Once Upon a Fairy Tail {A Fairy Tail Fanfiction}

Chapter Five: Beauty and The Beast

Lucy was comfortably warm. Heated, even.

In a matter of seconds, 'heated' quickly turned into 'flaming', and 'flaming' morphed into 'inferno'. And 'inferno' turned into- OW!

With a pained yelp, the summoning mage jolted awake; or at least, she tried. A ceramic clank and tinker made it obvious that she would not be able to sit up without some effort. And when she opened her eyes, she could see why.

"I'm a pot!" She cried out, disgusted, even as Natsu's boisterous laugh crashed into her ears. "I'm a freakin' pot!" She whirled around, ready to give Natsu a piece of her mind (for he was quite likely the one who had heated her to such an extent that she awoke, and if she hadn't waken up, then she wouldn't have seen that she was a pot), when the sight of him stopped her in her tracks.

"You're so fat," Natsu the candleholder cackled, as he bent a candle to scorch her bottom- Lucy let out an unbecoming shriek, and the two household objects proceeded to attempt to chase each other around, the teapot furiously hopping after the frivolous candelabrum.

"Will ya two just shut up?"

The two objects froze in their movements (Lucy awkwardly clattered onto her side) as Gajeel pounded down the stairs irritably, fingering his year amidst a yawn.

"You guys are always like this in the morning," the frightening man grumbled as Natsu hooked a (flaming) branch around Lucy, trying to help her up. Gajeel approached the table they were on and grabbed Lucy's handle (she squeaked), slamming her upright onto the tablecloth, and muttered irritably about getting breakfast.

"Luuuucy," Natsu hissed into her ear. "What's Gajeel doing here?"

Lucy took one look at Natsu- who beamed, his flames flaring brightly- and turned to observe their surroundings. Around the richly adorned table was a large castle, its marble tiles and velvet curtains expensive and...

Somehow, the castle was just as cold as it was vast- in more ways than one. Lucy shuddered, and Natsu took this as her being cold, holding his flame to her side again.

Lucy was attempting to douse out his candles with her tea (it was so weird, having liquid sloshing inside of you- Seriously) when Gajeel stormed back into the dining hall, a deep-set scowl on his face as he plopped into one of the dusty chairs and tore into a large chunk of bread.

Following behind the sour, dark man was a familiar, complaining object-

"GRAY!" Natsu burst into laughter in an instant. "You're an ice bucket!"

Lucy watched, bemused, as Gray and Natsu erupted into a typical fight; this time, however, a furious Gray attempted to douse Natsu's fire with his ice cubes as Natsu unsuccessfully tried to torch Gray's... metal.

"You guys," Gajeel snarled, his face mirroring that of Erza on her worst day; Natsu and Gray shrank behind Lucy's rounded surface. She tried to shrink her ceramic self into the smallest possible form as Gajeel's face grew even colder.

"M-master," Lucy gasped out, already forming a guess as to what fairy tale this was. "I-is, d-do you, I-I mean, are you p-perhaps-uhm-"

"Spit it out," Gajeel hissed, a feral undercurrent in his tone; Lucy squealed as he continued, "I haven't got all day."

"Y-you-uh... you need t-to find a way to b-b-break the curse-?"

Gajeel was silent for a moment; all three household objects paused in surprise as the silence grew heavier, matched by the tense atmosphere. After several terse moments, the tall man let out a heavy sigh.

"Don't be stupid," struggling to prevent his voice from uncharacteristically breaking, Gajeel said, "who would ever fall in love with a monster?"

Lucy suddenly understood why the castle seemed so devoid of life as Gajeel sourly dug into his food.