Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter. This one gave me a bit of trouble, but I finally got it done, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Again, I hope the characters don't sound to OC, but I think I did pretty good at keeping them in character... characters? To be honest it is a little hard to keep the fairy tail characters personality and Lucy and Natsu's personality straight some times... I even caught myself calling Lucy Ariel on accident.

Anyway... I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Lucy felt like she was floating. After the light overwhelmed her, she felt a tingling sensation through her whole body. 'Natsu. Is he...'

She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to clear her vision. She was in a big clearing with weird looking plants, big rocks, and a fish swam past her. 'Wait, a fish?' She looked around and now realized that the weird plants were coral, different types of sea anemones, and even some kelp. "I'm under water!" she exclaimed. She tried to take a step forward, but didn't feel her legs move. In fact, she couldn't feel them at all. She looked down and saw a bright, pink tail. "I have a tail!"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to relax. 'Ok, calm down, Lucy.' She snapped her eyes open. "Wait... I can breathe?" She took another deep breath to confirm it. 'Alright, well at least I won't drown.'

She sat down on the ground. 'So after Natsu started glowing, I got sent to... the ocean? I have a fishtail instead of legs, and I can breathe underwater. Now I know how Aquarious feels.' She looked down and saw that she was wearing nothing but two light green shells over her chest and a small bag with a long strap was over her shoulder. 'And I'm only in a bra.'

She looked down at her new tail and raised it up to get a feel for it. She pushed herself off the ground and began swimming around, stopping after she managed to swim in a straight line without flailing her arms to stay upright. 'Now, to figure out where I am, and where Natsu is. I hope he's ok.'

"Ariel!"

Lucy spun around and saw a chubby, yellow and blue fish that looked like a blue angelfish swimming toward her. 'Did he just call me Ariel? So, I'm in The Little Mermaid?'

The fish stopped in front of her. "Sorry I'm late, he said. "I overslept."

Lucy smiled. "It's fine, Flounder. Now that you're here, we can get going." Her body moved on its own just like it did when she was in Beauty and the Beast.

"Wait for me," Flounder said swimming to her side.

'So in this story, I am going to meet a human prince, which I'm going to guess is who Natsu's going to be playing as, I'll lose my voice to the sea witch, Ursula, and I have to make the prince kiss me.' Lucy stopped, making Flounder, who fell behind again, bump into her.

"What? What's wrong?" Flounder asked then swam under her free flowing hair to hide. "Is it a shark?" he asked nervously.

Lucy looked over her shoulder at the shivering fish. "Sorry, I just remembered something."

"Oh," he said relieved. "What is it you remembered?"

"Nothing important," she replied, a blush creeping up on her face as she continued swimming. She was grateful he didn't push the matter. 'If Natsu is the prince, then I... Oh, man. Why did I agree to this job again?'

The light around them got dimmer, and she saw that they had made it to a ship graveyard. She swam up to a ship mast and placed her hands on it. "There it is," she said pointing to a ship that looked like it sank recently. "Isn't it fantastic?"

"Yeah, sure. It's great," Flounder responded sarcastically. "Now, let's get outta here." He turned and tried to swim away, but Lucy grabbed his tail before he could get too far.

"You're not getting cod fins now, are you," she asked a bit annoyed. She swam over the mast and toward the ship, pulling him a bit before letting him go.

"Who me?" flounder replied. "No way. It's just..." He swam after her. "It looks damp in there. Yeah."

'Damp? Really? We're underwater, of course it's damp,' Lucy thought.

"And I think I may be coming down with something," he said placing a fin on his head. He looked over at her to see if she was paying attention. "Yeah, I got this cough," he continued then fake coughed.

Lucy was peering into a porthole in the ship, and looked up at him as he fake coughed again. "Alright. I'm going in," she said and squeezed through the hole. She turned back to him after she made it through. "You can just stay here and watch for sharks."

"Ok," he said and turned around.

She smirked and started swimming further into the ship.

"What? Sharks?" she heard him exclaim. "Ariel!"

She turned around when he called out to her and saw him get stuck in the porthole. 'Oh, if only that was Happy. I would have so much fun teasing him about being fat like he does to me all the time.'

Flounder struggled to push himself through the hole. "Ariel, I can't... I mean... Ariel, help!"

Lucy chuckled at him, swam over to him, and put her elbow in one hand and brought the other hand to her cheek. "Oh, Flounder." She grabbed his fins and pulled.

"Ariel," he whispered. "Do you really think there might be sharks around here?"

"Don't be such a guppy," she said still trying to pull him out. 'Man, he needs to go on a diet.'

"I'm not a guppy," he said pouting, and he finally popped out of the hole.

They swam through the ship and sown the hole that led to the bottom deck. 'I didn't know ships had a deck below the lower deck.' She heard Flounder muttering behind her, but ignored him and looked around the empty room. She frowned when she didn't see anything of interest.

Flounder screamed and she turned around to see him hit into a broken beam, and then the ceiling fell. He plowed into her arms, pushing her back a bit. "Are you ok?"

Flounder backed away from her a bit, shaking badly. "Yeah, sure. No problem. I'm ok."

She shook her head then noticed the collapsed ceiling made a hole to the middle deck. She swam up to it and poked her head through the hole, placing her hands on the edge of the floor, and saw something shiny laying on a pile of boards. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh! Have you ever seen anything so wonderful in your entire life?" she asked as she swam over to the object and picked it up.

"Wow! Cool!" he said swimming up to her. "But, uh, what is it?"

"It's a..." Lucy started, but stopped when she couldn't remember the name of it. 'Why can't I remember what this is called?' She looked at the long silver stick, and touched the top of it which had four spikey things on it. "I don't know," she said with a bit of a scowl, "but I bet Scuttle will." A smile crossed her face again at that, and placed the object in the bag on her hip.

She heard Flounder say he heard something, but ignored him and swam to the side of the room when see saw another object she couldn't remember the name of. 'Ok, this is getting a little frustrating.' "I wonder what this one is?" she asked as she picked up a small, brown object that had a tail that curved upward and a hole on top of the big part.

"Ariel?" Flounder called out to her worried.

"Flounder, will you relax?" Lucy said placing the new object in the bag with the other. "Nothing is going to happen."

She heard a growl and looked up to see a large shark staring in the large window that was in the room behind Flounder. Her eyes went wide and she gasped.

Flounder turned around when he heard the growl. "Shark!" he yelled and swam quickly into Lucy as the shark broke through the window and snapped his jaws at Flounder.

Lucy grabbed him as the shark swam clower, and dashed around it as it snapped its jaws at them. The shark turned and chased them, constantly snapping its jaws, until it slammed into a wall, giving Lucy and Flounder the chance to get away from it.

They swam back down the hole, through the room below to the hole that led to the second floor deck. They almost made it to the porthole they came in from when the shark burst through the floor, cutting off the exit. They turned and headed back down the hall, past the hole that led to the bottom deck, and to a porthole on the other side of the ship.

Her bag got caught on a board that was sticking out of the floor and got pulled off her shoulder, which made Lucy stop and turn around. The shark was coming closer, eating through the floor as it went, and she dashed over, grabbed the bag just before the shark chomped down on the spot it was in, and swam quickly to the porthole. 'That was too close.'

Flounder reached the porthole before her and swam into the hole, but got stuck again. She slammed her hands into him and pushed him through, then made her way through the hole herself.

She heard the shark crash through the side of the ship and follow them as they swam through the other ships masts, but stopped when she heard a loud thunk. She turned and saw that Flounder smacked into the pole of one of the masts and was falling to the ocean floor, the shark angling himself to come at him.

She dashed toward the falling fish and went through a large loop that was connected to the biggest anchor she'd ever seen, grabbing flounder and pulling him through. She saw the shark charging toward them and smiled as she backed up.

The shark slammed into the loop, making it bend a bit, but found itself stuck, struggling to get free.

Flounder, who recovered from hitting the mast, swam closer to the shark. "You big bully," he said, stuck his tongue out at the beast, and blew a raspberry at it. The shark snapped its jaws at Flounder's tongue, which made the small fish cry out and swim after Lucy.

Lucy chuckled and turned to swim away as Flounder caught up with her. "Flounder, you really are a guppy."

"I am not."

They swam for a bit until they reached a small rock platform with a large rock on top of it that was in the middle of nowhere, a large nest sitting on top of the rock. A seagull sat in the nest with a telescope on his head like a hat. "Scuttle!" she called out and swam up to the rock.

"Whoa!" Scuttle exclaimed as he took the telescope off his head and looked through the large end of it and leaned forward so he was hanging out of the nest, seeing her far away. "Mermaid off the port bow! Ariel, how you doin', kid?" he exclaimed.

Lucy cringed a bit at his loud voice. She shook her head and smiled.

Scuttle lowered the telescope and was face to face with Ariel. "Whoa, what a swim."

"Scuttle, look what we found," Lucy said placing the bag on the rock platform.

"We were in this sunken ship, and it was really creepy..." Flounder said.

"Human stuff, huh?" Scuttle said cutting the fish off. "Hey, let me see." He dropped an anchor with a rope attached to the top, not realizing that the rope was wrapped around one of his feet.

'Where in the world did he keep that thing?' Lucy thought, then flinched away when he dropped right in front of her.

Scuttle sat up, shook his head, and grabbed the bag and stuck his head in it as he rummaged through it. "Oh! Oh! Look at this," he said as he pulled the fork out of the bag. "Wow. This is special. This is very, very unusual."

"What? What is it?" Lucy asked.

"It's a dinglehopper," he said holding it out in front of him with both wings. "Humans use these babies..." He pushed on both ends of the fork and bent it so much it flipped out of his wings and he had to scramble to catch it. "...to straighten their hair out."

'Ok, at least I know that's not what it's used for... But seriously, why can't I remember what it is?' Lucy thought still a bit aggravated at that, but put on an eager smile.

Scuttle put the fork on top of his head and twisted it in his feathers. "See? Just a little twirl here and a yank there and violee..." he said as he pulled the fork away from his head, and the feathers stuck up everywhere. "Ya got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over." He walked over to her and handed it to her.

"A dinglehopper," Lucy said as she took the fork.

"What about that one?" Flounder asked pointing to the second object they found that had fallen out of the bag at some point.

"Ah!" Scuttle said as he picked up the smoking pipe. "This I haven't seen in years. This is wonderful!" He spun around, holding it in the air. He then turned and walked back to Lucy. "A blended, bulbous snarfblatt," he said as he held it out to the two.

'Is that what it's called?' Lucy questioned not feeling like that was right.

Scuttle laid down on his stomach, his head resting on one of his wings, and dipped the smoking pipe in the water and lifted it up to dump the water out as he said, "Now, the snarfblatt dates back to prehistorical times when humans used to sit around..." he sat up and pushed his face into Lucy's, "...and stare at each other all day. Got very boring."

He pulled away from her and spun around on his butt. "So, they invented this snarfblatt to make fine music," he said, then stood up and held it up to his face. "Allow me." He blew into the tail of the pipe, causing seaweed and other stuff to bubble out of the hole in the bigger part.

When she heard him say music, a memory of a concert she was supposed to be in flashed into her mind. "Music! Oh, the concert! oh, my gosh! My father's gonna kill me!" she said panicking a bit as she grabbed the fork from the rock and the pipe from Scuttle.

"The concert was today?" Flounder asked surprised and a bit worried.

"I'm sorry! I've gotta go! Thank you, Scuttle!" she said as she and Flounder swam away, Lucy turning enough to wave then dove under the water and toward Atlantica.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Natsu groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. His stomach was doing flips. He sat up and reached for his side that was injured, but he didn't feel any pain. When he lifted the white fancy shirt up, he saw that the wound Gaston had given him was gone, not even a scar was left. 'Well, that's a relief.'

He put the shirt back down and looked around the room. It was fancy looking, but also looked different than the rooms in the castle. His stomach did another flip and he put his hand over his mouth. "Why do I feel sick?"

He rolled out of bed and walked slowly to the large window that was covering one wall. It looked like it was curved as if that wall was domed. When he looked out, his eyes went wide. All he could see was a vast amount of water, and now that he was closer to the window, he could hear the water crashing against the side of what he assumed was a ship. "Why the heck would Lucy put me on a boat!" he exclaimed, but regretted it as he felt his stomach try to come up with the words.

