Brooklyn, NYC, United States November 25, 1996
This should have been a joke or something. Except that it wasn't.
One moment he's experiencing the delicious quiet with his girlfriend (freaking finally. That was a whole story in itself.) No dark guilds after them. Zeref definitely dead. The 100 year quest over (okay, so he had kind of quit earlier than the rest of his team - enough was enough. Juvia was waiting and he was getting seriously antsy.) It had been nine full of days of absolute quiet. It would get boring soon, but he had really needed this downtime. And Juvia was so nice to be with. It was amazing how much more comfortable she had gotten around him, how slowly she was taking him off the pedestal, teasing him and getting used to being fine about not always having the same opinion. They'd had their moments of discord and awkwardness since moving in together, but it had overall been so wonderful, he was kicking himself for not waking up earlier. Oh well. Everything in the right time.
After taking their time getting dressed, they started strolling over to the guild for breakfast (the fridge had only two pathetic looking yogurts which were halfway on their way to being science projects), when suddenly he heard a bang, saw a strange spiral in the air and he wasn't there anymore. Magnolia gone. Juvia gone. Replaced with a completely foreign environment.
Seriously? How does this just happen? And why did this always happen to HIM? And what happened to Juvia? And was she okay?
What's weird is nobody even looked shocked when he showed up. There was some sort of magic at work, because the street he ended up on was full of people and nobody seemed to see him arrive; it was almost like he was always just there. At the same time he couldn't really detect magical power here. It felt like Edolas in that regard.
He walked up to the corner to see where he was. Not that it would help; this wasn't at all where he had been; it didn't look like anywhere in Magnolia; was he even in Fiore anymore?
He looked up at the sign on the corner. Avenue M and E. 14th. What's E 14th. East? Okay. That told him nothing. There was something smelling way too delicious though. And they probably didn't take Jewel, either. He had this bad feeling people here were all going to be looking at him like he was not quite well in the head. He was about to go inside the bakery with it's strange automatic doors to try his luck, when he heard a familiar voice call his name. Natsu?
"Graeme. Graeme. GRAEME!" An copper haired guy who otherwise looked completely like Natsu, was running up to him, somewhat out of breath.
"Natsu?"
The guy looked horrified.
"Seriously, Graeme? How can you even call me that? Anyway, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be practicing at the rink? Juvia is going to KILL you."
Okay great. He had somehow landed in a parallel universe. Twice in one lifetime? Seriously? He decided to follow along with this Natsu lookalike. It's not like he had any other options currently.
"Uh, the rink?" He was following the Natsu counterpart down a cross street.
"Graeme, are you alright? Whatever. Get in the car. I'll take you there. Seriously, Juvia's going to be teed off and she is SCARY when she's pissed." The Natsu look alike suddenly peered closely at Gray with a confused expression. "What did you do to your hair?"
"Uh, nothing? Juvia?"
"Yeah. Remember her? Your partner for the competition that's only in about 5 weeks from now?! And you don't even have your performance outfit and your skates with you. She is going to KILL you."
"Wait? Her name is Juvia?"
Julia. JOO-LIA. You've only known her 8 years, and she's had a crush on you for most of them? Seriously? What's wrong with you today, Graeme?"
"I think there's some mistake. My name is Gray, not Graeme."
"Okay, I'll call you Gray even though I haven't called you that in years. Seriously, what's gone into you? You're acting like you don't even know who I am!"
"Um, I don't really. I mean, you look like a good friend of mine, but I've never met you."
"Hmm... You don't remember who I am? Oh man, you've probably fallen and hurt yourself. I guess that's how your lost your kippah. Here." The guy reached behind his seat and dumped a small round crocheted disc on Gray's head and smiled mischievously at him. Not good. If he was anything like Natsu, that kind of smile was the beginning of nothing good, and the weird thing was, Gray could swear the guy was looking flirtatious, which was surreal.
They drove for a while in silence. Shortly after they had driven through some sort of tunnel the copper haired man spoke up again.
