Chapter 1

"Is it too late to turn the carriage around?" Princess Juvia breathed out. She had grabbed the forearm of her most trusted servant and dressmaker while beginning to hyperventilate.

"I'm sorry, but yes. You're going to have to seduce this guy or we're both dead," Natsu whispered in reply. He didn't move his arm away from his Princess as he knew she was having an internal panic.

Princess Juvia's mother, a rather persuasive woman, sent her on a mission to seduce the eldest Prince of the North in hopes of a marriage proposal to expand their land and gain more money to the family name. At first Juvia refused, she had never met this 'Prince Lyon' before, she didn't particularly want to marry a man she didn't love.

Natsu, of course, held the Princess as she cried in her bedroom after the exchange. He was extremely protective of Juvia and would even give his life for her safety, she was his only friend, the only person to ever show him kindness.

"Mother said he is quite young but will be easily distinguishable because he has white hair," she glanced out the window and watched as the two travelled through the shimmery silver gates of the castle. "How do you even go about in seducing a man?"

"Couldn't tell ya, I've never tried it," Natsu winked at her, which made her giggle. "You don't need to do anything raunchy, you know. You're very beautiful on your own."

"Not as beautiful as the other nobles… Princess Levy already has three suitors after her, and Princess Mira is engaged. Juvia thinks she will be the only Princess here without a suitor."

"Which means this Lyon guy will have to go for ya, meaning your mother won't fire me," Natsu, at this point, stood up and opened the carriage door. "If anything, just enjoy the night, if nothing happens just say Lyon didn't show."

Juvia nodded, accepted Natsu's outstretched hand and stepped gracefully out of her carriage.

She looked up at the intimidatingly big palace, it was covered in glittering snow which blended in with its silver colour. She squeezed Natsu's hand once then let go and watched him as he disappeared towards the servant's quarters.

All alone, the blue-haired princess walked into the open doors of the palace and focused on making it to the ballroom without catching any eyes. She knew the other nobles thought her shyness to be strange so none of them ever bothered to actually interact with her. Usually, she was the highlight of the rumour mill when she appeared at big events. Some thinking she was deaf or mute, others believing she was faking her status, and a few even believed she was a spy or assassin.

Upon entering the ballroom, the two announcers slammed their poles against the floor to indicate that a guest had arrived. However, once people had excited turned to the door and noticed she it was only Juvia, they rolled their eyes and continue with their private conversations. Juvia quietly thanked the two doormen and made her way towards the bar.

"Excuse me, may I have a glass of water, please?" She asked one of the bar workers, a girl around her age with long pink hair.

"Of course, your highness," Juvia cringed at the title but didn't refuse it. Her mother had once shouted at her a few years back for telling Natsu to just call her by her name, claiming it was demeaning and that she hadn't worked her butt off to give Juvia her title only to have it be thrown away.

Of course, Juvia's mother had only married into the title, she hadn't worked for it at all.

"That was an awfully polite way to speak to a servant," Juvia turned to her left to see a blonde woman in a pink dress smiling at her. "I'm Princess Lucy of the Apollo Kingdom. Have we met before?"

"Um, no. I am Princess Juvia of the Great Sea. My mother is Queen of the Eastern Marina land, perhaps you know her, Queen Naida," Juvia answered, keeping her voice steady despite her nervousness, which was rapidly growing with the glare the dark haired man beside Lucy was giving her.

"Oh, yes I do. She and my father are good friends," Lucy gently rested her hand on Juvia's wrist. "You look very alike, kind of like me and my late mother."

"Oh, well. Should Juvia take that as a compliment or not…"

Lucy giggled, "You're so cute. I promise you look beautiful." She removed her hand and took a sip from her flute as Juvia's water was set in front of them. "Oh, this is Gray, my best friend. He lives here."

Gray snorted and chugged the rest of his beer. "That's Prince Gray of the North to you," he nodded to the barman who took his beer mug to refill. "Probably the least egotistical of the nobles in this palace."

Lucy rolled her eyes, "excuse him, he's angry because his older brother ordered the two of us to marry so Gray couldn't ruin his chances at finding the perfect bride." She looked down and sighed, "I guess I am too, that's why we're drinking."

"I understand," the two friends snapped their heads towards Juvia. "My mother is forcing Juvia to seduce Prince Lyon to expand our land intake. Juvia just wants to be at home and have fun with her friend Natsu."

"Wait, your own mother sent you on a sex quest?!" Gray exclaimed and shook his head. "That is so wrong."

"Two right it's wrong!" Luce abruptly stood up. "I'm going on a walk. I'll be back in a bit."

The blonde princess rolled her shoulders back and purposefully walked across the room until she exited through a side door.

"So…" Gray started. "You and Lyon, huh?"

"I hope not. I've never even met him before," Juvia sipped her water and licked her lips. "I only agreed because I'm probably the only girl here without a suitor."

And she was right, as she looked around the huge ballroom he could see girls being surrounded by multiple guys or even just talking to one. They were probably doing a self-service hunt for a husband rather than being ordered to obtain one.

