This chapter was based on PrettyKitty's awesome review! here's some NaLu, Kitty!
Natsu woke up the next day, feeling tired. Again.
Knock knock knock. The prince groaned, but rolled up on his feet and opened the door."Yes?" he asked sleepily.
It was the redhead, Flare. "Good morning, Salmon."
Natsu yawned. "Morning. Lemme just get some clothes on and... yeah." God he was tired. He felt the creeping of a migraine coming along too. Ha, ironic, the last time he'd had a headache...
He drew a blank. Had he ever had a headache?
This much be effects of all the crap I've been put through... Natsu thought, pulling on a nice red shirt and baggy beige trousers.
Flare let him put on clothes, waiting outside. She tilted her head when he came out, smiling softly. "You look good, Salmon." Natsu blinked but let it pass.
Natsu sat at the table, next to his sister and Sting, sighing. Sure, he had fun with the redhead named Flare, they had gone bungee jumping off the roofs of the tower with her Magical Hair tied around their ankles, and it was a thrill, but he was running on empty. He needed food and good news. And sleep.
Natsu breathed out as steaming hot plates were deposited in front of the Dragneel Redfox families. The prince only just managed to hold himself back, especially when a waitress threw a match onto his ribs and lit them on fire.
Igneel stood up, and Natsu silently egged his speech to go fast. His stomach was growling and mouth practically drooled trying not to eat his food.
"Well, it seems as if we're almost at our half-way point! Tomorrow, the next girl shall spend the day with their respective prince's, but after that, we will be holding a ball, where everyone will be able to relax." Natsu deflated. He said good news not bad news, didn't he? Natsu silently growled, listening to the words his father was saying.
"And for our last message, tomorrow, Lyra Heart, Kagura Mikazuchi, Taylor Swift, and Emerald Lee with spend the day with their respective princes."
Natsu deadpanned for a few long seconds. He did say good news, didn't he! He wanted to rip his hair out in frustration, dance around like a maniac, jump out the window and go to a place where he'll never meet a female again. Any other girl, he could handle, but Lucy! He groaned. And this stupid ball thing...
The prince took a rib grudgingly and ate.
Lucy on the other side of the room froze with Igneel's words.
She was going to spend the whole day with Natsu?
She was doomed.
The next day, Natsu woke up early, surprisingly not up from the sound of knocking. He blinked and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, wondering where the hell whatever female he had to spend the day with wasn't here to disturb his sleep. Then he remembered.
"Awh... Lucy." He moaned but put on his clothes, plopping back onto the bed. If she wasn't gonna get him, he'd much rather stay here.
About an hour later, someone knocked on the door. It wasn't Lucy. In fact, it was the exact opposite.
"What are you still doing in your room?" Igneel demanded.
"Lu—Lyra isn't here yet."
"THEN GET YOUR FAT BUTT OVER THERE AND PICK HER UP!" he roared. Natsu bolted past him, running away with a cloud of dust behind him, terrified. Igneel snorted, folding his arms across his chest.
Natsu ran up the stairs and knocked the door, panting. He looked around. He believed this was the second-tallest spire in the castle, with the balcony and stuff.
If Igneel didn't see him with Lyra soon he was going to kill him. Natsu pressed his ear to the door and heard light breathing. He rolled his eyes, "I know you're awake!"
No response.
"Helloooo, it's Natsu, Luc— Spir— Lyra!"
No response.
"I could break down the door! It's my castle, I could easily do that!"
Still no response.
The prince snorted, put his whole leg on fire, and punched a giant hole in the door. Lucy was on the other side, glaring irritably at him, about to open the knob. "Thank you, so much, for busting a freakin hole in my door!" She yelled, hitting him on the head hard.
Natsu grinned sheepishly, noticing the bags under Spirit's eyes and the cranky mood. How much sleep has she gotten since Michelle was captured? Not much, he guessed. "We'll get it fixed." He told her.
"So, what 'cha wanna do?"
"I want you to go back into your room, leave me alone, while I ponder about the meaning of life." She said sarcastically. Natsu didn't catch the sarcasm.
"Seems fun! What do you have so far?" He said, practically jumping up and down. She rolled her eyes.
"The meaning of my life is to hate you." She slammed the door on him, the wood a centimeter away from his nose. He climbed through the hole he made, annoying Lucy even more. She plopped down onto the bed, glaring at him.
