Here's another chapter of Dragon's Blood! Sorry it took so long.

I add the final touches to the soup, a little salt, a little basil, and use a spoon to taste test it. Perfect.

"Natsu! Happy! Hurry up and get get down here before the food gets cold!" Over the past few weeks, I've grown accustomed to having to shout to be heard across the castle. Since the three of us mostly stay in the same general area, it's pretty effective. It also helps that Natsu's hearing is so keen.

In a few minutes, the boys come down the stairs, looking dumbfounded.

"What food? Did you order a pizza?" Natsu pulls out a faded chair and sits at the little wooden table. We all agree that the dining room is too spacious for two people and a cat.

"Even better. Tonight, I cooked dinner myself." I place my hands on my hips proudly.

Natsu and Happy exchange a worried glance.

"Do you even know how to cook?" Happy raises a paw.

I whap him on the head with my wooden spoon. "Of course! My mom taught me. I used to help in the royal kitchens growing up."

Natsu shrugs. "Okay. Food is food."

I dish out three small bowls of soup, along with some bread I discovered in the pantry.

Natsu takes a tentative sip, and his eyes grow wide. In the blink of an eye, he scrapes the bowl clean. "I like it! Another! You should try this, Happy!"

He lunges across the table for more, and I whack him with my wooden spoon.

"Ow!" He yelps, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"Manners." I reply sternly, and daintily fill his bowl with a second serving, and then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. Happy goes through three by the time I finish my first.

"Wow, do you have a bottomless pit for a stomach or something?" I remark as we toss the dishes in the magic dishwasher.

"Dragons need more energy than normal people, so they eat a lot." Happy pipes.

"Man, Luce. You should make dinner every night. I had no idea food could taste so good."

"Me neither." Happy floats up to sit on Natsu's head.

I blush a little. As a princess, of course I'm accustomed to flattery, but I don't know how to respond to a sincere compliment. On that thought, my mind drifts to the subject of my father. It's been a week since we visited Magnolia, and we've been hearing reports of mages being captured, dragged from their homes, and publicly executed. Nothing has happened in this town, but my father's grip on the nation is getting stronger. If only I could do something…

"Natsu, I'll make you a deal." I announce, squaring my shoulders and placing my hands on my hips.

"Hrm?"

"I'll make dinner every night, if you teach me how to fight." I say. Learning to defend myself, and maybe even to use magic, would be a major blow to my father's control over me.

Natsu's hair catches on fire.

"You want me to what?" He coughs, dousing his flames but still looking like I grew another head.

I raise my chin. "Teach me to fight. You remember what happened at the festival, right? I'm willing to bet something like that could happen again. And if I'm going to avoid getting caught, I'll need to know the basics anyway."

Natsu, recovering from the shock, now looks a little more thoughtful. "Just to be sure I understand, you want me to teach you how to kick butt? Don't get me wrong; I love a good fight, but seriously. Aren't you worried about breaking a nail or something?"

"Breaking a nail?" I snort. "Let me make one thing clear, I am not a princess. I might have been, but not anymore. So I guess we don't have to worry about that."

"Okay, if you really want me to. I can't argue with food." He shrugs.

An hour later, we're out in the courtyard. I'm covered in sweat, but Natsu isn't even breathing hard. He flashes a toothy grin as I lean over to catch my breath.

"Come on, princess! You can't get tired yet. Come at me!" He says, his cockiness grating on my nerves a bit. It's still light outside, the sun is low over the mountains. In the distance I can hear the chirping of the night's first crickets.

With a determined yell, I fly at the pink-haired boy, putting as much power as I can into my fist. He easily sidesteps it and grabs my arm, flipping my entire body onto the cobblestone. He does it carefully, though, so I don't get hurt.

"Gotcha." He laughs as he reaches out a hand to help me up. "Your swing isn't balanced. You've gotta make sure your weight is even. If you go to hit someone and they move out of the way, you'll fall flat on your face."

I nod, biting my lip in concentration.

"Again."

This time I focus more on keeping my weight centered, and throw a punch at Natsu's shoulder.

Moving faster than is humanly possible, he grabs my fist and twists it around so that he has me in an armlock from behind. "Better. But be ready for anything. Brute force won't help you unless you're me, which, you're not. Since most soldiers will be stronger and better trained, you'll have to use your wits."

I swallow, realizing how close behind me he is. I feel my face heat up, and am grateful that he can't see my expression.

"So with that in mind, try and get out." He instructs, referring to the rather compromising hold he has on my arms.

I think, hard, which is twice as difficult with him right there. I am suddenly very aware of the heat radiating off of him, which I guess is natural since he is a dragon.

My first attempt is to pull, which off course doesn't work. After that fails, Natsu chuckles, a warm vibration deep in his chest. "That won't work. Come on, Luce! I'm an evil soldier who is about to take you back to the palace where you will be imprisoned for the rest of your life. What are you gonna do?"

