{I'm in love with a fairy tale, even though it hurts}

Natsu Dragneel knew what a book was. He knew it a bundle of pages bound together with words pieced together to create a story or to share information. He knew that there were hundreds – no, thousands at least – in all of Fiore. He also knew of both Levy's and Lucy's fascination with the things and how when they got together it was a majority of what they'd talk about.

However, what Natsu didn't know nor understand was how some stupid ole' book was seemingly more entertaining than him. He was fun, right? Lucy had told him so. She said he was a great friend and how she'd never replace him for anyone.

Yet here he was, sitting right beside the blonde who had betrayed him for the retched book clutched in her hands. He narrowed his eyes at it, hoping it would burst into flames if he glared hard enough (although on second thought, Lucy would know it was him and then he'd get in trouble). Still, it kind of hurt to be ignored by your best friend over something as stupid as a stack of pages glued together. The fire mage had tried numerous times to regain Lucy's attention, from touching her, making obnoxious noises, everything!

Minutes passed and Lucy hadn't even looked up at him once and his impatience was getting the best of him. He was starving and Happy had been pestering him with his fish cravings again lately and he figured that it was about time to go on a job. Of course, he knew that if he was going to take on a job, he had to bring Lucy with him. She was his partner and best friend; they were a team and he refused to do anything without her.

So if she would just put that dumb book down, they'd be able to get on with it.

He tore his eyes from the book (he could've sworn it started taunting him but that might've just been a side effect from him sitting still for so long) and looked back at his guildmate, urging her silently to finally glance up at him. He wanted her to see how impatiently he's been waiting for just a smidge of her attention and to feel guilty for it. So guilty, in fact, that she'd dump that book all together and beg his forgiveness and maybe cook him a nice meal to make up for her ignorance.

Natsu's mouth began to drool uncontrollably at the thought of Lucy's cooking and he began tapping the table, hoping that the noise would grab her attention quickly. He was done waiting for Lucy to be done with that book. He was her best friend and he wasn't going to be pushed aside for a book.

"Lucy!" he whined. "I need attention!"

The blonde hummed in response, eyes never straying from the pages in front of her.

Natsu came to the realization that maybe Lucy hadn't been paying attention to him because there was possibly some magic spell on it that made it impossible for her to part with it. He gasped and hit his head as self-punishment for his stupidity. His friend had been in danger this whole time and he'd just been sitting here!

With the speed he's known for, he snatched the book from her hands and chucked it across the guild, hoping that putting distance between Lucy and the book would possibly break the spell. He turned back to his friend with hopeful eyes to be met with her stunned expression. Good! She had snapped out of it!

Natsu smiled toothily. "Lucy! It worked!"

The next thing he was aware of was a sudden pain on his cheek and a force knocking him to the ground. When his thoughts became unscrambled again, Lucy was sitting on the bench again, the book back in her hands. However, her gaze was no longer directed at the evil material but rather at him. Normally, this would've made him ecstatic, but her eyes showed heated anger which Natsu figured wasn't a good thing.

"Natsu…why did you just throw my book across the room?!" she shouted, hugging said book to her chest.

"I, uh…I thought there was some evil spell on it that was hypnotizing you and…stuff."

Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance before she sighed, shaking her head at him. "The thoughts in your head sometimes."

Natsu got up and sat back down beside her albeit a foot further away. "So I'm guessing there isn't a spell on that book?"

"Of course not, idiot! I just happen to really like this one!"

Natsu scoffed and propped his feet up on the bench. "What's so good about it?"

A dreamy smile crossed her face, her demeanor completely changing in less than two seconds. She brought the book away from her chest down to her lap and looked down at it with remembrance. "I've had this book since I was a kid. It has all of my favorite fairytales in it."

Fairy tails? Did she collect them? Did this mention that fairies did exist and that they actually had tails? He couldn't wait to tell Gramps!