"So, Gray, darling, you don't remember that we've been dating for almost two years? Our anniversary is in two weeks and you've promised me a night of passion at the Waldorf Astoria."
"Uh… No offence, but you sound like you're making that up." Gray decided it wasn't worth it to ask what the Waldorf Astoria was.
"Okay, fine. We're not boyfriends, but you can't blame a guy for trying. You know how cute you are. Not to make light of your amnesia. Okay We're here. Can't believe I found parking so fast. Hopefully, Julia will not be angry. Hmm. Maybe I should have taken you to the hospital? Whatever. Get out."
Gray followed the copper haired man into a large busy building which was right by a river. Soon they were in room with a very large ice rink. Gray, couldn't stop himself from sighing happily. Ice. Nothing like that cold fresh smell to lift up his spirits. Ice, his element. He should really check soon if his magic worked at all. Just for fun.
There were many people on the rink, but the Natsu counterpart seemed to know where he was going. Near the northeast corner of the rink were two people. One was instantly recognizable. A beautiful pale young woman with blue hair and facial features he'd know anywhere. He wasn't so far off. Julia was Juvia's counterpart. Something was off with her hair, though. He couldn't figure out what. It was a blue, but a little darker than Juvia's and at the top it looked more like brown?
She was in the middle of working out some sort of skate routine with another guy, who had black curly hair with a disc on his head who looked even more eerily familiar. Aside from the hair, it was like looking in the mirror, although this guy radiated a confidence Gray usually only faked. The couple were so far unaware they had company.
"Seriously, Julia, you've got to relax. We're supposed to glide into the next movement. It's supposed to look romantic. That's what people want to see." Oh great. Yep. Even his voice was the same.
The response was harsh. "Like you'd know anything about romance." Ouch. Gray wondered what sort of relationship they had. Were they dating? Exes?
"Oh come on, Julia. Give me a break! Hey, Nati's here, and he brought somebody. Let's say hi." Okay that sounded more like something he'd say, Gray thought. Shit, he'd almost forgot how creepy it was to see someone who looked and sounded almost exactly like he did. Well, at least this guy was an improvement on his Edolas counterpart. That guy had been an embarrassment. Constantly fawning over Edolas Juvia and wearing layers and layers of clothing He had been a walking sleeping bag.
"Fine." The two skaters made there way over.
"Nati, who's this? A new friend?" Graeme smirked before peering over at Gray and looking extremely shocked. "Who the hell are you!?"
"Hi. My name's Gray Fullbuster. You're Graeme? This is kind of creepy isn't?" And it was, even if it wasn't so unexpected. This Nati guy had thought he was Graeme. It was only natural that the real Graeme would show up at some point.
"Seriously, Nati? Who the hell is this guy?" Graeme proceeded to ignore him and glared at Nati. Weird. Natsu. Nati.
Julia had a smirk on her face, like her birthday had come early or something. Okay, that was creepy. Meanwhile, Nati was very flustered trying to explain what happened.
"Graeme, I thought he was you! I was finishing my job and I saw what looked like you on Avenue M, and you looked like you were totally out of it. I was trying to do you a favor so I took you to the rink. Only... Well he's not exactly you, is he."
Gray decided to explain, even though he knew it was not going to make sense and they were not going to believe him, but what other choice did he have? And how long was he going to be stuck in this place?
"Hi. I'm not really from here. I don't even know where I am, actually. I'm from a place called Magnolia in a country called Fiore. Have you heard of it? I'm guessing no?"
"Uh… Is it in Italy?" Nati asked.
"No. I've never heard of Italy, sorry. So, this is going to sound hard to believe, but I was walking with my girlfriend to my guild hall, because um, we belong to this guild," Gray was sounding so stupid even to him, get on with it! "And suddenly, I saw a weird spiral in the sky and I was standing wherever, um, Nati? saw me. I guess he thought I was you."
Graeme didn't look very impressed. "So why the hell didn't you tell him you weren't me?"
