Title: Of Slayers and Dragon Tails

Couple: Natsu X Lucy (NaLu)

Genre: Romance/Adventure/Fantasy

World: AU

Summary:They both had a mission. One was given a role that he was proud to fulfill; he did so without question. The other was forced into an unwanted marriage and the impending removal of her throne. When the end comes dragons and slayers will clash. Don't trust your enemies, don't trust your friends, and don't fall in love with the wrong person. But it's hard when wrong is so temping. AU.

Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima

Warnings: Language. Gore.

Of Slayers and Dragon Tails

ZiraUzu

Chapter 7: Infiltration and a Hysterical Heiress

(July 10, 2015)

xXx

He had been laying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, for the past hour and a half.

Natsu had tried everything. Pulling, thrashing, heating, he even attempted a head butt at one point, but nothing would break or loosen the cuffs that that vexing blonde had used to lock him in her room. It was downright pathetic, not to mention humiliating.

He was a dragon for fuck's sake, one of the deadliest creatures known to human kind. His kind were feared, strong, at the top of the food chain. And they liked it that way. To lose to a human was demeaning to a dragon's way of life, and if the human's didn't kill you, well, let's just say returning with your tail between your legs was the worse option.

Yet the almighty dragon couldn't free himself from a thin pair of metal cuffs.

Natsu bit the inside of his cheek in thought. He had always been proud to be a dragon with the fire element, what with so few of them being left, but in his current predicament he found himself longing for metal based abilities like Gajeel. Damn that metal eating bastard. Damn himself for sending him into the woods. He wouldn't be in this situation if he had let the metalhead wait outside for him.

Natsu's sharp teeth slid across his lip, absentmindedly kneading the soft flesh as he considered the different outcomes that could have occurred if he had done just that. For one he wouldn't be stuck in a human's bedroom, but on the other it might have been enough even for the usually quiet, brooding Gajeel to ask questions. Natsu didn't need questions.

"Questions. We don't answer questions, Natsu. Questions are not part of our—agenda, per say. They are not part of your life. Not anymore."

Questions where dangerous.

No, he had made the right call sending Gajeel into the woods.

The young dragon heaved a sigh as he began to farther contemplate his situation, or as much as he could after having already done so for the past hour. Pulling and relying on brute strength didn't work because of the cuffs' strength manipulation and heating the metal did very little; save expanding it just shy of being able to slip his hand through. Natsu's brows pulled together in a scowl, having ruled out that biting would most likely lead him to a similar outcome.

Absentmindedly he tugged against the cuffs. The skin around his wrist had grown raw to the point of swelling and had begun to crack open and ooze blood. His scowl deepened. Human bodies were such a weak thing. The blood around his wrist had begun to coat the metal and he winced when another tug sliced his flesh farther.

Weak human skin.

Natsu's eyes widened as he bolted into a sitting position. Damn he was a fool! That was the solution! This human form was weak and therefore prone to injury under even the slightest of pressures. He mulled the idea around in his head, perhaps not his best but it was the best he had.

Closing his eyes Natsu focused heat energy to the area of his arm around the cuff, slowly heating the metal until it reached its limits of expansion. He took a deep breath; damn this was going to hurt. He positioned his body so that he would be able to force a large amount of his body weight down onto his cuffed hand, unsure if his idea would actually work but he hasn't any other choice.

He took a deep breath and pushed.

Nothing, damn strength zappers. Emerald eyes skimmed the room, looking for something, anything that could aid him in his current task.

That's when he noticed the battle ax.

It was propped up against the end of Lucy's bed, just where she had left it out of his reach. Just barely. He rolled his eyes and wondered if she had actually thought of him going as far as to slice a body part off in order to free himself. He wasn't that stupid

Not quiet at least.

Maneuvering so he was flat on his back with his legs aimed towards the bed, Natsu used his feet to pull the ax toward himself. Shifting his foot until is resembled clawed talons he grabbed the ax and brought the blunt weapon up and over his head, until it was in grabbing distance.

He didn't give himself time to rethink his actions. He raised the ax, and brought it down on his hand. Hard.

A sickening crack filled the room and Natsu muffled a scream into his shoulder, which tuned to a pained hiss as the bones of his hand snapped. Using the blunt head of the ax, he had forced his thumb towards his palm, applying pressure until the bone gave way, leaving the appendage limp and useless but also enabling his to remove it from the cuffs since the bone no longer obstructed the way.

Cradling his injured hand to his side, Natsu launched to his feet and forced his shoulder against the bedroom door. Nothing. He tried once again, slamming the shoulder of his good arm into the wood but it scarcely even shifted. Banging a fist against the door in frustration Natsu hissed again as his bones snapped and crack, trying to reform after the break.