When he heard a knock, he turned around to see an old man with long silver hair tied into a low ponytail and a black suit that looked like a servant's, but a higher up one, walk through the door. "Ah, Prince Eric, you're awake."

"Eric?" he asked no one in particular, quietly enough the old man couldn't hear. 'So, I'm in another story?' He groaned as memories popped into his head.

"How are you feeling this morning?" the old man asked.

"Why am I on a boat, Grimsby?" Natsu asked holding his stomach.

Grimsby smiled at him sympathetically. "I know you dread this every year, but it's been a tradition in your family for years to go out to sea on your birthday."

"I want to change it," Natsu said, his stomach doing another flip which made him goan. He walked to his bed and sat down.

"You say that every year, sir, but you have yet to do so," Grimsby said as he walked to a dresser and pulled out a white shirt and black pants. He sat them on top of the dresser and turned to walk back to the door. "Now, please get dressed. We're waiting for you on deck."

Natsu laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah, yeah. Give me a minute."

Grimsby chuckled. "Of course, sir," he said and walked out the door.

"So what fairy tale am I in now?" he asked when he no longer heard Grimsby's footsteps. He grabbed his scarf with one hand, revelling a bit from the familiar cloth.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

"I just don't know what we're going to do with you, young lady," a man named Triton, king of Atlantica, said. He had a green-blue tail, white hair that went down to his shoulders, a white beard that went down to the middle of his chest, and a gold crown that had five spokes on the front, the middle spoked being a little taller, and was sitting on a tall throne.

"Daddy, I'm sorry. I just forgot," Lucy said.

"As a result of your careless behavior..." Triton began, but was cut off by a small, red crab named Sebastian.

"Careless and reckless behavior!" Sebastian said sternly as he poked his head in between two fo the spokes of Triton's crown.

"... the entire celebration was, uh..." Triton tried again, but was cut off once more by Sebastian, who poked his head through Triton's beard, holding the hair apart with his claws.

'When did he...?' Lucy questioned.

"Wel, it was ruined! That's all! Completely destroyed!" he said as he left the beard and swam toward her. "This concert was to be the pinnacle of my distinguished career," he said dramatically.

'Dramatic much,' Lucy thought as she crossed her arms.

"Now, thanks to you, I am the laughingstock of the entire kingdom!" he yelled at her.

'Ugh, this guy reminds me of my dad,' she thought irritably.

Flounder was hanging back away from the angry king until he heard Sebastian yelling at Ariel. "But it wasn't her fault," he exclaimed swimming up to Sebastian, causing the crab to swim backwards until they were right in front of Triton.

Triton leaned forward in his seat, his angry stare switching to the fish.

"Uh, oh," Flounder stumbled out, the anger he felt toward Sebastian quickly disappearing under the king's stare. "First, uh, the shark chased us. Yeah, yeah. and we tried to... but we couldn't, and he..."

Lucy saw Triton and Sebastian looking at each other, not amused by Flounder's excuses, and sighed. 'If I remember correctly, this doesn't turn out so good.'

Flounder growled to imitate the shark. "And... And we... Whoa!" He spun around and put his fins on his face, then sighed. "And then we were safe." He let his whole body go lax. "But then this seagull came, and it was, 'This is this...'" he said sticking his tongue out and put his fins on the side of his body.

"Seagull?" Triton cut the fish off.

Flounder covered his mouth with both fins and swam behind Lucy, hiding under her hair.

Lucy glared at him when he poked his head out. "Thanks a lot," she whispered.

"You went up to the surface again, didn't you?" Triton asked angrily. He got off his throne and moved closer to her. "Didn't you?"

"Nothing happened," Lucy said not able to look Triton in the eyes, and held out her hands in an "I don't know" shrug.

"Oh, Ariel, how many times must we go through this?" Triton said a little calmer as he placed his hand on his head.

Lucy placed her hands behind her back, and flounder came out from underneath Lucy's hair, deeming it safe enough to do so now.

"You could have been seen by one of those barbarians, by one of those humans!"

"Daddy, they're not barbarians," Lucy said aggravated. 'This is just like my talk with dad about joining Fairy Tail.'

"They're dangerous," Triton bit back. "Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some fish-eater's hook?"

Lucy looked down, a bit ashamed, but when he raised her head with his hand, the anger made itself apparent again. "I'm 17 years old. I'm not a child anymore," she said turning her head to get it out of his hand and backed away from him.

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!" he said sternly, pointing at her. "As long as you live under my ocean, you'll obey my rules!"

"If you would just listen..." she tried to say. She knew if she had her feet, she would be stomping one to get her point across, but since she didn't, she just raised her hands and slammed them down in the air.

"Not another word!" Triton turned away from her. "And I am never, never to hear of you going to the surface again! Is that clear?" ye yelled turning his head to look back at her over his shoulder.

Lucy tilted her head up to look strong, but between this conversation and the memories of a similar conversation with her dad, her emotions were getting the best of her. Tears welled up in her eyes. When she couldn't hold them back any longer, she turned and swam away.

Getting away from Triton helped her to collect herself, and she saw Flounder move up to swim by her head. "Sorry, Ariel."

"It's fine," Lucy said not even looking at him. "I'm used to it by now." She glanced over and saw him looking at her sadly and gave him a smile. "Really. It's ok."

"Ok," he said and smiled back.

They swam for a while until they reached a small rock structure with a big, round, flat rock acting as the door. She pulled it out enough for them to get through, then swam in, hearing the rock clunk back into place to seal the entrance. They swam through the dark tunnel until they got to the large open space, her grotto. It was formed in a way that the walls looked like shelves, and those shelves were filled with objects from the world above.

She swam over and dropped herself over a rock that was in the middle of the grotto so her tail was hanging over the top of the rock and her head at the base. She pulled the fork from her bag and was looking at it. "If only I could make him understand. I just don't see things the way he does. I don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things, could be bad."

A candelabra sat in front of her with a knife and spoon on the outside arms, and she placed the fork on the middle one. "I mean look at all this stuff. It's amazing," she said as she turned and sat on top of the rock and looked at the many shelves. "You'd think my collection's complete, but I want something more."

"Like what?" Flounder asked.

Lucy looked up at the hole that was in the ceiling of the grotto, the moonlight shining down was what was lighting the room. "I want to be where the humans are, to be part of their world." 'And get my legs back... Although, I am kind of enjoying swimming everywhere.'

A loud crash sounded through the space, and Lucy and Flounder turned to see something red pop up out of a pile of stuff that had fallen off one of the shelves. "Sebastian!"

"Ariel, what are you... How could you... What is all this?" Sebastian asked as he kicked off a thimble that was stuck on two of his legs and pulled off a ring that got stuck around his neck.

"It's, uh..." Ariel said, fiddling with her fingers and looking away from him. "It's just my collection."

"Oh, I see. Your collection, hmmm," he began calmly, twirling a fishhook in his claw that was attached to a string that got wrapped around his claw, but threw it down on the floor after untangling the string from his claw and raised his voice. "If your father knew about this place..."

"You're not gonna tell him, are you?" Flounder asked swimming up into Sebastian's face.

Lucy swam up to him too, clasping her hands together. "Oh, please, Sebastian, he would never understand."

"Ariel, you're under a lot of pressure down here. Come on, I'll take you home and..." he started as he walked over to Lucy's hand and grabbed it carefully with his claws and started to pull her away.

A shadow fell over the grotto and Lucy looked up at the hole and saw that something big was passing overhead. "What do you suppose..." she said as she pulled her hand from Sebastian's claws and swam toward the entrance of the grotto.

"Ariel?" Sebastian called out, but she ignored him.

She moved the big rock away from the entrance and swam up to the surface towards a large ship. She peeked out of the water, staying low enough so that she was still somewhat hidden, and smiled.

Sebastian and Flounder popped up next to her. "Ariel, what are you... Jumpin' jellyfish!" Sebastian exclaimed.

Bright, colorful lights flashed in the sky above them and Lucy dove back down to swim faster to the ship.

"Ariel? Ariel! Please! Come back!" she heard Sebatian call out to her, but again, she just ignored him.

She used the dents in the wood to climb up the side of the ship and carefully peeked through a hole that was at the bottom of the wall. Several men, dressed in black and white striped shirts, red bandanas that tied in the front around their necks, khaki pants, with a black belt, black shoes with gold, square buckles, and some even wore a hat, danced around the deck.

A white and grey sheepdog was running and jumping around the men, barking happily until it sat up straight and sniffed the air. It put its nose on the deck, sniffed around, and came straight at her.

Lucy ducked down to avoid being seen. 'Dang it, it's just like Natsu.' See peeked over the edge again and came face to face with lots of fur, a big black nose, and a slobbery tongue, which the dog used to lick her face with.

Lucy flinched back then heard a voice call out to the dog, "Max! Here, boy!"

Lucy quickly scanned the deck and saw Natsu standing on the other side of the ship looking sick. 'Natsu! Poor guy,' she thought, very glad that she found him this quickly.

Max ran over to Natsu, jumped up on him, and licked his face.

Natsu pushed the dog away. "Hey, come on, mutt. I'm already unsteady on my feet as it is," he said, his fist clenched in the shirt over his stomach to try and keep it at bay.

Lucy placed her arms on the deck and laid her head on them, smiled, and just stared at him and noticed he looked a little paler than usual. 'Guess the spell didn't help with his motion sickness.'

"Hey there, sweetie! Quite a show, eh?" a loud voice called out.

Lucy shot her head up, almost losing her balance, and turned to see Scuttle hovering just above her. She grabbed Scuttle's beak, holding it shut, and pulled him down out of sight. "Scuttle, be quiet. They'll hear you."

"Got ya," he said in between his clenched beak. She let him go and he peeked over the deck to look at the men too. "We're bein' intrepidacious. We're out to discover!"

Lucy clamped his beak shut again. "Shh!" She then let him go and placed her head and arms in the same position as before and watched as Natsu took a few deep breaths to calm his stomach, the hand not on his stomach petting Max's head. "I never realized how handsome he was."

"I don't know. He looks kind of hairy and slobbery to me," Scuttle said rubbing his neck not understanding what was so handsome about him.

'Crap! I said that out loud!' Lucy laughed though. 'Oh, well. At least it's him and not Mira. She'd never let me live it down if I said that in front of her.' "Not that one," she said when she saw he was looking at Max. She pulled his face against hers and looked at Natsu. "The one with the pink hair."

"Silence, silence," an older gentleman called out trying to settle the men down. "It is now my honor and privilege to present our esteemed Prince Eric..." he walked over to Natsu and bowed, then turned back to the men. "... with a very special, very expensive, very large birthday present." He held his hand out to a large item covered in a brown tarp wrapped with a large red ribbon tied in a bow.

"Ah, Grimsby, you shouldn't have," Natsu said with an uneasy smile. "Getting off this boat would have been enough of a present for me."

Lucy chuckled. 'Typical Natsu.'

"I know," Grimsby said with a small smile, "but I thought this would be fitting. Happy birthday, Eric."

One of the crewmates untied the bow and pulled the tarp off to reveal a statue. It was of Natsu dressed in a fancy prince outfit, including a cape and sash over the chest, with his right foot on top of a shield with a big "E" on it, his right arm over his chest, his fist clenched, and his left arm pointed down behind him with a sword in his hand.

Max growled at it and Natsu cringed back a bit, while Lucy just raised an eyebrow. 'Ok, that doesn't suit Natus at all,' she thought.

"Uh, gee, Grim..." Natus said as he carefully stood up, his hand never leaving his stomach, and walked over to it. He cleared his throat. "It's uh... It's really somethin'."

"Yes, I commissioned it myself," Grimsby said proudly as he walked over to Natsu. "Of course, I had hoped it would be a wedding present."

"What?" Natsu exclaimed, but regretted that as his stomach did another flip when he backed away from the older man too fast. A memory of him meeting a princess popped into his head. "Wait, you're not still sore because I didn't fall for the princess of Glowerhaven, are you?" he said as he walked over to the other side of the ship.

