Fairy Tale

By ahmandie, who as you know, doesn't own FT one bit.

Chapter 1: The Book

"The mailman has a crush on you," said Natsu, lazily stuffing chocolate chip cookies into his mouth. It was late in the afternoon and he had the munchies.

Lucy rolled her eyes as she closed the door. "Oh please, he does not. You just think that because he knows my name."

"No, it's the way he says, 'Lucy, I've got some mail for you!' And plus, he doesn't know my name."

"...It's because you never get any mail."

Natsu snorted, his mouth full as he held up his pointer finger, cookies forgotten. "Mnnuh trooh," he stated, choking a little before he swallowed. Fumbling deep within his cavernous pockets, he brought forth a sad looking, crumpled up envelope. "See? I got this."

Lucy stared at the wad of paper. It was hopelessly scrunched up beyond any recognition, but for some reason, it looked awfully familiar...Wait a minute. That little blue stripe...Wasn't that...her stationary? "Natsu, that's the letter you made me write you," she said, dryly, "That doesn't count."

"What's so good about mail then, huh? Getting boxes?" He dismissively gestured at the box on the coffee table. "Psh, I don't need any boxes."

He eyed the box in contempt...but then curiosity got the better of him. "So...can I open it?"

She sighed, reaching for a pair of scissors. As she slit the packing tape and pulled away the bubble-wrap, Natsu excitedly reached in and pulled out...a red leather book.

"A book?" said Lucy, puzzled. Why would someone want to send her a book?

Natsu fished around in the box. "Oh look, there's a note," he said, reading it out-loud. "To Lucy: Hello dear! I found this in a box with some of your old things. Thought you might like it. Happy reading! Love always, Mrs. C."

"Oh!" said Lucy, clapping her hands. "Mrs. C. She's the family housekeeper."

"What's this?" Natsu asked, flipping through the pages. He thumbed through the text until he stopped at a rather large picture of a beautiful woman in a tall tower, her shiny golden locks hanging from the window.

"Hey Lucy, aren't you a bit old to be reading fairy tales?"

"Of course not. You're never too old," she said indignantly, snatching the book away. And as she closed the book, her fingers brushed against something on the cover. The soft leather had been delicately embossed with a symbol, a squiggly triangle encased in a rigid looking circle. "I...I don't remember this being there..."

"Hey, that's, whatchamacallit," said Natsu, snapping his fingers. He knew what the rune meant, it was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. "It's that...ope...orn...obsi...Aarg, it starts with an 'o'."

"Really? You can read this?" she asked, skeptically.

"Yep. And I remember 'em good," He tapped his head, "Can't fall asleep when your teacher is a fire breathing dragon."

"Oh yeah? What's this one then?" Lucy pointed at the cover, a mischievous grin on her face.

"I told you, I err--I forget that one."

"You probably just slept with your eyes open."

"Whatever," he scoffed, turning around and crossing his arms. "Now I'm gonna remember it just to spite you."

Lucy sighed, more amused then irritated. "Alright, Natsu, you go for it," she said, flipping through the book. The text was so neat and the illustrations were gorgeous. But now that she thought about it, she didn't remember this particular book at all. The book that Mrs. C had always read stories from was blue, not red. Oh well, she thought, It has been a while since I've read fairy tales.

Her thoughts were interrupted with a loud "AH HA!" as Natsu bounded back to the couch. "OPENIAN! It's openian!" he exclaimed, stealing the book from her grasp, "I told you I'd remember."

"Hey! Be careful!" she said, stealing it back. "You're going to rip it!"

"But I get to look at it first because I remembered," said Natsu, with a matter-of-fact tone. He clamped the book shut and repeatedly tapped at the symbol. "Openian, openian, openian."

"Alright, alright. You can do it," she said, handing it over, "But I get to look too."

Natsu grinned, turning the pages until it was back to the woman in the tower. "I've never heard of this one."

"...You've never heard of Rapunzel?"

"Nope. What kind of name is Rapunzel?"

"I don't know, princesses all have 'unique' names," she said, getting up for a glass of water. "Like Cinderella or Snow White."

Lucy quickly filled two glasses and returned to the table, the ice softly clinking in its containers. She was just about to sit down, but it was then that the cover of the book began to glow.

"Natsu? What exactly did you--"

Suddenly the rune gave off a fantastically bright flash of light and Lucy felt the floor beneath her give way. As she began to fall, she screamed, flailing her arms and grabbing at the fluttering scarf of an also falling and yelling Natsu. The bewildered look in his eyes mirrored the look in her own, and she knew exactly what they were both thinking.

What the hell is going on?!

--------

As Lucy opened her eyes, the first thing she was aware of was the ridiculously bright light flooding the room. The second was that she was lying on the floor, as if she'd fallen down. And it was most likely a combination of the two that was responsible for the mad throbbing in her head.

She groaned, gingerly standing up, and very slowly, she made her way to the window. Her head felt heavy, as if she were dragging a ton of lead weights by the skin of her scalp.

"No curtains? Are you serious?" she complained, fumbling around blindly. In her confusion, she accidentally pushed the panel open. The bright light instantly gave way to a brilliantly blue, cloudless sky and Lucy's head cleared.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She was standing on a balcony of some sorts, and the air was deliciously fresh and crisp, like mountain air but sweeter. And the view! She could see for miles around, the landscape covered in lush greenery. If only I could get a view this from my apartment, she thought, leaning dreamily against the rail. Then reality struck, making her heart nearly stop. Her eyes opened wide, as she glanced around.

"My apartment--this isn't my apartment," she panicked. The glowing book cover had transformed her usual T-shirt and jeans combo into some kind of glittering pink ball gown, complete with ruffles and all. Lucy looked over the railing and she involuntarily gasped when she saw that the ground was a good fifty feet down. She backed away from the rail, trying to take deep breaths, but she tripped landing on her bottom.

"What the--" She had tripped over a thick golden coil. Who the hell leaves rope like that lying around?

But Lucy was a smart girl and she could put two and two together. She was in a tower, quite high up and she would have bet her keys that there would be no hidden staircase leading down. She was trapped up here. And with much apprehension, she knew that the that blond braid coiling through the room was none other then her hair.

But that still left one question: Where was Natsu?

A/N: Openian: based on the Old English verb for 'open.'

but YAY, new NxL fic. 'Tis short, but its something new for the new year.

I actually wrote something very very similar to this with a different pairing, maybe a year ago? Or was it last summer? I forget, but the chemistry was all off so I stopped. Perhaps I'll post it on my LJ or something. BTW, I made one.

But anyway, the idea for this came up when I kept typing fairy TALE instead of TAIL. And voila. More to come, please review!