A/N: I don't really have any excuses, but just know that you guys are the reason I continue to write. I'm so sorry for the wait and I promise that, for everyone who has so patiently waited for me, that this story will be completed. I haven't forgotten! Now, without further ado...

Lucy!

Natsu's eyes flew open. His entire body ached- not with soreness or fatigue but with a heavy feeling in his chest that made him want to yell out at the top of his lungs. So he tried.

"Ribbet."

He blinked.

Ah.

His surroundings appeared all about him in a wide panorama; he could almost feel his eyes bulging. For a moment, his concern over Lucy was replaced by an overwhelming excitement with his awesome new vision; said excitement quickly evaporated when he tried to rotate his neck and couldn't. It seemed that the body of a frog was neither very flexible nor strong.

He was surrounded by all sides (really, the 360 degree vision was pretty dang cool) by stone upon stone and the ground beneath his toes was wet. Natsu hopped about experimentally, somewhat amused by how easily the action came about, and then noticed that, when water splashed about around him, he was not just up to his feet in water but almost completely submerged into it. No wonder he was feeling so subdued! A fire mage at heart, there was absolutely no way he could happily accept an amphibian life!

Natsu attempted a frog scowl.

Something glinted out of the corner of his eye. With some difficulty, Natsu managed to turn his round body and came face to face with a small, clumsily woven ball made of twigs. It bobbed in the water at the mouth of a bucket, well worn but perfectly spherical. Curious, Natsu approached the ball. Perhaps it tasted good? He was rather hungry…

Suddenly, the world around him seemed to erupt. The water was gushing, and his accursed fat and awkward body was getting swept up! Frantically, he tried to swim away, but to no avail (Natsu had never been the best when it came to water). The bucket was swirling the water about him, sucking both him and the ball into its cavernous opening. He felt righteously furious. He was just sitting in that damned water, minding his own business, and all he had wanted was to go find Lucy, and here he was, hardly able to breath-!

Sunlight hit his body, warming and comforting against his skin despite the coolness of the water. He blinked once, twice, and saw a gigantic Levy staring back at him curiously.

"Oh… you're… kinda cute for a frog," she smiled gently. The happy look turned into one of absolute delight when she glimped the ball by his side. "Oh! I finally found it!" Her huge, pale hand swept past Natsu and into the water with a light sploosh as she retrieved the woven ball. "I'm so happy…" Indeed, Levy was positively beaming. Natsu was somewhat comforted by her familiar, smiling face and so let his worries ease just a bit. He had to figure out how to escape the chapter, and Levy was probably smart enough to help him. He was almost certain that, what with the scent of the magic from the last chapter that had transported them, Lucy was stuck elsewhere. He needed to get to Lucy immediately. She had been so hurt, and the look on her face had been…

Natsu attempted to growl in his frustration, but his frustration merely manifested in the form of a sound not too unlike a belch. His little amphibious lips parted and from it came a magnificent burst of fire. He grinned with a strange sort of satisfaction that he had retained his magical properties. Sort of. The flames, in proportion to Levy, were rather small and would never do anything but tickle or slightly smart. Regardless, Levy was delighted, even as Natsu inwardly sulked at his lack of magnificence. She procured a pair of delicate glasses and donned them with care, inspecting him closely.

"How curious… a magical frog?" Her eyes glinted with a sly curiosity. "And a lucky one!" She glanced at her ball and gingerly placed it in the knapsack that she had slung around her small frame and slowly held out her hands to Natsu. "Would you mind if I kept you around?"

Natsu reluctantly allowed her small fingers to wrap around his slimy body and pick him up, his thoughts of Lucy his sole motivation to be captured despite that every prideful fiber in him was rankling at being so passive. He had half a mind to hop off what with the look she was giving him, all curious and as if he was cute.

"Levy!" An aged female who appeared to be a maid stumbled towards the younger girl, gasping with her efforts to climb the grassy knoll they appeared to be on. "Levy, I-" she stopped to take a great big breath and sputtered. "H-how many times have your parents told you not to play around such dirty places?! It will be dinner soon, and your parents will be absolutely furious when they see the disgraceful state of your clothes-" (Natsu thought to himself that Levy's clothes were rather clean and had only a few stains and tears compared to his own human clothes) "- and you simply must come at once to change! Come! Come on now!" The maid paused to take another deep breath and then glared at Natsu. " What's that you're holding in your hands?"

"A cute little magical frog, and I intend to study him," Levy replied stubbornly, pouting ever so slightly and holding Natsu protectively. Natsu stuck his tongue out at the maid, who bristled.

"Why, I…" She huffed, giving a start but then apparently giving up with a sigh. "Oh… really now, and you expect to be married soon when you lack all the ladylike charms a real Princess should have?" She beckoned towards Levy, who pointedly ignored her comment, and the two started down the grassy knoll towards the nearby castle.

The image of Lucy's blood-stained body flashed in his mind's eye, and his confidence wavered slightly. Would he really be able to escape the chapter without her? Was she alright without him? And what if it was too late? No, certainly she had to be alright, what with how intelligent she was…

It wasn't like him to fret. Natsu Dragneel didn't fret. He was just… what was he doing, exactly?

His thoughts became stilted. Friend? Close friend, he amended. But he could remember the feel of his lips against her cheek, and somehow, he just couldn't imagine kissing all of his close friends.

Gray.

Kissing Gray.

His amphibian body shuddered violently. Ewwww.

Kissing…had he really kissed her? He couldn't remember. His bulging eyes flickered. All he could really remember was how bloody she had been, how angry he had felt. He hated seeing her hurt. He never wanted to see Lucy hurt ever again. He would incinerate anything and anyone who dared to hurt her!