Lucy ducked to the side of the hole and held her breath as Natsu stopped by the hole and put his hands on the rail and looked out at the open sea. He quickly removed his hands when he felt the ship swaying easier.

"Oh, Eric, it isn't me alone," Grimsby said. "The entire kingdom wants to see you happily settled down with the right girl."

Lucy looked up and saw Natsu frown. "She's out there somewhere. I just... I just have to find her," she heard him say. She smiled.

"Perhaps you haven't been looking hard enough," Grimsby said.

"Believe me, Grim," Natsu said turning back to him, "when I find her, I'll know. Without a doubt, it'll be..." He turned back to look at the sea. "It can only be her," he said too quietly for Grimsby to hear.

Lucy put her hand over her mouth. 'Does he mean...'

Thunder cut off her thought and she saw lightning flash around them.

"Hurricane a-comin'!" one of the crewmen that was up in the crow's nest shouted. "Stand fast! Secure the riggin'!"

The ship started rocking even more and Lucy saw Natsu double over, his hand on his mouth, but she also saw a determined look on his face as he ran off to help secure the ship. The wind picked up and was so strong she saw Scuttle try to hold on to a rope.

"Whoa! The wind's all of a sudden on the move here!" He held on as long as he could, but the wind blew him off. "Ariel!" he yelled as he got blown away.

Lucy peeked over the side of the ship's rail, barely able to keep her grip, and saw Natsu double over again and look like he was about to puke, but pushed it down and ran to the ship's helm that was now abandoned and spinning out of control. He grabbed it and forced it to turn in the opposite direction.

The wind blew Lucy off the railing, and she tried to hold onto a rope that was near, but the wind wouldn't let up and she was forced to let go and flew into the sea.

She quickly swam back up to the surface and saw lightning hit one of the sails, causing it to catch on fire. "Natsu!" she cried out, but she doubted even he could hear her over all the noise the storm was making, especially if his motion sickness was dulling his senses so much he couldn't pick up her scent when she was right under his nose.

She watched as the ship crashed into some rocks that were near, knocking some of them into the sea. She quickly scaled the side of the ship again, poking her head over the rail again, scanning the deck for Natsu. The flames were now covering the deck, and she could barely stand the heat, but she finally found that tuft of pink hair. He was lying face down, the motion sickness finally too much for him. "Natsu!"

He lifted his head and looked around through half open eyes. "Lucy?" she barely heard him say.

Max barked repeatedly and they both looked over at the dog who was still on the upper deck near the helm, too afraid to jump down because of the flames that surrounded it.

Natsu forced himself up and clumsily ran over to the dog, holding his stomach until he got near the upper deck. He tried to suck up the flames, but stopped and just raised his arms. "Jump, Max!"

Lucy smiled. 'Always trying to help others,' she thought when he saw him move towards the dog, but frowned when she saw he couldn't eat the flames. 'The motion sickness must be preventing him from eating the flames like it's messing with his senses.'

"Come on, boy! Jump! You can do it, Max!" Natsu yelled when the dog just stood there and looked around afraid.

Max finally jumped and landed safely in Natsu's arms. Natsu then turned and started to run over to the edge, but his foot went through one of the boards on the deck and he fell forward, throwing Max over the edge of the ship and into the sea.

Lucy saw Natsu struggling to get his foot free from the hole and tried to push herself over the rail to help him, but a massive explosion went off and threw her back into the sea.

She tumbled a bit in the water, but immediately swam back to the surface and swam towards the wreckage that was floating around her. 'Come on, Natsu. Where are you?' After another minute, she finally saw him hanging off of a board, but his eyes were closed and he slipped off and into the water.

Lucy dove under the water and swam to him, grabbing him under his arms, dragging him to the surface. Once she was sure his head was safely above the water, she swam away from the wreckage and toward the shore.

It took her all night to finally reach land and managed to drag the still unconscious dragon slayer onto the beach. She looked down at him. "Come on, Natsu. Wake up."

She saw Scuttle land next to them. "Is he alive?" he asked then waddled over to Natsu's now bare foot and picked it up and held it up to his ear. He slowly put the foot down. "Oh, I... I can't make out a heartbeat."

'That's because that's his foot,' Lucy thought amazed at how stupid this bird was. "No, he's breathing." She reached up and moved a stray lock of hair from Natsu's face and put her hand on the side of his face to turn it towards her. "Natsu, wake up," she said quietly to him.

Natsu groaned, coughed a bit, then slowly opened his eyes. "Luce?" He put his hand over hers and smiled. "Is that really you?"

"It's me," she said smiling at him.

"Whoa!" Scuttle cried out as Natsu slowly sat up, his hand on his head. "Ariel, we should go!"

She could tell he was a little dizzy, but when he lowered his hand, he was staring at her tail. "Lucy, where are your legs?" he exclaimed.

Lucy chuckled. "Well, at the moment, I'm a mermaid. It's kind of like you were when you played the Beast."

Natsu looked back at her face. "So, you're half fish? Guess it's a good thing Happy isn't here," he said with a grin on his face.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he'd threaten to eat me like he does with Aquarius."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, but Happy's afraid of her."

"True," Lucy said smiling again.

They heard a bark coming towards them and they looked up to see Max running toward them.

"I have to go," Lucy said as she turned and used her arms to crawl her way to the water.

"Wait," Natsu said as he stood up. "How do we get out of here? Is it another curse we have to break?" Max reached him, jumped on him, and started licking his face. "Get off, Max," he said pushing the dog away.

"Not exactly... I don't have time to explain," Lucy said as she looked over her shoulder in the direction Max came from and saw someone walking toward them. "I can't let anyone see me."

"But..." Natsu started.

"I'm sorry, Natsu. I'll see you later," Lucy said cutting him off, then pulled herself into the water and disappeared.

"Eric? Eric!" she heard the other man say, but the water muffled out what else he was saying until she popped up next to a rock that was a little ways off the shore.

"A girl... rescued me," Natsu explained. He placed his hand on his head and started to fall.

Grimsby grabbed Natsu before he fell. "Ah, Eric, I think you've swallowed a bit too much seawater." He draped Natsu's arm over his shoulders and pulled him away from the water. "Off we go. Come along, Max."

Natsu looked over his shoulder, then turned back to face forward.

Lucy watched the two retreating men sadly.

"We just gonna forget this whole thing ever happened," Sebastian, who was sitting on top of Flounder, said. "The sea king will never know." He looked down at Flounder. "You won't tell him. I won't tell him." He looked back up. "I will stay in one piece."

Lucy shook her head at Sebastian's words and climbed up to the top of the large rock. "Just be patient, Natsu. I'll be back soon," she said quietly so Sebastian wouldn't hear her.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

A week passed, and Lucy was in a really good mood after seeing Natsu again. She felt giddy and found herself humming to herself, which she wasn't used to. 'Is this what girls usually feel like when they find a guy they like?'

"Ariel dear, time to come out," a woman called out to her. "You've been in there all morning."

Lucy rolled her eyes at her "sister" and pushed her way through the kelp, humming. Three of her other "sisters" watched as she sat down at one of the mirrors.

"What is with her lately?" one of them said.

Lucy pushed her hair up, wishing she had a hair tie, but then a flower caught her eye. She grabbed it, sniffed it, and swam off, running into Triton who had just come through the door. "Oh. Morning daddy," she said as she placed the flower behind his ear and swam off, humming a little louder. She did a few twirls as she swam. 'Man, I just feel so great.'

She swam away from the palace and the underwater city and found a rock that looked like a bed. She laid down on it and looked up at the sun shining through the water. 'I still can't get his words out of my head.' She flipped over and saw a flower growing on the edge where some seagrass was growing.

She could hear Sebastian mumbling something below her, but she ignored it. 'Does he really want to marry me? Has he loved me all this time?' She plucked one of the pedals off the flower. "He loved me." And another pedal. "He loved me not." She continued plucking the pedals, going back and forth between the two phrases, until she pulled the last one off. "He loved me!" She smiled and turned to lay on her back again, holding the pedal close to her chest.

"Ariel, stop stalking crazy!" Sebastian said as he swam up to her.

"I gotta see him again..." she said sitting up, "... tonight. Scuttle knows where he lives." 'I need to ask him if it's actually true.'

"Ariel, please," Sebastian begged. "Will you get your head out of the clouds and back in the water where it belongs?"

Lucy looked at him. 'But it doesn't belong in the water. I'm actually a human.'

"Down here is your home," Sebastian continued.

'No, it's not. Fairy Tail is... And so is Natsu." She smiled.

"Ariel, listen to me. The human world... It's a mess."

'Well, you're not wrong there. It is really peaceful down here.' She laid back as he went on and on about how great it was to live under the sea, but she tried to zone him out. 'I wonder if that's why Aquarius is always so angry... But then again, she lives in the Celestial World, not the sea.'

"Ariel."

She turned her head and saw Flounder. "What's up?"

"Come with me," he said with a big smile.

She smiled and they both swam off, leaving Sebastian to prattle on by himself.

Founder led her to her grotto and she pulled the rock at the entrance out of the way. "Flounder, why can't you just tell me what this is all about?" she asked as they swam down the tunnel.

"You'll see. It's a surprise," he replied with a smile.

When they got to the big room, Lucy stopped, a surprised look on her face. "Oh, Flounder." There, in the middle of the room, was the statue of Natsu that was on the ship. She swam over to it. 'I never expected to be so happy to have a statue of Natsu... Even if it doesn't really look like he normally would. Maybe it's just because of the feelings the story is making me feel,' she thought, but there was a part of her that knew the story wasn't the only reason she had these feelings.

"It looks just like him. It even has his eyes," she said swimming around it and stopping at the front of the statue. She laid her hands on the shoulder of the statue and looked at its face. "Do you really want to marry me?" she asked it quietly.

"So, you like it?" Flounder asked.

Lucy looked over at him with that big smile still on her face. "Yes! I love it so much. Thank you." She pushed away from it and started twirling around until she spotted Triton at the entrance of the tunnel. "Daddy?"

"I consider myself a reasonable merman," he said quietly, then swam a bit more into the room. "I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed," he said a bit louder.

"But, dad I..." Lucy started.

"Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?" he exclaimed cutting her off.

"I had to..." Lucy said getting angry. 'He's my best friend. Even if the story didn't make me do it, I would have anyway... Watching him almost die in the last story was hard enough.'

"Contact between the human world and the mer world is strictly forbidden," he said sternly. "Ariel, you know that! Everyone knows that."

"He would have died."

"One less human to worry about," he said waving his hand and turning away from her.

Lucy clenched her fists at her sides. "You don't even know him."

"Know him?" he asked turning his head at her. "I don't have to know him!" He moved closer to her, which caused her to move behind the statue. "They're all the same. Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters incapable of any feeling..."

"Daddy, I love him!" Lucy yelled. Her eyes went wide and she put both hands over her mouth, surprised herself that she just blurted that out, and duke behind the statue to hide from him.

"No," Triton said surprised and horrified. "Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human. You're a mermaid."

"I am not," she said to quiet for him to hear.

"What?" Triton asked.

"I don't care," she replied louder, still not coming out from behind the statue.

"So help me, Ariel. I am going to get through to you." He raised his trident, which she remembered was a weapon that he carries around. "And if this is the only way, so be it!" The trident glowed and a beam of light shot from the three pointed prongs at the top of it.

The light hit a globe and it exploded, making other objects around it explode too. "Daddy! No!" He shot another beam across the room making a few more things explode. "No! Please!" she cried out again. He sent the beam to several other shelves, objects blasting to pieces, until he turned to the statue.

Lucy swam up to him and grabbed his arm. "No!" she cried out, but Triton ignored her and blasted the statue. Lucy watched Triton turn and leave, and then moved over to the place where the statue was and flopped down, burying her face in her arms, and started crying. 'He's just like dad. I hate this.'

"Ariel, I..." she heard Sebastian say.

"Just go away," she interrupted him, her face still buried in her arms. She sat in silence, her sobs filling the room. 'I hate it here. I just want to finish this stupid story and go back to Fairy Tail. I want this stupid spell to stop messing with my emotions so I can finally figure out my real feelings for Natsu.'

