Future Me (The Rewrite) - Chapter One: Introduction
Natsu had the feeling that he was being watched. Of course, there was no evidence to prove the fact. He couldn't smell a single thing wrong, hear anything out of the ordinary, see anything out of place. When he had mentioned it to Lucy, she had rolled her eyes and called it paranoia. Gray had said that they were all on edge, but it had to be nothing. Erza had almost made Team Natsu do a stake out.
So, all in all, the feeling was probably nothing.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Okay, so maybe he was being paranoid. Just a tad bit, what with the boarded up windows. (Happy really wasn't happy when he ended up ramming into a plank of wood at 3 a.m.)
Natsu just didn't want to deal with anymore fights, (for once in his life). If this whole fiasco really was a danger, then, honestly? He wanted nothing to do with it. All he wanted to do was hide away and mourn, allow depression to swallow him up whole.
Granted, he didn't really like to sit around and sulk. So, as a medium, he hung around the other dragon slayers. They were all down, but at least their dragon parents went peacefully. They didn't have to see their adoptive dad be ripped apart at the claws of Acnologia. (So maybe he was a little bit traumatized too, but stuff happens.)
Despite not wanting to fight, he threw himself into sparring sessions with Gray with renewed vigor. His flames weren't as bright, and he was sure someone had noticed, and his smile was a bit strained, but fighting Gray and Gajeel never got old. Plus, Gajeel fought harder too, needing to burn off whatever anger lingered from Metalicana. Punching Gray's face in never got old, and getting to kick Gajeel's lights out was just a bonus.
Erza was even allowing him to actually fight without getting his head slammed into a wall. Sure, it could've been out of pity, but Natsu highly doubted that woman even knew how pity worked. She was too… brash for that. Lucy though, Lucy thought he might want to sit down and talk about it over a light snack of tea and cookies. (Okay, okay, the cookies helped. Just a little though!)
Lucy was almost always going on about the fact that she knew what it was like to lose a dad, and yeah, she did… But Natsu didn't cope like she did. He didn't want to talk about his feelings, he just wanted to get stronger.
Strong enough to do what Gildarts couldn't.
Strong enough to do what Gramps couldn't.
Strong enough to do what Igneel couldn't.
Nobody in the guild was probably going to let him, even if he got stronger, but that just meant he had to prove them wrong. He'd become even stronger than Gramps, Gildarts and Gray, stronger than Erza too. Surely if he was stronger than them all, he could beat Acnologia.
All he had to do was learn to deal with the paranoia that crawled up his back. Simple enough. Totally easy.
Maybe.
God, is that what Lucy felt like way back when? That must've sucked. Hell, right now, Natsu almost felt like running back over to Erza and telling her to stand guard for him. But, y'know, Natsu wasn't a baby and he could most certainly take care of himself, thank you very much.
If he wanted to be strong enough to take down Acnologia, then he had to prove he could protect himself. First step to doing that was to deal with the "stalker" problem himself. He could do that.
Besides, training with Gray and Gajeel was enough to help him stay spry and keep his joints from rusting. He could take down anyone on any given occasion when his life was at stake, so the paranoia-causing problem would be absolutely no match for him. Why, he could probably take whoever it was with a blindfold on! He didn't really see why he would want to, but the only thing that actually matters is the fact that he can!
Can and might. A very, very, iffy might.
(Tartarus must've shaken him up more than he thought.)
All in all, he had to say one thing. He was going to get to the bottom of the stupid problem so he could deal with the stupid feeling crawling on his back. Natsu was gonna burn whoever, or whatever, it was to a crisp, that was for sure.
(Yeah, okay, in hindsight, he should've just ignored it. But, hey. He was Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail's residential idiot. He totally had this.)
Whoo! The introduction is done, guys! For any newcomers, this is a rewrite of one of my old fics. I'm hoping this one will be better than the last. I'm going to start cross posting this on AO3 and Fanfiction! All update notifications will be up on my tumblr! Follow me, my username is potato-postcommunity! Feel free to come yell at me about updates, or just to talk! Please feel free to comment on this fic too! I'd really appreciate it. Anywho, later folks.