"Graeme," Julia interrupted. " This guy's got a nice six pack. You need to work out more, I don't think you're nearly as ripped as he is. Interesting tattoo." This was Julia, who was seriously ogling him without any sense of shame at all. Gray felt himself go red. When had he stripped? Shit. And what was wrong with Juvia's counterpart? He had always told Juvia she needed to believe in herself more, but this girl needed to maybe tone it down a notch, maybe two notches.
"Uh, I'm sorry. The thing is, Nati looks almost identical to a friend of mine and Julia looks like my girlfriend. I went along with him I guess, because he was familiar to me, and I don't really know anyone here. I'm kind of in a difficult situation. I'm really sorry I scared you." He found his shirt and began putting it on.
Before Julia could respond Nati excitedly spoke up, "Woah, that's weird. What's my name, and am I just as cute? And JULIA'S your girlfriend!? Wow." Well that was nice. Nati seemed quite happy to believe his story.
"Do you have a screw loose, Nati? How is it possible that you look exactly like me, and by coincidence you've got friends who look exactly like Nati and Julia? And I've never heard of a place called Fiore. This whole story sounds really fishy. You're lying, aren't you." Graeme continued to glare at Gray.
"Look, I'm not lying. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not from your world. Nothing here looks familiar. This happened to me before. Our entire town and my friends were transported to another world, where I met people who looked like us but were different. I have a bad feeling this just happened to me again." Everyone was looking at Gray with very dubious expressions, and Julia was rolling her eyes. He tried to ignore it and continued on.
"So, Fiore is on the Ishgar peninsula. And I'm guessing by your looks you have no idea what that is either. I'm a member of a wizarading guild called Fairy Tail. Everyone in my guild has a type of magic they've specialized in. I'm an ice make wizard which is a type of creation magic. Basically, any static object I can imagine I can create in ice. Here. I'll show you how I do my magic."
Gray got into his casting stance and said "Ice Make: Hammer!" He wasn't expecting anything to happen, and was surprised when he managed to make a miniature hammer which easily fit in his hand. Maybe there were trace elements of ethernano here. He'd have to test that later. Interesting. Meanwhile, everyone was shocked.
"How did you do that?" Nati practically squealed in excitement.
Graeme was not impressed. "Obviously this is some sort of a trick. There's no such thing as magic."
"Graeme, I don't know, it certainly looked like he created it right now. He wasn't holding anything in his hand before." Juvia argued.
"Okay this is creepy. So let me guess, you have nowhere to go and no money." His counterpart was certainly direct.
"Well I have some jewel, but I don't think that's going to help me," Gray reached into his knapsack and showed Graeme some bills. "See, it says the Kingdom of Fiore on there?" He pointed out.
Nati grabbed a bill. "Woah, it's so colorful. "You guys still have kings? Do you have serfs too? And evil landowners who enslave the poor serfs and make them languish in dungeons because they didn't pay their rent?" He handed it back to Gray.
"Nati, get a clue. This guy has no idea what you're talking about. You sound like a story tape. I'd explain what he's talking about but it's kind of pointless. Nati seriously, use your brain." Graeme was glaring at Nati like he wanted to slap him. Ah, well, some things hadn't changed at least.
"Look, Julia and I need to finish practicing. Why don't you wait, and we'll figure something out for you, um, Gray. We're finishing in half an hour. Nati, can I have a ride back?"
Graeme seemed uncomfortable, like he was forcing himself to be nice, but was obviously freaked out. Gray couldn't blame him. Random stranger looking completely like him talking about another world and magical powers? Really, he sounded like a complete wack job. Graeme didn't have to help, but it sounded like he was going to anyway.
"Yeah, sure, bro." Nati responded.
The skaters went back to the center of the rink after Julia put some sort of music on.
"Let's try Katonti, Graeme."
Julia had put on some music. Gray didn't understand the words at all, but the music was very heartfelt. It felt sad and hopeful at the same time. Nati and Gray watched the skaters and talked. Nati wanted to know all about his magic powers.
