"You are getting married. Next month."

Natsu Dragneel, Prince of the Dragneel kingdom, was training hard in his training room, that long smelled of sweat and trash. He pounded into the punching bag, once, twice, three times, until the two hundred and fifty pound bag fell of its hook. The pink-haired prince sighed, and moved to put it back up.

A pretty maid by the name of Annabelle appeared in the doorway. "Sir?"

Natsu turned to look at the girl, disinterested. She blushed and did a quick bow, "Lord Dragneel, your Father, wishes to see you in the dining hall to enjoy dinner with them." she remained there, waiting for orders.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "He wishes, or does he demand?"

The servant flushed. "He says, in quote, 'Natsu Dragneel, if I do not see you down here properly dressed and fine-smelling in five minutes I shall chop of your head and feed it to the guard dogs.'" As a second thought, she added, "unquote."

"Fine, fine, I'll be there. Tell him that." The maid zoomed off.

The pink-haired prince stopped his training and picked up his discarded vest. It didn't smell all that great and it was wrinkled, so he sighed and went to the closet, [especially built inside the room for after his sessions,] got a blue and yellow vest, and slid it on his bare chest. He wiped off the sweat on his arms and legs with a wet cloth. His abnormally high body heat dried it off instantly. He shrugged, walking through the corridors to get to the dining room.

The castle the Dragneel family, consisting of four people, and some servants lived in was quite large, and the land all around was owned by them. Heck, as far as you could see from the tallest spire in the castle belonged to them. The Dragneel family was filthy stinking rich. Their castle was elegant, and had exactly 227 rooms, [Natsu, when he was younger, spent an entire day running around the castle counting the number of them,] all decorated and furnished nicely. [Except the dungeons.]

Natsu reached the dining room, where the long buffet table and the other three members of his direct family waited for him. Wendy, the blue-haired adorable girl, with wide brown eyes sat next to the empty chair, looking up as he came in. She adored him, even though she was slightly more level-headed than he was and wisely stayed out of his 'totally awesome' plans he sometimes made up. She wore a long-sleeved purple and pink shirt, and had tied her hair up in twin high ponytails.

Across from Wendy was a blue-haired woman, about in her early forties, with deep brown eyes. She was Wendy's and Natsu's mother, Queen Grandine. She adorned a long sky-blue dress, decorated with a tiny wing clasp on her breast, and it suited her quite nicely.

The proud man in front of the table was Lord Dragneel, Lord of the Dragneel family and Natsu's father, Igneel. He had bright, spiky red hair [imagine his surprise when his first-born child had rose-coloured locks,] dark onyx eyes, and a broad and powerful body. He wore a black and gold-lined shirt, with loose-fitting beige pants, similar to what Natsu usually wore, but the shirt wasn't a vest and had no sleeves.

"What took you so long, son?" Igneel boomed. "You kept us all waiting."

"Sorry Father." Natsu pulled his seat back and slouched into the chair, "I was training."

Wendy and her mother frowned. "Natsu-ni? You've been training for the past three months non-stop. You're going to hurt yourself one day." The younger girl pouted.

Natsu grinned at his little sister. "Don't worry about me! A little stretch doesn't hurt at all. It helps to stay in shape." Wendy sulked some more.

Grandine scowled. "Natsu, you know very well that you can't hide in your training room all day. Three months of training and only stopping to eat and get four hours of sleep is nonsense."

Natsu frowned. "I wouldn't say four hours, more like fiv—" he shut up when he saw her face.

Igneel put a hand on the woman's to calm her down. All of the Dragneel family had a temper, except Wendy, and a destructive streak when mad too. "Grandine is right. You have a month until you get married, so you better spend more time picking a wife before we do." Natsu dropped his fork, mouth hanging open.

"Wait, what?" he shouted, standing up. "I'm getting married in a month!"

The Queen sent an annoyed look at the Lord. He grinned sheepishly. She sighed and turned back to her son. "Yes, Natsu, we've decided that we're holding a ball in two weeks. You shall choose the five best brides-to-be, and we shall choose five. Then, the next two weeks, you shall spend time with each woman, and decide a wife." Natsu seemed to choke.

"And you... you decided to tell me this NOW!" the parents nodded. He was speechless.

"Yes, these girls shall be the highest in social etiquette, and shall be a good wife and Princess for the heir until we die and you take over as Lord." Igneel told him. The servants dropped plates of food in front of the family, but for once, nobody touched it. A maid lit Igneel's and Natsu's spicy dishes on fire, just how they liked it. Once again, the lay untouched.

"I do not want 'social etiquette'," Natsu made air-quotes. "I don't want those silly, stupid girls you showed me last time. They were giggling, frilly balls of makeup and fakeness." The pink-haired prince wrinkled his nose.

Grandine frowned. "Natsu! Manners!"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine then, Mother, I shan't bind myself eternally to a demon adorning a dress. I'm not marrying myself to a giggly girl."

Igneel pressed his lips together. This is not where he wanted the conversation to go. "Fine then, Natsu, what would you like your princess to be like?" he said, leaning forward, hands intertwined.

The pink-haired prince thought for a moment. "Well, I'd rather not marry a girl at all—"

Wendy piped up. "You'd rather not marry a girl? Does that mean you'd marry a boy?"

Natsu facepalmed at her obliviousness. "No, Wendy, I'm not gay. I like girls." He refrained from snapping.

"Well, Dad wonders why you have no attraction to other females and said once that he thought—" she was stopped though because Igneel clamped a hand over her mouth. Natsu narrowed his eyes.

"I thought she was choking on something." He said sheepishly. Natsu fought the urge to punch him. With a fist full of flames. "So, what type of girl are you looking for?"

