Sorano's family arrived to the banquet at 8 o clock sharp. Sorano's father made sure of this, Igneel didn't appreciate tardiness especially not from those underneath him.

In all honesty Sorano's family was in a plummeting decline. Just Last year her father, Vincent Agria, would probably have been considered one of the wealthiest men in the world. But after 2 separate aircraft incidents at the magnolia airport owned by Vincent, people began to question his ability to run a business. Cutting the logistics, stocks were plummeting for him and fast. That's why Vincent was so desperate to marry off both of his daughters to the Dragneel boys. Sorano knew this as well, and all this did was fuel the hatred she had for Lucy, the commenner who stood in the way between her and Natsu being wed. Of course there was always Ignia, but it was common knowledge that Natsu would be more successful of the two, and she needed to have the best of the best spouse. Her younger sister could have the other one.

Sorano wore a sexy yet elegant gown it was a periwinkle color and had a deep v-neck that went down to her mid stomach. Silver gems connected the deep neckline gorgeously. She knew she looked good, good enough to steal a man.

"M'lady," said a deep voice from behind her. 'Just the man I was looking for' she thought.

"Oh Ignia, please don't act so proper with me. I'm happy you could make it after being so far overseas." Sorano greeted politely.

He chuckled, "well after that lovely message you sent me I had to show up."

"Right. I'll show you the girl when she arrives. But I'm sure you'll be able to smell the peasant the second she walks in the door." She whispered. Ignia grinned at her devious antics, she was his favorite kind of woman.

Lucy wasnt really familiar with Dragneel manor Natsu only ever brought her there once. She noticed he didn't like spending time in his family home. She observed from the limousine window and gulped.

'That's a lot of people.'

Just entering the manor there were hundreds of people at the entrance some she had even seen in magazines before. There was also an abundance of paparazzi, that was something she wasn't prepared for.

"Don't be afraid." Natsu said as the limo came to a halt. The coachman opened the door for the two couples and there was an immediate barrage of flashing lights from cameras. Lucy did not like this.

Natsu exited the car first seemingly unfazed by all the chaos. He held out a hand to Lucy and guided her out the vehicle. She squinted from all the lights and squeezed Natsu's hand with a death grip she didn't know she possessed.

"Mr. Dragneel! Mr. Dragneel!"

"Is this your bride to be?!"

"What's her name!"

"Will you be getting engaged this year sir?"

Natsu ignored all the invasive questions from the paparazzi as he strutted into his home. He never paid them any mind, they were just fleas that leeched off the success of his father. He observed Lucy. She looked uncomfortable and slightly frazzled. He would make sure that there would be no more paparazzi for the next banquet.

"You look stunning miss! May we know your name?!" Questioned one of the paparazzi shoving a microphone in Lucy's face. Natsu was ready to push the man away before Lucy spoke.

"T-thank you. My name is Lucy."

Lucy. The name was being spread around like wildfire. The paparazzi looked flustered at the fact that she even acknowledged his question.

"And your last name Miss Lucy?"

This time Natsu took the opportunity to push the prying man away. People already knew Natsu had a violent streak, the paparazzi invaded his women's space at their own risk.

He greeted his cousin Gajeel and his uncle Metalica. Metalica was the brother of Natsu's late mother. Lucy happily greeted Levy glad to see a familiar face.

"How's married life treating ya?" Gajeel jested with Natsu.

"Fuck off". Marriage. It was all anyone talked about now that her was 17 people wanted him to get engaged and soon. Luckily for him he was Natsu Dragneel, he would move at his own pace and get married when he's ready, and nobody could do shit about that. He stared at his pretty Lucy, the most beautiful girl in the room and it wasn't even a competition. There was already a rumor spreading that she was a famous foreign model. He snickered at that, knowing she would bust her ass on a runway.