"Isn't the meaning of life for you is to Live, not Survive? You told me that before." he asked. Lucy froze, turning around slowly.
She smiled, "There's always the difference of Living and Surviving, remember that, Pinky." He 'hey'ed in protest, 'it's salmon, not pink,' but she continued. "Surviving is doing what you need to do to continue on. Living is having fun and enjoying yourself while Surviving." She explained to him.
She let the words sink into her head. For a second, she could only let out a sting of gibberish. "I-I-I... uh, suppose so." She swallowed, turning back to staring at the ceiling, purposely not looking at Natsu.
"—Some, I certainly can't face without using my Keys as a last resort. Like the Dragneel's or the particular yellow-haired mage Natsu told me about." Lucy explained. Lisanna seemed impressed.
"Seems you're really thinking this—" her surprised expression turned into a grin. "I'm surprised you remembered something that Natsu said before." Lucy blinked, not getting the implication behind the words.
"You remembered a very small detail that Prince Natsu told you." She explained further, rolling her eyes. Lucy's face turned crimson, veins popped above her head, and steam bellowed from her ears.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She shouted, throwing her shoe.
Lucy couldn't help but let the thoughts run wild in her head. She huffed and sat up, putting on her Lyra disguise and brushing past the prince. "Where you going?" he asked.
"To get breakfast. I'm hungry." She snapped, unusually sensitive.
"Well, uh, I haven't had breakfast either, what about we go get it together?" It was late, 11:30, so both slept through the breakfast dinner this morning.
"Whatever." Natsu and Lucy walked through the halls, going to the main dining room. They had to pass the Grand Room, and Lucy gave a longing glance at the staircase leading below before walking past it. Her head hung low.
"We'll get her out." Natsu murmured, his breath hot on her ear. Lucy turned a hundred shades or red in a few short seconds, walking faster to give her some space. Natsu blinked, but stayed a meter behind her.
Lucy sat down at her usual seat, and Natsu sat down next to her. She stared at him irritably. "Aren't you supposed to be over there?" she asked snootily, pointing to the head table where all the royalties sat. Natsu shook his head.
"No, I'm allowed to sit wherever I want, I just sit there because I don't want to be flocked by dozens of adorning... females." He wrinkled his nose. "But no one's here so I can sit next to you!" He grinned, and Lucy looked away, biting her lip hard to shut herself up.
She'd have to tolerate him for the day. Tolerate. Lucy inwardly growled but stood up and walked to the plate table, where there was leftovers put on a large counter. Natsu followed behind her, and they collected two plates of food, Natsu's significantly taller than Lucy's.
They ate, in silence, only muttering a 'could you pass the ketchup," once. Lucy kept her eyes trained on her fork, eating scrambled eggs robotically. She was deep in thought.
"We'll get her out." He'd said. What did that mean? He wasn't on their side, in fact, he should have been telling Igneel about everything in the first place! He was a damned prince, he wasn't supposed to be teaming up with the bandits!
They finished around the same time. 'So, now what do you want to do?" the prince asked. Lucy grabbed his ear and dragged him across the hall.
"Where's your room?" she demanded. He weakly pointed down a hallway and Lucy dragged him all the way there, opening the door and rudely depositing him on a stack of dirty laundry sitting there since he was eleven. "What did you mean by 'we'll get her out?" she crossed her arms across her sizable chest. Natsu held his stinging ear.
"I meant it. We will get Michelle out." He said slowly, not getting how she could misunderstand his words.
Lucy paced around the small area that was fairly clean, walking back and forth. Suddenly she spun on him. "Why?" she demanded.
"Why what?"
"Why are you helping us?"
He drew yet another blank. He was tired of them. Why was he helping them? Why did he break the bandit out in the first place? Why did he have the feeling that if he betrayed them, he would so deeply regret it?
"Too many whys!" He shouted, holding his head. Lucy blinked, but leaned in.
"Fine, you don't have an answer. Whose side are you on, at least?"
He thought for a moment. "I can't say my dad's at this point. Yours."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't expect you to directly break my s-sister—" her words caught in her throat for a second, "out, but you can come in handy, I suppose." She didn't want to trust him, but somewhere, deep in the recesses of her mind, deep, deep, so far she hadn't seen it in years, was screaming, finally speaking up for itself.