I twist around, lifting one arm over my head so that everything is a tangled mess of arms. He still has a firm grip on both forearms, but now that I'm facing him, we're inches apart, locked in a power struggle.

Natsu's lips quirk up into a smirk. "Well, it's not a bad idea. What now?"

I look up at him, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he is wearing no shirt. Or the fact that his muscles are extremely well defined.

I can't move my arms at all. My breaths come quickly from the effort of struggling against his death grip.

On a impulse, I drop all my weight, and let myself fall to the ground, rolling backwards. Caught off guard, Natsu falls with me, but doesn't let go. I move quickly so that I'm sitting on top of him.

"Hah! Gotcha!" I say triumphantly. Natsu laughs, looking up at me with a big smile.

"Heck, I didn't see that coming. It was a good move. You'll have to get used to pulling stunts like that, since you're not very strong." He grunts. "Now get off, you'll suffocate me."

I roll off of him. We sit there for a few moments, and in that time I feel something warm flutter in my chest, like a butterfly. Bewildered, I take a deep breath, and the feeling passes.

"Okay, what now?"

Natsu blows the hair out of his eyes. "I was thinking maybe you could use your elbows and knees instead of your fists. I think I remember someone using that technique once."

I nod, taking in every word. I work hard, and before long, the sun sets over the mountains, and the courtyard is plunged into darkness.

"Well, looks like that's it for tonight. Let's hit the sack." Natsu says.

I look up into the night sky, admiring the many twinkling stars up above. "You go ahead, I think I'll stay out here awhile."

"Huh? Why?"

I smile. "I want to see the stars. There aren't nearly as many in the Capitol."

Natsu scoffs. "These? These aren't stars. They've barely come out. Besides, you can't get a good view from here."

He looks at me thoughtfully. "C'mon. Follow me."

Curious, I follow him through the pitch black corridors. We come to a set of stairs that I haven't seen before, and climb the winding steps all the way up to the top of one of the turrets.

Without a word, Natsu pushes open a little door, and we step out onto the roof.

I gasp. We have a view of the whole valley from here; the warm lights of the town, the far off forests, and in the distance, the jagged peaks of the mountains. High above our heads is the moon, a gleaming white crescent in the vast sky.

This must be the highest point of the castle. We sit on a small balcony. It's not cold; the midsummer air is pleasantly cool on my skin. I'm grateful for the light fabric of my blouse, which billows softly in the breeze.

"Just you wait, in a few minutes the whole sky will be filled with 'em." Natsu murmurs, leaning his head back against the wall. It strikes me how little I know about him. He hasn't told me much about his past, or his family.

"We're pretty different, don't you think?" I say quietly.

He laughs a little. "I hadn't noticed."

"You're a dragon, I'm a princess. You can fight, breathe fire, defend the things you care about, I can dance, speak three languages and use the right fork at an eight course dinner." I breathe, watching a moth flutter along the top of the roof.

Natsu raises an eyebrow. "You speak three languages?!"

"Well, four, I guess. Counting Elvish, which I don't know very well. My mom taught me behind my father's back." I say. "Dad thought that the exotic languages were savage, and unfitting for a princess."

"Geez, that old man gets on my nerves." Natsu hisses, chucking a tiny piece of tile into the night sky.

I'm silent for a few moments. "He wasn't always this way. He used to be a good man, a good father. He's always been strict, but I knew he loved me."

"Even now?" Natsu crosses his arms with a scowl.

I shake my head softly. "After my mom died, he just…snapped. It was like everything good in him died with mom."

He looks at me. "Do you think he'll ever get better?"

I look at the moon, with a small frown. "No. The man who I called father died when he killed all those innocent people years ago."

He sits up, crossing his legs. "Yeah, but…don't you ever wish you could go back in time and get him back?"

I smile sadly. "Every day."

I don't think he heard me, because Natsu Dragneel seems to be off in his own world of thoughts.

I venture a question. "How about you?"

He starts a little, I interrupted whatever he was thinking about. "Oh, me? Yeah. I wish there was a magic spell that could take us all back to before all of this happened. But then, it would happen all over again, and that would just hurt worse, wouldn't it? Knowing that everyone you love, you'll lose, and being unable to stop it? I think that would be even more awful than living without them."

I look up into the sky, where the stars are finally coming out. I take a deep breath of the air, cool and fresh. A beam of light shoots across the sky, and I notice the amazing display of lights overhead. I lie back on the balcony, admiring the view for a while.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?'

"What were they like?"

He's silent for a while. Drawing a shaky breath, he lets out a sigh.

"Well, there were my brothers. I had three of them, and they were all great fighters. Alonzo, he was my eldest brother, he always knew what to do. My sister was older than me but younger than my brothers by several years; We were closer than the other siblings because of the big age difference. She loved to boss me around, but she was a good sister. I miss her."

