Hello everyone! Since my last NaLu one-shot got some really good feedback, I decided to write down the other story I have been tossing around in my head. Again, apologies ahead of time if they are a little OOC.

DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

Lucy wasn't sure what she had in mind when she was walking into the magic shop today, just to browse she supposed. There was a sale on potions, but the colors that they were glowing were rather suspicious, so Lucy decided to look at something else. Spell book? No, they were written in ancient text and that was more of Levy's area of specialties. Wands, no. Potion ingredients, no. Every-Flavor jellybeans, no. This was getting frustrating, all Lucy could find in this shop were items that she could get at any magic shop. She was really hoping to find something really special here, without breaking the bank.

"Excuse me, sir," Lucy asked the store owner.

"Hmm," the elderly man behind the counter responded with.

"You wouldn't happen to have any celestial spirit keys in stock, would you." Lucy asked trying to look as cute as possible.

"Celestial spirit keys, celestial spirit keys…" the shop owner muttered to himself as he looked through a list of stock, "sorry miss, I haven't had any of those on my selves in years. Not enough demand for them I suppose."

That was exactly what Lucy was afraid what was going to happen. She sighed. It was worth a try to ask, right? "I understand, maybe some other time," Lucy waved off as she headed toward the door.

"Wait," the shop owner exclaimed, not wanting to lose a potential sale, "I might have something that you might be interested in. Not many stores specialize in the kind of wares I'm about to show you."

That got Lucy's attention. Turning back around to face the counter, "What is it?"

"These," the owner hummed as he pulled out a wooden box out from underneath the counter. He fiddled with some keys to find the right one to the box. After unlocking it, he pulled back the lid to reveal three diary locks and their keys. A green one, a red one, and a blue one.

A little confused, Lucy questioned, "Locks?" What were so special about these locks, many stores specialized in selling them. Was she paying extra for the color as opposed to a metallic silver?

"Oh, don't be fooled miss. These are no ordinary locks, they are made of a strong metal alloys, can't be broken by blunt force. They are also charmed to be resistant to certain elements. Even elemental magic."

Lucy leaned in upon interest to get a better look.

Continuing his spiel about the locks, "The green one is resistant to plant related magic. The red cannot be melted by fire magic. Finally, the blue one cannot be rusted or broken by water." Owner smiled as he saw that Lucy was hooked. "Now unfortunately, I can only sell you one of these locks, because they are pretty popular."

Only one lock…

"Take your time now, miss. This isn't the first time people have had to make this type of decision. In fact, people have had to make this decision for six genera-" he was cut off.

"I'll take the fire resistant one!" The answer was obvious.

"Ok, that will be 3,500 jewels."

What? 3,500 jewels? That was half of her rent! Maybe she shouldn't have looked so eager… As much as it hurt her wallet, Lucy could not pass up an opportunity like this.

"Fine," Lucy reluctantly handed over the money, took the lock and, and left the store.

"Enjoy your new lock miss!"

Oh, Lucy had big plans for this lock. She ran up to the nearby bookstore and bought a new diary to attach the lock to. It was nothing flashy, no picture on the front, not a special shape, just a basic was exactly what Lucy wanted: A basic diary that would not draw the attention of her often uninvited guests. It was also the cheapest one in the store. The only thing that made the book stand out any was the fact that the pages were pink inside. Other than that, the book would not look out of place with all her other books on her shelf.

'What's a better place to hide something other than in the open, right?' Lucy thought to herself, feeling rather sly. Like always, Lucy walked on the edge of the riverbed and the men on the boat warned her that it was dangerous.

After walking for a while, Lucy finally reached her apartment. Carefully opening the door, she called out, "I'm home!"

No response. That was a good sign. Getting to work, Lucy replaced the original lock from the diary with the new one that she had bought from the magic shop. Before placing the book on the shelf, Lucy gave the lock a good tug to make sure that is actually locked. Now that the book had a place on the shelf, Lucy had attached the key along with her celestial spirit keys because she felt that it was safer there than somewhere in her appartment. With everything put away, Lucy felt like writing. Walking to her writing desk, she pulled out a fresh sheet of paper.

Dear Mama,

Today, I bought a new fire resistant lock and diary to go with it. I know that the letters that I write to you seem like a diary, but don't worry, that is not what I bought the lock and diary for. There are some story ideas that I really want to write down, but they are not ready to be read yet. Natsu and Happy like going through my stuff a lot and often read some of my stories before they are even finished. Hopefully with this new lock I'll be able to finish a story without anybody reading it before it is ready. Though, I really want to save it for a really special story. I really wish that you could read it.

Love, Lucy

P.S.

I think you would have really liked Natsu and Happy if you had the chance to meet them.

The letter was shorter than most of the ones that Lucy wrote to her mother, but it felt good to get her thoughts down on paper. Like all the others, Lucy folded and sealed the letter to be put away with the rest. Just as her hand left the letter, a certain dragon slayer came barging in the room.

"YO! Lucy! What are you doing? You should come play with us," Natsu exclaimed when he saw Lucy at her writing desk.

"Aye!" agreed Happy as he followed Natsu into the room.

"I just finished writing a letter to my mother," Lucy felt comfortable sharing that information with Natsu. Afterall, he did know about that habit of hers anyways.

"Oh, ok. What do you want to do since you're done," Natsu asked.

Lucy stopped and thought about that, her rent was due soon and she was now short on how much she needed because of her previous purchase. "Do you think we could go on a job? I need to pay my rent soon."

"Huh, another one," Natsu questioned, "I thought we just went on one with good pay. I remember because you were happy that we didn't get any of the prize taken away this time."