He burped again as they neared the castle courtyard, a small spout of fire escaping his mouth and setting the back of the maid's dress aflame. Levy let out a small gasp, momentarily horrified, and promptly burst into giggles as the maid panicked and attempted to pat out the flames, looking very much as if she were spanking herself, all the while cursing magical beings. Natsu let his tongue flicker out again, impish, his anger momentarily forgotten.

Natsu didn't realize that he had fallen asleep until he heard doors creaking open and his little bulbous frog eyes snapped open.

He was sitting in a small glass box with an open cover, half-submerged in gross-smelling water. He climbed out of the water and onto a branch that had been placed at a diagonal and basked in the sunlight for a moment.

Much better. Heat suited him, after all.

The box lay under the sun on a windowsill; he duly noted that the window was tightly fastened shut. A closer look at his surroundings revealed a rather practical-looking bedchamber of significant size, although there wasn't actually much space given the piles of books and papers in every corner, although they seemed stacked in a somewhat orderly fashion rather than messily thrown everywhere.

Levy was tiredly slumping over to her bed, closing the large bedroom chamber doors behind her and giving a small bitter smile to her new pet frog. "Hey, you."

Natsu easily climbed out of his little box- Levy didn't seem to care much- and hopped onto her bed. Levy wrinkled her nose. "You're so slimy!" Still, she scooted over as if to give Natsu space on the sheets despite his tiny, two-inch body. She gave a deep sigh and buried her face in her blankets, muttering something to herself that Natsu couldn't quite catch. Then she gave another tired smile and turned to look at him.

"I wonder if magical frogs have arranged marriages," she said to herself dryly. "My books didn't say much about magical amphibian species besides that most of them exhibit dangerous traits, and there was certainly nothing about their social customs…"

Natsu opened his mouth- a small puff of smoke came out. Levy giggled.

"Well, that doesn't matter. I've never really had a pet before, and you really are kind of cute…" She hesitated, and then groaned quietly, pushing her cerulean hair out of her face with a frustrated hand. "Look at me, I'm so lonely that I'm talking to a frog. It's not even like he can talk back."

Oh, he hadn't really thought about talking in all his excitement about being a terrifying, maid-conquering, fire-spitting frog of awesomeness. He decided to give it a try.

"Do you know Lucy?" He asked. Huh. His voice seemed a little… croaky.

Levy squealed and recoiled away from Natsu, falling off the bed in her surprise. Slowly, she peeked her large, brown eyes over the edge of the bed. Argh argh argh, even the color was just like Lucy's. He felt a dull ache in his body. He quickly shook it away, uncomfortable.

"D-did you just-?" Levy whispered.

"Well?" Natsu inquired again, impatient. The bluenette gaped, and then quickly recovered, pulling her glasses from her knapsack- it lay slumped on the marble floor- and shoving them onto her face in her excitement.

"You can talk," she said in wonder, rifling through her belongings and pulling out a quill pen and a leatherbound notebook. She crawled back onto the bed, eyes fixed on him.

"I know, right?" Natsu replied, equally enthusiastic. "I'm the coolest."

"You are," Levy hummed agreeably. "Tell me, have you always been like this? Do frogs have primary and secondary stages of magical development or are they born with consistent wells of magical power that have to be trained to grow, like humans do? How varied are the magical abilities among your kind? Do you have social constructs and standards to uphold at all?"

Silence. Natsu burped. "What."

Levy pouted. "D-do you, I mean.. you… I… you're a magical frog that can talk! I didn't know magical animals could talk! That has huge implications as to-"

"I didn't either!" Natsu crowed gleefully, feeling rather proud he had discovered something that the ever-booksmart Levy McGarden hadn't known.

"But you are a magical animal," the girl laughed.

Natsu paused. "Oh. Yeah. I guess." He wasn't really, but in the meantime he had to bear, he supposed.

"You guess?" Levy's small frame was quivering with excitement. "This is amazing! If I can publish something on this successfully to the Society of Magi, my parents will have to make my sister take the throne instead of me! I can prove myself to them!" Her face was flushed. "You really are lucky!"

Natsu pursed his frog lips in the closest imitation to a disappointed pout he could muster. "But… I need to find Lucy."

"Who's Lucy?" Levy's inquisitive voice returned.

"She's blonde, with a huge rack, suuuuper clumsy and stuff." Natsu nodded to himself. That sounded about right. "She's really loud. And I need to find her."

"Do magic frogs normally make acquaintance with humans?" Levy frowned.

Natsu tried to shrug. As it was, his body gave a little shake instead. "Dunno."

Levy stared. "You're so stubborn…" She bit down on her lower lip, thinking for a moment, and smiled again. "Um, do you have a name?"

"I need to find Lucy." He ignored the question what with more pressing matters at hand. His hopes were falling a bit; this Levy didn't seem to know Lucy, which only strengthened his theory that his best friend wasn't in the same chapter of the book as he was, after all.

The bookworm sagged a little. "I'm sorry… I don't think I know a Lucy… I don't know many people at all, really..."

Natsu moped. Now what?

"Princess!" A maid spoke from outside the doors. "It's time for your riding lessons! You're late!"

Levy gasped. "Oh, yes!" She called. "I will be right out." She looked nervously at Natsu, lowering her voice. "Um, I have to go…" She looked down at her bag, and gave a small smile. "Perhaps you would like to come with me instead of staying here?"

Natsu easily hopped into the bag, not wishing to stay cooped up inside. Maybe he'd get some sun! And certainly he would be able to eventually figure out just what story he was in and find his way back to his Lucy.

The sun had dipped down from its peak and the air had cooled by the time Levy reached the stables. There was a bounce in her step that was jostling the bag Natsu was in and making him feel nauseous, even as a frog.

"I'm here!" Levy sang out as she walked through the wooden doors, the musky scent of hay clouding around her and Natsu. "Where are you? I- ah!"