"Poor child," a gravely voice called out. "Poor, sweet child."

Lucy looked up and saw two blue moray eels swimming above her.

"She has a very serious problem," the second eel with a slightly higher, but still gravely voice said. "If only there was something we could do."

The two swam down and circled her. Now that they were closer, she saw that both eels had long snouts with only a few sharp teeth and one yellow eye and one gray eye, the yellow eye on the right for one and the left for the other. 'I think their names were Flotsam and Jetsam.'

"But there is something," the deeper voiced one, Flotsam, said.

"Who... Who are you?" Lucy asked. These two were definitely shaddy and scared her a bit.

"Don't be scared," the higher voiced one, Jetsam, said as he swam up to her.

"We represent someone who can help you," Flotsam said as he too swam up to her from behind her, making Lucy turn her head to look at him.

Jetsam swam around her body, making Lucy lift her arms and take a deep breath in. "Someone who can make all your dreams come true," he said.

Flotsam swam right next to her head, rubbing his body across it, then swam over to Jetsam and wrapped his body around him so they were close. "Just imagine..." they both said at the same time.

"You and your prince..." Jetsam said.

"Together... forever," they said at the same time again as they blinked their eyes and touched their heads together like they were flirting with each other.

"I don't understand."

"Ursula has great powers," Flotsam said.

Lucy gasped and sat back a bit. "The sea witch?" She shook her head and looked down. "Why, that's... I couldn't possibly." She looked back at them. "No! Get out of here. Leave me alone," she said and flopped back down and buried her face in her arms again.

The two eels untangled themselves as she yelled at them. "Suit yourself," Jetsam said, and they both turned and swam away from her.

"That was only a suggestion," Flotsam said.

She heard something fall next to her and she looked down and saw Natsu's stone face staring up at her. She reached down and picked it up, surprised it was still as intact as it was. 'If I can become human again, then we can get this stupid story over with.' "Wait," she called out before they made it completely through the tunnel entrance.

"Yes?" they both asked at the same time as they turned around, big smiles on their faces.

"She can make me human, right?" Lucy asked.

"Of course," Jetsam said. "She can help in any way you need."

She looked back down at Natsu's face, a determined look crossing her face, then looked back at them. "I'm coming with you." She sat the stone face on the floor and swam over to them.

"Excellent," Flotsam said. Once she reached them, they all left the grotto.

She looked down and saw Flounder and Sebastian talking outside the entrance, but stuck her nose in the air and closed her eyes as Sebastian swam up to her.

"Ariel? Where are you going?" he asked. "What are you doing here with this riffraff?"

"I'm going to see Ursula," Lucy replied and sped up to catch up to the two eels, who had swam ahead when Sebastian came up to her.

She heard Sebastian gasp and swim after her. "Ariel, no!" He grabbed onto the fins at the end of her tail and pulled on them to try and stop her. "She's a demon. A monster."

"Why don't you go tell my father?" she said angrily as she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "You're good at that." She lifted her tail and slammed it down hard, which flipped him off and sent him spinning a bit, then swam away from him.

"But... But, I..." he stuttered. "Come on!" she heard him say to Flounder.

They swam for a while until they reached a large skeleton of an animal that Lucy had never seen before, but it was glowing a bright pinkish-purple color and had columns of steam surrounding it. 'Well, this is safe.'

The eels swam into the skeleton's large mouth, but Lucy hesitated before following them in. "This way," they both said.

Lucy swallowed, took a deep breath, and pushed forward. Once they got inside the tunnel that was the skeleton's neck, she saw dozens of weird, shriveled creatures on the floor that she almost mistook for kelp. She cringed. 'Ok, those are a lot more horrifying than the story makes them out to be... I really don't want to become one of those.'

She swam over them, trying to stay towards the top of the tunnel, but one of the creatures stretched up and wrapped around her wrist. "Get off!" she cried out at the slimy creature as it looked at her with its big yellow eyes and screamed at her as if it was crying out for help.

She finally pulled free and slammed into the side of the tunnel, looking down at the poor creatures.

"Come in. Come in," a woman's voice came from further in the tunnel. "We mustn't lurk in doorways." The woman, who she assumed was Ursula, poked her head out of a large conch shell with a hole in the middle of it. "It's rude." She pulled herself out of the hole and dropped down to the floor. "One might question your upbringing," she said then chuckled.

Lucy pushed a few kep strands that were hanging from the ceiling and swam closer to the woman. She was an overweight woman with short, white hair that stood up on top of her head, light purple skin, and was a black, half-octopus with eight tentacles for feet that had purple on their undersides. When she looked over her shoulder as she walked to a shell vanity, Lucy saw she had blue and gray eyeshadow, red lipstick, a mole next to her mouth on the right side, small, long purple shell earrings, and a yellow shell necklace attached to a black string around her neck.

"Now, then," Ursula said as she sat down at the vanity," you're here because you have a thing for this human, this prince fellow." She reached out with one of her tentacles and grabbed a bottle, squeezed some white goop into her hands, and rubbed it in her hands before running her hands over her hair. She turned to look at Lucy. "Not that I blame you. He is quite a catch, isn't he?" She chuckled again.

A light blush burned Lucy's cheeks.

Ursula turned back around and picked up a green shell, and when she squeezed it between her thumb and finger, something red popped out. "Well, angelfish, the solution to your problem is simple," she said as she rubbed the red stuff on her lips to reapply the color. "The only way to get what you want is to become a human yourself." She smiled as she looked back at Lucy.

"Can you do that?" Lucy asked.

"My dear, sweet child. That's what I do. It's what I live for." She swam over to Lucy. "To help unfortunate merfolk, like yourself, poor souls with no one else to turn to."

'Yeah, and then turn them into those slimy creatures if they don't pay up,' Lucy thought as Ursula swam around her pretty close.

Ursula swam over to a black pedital and it opened like a mouth to turn into a kind of cauldron that gave off the same pinkish-purple glow as the skeleton. "I do know a little magic."

'Black magic, I'm sure.'

"I use it on behalf of the miserable, lonely, and depressed," Ursula continued as she conjured up an image of a scraggly, then merman and an overweight mermaid that both had sad looks on their faces. "Pathetic," Lucy barely heard her whisper to Flotsam and Jetsam.

"These poor unfortunate souls, in pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner," Ursula said as she motioned to the image of the mermaid," That one wants to get the girl," she moved to the other side of the cauldron and motioned to the merman. "And do I help them?" She snapped her fingers on both hands, and the images of the two changed so the merman was buff and the mermaid was skinny. "Yes, indeed."

"Now it's happened once or twice, someone couldn't pay the price, and I'm afraid I had to rake 'em across the coals," Ursula continued to explain, waving her hand at the images of the two merfolk who were now embracing each other afraid, and the two turned into the same creatures that were at the entrance.

Lucy backed away a bit. 'Maybe I shouldn't do this... But then again, it's not like this spell is going to give me a chance.'

Ursula swam around the cauldron and grabbed Lucy's arm, pulling her closer. "Now, here's the deal," she said as she wrapped her arm around Lucy and pulled her towards the cauldron. "I will make a potion that will turn you into a human for three days."

One of Ursula's tentacles wrapped itself around Lucy's waist and she cringed a bit as she pushed it away.

"Got that? Three days," Ursula continued.

Lucy was still looking at the tentacle that was wrapped around her, but suddenly felt another tentacle under her chin and jerked her head toward Ursula before dropping.

"Now, listen, this is important." Ursula raised her hand above the hole and the cauldron closed up a bit so that there was only a small hole and it glowed yellow as a ball of light rose up, followed by two more balls, and fell back into the hole. "Before the sun sets on the third day, you have got to get dear old princie to fall in love with you," she said as a gold crown rose up from the hole and a large heart followed and stopped inside the crown. "That is, he's got to kiss you. Not just any kiss, the kiss of true love." The heart glowed.

'So, I can't just go up to him and kiss him,' she thought and inwardly sighed.

"If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the third day, you'll remain human permanently," Ursula continued as the image over the cauldron changed to show a human girl prancing in place.

'But I'm sure the spell won't let that happen... Although, we did change the other story...'

"But if he doesn't, you'll turn back into a mermaid and..." Ursula said as a swirl of light twisted around the human form and turned into a mermaid before it got sucked down into the cauldron. "... you belong to me!" she finished in a deep, menacing voice.

"No, Ariel!" she heard Sebastian call out.

Lucy turned and saw that Sebastian and Flounder were behind her, but Flotsam and Jetsam wrapped their bodies around her two friends' mouths, keeping them from speaking anymore.

Ursula moved next to Lucy and placed her hand under the girl's chin to make the blonde look at her. "Have we got a deal?" she asked with a big grin on her face.

"If I become human..." Ursula removed her hand and backed away slowly, "... I'll never be with my father or sisters again." She looked down.

"That's right!" Ursula exclaimed as she put her left arm over her chest, her right elbow on top of it, and her right fist on her cheek as if she hadn't thought of that and was pondering the thought. "But you'll have your man." She grinned and waved the hand that was on her cheek at Lucy, and chuckled. "Life's full of tough choices, isn't it?"

Lucy curled up on herself a bit. 'Ok, she is really making me feel uncomfortable.'

"Oh! And there is one more thing," Ursula said as if she just remembered. "We haven't discussed the subject of payment." She swam over to Lucy and hung over her, body bent with her tentacles and head on either side of Lucy, which made Lucy pretty much sit on the floor. "You can't get something for nothing, you know."

"But I don't have any..." Lucy tried, but Ursula cut her off as she swam away from her and over to the cauldron.

"I'm not asking much," she said and placed a tentacle over Lucy's mouth. "Just a token really, a trifle. You'll never even miss it."

'Oh, yeah. Like I believe that,' Lucy thought as she pushed the tentacle away from her.

Ursula swam up to her and stuck her face close to Lucy's. "What I want from you is..." She put her finger under Lucy's chin and lowered her voice. "... your voice."

"My voice?" Lucy asked and placed her hand on her throat after Ursula removed her finger and backed away.

"You got it, sweetcakes. No more talking, singing, zip!"

Ursula replied, popping the "P" in zip.

"But without my voice, how can I..."

"You'll have your looks, your pretty face, and don't underestimate the importance of..." Ursula put one hand on her hip and the other hand on the back of her head and shook her hips. "... body language!"

'Yeah, but this is Natsu we're talking about. He'll be completely clueless about that.'

Lucy watched as Ursula walked up the wall to a large clam that was there. "The men up there don't like a lot of blabber." She waved her hand and the clam opened up to reveal glass bottles that contained different stuff in them. "They think a girl who gossips is a bore." She grabbed bottle after bottle and tossed them over her shoulder and they seemed to float over to the now fully opened cauldron. "On land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word."

'That's not true at all.'

"They're not all that impressed with conversation." Ursula turned around holding two bottles in her hands. "True gentlemen avoid it when they can."

'Again, not true. Some men talk more than some women I know.'

Ursula pushed away from the wall, floated to the floor, and threw the bottles into the cauldron all at once, causing a small explosion. "But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who's withdrawn. It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man." She picked up a pot and grabbed a large tongue, and threw it into the pot too.

'Where does she get her information from? She is way off base.'

"So, make your choice. I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day," Ursula said as she waved her hand over the cauldron and a picture of Natsu smiling at her appeared. "It won't cost much, just your voice."

Lucy smiled back at the picture. 'I guess I'll figure something out.'

Ursula waved her hand through the picture to make it disappear and grabbed a small jellyfish that was swimming by and threw it in the cauldron too. "If you want to cross a bridge, my sweet, you've got to pay the toll." She swam over and placed her arm around Lucy and waved her hand to make a golden, glowing scroll appear. "Take a gulp and take a breath and go ahead and sign the scroll."

When Ursula turned to look at the two eels, who were no longer holding onto Flounder and Sebastian, Lucy quickly glanced at the contract as a quill that looked like a fish skeleton appeared in front of her. Lucy hesitated in grabbing the quill when she read, "... for all eternity," on the bottom of the scroll, but knew that she couldn't back out even if she wanted to.

Lucy looked at the scroll with determination and her hand moved on its own, grabbing the quill and signing the name Ariel at the bottom. After she finished, the quill disappeared from her hand and the scroll rolled up and flew to Ursula's open hand.

