A/N: This is my first fan fic so please be nice when/if you review. Feel free to comment about misstakes or anything else.
I hope you enjoy the story! :)
Once upon a time in a land called Fiore, there was a beautiful kingdom named Magnolia, ruled by the beloved king Makarov. Makarov, who was getting old, was preparing his only daughter, princess Levy, for her arranged marriage with Prince Gray of the cold mountains.
The peaceful town was seated by the sea and was a major harbor city. In the city there were many small shops such as the bakery. There was also a blacksmith and the famous tavern called Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail was the local tavern and famous for its amazing drinks and meals as well as for the good service. The owners of the pub was three siblings called the Strauss, they were all very kind and loved among the people who visited the place. Even though the village was a very important market town, there wasn't many enemies to the king or the city. This made living in the town easy and enjoyable to most of the citizens.
On this very particular day prince Gray of the foreign kingdom Clover was coming to stay for the preparations of the marriage between him and princess Levy. The whole town was preparing for the prince and his courts arrival.
Meanwhile was the princess herself getting ready for meeting her new soon-to-be husband. Princess Levy was a beautiful young woman, her blue hair barely reached her shoulders and her brown eyes could make any man melt. Levy was also kind and smart, her favorite way to waste time was to cuddle up in a chair in the enormous library the castle had. The young princess was always told how beautiful she was and how lucky any man would be to have her. But princess Levy was not so certain that she wanted to marry someone she had never met, even more so a prince that would most likely be a lot taller than she. Because if there was one thing Levy was insecure about it was her height. You see, Levy wasn't very tall, in fact she was several inches shorter than her maid Juvia. Juvia had long blue hair, a bit darker than Levy's, that was slightly curled and reached her middle back. Most of the times it was up in a neat bun, considering she was serving the princess, but sometimes she let it loose knowing that the princess didn't mind. Juvia was, as every girl in the kingdom, a hopeless romantic. Dreaming of the day her own prince charming would come and take her away to a big castle were they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately for Juvia many men in the town saw her as a gloomy woman who they didn't want to spend their money on. Another quirk about Juvia was that she was always referring to herself in third person, something most people found odd.
"I can't believe father would do this to me." a frustrated Levy screamed as she paced in her room, Juvia sitting quietly and observing the princess from a chair.
"Why would I want to marry someone I have never met? He might as well be an unsympathetic snob." She sighed and sat down on her bed, her head in her hands. "I don't even want to get married yet. I'm only 17 I want to see the world and travel, and then marry someone I love. Oh Juvia what am I going to do?" The young heiress asked her maid.
Juvia slowly moved to sit beside the distressed princess and gently put her arm around her shoulders.
"Juvia knows it's not much of comfort but maybe the princess should meet the prince first and then see how she will act. Tell your father that you don't want to marry him if you don't like him, Juvia is sure the king will understand" She said and smiled at the now crying girl.
Levy wiped away her tears and smiled up at the taller woman.
"Thank you Juvia, you are absolutely right. I will first meet the prince and then decide wether or not I will marry him."
"Good, now let Juvia help you get dressed, the prince will be here soon." Juvia said and started picking out outfits for Levy.
Meanwhile somewhere else
A caravan with 10 wagons was making its way towards Magnolia. The wagons was loaded with gifts and offerings all for the wedding and marrying of the two kingdoms. In the first wagon in the row, two people was seated. A young man with black spiky hair. He had slightly drooped eyes and was glaring at the person in front of him. His clothes were only consisting of a pair of black trousers and a pair of shoes, he had somewhere lost his shirt but clearly hadn't noticed. The young man was none other than prince Gray Fullbuster on his way to marrying Princess Levy. In front of Gray a woman was seated. She had long beautiful scarlet hair tied up in a pony-tail and was wearing an armor. Beside her a sword was placed and she was confidently looking back at the prince.
"I don't see what the problem is my lord!" She said to him while keeping her arms crossed firmly over her chest.
The man just looked at her baffled at her choice of words.
"You don't see what the problem is? The problem is that I am tied down in a wagon on my way to marry some chick I don't even know and barely ever even heard of, that is the problem!" He yelled at her. Surely enough he was tied and was only able to sit and watch as the destination was getting closer. How he had lost his shirt without using his arms was still unclear.
The woman, Erza Scarlett, personal bodyguard and soldier for the prince, didn't even flinch at his scream. Slowly she rose from her seat and walked towards the prince. She crouched down in front of him and glared.
"You will now listen closely My Lord, you will go to Magnolia, meet the princess and marry her. There will not be any complaints or rude comments and I will not tolerate any obedience from you. Is that understood prince Gray?!" She said to him.
Gray, who was looking paler and paler for every passing minute, was shaking out of fear. He might have been the prince but when Erza Scarlett says something you do not disagree if you want to continue living. He nodded with wide eyes and slowly swallowed the lump in his throat. What had he done to deserve this crazy woman as his bodyguard?!
"Good, now get some rest. I need you to be well-rested when we arrive." Erza said and took place at the other bench once again.
Gray slowly relaxed and tilted his head to the side to look out the window, sighing as he realized he was doomed and forced into this wedding.
A few wagons behind another pair was having an argument, or one of them was yelling at the other.
"Ugh, how… long.. is this.. ride.. ugh.. anyway.. Luce?" A pink haired young man asked a blonde girl. Said blonde girl was staring at the motion sick boy who was leaning out trough the window. She sighed.
