Fairy Tale

This is my favorite, and my most wordy, so be prepared!

WARNING: I say the words "fairy tale" way more than I should.

Lastly, DISCLAIMER! I know you guys are so glad that I don't own Fairy Tail. What a catastrophe that would be, right?

Enjoy!

'Though she definitely wasn't Cinderella, and he certainly wasn't Prince Charming, they still lived a Fairy Tale.'

They met in London. She was a bartender for the roudiest place in the city, and he was a toxicology major studying at the university. She was nice, sweet, and probably one of the sexiest women you'd find, and while he was handsome he had a record with the police so long, that he knew most of their first names.

Not only were they almost never destined to cross paths, they were complete opposites in every way. But isn't that how fairy tales go, the unexpected always happens.

It all started in the sixth month of her employment. Lucy was tending a bar in the better part of London, trying to put herself through college, and constantly having to work overtime to keep up with her insane rent, while sending postcards back to her family in New York. The bar she worked in, Fairy Tail, was nice and friendly, but most of the regular patrons had fights with each other for no apparent reason, other than they just thought it would be fun at the time.

But not all drunks were nice. That she knew very well. Lucy was sexy and cute, not even a blind person could deny that. She had sunshine colored hair that reached her small waist, beautifully warm brown eyes, and all the curves needed of a model, which she sometimes was when money was tight. So it was no surprise when one of the men at the bar decided to try and get a little grabby or perverted, all it took to get rid of them was one quick look to Gajeel, Elfman, or Laxus, and the pervert in question would be quivering in his socks.

All of them reacted that way, except this one. He usually just walked to one of the tables and started staring again, then leave when it was closing time. It was so disturbing that for the past week, Lucy had been walking home with her phone turned to her best friend's number, just incase she was attacked by the brunette stalker. Natsu hated that the guy watched her, and was always willing to take her back to her apartment, but she never let him. He had a girlfriend, who as nice as she was, needed the boy who didn't constantly come home late from making sure his friend, who just so happened to be a girl, got home safe.

Besides, it was only twenty minutes, so nothing extremely bad could happen, right?

Wrong. A lot can happen if you give it time.

It was a late Thursday night, one of Lucy's busiest, when she got attacked. The brunette had finally decided to follow her openly home, and she had been just about to push send on Natsu's number when BAM! she was thrown up against the nearest wall, phone clattering to the ground.

"Hey Blondie, we finally meet," a sick and twisted voice whispered in her ear, "don't try and scream. We're not going to want someone messing up our fun."

At the last word she decided that the hand on her throat wasn't enough of a threat and let out an ear piercing screech, just for a cloth to be shoved in her mouth, cutting off most of her air as well as silencing any form of cries for help. At that point Lucy couldn't help but think she was doomed, and that she was sorry for anyone who found her rotting corpse in the morning, or whenever this psycho decided to let her die.
But would she allow him to get away with that? No! She was Lucy Aries Heartfilia, and she would be damned if some stalking thug destroyed the life had had built just to get rid of a hard on. No, that wasn't how she wanted to go out. So she kicked out, going for any available body parts. Her low heeled boot caught a knee cap, and her attacker groaned in pain but didn't let go. She tried a little higher, but he was aware of it this time and dodged, but in doing so, lessened his hold.

She took the chance and rammed her elbow into his stomach, then quickly pushed of the brick wall and ran. Right into a chest as solid as the surface she had just left.

Lucy backed up a step, then remembering the rapist behind her, tried to run around this new figure, but was quickly caught by her arm and pulled back. She got her limbs ready to fight again, but was stopped when a hard, but gentle voice said, "Stay behind me. I'll protect you." She trusted those words, for only the reasoning that their owner was possibly her only hope at this moment. Her hope in question was tall, with a shock of spiky dark reddish maroon hair, which she followed down to a black pea coat and black pants. He was facing her stalker and almost growling his words in a way that she could barely make them out, but the meaning was clear. So much in a way that the man he was facing stepped back a bit, then ran, the bastard.

"Are you okay?" the gentle sound broke her out of her thoughts, and she now saw that he was tilting his body down a little ways so as to face her, and Lucy realized she now had the opportunity to observe her savior up close. He was handsome, a fact that was only emphasized by his one purple tinted eye and the scar that crossed vertically over the other. She nodded to as not be caught staring, then tried to back away but he grabbed her arm again shaking his head. "That's not going to do it Princess, need to actually hear it, because if I don't, I'll take my skills to use and go after that son of a bitch back there and he'll never look at anything edible without gagging again. So, I'll ask again, are you okay?"

The threat sent a shiver down her spine, and she had to remind herself on how to speak. "Y-yes, I-I'm okay. Thank you. . ."

"Cobra." he smiled at her confused expression but just replied with, "it's something I picked up. Now, how 'bout we get you home Princess, I need to sleep tonight."