Ursula gave her a huge grin as the scroll disappeared and she moved over to the cauldron again. She chanted what Lucy assumed was the spell for the transformation, the cauldron bubbling and smoke and a tornado of blue light rose from it. The light tornado expanded so that she and Ursula were now inside of it, and then two green, smoke-looking hands rose up from the cauldron at the same time Ursula rose her hands.

"Now, sing!" Ursula commanded.

Lucy never really thought of herself as a good singer, but when she opened her mouth, clear, angel-like tones escaped, surprising her.

"Keep singing!" Ursula called out as she moved her hands to manipulate the smoke hands, which moved toward Lucy.

As the hands got closer, she could see that they looked like old witch hands with long, boney fingers and long fingernails. One of the hands went behind her and placed itself on her back, holding her in place, while the other one stopped momentarily in front of her before disappearing into her mouth at a force that would have knocked her over if the other hand wasn't on her back.

After a few seconds, the hands backed away from her holding a small, glowing, yellow ball that her voice was emanating from. Lucy put both her hands on her throat. 'Ok, that felt weird.'

The hands pulled the voice towards Ursula, who was holding out her shell necklace and licking her teeth as she smiled menacingly. Once the voice entered the shell, the shell glowed and Ursula clenched it between her hands, and she laughed as she threw her hand out and made a gel-like, mustard yellow substance shoot toward Lucy and envelop her.

Light swirled around Lucy's fishtail, which surprisingly didn't hurt her, and she watched as the tail split to become two human legs. Relief washed over her as she felt her legs again, but that relief was short lived as the gel bubble disappeared and she quickly took one more deep breath. She panicked when she couldn't get her legs to work enough to swim, but was thankful when Sebastian and Flounder helped her, Sebastian grabbing her hand and Flounder going under her arm.

Ursula continued to laugh as the three swam through a hole in the ceiling and quickly to the surface. Her lungs were starting to burn as they demanded air half way up, and when she finally broke the surface, the momentum flung her halfway out of the water. She took a deep breath as she flung her head back, then sunk back into the water, Flounder resuming his position under her arm to keep her head above the water, and they made their way toward the shore. 'If it wasn't for these two, I would've drowned.'

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Natsu was leaning up against a rock that was against one of the towers of his castle, just staring at the sea. It had been a whole week since Lucy left him on the shore, and couldn't get her out of his head. The small voice that he thought was only in his head because of the last story was screaming at him to find her, and he wanted nothing more than to do so, but he had no idea where she could be. The ocean was huge, and she could be anywhere.

He stood up and Max, who had followed him out there, started barking and stood up too before he ran off down the strip of beach they were on. "Where are you, Luce?" He turned and followed Max down the beach.

A light breeze hit his face and he stopped. A scent was on that breeze that was familiar. He took in a deep breath through his nose and picked up the scent again. "Lucy!" He dashed down the beach, sniffing the air to make sure he was going in the right direction.

He rounded a cliff's corner and stopped. Lucy was sitting on a rock, now dressed in what he thought looked like a ship's sail, pushing Max away from her. "Luce!"

Lucy looked up at him and smiled as he ran over to her. She raised her hand to greet him.

"Luce, why are you here? Why didn't you just go to the castle?" he asked stopping right in front of her. He then looked down and saw that she had legs again. "Your legs are back too!"

Lucy rolled her eyes, but never lost her smile, and nodded.

Natsu looked at her confused. "Why aren't you answering me?"

Lucy lifted her chin and patted her throat, then mouthed out the words, "no voice."

"You can't talk?"

Lucy shook her head.

Natsu clenched his fists, flames covering them, and an angry look crossed his face. "Who did this to you?"

Lucy frantically waved her hands in front of her to try and calm him down, which partly worked because the flames disappeared and his face went back to confusion.

"I don't understand."

Lucy blew air out of her mouth and the hair in her face moved a bit. She looked down in thought, then snapped her head up. She moved her hands out in front of her and wiggled her fingers. When he raised his eyebrow, not understanding at all, she dropped her hands, scanned the area, then got off the rock, walked over to a wreckage of a boat on shaky legs, and picked up a skinny piece of wood.

Natsu watched as she raised her hands again, but this time waving the piece of wood around a bit. "You want to direct a choir?"

Lucy slapped her forehead with her free hand and shook her head. She lowered her hand and her eyes went wide and looked at the piece of wood. She rolled her eyes, annoyed that she didn't think of that to begin with, and squatted down and wrote a single word in the sand. 'Spell.'

When Natsu read the word he laughed. "That's what you were trying to say?"

Lucy slapped his arm and opened her mouth to yell at him, but nothing came out, which made Natsu laugh harder. Lucy stood up, crossed her arms, and glared at him.

"Sorry, Luce," Natsu said, his laughter dying down, "but it's just funny."

Lucy dropped her arms and slumped her shoulders as she let out a sigh.

Natsu looked back at the word in the sand. "So, who cast this spell on you?"

Lucy knelt down and wrote another word 'Ursula.'

"Who's that?" he asked, the anger starting to come back again.

Lucy used her hand to wipe the two words away and smooth the sand before writing again. 'Sea witch.'

"Witch? Wait, does this world use magic like we do?" Natsu asked a little excited.

Lucy shook her head, erased the words and wrote again. 'Only her.'

"Oh," he replied a bit disappointed. "How did she cast this spell on you?"

Lucy erased the words again. 'Traded,' she wrote and then pointed to her legs.

"You traded your legs?" Natsu asked very confused again.

Lucy huffed and shook her head. She lifted her chin and tapped her throat again, pointed at the word, and then tapped her leg.

Natsu thought about what she was trying to say before he slapped his fist in his open hand. "Oh, you traded your voice for your legs."

Lucy smiled and nodded. She stood up and brushed the sand off her make-shift dress.

"Why don't we go back to the castle and you can get some real clothes?" he offered.

Lucy clasped her hands together in a "please" gesture and nodded.

Natsu chuckled, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and grabbed her arm, so she didn't hurt herself trying to walk on her own since she looked like she couldn't walk very well from her short trip from the rock to the wreckage. He saw a faint blush cross her cheeks, then she looked back. He followed her gaze and saw a yellow and blue fish smiling at her and a seagull giving her what he assumed was a thumbs up. 'What's with that?'

Half way back to the castle, Lucy was starting to walk better, and by the time they got to the castle, she was walking on her own.

Natsu and Lucy were greeted by a middle aged woman who wore similar clothes as Lucy did when she was Belle, but the dress was a dark red and she had a red cloth wrapped around her head so that her black haired bun stuck out. She was also on the heavier side.

"Ah, your highness, who is this lovely lady?" the woman asked.

"Uh..." Natus replied. He couldn't remember the name the bird said a week ago because he was a bit dizzy at the time. He looked over at Lucy who just looked at him. "She's a... survivor of a shipwreck I found on the beach."

Lucy looked at him surprised, but looked at the maid and nodded.

"Oh, my. I'm so sorry," the woman said.

"Can you help her get cleaned up and get her some new clothes?" Natsu asked looking back at the woman.

"Of course," the woman said happily and grabbed Lucy's hand. "My name's Carlotta. And your name is?" she asked as she dragged Lucy off.

"She lost her voice, so she can't talk," Natsu said.

Carlotta turned back to him for a moment before turning back to Lucy. "Oh, you poor dear. We'll take good care of you," she said, then continued pulling Lucy away.

Natsu just stood there and watched them until they disappeared into a room, then made his way to his own room. 'I might as well get cleaned up myself.'

He walked into his private bathroom, took off his shirt and tossed it on the floor, and ran his hand through his hair as he sighed and closed his eyes. He stopped his hand and opened his eyes in surprise when he felt a small, hard bump. "What the?"

Just like in the last story, he ran over to the mirror, but didn't really see anything this time. He moved closer to the mirror and parted his hair where he felt the small bump and saw a bit of dark, almost black, red in his pink hair. He reached up and felt the other side of his head and felt the same thing. 'If I have these, does that mean...' He turned around and looked at his back the best he could in the mirror and saw two red patches near his shoulder blades. His mouth dropped and he dashed out of the room and toward the room Lucy went into.

"Lucy!" he yelled as he burst through the door.

A startled cry came from the side of the room and he turned to see it was Carlotta who cried out. He then heard water splash and turned to the large bathtub that was in the middle of the room and saw Lucy's head sticking out of the water. "Lucy, you gotta see this," he said as he walked closer to the tub.

"Prince Eric!" Carlotta yelled and quickly made her way over to him. "It is not decent for you to be in here while she is bathing." She stopped in the middle of his path, put her hands on her hips, and gave him a stern look.

Natsu put his hands in front of him and backed up as she walked towards him. "But..."

"But nothing," Carlotta said and pointed and shook a finger at him. "Whatever you wish to speak to the girl about, it can wait until after she's finished and dressed."

"But I..." Natsu tried again, but Carlotta cut him off again.

"I don't care if you're the prince. Show some respect," she said.

Natsu crossed the threshold of the room and found himself back in the hallway. "Look, I just want..."

"No!" Carlotta said sternly and slammed the door in his face.

He heard a click, which meant that she locked the door, and he crossed his arms in a pout. "It's not like I haven't seen her that way before," he said as he glared at the door. He sighed in defeat and decided to go back to his own bath to get cleaned up. However, when he got back to the room, he instead tried to figure out how to make his wings emerge.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

After the bath, Carlotta took Lucy to a room and set out some clothes for her to change into. She then left the room to go check on dinner, leaving Lucy alone with her thoughts.

'I wonder what Natsu wanted? And why hasn't Carlotta called me by my name yet? She had to have heard Natsu yell it when he burst in, but she acted as if the whole thing never happened. Does that mean we can change the story, and if it's too much of a change, the characters forget it happened? Flounder and Scuttle didn't really act like they saw us talking as if we knew each other...'

She pulled the light blue dress over her head and smiled. It wasn't like the Belle dress, it looked more like a casual royal dress. 'Still too long for my taste though.'

The door opened and Carlotta walked in. "Ah, good. I'm glad it fits," she said as she walked over to Lucy. She picked up a hairbrush from the vanity and pushed on Lucy's shoulders to make her sit in the chair that was in front of the vanity. She talked about something as she brushed Lucy's hair, but Lucy just zoned her out to continue her thinking.

'Not like I can respond to her anyway,' she thought. 'Ok, so if I remember correctly, the next thing we'll do is have dinner. That's when that servant guy... Grimsby?... Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was it. He'll suggest for Natsu to take me on a tour, then we go for a boat ride and that's where he is supposed to almost kiss me... I wonder if we can change that, 'cause Natsu will not want to be on a boat again.'

"There we go," Carlotta said putting her hands on Lucy's shoulders.

Lucy looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. It wasn't her usual hairdo, but it was out of her face at least. The light blue, shell hair clips matched her dress.

"Now, why don't we get you to dinner."

They made it to the dining room pretty quickly, and she could hear Natsu and Grimsby talking. Lucy slowed down, trying to hear what they were saying, but they were talking too quietly for her to hear.

"Come on, honey. Don't be shy," Carlotta said as she grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her through the door.

Lucy looked at Natsu, who was smiling at her, and she walked over.

"Oh, Eric, isn't she a vision?" Grimsby said as she walked up behind Natsu.

"Uh, you look wonderful," Natsu said.

Lucy smiled back at him.

"Come, come, come," Grimsby said as he walked over to Lucy and placed his hands on her arm and lower back to guide her to a chair. "You must be famished. Let me help you, my dear."

Lucy started to sit down when she saw Natsu suddenly behind the chair pushing it in for her. She nodded her thanks.

Natsu sat at the end of the table, which was right next to Lucy again and saw Grimsby sit in the seat across from her. She looked down and saw the fork sitting next to her plate and her hand just moved. She grabbed the fork and started running it through her hair.

"Uh, Luce, what are you doing?" Natsu asked, one eyebrow raised.

Lucy froze and looked to Natsu and then to Grimsby, who was looking at her startled, then quickly put the fork back on the table and looked away from them, a blush on her face. 'Why did I just do that? Are you trying to make me die of embarassment you stupid spell?'

