It was all over the news.

Lucy's pale, shaking hand clasped the paper tightly as she read with frantic eyes.

'Crown Prince Natsu Flame Dragneel of the Kingdom of Fiore is set to be engaged with future queen, Lucy Star Heartfilia!'

"Oh my God." She choked, and Lucy scrambled out of Natsu's - correction, it was now her's as well when Igneel ordered for an extra closet, bed, desk, and laptop for her - room in a hurry.

It's only been two days since Igneel agreed to their marriage and revealed it to the public, and already it was halfway around the world!

"Lucy-sama?"

Lucy turned at her name and was surprised to see a petite, blue haired girl she had not seen before. Beside her was another blunette, only she was as tall as the blond and had more curves.

"It's Lucy," was the first thing that Lucy said. "Just Lucy is fine. I'm your friend, not your master."

The petite blunette blinked slowly before smiling. "R-Right! I'm Levy McGarden, the archive keeper." She bowed a little, wild waves of blue curling around her small face. "I'm sorry I didn't come to see you before, but I was busy that day and haven't got a chance to see you until now."

Lucy smiled. "No need to bow, Levy." She tipped her head at the taller blunette, her brown eyes silently asking her question.

Levy must have caught on, because she beamed and gestured to her friend. "Oh! I'm sorry, forgive me, Lucy-sa - I-I mean, Lucy. This is Juvia Lockser."

"Pleasure to meet you, Lucy-san." Juvia muttered in a shy voice, squirming slightly as an embarrassed blush appeared on her pale cheeks. "Juvia is Gray-sama's first assistant. Juvia has been distracted by Gray-sama, so she did not come to see Lucy-san until now with Levy-chan."

Lucy nodded, but was still confused on something. For one, why was she talking in third person? Also, "What do you mean distracted by Gray?"

Levy piped in. "Juvia's been in love with Gray since she came here."

Juvia's timid nature seemed to pop like a bubble and fall away as Levy said this, and Lucy was slightly alarmed to see Juvia clasp her hands to her now furiously blushing cheeks.

"Ahh~ Gray-sama~" Juvia sighed wistfully. "Juvia has waited a year for your love, but even if it takes a century, Juvia will be here to embrace you with passion!"

Both Lucy and Levy blushed at her very vivid description.

"Say, Lucy."

Said blond managed to tear her gaze away from a squealing Juvia and to Levy.

"Er... Y-Yes?"

"Have you started planning for the wedding?"

All thoughts and panic of the widespread words of her marriage was tossed away as Levy and Lucy started to walk, Juvia following them while sighing from time to time and muttering 'Gray-sama~!'.

"Actually, no." Lucy laughed sheepishly. "We didn't have that much time to talk about it, although I was thinking of going to go find a wedding carpenter sometime today."

Levy smirked. "Well, now you don't have to! You see, Lu-chan - "

'Lu-chan? I like it.'

"Before I came here to the palace, I was a professional wedding planner."

Lucy tipped her head slightly. "Why did you stop?"

Levy shrugged and brushed a wavy lock of blue behind her ear. "I think I realized that books were a bigger passion of mine. I also go to the same school as Natsu, so it was easy for me to get a job after asking him."

Lucy stared at her in awe. "I guess Natsu has a lot of friends?"

"The boy practically drowns everytime at school from how many people like him. Although I guess most of them will back off once you two get married."

"What? Why?"

"Because about fifty-seven precent of them are females."

"I-I see," Lucy sweatdropped.

"Anyway, Lu-chan." Levy's voice suddenly became much lower, and she wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive way. "How many kids?"

Lucy blushed furiously.

Juvia's next gasp also didn't help her that much. "Lucy wants children?! Oh my! Well, Juvia guesses I'm old enough to be an aunt, so Juvia approves!" She said this last part seriously, her eyes flashing as she sent Lucy a double thumbs-up.

"It's not like that!" Lucy stammered. "We... We don't plan to have kids!"

"Okay, okay." Levy giggled. "I'm sorry. I was just messing around."

The next few moments were silent except for the sounds of their steps.

"... How about thirty-seven? Half are blond and the other half pinkettes!"

"LEVY!"

XxXxXxXxXxX

Natsu frowned, trying to decide between the two beautiful slices of goodness in front of him.

"Make up your mind already!" Gray snapped, impatient with the crown prince. This morning Natsu had tracked him down, demanding a cake. Gray, who was caught off guard, hastily made two flavors since he didn't know what Natsu wanted.

"Chocolate's good..." Natsu muttered, a serious and concentrated look on his face. "But... the red velvet has cream cheese frosting."

Suddenly, a waft of vanilla and strawberries hit his nose, and he grinned when he realized that it wasn't coming from the cakes.

"Lucy!" He shouted.

The blond, who had just been passing the open-doored kitchen with Levy and Juvia, turned at the sound of her name.

She blinked. "Natsu?"

"Come over here," Natsu beckoned excitedly. Maybe she could help him with deciding the flavor!

"What's wrong?" She asked, stepping into the kitchen and Levy and Juvia trailing after her.

"Ah~ Gray-sama~!" Juvia practically melted into a puddle as she caught sight of the head chef.

Gray sweat-dropped. "Hey, Juvia." As he said this, a rustling noise was heard as he actually tore his shirt off, revealing a pale chest.

Juvia spurted with blood from her nose while Lucy went bright red and screamed, "KYAA!"

Natsu and Levy were the only ones who seemed unbothered or unsurprised.

Lucy buried her face in her hands and scooted over to Natsu, hiding behind his taller self and muttering a little hysterically, "Why did he just do that?!"

"Ice princess had a stripping problem," Natsu explained nonchalantly, as if this was a frequent and regular occurrence. "Oi, Gray, your shirt."

The raven-haired man was surprised as he looked down to see his bare chest. "When did that happen?"

"Anyway, Luce!" Natsu shouted, capturing a still pink Lucy in his grip. His onyx eyes were gleaming as he pulled her over to the counter, where the two cake slices were sitting.

"Which one should I pick?"

Lucy snapped out of her shock and embarrassment to look carefully at the two perfect slices.

Her eyes softened as she stared at the chocolate one, a memory flashing within her mind.

"Chocolate." Lucy whispered.

"Chocolate?"

"Y-Yeah," Lucy stuttered, her voice cracking a little. "You should definitely choose chocolate."

Natsu, concerned, did nothing to push Lucy into explaining why she was almost crying. Instead, his hand reached out and grabbed hers, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

"Okay." He mumbled, his voice unusually soft and gentle.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Ooooh~~

I wonder why Lucy chose chocolate!

Also, sorry for the one-day delay.

All I can say is that school's a bitch.

PLEASE REVIEW!