"You don't have any suitors?" Gray looked surprised and glanced down her body before meeting her eyes once again. "Are you sure?"

Juvia smiled gratefully at him, "she is sure. Juvia only has one other constant person in her life and he is her dressmaker and lead servant."

"Hmm…" her mysterious companion nodded and took a large gulp of beer. "Also, what's with the occasional third person?"

"Oh, I am sorry. I'm used to it, you see, the only other person I speak like the to is to Natsu, my friend, my mother doesn't like and I'm trying to stop I promise bu-"

"It's fine," Gray chuckled. "It's unique and it suits you."

"Oh, okay."

The two drifted into silence, not looking at each other but instead, they observed the room. Everyone was dressed in gowns and suits, looking the best they could to attract a significant other if they weren't already engaged or married.

Looking towards the thrones, Juvia seen who she assumed to be Prince Lyon, he did have very white hair, it almost matched the snow that surrounded his palace. There were two pink haired girls clinging to each of his arms and smiling brightly at him while blushing. She assumed they were related and perhaps both fighting for him to ask for their hand.

"That's the Blendy cousins. Chelia and Sherry," Gray mumbled. "For some reason, they insist that they're in love with him. So, good luck getting past them in your half-assed seduction plan."

Juvia frowned at him and shook her head. "Juvia was really not planning on-"

"Plus he's already got his eyes set on someone," he fluttered his eyes towards the barmaid who gave Juvia her water. The girl was biting her lip and focusing unusually hard on scrubbing some glasses in a wooden bucket. Juvia also noticed that Lyon was actually not paying attention at all to the girls on his arm, but rather was staring hopefully in the barmaids direction.

"Her names Meredy and they are ridiculous around each other," Gray had leaned over to whisper in Juvia's ear, as well as moved into Lucy's previous seat at the bar to be closer to Juvia. "I sometimes hear the two of them sneak around at night together, however, she's usually the one to refuse to be with him publically incase people accuse her of gold-digging."

"That's so sad, but also quite lovely," Juvia glanced between to two they were gossiping about, trying not to shiver at feeling Gray's breath on her neck.

"Yeah, tell me about it I have to listen to his whining," Gray then leaned away from her and once again focused on drinking his beer. "Guess you could say we have no luck in love in this family."

"Wait, family? Gray and Lyon are related?" Juvia actually turned to look at Gray in shock.

"Well, I did say Prince Gray of the North, right?" Juvia blushed at this, she then connected the dots which she should have initially done.

"You are brothers?"

"Step-brothers. We have the same mother, she married my dad after Lyon's past away."

Juvia looked between the two boys and could notice almost no similarities other than their dark eyes, which she assumed must be inherited from their mother. She suddenly noticed that a few people in the room had started to notice her conversation with Gray, and with usually being the topic of her generation's rumours, she decided to take her leave.

"Well, as lovely as this has been Sir, I will take my leave. I hope you don't mind, but I really need to go for a walk," she smiled at him politely as if they hadn't just had a conversation about her awful mother and true intentions to be there.

"Sure, see ya round, Juvia." She watched as he went back to chugging down beer and probably waiting for Lucy to return before she truly turned and walked away.

She reached the door to some sort of garden before turning back to look at him again. He was now being somewhat hounded by a red haired woman and a brown haired woman. Sighing, she walked through the huge glass doors and into the night air.

"So, let me get this straight, you're engaged to your best friend because of his brother?"

"Yes."

"But you don't want to be, so you're planning on running away from home?"

"Yes."

"Right now?"

"YES!"

"Well, that's pretty stupid."

Lucy turned around and looked at her newly made 'friend' with pure anger in her eyes. He caught her storming through the palace gardens mumbling to herself furiously before stepping in to calm her down.

"And why should I care what you think? I don't even know you," she said exasperated, she had a hand on her forehead in annoyance and the other on her hip.

"Well, because my best friend has tried to run away from home before as well and she said I was what stopped her, so I figured I could do the same for you," he gave her a full grin and put a hand on her head. Lucy blushed at the move before swiping it off her.

"Well, I ain't your best friend, pal, hate to break it to you. Besides, I'll be leaving my best friend behind so that he can have his own life," she tried walking away before he grabbed her by the wrist and twirled her to look at him.

"But do you really think he'll be happier knowing you're gone? Will you be happier without him, or any of your other friends?" This time she could see he was serious, his eyes completely narrowing in on hers.

In fact, this close he was actually quite handsome. Blushing, she turned her head away from him.

"See, if you stay and sort things out it'll be fine. I'm sure Juvia would be happy to give you some advice she's always wanted a girl to hang out with," he said thoughtfully. "But don't even think about becoming her best friend, ya hear?! That's my job."

"Juvia…" Lucy looked at him up and down, noticing his ragged clothes for the first time. "You must be Natsu!"

"Yeah… and how did you know that?"

A/N: Helloo people! It's very strange posting on here after using ao3 for so long ! (link in bio ayyy ;))

anyway thank you for taking your time to read my pointless crap here... ive had this idea for quite a while and needed release. plus myno1 weakness are royalty/fairy tale aus so sorry not sorry !