Lucy sprinted the whole way back to the castle. She skidded to a halt at the edge of the forest, waiting for the guards to continue their rounds until they couldn't see her, then she sprinted towards the wall, and climbed up as fast as she could. She then swung up over the railing of her balcony and smoothly slipped into her room. She ripped her clothes off, and stuffed them under the two loose tiles next to her bed into the one of the two chests where she kept all of her secret clothing. In the other chest were things that were special to her, photos, souvenirs... She soundlessly replaced the tiles, slipped into her cream colored nightgown, and cuddled up under her covers. She tried to sleep for the time remaining before Juvia, her lady in waiting and one of her best friends in the castle, came to wake her up, but she couldn't, she was too excited from her meeting with Natsu. Maybe they could become friends! Who knew? She'd have to go ask Levy, the royal librarian and also one of her best friends, about it. Not directly of course. Even if she knew Levy wouldn't tell, she still wanted to keep it a secret for now. And so, for the last ten or so minutes that she had left to her, she thought about all the things she would bring for Natsu tonight.

Juvia came to wake Lucy up around 15 minutes after she got back from her little escapade.

"Lucy-san. Lucy-san. Lucy-san!"

"Mmmm... Five more minutes..."

"Juvia is sorry, but it is time for Lucy-san to wake up. Juvia doesn't want His Majesty to get mad at Lucy-san, so please wake up."

"Okay, okay. I'm up Juvia. I guess you do have a point about my father."

Lucy stretched her arms above her head as she sat up yawning. She blinked her eyes blearily at the bluenette in front of her. Juvia was really pretty, beautiful even. She had beautiful light but dark blue hair that fell in waves over her shoulders, and sapphire eyes that seemed to glitter when the light hit them. She had nice curves and a nice chest as well. She seemed to always wear warm but fashionable clothes. She was wearing a nice Russian style navy blue hat with a golden butterfly clip on it with a nice navy blue dress that was slit along the legs. It was a very cute dress, and she was really surprised that her father had allowed Juvia to wear that instead of the usual maid outfit. But no one really knew his reasoning behind anything, so she never asked.

"Good morning, Juvia." Lucy gave a smile to Juvia.

"Good morning, Lucy-s- Oh!"

Lucy had tackled Juvia in a hug and was squeazing her tightly. Juvia hugged back but asked, "Lucy-san, is something wrong?"

"No. Just happy is all."

"O-ok."

They stayed like that for a couple minutes until they heard a knocking on the door before a dark haired man came into the room, pulling his shirt off as he came in. Lucy released Juvia and sweatdropped.

"Gray, what's the point of knocking if you're just gonna walk in without waiting for my answer?"

"I knew you weren't changing yet," Gray said shrugging nonchalantly, winking with one of his icy blue eyes.

"Whatever, but, Gray, your shirt."

"What?" Gray asked looking down. "Shit. Ah, well, that's the fourth one I've lost on my way up here, so there's really no point anymore."

"Good morning, Gray-sama!" Juvia said as she latched onto his arm.

"O-Oi, Juvia! Good morning to you too, but you really don't have to do that every morning..." Gray said. Lucy could tell he was trying to act annoyed, but she saw right through it from the small smile he had on his face. When Juvia had first started working at the palace, (thanks to Gray), Gray was pretty annoyed at all the attention at first, then he slowly warmed up to her because he noticed that Juvia wasn't just a fangirl, she was a great friend, and really cared about people's feelings. She helped Gray out a lot with his tragic past (it's a long story). But anyways, Lucy was really starting to wonder when he was gonna ask her out. It was pretty obvious he liked her, and everyone knew that Juvia more than liked him. She would have to have a serious talk with him later.

"Okay, you two lovebirds," Lucy said tauntingly causing both to blush furiously and pull away from each other. "I'm gonna go get dressed, so, Gray, you have to leave."

"Yeah, yeah." Gray said leaving.

"Gray-sama, your pants!"

"Shit!"

Lucy watched & listened to this in amusement while she looked through her extensive wardrobe for something she wanted to wear. Honestly, she wanted to wear a miniskirt with a tanktop or a croptop, but her father would never let her. Probably disown her if she weren't the heir to the throne. She sighed and started to go through the gowns when Juvia came next to her and wordlessly started to help her. She smiled and they continued until they picked out a nice peach gown. Juvia dressed Lucy and did up her hair, and they talked the whole time. Lucy was dying to tell Juvia about Natsu, but refrained from doing so. When they were done getting ready, a knocking was heard from the door, and judging by the fact that the person didn't enter right after they knocked, it wasn't Gray or Cana, another one of Lucy's bodyguards, but Erza.

"Come on in, Erza!" Lucy called. The door opened and the scarlet-haired warrior entered, decked out in a silver chest plate with a golden cross on the side, arm guards, a navy blue skirt with a sword hanging at the belt, and black combat boots. Over all, she looked kind of intimidating, but she dressed like this everyday, so Lucy was used to it.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Well, I knew it wasn't Gray because you waited after you knocked to enter, and I knew you weren't Cana because you didn't enter without knocking and scream, 'Lucy! Let me see your boobies!!', so it had to be you."