"Lemme see!" he yelled, reaching for the book only for his hand to be slapped away by Lucy. He withdrew his hands with a pout, looking at the blonde in annoyance. Why was she being so selfish?

"I know what you're thinking and no I didn't mean fairies' tails. I meant fairytales. You know, those stories with the "Once upon a time" and happily ever afters?"

From the dumbfounded look on his face, Lucy concluded that no, Natsu didn't have an inkling of what a fairytale was. She sighed and opened the book to one of the illustrations depicting a scene from Snow White. "See? It's a story."

The fire dragon slayer leaned over to peek at the picture and frowned. "What are they about then?"

"Well they're – " she paused, unsure of how to continue. How does one explain a fairytale? "Well, there's usually a princess and a prince involved," she began, deciding on starting with the basics. "And they fall in love, but not before the princess gets into some kind of danger or sticky situation which the prince gets her out of with his bravery and heroics. Then they kiss and live happily ever after!" she exclaimed, blushing when a few guildmates turned to look at their table. "Ah…at least that's how most go. I guess it really depends on which one you're talking about," she added in a timid voice.

Lucy looked up to see Natsu staring at her intently, eyebrows furrowed deeply in thought. That fact alone caused Lucy to crack a smile at the notion of Natsu thinking, but slowly waned when he didn't move or speak. "Um, Natsu?" she asked cautiously.

"So the prince saves the princess…"

"…Well yeah that's typically how it goes."

"And then they…they kiss?" he asked in disbelief.

The celestial mage nodded and noticed how hot the tips of her ears felt. "Yeah, and live happily ever after."

Natsu looked back at the book, analyzing the picture that showed the prince leaning over Snow White's sleeping form, lips pursed to kiss her and wake her from her everlasting sleep. He then glanced back at Lucy, frowned, stood up, and walked out of the guild. Lucy sat there in stunned silence, wondering just what had happened and what thoughts could possibly be bouncing around in that thick head of his.

Later that evening, Lucy was at the bar helping Mirajane wipe glasses and laughing with Levy when a piercing bang resounded throughout the guild. Lucy and her blue-haired companion jumped and turned to the guild doors – the source of the noise – to find Natsu at the entrance, head swiveling from side to side as if searching for something. When his eyes finally landed on her, he sped down the guild hall, ignoring all comments thrown his way as he made a beeline for Lucy who was standing in jaw-dropped shock. Levy leaned over and whispered a question that she didn't hear nor bothered to ask a repetition of.

"Good evening, Natsu!" Mirajane greeted, seemingly unaware of the oddity of the situation, that or just blatantly ignoring it. "What can I do for you?"

Without a word or even a glance in Mira's direction, Natsu grabbed Lucy, lifted her over the counter and carried her away from the guild's watchful eyes to a more secluded area upstairs, Lucy stuttering and shrieking the whole way. Once they were finally far enough, Natsu placed Lucy back on her feet.

"Natsu Dragneel, who the hell do you think you are to just pick me up like that in front of everyone and drag me away while I was in the middle of do-mmph!" Her lips were consumed by his in an instant, cutting off the rest of her angry rant effectively. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers and before she had a proper chance to register what was going on and react accordingly, he pulled away and held her at arms' length.

"That was for when we met and you almost got kidnapped by Bora."

He lowered his head again, placing his lips over hers for another brief kiss and at this point Lucy noticed that he had pressed her against a wall, still holding her firmly by her arms, but not enough to hurt.

"That was for when we went to Mount Hakobe to save Macao and after that Vulcan had taken you."

Lucy was slowly beginning to regain her bearings after the complete mind wipe she had suffered from the first kiss and she was beginning to hear what he was saying. It didn't make any sense at all and she had no idea where any of this was coming from nor why he was doing this.

He went in for another kiss and Lucy turned her head to avoid it but he followed quickly placing another chaste kiss on her lips. "That one was for when that weird shadow guy almost attacked you."