Lucy looked up when she heard a noise and saw that Grimsby was lighting his smoke pipe, which looked exactly like the one she found on the sunken ship. 'No. Please, no,' she begged, but her body moved on its own again. Her face lit up and when Grimsby saw that he held it out to her and she didn't hesitate to grab it.

"Uh, do you like it? It is rather a fine one," Grimsby said proudly.

Lucy blew hard into the stem of the pipe and smoke and ash flew everywhere, including all over Grimsby's face.

Natsu burst into laughter and she heard Carlotta snicker as well. Natsu cleared his throat to stop laughing. "Ahem, sorry, Grim," he said with a smile.

"Why, Eric, that's the first time I've seen you smile in weeks," Carlotta said as she walked over to him.

Lucy looked over at Natsu and saw his smile and knew that he wasn't that sorry.

Grimsby was wiping the last of the soot off his nose with a hankie. "Ah, very amusing. Carlotta, my dear, what's for dinner?"

"Oh, you're gonna love it!" she replied happily. "Chef's been fixing his specialty: stuffed crab."

'Crab? Wait a minute. Sebastian snuck into a pocket that was on that sail, but I haven't seen him since,' Lucy thought in a bit of a panic.

They all heard a crash and turned to the door she assumed was the kitchen.

"I think I'd better go see what Louis is up to," Carlotta said, then moved toward the kitchen before anyone could reply.

"You know, Eric, perhaps our young guest might enjoy seeing some of the sights of the kingdom," Grimsby said. "Something in the way of a tour."

Natsu looked over at Grimsby. "Huh?"

Carlotta came back in with a try that had three covered dishes on it, placing one of the dishes in front of each of them.

Grimsby leaned toward Natsu. "You can't spend all your time moping about. You need to get out." He uncovered his plate as he spoke and Sebastian peeked out of his shell.

Lucy went wide-eyed when she saw Sebastian. She looked over and saw that Natsu and Grimsby were distracted by the conversation and she lifted her lid off her plate and waved Sebastian over. Lucy slammed the lid back down when Sebastian reached her plate and leaned on it, resting her left arm and right elbow on top of it and her chin in her right hand, staring at Natsu with a smile.

"Well, what do you say?" Natsu said as he looked over at Lucy, then raised an eyebrow when he saw how she was sitting, but continued. "Would you like to join me on a tour of my kingdom tomorrow?"

Lucy nodded happily. 'That'll give us a chance to talk... If I can find a way to talk without talking.'

"Wonderful!" Grimsby said. "Now, let's eat before this crab wanders off my plate." He stabbed the plate expecting to see a crab on it, but looked at it surprised when all that was on it was the sides that came with the dish.

Natsu looked over at the plate then over to Lucy who looked guilty and chuckled.

Later that night, Lucy sat at the vanity as Sebastian gave her a few tips for the next day until he nestled down on one of the pillows on the bed and fell asleep. She got up to walk to the bed and join the sleeping crab, but a knock at the door made her change directions.

She opened the door and saw Natsu standing on the other side. "Hey. I was hoping we could talk before we went to bed. I found something for you," he said and held up a small notepad and pencil.

Lucy smiled and took the notepad and pencil before nodding and started going back to the vanity, but stopped when she saw him heading for the bed. She grabbed the tails of his scarf and pulled him back.

"What the heck, Lucy?" Natsu asked aggravated at being choked.

Lucy held up a finger to her lips and pointed to the head of the bed where Sebastian stirred, but didn't wake up.

Natsu followed her finger, blinked, and turned back to Lucy. "Who's that?"

Lucy grabbed his arm and pulled him to the other side of the room before she sat down on the floor cross-legged, Natsu following suit. 'Sebastian,' she wrote out on the notepad.

"Friend from the story like Cogsworth and the others?" Natsu asked.

Lucy nodded then wrote something else. 'What did you want earlier?'

"Oh, yeah," Natsu said a bit too loudly, which made Lucy put her finger over her lips again. "Sorry," he said quieter as he stood up. "Look at this." He took his shirt off and turned around.

Lucy's eyes went wide in surprise, but relaxed again when she saw the two red spots on his back. She stood up and walked over to him, touching one of the spots. She tried to ask him what happened, but forgot she couldn't talk.

Natsu smiled at her from over his shoulder. "I still have my wings."

Lucy looked at him surprised.

Natsu turned back around, but threw the shirt on the floor. "I was trying to figure out how to make them come out before dinner, but I couldn't figure it out."

They both sat back down and Lucy grabbed the notepad again. 'You sure they're not just a scar from what you went through in the last story?'

"No, they're not. I have these too," he said and raised his hands to part his hair to show her the small horns. "I didn't notice them until I ran my hand through my hair. When I saw them, I wanted to see if I had my wings too and found those red spots."

'What about the tail?' she wrote out.

"I didn't think about that," he said before standing up and reaching for the front of his pants. "I don't feel it, but maybe..."

Lucy's eyes went wide again and a blush creeped up on her face as she jumped at him and grabbed his hands. 'Seriously!' She glared at him.

"What?" Natsu asked confused at why she stopped him. "You're the one who asked."

Lucy let go of his hands when she saw him move to sit back down. 'This guy has no shame.' She grabbed the notepad and pencil again and scribbled out, 'Do that when you're alone.'

"Fine," Natsu said rolling his eyes. "So, how do we get out of this story?"

Lucy thought about how to word it. 'Well, we have to make me human permanently. That's how this one ends.'

"So we do have to break another curse?"

'No, it's not a curse... In this story I am a mermaid like you saw before. I'm only human because of a spell, and we need to keep me human.'

"So, how do we do that?"

A light blush covered her cheeks this time as she wrote. 'One way is for you to...' She couldn't finish the sentence.

"For me to what? Come on, Luce," Natsu said a bit annoyed.

'... kiss me,' she finally wrote.

"That's it? Then let's do it," he replied and started leaning toward her.

Lucy panicked and punched him, sending him flying backwards a bit.

"Ow! What was that for?" Natsu asked as he sat up rubbing his red cheek.

'It's more complicated than that,' she quickly wrote.

"That's what you said last time, but we broke that curse easy enough," he said moving back to sit in front of her again.

Lucy looked away. 'He has a point. We did end up breaking that curse because we both admitted we loved each other... I think... but I never heard him say it, and he was... well, not breathing or conscious.' She looked back at him. 'If he kissed me now, would that do it?'

Lucy leaned forward a bit, but before either of them could do anything more, the door opened and Carlotta stepped in.

"There you are," she said to Natsu and placed her hands on her hips. "And without a shirt again. Do I need to teach you about proper decency again?"

Natsu quickly stood up, grabbed his discarded shirt, and made a mad dash to the door.

Lucy chuckled. 'He's acting like she's Erza.'

"Honestly, what has gotten into that boy?" Carlotta said as she watched the door close behind Natsu.

'Well, he always has been trouble,' Lucy thought as she stood up.

"I'm sorry about that," Carlotta said turning to her. "He won't bother you again tonight, I promise." She walked over to the door, opened it, and looked back at the blonde. "Good night."

Lucy waved in response and Carlotta left the room. 'Looks like the story won't be jumping ahead this time.' She crawled into bed, being careful not to wake the sleeping crab on the pillow, and closed her eyes, but her mind wouldn't let her sleep. She turned to lay on her back and stared at the ceiling.

'The story changed when Natsu came into the room, and the story fixed itself by having Carlotta come in and stop us from trying to kiss.' A light blush crossed her cheeks yet again when she remembered that she tried to kiss him. 'My face is going to turn permanently red at this point... Stupid story... Anyway, could he be right? If we just kiss, would that be enough to keep me from turning back into a mermaid? Is that why the story made Carlotta barge in on us?' Her mind then switched to the red patches on Natsu's back. 'Also, what happened to Natsu? Did the spell permanently change him, or did he not fully turn back to normal after the last story? The spell did transport us to this story in the middle of Natsu changing back because of the curse being broken.'

Lucy sighed and closed her eyes. 'All I'm getting is more questions than answers here.' She took another deep breath and felt herself relax enough to feel tired. 'I should just try and get some sleep. Maybe we can figure something out tomorrow.'

With that thought, Lucy rolled over and took another deep breath and relaxed even more and let the unconsciousness take over.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

The next morning, Lucy and Natsu met up for breakfast, then left the castle to go on the tour of the kingdom. Grimsby tried to get them to go in a horse and carriage, but Natsu absolutely refused. Lucy thankfully stepped in and somehow convinced Grimsby that she was ok with walking, and Grimsby and Carlotta waved them off as they walked out the castle gates.

As they walked, Natsu noticed the notepad sticking out of the small bag Lucy wore on her shoulder that matched her light pink dress she wore. 'Well, at least she'll be able to talk by writing.' He looked at Lucy's hand that was near the bag. He had the sudden urge to want to hold it, but forced himself to keep his hands to himself, much to the voice's agitation. 'I don't want her to hit me again.'

'She was moving to kiss you before that woman showed up,' the voice replied.

'If that's true, why'd she hit me in the first place?' Natsu asked irritably.

'Who cares. She's ours, so we can do what we want.'

'No we can't! And what's this "we" stuff? You're just a voice in my head.'

He felt a hand on his arm and saw Lucy looking at him a bit worried. He rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry. I... got lost in thought." He wasn't so sure if Lucy would understand if he told her he now had a voice in his head arguing with him. 'She'd probably think I'm crazy.'

Lucy smiled at him as if she understood.

After another few minutes of walking, they finally made it to the town. As they walked over a stone bridge, he heard a voice call out from the water below quietly. "Has he kissed her yet?"

"Not yet."

He looked down at Lucy's bag where he heard the second voice come from and saw the red crab that was on one of Lucy's pillows last night. 'So the animals talk in this story? Wait, Max doesn't talk, so maybe it's just the animals that interact with Lucy.'

Lucy grabbed his wrist, breaking him out of his thoughts, and dragged him over to a small stand that had two puppets talking with each other. He felt a little disappointed when she let go of his hand, but chuckled when she grabbed one of the puppets and looked a little surprised when a hand spread its fingers and started feeling around for the puppet.

"Luce, what are you doing?" he asked as she gave the hand the puppet.

Lucy pulled out the notepad, a slight blush on her cheeks he assumed was from embarrassment. 'This story makes me forget what half of this stuff is,' she wrote. 'I can't even remember what that thing was called, and my hand just moved to grab it.'

"Oh," Natus replied. "Well, that was a puppet." He saw her look back at the stand, fascination crossing her face. "So, is that why you were running the fork through your hair yesterday?"

Lucy looked back at him, but avoided looking him in the eyes, and nodded. 'I know what it was used for, but couldn't remember its name. Scuttle called it a dinglehopper, and my body moved on its own again.'

Natsu laughed. "A dinglehopper?"

Lucy smacked his arm, her face now completely red from embarrassment, and she walked off.

"Wait, Luce. I'm sorry," he said as he went after her.

They walked around looking at all the stalls, Lucy looking at most of the stuff with wide-eyed wonder, until she stopped, causing him to run into her. "Why'd you..."

Lucy cut him off by grabbing his hand and dragging him to an area where people were dancing. She stopped at the side and watched the people around her.

'She did enjoy dancing in the last story,' Natsu thought before he held his hand out to her.

Lucy smiled and took his hand, but it was Natsu that pulled her into him. He reached back into his memories to remember everything he learned from the coatrack and Lucy from the last story and managed to spin them around a bit as they danced. He kept a hold of her hand and gently pushed her away to arms length before raising their hands and twirling her in place.

Lucy smiled as they danced, which made Natsu's heart skip a beat. He pulled her back to him, but she stumbled a bit and had to catch her, placing his hand behind her back and pulling her close to his face.

'Kiss her!' the voice yelled at him.

Natsu stared into Lucy's eyes, wanting nothing more than to listen to the voice, but reluctantly pushed her back a bit and moved so they were swaying to the music again.

The song ended and Lucy grabbed Natsu's hand again and dragged him to a food stand that was selling bread. They both got some hot rolls and Natsu got two baguette loaves for later before going around to a few more stalls.