"For the ten thousand time Natsu, I don't know, and please, if you're going to throw up do it outside." She shrieked and moved her legs up to the seat as Natsu was falling and almost throwing up at the floor were her feet just had been.
Lucy, as her name really was, was a blonde bubbly and happy girl. Her hair was up in a neat bun with some strands of hair framing her face and she wore a simple blue dress. She looked pitiful at the boy on the floor.
'Poor Natsu' She thought, ' It can't be easy to travel this far when you are motion-sick.'
Natsu and Lucy was good friends, almost inseparable when Lucy wasn't helping the prince, considering she was his maid. Natsu on the other hand was the fool of Gray's court and a good friend to the prince, even though neither of them would ever say it out loud. His specialty was fire. Natsu Dragneel was known as the fire-eating salamander of the Fullbuster court.
Suddenly the wagon stopped and Lucy looked out through the window to see what had happened. She caught Erza's glance and got it confirmed from the soldier that they were taking a break for the sake of the horses. Lucy sat down in the seat again and breathed out, she then glanced over at Natsu who was still sprawled over the floor. After a minute of just looking at the boy she walked over to him and dragged him out of the wagon and on to the ground.
"Natsu wake up" she said gently and shook him a bit.
"Come on Natsu wake up!" She said a little rougher and slapped his face lightly.
Natsu only moved a little but didn't open his eyes. Seeing this, Lucy became frustrated and violently grabbed his shoulders and screamed as she started shaking him again.
"WAKE UP YOU IDIOT."
This made the boy jump and move so fast that he hit his forehead into Lucy's
"Geez Lucy" he said as he rubbed the sore spot on his head, "You didn't have to yell, you could've just poked me or something."
The second later he was up on his legs running around like a lunatic, yelling merrily that the death-ride finally had stopped. Lucy sighed and looked at the jester running around in nothing more than a west, a pair of baggy trousers and sandals, and of course his favorite scarf he got from his father around his neck.
"Oi Luce!" the boy suddenly yelled and looked at the blonde maid that was seated on the ground. She looked up at the smiling boy and smiled.
"What is it Natsu?" she asked him.
"Let's go check out the forest" Natsu said and offered his hand to her. The girl accepted it and, with the help of Natsu, rose to her feet.
"Sure, let me just ask prince Gray about it first." she turned around to make her way towards the prince and his guard. Behind her the pink haired boy was frowning, pouting and childishly crossing his arms.
"I don't see why we need to ask ice princess for permission" He grumbled as he followed the young woman around, "come on Happy."
Happy was a cat, but not just any cat. He was a small feline with the most exotic blue fur. The cat himself was quite adorable but the most amazing part about him was the fact that he could talk. No one seemed to notice though which was even more peculiar.
"Aye sir" Happy answered and followed his friends.
After a few minutes later they found the poor prince, still tied, sitting against the trunk of a tree resting while Erza was ordering some soldiers around.
Lucy and Natsu walked over to prince Gray and looked at the resting boy.
"Your Highness, Natsu and I was wondering if it was all right that we explored the forest a bit." Lucy asked him gently.
"Don't forget Happy, Luce" Natsu said which owned him an elbow in the ribcage. "Ouch Luce what you do that for?" He asked confused, said girl just glared at him before returning her eyes to the prince.
The prince chuckled slightly at the pair before glancing up at his maid and answering her question.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Besides I guess you deserve some kind of reward for keeping that idiot company this whole ride." Gray said as he nudge towards Natsu with his head.
Before Natsu could complain about the insult they were interrupted by Erza.
"I'm afraid that is out of the question, we are ready to head off again my prince."
"But we just stopped Erza." Natsu complained
"Yes, but we need to get Gray to Magnolia, they are waiting for us to arrive before nightfall." She said to the pink haired boy.
Natsu on the other hand just remembered that Gray had insulted him earlier and saw this as an opportunity to insult him back. Now he might have been the prince, but Natsu couldn't care less about that.
"Hey, what did you call me before you ice-brain?" he yelled at Gray.
"Idiot, since that is what you are flame-breath" Gray retorted.
"Oh yeah, well you are an idiot too droopy eyes." Natsu yelled back
"You wanna fight slanty eyes?" Gray yelled back as he was now standing face to face with the jester.
Lucy, who saw Erza's eye twitch, was slowly making her way, step by step, towards the wagon with Happy following her.
"Are you fighting?" Erza asked them with one of her steady glares.
Both boys stopped and slowly tilted their heads to look at the red-headed woman.
"O-of course not Er-Erza" Gray stuttered slightly, "We-we're j-just ta-talking right Natsu?!"
"Aye Sir" Natsu replied.
"Well then since you enjoy talking to each other so much I suggest you spend the rest of our journey to Magnolia together." She said and looked at them.
"No way I'm sharing a wagon with stripper here" Natsu yelled and tried to make a run for it towards his own carriage. Unfortunately Erza was fast and had quickly tide both Natsu and Gray tight together and was dragging them towards the front wagon.
"I hope you do not mind Lucy." Erza said to the blond girl.
"Of c-course n-not Erza, I have Happy after all". She replied and nodded towards the cat that was now in her arms.
Erza nodded and continued walking towards their wagon as Gray and Natsu were struggling to get as far away from each other as they could.
When everyone was ready they started their travel towards Magnolia and princess Levy.