"Uh, none?" Igneel scowled, eyes flashing.

Natsu sighed. "Fine, I don't want a little prissy that can't walk around in mud or touch a spider. I don't care so much about smarts, as long as she isn't a brainiac and makes me feel dumb. She had to be courageous and knows how to fight." Igneel and Grandine nodded, already in thought.

"So you will be marrying someone in a month, got it, Natsu Dragneel? You are sure to find a beautiful young woman that will accompany you for the rest of your life."

"I don't wanna."

The Queen glared at the Prince. "Yes, Mother." He hissed reluctantly.

"Hey, where'd my fruit go?" The Golden Spirit leaped onto a branch, precariously perched there with a satchel of fruit slung over her shoulder. She chuckled when she hard the distant voice, hopping off the bough and landing on the ground on two feet. She grinned, looking over at her prize.

"Sweet deal." Spirit's features were hidden with a faded green cloak, but underneath you could see a brown one-suit with a belt tied around her slim, curvy waist. On it were a key ring, filled with golden keys and a blue, heart-ended whip. She wore thick, black, rolled-up gloves with grey lining. Her boots were black combats, matching her gloves.

She ran off into the forest, where her home was. She had never been caught by the soldiers, even though she was the Top for the area's Most Wanted list. She'd robbed many homes in the past eight years, but she was crafty enough not to get caught.

Eventually, she slowed to a quick walk, making sure no one was behind her. Lips slightly open, high tilting head, eyes darting around, she skillfully watched for pursuers. Spirit doubted it, she went on a long, different route every time, but it didn't hurt to be careful.

"Lucy!" A small child burst from the bushes, surprising her, and the girl wrapped her arms around Spirit's legs. Spirit lowered her hood, showing off her smile.

"Hey Michelle. We got lucky today." Lucy patted the little blonde's head, and the tot looked up, blue eyes wide. Michelle wasn't really Lucy's sister, but the blonde found the four-year-old girl wandering around her forest one day five years ago. Her parents had been killed in a murder.

Lucy Heartfilia was a rogue bandit living deep inside East Magnolia Forest. She always was a bandit after she ran away from home, because she wasn't old enough to get a job and she wouldn't go into a drab adoption center. By the time she was, she would have been arrested for theft repetitive times. Plus, she couldn't leave Michelle alone.

Stealing so much she was nicknamed The Golden Spirit, because, when she stole, the victim would usually see the quick flash of her golden keys before she got away. Then, she wouldn't be found, disappearing like a ghost. Nobody would suspect that the clever and crafty Spirit was actually a sassy, seventeen year old blonde girl, taking care of a child in the middle of a forest. Lucy was a mage, meaning she could use Magic, but she only used her Magical keys when she needed to.

"Luce, Luce! Look what I found today!" Michelle held up a small, white orchid. Lucy bent down to look at it.

"Oh, where did you find that?" she asked, smiling.

"Well, I went to Magnolia—" a small town to the west of the forest "—and there was a house at the borderline, and the pretty flowers were just in a basket. So I picked one for you!" the little girl beamed. Lucy smirked and tapped her on the nose, making the girl giggle.

"Didn't I tell you not to go into the towns? You could get in trouble and I'd have to go help you." She told her, wiping on her knees with her free hand and walking through the bushes to get to their shared home. It was a small, tent-like structure, with assorted [stolen] pots and pans and a tiny camp-fire. Michelle hopped inside the tent and got out a sealed bag. She grabbed a pan, a matchbox, and a slab of meat from the bag and put them over the campfire. She flicked a match on fire, and then tossed it into the circle, waiting for the dry grass she'd collected to catch. She put the meat on the pan and put it over the mini, bent-wire grill they had made.

"But look! We even have fruit!" Lucy took an apple out of the bag and tossed it to Michelle, wincing. The little girl clued onto this immediately, the apple forgotten, and scoot up to Spirit.

"Sis? What's wrong?" her usually soft voice had an edge of alarm. Lucy smiled tightly.

"I-It's nothing." Michelle pouted, put down the flower, and pulled up the cloth covering the older blonde's arm. There was a medium-sized gash there. She'd hurt herself climbing a tree, so what? It wasn't too bad of a gash. The smaller girl went to get the first-aid.

"Luce! You should be more careful!" Michelle scolded her, acting like a mother and patching up the wound. "One day you're gonna really hurt yourself." It was generally known that Lucy got food, and Michelle stayed at the campsite in hiding, but was the one who could patch them up if need be. Sometimes, she acted like a young mother to Spirit, even though she was eight years younger.

"It's okay, it's okay, I just didn't want you to worry. It's just a tiny scratch. You know I've hurt worse." Michelle winced, thinking of the time that her sister came home with several large bite marks all over her body. She'd somehow managed to get home with a sack of fruits on her back, but she'd collapsed as soon as she got to the campsite. Michelle had been scared, but bandaged Lucy and stopped her from dying. The fruit had to last them for awhile with the meager savings that they already had, but they had to go several weeks hungry until Lucy could move without hurting herself. The little tot shuddered at the memory. She'd not trusted dogs anytime from then on.

Sure, they didn't live a perfect life, but with the two of them living in the forest, it was good enough. They had food, water, and each other. Things couldn't have been better for the two rogues, who found a companion in their empty lives.

Hey guys! I got this idea for a Fanfic recently, and I couldn't help but type it up. I'm having a little writers block on FireFlies, and my cousins are coming over for the weekend. ARG! so busy. I think I'm gonna continue with this story, but FIREFLIES WILL ALWAYS BE MY FIRST PIORITY, for you FF readers. So, I'll be starting two more-than-five-chapter stories. YAY! [damn, I'm gonna be busy.]

Review?