"You had a sister?" I say, surprised. I never would have thought. "Well I guess that explains the clothes that I found downstairs."

"You found her old clothes? That's good, she was about the same size."

I smile. I would have loved to meet these people.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything."

Nothing exciting ever happens at the palace.

At least, nothing exciting ever happens on my shift. Of course, I hear guys talking about this person trying to steal from the throne room, or some spy from a neighboring country being caught. But me? I never see any action.

It was better when I served on the border with Bosco. At least then I could fight. I didn't enlist to stand around and hold a sword, like one of the empty tin suits of armor lining the wall.

Erza says that it's an important job that needs to be done. When I first heard the word "spy," my head was filled with images of esponiage, adventure, and thrilling chases.

Nope.

More like knee cramps, boredom, and the occasional patrol. The king rarely mentions anything that could be of use; it's mostly the same-old "kill that person" or "I hate dragons."

I yawn, checking the clock. The king is returning from Bosco today, with their prince in tow. The missing princess's future husband.

"Wanna play a game of hackey-sack?" I hear a voice behind me, and sigh inwardly.

"No, I don't. Go back to your post, Zane." I say grouchily.

Said guard just laughs, sitting precariously on the banister. He has three green bars on his shoulder, the same symbol painted on mine. We're both the same rank, but Zane has a tendency to break the rules.

"Ya ready for tonight, Fullbuster? Our favorite person is coming!" He laughs again, looking perfectly at home in the palace halls.

"Ugh. Please don't remind me."

"Whaddya say we have some fun—pull a prank, something small. It can't hurt." He suggests.

"Yeah, right. Like we could get away with a prank on his royal highness." I reply. "Man, I hate him. Him and that bastard of a King. It's no wonder the princess ran away."

He looks taken aback by my statement, and I mentally punch myself in the face.

"Dude, you can't go talking like that. He'll have your head."

I sigh. "I know. But be honest, do you really think going after the princess is okay? If I received a commission to search, I know I wouldn't accept. I couldn't live with myself if I was the one who ruined the poor girl's life."

He looks at me suspiciously. "Wow. I mean, yeah, it's not cool, but you're talking about directly disobeying orders."

I look away. "I prefer to put my morals ahead of duty."

"It's treason." He warns. "I might not be a tattle, but be careful talking like that."

"Indeed." My eyes widen at the deeper voice resounding from behind us. I turn, and feel my heart drop into my shoes when I stare into the face of none other than our crown prince, Malachi. "Captain Fullbuster, was it?"

I see Zane blanch, slinking away. "See ya around, Fullbuster."

The prince watches him go, his brown eyes narrowed. After several moments of silence, he turns. "Walk with me, will you?"

I can't refuse, so I follow him down the hall. He doesn't speak for a long time, until we enter the outdoor courtyard. Here he stops and looks around briefly. "I'm sure you're confused by now."

I nod my head. "Very."

He takes a deep breath. "Captain Fullbuster, you're different from the other guards. Not as loyal to the King."

My heart thuds to a stop. Have I been found out? "Y-your highness, I would never dream of—"

He holds up a hand. "If I am correct in my observations, you despise the King, to the point where you would rather see someone else ruling in his place. Is this true?"

I almost stammer out a denial, but I realize that it is pointless. Prince Malachi is very good at detecting lies. "It is true."

He nods, expecting the answer. "I am in need of a few allies here in the castle."

I look up from the ground, confused. I had assumed he would be angry. "I'm not sure I understand."

"What I mean is, I am planning to overthrow my father." He states bluntly, stunning me out of my bewilderment. My eyes grow wide, staring at the prince in disbelief.

"His reign has been dark and horrible, and the people need a better leader. And from what I've seen, it's safe to assume that you think the same."

I don't deny it. Instead, tiny flames of hope spring to life in my chest. "You're really serious?"

He nods. "Captain Fullbuster. What do you say you and I form a—well, an alliance. In the hope of a better future."

I look at him, at his piercing stare, shining with determination, and I realize that he's not kidding. It takes me two seconds to decide. "I'm in."

This earns a smile. "I'm glad to hear it. I'll be seeing you around then, captain."

"Yeah, alright." I mutter back. The thought enters my mind: How on earth will I explain this to Erza?

With this new development, I have no idea how things will turn out. But right now I need to focus on telling my red-haired friend about this, preferably with all my limbs intact.

Meh. Okay I'm done with this. I know the last bit was kind rushed because I am sleep deprived and the writing probably sucks but, hey, can you blame me? I just discovered InuYasha and I have once again been sucked into the magical realm of binge-watching. If you've never heard of it go watch it right now. I'm on episode 55 and can I just say this show is amazing I love it so much it takes second place on the ultimate anime list. Of course Fairy Tail is first because Nalu. (obviously)

Happy Finals Week! I'm gonna go eat creampuffs now. Sayonara!