She couldn't help staring at his mouth as it made the syllables, suddenly wishing it was closer. 'Stupid Lucy,' the blonde chided herself. 'He's probably got a girlfriend or something, and besides, after he walks you home you're never going to see each other again.' and that thought chilled her more than any rapist's words ever could, because stranger as he was, she didn't want this man to leave her. It was like that moment in a fairy tale, when the heroine just knew. She knew that this man was someone that she couldn't possibly live without, and that whose time with her was not to be wasted.
So, she cleared her throat and started leading him by her captured left hand saying, "Come on, my apartment's this way. We aren't that far actually, two more strets and you wouldn't have had to save me at all."

She thought she almost heard him mutter "sadly" but was sure it was just her mind playing tricks just to give her hope.

When they reached her building, she tried to get him to let her go at the door, but again Cobra refused to leave her alone, saying, "Hey, you're a blonde. If I let you walk up stairs by yourself you'll probably fall right back down. No thanks to those things hanging off your chest." Lucy was tempted to hit him, but by his smirk, she suspected he knew it was going to come.

"Fine, but if you destroy anything, and I do mean anything, I will castrate you, then throw your dead and decomposing body out my back window for the birds." with that cheery thought in their heads, the strange pair wandered up the stairs to her second floor flat. Neither noticed the suspiciously grinning white haired woman who had watched them all the way from the attack, smiling to herself and muttering, "finally Lucy, I finally pegged you. Have fun, CoLu!"

When Lucy emerged from her bathroom, she found Cobra nodding off on her couch. When they had walked in, she had immediately voiced the wish to change into something that she had not been nearly raped in, and the man just nodded and had walked into her kitchen. She noticed a plate with what looked like a fourth of a sandwich left on her coffee table, and just moved it to her dining table. She could deal with it later, when her newfound 'Prince Charming' had gone and returned to is life away from her. For now, all she wanted was to lay down next to him and sleep her fear and loneliness off, which is exactly what she would've done in any other circumstance, had she not needed to think what had happened over.

So, she pulled the coffee table away and sat down next to Cobra's bent legs, finding the space perfect. Then she started thinking. Over the past couple months, her fellow barmaid Mirajane had tried to set her up on date after date after date. Some had been with regulars, others with just random guys who had nothing in common with her except they were the same species. Before moving to England Lucy had enjoyed dating, even had a boyfriend in high school. However, nowadays she was just trying to get her rent in on time, as well as take her classes, and all the other things she had to deal with, so finding a significant other had quickly dropped off her list of important activities.

But then here was someone who was nice and wonderful in the way that made her heart melt, and her thoughts stop, and her legs turn to jello.

That hadn't happened in. . .ever. This man, this Cobra, was something new. But she didn't want him to be new. Lucy was selfish enough to admit that she wanted him to be there for her so often that she'd have to try and tell him to go away. She wanted him to help her move into a new, bigger apartment, wanted him to be there on those long nights of writing, rubbing her shoulders, making her tea. She wanted him to be in her life until she forgot what it was like to be without him, and that scared her. How could anyone want to be with another person so much it made their heart and soul nearly explode?
Lucy couldn't answer. But wasn't that the point of fairy tales? There were no answers to as why the prince and princess loved each other, they just did. They had just fallen in love so many times in so many stories, that eventually, there was no reason. They just loved.

Her mind would've gone farther, but Cobra groaned, and thinking he was waking up, Lucy jumped up. She didn't want him thinking that she had been doing anything to him while he was asleep. Not that she would, but still. Fortunately, her house guest wasn't waking, just moving to a different position, one that apparently involved her, because he suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her down to his hard chest. Though now that she wasn't running into it in fear, Lucy found that his body was actually quite comfortable. "Good Princess," the maroon haired man muttered, turning her back to the back of the couch, "stop all your messy thinking." And he fell back asleep with a soft sigh.

Lucy's face was burning, and she was one hundred percent sure it was the color of her best girl friend's scarlet hair. But there was little to nothing that she was able or willing to do about her position, so she let it slide that one of his hands was on the small of her back, and the other was making small circles on her waist. The happy blonde just closed her eyes, shifted to make herself comfortable, and drifted off to an almost dreamless sleep.

When Cobra woke, he was lying against something soft and smelling of strawberries. It was also squishy, and he decided, the best thing he had ever felt against his person, and that was saying something. When you were as hot as he was, and had a knack for telling what people were thinking, you got a lot of luxuries, but nothing that had ever compared to the heaven he was currently in. He opened his one good eye, spying a lock of blonde hair and Lucy's barely concealed chest, which was partly covered by a blue tank top. He looked further down and found his arm around her waist along with a wild tangle of legs. Huh. Didn't this girl have her own bed? He remembered seeing one the night before when he was snooping through her closet. Not looking for anything sexy really, though he may have 'accidentally' found her underwear, he was just trying to make sure she had pepper spray, a golf club, or just something to ward of attackers should he not be there again. Not that he planned to ever not be there, of course.

