Lucy did this before I came into the picture. So yeah, after work we will head to the dining area together and sometimes goat face will be there. Anyways that's all I'll talk about him, don't want the topic of goat face to spoil my mood.

And lastly, I will walk Lucy to her room but at the end, we will end up sitting by the window that's close to her room to talk. We will talk almost about anything except the fact that I'm a dragon slayer of course. I can't tell her yet, I don't know how to take it if she's going to be scared of me or worse, exile me. Besides that, we both got to know more about each other.

Right now, we were walking back to her room as I stuffed my hands into my pockets.

"Argh!" Lucy sighed loudly, not very princess-like but it was funny for me to be the only one hearing it. "I'm so bored being cooped up here in the castle."

"Then why don't you go venture out?"

"Because after that incident with you, Capricorn forbids me to leave the castle alone now. He doesn't want me to meet any strangers and bring them home like how I did with you."

Oh my god, that just makes me feel awfully bad. "Sorry." I apologized while I looked down.

"Oh Natsu, why are you apologizing for… I don't regret meeting or bringing you back here at all. Hell, even if Capricorn disagrees with me initially for letting you in the castle, I will bicker with him until he gives up."

I couldn't help but chuckle at her comment about goat face. "So I'm not even an ounce of regret?"

"Hell, no! You were hell fun."

"Really…. I didn't know I was that fun to hang out with." I said as I scratched the back of my head.

"Oh come on Natsu, stop being bashful. I still remembered the first time we met when we jumped the cliff. Did you know it was my first time? Though I still wondered why you were running away from them…" Lucy said as she placed her finger under her chin.

Oh shit. I got to change the topic to divert the attention away from that day. "Why don't we head out now?"

Lucy stopped and looked at me cluelessly. "Excuse me?"

"Come on, you said you were bored?"

"Yeah I know, but now?"

"Come on!" I said before grabbing her wrist dragging her with me to the horses' stable. Once we got to the designated place, I let go of Lucy's wrist and went to grab the equipments that were necessary to ride a horse.

"Natsu, are you insane? I can't. The rest won't care but if Capricorn caught a sight of us, I'm no, YOU'RE dead meat." Lucy said as she emphasized the 'you're' while pointing her index finger at me.

"Geez Lucy, that guy doesn't scare me one bit." I said as I settled the equipment on Plue. "Don't tell me you're chickening out Luce?"

Lucy gawked at me before walking up to me. "Am not." She said as she poked her index finger on my chest.

"Then let's go for a ride." I hopped on top of Plue and extended my hand to her. I could see she was a bit hesitant at first but she gladly accepted my invitation and hopped behind me.

"You better make this ride an enjoyable one, Natsu Dragneel." She said as she settled her hands on my shoulders.

"Oh don't worry, I will. If I'm going to fast, let me know." And with that, I whacked the rope that I held onto Plue and that got her to start galloping.

We exited by the back entrance that Lucy informed me about and we went riding through the woods. It was definitely good and refreshing to finally get out of the castle. The breeze that hit my face was getting me more excited as we rode under the skyline. I think I was riding a bit too fast because I heard Lucy was calling for me.

"Natsu, you're going a bit too fast!" Lucy shouted over my shoulders. "It's difficult for me to hold onto you!"

"Why don't you wrap your hands around my waist instead?" I shouted back.

"Eek! No way! I-er..."

"Don't worry, it's for safety." I interrupted her, shouting back to reassure her and I think she took that as an answer because I felt her hands wrapped around my waist and also her face pressing against my back. I believed she was blushing because I could feel her face was hot.

I looked over my shoulders and I saw Lucy looking down. "I-I feel better this way." I couldn't help but to smile though my heart was beating a million times faster now. Hopefully she cannot hear it right?

I then took a quick glance down and saw her delicate hands, intertwine with each other. I could feel my face getting hotter now. Am I blushing? Is it because the sight of her hands or the feeling of contact?

I decided to shake that thinking off for now and look straight ahead instead. I could now feel Lucy tension loosening off a bit as she looked up at the night sky.

"Wow…" I heard her commented. "It's so pretty."

"Are you enjoying this? I shouted over my shoulders as I looked at her.

She sat up and looked at me. She smiled and nodded. Our faces were so close together that I could feel her breath on my face. I was so entranced by her eyes actually by her whole beauty of her face that I didn't realized her facial expression changed. "Natsu look-!"

And before I could even got warned, I was hit by a branch and got throw off onto the ground. That was just a nasty fall.

"Natsu!" I heard Lucy calling for me but I decided to lie there for a while, waiting and actually hoping the pain will subside.

I could hear shuffling of foot so I believe Lucy was running towards me. "Natsu, Natsu are you okay?" I felt her presence just beside me so I believe she crouched down at my side. Eh, why is she crying out so frantically?

"Natsu, please!" Lucy now held my face and I could feel water dripping on my face. Is that her tears? Was she that worried for me? I decided to turn the situation around by showing her that I was playing a trick on her.

I took a peek and saw she had her eyes closed as her face hovered above mine. I decided to use this chance to quickly grab both of her hands causing her to scream and change the position between us.

Now she was below me as I hovered above her, my knees and palm resting on the ground to support my body. "Got ya." I said before grinning widely.

Lucy looked at me wide eyes before throwing a punch to my shoulder. "Natsu, you idiot!"

"Hey, hey. It was just a joke. You think a measly fall can take down Natsu Dragneel?" And that got Lucy's eyes to be glistened with tears.

"Idiot!" Lucy threw her arms around my neck and cried. "I don't know what to do if something happened to you!" I decided to sit up, bringing her up with me and so that I could wrap my arms around her body.

"Shh… I'm sorry Lucy but nothing will happen to me." She started to seize her crying which that got me to break our hug to a mere distance apart causing us to look at each other.

Then silence took over and we ended up staring into each other's eyes. I felt my heart was beating faster than it was just now. I swear something was acting up in me because I just wanted to hold her face and lick away those tears that she shed for me.

Without realizing, we were inching closer to each other. I swear I could feel her breath on my face and I think she can feel mine on hers as well. Seeing her face flustered was honestly making my hormones going crazy inside. It was like I just needed to claim those lips of hers. Lucy's eyes were now half closed which was just making me more confident to do it, to kiss her because she was so obviously giving me the green light but before I could do it, I moved back.

A/N: And that's it for chapter 8 folks! How was it? Sorry for leaving you guys at the most exciting part but don't you worry, the next chapter is almost done! Will appreciate if you can please leave me a review before you go guys. Thanks^^