Natsu watched as from the shadows stepped a dark, towering figure. A large hand came down onto Levy's small head. Natsu opened his mouth, about to drive off the unfamiliar attacker with his awesomely awesome fire magic when he realized that it was just Gajeel, with a bandana covering his forehead and his long, spiky hair pulled into a ponytail. Pfft. Stableboy Gajeel? A six foot monster of a man with various piercings that looked ridiculously out of place in a white shirt that he had clearly outgrown years ago and simple trousers. Natsu grinned a wide, frog grin, inwardly cackling. Someone clearly hadn't been promoted for a good ten years.

"You're late," Gajeel harrumphed affectionately, tousling blue strands with a rough hand, and was about to say more when Natsu leapt stupendously and landed smack on Gajeel's face and lit his hair on fire.

"Whatthefuck," the raven-haired man spat out, attempting to keep his cool as he pried Natsu off his face and attempted to pat the flames out, stumbling backwards and tripping over a stray bucket in the process. He succeeded in putting out the fire but fell back into a vast pile of hay, his limbs splayed about every which way.

Levy covered her mouth, trying very hard not to laugh. Natsu quickly hopped back into Levy's bag- she gave him a look that clearly sought to be stern but really wasn't, as her eyes were twinkling with amusement- and extended a hand to help her stableboy up.

"Are you okay?" She asked shyly. Gajeel looked at for a moment, gaze and expression unfathomable. "I'm sorry," Levy continued, voice soft and apologetic. "I just, I thought he was cute, and I've never had a pet, and-" The stableboy abruptly shot out his large hands and pulled her down with him.

"G-Gajeel?!" Levy squeaked. He grumbled and wrapped muscular arms around her, closing his eyes. The girl shifted awkwardly, burying her face into his chest, desperately trying to hide her blush. "This… probably isn't the best idea… Not now, at least!"

"Shut up, midget." The grip tightened. Levy smiled, her eyes softening.

Natsu was suddenly feeling extremely, extremely uncomfortable…

After what seemed to be an agonizing eternity to the fire-breathing frog, Gajeel shifted his grip on Levy, stood up, and slung her over his shoulder in a swoop.

"Ah! Put me down! Gajeel, you big jerk," Levy was laughing, her words holding no venom at all. Gajeel scoffed.

"This is what you get for being late." He shot a dark, suspicious look at her bag, from which Natsu's flat head was peeking out. Natsu tauntingly blew out a tiny puff of smoke. "And for having a shitty taste in pets," Gajeel added, moving towards one of the horses tied down nearby.

He placed Levy on a chestnut mare, seating her properly with her legs to the side due to her dress, and smoothed out the skirt with a surprising amount of care despite his sizable… everything.

"I wish they would let me ride like an actual rider," Levy sighed. "I'm so tired of having to seem… ladylike."

Gajeel snorted. "Ain't it a load of shit? They're holding you back." He fixed her with a strong gaze, the intensity of which, for some reason, made Natsu squirm and look away. "You don't belong in that castle." His hand reached out and grasped her chin with a sharp, sideways grin. "You belong out here, doin' stuff with that brain of yours."

Levy turned a deep red as he closed the space between them. "I'm doing my best, trust me… I just need to prove myself to my parents. Juvia, even Wendy would be a better ruler than I would. And I won't get married."

"Damn fucking straight," Gajeel murmured. "Because I won't let you."

He kissed her then, long, tan hands cupping her tiny face. Levy let out a sound of surprise but easily melted into the kiss, her entire body flush with embarrassment, eyes fluttering closed.

Natsu was balking. Whatwhatwhat. This kiss was entirely different from the kind that he'd ever seen or even thought about. This kiss was… well, damn. If he could blush, he would. Uh, no. No. No, he wouldn't. Definitely not.

Briefly, he wondered if Lucy had ever thought about kisses like that (well, she was a pervert, so she most definitely had).

He shifted, increasingly uncomfortable, as a long moment passed. Then two. Levy's arms were wrapped around Gajeel's large neck and her body was pressed up against his. For a moment, he wondered if the two were like this back on Earthland when no one was looking… bleck. If they were, it was good that it was in private.

Levy gently placed her hands on Gajeel's broad shoulders, and he pulled away, already aware that she wouldn't be able to put much force behind a push. "W-we…" She cleared her throat, pushing her hair out of her face. "We shouldn't do this so close to the castle." Her eyes darted around, nervous.

"Yeah, yeah," Gajeel chortled. "Whatever." He saddled up on the horse beside her, a completely black and thickly-muscled animal that rather matched him somehow, and the two began to ride.

The land that Levy's family owned was unsurprisingly expansive, with acre upon acre of fields and forests. They rode in companionable silence, with the occasional correction from Gajeel, who knew a surprising amount about horse-riding technique despite appearances. They seemed to enjoy themselves despite the lack of exchange.

Meanwhile, Natsu was feeling all kinds of sick. He had totally forgotten (just as he always did) about how terrible he boded on any form of transportation and horseback was clearly not exempt. Could frogs even vomit? He felt pretty damn close to it at the moment. His only solace was the sun's comforting heat beating on the leather of the bag, and even then he couldn't really bear the constant bumpiness, the up-and-down, the down-and-up. Had it been three minutes or three hours? Urk.

When they finally came to a stop and Natsu poked his head out for a breath of fresh air, Gajeel and Levy were dismounting, having stopped at the top of a hill by the sunset. The sky was sprayed with orange and red and gold, no clouds in sight. The light cast a strange shadow on their faces, Natsu noted dizzily, doing his best not to hurl whatever was in his froggy stomach all over the contents of Levy's bag when she took it off and slung it around the neck of her horse, probably already having forgotten all about him.

Gajeel was already sitting down she turned around, long strands of grass swaying in the light breeze and giving a comically soft and romantic air to him what with his square, stoic face. Still, when his eyes landed on Levy's, Natsu thought he could see the steel in Gajeel's eyes melt away ever so slightly, something tender seeping in. Did he just think that? He did not just think that. It must be a mere side effect of reading Lucy's awful, sappy writing.

