Lucy tried to muffle her cries in her filthy mattress, but the thin foam hardly did anything to block the noise.

Why, why, why, why, why, did she have to be captured by him, of all people! She hated the Dragneels, and somehow she had been captured by the one person she hated the most.

Michelle toddled down the stairs, coming down faster when she heard the crying. "Lucy!" she cried. She noted the guard in front of the staircase, not the cell, and how the loud cries got even louder as she came in closer to it.

"Lucy..." Michelle pressed her face to the bars, looking at her sobbing sister. Lucy looked up, shocked that Michelle had come down and seen her like this; she was the strong one out of the two of them, the one who never cried or got hurt and was their protector. Michelle withered a bit as Lucy tried to gather her composure and wiped her tears away.

"Hey, Michelle," she croaked.

The girl put on a pouting face. "Lucy! Who did this to you?" of course, Lucy hadn't told her how her mother died, of her inborn hatred of the Dragneels. "Was it Prince Natsu? I saw him leaving just now... that—" Michelle let out a string of curses that Lucy was shocked to hear.

"Michelle!" the Celestial Spirit mage scolded weakly. "you're not supposed to know those words!" the little girl didn't even flinch, suddenly pulling herself away and running back upstairs. Lucy blinked, but with an exhausted sigh, she leaned back against the wall and fought back the tears threatening to come.

Michelle ran upstairs, running through the halls to Wendy's room. Finally, she burst through the door. Wendy looked up, startled as the girl came in, panting slightly.

"That was fast, Mi-chan," Wendy said, greeting her. She frowned when she noticed her friend was red-eyed. "What's wrong?"

Michelle now noticed the tears that threatened to spill. She wiped her face with her forearm, putting on a happy face. "Nothing. I just tripped in the hallway and hit the floor," she lied. She would have to be like her sister to do her private little mission that had started to form in her mind. Sneaky and clever.

Michelle beamed and waltzed into the room, sitting on the bed next to Wendy. The walls were painted blue, with sponged-on clouds decorating the walls. There were toys put at the edges neatly, as Wendy was very clean, and there was a blue rug put on the floor. Her bed sheets and pillows matched the walls.

Finally Michelle realized the difference between the room she was staying in and Lucy's cell. She almost shuddered, thinking about it. Princess Wendy Dragneel was nice and a good friend, but the Drageels were holding her sister captive and it was Michelle's job to help her sister.

"Hey, could we go see your brother?" she asked. Wendy frowned at her sudden interest in Natsu, but she was only a little kid, no harm could come to it, so she stood up. Michelle followed her, smiling, and Wendy led her through the halls.

The pink-haired prince was lying on his bed, in his very messy room. It was decorated red and orange, the colours of fire, but you could barely see them under the clothes and dirt piled around. Heck, even most of his furniture was covered in old clothes and food. It hadn't been cleaned in ages, but Natsu didn't mind stepping over the garbage to lie in his bed.

Lord Igneel had commanded the maids and servants to clean up every room except their own. Their room was their territory; do not touch a Dragon's possessions unless you wanted to die. Of course, this meant that the junk in Natsu's room had begun to build up in a non-effort to keep it clean.

Whatever.

Natsu sat on his bed, for once, thinking hard. Real hard. Lucy's words kept bouncing around in his head, but he didn't know where they came from. "Do you remember this?" "Pneumonia, Natsu, this vial is full of a cure for pneumonia. It's a deadly disease that if it gets worse, can kill you."

Pneumonia, pneumonia... he tried the word off his tongue, seeing if it felt familiar at all. Nope. He scrunched his eyebrows in frustration. Pneumonia... Finally, he stood up on his feet, very irritated, clumping through the garbage until he reached the door. He was going, gulp, to the library.

He opened the door, and looked down to who was blocking his way. He blinked; it was Wendy and Michelle. Why were they here?

"Hey guys." He said, standing there. Michelle looked past him, noting the stinky smell wafting from his room and the garbage practically spilling out of it. "What are you doing here?"

Michelle smiled sweetly. "Well," she brought her booted heel down hard on his shoeless one, making him cry out in pain and let out a mighty swear. "I just wanted to do that." She spun around on her heel, and stomped away.

Wendy, surprised after that and completely forgetting the hopping-on-one-foot-and-swearing prince, chased after her friend. "Wait! Michelle!" the smaller girl spun around, eyes boring into her.

"What?" she snapped.

