Once Upon a Fairy Tail {A Fairy Tail Fanfiction}

Chapter Four: Rapunzel

Natsu, in contrast to having woken up to the next chapter as he had before, found himself falling from the middle of nowhere and into a crowd of people who jerked, startled.

The dragonslayer took a moment to rub his sore bottom (cobblestone was not exactly the most comfortable surface), and looked up to meet the curious gazes of the surrounding villagers.

If Natsu had taken the time to notice the village, he would have seen it was quite homely, if not quaint. However, his attention was drawn by the clamoring people surrounding him.

"Wow! Look at his clothes-!"

"Hey, doesn't he look a lot like the-"

"Pink hair...?" (He chose to ignore this comment.)

Natsu experimentally flicked his fingers- a snap of clawed nails revealed no visible spark, and Natsu deflated.

No powers, again? And just when he had gotten them back, too...

And Lucy- she was separated from him again? Natsu stumbled to his feet, ignoring the gaudy clothes that adorned him, and pushed the people aside.

"Ah, excuse me young lad, but how did you-?"

"Hey, old gramps," Natsu cut off the man addressing him impatiently, invoking a flinch and a glare that he ignored. "Have you seen this girl? I, uh, I need to... do... something...?"

Well, it was halfway believable.

"What does this girl you speak of look like?" The man responded stiffly; Natsu couldn't help but bite back a retort at the formal way of talking he had. Sheesh. Lucy wasn't this stiff.

Right. Lucy.

"Well... she's got these huge..." Natsu helplessly made round gestures from his chest, and man rolled his eyes- young people these days. Figured that would be what they noticed first.

(However, if he had met Lucy firsthand, he would have seen that they were impossible to miss, and Natsu was simply stating the facts.)

"We don't really have anyone quite like that," the man said as the crowd dispersed, uninterested in the topic. "But we do have someone rather like that. Quite pretty, too."

Lucy was pretty... right? Had he ever even paid attention to that kind of thing? "Yeah," Natsu bobbed his head excitedly, his face lighting up. "Can you tell me where she is?"

The man mumbled something that sounded a lot like, 'oh, the glories of youth', and directed Natsu to the town's library.

Natsu, busy with thoughts of Lucy, didn't hear the man wonder aloud why the rumored wandering Prince had fallen from the middle of the sky into their village.

___________________________

The dragonslayer barged into the small, musty library, ignoring the outbursts of the bookkeeper. Mustering his voice as loud as it could go, Natsu roared, "LUCCYYYYYYY!" In the process, the fire mage managed to nearly knock down several bookshelves. (As it was, Natsu tripped over the library's rug and hit his head on the edge of the bookkeeper's desk.)

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Natsu's eyes strayed upwards to meet inquisitive green ones that, to his disappointment, were definitely not Lucy's. However, he wasn't too far off.

"Levy!" Natsu grinned, glad to see a familiar face. "What're ya doin here?"

Levy quirked an eyebrow; any normal person would have shied away, but Natsu simply laughed at her expression.