"Have you made any progress?" He asked, tone disguised as disinterest. Levy smiled.

"I've been lucky," she sat down next to him. "The entire castle is in a flurry over my missing fiancé, and I really don't think we'll find him by the time the wedding date swings around. I overheard my parents talking, and apparently Juvia is besotted with my fiancé's brother, so I think there's a strong chance that she'll be taking the throne instead."

"And…?"

"And," Levy sighed, blowing a few stray strands of hair out of her face determinedly, "I will be publishing soon. I just found a great topic to write about and I've already done so much research on magical beings... There's no way that the Society of Magi can reject me if I prove I'm just as capable as they are."

"Not to mention a hundred years younger," the man beside her said dryly. "Wrinkly old bastards."

"Hey!" The princess laughed, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I'm going to be one of those wrinkly old guys." Her voice became adamant. "I'll be able to have access to all the books I want, and I'll be able to study magic up close, and I'll be able to do something with my life. I won't have to be cooped up in that hole."

She turned her head, a smile dancing on her lips, her next words quiet. "I'll be able to be with you, too."

Natsu didn't think he'd ever see the day when Gajeel turned soft, but lo and behold, the large, dark stableboy was looking at the princess with a gaze that could only be described as tender. There was just something so strange about it, about all of it. Natsu began to glean exactly why it was that Gajeel was still stableboy despite the position not suiting a grown man such as him at all. Just how long had the two been together like this? They were so comfortable around each other. They weren't just together, they were… together, together. Maybe the Metalhead bastard and Levy would have been like this on Earthland, too, if they had grown up together?

The frog found his thoughts drifting towards a certain blonde, although how his train of thought had derailed itself into that territory, he had no clue.

When he snapped back to attention, Gajeel's huge body was curled protectively around Levy's, their lips pressed together as Levy made a little noise.

Bleck. Natsu felt like throwing up again, this time for an entirely different reason.

Oh, wait, no, that was definitely still the motion sickness.

He made an unpleasant gagging and wheezing sound, his frog body heaving, desperately trying to deny the gross feeling of throwing up. He could see, with his wide arc of vision, the couple pull away from each other, Levy's nose wrinkling.

"You're a little shit," Gajeel grumbled, feeling cheated.

"Are you.. are you okay?" Levy's brow furrowed with concern. "Um…"

He let out a huge blaze that quickly fizzled out. Ah, there, much better.

Gleeful now that the queasiness had passed, he let out a sound unmistakably like a wet, croaky laugh. Gajeel immediately bristled.

"I'm going to murder you," the man spat through clenched teeth. "Fucking-"

"He's my research topic," Levy berated, patting Natsu's slimy head. "I need him. Besides, look at him! He's kind of cute."

Natsu gave Gajeel his best frog smile. His tongue flicked out. It was even more fun messing with Gajeel when he couldn't do anything in retaliation.

"Cute like a donkey with its face smashed in," Gajeel muttered, grudgingly not strangling the creature that had ruined his already-scarce alone time with Levy.

"Leave him alone!" Levy pouted. "He helped me find this." She dipped her hand into her bag, thoughtful, and pulled out the woven ball that Natsu had encountered when he first came to. "I was so upset when I thought I'd lost it…"

Gajeel untensed. "I could just make you another one," he offered gruffly, scratching the back of his neck.

She shook her head. "No, this was my first birthday present from you. It's special." She cupped it gently in her hands, beaming. "Ever since I found this, I've been right on track towards getting out of the castle. This little guy," she paused to pat his head again, "is the one who found it for me, and what's more, he's a magical creature. Everything's working out perfectly now!"

"How do you know your sister will step up to the plate?" Gajeel seemed dubious. "And what if they find your fiancé or something?"

"She will. Juvia's content with her life as royalty, and smart despite her… quirks. She and I both know she'd be able to handle the pressures of being a ruler." Levy pursed her lips. "And, no one has even had a lead on where my missing fiancé has gone off to. Not that I mind, but I do hope he hasn't gotten himself into any trouble. His brother would probably be perfectly suited towards the throne, anyhow. Juvia certainly thinks so."

Gajeel snorted. "Your sister's still crazy."

Juvia fidgeted, pulling at her sleeves and examining herself in the mirror once, twice, thrice over.

Despite her being younger than Levy, she was taller and certainly more buxom. Her hair was just as pretty a shade of blue as hers… She nodded to herself. Yes, she was definitely a woman fit to be wed. There was just one little thing left to do...

She picked up her skirts delicately and travelled briskly out of the dressing room, down a flight of stairs, through several hallways, and finally took a deep breath before stepping into a room.

There, by an ornate table, sat the love of her life, waiting just like she had asked him to.

She stopped by the entrance. "Prince Gray, Juvia is in love with you!"

"Alright already," Gray awkwardly shifted, his cheeks pink. "I get it."

Juvia walked up to him with long strides and sat down next to him, sliding her chair up so she could be closer to her beloved.

"Juvia loves you," she said again. She stared.

Gray bit down on his lip and didn't respond, his face heating up considerably.

"Juvia loves you so, so, so much, and Juvia knows you have feelings for her, too. Marry Juvia."

Gray was pulling at his collar now, looking around desperately for some source of heat that could possibly be making him so sweaty, and, oh, it was probably just how damn close Juvia was and since when was her chest pressed against him like that and how had he not noticed her close proximity why was she on the table um what.

He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, opened it again, and very, very intelligently replied, "Uh."