When they left the town and headed into the forest that surrounded it, in the opposite directions of the castle, Lucy had a new hat, boots, and some flowers, along with the bread, in her arms. She looked really happy and that made Natsu happy too.

'Make her ours,' the voice demanded.

'I can't just do that, and seriously, what's with this "ours" and "we" stuff? You're just a voice.'

'I am a part of you,' the voice replied.

'So, you're the bossy side of me?'

'I'm the dragon side of you,' it replied annoyed.

'Dragon? But I was only half dragon in the story,' Natsu replied very confused.

'I have always been there, but this spell finally let me be heard.'

Natsu stopped walking, his eyes wide. 'So, I could always have wings?'

Natsu felt a hand on his arm again and saw Lucy look even more concerned than before.

"Sorry. Lost in thought again," Natsu said rubbing the back of his head like last time.

Lucy opened her mouth, but then pushed the stuff in her arms into Natsu's so she could grab the notepad. 'What's wrong?'

"It's nothing. Honest," Natsu tried, but Lucy just looked at him with an "I don't believe you" look and crossed her arms. "Ok, fine. The dragon part of me is talking to me."

Lucy blinked. 'Dragon part?' she wrote.

"Yeah. Apparently it's always been a part of me, but thanks to the spell that brought us here, it's finally able to talk to me."

'Is that what took you over in the last story?'

"Maybe?" Natsu questioned himself.

'Yes.'

"It says it was," Natsu relayed.

'So you can talk to it like it's another person?'

"Yeah. I would've told you earlier, but I didn't want you thinking I was crazy."

Lucy rolled her eyes and smiled. 'You've always been a bit crazy.'

"Hey!" Natsu cried out a bit offended.

Lucy let out a chuckle, but it was silent. The only way Natsu could tell she was chuckling was because of her smile and how the breath left her nose. She then put the notepad back in the back, turned around, and continued walking.

He just stood there with a pout on his face. He would've crossed his arms, but they were still full with the stuff Lucy shoved into his arms. A few seconds later, he smiled. He couldn't stay mad at her.

'You always have been crazy,' the voice said.

'Shut up!' he yelled back in his head, then moved to follow Lucy.

They walked further into the forest until they reached a small lake. A pier was close to them and Natsu paled when he saw the small rowboat. He watched Lucy walk out onto the pier, but walked to the end of it and sat down, and Natsu let out a sigh of relief. He dropped the stuff in his arms on the end of the pier closest to the land and walked over to sit next to her, their feet dangling over the side.

Lucy looked at him as he sat down and pulled her notepad out of the bag again. 'We're supposed to take the boat out.'

"Do we have to?" Natsu asked. His stomach did a little flip just thinking about being on the boat.

Lucy shook her head. 'I think it'll be fine this way,' she wrote referring to them sitting on the pier.

Natsu smiled at her. "So, I'm curious. What's your name in this story?"

'Scuttle said it after I saved you.'

"Yeah, but I was still a little dizzy and don't remember what he called you."

'Why don't you try guessing?' Lucy suggested with a smile on her face.

Natsu frowned. "That's not fair. I don't know anything about these fairy tales."

Lucy chuckled again and turned to look out over the lake.

"Fine," Natsu relented, but looked over to the side of the lake where he heard a voice.

"Move over. Move your big feathers," he saw the yellow and blue fish from the beach say to the bird he also saw on the beach. "I can't see a thing."

"Nothing is happening," Scuttle said. "Only one day left, and that boy ain't puckered up once."

'One day left?' Natsu asked himself. 'What happens in one day?'

"Ok," Scuttle said spreading his wings out to the side. "All right, this calls for a little vocal, romantic stimulation." He flew off and landed on a branch harshly causing the little bluebirds to fall and fly off.

A loud sound that sounded like someone was singing while they were gargling something filled the air and both Natsu and Lucy cringed at it.

"Man, that bird sings horribly," Natsu said and raised a fist covered in flames. "Maybe I should put it out of its misery."

Lucy looked up at the bird, who winked and gave her a thumbs up, then put her hand on Natsu's arm and shook her head.

Natsu saw Sebastian crawl out of Lucy's bag, claws over his ears, and made his way to the side of the pier. "Geez, man. I'm surrounded by amateurs." He then jumped into the lake.

Thankfully, Scuttle went quiet when beautiful music suddenly surrounded them.

"What the?" Natsu asked looking around before Lucy tapped his shoulder. He looked back at her and saw her holding up the notepad.

'It's Sebastian,' Lucy answered for him. 'I think he's using the animals around him to help him.'

Natsu looked up from the notepad. "Oh. Well, at least it's better than that bird."

'So, you going to guess?'

"Huh? Oh, right," Natsu replied. "Is it Mildred?"

Lucy gave him a weird face and shook her head.

Natsu laughed. "Ok, no. How about Diana? Rachel?" he asked but she shook her head again.

"Ariel. Her name is Ariel," he heard the voice of Sebastian say behind him.

"Ariel?" Natsu asked looking over his shoulder for the voice, but Sebastian was already gone. When he looked back at Lucy, she had a shocked look on her face.

Lucy held up the notepad again. 'How did you figure it out?'

Natsu smiled. "That crab guy told me."

Lucy smiled at him and looked back over the lake to see that the sun was already setting and the area was getting dark. She shivered a bit because the temperature was going down with the sun, but Natsu raised his own body heat to warm her.

They both saw lightning bugs suddenly appear and scatter around the area to make it look like they were sitting in a star-filled sky. Natsu looked over and saw Lucy's face light up with awe.

'They are setting the mood for you. Make your move,' the voice demanded.

Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand, which made her look down at their hands then up at Natsu, and smiled as he stared into her blue eyes. He saw Lucy smile back at him. "You look so beautiful, Luce."

Lucy blushed and turned her head away, the smile never leaving her face, but Natsu gently placed his free hand on her cheek and made her look back at him. He leaned forward and he saw Lucy close her eyes, so he did the same. He could feel the breath from her parted lips tickle his lips and he hesitated.

'Don't stop! Kiss her! Make her ours!' the voice demanded again.

Natsu pushed himself forward and felt his lips brush hers, but opened his eyes quickly as he felt something wrap around his ankles and pull him off the pier.

Natsu popped up out of the water, spitting water out of his mouth, and looked up to see Lucy staring down at him worried. "Something grabbed me and pulled me in."

Lucy sat back a bit and relaxed as Natsu grabbed the edge of the pier and lifted himself onto it.

'In the story, Flotsam and Jetsam tip over the boat, so I guess they were the ones who pulled you in.'

"Who?" Natsu asked ringing water out of his shirt. He heard a hissing laughter and turned his head to see two eels grabbing each others tails as if they were shaking hands. When he looked back at Lucy, she was holding up her response.

'Ursula's pet eels. They're kind of creepy.'

"Oh."

'Burn them to ash,' the voice said menacingly.

'I would, but...' he replied looking back at the spot the two eels were in, '... they're already gone.'

He heard Lucy stand up and looked back to see her holding her hand out to him smiling. He smiled back at her, took her hand, and stood up. "Guess the mood broke," he said as they walked off the pier, Natsu grabbing the stuff as they went by.

Lucy gave him a small smile. She grabbed a couple things from him, then took his free hand in hers.

'You can still make her ours,' the voice said.

'Forget it. It's late and I'm drenched.' He looked down at their entwined fingers and smiled. 'It's fine like this.'

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

"Ariel! Ariel, wake up!" Lucy heard Scuttle yell as he flew in the open window of her room and land on the bed. "I just heard the news. Congratulations."

Lucy opened her eyes and sat up. 'What's he talking about?'

Scuttle grabbed her hand with both wings and shook it. "Kiddo, we did it!"

Sebastian, who had been sleeping on the same pillow as she had, yawned. "What is this idiot babbling about?" he asked as he laid back down and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

Scuttle walked over and nudged the crab. "Right, as if you two didn't know, huh?"

'We really don't know,' Lucy thought still half asleep and letting out her own yawn.

"The whole town's buzzin' about the prince gettin' himself hitched this afternoon!" he said and jumped as he raised his wings over his head. "You know, he's getting married."

'Married!' Lucy was now fully awake. 'He didn't even get to kiss me last night. Why would...' Her eyes went wide in horror. 'Crap! I forgot about that.' She quickly got out of bed and raced out of the room and down the hall until she heard voices coming from the first floor. She knelt down and looked between the bars that made up the second floor railing and saw that Grimsby guy, Natsu, and some black haired woman, who was clinging to Natsu's arm.

"Well now, Eric," Grimsby said. "It appears that I was mistaken. This mystery maiden of yours does, in fact, exist."

She stared at Natsu and was surprised to see him in a fancy suit, but what really surprised her was the way he was standing. He was standing up straight just staring ahead of him as if he were zoning out.

"We wish to be married as soon as possible," Natsu said in an emotionless tone.

'Mind control?' Lucy thought as she clenched her fist on the bar. 'So is that the sea witch in disguise?'

"Oh, yes, of course, Eric, but, uh, these things do take time, you know," Grimsby replied.

"This afternoon, Grimsby. The wedding ship departs at sunset," Natsu said.

"Oh. Very well, Eric, as you wish," Grimsby said a bit uncertainly.

The woman turned to look in Lucy's direction and smiled evilly at her.

'If I had my keys...' Lucy thought angrily. She watched the woman put her head on Natsu's shoulder. She turned her face away, tears stinging her eyes. 'No, I have to stay calm. This is just part of the story.' She stood up and quickly made her way back to her room. She found a light green dress and put it on, then made her way down stairs to try and break Natsu free of the mind control, but when she got down there, he was gone.

She searched for him all day, but no one would tell her where he was, and when the sun started to set, she ran down to the port, but was too late as the ship had already left.

She leaned on the pillar that held up the canopy over the dock and slid down it, a tear running down her cheek. 'No!' she yelled at herself as she violently wiped the tear away. I can't give up. I...' She felt helplessness overcome her.

"Ariel!"

Lucy looked up and saw Scuttle frantically flying towards her. He landed next to her and panted. "Ariel, I was flying... Of course, I was flying. And I saw... the watch... that the witch was watching in the mirror, and she was singin' with a stolen set of pipes." He picked up Sebastian and pulled him right next to his beak. "Do you hear what I'm telling you? The prince is marrying the sea witch in disguise!" he said as he bashed Sebastian against the wooden deck, then let him drop.

"Are you sure about this?" Sebastian asked as he rubbed his head.

"Have I ever been wrong?" Scuttle asked as he pointed to himself. "I mean, when it's important?"

"What are we going to do?" Flounder asked. Lucy had noticed that he swam up to the dock when she got there.

Lucy stood up and walked to the end of the dock. "Before the sun sets on the third day,' she heard Ursula's voice echo through her head as she saw the sun almost touching the water. She clenched her fists and dove into the water.

When she popped back up, she flailed around not remembering how to swim. She heard a splash and noticed that Sebastian had clipped the rope that was holding a couple of stacked barrels, and they fell into the water.

"Ariel, grab onto that," Sebastian called out to her. "Flounder, get her to that boat as fast as your fins can carry you."

Lucy picked up the rope on the barrel she was holding onto, tied it so that it had a large loop on the end big enough for Flounder to slip into, and held it out.

"I'll try!" Flounder said determined as he slipped into the loop and pulled the barrel and Lucy toward the ship.

"Scuttle, find a way to stall that wedding!" Sebastian called out before he jumped into the water and disappeared.

Lucy saw Scuttle fly off making a loud squawking noise, then looked back at the ship. 'Hold on, Natsu.'

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Natsu was freaking out, or at least internally he was. He couldn't control his body at all, and being on this ship made him sick in more ways than one. 'Dang it! What did she do to me?'

'You're under a spell,' the voice answered for him.

'Yeah, I can see that,' he thought back angrily.

The black haired lady, who introduced herself as Vanessa, walked up beside him in a white wedding dress, veil, and a red rose bouquet in her hand. "Ready, Darling?" she asked in Lucy's voice with a smug smile on her face.

'No, I'm not ready! I don't want to marry you! And don't talk in Lucy's voice!' he thought, but all he said was an emotionless, "Yes."

