First round of the Forum "Fairy Tail Writing Challenges!". Great forum! Let's get started! XD

Round 1

Title: Prince

Pairing: Lucy x Natsu

Brief Summmary: For once, Natsu had it all planned and pulled it right, ready to face any consequences.

Rating: T for some words.

Genre: Romance + a little angst and humor

Amount of Words: 2078 (I don't count notes in here, of course)

Prince

Oh my fucking God, please tell me this is NOT happening.

There are a lot of things Natsu is good at, I'm sure you know it, like, for example, destroying things, caring for his friends and smiling widely- really widely. But there are also a LOT of things he is not good at, and storytelling is definitely one of them.

What is he trying to achieve by holding the book upside down and "reading" while closing his eyes or looking at the roof, next at me, at the door and back at me? If he thinks I'm buying any of this, he's more stupid than I had originally thought. He knows I read and write! He could at least hold the book the right way!

Well, let's say the blonde wasn't having the best time of her life right then, um? Nobody warned her of the way Natsu had been waiting for her to come home and pull her to the bed to "read" her some awesome stories. And what was that tray full of sweets he had placed on the bed for?

The blonde continued to scrutinize the dragon slayer as he finished his first short story and she felt like wanting to sprint out of the room to find some quiet place, specially away from fire eaters. But the truth is, she was completely unaware of what was happening right then...

The dragon slayer cleared his voice to read- I mean, invent –the next story.

"In a very far away place, where the grass is blue and the sky changes colours from red to yellow and the dandelions grow bigger than your head, Luce...!" The excitement showed in the dragon slayer while, on the contrary, the blonde seemed about to punch something (or someone) as he continued, "our story takes place."

He looked her in the eye with a big smile, making Lucy decide to give him a second chance on his stories.

Natsu continued, "There lived a... wait, Luce, did you get the introduction? You don't seem too keen on it, maybe you didn't get to visualize the fantastic place 'cause you have never been there, ah~?" he snorted, "Well, I will NOT take you there, though."

The pink haired guy was definitely NOT playing his cards well, because the blonde was on the verge of killing him and he didn't seem to mind.

"Just..." she started, trembling slightly, "please go on," she said, holding back her impulse.

"Yep!" the guy happily sang. "Well, in that place you don't get to see, lived a princess."

Now, this was a surprise! It was difficult to believe Natsu would decide to tell her a story about a princess when the previous one had been about the violet sky that sucked girls in, transporting them to a place where beasts played cards with them until a 'bad guy' came to save them, bathed the monsters in whisky and insults, and stripped. And, of course, he turned to be a spoitsport in Natsu's mind.

The guy wasn't as oblivious to moods as it seems; he noticed the new found interest Lucy showed on the princess character.

Perfect, just like planned.

"The princess was...um..."

"Was what?" Lucy pressed as the guy had fell silent, crossing his arms over his chest in thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he clicked his fingers in an understanding manner. "She was a woman!" Natsu declared happily as if he really had had to think about that before continuing.

"Of course she was," Lucy said, irritated but still making the effort of calming herself down, "if not, she wouldn't be a princess, she would be a 'he' and a prince."

'Damn, Natsu needs to be more aware of genres', Lucy thought already imagining the headacke this stories were going to result in. Then, for a moment everything fell silent for her as she took the time to think about her own statement. 'Seriously,' she 'hmphed' to herself.

"Oh! There's also a prince in this story, now that you mention it," Natsu commented, naturally making the girl in front of him pull one of her best shocked expressions.

"Natsu! That's important to the story's plot! You're not supposed to reveal that kind of information so casually and nonchalantly! How am I supposed to like the prince and accept when he and the princess get together if you don't properly present him to me?"

Lucy had read many books and wrote her own handful of princess' and prince's stories, so she was practically sure Natsu was going to pair those two characters up. However, out of the ordinary, Natsu's face turned dead serious and a growing anger could be seen in his furrowed brow and hair on fire. Natsu's intense glare made the blonde, for the first time in her life, fear her only best friend.

"I never said the prince would win the princess," Natsu declared firmly, but, at some point, it seemed harsh.

Lucy stared at him, no words coming to mind at first as she registered the way he was moving closer, making her feel like a prey about to be hunted down. "T-then... please continue with the story," the scared girl stuttered out, fear invading her mind and leaving her defenseless.

The dragon slayer lifted his chin up to stare at the girl in front of him, whose legs were trapped under his body. His narrowed eyes pierced through her's as if he was peeking at her soul before he removed his gaze and sat back, giving Lucy the space she needed to breath. "Hmph," the guy let out, showing his irritation. Immediately after, his eyes directed to the blonde once again and he grinned widely.