This was it! This was Juvia's moment! Juvia scooted closer yet, leaning forward so that the dress she had donned especially for this moment- delicate silk material with a tight bodice that accented her curves and a low cut- could reveal her cleavage. She licked her lips, enjoying the look that her dear Prince Gray's face was wearing (oh, his eyes were pointedly averted, how adorable!) and parted her lips to speak-

"J-Juvia," Gray coughed out, interrupting her moment and pushing her away, still not looking at her. His hands were so firm! Juvia smiled. "Juvia, if you're going to ask me to marry you, wouldn't it be more…" He cleared his throat. "Wouldn't it be more proper for a woman of your stature to simply just… I mean…" He waved his hands around wildly, attempting to gesture at her breasts without really gesturing at them and really looking like he was just flailing. "I mean, you, I, this, well. Well. You don't have to go to these lengths! Is what I mean!"

She gave him a hurt look, pulling back (thank all that was good and holy that she did, he wasn't sure he'd be able to resist for much longer had she continued to do… that thing with her… her everywhere).

The prince swallowed. "And… er, I mean, what with my brother missing and all, now is just not a good time to… um." He couldn't really think straight. "I'm just saying, I'm going to do the right thing and not take you up on your offer in such a private place when you're wearing such…" He refused to turn towards her. "Yeah. And, yeah. I hope you understand. What I'm, ah, saying."

God, his clothes were so uncomfortable… When had it gotten so warm?

Juvia looked down, crestfallen for a mere moment before a look of surprise crossed her face. Blushing but absolutely ecstatic, her eyes trailed back up to meet his. "Juvia will take that as a yes, then."

Gray watched with a slack jaw as the woman began to saunter out of the room, happy that her job was done. What in the world was she even thinking? His entire body felt numb. A small part of himself noted that he didn't seem to entirely mind.

She stopped by the door, opening it and turning around to smile happily at him, and then walked out, her hips swaying.

His eyes were glued to her shape before he could even realize what he was doing. He shook his head slowly and groaned, burying his face in his hands. "She's just getting ahead of herself, assuming things…" And what had made her so confident, anyway?

Just then, Juvia leaned her head back into the room, an adorable grin plastered on her face. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to marry her after all…

"My Prince," she whispered, voice sheepish. "Look down." The door shut.

He looked. Oh.

Prince Gray spent the next hour searching the room for his pants.

Levy was clearly in dreamland the entirety of the next day, humming to herself as she scribbled down notes in various scrolls, turned to a heavy tome, and wrote more, observing Natsu as he went about eating flies that found their way into the castle and laying lazily on his stomach, enjoying the sunlight that would make its way through the window. She sure did a lot of research, he thought through a haze, the heat making him sleepy. He wasn't sure how she could stand it.

He wasn't sure how Lucy could stand it, either, for that matter. She could sit for hours at her desk, golden hair pinned back with a few loose strands falling over her face as she hummed, scratching away at her papers. Natsu could also sit for hours just watching despite his restlessness. Something about Lucy calmed him. There was a wistfulness that he hadn't felt for anyone else but Igneel, weighing on his mind. It hurt. It hurt a god damn lot.

Occasionally Levy would interrupt his brooding to ask him questions (most of which he couldn't even understand- what in the world was a Mesobatrachia, and what the heck was she spouting about frogs having social classes?) and only frustrate herself when he didn't know the answer, and thus spent a good deal of her time studying his physical traits, turning him every which way and drawing complex diagrams. He would have felt strange being practically naked in front of Levy were it not for the fact that he was a frog. And she always knew just where to pet him, right behind his eyes which was nice…

Still, as the day passed, he couldn't keep his thoughts from straying to the nature of the chapter, and more importantly, Lucy's own whereabouts. He knew that the magic was different, that she had smelled different, but even if she were in a chapter different than his own, he hadn't the slightest how to escape and get to her.

Meanwhile, Levy talked to Natsu, perhaps lonely or just grateful for someone to converse with as she worked. Her missing fiance apparently had a younger brother named Gray, with whom her own younger sister Juvia was smitten with (no surprise there, the poor sap). He told Levy rather matter-of-factly that Gray was probably an ice-cold bastard of a moron who was best left alone due to his bad body odor and ugly face, and Levy just laughed off his antics.

This was supposed to be a fairy tale, so perhaps the way to end the chapter was to reunite her with said fiance? But she and Ponyboy definitely had the hots for each other. He wasn't one to get in the way of his guildmates' happiness, even if they weren't actually the bastard and Levy he knew so well. But Lucy was most important to him. He had a persistent urge to see her and confirm with his own eyes that she had recovered and was doing well, wanted to protect her and make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. Not again, not ever.

Next time, he determined grimly, he would listen to advice.

The next day, when time for Levy's riding lessons came, she offered once again to let Natsu come along, but the dragonslayer-turned-frog stoutly refused to be subjected to the combined torture of excessive cheese and motion sickness. Instead, he decided to explore the castle and perhaps find a clue as to how to resolve the chapter without splitting apart his happy friends, even if it was totally gross when they were sucking each others' faces off. He would both get back to his most important person and keep his friends happy. Nodding adamantly to himself, he waited for Levy to close the door, waited patiently for a whole two seconds to pass, and then slipped under the gap in the door that Levy didn't know he was small enough to get through.

It was time, he decided, for some Super Top Secret Spy action. Humming a spy theme from an awesome Lacrima-vision show he had seen once with lots of explosions and the like, Natsu covertly hopped from place to place, trying to catch a piece of information and then hopefully escape by blowing things up and walking away while putting on shades and looking supremely cool.

Luckily for Natsu, there were various decorations about the hallways of the castle for him to hide behind or under, from pots to tables to maids who apparently came to congregate in certain corners to gossip about the lost Prince and how hot his brother was. Their long skirts were pretty good cover, and the ability to see their panties was a pretty good bonus, although none of them had cute lacy white ones with stars on them like Lucy did. He paused under the skirt of one particular maid with bland underwear. Yeah, Lucy had a bra that matched it perfectly, didn't she? That pair always looked good on her… at least, it did the two seconds he had seen them before she had shut the door in his face and screamed for him to get out of her apartment.

