"Are you going to tell me what happened to her? Or am I meant to stay in the dark about all this?" I ask, my head turning towards Natsu.

He sighs rather loudly, tapping his pen on his desk a few times before looking over at me.

"I would rather spare you the details," he admits and I rest my head in the palm of my hand, leaning on the desk I was sat at. He turns back to the work before him on his desk.

I hesitate before inquiring any further. "Was it the same man as before?"

Now he sets down his pen and turns toward me entirely. Though there is tiredness in his eyes I see his stubbornness coming to head as well, and I bite my lip.

"Lucy, I really would prefer if I didn't tell you. The less people that know, the better our attempts to keep this under wraps and away from the public's attention," he runs his hand through his hair and leans back in his chair. "Okay?" He looks at me and I nod slowly.

"You know though, I'm still going to speculate. I might even investigate it myself," I turn back towards the work I was trying to memorize. After Natsu is silent for a while I assume he has returned to his work as well, so I am startled when my chair is spun around and Natsu is holding onto the armrests—effectively caging me—and his face is almost unbearably close to mine. "W-what?" I question, almost breathlessly.

"I am convinced you will never learn how to properly interact with royalty," his eyes openly search mine and I turn away, my face aflame.

"If this is about the whole reason I'm here in the first place—" I turn back to him but I am silenced by my heart leaping into my throat as our noses brush together. "Don't you think we're a little too close?" I squirm as I try to somehow create distance but it is to no avail.

"Is there something wrong with being this close?" He raises an eyebrow and I close my eyes, trying to calm myself. "Don't worry, I don't plan on kissing you," he tells me, making my eyes shoot open.

"That isn't why I closed my eyes! I was only—wait a minute," I stop. "You're distracting me," I narrow my eyes at him and he sighs and lowers his head.

"Ah, you got me," he backs away and I can feel my heartbeat even itself back out as the distance increases. "You aren't ever going to stop asking me questions about it, are you?" He looks at me as he sits back down.

"Of course not, so you might as well spare both of us the trouble and just tell me," I further insist.

He sighs loudly, folding his arms over his chest. "Okay, I will tell you. Phelix, the prince I told you about before, the one whom we detained, managed to escape our confines. He searched the castle up and down for Lisanna, taking the passages in the walls to avoid being seen. He came into your room at one point too," he pauses for a moment to look at me. My eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"He was in my room but didn't do anything?" My confusion is clearly displayed in my looks.

Natsu pauses, "He was focused on finding Lis. He's psychotic, his behavior is irrational." I shiver at the thought.

"He found her in the infirmary. He used the tools there to do further... damage while the guards where distracted by the ball." Natsu continues and I feel my heart drop.

"The ball... that's why she became injured?" My eyes meet his and he stares at me for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, Lucy. He just happened to get out at that time," Natsu assures me but I shake my head.

"If the guards hadn't been distracted then they might have found him and been able to apprehend him. Now Lis is facing such severe injuries..." I cover my mouth with my hand, becoming upset again.

He sighs, "This is why I didn't want to tell you."

I look up at him, shaking my head. "Why wasn't she protected?"

"We're investigating the matter, but I need you to compose yourself, okay? I'm getting to the bottom of everything, so relax and get back to studying. You have a job to do, after all," he says, quickly ending and changing the subject. I turn back to my desk and try desperately to focus on my work, but after what felt like an endless amount of time passed fruitlessly I stood from my chair abruptly, grumbling in frustration.

"I need to figure this out," I murmur and bite my thumb as I move for the grand doors of the library. As I walked I decided to start in the cell he was held in—but I'd need to find someone to take me there. I was quickly yanked from my thoughts as I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and gently tug me back.

"What are you doing?" Natsu's stern voice comes from right behind me and I force a smile as I turn to him.

"I'm taking a break, I've lost focus and need to clear my head," my voice drips with a false brightness. Natsu is looking at me with concerned eyes and I sigh. "It's rather difficult to get any work done with my thoughts spinning as they are."

He eyes me skeptically and slowly releases his hold of my wrist. "Alright. Be back soon, or I'll send the guards looking for you," he tells me and then he turns back to his desk. I hurry out the doors and ask the nearest servant to guide me to where they kept the prince.

"They don't really like to have us wandering around there, Princess," she tells me with hesitance.

"Don't worry, if anything happens I will take all the blame for it. I wouldn't ask this if you unless it was absolutely necessary," my eyes are full of pleading and she sighs, relenting.

"Yes, Princess."