Wendy flinched at the slate-flat tone. "What did you do that for?"

Michelle blew up her cheeks. "He made sissy cry." She told her, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Wendy's melted when she saw the younger girl. Vaguely, she heard her brother swearing in the background.

"I see." Wendy hugged the poor, innocent girl. She didn't notice the sharp gleam in Michelle's eyes as she did so.

"Mmm! Fffff..." Natsu held his stinging foot, trying not to swear again. Michelle had dug her heel into his toe, and that had really hurt.

He thought that Michelle inherited Lucy's violence after being raised by her as she stomped away.

The pyromaniac watched as Wendy ran after Michelle, to his dismay. Sometimes he wished gaining his mother's Healing Magic at times like this. His foot throbbed when he tried putting weight on it, and Natsu hissed.

Oh yeah. Wendy couldn't use Magic on herself.

Damn it.

Natsu put his foot down awkwardly, trying not to swear as he began walking to the library. This is what he got for trying to go down there in the first place. He swore that some Higher Power was trying to tell him, don't go, don't go! But when Natsu was determined to do something, he would do it.

Unfortunately, the library was in the basement, on the other side of the castle, also conveniently the room right next to Lucy's cell. A servant or two stopped him once or twice, asking if he needed help, but he ignored them.

Natsu climbed down the stairs, hobbling one step at a time, but he hopped down one too fast and tumbled down the staircase. "AHHH!" he cried out as his head hit every step, and finally, he hit the bottom, crumpled in a mess, groaning. That really hurt.

The prince, with a bunch of almost comical bumps all over his body, struggled on his hands and knees, noticing someone's feet in front of his face. He reared back, and his gaze traveled higher, up the fancy black servant's uniform, a beauty mark, green eyes, and stopped when Natsu saw his hair.

"Fried!" he exclaimed, still on the ground. "I haven't seen you in a long time!"

Fried bowed. "Yes, I have been sent to serving the library since you last visited five years, two months, and nineteen days from today. You haven't been here for awhile, Prince Dragneel."

"You live down here?" Natsu eyed him. The underground library was spacious, lined with bookshelf after bookshelf with lots and lots of books stacked on them.

The forest-haired man nodded. "Is there anything you're down here in particular for?" he asked. Natsu got up onto his feet.

"Well, I was looking for something about Pneumonia." He said. Fried looked slightly surprised.

"If it doesn't pry too much into your business, prince, may I inquire why you would need such book?" Natsu looked over at him.

"Well, there's this girl, she's a criminal, but we ended up talking to each other, and she really seemed to hate me. Suddenly, she holds up a... bottle with some green stuff in it and asks me if I'd ever seen it before. She said it was a cure for Pneumonia." Fried's eyes widened.

"Hmm..." he thought for a moment. "Does this girl have blonde hair?" Natsu nodded, suddenly interested why the man would know such things.

"Well, you seem to have forgotten, but about ten years ago, a little girl and a man came up to the gates. You opened the door, because most of the servants and your parents were gone. You came running into the servant's room, so I came with you to see what was wrong. You were clearly distressed. I asked them what they came for, the man said his wife and the little girl's mother was dying of pneumonia. I gave them a bit, in a tiny vial, since it was a fairly rare potion, and they galloped off. I didn't hear of them after that." He explained. Natsu's eyes widened. So he had met her before!

Suddenly, he felt guilty. no wonder she hated him. He killed her mother... he snapped out of it. "Thanks. At least I know why she hates me now," he said. Fried bowed.

"Whenever I can be of service."

Natsu climbed back up the stairs, saluting to the man one more time, then went around to the other door and climbed down those stairs. He noticed Gray sitting at the entrance, looking exhausted. He looked up as the prince came in.

"Don't worry, I'll take guard duty." Gray opened his mouth to argue, he was a prince, not a guard, he shouldn't be guarding a criminal that he already caught, but Natsu shushed him. "I'll take guard duty." Gray reluctantly left, and Natsu hauled the chair over to her cell.

Lucy sat in the corner, trying to squeeze herself closer to the wall. Maybe then she would sink into it and disappear from his sight. She hissed at him. "What do you want?" she snapped, practically frothing in her hatred.

"I'm sorry." He let out.

"You think one stupid sorry is enough to get me to like you? You stupid son of a—"

"No, I'm sorry for what I was oblivious of. I killed your mother." Her heart froze, and her eyes were wide enough for her eyeballs to roll out of her head. "You were the little girl who knocked on the door that day. Your father asked for a cure to Pneumonia."