"Let's see my dad now" he suggested. Lucy nodded her head but felt uneasy about this. They made way to the second floor of the ballroom where the banquet was being hosted. Igneel stood tall and strong in the center of the room drinking booze. He had two women one under each of his arms. Men crowded around him waiting to get a chance to speak with him. Natsu quickly shoved the people in his way to get to his father.

"My son!" Igneel said loudly greeting his not so subtly favorite son. Natsu grinned with his father. "Come now have a drink my boy. And introduce me to your pretty lady."

'Be polite and pretty be polite and pretty' she chanted in her head.

"Your name darling"

She gave him a full bow before attempting to speak.

"Lo-lu- um so-sor-" she embarrassingly fumbled her words.

"This is Lucy, dont mind her nerves." Natsu answered on her behalf.

'Ah I screwed up so bad I only had one job and couldn't even do that' she would make sure to punch her self several times when she was alone for that.

Igneel gave her a firm look before breaking out into laughter. "Hahaha! Lucy you say! Cat got your tongue I know I'm a big man but I promise I won't eat ya!" He half joked, he was very big, scary too. But at the same time he was surprisingly easy-going. Lucy shot a shy smile in his direction. "A drink for the little lady to calm her nerves." Igneel commanded one of the servants. She never drank before but she wouldn't dare deny a drink from Igneel Dragneel. Igneel grabbed 2 cocktail drinks from the servant for Natsu and her.

"T-thank... you" She said as he handed the drink to her. She took a sip and was revolted.

"It's a martini, what do ya think Lucy?"

She subconsciously just made a sour face at Igneel's question before realizing. Her eyes widened. "Oops I didn't me-mean"

"Haha! I appreciate the honesty girl! It's a good trait to have." Igneel said patting her back with a large calloused hand.

"She couldn't lie even if she tried" Natsu joined in with his father. He gave her a silent thumbs up when his father turned his head. She let out a sigh of relief at that.

Lucy didn't understand how Natsu turned out so terrible when his father didn't seem too bad. Igneel was a big man, with the same green eyes as Natsu. A large scar resided across his right eye. She wondered how he got it. His red hair was slicked back much similar to Natsu's. Lucy could see where Natsu got his good looks from. Even in his 40s Igneel was a total dilf. Lucy blushed at her own terrible thoughts, Natsu had been rubbing off on her for the worst.

The majority of the the ball went smoothly Lucy thought. She clinged to Natsu like the plague. Lucy met the rest of Natsu's immediate family after meeting Igneel. She was surprised to meet Zeref, Natsu's older brother. From what Mrs. Spetto told her Zeref stayed out of family affairs. Accompanying Zeref was his tiny wife, Mavis. She looked young but her big green eyes held a certain maturity to them. The last family member Lucy met was Ignia Dragneel. He attended a prestigious boarding school out in Alvarez she was told.

Ignia gently kissed Lucy's hand as he introduced himself to her.

"Move." Natsu said rashly pushing his brother away.

Ignia smirked, "Scared I'm gonna steal your little girlfriend?"

Lucy knew Natsu had anger issues, but she could tell Ignia had the ability to trigger him easier than usual. She observed the man clench his jaw. She placed his large hand in hers with the intent to calm him down. He immediately met her eyes at the soft touch. She tenderly smiled at him as he visibly calmed down.

One of Ignias favorite things to do while he's in Magnolia was to irritate his brother. So of course he would flirt with the girl his brother was oh so obsessed with. He found it hilarious in retrospect, all his life he was ridiculed for being the son of a peasant whore. His brothers were always held above him, always treated with more respect because their mother was a noble woman. They had everything they could possibly want. But they still needed more.

Now here his brother was being consoled by this girl that comes from nothing. Why was everyone okay with him being with this girl, but it was wrong that he was born from a woman of the same status as Natsu's new little girlfriend. It boiled his blood how Natsu always got his way.