"Okay Natsu what the hell are you talking about?" Lucy inquired, wondering what had sparked such impulsive behavior on his behalf. "Explain this to me right –"

He cut her off again, pulling away just as quickly as he had kissed her. "That one was for catching you after you jumped off that tower."

"Natsu! What is going on right now?" she hissed and squirmed in his grasp, surprised at how easily he let her throw his hands off her arms. "What is all of this about?"

Now that they had both paused in their actions, Natsu pulled away from her to lean against the other wall, a deep red blush matching Erza's scarlet hair coloring his cheeks and Lucy felt the warmth flowing to her own cheeks and ears. The fire dragon slayer looked down at his sandals, avoiding her eyes completely as he shuffled his foot across the carpeted floor. He offered no explanation and showed no sign of planning to anytime soon. Lucy gathered herself up, realizing how heavily she was leaning against the wall, and took a step toward him only to hear something crack underneath her boot. She looked down to see shattered glass and a crumpled dishtowel on the floor, meaning that sometime during all of…that she must've have let it slip from her hands. She'd have to make sure to clean it later.

When Lucy looked back up at Natsu he was watching her with still blush-stained cheeks, but this time he didn't shy away from her stare.

"Natsu?"

He took a deep breath and exhaled unnecessarily loud. "You said that the prince always gets to kiss the princess after he saves her so I went home to make a list of all of the times I saved you and so far I've come up with at least eleven but I'm pretty sure there are more but I just can't remember them all and when I asked Happy he started acting weird so I just kind of left it at eleven and so far I've told you about four so that leaves…uh…I think that's seven more to go because there was also the time when I saved you from Gajeel - before he joined Fairy Tail that is - and then there was the time –" he stopped abruptly when he noticed Lucy's finger on his lips, silencing him immediately. He looked up at her face to see her with a smile that was trying to contain laughter yet an occasional giggle slipped out.

"So you did all of this because of what I told you earlier about fairytales?" she laughed.

He nodded.

She removed her finger from his lips and took a step back, clutching her hands together in front of her. "But…why?" she asked quietly. Sure, Natsu took things literally often and was very rash in his actions, but this was just a completely different level. This was extreme, even in Natsu standards.

"Well…you said they loved each other, right?"

Lucy gasped and blinked at him, stunned speechless. Her heart skipped a few beats, taking a grand effort to restart again as she came to terms with what he just said to her. Said man stood across from her scratching the back of his head and looking up towards the ceiling, not noticing her reaction.

She placed her hands on her cheeks to cool them down as she fully processed the situation and everything it meant. Natsu always was saving her and she appreciated him greatly for it. It was nice to have someone there for you in such times of need, but to think of comparing their situation to a fairytale…it was crazy.

But maybe it was a good crazy.

Natsu reverted his attention to his best friend when she cleared her throat. Her hands were now clasped behind her back and she was staring at the ground, scuffing the toe of her boot against the floor. She was silent for a few, agonizing seconds before she gathered up all of her courage to speak.

"So uh, you said something about saving me from Gajeel?"

Natsu smiled and walked closer to her, tilting her head back to face him. Her face heated up at their proximity and she felt like she was going to burst into flames at any second now and would be devoured by Natsu.

"Yeah, and six more after that."

Then again, from the look in his eyes, that seemed to be the plan anyway.

"Sorry about the glass, Mira-chan," Lucy apologized the next day, referring to the broken glass from the night before.

Mira giggled and waved her off. "Oh, no worries! I have plenty of jewels to buy a whole new set now!"

Lucy perked up. "Wait, what? Where'd you get so many jewels from?"

Mira laughed again, but this time Lucy noticed something secretive behind it. "Don't worry about it, Lucy! It's not important!" A few grumbles from their guildmates told the blonde mage otherwise. Even so, Lucy just shrugged it off and continued sorting dishes and glasses behind the bar.

If there was anything she learned since joining the guild, it was to never question Mira.