Yes, he knew how he felt. It was hard at first, just seeing her around the college they both attended, then suddenly speaking to her in their one shared class about the homework he had missed hearing about because he had been too busy staring at the bombshell next to him. She had probably forgotten all about that, and about their first real conversation at the Fairy Tail bar a few weeks prior. He had wandered in there at a hint from his friend Midnight, who had been acting way more energized than his usual sleep deprived self was supposed to be, and there she was. So, he sat at the bar, ordered a drink, and watched her. Not in a creepy way, not like that brunette with no name but Jackass, he watched her with gentle glances now and then, just enough for him to make sure she was okay and not troubled about anything.

It was also that night that he found out he loved her. It may have been his sudden interest in reading old fairy tales recently, but he was certain that this magical creature that glided around the hot and awkward space like it was a dance hall, was everything he had been looking for to redeem himself of a shattered and desolate past. Lucy was the piece that fit where nothing else had, she was the warm sunshine and bright spring that his cold winter had been missing, she was the one person he knew that he could trust with anything he gave her.

He had planned on asking her out after class the next week, since he mad missed his chance when she wasn't there two days prior. It was pure chance that he visited the snake venom lab near Fairy Tail last night, and saw her being followed. 'Pure chance that you were able to save her.' he had been ready to acknowledge that, but his treacherous mind never liked to let him off easy, especially with guilt ridden things. In response, he buried his nose in his companion's soft and silky hair, possibly hoping that it would somehow drive away the pain of his past.
It worked, a little too well.

Lucy opened her eyes to the same hard muscled chest she had closed them to the night before. She blinked once, then twice, and a third time, still surprised it was still there, 'Shouldn't he have left already? He was only here to make sure you're okay, and that's pretty obvious, so why?' her mind was stopped short when he stretched and mumbled, "Hey, Princess, I know you can cook and I'm hungry. Make breakfast."

She smirked then replied, "No, I'm fine where I am, besides people who talk to me like that never get anything other than this," and she pinched him, causing a small groan. It was an interesting sound, and Lucy was going to see if she could make him make it again, but the man moved too fast, suddenly pushing her onto her back so he leaned over her. 'Damn he's sexy' she blushed.

"Oh I am, am I? Is that why I woke up to such a beautiful sight this morning, hmm Princess?" he breathed the last word on her neck, just before giving her a playful nip, causing her to gasp. He chuckled, then pulled back, making Lucy almost wine at the loss of contact. "Oh no, Princess, you're making me breakfast this morning."

"In exchange for what?" she smirked, but was internally outraged. He had spent the night at her home! What more pain did he want to inflict on her when he left?

"For me saving you last night." the girl under him flinched, and his bravado diminished almost completely, but when she sighed and appeared to give in, it returned. Up until she pushed him off the couch and ran to her bedroom that is.

"Ha! If you want that breakfast you're gonna have to catch me first!"

Cobra eagerly followed, only just getting inside the door when the blonde started to close it. She raced to one side of her bed, and he went to the other, blocking her escape. Lucy glared at him, then edged side to side trying to confuse him, but Cobra wasn't having that. Instead of copying her movements like anybody else would, he jumpled across the bed and grabbed his prize, rolling so that she didn't hit the floor. "Well Princess, I seem to have caught you, what do I get again?"

She glared at him and tried to struggle, but sighed, "I think you get a homemade breakfast, if I remember my promise correctly. Let me up and I'll start on it." He held her for another minute, just savoring the feel of his arms around her waist, but let her go.

That afternoon saw Cobra leaving Lucy's house rather reluctuntly. He had promised to come see her at Fairy Tail,but he was still worried about her attacker, which he told her, and the fact that he was running away from something that could be beautiful, which he didn't. Cobra knew that as soon as he walked out that door, he was starting down a long twisted road of questioning himself, and possibly wasting years.

'When have you ever been unsure about your feelings? She's exactly what you need, and vise versa. You know that. So take the damn chance!' and he did. "Lucy." he startled the woman, who had apparently been lost in her own thoughts as well. "I have to leave."A quiet, "Oh. . ." was all he got in return.

"But that doesn't mean I want to, which I don't." the light leapt back into her gold eyes as he kept going, "I'm never going to want to leave. You and I only met last night, but it's like in one of those child stories you always hear, where the prince saves the princess and they just. . .connect. We connected, Lucy, and I'm ready to keep that because I didn't just save you, you saved me. So please, don't make me leave."

Lucy swallowed, completely unprepared for the confession, but at the same time, miffed that it hadn't come sooner. But despite that, she knew her response like it had been written and read by her a thousand times. "I know. It didn't seem real when you saved me, but it also seemed like I'd been waiting for it, like we've been in love before. That sounds crazy, but this might just be one of those fairy tales, where the prince and the princess fall in love in that split second. I don't know how it's possible, but I fell in love with you in that split second, and I'm prepared to do that over and over and over again, just like in a story. So no, don't you dare leave."

And the pair kissed, passionately, sweetly, with hands roaming everywhere and nowhere, they kissed and fell even deeper in love, just like in a fairy tale.