'She is not our mate. You can not marry her,' the voice said aggravated.

'I don't want to! Wait, mate?'

Natsu and Vanessa walked out onto the deck where several men and women were standing all dressed up. He heard Max growl on Vanessa's side when they got closer to the front of the ship, but suddenly heard him whine and he assumed Vanessa kicked him. They finally made it to the altar and the priest started his long wedding speech.

Natsu felt heat radiate off of him and inwardly smiled when he felt Vanessa move away from him slightly.

"Yes, um, do you, Eric, take Vanessa to be your lawfully wedded wife, for as long as you both shall live?" the priest asked.

'No! I freaking don't!' he yelled.

'I refuse to let this happen,' the voice said.

"I..." Natus started, but put a hand on his head.

"What are you doing, Darling?" Vanessa asked between clenched teeth.

Natsu was able to turn his head enough to see Vanessa lift her hand to her necklace. It glowed and he could feel his control slip away again as he stood up straight again. "I do," he said in that same emotionless voice.

As the priest continued with his speech, a flock of birds led by Scuttle dive bombed Vanessa, making her duck. They made another dive bomb move, and this time flew under her dress, making her scream and almost fall.

Natsu could hear Max barking and people screaming. 'Why do I always get stuck in a position where I can't fight?' he thought annoyed. He could smell several different kinds of animals making their way on deck and make their way to attack Vanessa. He was really glad when she moved so he could see them.

A few pelicans duped water on her, the last one dumping a lobster on her head, which clamped its claw on her nose, making her scream before a dozen or so starfish slapped themselves on her arms and torso. He laughed internally when one of them slapped her over the mouth to shut her up.

"Get away from me you slimy... Oh!" she began to say as she pulled the creatures off her, but a seal lifted her up and bounced her on its nose, then over to its other seal buddies, the last one tossing her into the large, five layered, white and pink cake. When she stood up, three dolphins jumped up and squirted water in her face.

Natsu caught a whiff of Lucy's scent and knew she was now on board.

Scuttle flew in front of her and squawked loudly in her face, but Vanessa quickly recovered and started strangling the bird before Max came over and bit her in the butt. She let go of Scuttle, who had managed to grab ahold of her necklace, and he finally pulled hard enough to snap the string holding it and it went flying into the air.

It broke somewhere behind Natsu, and he heard Lucy's angelic singing voice, and something snapped inside his head. He lifted his hand to his head and realized he could move again. He turned and saw that the shell broke in front of Lucy and he smiled when he heard her voice coming from her mouth again.

"Lucy," Natsu said with a smile as he ran over to her.

"Natsu," she said with a smile too and grabbed his hands when he reached her.

Natsu placed his forehead on hers. "Well, we broke that spell."

"Eric, get away from her," they heard Ursula's voice call out, but they both ignored her.

"Now, shall we finish this story?" Lucy asked as she moved her head to kiss him, but felt her legs disappear as she fell to the deck. She looked over and saw that the sun had set, then down and saw that her pink tail was back, glowing a bit before returning to normal.

"You're too late!" Ursula said and then laughed. Natsu turned to look at her. "You're too late!" She shot purple lightning from her fingertips and her true form ripped away the slender form that was Vanessa.

Everyone gasped and moved out of the way as Ursula crawled her way over to Lucy and Natsu with a crazy look on her face.

Natsu lit both fists on fire and stood in front of Lucy. "Lucy, get out of here!"

Ursula shot out one of her tentacles, wrapped it around Natsu's ankle, and flung him to the side. She then grabbed Lucy, pulled herself up to sit on the ship's railing, tentacles hanging over it, wrapped her arm around Lucy's neck, and turned her head to face Natsu. "So long, lover boy."

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled as she and Ursula fell off the ship.

"Lucy!" Natsu ran over and looked into the water, but all he saw was the discarded green dress.

'No! She can't have our mate!' the voice yelled.

Natsu felt a sharp pain in his head, near his shoulder blades, and his lower back above his butt and heard his shirt rip and felt something wrap around his leg. Natsu blinked when he saw two massive wings on either side of him, and assumed the thing wrapped around his leg was his tail. "Well, guess that answers that question," he said with a smile.

He placed a foot on the railing and jumped into the air before taking a big breath and diving into the water.

'Dragon me, can I use my fire underwater?' he asked the voice.

'In this form you are much stronger, so you should be able to,' the voice responded.

'Should? You're not sure?'

'I only know what you do.'

'Guess we'll find out,' he said when he saw a glowing light wrap around Lucy.

He saw Ursula talking with an older merman, but he narrowed his eyes when he saw Lucy shrink and start to shrivel.

'Wait,' the voice commanded.

'Wait for what? Something is happening to Lucy.'

'Listen to their conversation. I don't think we can stop what's happening to her ourselves.'

Natsu looked over and saw the merman shoot a glowing paper that Ursula held up with what looked to him like a giant fork as the merman turned his head.

"Ha! It's done then!" Ursula shouted.

Lucy returned to normal, or in her mermaid form normal, and the light that was swirling around her shot over to the merman, swirled around him, and shrank him down to a shriveled creature with big eyes, the crown he wore falling over him so he was in the middle of it.

"Daddy?" Lucy called out to him.

"At last... it's mine," Ursula said as she picked up the crown and placed it on her head. She then picked up the trident with her tentacle and brought it to her hands as she laughed and it began to glow.

Lucy stared at the creature that was the merman, then yelled at Ursula before dashing over and attacking her. "You monster!"

Natsu's anger increased when he saw Ursula grab Lucy and fling her into a rock. He lit his fist on fire and was happy to see it actually worked. 'Time to test it out.'

"Don't fool with me, ya little brat!" Ursula yelled at Lucy and pointed the trident at the blonde. "Contract or no, I'll blast... Ow!"

'A little off, but at least it distracted her from Lucy,' Natsu said in his head when the fireball he threw singed the octopus lady's arm. He glared at the sea witch when she turned to look at him.

"Why, you little fool," Ursula said angrily.

"Natsu, look out!" Lucy shouted at him as she tried to go to him, but Ursula used her tentacles to hold her in place next to the rock.

Natsu felt his lungs start to burn from the lack of air and knew he needed to get to the surface. He turned and swam for the surface, using his wings to swim faster.

"After him!" he heard Ursula yell.

He turned his head and saw the two eels who dunked him in the lake coming after him.

'Turn them to ash!' the voice demanded.

'I'd love to, but I need air,' Natsu replied. His vision was starting to go black. With another flap of his wings, he managed to get his head above the water and gulp in a large breath of air before he was pulled back under the water. The eels had managed to wrap their tails around both of his ankles before he got fully out of the water. 'Ok, now they turn to ash.'

Natsu's whole body burst into flames and the two eels let go. He saw a beam of light headed their way, but realized that its target wasn't him, but the two eels. He looked down and saw Lucy pulling on Ursula's hair.

The two eels screamed before they exploded and Ursula stuck out her hands to catch their falling pieces. "Babies! My poor little poopsies." Ursula glared up at him.

Lucy swam towards Natsu as she spoke. "You need to get out of here... And what happened to you?" she asked when she saw he looked exactly like he did in the last story.

Natsu smiled, grabbed Lucy's wrist and pulled her to him, flapped his wings to swim quickly to the surface, and burst through the water and into the air, carrying Lucy bridle style.

"Finally managed to get my wings to emerge," he answered her question with a huge smile.

'I made your wings emerge,' the voice said sternly.

'Yeah, yeah,' he replied to the voice. "Oh, and I'm not leaving you."

Lucy smiled up at him. They heard a loud growl come from below and they looked down to see a huge Ursula emerge from the water.

"She's huge!" Natsu exclaimed with wide eyes.

"You pitiful, insignificant fools!" Ursula said in a deep voice. She swung her hand at the two and even though Natsu dodged it, the wind it produced caused him to lose control and they fell into the water.

Ursula slapped one of her tentacles on top of them, which made the two swim deeper in the water

Natsu couldn't maneuver in the water as well as he could in the air and was caught under the tentacle and pushed down, the hit causing all the air to escape his lungs. His vision started to go black again and his lungs burned as he saw a figure swimming towards him. When the figure got closer, he saw it was Lucy and smiled.

Before he knew what was happening, he felt lips on his and air filling his lungs. He blinked and realized that Lucy was giving him mouth to mouth and blushed. He smiled when she pulled back and saw a blush on her face as well.

"Let's get back to the surface," she said.

Natsu nodded and they swam back to the surface. When they popped up out of the water, it was raining and a huge wave crashed near them, the force of it sending Natsu flying into the air. He managed to catch himself enough to stop tumbling, but the wind was too strong and he fell back into the water.

Natsu decided to stay under the water to get his bearings and saw a huge whirlpool form, making the ships that were on the seafloor lift up and sail again. He grabbed onto a rope that was hanging off of one of the ships as it passed by and pulled himself to the surface once more. "I'm going to regret this," he said as he climbed up the side of the ship and over the rail.

Natsu stood up and immediately put his hand over his mouth. "Oh no."

'Our mate is in trouble!' the voice yelled at him.

Natsu closed his eyes and focused on his hearing and heard Lucy scream. He placed his hand on his stomach and started running towards the ship's helm. "What good are wings if I can't fly?"

'You need to train more,' the voice responded.

The ship rocked and a large wave splashed onto the deck, knocking Natsu over, but thankfully he stayed on the ship. He got back up and finally stumbled his way to the helm, grabbed it, and pointed the ship towards Ursula. He smiled when he saw a big, pointy, wooden post sticking out over the front of the ship.

Ursula chuckled. "So much for true love!" she yelled as she raised the large trident above her head.

Natsu smiled at how open Ursula now was and turned the helm one last time and drove the post into Ursula's stomach.

Ursula screamed and lightning coursed through her entire body and she fell onto the ship, making Natsu run and jump off the ship before she wrapped her tentacles around the ship, and both her and the ship sank into the water, bubbles and smoke rising from the spot.

He looked down and saw the whirlpool was gone and Lucy was staring at the bubbles with a terrified look on her face. He flew down, about to call out her name, when a twinge of pain shot through his body and he felt his horns, wings, and tail pull back into his body. 'Why now?'

'You used up too much magical energy,' the voice replied.

Natsu fell into the water and somehow managed to swim to the shore before he collapsed and passed out.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Lucy swam around frantically looking for Natsu, but couldn't find him anywhere.

"Ariel," Flounder said as he swam up to her.

"Flounder, you have to help me find him," Lucy said in a panic.

"It's ok," Flounder said with a smile. "Scuttle got my attention and said he saw that guy sleeping on the shore."

Lucy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

"Ariel."

Lucy turned and saw Triton coming toward her. "Daddy, I'm..."

Triton cut her off with a hug. "I'm so glad you're ok."

Lucy smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad you're back to normal too."

When they pulled apart, Lucy looked up at him with a serious face. "I have to go to him. I need to make sure he's alright."

"You really do love him, don't you," he said a bit sadly.

"Yeah, I do," Lucy said with a smile. She then turned and swam away before he could stop her.

When she got to the shore, the sun was already rising. 'Man, the time in these stories go by so quickly. How many days have Natsu and I really been in here?' She saw Natsu lying on the beach and smiled, but instead of going over to him, she climbed up on a large rock that was nearby and just watched him. She knew that the only way left for her to become human again and end this story was to be turned by Triton.

After another minute, she saw Natsu start to stir, but before she could call out to him, a bright glow came from below her. She looked back and saw that Triton and Sebastian had followed her and that Triton was sending magic from his trident over the water. She smiled and looked down to see her tail sparkling and started to feel that same tingle run through her body that she felt at the end of the last story. The glow grew brighter and spread out to the shore to envelope Natsu too. "We better be going home this time," she said before everything went white.

So, how'd I do? Did you like it? was it different enough that you weren't bored of reading the same story you may have watched a million times like I did? Did anyone else not realize that Ursula was using Ariel's voice when she was Vanessa? Or was that just me? Tell me in a comment, and if you have a Disney fairy tail you want to see Natsu and Lucy go through, let me know too. There were two people that requested that I do Aladdin next, so that will be the next story they go through.

See you in the next chapter :)