He glanced down and frowned at the sight. One of the shattered bones that had ruptured his skin stuck out at an odd angle, causing additional pain when the tattered skin was obstructed in its reformation process. Gritting his teeth Natsu placed his thumb against the break and shoved it back into his skin. An agonized yelp left his lips, but the bone remained where it should.

Dammit this was all that fucking blonde's fault. He was tired of getting injured because of her, self inflicted or not.

The young dragon hobbled over to the wardrobe, throwing the door open and almost clean off its hinges with his good arm. Grabbing the first piece of clothing he touched, Natsu placed one end in his mouth and jerked his head and hand apart, causing the material to rip. He wrapped the tatters pieces of what he assumed was once a fancy party dress around his hand before fashioning a sling from the skirts of another gown, which was damn fucking hard to do with only one hand.

Once his arm was secured to his side Natsu turned toward the window, heaving himself up onto the edge before jumping the two stories to the ground. He landed with a soft thud on the balls of his feet.

"Infiltration. It will be your best friend or your greatest hindrance."

Natsu watched Silver pace the length of the Tactics Hall from his current place on a wooden chair, which had been shoved up against the wall in order to make room for the table that had been hauled in for the lesson. His face reflected that of boredom, his eyes a deep onyx as they glided across the ceiling, counting the ridges in the stone.

This was exhausting. Day after day he came and sat in this pathetic excuse for a room, barely big enough to fit a chair and two bookshelves, let alone a table, and listen to Silver drone on and on about war tactics or blending or hand to hand combat. It was always telling and never the doing. Natsu had grown rather tired of it.

A thundering crash echoed off the walls as a giant book landed in front of Natsu, who was heaved from his seat and pulled across the top of the table. Maps fluttered to the floor and in spilled across the wood, seeping into his clothes.

Silver had him by the collar, fisting the fabric tightly. His eyes were hard and promised pain. "Do my words—bore you, boy?"

"Tch," He shoved Silver's offensive hand away, an act that would get most soldiers killed. Natsu was an exception. "I've grown tired of your lessons, old man. I find them to be rather," he leaned back in his chair, balancing it on its hind legs and crossing his ankles as he set his feet on the desk, "lackluster."

"Ah," Silver leaned back. His lip twitched from restraining a smirk, "So the pupil wants to best his master. Alright, boy. Let's see if the game is truly as 'lackluster' as you say it is."

If there was one thing Natsu took pride in it was his cleverness, but now he was at a loss. If only he hadn't been so cocky in his youth or cocky in general, he wouldn't be in this situation. He should have listened to Silver.

"Your arrogance will bring your death."

He hadn't thought so at the time. Now, as he slunk along the drafty, stone wall that surrouned Heartfilia the Rash's castle he felt that his death may very well be upon him soon. If he didn't find a way to do as his teacher had once instructed him, an instruction he had shown very little interest in at the time, he would fall in the home of his enemy.

And his father would be none the wiser, and simply be left to mourn the passing of his son.

It would seem infiltration was his only option.

Natsu ran his hands through his hair as he moved, darkness tainting his hair the color of raven's feathers. He went to pull his tattered cloak around his shoulders only to realize it was no longer with him. He swore under his breath and ducked into a shadowed corner as a maid scurried by, carrying a plate of piping hot bread and wine. Walking around half naked wasn't the best idea, especially when he was trying to be discrete.

Natsu quirked his head to the side in thought and then doubled back after the maid. Perhaps she would prove to be useful.

X

Human clothes were—itchy.

After her many, and in Natsu's mind tedious, rounds of serving the members of the castle the maid had returned to the servants' quarters to finish her daily chores, one of which just happened to be laundry. As soon as she finished her loads for the day Natsu plucked a tunic and a pair of trousers from the clean piles, quickly pulling them on before navigating his way out into the streets of Magnolia City.

The fabric was composed of something weird and smelled very displeasing. He pulled at the tunic that stretched over his torso, frowning at the itchy feeling it caused as it rubbed against his skin. He preferred the baggy closes he wore while in this form back in the caverns. They were much less restricting. And didn't smell weird.

"Hurry, hurry brother!"

"Oh hurry up now! The trials are about to begin!"

Natsu jumped to the side as a pair of Magnolia City siblings came tumbling down the pathway. They were dressed in the robes of the royalty, their hair curled perfectly around their ears and not a smug of dirt so much as marred their skin. They were excitable. Quickly they disappeared into the crowd lading away from the castle and towards the Ring.