That's when Erza got a scary aura around her, and said, "THOSE MINDLESS PERVERTS!!!! I'LL TEACH THEM A LESSON THEY"LL NEVER FORGET!!"

And without further ado, Erza had stomped out of the room with a murderous expression on her face. She returned moments later dragging Gray and Cana by the ears. She set them down painfully on the floor, and pulled out her sword saying, "Now you will pay for your sins!"

"E-Erza, w-we're sorry!"

"Y-Yeah, what he said."

"E-Erza," Lucy said, smiling nervously, sweat rolling down her forehead. "It's really not that big of a deal. A simple apology is enough."

"Are you sure, Lucy?" Erza asked, the sword still mercilessly at Gray and Cana's throats. They were looking at her with pleading expressions while Juvia was begging Erza to please not hurt her Gray-sama.

"Y-yes. I'm sure."

"Okay. Now apologize!!" Erza said forcefully tilting her blade to the sun. She heard Gray and Cana yelp, and she had to put her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggling.

"We're sorry!!!" Gray and Cana sobbed.

Lucy couldn't take it anymore, she burst out laughing and was actually howling from laughter, clutching her sides. At first Gray and Cana just glowered at her for laughing at their plight, then everyone started laughing together. This felt nice, laughing with some of her favorite people in the world. Once they had all calmed down, she said, "Okay, let's go get this royal crap over with."

"Yeah!" Cana cheered, holding up a bottle of beer that Lucy hadn't noticed before. Lucy sweatdropped.

"Cana, if my father sees that you're drinking on the job..."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get yo' panties in a twist," Cana slurred.

"Cana, you're already drunk?" Gray asked, incredulously.

"Aren't I always?"

"Juvia thinks Cana has a point."

"Well, we should probably get going, your father will not be happy if he finds out you were even the slightest bit late to your lessons." Erza spat the last part out, clearly very hateful of Lucy's father, and Lucy and every one of her friends completely agreed with her. Then they all filed out.

After all of Lucy's tedious classes, she finally got some time to go riding. She ran, well as fast as she could run in a stupid gown, to the stables. She burst through the doors and said excitedly, "Sagittarius! Sagittarius!"

"At your service, moshi, moshi."

"I have some time so I wanted to ride."

"Of course, let me just saddle Tsuki up for you."

"Can I try to saddle her up this time?

"I don't know... if His majesty found out... moshi, moshi..."

"Don't worry, he won't find out."

"Ok."

So Lucy proceeded to saddling up Tsuki, her horse, while her guards saddled up beside her since they were required to be with her at all times. To be exact, Tsuki was her mother's horse, but after her mother's death there was no one to ride her, and Lucy didn't actually have her own horse at the time, so she decided to take the care of Tsuki to the best of her abilities.

Every time she made a mistake, Sagittarius would show her the right way. When they were done, she cheered in joy. She had finally done something by herself.

"Alright, I'm ready to ride!"

"It seems that you are, moshi, moshi!"

"I congratulate your efforts, Lucy," Erza said approvingly.

Lucy climbed into the saddle and led Tsuki out of the stables. Tsuki nickered and Lucy stroked her shiny black mane whispering, "I missed you too girl." Then they were off. Lucy loved riding Tsuki for several reasons: she loved Tsuki, she was fast, and she was beautiful. Her coat was black with white spots, like stars shining in the night sky, and she had a white diamond on her forehead. Her silky black mane was so soft. Over all, she looked like the night sky, shining with stars, with the diamond on her forehead like the moon, hence her name since Tsuki meant moon.

They rode until the sun was low enough to start setting. zShe hoped Natsu hadn't starved to death, she really was going to have to bring a lot of provisions if she was going to leave him alone all day every day.

Metal clanged against metal, and Lucy jumped back. She slashed again with her sword, but Erza easily parried her blow, returning it with a jab of her own that Lucy easily avoided by whirling to the left. She ducked, narrowly avoiding Erza's sword as it whistled above her head. She took that opportunity to slash at Erza's legs, but Erza jumped back just in time. They continued in this fashion until Erza finally disarmed Lucy.

"Damn it, Erza. Next time, it'll be me who disarms you," Lucy huffed.

"We'll see about that," she said, smirking. "But you've progressed considerably. I'd say you could beat anyone who wasn't me, or better than me."

"Oh, come on, there's no one that's better than you."

"I'm glad you have so much faith in my abilities, Lucy, but there's always going to be someone better than you, and that is why you must strive to be your best, so you'll have a fighting chance against them."

"Understood."

"Now, tomorrow we will continue sparring, but for a shorter period of time because I would like to start on hand-to-hand combat. You have to know how to fight with your fists in case you don't have a weapon."

"Ok, I look forward to it," Lucy said smiling. She was genuinely excited.

"Good, remember, same time tomorrow, same place."

"Of course. Oh, and Erza?"

"Hmm?"

"I asked the ladies in the kitchen to prepare you a strawberry shortcake. Thought you deserved a treat"

"Really?" Erza's eyes sparkled.

"Yup." Lucy giggled. Erza loved her cake, so much in fact, that beware her wrath if you ever get in between her and her cake. Seriously though.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, Lucy, I have some important business to attend to."

Lucy giggled in response and waved goodbye to her before exiting the training room herself, thinking, I have some important business to attend to myself...