He observed as the pretty blonde calmed Natsu down within seconds. It was obvious she had a strong effect on him even if he denied it. Ignia than took a glance at his older brother, Zeref giggling and smiling with his wife off in a distant corner. Both of his brothers were soft. Entirely too soft to run Etherion cooperations, Natsu would never be able to handle it. Perhaps this Lucy would reveal to his father that Natsu wasn't fit to be the heir. Even if Natsu tried to hide the way Lucy made him feel, the glint in his eyes as he locked hands with her was more telling than any words he could speak.

His brother loved this girl, the same way Igneel loved Ignia's mother.

"All my boys are here?" Igneel asked gathering his sons together. Zeref reluctantly made way to his father. Zeref wouldn't have even shown face at this banquet if his father didn't personally command him to come. Obviously he had something important to talk about.

Zeref sighed, "I'll be back Mavis" he gently kissed her forehead . She nodded her head.

"I want to speak to that girl. Natsu's girlfriend."

"O-okay," Zeref wasn't sure what kind of business Mavis would want with Natsu's girl but he wouldn't interrogate her. Mavis almost always knows what she's doing.

Zeref followed closely behind his father and younger brothers, they were going to the basement of the manor, he knew what that meant.

Lucy watched as Natsu traversed out the room. He glanced at her one last time before making his exit. Now Lucy was nervous and alone, she needed to find Erza or Levy asap. Her thoughts were interrupted as a small hand crept up her shoulder. She quickly averted her head only to meet the eyes of Mavis Dragneel. Lucy politely smiled at the sight of Mavis. Mavis was friendly enough to ease Lucy's nerves. She handed Lucy a raspberry pastry which said girl happily accepted.

"How did you and Natsu meet?" Mavis asked

"At school. He... sort of bullied me at first." Lucy answered honestly.

"Of course he did," Mavis said rolling her eyes, "you don't even wanna know how Zeref and I met."

But now Lucy was curious. So Mavis sat her down and explained the beginnings of her relationship to the girl. Maybe the miserable story would help Lucy in the future.

"I was thirteen when Zeref showed up on Tenrou Island, my birth country. We were a small nation that inhabited the island, my father was the Chief so maybe I was a princess in a weird sort of way" Lucy giggled and Mavis continued on. "Tenrou people are very in touch with Nature, and we didn't disturb the wildlife, we coexisted with it" Mavis said in a serious tone. Lucy nodded wide eyes, giving her full attention to Mavis.

"Zeref and Igneel came to my homeland to trade us, we had an abundance of ethernano, which is of course used to power a lot of technology today." Lucy knew this, ethernano was the most valuable products distributed by Etherion, Its where they got the name from. Though she had never even heard of this Tenrou Island.

"Ethernano is considered the best source of energy only needing a small amount of sun to power it. My father was under the impression that Igneel would be attempting to make trade with tenrou, by trading us for the ethernano that we collected ethically from the Tenrou tree..." Mavis let out a deep sigh and took a sip of her drink before continuing.

"...Of course I was naive and so was my father to believe a businessman could do anything ethically. They killed my father and all the men of tenrou. They took the woman and sold them as slaves before claiming Tenrou as their own territory where they set up factories" Lucy gasped at the horror story. The Igneel that she had just met was a man who could casually commit genocide on a nation. "I became Zeref's trophy wife without any say." Mavis' big eyes were dim as she spoke reliving the tragic memories.

She met the innocent eyes of Lucy and smiled. 'They haven't yet destroyed her spirit.'

"I don't mean to tell you this to upset you or make you pity me, just consider this a warning. If you can ever escape a Dragneel then do it. Do it and don't look back." Those were Mavis' last words before she took her leave from the table leaving Lucy stiff in place horrified from the story. She regained her composure quickly before chasing Mavis down and pulling her into a gentle back hug. She glanced at her with sad eyes.

"Please don't give up Mavis... I know we just met but... I feel for you please know that you're not alone." Lucy softly spoke.

Slightly shocked Mavis responded with a tiny, thank you meeting the younger girls eyes. 'She doesn't need to go through what I went through.'