What the bloody hell was going on?

"Oi," Natsu reached out and caught a young man by the shoulder, jerking the lad back by his collar. The lad gave him a bemused look as Natsu simply glared at him. He looked positively startled, his brows rose as he waited for Natsu to say something. The young dragon squeezed his eyes shut in concentration, switching his mind from his native tongue to human. Finally the dragon nodded towards the ring, "Something . . . happening."

The lad rolled his eyes at Natsu's statement, "Well duh. The king is holding a series of trials for positions in the royal guard. Live trials are always a pleasurable bit of entertainment. Now let me go."

Natsu growled quietly under his breath when he heard the young boy mutter a quiet 'weirdo' under his breath. Then a smirk spread across his face.

How convenient.

X

Human society was disorganized. Natsu scoffed to himself as he paced through the small waiting room they had shoved him into. Literally, they shoved him and then left him in front of a rack of the tools humans used to fight. A man barked at him to choose wisely and then left him alone.

For all of two minutes.

Not long after he was left another man came into the room, asked if he had chosen, and once he had grabbed a sword (the only human weapon he knew how to use) he was dragged from the room and placed into one with a number of other young men waiting to enter the arena. He was shoved rather unpleasantly into a chair and left without farther instruction.

Natsu had come to the slayers' Ring to look for the leader of the trials. If he was to infiltrate this city it was his best bet of doing so. He had asked only two people before he was herded like cattle down into the depths of the damn building. He had expected paper work, a back check of some sorts, anything to deem him unsuspicious in anyway, but there had been none of that what so ever, just a bunch of shoving and loud barking from human men. It was maddening, not to mention incredibly irksome.

Natsu jolted when he was nudged in the shoulder. The blonde youth beside him nodded his head towards the door and offered a smile, "Why you here?"

Why? Natsu stiffened for only a moment, the hairs at the back of his neck bristling before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax. He really hated human language. "I have my reasons."

The youth chuckled and shrugged, "Don't we all? Me, I'm just interested in doing my part, protecting my kingdom and whatnot. Plus, being able to spend time with Lady Lucy is a nice perk."

Come again?

Onxy eyes narrowed and turned to the youth, whose blonde hair fell over a small forehead and into his eyes. Blonde like Lucy's. "Lucy."

A goofy grin crossed the blonde's face, "Yeah, she sure is something. Beauty she is, pride of the king and his people. It's too bad she's spoken for, not that a commoner like I would have a chance with the heir to our lands."

Natsu raised a brow. Spoken for? He wasn't familiar with human bindings like marriage, or love for that matter. In his world, dragons took a mate primarily for reproduction reasons but some sort of affection often followed soon afterwards. He was still far too young to even consider such things as mating, something that typically happened when a dragon reached its early hundreds, so it was of little concern to him.

"Your arrangements of being spoken for are unfamiliar to me," Natsu said after a long moment.

"You're not from around here?"

"Something like that. It is a good match I presume."

The blonde shrugged in indifference, "I suppose. He's at the top of his class at the slayer academy. Rumor has it that the princess was promised to him just before the raid and they are to be married by midsummer. He's a demon in battle, or so I'm told."

Suddenly the door burst open and the young man who had been conversing with Natsu was ushered into the hallways. His time in the arena had come.

Then, after some time had passed, they came for Natsu.

He heard the cheers of the civilians that had gathered to watch the event long before he and the guards that led him reached the arena. They escorted him to the entrance and told him it would be a one-on-one fight. The winner would advance and the loser would be disqualified from the running. Sounded simple enough.

Sword in hand, Natsu stepped into the arena when the doors opened. The light was near blinding, the sun beating down into the dirt clearing. His ears wailed with the voices of the people.

The first challenge was easy. The second no different. Natsu cut his way through his opponents one by one, and then, suddenly, it was down to him and another.

Natsu paced through the dirt, his sword dragging patterns in the brown dust as he waited to enter the arena for the last battle. When the doors opened he swung his sword in a few circles and strode into the clearing, confidence leaving him in waves.

But when he saw his opponent, the hair on his neck bristled and a blood thirsty anger flashed through his being. The raven haired man from before stood twenty paced before him, arrogance and a cocky confidence radiated from him.

Oh, he was going to enjoy this.

xXx

Lucy could see that Levy was clearly irritated. Her shoulders were hunched and her brow twitched every few seconds, yet as frustrated as she knew her friend was the blonde couldn't stop invading her personal space. Currently she was leaning over Levy's shoulder, mere inches away, as the bluenette leafed through the blank pages of Lucient's journal.

"Sooo?"