He huffed. He missed Lucy. And peeping on her when she was changing. And the way she smelled, and -

"-Natsu-"

In response to hearing his name, Natsu cocked his head (or at least he tried. He didn't quite have a neck to speak of), his thoughts screeching to a halt.

"Oh yes," another maid was saying. "It's really such a shame… it's been an entire week now and he still hasn't showed up to greet Princess Levy. She must be worried sick!"

The girl next to her made a funny sound halfway between a snort and a laugh. "Haven't you heard those rumors about Levy and that scary looking stableboy? She probably doesn't even remember that she had a fiance in the first place, I mean, have you seen how she practically dances to those riding lessons of hers?"

"And that's the only time she ever comes out of her room," a third maid said defensively. "The rest of the time she's just in there working on that ridiculous paper of hers, always telling her parents how close it is to finished, and they're hardly pleased with her."

"I wonder if the lost Prince is attractive, though…"

The three maids tittered.

"Oh, but the stableboy isn't all that bad himself, what with that tight shirt of his and those strong arms…" The one who made funny noises sighed. Natsu was losing interest quickly; he'd probably just misheard them or something, and he was just wasting time with their stupid girl chat-

"But Prince Natsu is wonderfully muscular and tall, I hear," said the maid whose skirt Natsu was hiding under. Natsu nodded approvingly and decided to retract his assessment of her panties from bland to only kind of boring. At least she had a pleasant voice.

Wait. He choked.. Natsu? Prince Natsu? Was he the missing Prince? Wait, but that would mean-!

"WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO BE RELATED TO GRAY?!" Natsu wailed at the top of his froggy lungs.

The maids screeched in perfect unison, backing away from the source of the noise and revealing his small body on the floor. His cover was blown! He had to make it out somehow. Natsu's super-secret-spy mission had to be aborted in favor of retreating. He turned the corner with three wailing maids chasing him, somehow found his way into a kitchen, and exited said kitchen with an additional five cooks and seven servants in hot pursuit.

Natsu had to get his pursuers off his tail (well, lack thereof), and he realized grimly that he would likely have to fall back onto his ancient forbidden ninja techniques in order to escape the dire situation. He nodded gravely to himself.

"Nin-nin."

With spectacular effort, he leapt up and over the furious crowd, bounced off of the ceiling, and hopped off like no other fire-breathing frog had ever hopped before. It was an amazing- no, stupendous- no, spectacular!- display of skill, and his nimble movements soon found himself hopping out a window and to safety at a short height.

Carefully selecting roof tiles to jump from, Natsu leapt to the ground and headed towards the only place he really recognized besides Levy's room: the stable. He had to go tell her what he had discovered, tell her that the story wasn't right at all because Lucy was the one who was supposed to be his, well, um, his partner, right?

Shaking away the uncharacteristic uncertainty that gripped him, he landed gracefully on top of the stable (it was a fairly large leap, but he made it because he was awesome), finding a hole in the wood of the cover to peek through.

What he saw would have made his little jaw drop.

Levy's small frame sat curled against Gajeel's large chest, his arms protectively encircling her as she held a book in front of them, pointing at the pages. His chin rested stoutly atop her blue mane, something akin to a half-smile, half-scowl shaping his mouth as she instructed him to read the word she had selected. The noon light, filtering in through the gaps of the wooden panels above, shone on them, shading parts of Levy's face while illuminating parts of Gajeel's.

Natsu gagged. For a moment, he had thought they looked… perfect. Like they fit, and belonged together, and everything was just right, just like he and Lucy were-

Abruptly disturbed at where this ridiculous train of thought was taking him, Natsu squeezed through the top and spread his lips wide in a grin as he landed right on Gajeel's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK."

The large man bolted as Levy jumped up, startled, and ripped Natsu from his skin. In turn, the fire frog opened his mouth haughtily and set a strand of Gajeel's hair on fire.

...At least, that was what he had meant to do, but oops- his aim seemed to be a bit off that day, it must have been the frog body messing with him- he set the hay stack Gajeel and Levy had been using as a disgusting love nest on fire. He considered. Well, he was only frog… frogs made mistakes, right?

Levy was momentarily fascinated before snapping to her senses, grabbing Gajeel and her precious research subject and fleeing the building just in time for every single piece of hay to explode into flame. Luckily, none of the horses seemed to be present at the moment, but her relief at this fact was quickly smothered as the wood came crashing down and the entire scene was covered in flame.

The three stared as the stable combusted and collapsed in a miserable heap. Gajeel blanched.

"Levy."

"...Yes?"

"Your damn pet frog just set my stable on fire."

Natsu did not get a chance to escape from Levy's room very much after that. Although the stable had been a small one, the whole incident meant that Levy's riding 'lessons' (if one could really call them that) were to be put off for a while, and this left the petite princess very cross.

"Why did you do that?" She whined, looking very hurt, which made Natsu almost feel guilty. He didn't respond, partially because he was also feeling quite irate, what with the fact that he had missed Gajeel's ugly mug and because he wasn't quite sure why he had been so intent on ruining their moment. Something about it had left him feeling unsettled, and while he didn't bear any ill will towards either halves of the couple, there was something, something nagging at the back of his mind that had made him feel so awful that he just had to do something, and it wasn't even the prankster in him, either.

"Well," Levy sat cross-legged on the mattress, her head resting on her hand as she leaned in to look at him in his little box, "I suppose at least my report is almost finished…" Her hand drifted to the journal that lay beside her. Loose sheets of sketches and notes poked out of some of the pages. "I've done as much as I could without dissecting you," (Natsu shuddered), "and I've done as much research as I could on creatures like you that I've developed a reasonable hypothesis. Still, there isn't very much to go off of. I hope it's enough to convince my parents…"

Ah, wait. That's right. He had something to tell her.

