Omg! I just say your recent Nalu art and I really want to know if there is a fic to go with them!
No fic, just my own imagination and a lot of vintage fashion plates as inspiration!
But here’s some a lot more details for you guys! It’s set early Victorian era England, mid-century or so. I considered doing a Regency au but I liked the evening gowns of the 1850-60s better. It’s not 100% historically accurate tho, I’m just out here having fun.
ANYWAY!
The Heartfilia family is upper-middle-class, Jude gaining wealth through his fast growing import business in the industrial revolution. After her mother’s passing, Lucy busies herself solely with her writing and has kept suitors at bay with her purposelydefiant behavior, much to her father’s chagrin. She tires of being paraded around parties and balls to find an advantageous match, longing to find happiness in her own way.
At one of the balls that she so dreads, Lucy becomes acquainted with the second son of the Dragneel family. Natsu holds a poor reputation by society for being rowdy and ill-mannered; rarely does he get through a social event without causing a ruckus. He’d much rather be out-of-doors than in the company of the crusty upper-class. The only reason his behavior is tolerated is because of his highly esteemed elder brother, Zeref, and their prestigious family name. (Side note: Natsu’s behavior isn’t like…offensive. He knows how to have a civil conversation and god knows he knows etiquette after Zeref hammered it into him for years. It’s just he enjoys having fun, propriety be damned at times.)
The two get along nearly immediately, sharing their distaste for such events and an equal readiness for adventure. Soon Lucy is joining in on his bad behavior at the social gatherings they attend and it’s not long before it gets back to Jude. He immediately pushes to mend his daughter’s damaged reputation by setting her in an engagement with Zeref.
To Natsu’s surprise and Lucy’s best attempts to deter him, Zeref agrees to the match. Now with an unwanted marriage looming on the horizon, the lines of friendship between the two become confused. Lucy finds herself in love with Natsu and tbh he’s been enamored by her from the start.
And that’s where I’ll leave it for now: an already strained relationship between brothers growing only worse by a betrothal of perhaps dubious motive and Natsu and Lucy in an awkward dance of mutual pining and barely restrained self-control. Also secret trysts, for when that self-control isn’t so restrained.