"Lucy seriously! Space! I can't concentrate with you breathing down my neck every two seconds!"

Lucy squeaked as the petite woman navigated her small shoulder into the blonde's collarbone, sending her tumbling to the ground and into a pile of books that had been stacked on the floor not far from them. A cloud of dust lifted to the air before settling after Lucy stopped thrashing in order to free herself from the paper mountain. She heard Levy snicker.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Incredibly so."

The mage snickered at Lucy's pout as she came and sat herself next to her friend once again. "Fair enough."

Three hours had passed since Lucy had brought her ancestor's journal to Levy and in that time they had made little to no progress. The secrets within the strange book were locked under pad and key and they were locked tightly. At this point the two girls had ended up with more questions than answers.

Suddenly a quiet knock sounded through the small study area. Both girls glanced at the messenger that stood next to one of the farther bookshelves, the sound most likely the result of him knocking on the oak wood of the bookcases. "You have been summoned to the throne room courtesy of your father, Lady Lucy."

"Very well," Lucy stood from her place next to Levy and moved to leave, but before doing so she turned towards the bluenette, leaned down and whispered, "Let no one see it. You do not have this book, Levy. Understand this."

Levy nodded, her trust unbreakable. "Understood."

Then Lucy was ushered from the library and towards the throne room, where her father awaited her.

X

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek as she ran through the halls of Magnolia Castle. Her feet were bare, slapping quietly against the stone floor and caused her to skid across the stone as she rounded the corner, due to the lack of friction, as she made her way towards her room. The guards her father had were good, but they didn't know every corner of the castle like she did. She grew up here, lived and breathed the life in these very walls, it was her game board and anybody who tried to outwit her in her own field would lose.

So in a game of chase, the guard didn't stand a chance.

Lucy, as a princess and heir to her father's throne, of course understood her father's endless badgering about the need for guards and supervision. Didn't mean she had to like it. Even during her younger years—she wasn't sure at exactly what age it had started—Lucy had developed a habit of running away from her protectors. It was simple to slip away from them, even now, though she had become much more troublesome to catch as time passed. Her current guard was no exception.

Now she was an expert at guard evasion.

Around the time she turned fourteen her father had given up on assigning her a permanent guard due to her antics of constantly running away from them, though it didn't stop him from sending one to escort her from time to time. Granted, she had a number of protectors that she was ordered to stay with when leaving the Heartfilia territory to visiting the neighboring cities and lands. Those she generally stayed with so her father wouldn't have a heart attack. Home was different. Lucy liked her freedom, and she would do what she could to keep it, even if it was something as simple as being escorted, she could do it herself.

She treasured the little freedom she would have until mid summer came. And that was even if her freedom was taken from her. There was still time, just very little of it.

When the door to her room came into view she came to a halt, almost barreling into the door due to her feet sliding across the stone. She paused, hand hovering over the handle. Something didn't feel right.

Slowly the blonde cracked the door open, glancing inside through the slivered crack between the door and the frame that had been created as the heavy wood squeaked on its hinges. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, the air was still and held a calming quiet but as she nudged the door open farther her body froze, and disbelief flooded her.

The room was empty.

Unfortunately for her though, she didn't have time to survey her room and find out how the strange man she had held captive had escaped, for the guards came bowling into the room only moments later. They screamed their protests and berated her terribly as they marched her towards the throne room, one guard dragging her along as another made feeble attempts at trying to convince her to put shoes on.

She pouted and ignored both.

The doors of the throne room groaned as they were heaved open and Lucy was dumped on the floor at her father's feet. She glance up at him from under her lashes, a sheepish look on her face as she rubbed the back of her head and stood from her place on the floor, dusting dirt from her skirt.

Lucy bit her lips as her father stared at her. His expression held the aspects of exasperation with his daughter's latest shenanigans but Lucy saw see the corner of his lip twitch ever so slightly as he tried to look angry. He actually found her stunt to be rather comical.

"You wanted to see me father?"

He nodded as he regarded his daughter, so young and beautiful and so full of life, though also so incredibly fragile though she often protested to that fact. In her mind she was strong and capable of anything, and while those things were true he had the mind of a father and couldn't help but worry about the safety of his only child. He had already lost he mother, he would not lose her as well, and especially not to a creature as gruesome and horrendous as a dragon.

"Yes, Lucy I did. It's regarding your—game I suppose is a good word for it. This constant game you play of running away from your guards, Lucy, it needs to stop."

Lucy had heard this speech before. It was almost routine at this point. Her father would argue that her safety was in jeopardy and that, despite her strength and cleverness, she could still be hurt at any moment. She bit her lip in frustration, her eyes closed into a squint as she turned her gaze away, "I don't need them."