Placing a hand on his chin, Natsu thought of his plan again and continued with the story. "Well, you know princess' are normally taken care of too much and they don't get to live life happily, right? This princess wasn't any different," Natsu started, grinning. Humming, as if he was making a recess, he took a spicy candie from the tray on the bed and slipped it into his mouth.

Lucy took this time to calm herself down. What was that? She wondered as a shiver ran down her spine.

"The princess' father didn't love her like he should, so, after many years of being alone, she decided to get away from him and search for a good place to live happily."

As if Natsu was really reading all this from the upside down book called 'Morris the cat', he turned the big and colourful page and continued.

"The princess walked around aimlessly, 'cause she didn't know much about where she was, and ended up in a clearing. There, she found..."

Natsu's words faded as he thought of what he wanted to say next. He stared at the book as if he could see his thoughts written on it and then took a peek of Lucy's image, lifting his gaze.

Her round brown eyes were widely open and staring at him. 'Come on Luce, I know my stories are not that good', Natsu though, while sighing. He wasn't that dense to moods, he knew Lucy had hated his first story.

Slowly moving his eyes back to the book, the pink haired guy continued, "There, she found a dragon." Lucy slightly jumped on her sit as she heard that, and Natsu smiled in a sweet way that she consider unnecessary as a pink blush extended through her cheeks.

Natsu grinned and looked to the book again. "They stayed together for a while and started to know each other, so when the princess said she had escaped from home and was searching for a new one, the dragon invited her to go with him and make his home her's too."

Lucy's face assured Natsu that she was getting the motive why he had selected a princess and a dragon for this specific story.

"The dragon's home was not actually his house but a place where all his friends were, and the princess was really happy to be part of the group. Grateful, she stayed by the dragon's side and they became the best of friends...but..."

Lucy's face immediately changed when she heard that one word; if she was correct about who this characters actually represented, then that meant he was about to tell her something so important he had had to come up with this... 'plan' to be able to say it.

"As time went by, the dragon became more and more protective over the princess. Actually, when it was about monsters and dangers it felt alright for him, but when he started to feel princes were dangerous too, he spent many hours thinking why," Natsu said. His eyes moved up and locked with the girl's. Seing into them, Lucy felt like he was apologising for something. "The dragon knows he is the dragon and the princess is the princess. He knows the princess is... supposed to be with a prince and he can't give her that because he is not similar to that character in the least."

Natsu put the book down next to the tray and moved forward, closer and closer to the girl as he continued. He placed one hand on her shoulder and slowly pushed her down against the bed as he moved on top of her.

"But I want to be by your side always even if I'm not like a prince," Natsu said, eyes serious and determined.

The girl's face couldn't have been more red at that instant and her thoughts were a complete mess, so she could only get one question out: "N-Natsu, w-w-what do you mean...?"- as if she hadn't realised it already.

The pink haired guy pouted and a thick blush extended through his cheeks at her question and the answer to be told. He diverted his gaze and looked to the side trying to get the words out to no avail. He then looked back at her and his brow twiched.

A frustrated growl escaped from his throat as he bent down and hid his red face with his hand against her pillow, right beside her head.

"I mean..." a whisper reached Lucy's ear, making her blush harder than possible and tremble, " I... love you, stupid," the boy said. She slowly turned her head to look at him and found one eye peeking at her through the space between two fingers. She smiled sweetly and brought her hand up to stroke his hair.

The guy's eyes widened and he lifted his head up to look at her more comfortably, looking for answers and making sure he wasn't dreaming.

The girl giggled, "I thought you were never going to reciprocate my feelings, you dense guy," she said smiling, and the 'dragon slayer' couldn't stop himself from smiling a giant smile and bending down to kiss her neck and, at the end, her sweet lips. When he asked for access and she opened her mouth, the girl opened her eyes suddenly and slapped his chest two times, making him back down. "What?" he asked worriedly.

The girl brought a hand to her mouth and clossed her eyes strongly, whining quietly, "My tongue in burning...!" she cried.

He looked at her surprised and tilted his head. "Oh!" he suddenly said, bending down again to brush his lips against her's smiling, "It's those spicy candies fault, Luce. What?" he asked defiantly, "Can't take a bit of spice?"

The blonde glared at her 'friend' before smacking their lips back together, making the guy chuckle once before responding to her.

The dragon looks at the ground and heaves a sigh before looking up again and reading the name carved in rock right in front of him. Sitting in that silent place of what he calls his hometown, which had never been so silent as they all... lived.

Longer life spans are definitely difficult to deal with.

Nowadays, nobody would be able to convince the enamored dragon out of the idea that he is paying the price for stealing the princess from her destined prince and living the happiest years of his life.