Shoot. She had forgotten about that detail.

"Well, um, I went shopping earlier and bought something that was more expensive than I was expecting."

"What was it that you bought Lucy? Was it a fish," Happy asked, "because if you wanted fish, you can just go fishing with me and Natsu."

"It wasn't a fish."

"Then what did you buy, Luce," asked Natsu.

"Just...some writing supplies," Lucy decided to answer with, it was technically true.

Natsu thought Lucy was rather nervous with that answer, "If it was just writing stuff, then why do you seem so nervous with telling me?"

She was cornered. Lucy knew that she just had to change the subject. "You know what," she started off as she headed toward the door, "I think I'll take a solo mission." Before walking out the door Lucy said smiling, "See you later."

"Lucy, wait!" cried Happy, "We wanna come with you!"

"Yeah, you can't just leave on a mission without us. We're a team," added Natsu.

"Then you better hurry up, because I'm ready to go," Lucy teased.

"Alright, we're coming," Natsu said as the ran toward the guild to pick out a new job.

"I am-" Natsu fought back down the urge to throw up, "never...going on a train...again." He collapsed on the side of the train station when they were back in Magnolia.

"Natsu, you say that every time," Lucy tried not to laugh at her best friends, because he really did hate transportation of any kind. "Anyways, thanks for going with me."

Natsu recovered some and replied with, "Of course, we're partners after all."

"Right." Lucy knelt down to the collapsed Natsu, "Are you going to be okay, Natsu? I want to to head home and take a shower."

"Yeah," Natsu held up his finger, indicating to wait a moment, "I'll be...fine!" Just like that Natsu was back on his feet with his signature smile. "I'll meet you back at the guild, okay?"

"Aye!" added Happy.

"Yeah, I'll be right over!"

After her shower, Lucy decided she wasn't going to go to the guild right away. She actually got a really good story idea in the shower and wanted to write it down before she forgot it.

'I think I'll write it down in the diary, it does seem like a work in progress so far,' Lucy thought.

Without wasting any time, Lucy had opened the diary onto her writing desk. She left the first page blank to write in a title later. Her quill pen was inked and ready and she started off with a classic story opener:

Once upon a time, there was a princess that ran away from the royal castle. Many people in the castle were surprised that she left. Afterall, she was everything a princess was supposed to be: pretty, kind, and smart. But she was tired of having every decision in her life being made for her. So one day she decided for herself that she was going to have her own adventure, like one in the stories her mother, the queen, had used to read to her.

After much traveling, the princess found her way to a forest right outside of a harbor town. She hoped that this town was the first step to take her to a land where she could make real friends and go on many adventures with them. A wizard who lied about being from that land appeared in front of her. He tried casting a spell on the princess to trick her into going with him. Then, a dragon that was just passing by made eye-contact with the princess and unknowingly broke the spell. The dragon got very mad at the wizard who lied about being from the faraway land and breathed fire at him for lying. After unintentionally saving the princess, he heard what he called "home" is where the princess wanted to go. He took the princess there. The two grew closer and closer with every adventure they had together. Then, little by little, the princess fell in love with the dragon without even knowing it. The dragon and princess got married years later and lived happily everafter.

Lucy stopped writing there because her flow of inspiration had stopped. She decided to read what she just wrote to see what could use some improvement.

"I feel like this is really familiar somehow…" Lucy thought out loud. Thinking and thinking, trying to place where she heard this story before, it had come much too easily to be a coincidence. "A princess...falling in love… with a dragon…" most stories she read with those characters normally had the dragon slayed in the end. "Dragon slayed... Dragon... slayer?" Lucy could not believe it, so she reread and reread the story over and over again. As much as Lucy wanted to, she could not deny it. She had just taken her and Natsu's story and turned it into a romantic fairy tale. What was she going to do? She couldn't bring herself to tear out the page she had written on, because every time she did , her eyes would fall on that last line and her heart would beat a little faster.

'Just… start writing something else!' Lucy thought. 'I'm sure I can get my mind off of that story in no time," she turned to the next clean page. 'What to write? I know! Since no one other than me is going to read this diary anyways, I can practice my author's signature in here!'

Lucy Heartfilia she filled the first two lines with.

'Me and Natsu...' Lucy couldn't get her mind off of it. She continued signing her name for two more lines. 'Can you actually imagine, me and Natsu… married?' She kept writing. Before long Lucy noticed she had already filled two pages. Though she did not realize what she was writing.

The first four signatures where Lucy Heartfilia then they were followed by Mrs. Lucy that one was not too bad. Though after that, the rest of that page and all of the back was filled with Mrs. Lucy Dragneel, Mrs. Lucy Dragneel, Mrs. Lucy Dragneel...

SLAM! Lucy shut and locked the diary. That was enough writing for one day! She shoved the diary back on the shelf, walked to her bed, and fell onto to it face first. She felt like her face was going to leave scorch marks on her pillow. 'Wait, scorch?' she mentally screamed. Great, now everything was reminding her of him! Lucy buried her face even deeper into her pillow. She had to admit it. She, Lucy Dragn- HEARTFILIA, had admitted that she was in love with her best friend, Natsu Dragneel. On paper.

Oh my gosh, that turned out MUCH longer than I expected. This was originally going to be a two page one-shot. But it turned out to be a little over four pages, with type-10 font… Hands down, Lucy writing stories about a princess falling in love with a dragon is my favorite NaLu headcanon. Anyways, I thought it was getting too long for a one-shot and decided to make it a two-shot. The next chapter will follow Natsu more. Much love to everyone!