I am led down many flights of stairs, the air growing heavier and denser the farther we go. The walls and floors turn to grey stone, that eventually seems overgrown with moss the further we get. We finally reach a landing and go through a small archway that leads into a dimly lit room of barred cells.

"They kept him here, Princess. The guards are only posted here when there is a prisoner to be kept. That is the only knowledge I have," she says shakily.

"Thank you very much, you may go," I dismiss her and shoo her off. The last thing I needed was another life weighing on my shoulders. Hesitantly I move about the room, looking through the bars into each cell, desperately searching for any clue left behind by the prince. After seeing nothing, not a scratch in the stone or a stray item, I sigh and lean my head on one of the wrought iron bars.

I turn to leave and shriek in surprise when I see Natsu's looming figure standing in the doorway. I was so startled that I stumbled backwards and I grimaced, holding my head where it had knocked into part of the wall.

Natsu took a few steps towards me, angrily asking "Who let you come down here?"

"There was no one to keep me out," I reply, making sure not to mention the help I had received. "Not that it matters, there's nothing down here at all."

He continues advancing towards me."You really think that? In a kingdom as expansive as this, that we would have no prisoners? Lucy, one more flight down and you'd have gotten yourself into all kinds of trouble," his voice is low and I feel anger rolling off of him in droves.

"I didn't intend to go any farther—"

He grabs handfuls of my dress at my waist and yanks me forward, and this time my heart races out of fear.

"Natsu, look—I am sorry, I just wanted to try and find something, I can't... just sit..." my voice dies out and I bite my lip.

"When one of the guards heard you poking around here and came to alert me, I thought to myself, 'I should have known better'," he grumbles and his eyes look between both of mine in a frantic manner. "You can not go off on your own Lucy. Not now, and especially not to a place like this."

I place my hands atop his and try to push them off, and wriggle my dress loose from his grip, but instead his grip only tightens.

"Doing things like this makes me worry about you, Lucy." I freeze and look up at him in surprise.

"Careful there, Natsu. You might make me think you actually care about me," I tell him in a low voice.

"That's because I do, Lucy," he says and my heart stops. I swallow my rising emotions and look down at his fistful of my dress.

"I find that hard to believe, especially because you brought me here under the pretense that I save my friends life for my unwilling collision with you," I look up at him again and I am surprised to feel him slowly releasing my dress.

After a long hour of silence he sighs, "I was desperate."

"What?"

"I was in desperate need of someone to help set me free. I... I took advantage of my position and took my pent up frustrations out on you. Really I shouldn't have gone about things the way I did, it was terrible of me to do so," his sudden gentleness makes me recoil, and I stare at him openly.

Who is this? I... I don't know this Natsu.

"But I care about you," he continues. "Maybe even more than I should. Which is why I don't want you involved in things like this. I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you because of me and letting you run around carelessly."

I stand before him, speechless. When I finally bring myself to speak, all I can manage is, "What...what was that?"

Natsu doesn't answer, and instead leads me out of the small room and back onto the staircase. He pulls me along behind him until we are back in the main part of the castle. "That didn't happen," he says gruffly.

I pull my hand from his and he turns to me. "No, it did. I can't just write that off, how could you expect me to? This changes, this changes everything." My voice halts for a moment as I search myself inwardly for the right thing to do in this moment but I can't bring anything fourth except to keep talking. "Yes, it was selfish and stupid of you to do that, but after seeing things here— I understand. To some capacity I understand why you would go this far for freedom." My voice cracks and now it is Natsu's turn to look at me in surprise.

"Please, don't cry over this, it's nothing really." He steps toward me and quickly reaches to brush the brimming tears in my eyes away.

"I guess we were both only thinking of ourselves to begin with," I try to laugh but can't bring myself to.

"Yes, I guess so. But now we have to think of everyone else. Especially Lisanna, now. I promise, I'm taking care of everything. So please try not to worry." He looks me over and I nod, even though I know it is impossible. "Why don't you come with me to talk to the lead knights I have working on finding her?" He suggests.

"I'd much appreciate that," I accept, and he hesitantly pulls me into him in a light hug. I do not push him away, but instead I feel a torrent of conflicted feelings inside of me. They rush and swirl together, creating something I can't quite yet identify. I glance at his face and his eyes are closed, and seeing the softened features of his face makes my heart leap.

I wonder to myself, in a painful tinge, if he will ever find someone else after he and I have finished playing our little game of pretend.

•••

hello!! it has been too long—again. i am terrible at keeping up with my writing. but i have been working, none the less. i hope you all still enjoy reading this, and i thank those of you who do. much love.

-kels