"So, seriously? Flames? And I freaking eat the flames?! I guess it makes sense. I'm pretty flaming." Gray had no clue what that meant, but since Nati was giving him his flirtatious winks, he sort of figured it out. That was just weird. Natsu was probably the most clueless about relationships. Even if Natsu had gay tendencies, he probably wouldn't even recognize them.. Also, the gay people he knew in his guild tended to be pretty discreet about it. This whole thing was way out of his comfort zone. Of course what about this was in his comfort zone?
"Yeah. He eats his flames. Then he usually says 'I've got a fire in my belly' and he has a lot more magical energy. Then everyone on the team knows to watch out, because you have a guy with poor impulse control and low brain power with major fire dragon powers." hmm. Maybe he should be nicer. "He's really amazing though. He never gives up. He once said he was going to borrow his energy he'd have tomorrow because he was literally done."
"How does that even work!?"
"I had the same question when I was told that."
Gray decided to skip the parts about Natsu being over 400 years old and having been recreated after he died as a kid by his evil brother Zeref. His world was obviously hard to believe as it was. He didn't have to go overboard.
"And his name is Natsu? Sorry, man. I totally thought you were saying something else when I first met you. My name is Natan, but everyone calls me Nati. I've known Graeme since he came here as a kid from Canada. It's north of here. We went to the same yeshiva. That's a type of school. His dad and mom are really nice. They always let me come over and don't ever ask questions and they are just great people. I bet they could help you."
They continued talking. Natsu talked about Graeme. He was originally from a city called Toronto. His father, Joseph, was a doctor and his mother, Ora, a math professor. She was Graeme's step mother. His mother died when Graeme was a baby, and they had married when he was around 3. That's when they had moved to Brooklyn, where Ora was living. He had one stepsister who was never around and two half siblings, Wendy and Dina. They were a major ice family. Both Graeme's father and his uncle had been their university's ice hockey team. Graeme's uncle had died with his wife in a car accident when Graeme was little and his older first cousin Leon had lived with Graeme's family since then. Leon had been also into ice hockey, and had even played at NYU when he was at college, but Graeme had gotten into ice skating instead. Ora had been a professional when she was younger and had been Graeme's first teacher. Leon and Graeme always had this weird rivalry which Nati never quite understood.
"And now it's worse, because Leon went to study in Jerusalem for a year and he's all froomed out." He saw Gray's confused expression. "Sorry, Let me explain what I mean. Jerusalem is a holy city where a lot of guys go to learn our holy books. We're kind of a minority in this country but there's a lot of us in here in New York. Do you have any people like that where you're from? They're living in your country but they're from another background and culture?"
"I don't really know. I'm not sure. What's froomed out?"
"It means like super religious. Leon's always been pretty cool to me, but he drives Graeme NUTS. They've got some serious baggage." Okay that sounded way too familiar. Obviously, this guy was Lyon, and they had the same messed up relationship they had back in Earthland. Great.
Nati continued. "So Leon got major religion, always studies the holy books and is apparently always on Graeme's case about religion, although I've never really seen it myself. I get along pretty well with him. He's pretty chill with me. Maybe it's more complicated with them because of that weird rivalry they have. Who knows."
They continued watching the skaters who had moved back to the routine Gray had seen them working on when they had first gotten to the rink. There was some major tension going on between those two.
Nati was talking about how they lived in a large city called New York which was in a state also called New York, in a country called the United States, but they were also Jews, which were around for thousands of years, often persecuted, and had special holy religious texts and culture. Jews were from practically every part of the planet and had different customs depending on where they were from.
Soon, the practice was over. Graeme and Julia had gotten changed, and they were headed back to Nati's mobile and they left. Julia had decided to take the subway home.
"So, Gray, I think you should come to my house. My parents are pretty cool about having guests. They're probably going to be freaked out about you looking like me, but they'll be cool."
"And his mom makes the best food. I can come over for dinner, right?" Natsu was practically slobbering. Gray remembered he hadn't eaten anything that day.
"You know you don't have to ask, Nati. They practically expect you there." Graeme redirected his attention to Gray who was seated in the front next to him. "He's pretty much a fixture. Shit. I bet Leon is going to be there. What a drag. Whatever. You'll meet him."