'You can trust him with your life!' An emotion so buried underneath piles and piles of hate and disgust, this little thing, almost dead from misuse, was screaming as loud as it could. Lucy held her head, sitting on the old thing Natsu called his bed. She groaned and held her face in her hands. She wanted the little voice to shut up. Every one of her bandit's instincts was trying to shout over it, but the little thing wouldn't shut the hell up.
She would never trust her life in anyone's hands. Anyone's, except Michelle. The little voice hummed in satisfaction.
Close, but not quite. It said. Suddenly, the voices in the background cleared. It's the same, and yet different. You're close though.
Lucy shook her head, making the voice quiet and burying it behind her instincts again. She didn't like that little voice. Her instincts, which were usually pretty good, were telling her she would be hurt if she listened to the little voice.
"—ucy?"
The bandit looked up at Natsu, who had a concerned expression on his face. "You okay?"
She stood up. "Yeah... yeah! Yep, yeppity-yep-yep! Perfectly fine, never felt better!" She cried, a little too eagerly. Natsu winced but grinned.
"Right." He rolled his eyes and Lucy scowled. "So, seriously, what you wanna do?"
"Seriously, I wish I could bust outta here with Michelle, and travel far, far away where I'll never hear the name Dragneel again," she replied with her own sarcastic beam. Natsu 'hey'-ed and started chasing her around the room.
Lucy leaped over the headrest on the bed, rolling on the mattress and landing on her feet. Natsu jumped on, making the bed creak dangerously. Lucy held her hands out, looking down, and Natsu leaped forwards, catching her around the waist and dragging her down with him, laughing. Lucy couldn't help but giggle, but now she was pinned down by the boy. She flushed, but Natsu didn't seem to notice their awkward position.
There was a knock on the door, and Lucy instinctively changed into her Lyra disguise a split second before Igneel opened it, looking inside. Lucy and Natsu looked at him, the bandit's hands pinned over her head by the prince's hands and her shirt, embarrassingly, hiked up a bit.
Lucy flushed, wrenching her hands away and fixing her shirt. "It's not what it looks like!" She shouted at Igneel's grinning face.
"I'll just leave you two alone." His head slowly disappeared around the door and he shut it behind him, chuckling at the screams that came from the other side.
HEY! Anyone notice a little guest star appearance? [ha, no, I don't listen to her songs anymore.]Read it again if you didn't! Well, either way, I got a haircut yesterday, and it's soo weird... My hair used to me a little longer than my shoulders, and SUPER thick, but now it's to my chin and a lot thinner. SOO WEIRD... AND, I wrote a buncha one-shot and multichaps on my profile page, PM me your favs and I'll be sure to type up everyone's favourite[s]!
SO MANY REVIEWS! I'm sorry, ElodieKumari94, Lunar Mistress, Axlorg89, Alycat63, TheGrammarQueen, SnowDragonSlayerTasha, AnnieBlackeart XD, Tawny, and Sofia3!
Hikari Yume: IT'S A SECRET! yes, I put plenty of NaLu in this chappy. *evil grin* I wanted to put some relationship, friendship, and siblingship in that chappy. Plus, just the added bonus of Gajeel smelling Levy
Kiersten: well, trust me, there will be GaLe! Thank you! I wanna be an author when I grow up but I'm trying to develop my skills using fanfiction because I absolutely adore FT!
Aitanna: GIMME MY STRAWBERRY CAKE! *turns into demon Erza.* GIMME CAKE!
PRETTYKITTY: YES, I AM EVIL! don't haunt me, I give you NaLu, so everything's all right, right?! *runs away from an angry Kitty,* "DON'T HURT ME!" Yes, Natsu has better watch his back... OMG, you have Erza's phone number? could I have it? and spam Erza's cellphone until she hunts me down and bashes my head in for spamming her so much? 'Dem stupid guards. Wendy gave it to them, trust me. HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPPY! *holds puppy in front of face* "even a crazy person can't hurt a puppy..."
Ah, can't wait to write the Ball scene! More NaLu ensues, AND reviews help me get the chappy out faster! Please review, even if it's to say this story sucks! [which I hope it doesn't, I like making readers happy...] But please, review and tell me how good/bad this story is and give me pointers!
Rest, relax, and review!