He tried to clear his throat but it didn't really work; a ribbet escaped instead. He gave up. "Levy, I'm the missing prince."

Shaken out of her stupor, Levy chuckled and then hummed for a moment, opening the journal and scratching in a note with the quill that was tucked behind her ear. "Magical frogs… can be fairly observant and capable of humor, notably the kind that humans understand…"

"My name is Natsu," he said.

Levy froze. Slowly, her gaze lifted from her notebook. The quill quivered, and she dropped it. "Haha," she said shakily. "Very funny. Where did you hear that name?"

"I heard maids talking when I ninja'd out of your room," Natsu said impatiently. Levy was smart. Why didn't she make the obvious connection that he, the badass fire frog, was the most-likely badass missing prince? "They said my name."

"The missing prince is- you're a frog?" Her voice was saturated with disbelief. "I… what?!"

"I'm Natsu," he repeated his name, trying to get her to see reason, "And, uh, I don't want to marry you, so…"

"There's no way they would have set me up with a frog," Levy was reasoning to herself now, ignoring Natsu completely. "Gray never mentioned you… did someone...?" Her expression abruptly cleared as she trailed off, as if she had put in the last piece of a puzzle, or something, and then abruptly her face soured. "Oh. Oh."

"Yeah, uh," Natsu was babbling. "I'm not going to get in the way of you and your, uh, ass- er, Gajeel. Yeah. So..."

Levy's small hands darted out abruptly, opening the mesh top, scooping him up (and uncaring that her sleeve was now drooping with slimy water), and clenching him tightly as she angrily marched out of her bedroom in a huff.

"-so you guys can go back to making out in the hay, or the grass, or whatever it is that you guys do, and if you could just maybe help me find someone around named Lucy-?"

"JUVIA!" Levy's voice flew out in what Natsu surmised to be an attempt at an intimidating screech but came out as a squeak what with her high voice and her small body. She stamped her slippered feet all the way down the hall, flung open the ornate door there, and stood, red-faced at in the doorway.

In the room, which looked much like Levy's bedroom but with less books and parchment and more blue and lace, Gray suddenly jumped up off the bed, hands up, and scurried to the corner, saying something like 'I don't know what happened but it wasn't me-!"

Juvia was perched on the bed wearing nothing but a scanty, azure nightgown, and frowned as her older sister walked in. "What is it? You are bothering Juvia and Gray's alone time-"

"-I didn't touch her I swear-!" (Gray's princely shirt lay crumpled on the sheets in a traitorous heap).

"-and I do not wish to- oh!" Juvia's dark, heavily lashed eyes landed on Natsu, and suddenly she looked more red than blue.

"Juvia," Levy asked through grit teeth, "Did you turn this man into a frog?"

Juvia paused for a moment as if considering, ran a hand through her curls, and replied, "Juvia does not think you would believe Juvia if Juvia said no."

"Juvia!" The smaller princess wailed. "What did mom and dad tell you about using your magic on people?!"

Her sister laughed nervously. "To… to only use it when in great distress? Ah, but!" She brightened considerably. "Juvia was indeed in great distress! She did it so that she could marry Prince Gray!" She smiled demurely at Gray, who was stumbling around with his arms half in his shirt as he attempted to put it back on even as his pants were, once again, slipping slyly to the bedroom floor. His belt appeared to be missing.

When the room fell silent, he stopped, shrugged towards the wrong way, and exclaimed, "I had no idea, okay?" A sleeve flopped uselessly on his head. "Although, I gotta admit…" He managed to get his finely decorated shirt back on just as his pants disappeared. "It probably didn't make too much of a difference anyway. Natsu already looked like a gross frog to begin with." Gray gave a cheeky grin to Natsu.

"You're an ice bastard!" Natsu shouted viciously, gathering all of his strength and power into his hind legs and making a majestic leap towards Gray, intend on burning his ugly mug right off. He soared, smugly noting that Levy was amazed by his grand leap and Gray looked rather distraught. He moved back right before Natsu's slimy feet touched his temple, and Natsu slid down Gray's nose very ungracefully, clinging to the asshole with his fingers as much as he could to stop his fall. Right before he slipped off Gray's cheeks, his descent stopped. Aha! Victory.

With no small amount of horror, Natsu realized that his mouth had planted itself directly on Gray's to greet him with a nice kiss.

Juvia and Levy stared.

"GETOFFOFMEUGH," they both recoiled instantly, flinging each other away, spitting with disgust, and Natsu could feel his entire body shaking with utter contempt. Kissing Gray was every bit as EW as he had thought it might be, and his limbs were tingling with alarm bells, and he felt really dry, and his nose and eyes and hair were-

-ah! His hair!

Natsu looked down at himself to reveal a very naked, very familiar body. He'd turned back into a human somehow! This would make finding Lucy so much easier! Could it have been the unspeakably awful act he and Gray had just committed? Certainly no one would create a spell that could be broken with a dumb kiss… that was ridiculous and just poor design.

Not one to question convenience, he quickly gathered Gray's clothes, which had mysteriously vacated from the man's curled-up body again, and put them on. He definitely wore the uniform better. Wiping his lips with another shudder, he got up (it felt so strange, walking on two legs. He'd almost forgotten how!) and started to leave the room in pursuit of his blonde summoner.

A crushingly strong hand shot out and grabbed his arm. Killing intent was emanating from behind him in waves, rivaled in strength only by Erza when her sweets had been eating. Suddenly gathering a cold sweat, he turned around.

"P-Prince Natsu," Juvia said, a terrifyingly dark look in her huge eyes as she stared directly into his soul, "Are you Juvia's rival in love to your own brother?"

"Eep," Natsu managed before a huge torrent of water came crashing down on them. Levy let out a shrill cry and dodged the side of the doorway just in time as a wave flooded out of Juvia's room and poured into the hall. Natsu was doused. Juvia was incensed. Her grip tightening, she pulled Natsu closer and hissed, "Juvia will make Natsu suffer."