"So you say," Jude said, rising from his chair so he could descend to the ground. He paced the floor in front of her in thought for a moment before coming to a halt before her. "Lucy you believe that you are perfectly safe wondering the streets of our city alone, yet it was in our very streets that your life was almost ended. I will not let this happen again."

"What are you saying?"

"You are aware that there was recently a tournament to pick new installments of the royal guard, correct?"

"I am."

"They were not for the royal guard, daughter, they were for you. The tournament was to see who was most qualified to protect you."

"What? You can't be—,"

"From now on you will have a permanent guard at your side, twenty four hours a day, every day. This is not something up for negotiation."

"Father you can't—,"

"I can, Lucy." She gasped in disbelief at her father, who came to cup her cheeks in his warm, large hands. Lucy grabbed them, frustration present on her face while his own held concern, and a little bit of anger at her for being so stubborn. "You are my daughter, my only daughter, and I will not lose you to the likes of dragon scum because you are incapable of protecting yourself."

Lucy wretched herself away, "I can care for myself!"

"Not the way you need to be, and that is precisely why Gray carried you from a battlefield covered in blood and you were hospitalized for almost a week!"

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the mention of the raven haired slayer's name. Lucy grit her teeth and folded her hands into fists when it occurred to her that she had heard he had an interest in entering this particular tournament, despite his constant distain in the past for other tournaments of a similar nature, claiming he had better things to do with his life than wonder the castle day in and day out.

"I swear if you picked him—,"

"Lucy!"

"If you picked that filthy bastard to spend every moment with me I will never forgive you! I already have to cope with the knowledge that my freedom will most likely be given to him in less than a year's time despite you claiming otherwise if I prove myself as a slayer. I will already have to spend the rest of my life married to a man I do not love and will never love, you've posed enough cruelty on me already, please don't add to it. I will die first."

Her father fixed her with a hard stare, saying nothing and yet so many things all at once. She saw the evidence of sadness in his eyes, and a sense of betrayal at her obvious distain for her fiancé.

"Gray will not be your guard Lucy."

Lucy calmed down for a moment, composing herself slightly at that piece of information before managing to spit out a spiteful, "Good."

"Even if he had won it would have been wildly inappropriate for your future husband to be guarding your life, despite the fact that he would have been quite qualified. It would also leave me with the job of finding you another guard after your marriage."

Lucy didn't miss the fact that he said future, not possibly future. Then something else occured to her.

"Gray lost?"

Her father nodded, "Was quite to wallop I heard."

But that was—how—it wasn't possible. Gray was her generation's best fighter. Despite her obvious distain for the raven haired slayer, Lucy could agree with the fact that he was excellent with a sword and well informed when it came to battle strategy. So to hear he had been bested, well, it was bewildering. She almost didn't believe it.

"The winner cheated."

Her father shook her head, "Afraid not, my daughter. Makarov witnessed the fight, he would have noticed."

"Gray lost on purpose."

"Doubtful. There was no cash prize offered, he would make no benefit from doing so."

Lucy bit her lip in thought and crossed her arms under her chest. It didn't make sense, every angle she thought of her father had an explanation. But why did she even care? She should be happy that someone like Gray Fullbuster wouldn't be charged with guarding her. It would make running away so much simpler.

Or so she thought.

"What's his name?"

"Natsu Dragneel."

It wasn't her father who spoke.

Every muscle in her body went rigid. She knew that voice. And the last time she had heard it its owner had been trespassing in her room. A million questions flew through her head and each one lacked an answer.

Composure was something that came naturally to Lucy, she was good at putting on a show. Creating a mask to hide her emotions was something she did often, sometimes by choice and sometimes not, yet it was currently something she lacked, and something she fought hard to regain. Slowly Lucy lowered her arms back to her sides, took a deep breath, and turned to face the man she knew was standing behind her.

His dark eyes pierced her, taking her all in and analyzing every part of her that they could reach. She did the same, taking in his metal boots and the armor of her kingdom, which hugged his body like a second skin. Her father's crest rested above his heart and she glared at it. He didn't deserve to wear it. His hair was slicked back and bordered on a dark chocolate brown, lighter compared to the raven she had seen during their first encounter.

Their first encounter. When she had left him locked in her room, chained to the floor with no way of escape.

But he had.

And that was what unsettled her the most

xXx

To be continued: Chapter 8: The Dragon Hunt

AN: Hi lovelies! I just wanted to say sorry and thank you so much to everybody who has waited so patiently for this chapter. It really does mean the world to me.