She started shaking uncontrollably at his words. "Yes, I was. My mother died because of you, and then my father started ignoring me. So I ran away. I had to become a bandit to survive. It's your fault my life was a freakin hell."

"Look, I'm sorry." He tried to calm her down. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered, standing up.

Lucy looked away as the tears overflowed. She sniffled, trying to stop them, and then something very surprising happened.

She heard the door creak.

Spirit spun around to look at the open door. Natsu walked in, not bothering to close it behind him. He kneeled in close to her, trapping her in the corner. "Look, the door's open, all you have to do is run. I'm gonna go upstairs, then in three minutes to get 'food,' then come downstairs and you'll be gone." He told her, whispering fiercely.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What?" she stared at him like he'd grown an extra head.

He rolled his eyes. "Three minutes, that's it. And If I ever catch you again, I won't let you go next time." He told her, hauling her up and pushing her to the door. She stumbled a bit, holding out an arm to steady herself. She spun on him.

"Why are you doing this?" she hissed.

"Cause I owe you." The Prince's eyes bored into her. "Now go before Gray comes back." He pushed her one more time, but she remained there. He remained deadpanned, but the stubbornness of this girl was beginning to annoy him.

"I can't just leave without Michelle, or my Keys!" she whispered loudly. Natsu growled.

"Well, not my problem. My owing only goes to getting you out." he slipped by her. "I'll be upstairs, I'll send you a signal telling you if there's anyone there or not." Lucy hesitated, wondering it this was all a trap. there could very well be a dozen armed guards waiting to kill her up there, and the Prince could lie saying that she was trying to jump him. Something tugged at her though, she stepped out of her cell and followed reluctantly; she wasn't going to let this chance go, but she certainly wasn't letting Michelle or her Keys go either.

Well! I managed to squeeze in an extra chappy before my trip! YAY!

TheBeastHunter: oh yeah! I didn't want Lucy to be a 'Damsel in distress' [like you put it.] like a regular old story. Lucy is strong, and clever, and people just put her in as a side character when SHE'S ONE OF THE MAIN PROTAGONISTS! I find that stupid. Natsu this and Natsu that, I wanted Lucy to get some of the spotlight too. [I don't mind... 'French,' lol] hehe! thanks for the compliments! :D

Miss Ominous: haha, I try. sorry for not updating in awhile, I had to finish my other story, but I hope you find this acceptable! thanks, for mentioning GIMP. I wasn't really expecting anyone to happen to stumble on this story and know the program anyway.

Sofia3: you'll just have to be pa-tient..! I'm not a 'bam, it just hit me, I love her/him' love kind girl. but trust me, there's gonna be a lot of juicy moments between then-and-there, I hope you'll enjoy it!

AngelTheSwordMage: I know! I'm a Lucy sadist... I don't MEAN to do it, it just comes out that way, I swear! "Don't hate me..!" *holds up hands* Here's your update! :3

JazzinAces: OMG, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NO NECT CHAPTER BUTTON?! lol. anywho, here's your next chappy! XD [love your review.] and I haven't heard of any, makes it more original!

Talia: Well, first you kinda look at your Fanfiction account. then you go look at your reviews and favourites and go, "Omg, these guys are so sweet..." to make then happy, you think hard about the next chapter, scream and run around the house when you hit a writers block, make a hot chocolate to calm your nerves, sit down and wonder what to type, get an idea, type it down, and post your awesomeness on the awesomeness that is Fanfiction, and then it goes in a giant circle. XD Pikaskye-sensei had taught you.

Young Heroes: *runs away screaming and sobbing* "don't kill me!" I'm sorry this was a little behind schedule, I had to finish my other story. "I swear!" But, here's your chappy! :3

Dyeni: I know! I'm sorry! *starts bawling* I'm gonna post ASAP, got it? as soon as I get back. {;_;}

Tawny: Don't worry about it! honestly, it's my fault for not making it clear enough. I BLAME MYSELF, THE AUTHOR! readers aren't supposed to make their readers confused. IT'S MY FAULT! Here's your next chappy!

BlueKaZeBlack: hehe! thanks! May Natsu tickle you forever more! U.O"

LifeIsWaiting: DRAMA! *lightning crackles* MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [yeah, I know I'm weird... XD]