Oh, shit.

Before Natsu could be brutally murdered and torn to pieces, a thunderous voice echoed through the hall.

"JUVIA, STOP."

The girl's head whipped around and she seemed to shrink in size as a very, very familiar man with two scars on the side of his face- was that… Mest?- stormed down the wet floors, splashing the shocked maids in his wake. Behind him, Gajeel had run in, somehow having heard the commotion and looking more concerned than Natsu thought was possible for the metal blockhead.

"Juvia is sorry," Juvia whispered, and started tearing up immediately. Levy fluttered uselessly, patting her younger sister as Gray threw up in a corner, and shot Gajeel a confused look. Gajeel looked at Natsu, eyes narrowing to slits, grabbed Levy and placed himself firmly between the two. Natsu shrugged.

"What is going on?" Mest demanded. His crown shifted on his head as he shook his head. "What in the world have you done?"

"Juvia… Juvia just wanted to marry the one she loves!" She bawled, and tackled her shocked father. "She-she didn't mean to harm anyone! One m-moment she was thinking about her love for Prince Gray, a-and the next moment, Juvia had turned Prince Natsu into a frog!"

Bewildered, the king looked at his two daughters.

"She turned me into a frog," Natsu supplied helpfully. Levy shot him a scathing glare.

"I… Prince Natsu," Mest quickly gathered himself, "We're glad you are safe. It was most… concerning when you disappeared. Now that you have been accounted for, our kingdoms expect to be able to proceed with the arrangement."

"Arrangement?" Natsu echoed. Across from him, he saw Gajeel's fists clench, and Levy's brow furrow.

"You were engaged to wed my eldest," the king said, a little strained. "Do you not recall?"

"Nope," the dragonslayer replied honestly. "Not at all."

At her father's look of dismay, Juvia quickly recovered from melting onto the floor and grasped his robes. "Father! Why not have Juvia wed Prince Gray, after all? Surely it seems the most favorable arrangement for all of us!"

The man seemed quite pained, and scratched the shock of black atop his head. " I, well, Levy's role is quite set, and none of the other nobles in either kingdom will be very happy if the treaty is not set with this marriage."

"Given the unique nature of Juvia's magic, I'm absolutely sure the Society of Magi will accept my paper," Levy quickly added, confidence rising. "They'll definitely take me in, and after that, I won't be a princess anymore. You promised!"

Mest groaned "Natsu Dragneel! Talk some sense into my girls! They cannot just back out of the arrangement with your family!"

Natsu's gaze slid towards Gajeel, who had gathered Levy into his arms and was looking pissed at the situation. His thickly muscled arms were . She, in turn, seemed concerned, and turned her head to press her face against his large chest, pain in her eyes. The pink-haired man had never been particularly talented when it came to reading expressions, but her face was so full of sad adoration for the towering man beside her that something in Natsu's mind clicked into place. She loved him. He loved her. And it made complete sense because that was just how they were. They probably acted like that because they…

"Oh." The fire mage blinked. "I get it." His head didn't hurt anymore!

"Thank goodness someone has sense around here!" Mest threw up his arms, exasperated. "Now we can-"

I can't marry Levy." He quickly cut Mest off. Everything made sense now. His mouth was moving, speaking what his mind was beginning to comprehend. "I can't marry Levy because I like Lucy."

That's why he was always thinking those really weird thoughts about Lucy that he didn't think with his friends. That was the reason he had felt so cold and empty and scared when Lucy was hurt, even more so than normal. That's why the fact that she wasn't by his side was drilling a hole through his body that was a million times worse than being hungry or losing a fight. That was why he kept feeling that weird pang in his body when he saw Levy and Gajeel together, and that was why he kept doing really weird stuff that he didn't really think about but just kind of happened when he was around Lucy and didn't really feel bad about any of it at all, and that's why she was most definitely his.

Ah, well...

Cool! He felt miles better now that his confusion had cleared.

Mest was openly gaping as Natsu smiled back, already thinking about more important things. Maybe he would tell her, just to see the look on her face! He bet she'd be super shocked, and it was always really funny when she was shocked because her eyes would widen and her lashes would flutter up, and her really actually kind of cute pink lips would part, and...

"Father!" Juvia jabbed a finger at the dancing dragonslayer. "He is not willing to go through with it either! You simply must rely on Juvia to fulfill the treaty now!"

Levy let out a joyous cry, offered Natsu a grateful giggle, and jumped to wrap her arms around Gajeel's neck when Mest hung his head in utter defeat. Gajeel grinned cockily ('Told you everything would be fine, Princess'), sweeping her off her feet and whisking her away to do unspeakable things. Juvia was busy celebrating with a recovering Gray, and Mest trotted off forlornly, utterly defeated.

Natsu's elation was interrupted by a hum that reverberated through the air, as soft air enveloped his body and cloaked it in bright gold, a familiar scent wrapping him with a sense of security. His momentary panic that he might have missed the blonde spirit mage was quickly replaced with the book's silent assurance that he was on his way to her once more. And that smell was the same as normal! His body melted into the light of the book's magic, allowing himself to be at ease. Soon, he knew, he would see Lucy again. The thought made his heart flip happily, and this time, he knew exactly why.

No one noticed the excited pink-haired boy as his body disappeared into the air with a rush of magic, and off into the next chapter.

A/N: Please continue to leave comments, critique, and feedback! Believe it or not, I take all of your reviews into consideration! I can't tell you guys how many times I wanted to give up, until I remembered that my lovely readers were waiting. Thank you, sincerely, for your continued support!

On another note, I've always imagined that someone as blunt and honest as Natsu would just accept his romantic feelings as a fact and carry on casually as opposed to Lucy making a big deal of her feelings. We'll see how she deals with in the next chapter- I've already started writing it, I swear!