Hey! I'm so glad that you all liked my first fic in a long while :) If you haven't read it, it's called Underwater! A nalu one-shot to get me writing again.
I said Ice Ice Baby would be my next update... but I need to re-read it and figure out where I was going. For the last few days this piece has been in my head. I wanted to get it out there! This is just the prologue for now, this is going to be a small chapter fic. At most 3 chapters in all. I'll see what you guys think after chapter 2 :)
Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima
"I don't know…" a dark haired boy pulled on the collar of his shirt, avoiding looking into his friends eyes.
"What do you mean you don't know!" a beautiful blonde slammed her hands down on his desk, "Just ask her out!"
Natsu Dragneel rolled his eyes at the familiar scene. There was a big dance coming up and Gray refused to admit he wanted to ask his 'stalker' Juvia and Lucy was trying to convince him to stop being a baby about it.
"I'm sure Lyon is already planning on asking her," Lucy sat down and smugly crossed her arms, thinking she had won.
"Lyon is going with Meldy," Gray pointed at the blonde, "and what about you, huh? Do you have a date to the senior prom?"
Natsu's eyes widened, he turned around to avoid the conversation. He sat a few rows in front of Lucy and Gray. They were his friends, but due to his attention issues the teacher forced him to sit in the front row. So he couldn't join conversations that easily with them, but this time he was pretty thankful.
"I… don't have a date yet."
Natsu groaned quietly, he knew why too. Every guy that tried to ask her to the prom he scared off. But he still didn't have the courage to ask her himself.
Gray whispered to Lucy, "Why don't you go and ask Pinky?"
Natsu stiffened, "WHAT THE HELL, FULLBUSTER?!"
"Oh… um…"
The bell ringing could have either saved him from embarrassment of hearing her say she didn't like him, or miss the chance of her saying she wanted him to ask her. Whatever she said, he skipped out on as he ran out of the room.
"Watch where you're going, Natsu," he heard Laxus say to him as he passed Mirajane's locker. He was protecting her from his whirlwind.
"Sorry!"
"What's got yer panties in a bunch?" his locker mate Gajeel asked when Natsu landed headfirst into the metal door.
"Uh, nothing," Natsu knelt down to unlock his bottom locker.
"Don't look like nothin'," Gajeel snorted, pulling his leather gloves on to cover his rough knuckles.
Natsu sat down, ignoring his cousin's stare along with every person that passed him. He knew he was being odd, he was Natsu Dragneel after all. He was the top athlete for their graduating class and already had a full ride to Crocus University, Fiores leading school for engineering programs. He was the class clown who was never nervous or scared. But today he was both.
Because his long-time crush may or may not want him to be her date to the senior prom.
"Uh," Natsu stood quickly so he could catch up with Gajeel, "have you already asked Levy to prom?"
Gajeel snorted, "Hell, she asked me back before Christmas."
"Ah… gotcha."
"Why do you care? Thought you weren't going," Gajeel kicked the doors open for the two to go out.
"I wasn't going to…" Natsu had decided as a freshman he wouldn't do the cliché thing and go to prom. Back then he never dreamed of having a chance with Lucy. But for the last several weeks, Lucy had been dropping hints that she may just like him back, "but um, I may have found someone to ask…"
"Ya mean Lucy?"
Onyx eyes glared daggers into his cousins eyebrow-less face, "What?"
"It's obvious as pie that ya like her," Gajeel rolled his eyes, "don't know why ya haven't asked her out before."
They reached the edge of the parking lot, Gajeel stopping to dig for his keys while staring at his dumbstruck family member.
"But-but-but-"Natsu sputtered.
"Well, it ain't obvious to people who don't know ya. Hell, Igneel was the one who told me."
"Uncle Igneel told you that? WHY! I told him to keep it a secret…"
"Gajeel!" the boys looked back towards the school to see blue curls heading to them. Glasses perched on her nose and a backpack full of books neither of them could understand.
"Well, you better ask her soon," Gajeel pitifully patted Natsu on the shoulder, "or the poor girl will have to go to prom all alone, with all her friends with a boy."
"Hey guys," Levy skipped to a stop, glancing from the boys. One close to laughter and one close to slaughter, "what's going on?"
"Noting," Natsu jumped in before Gajeel could say anything, knowing he would in the truck anyway, "see you guys tomorrow."
Cursing his dumb cousin, Natsu ran over to his car, throwing his books into the backseat.
"Damn it… what am I supposed to do…"
"Hey Natsu."
"Lucy!" Natsu opened his arms up wide and tackled her into a hug.
"Geez, you," she laughed, there cars were parked next to one another. A privilege of being a senior, getting to have first pick on where you park. They had been one of the first to get a tag and thankfully got one right at the doors, right beside each other.
"What's up tonight? Your old man gonna try and cook again?" he snickered, Lucy's poor father had tried to make her senior year special by saying he was going to cook every night for her. He did good for the first month, but then started to run out of ideas.
"No," she unlocked her car doors and tossed in her bags, "He, Mom, and me are going furniture shopping. Going to get something on the way home."
"Furniture shopping?"
"Yeah," she blushed, leaning against the door of her pretty blue Chevy Cruz, "for my dorm room. Oh, Crocus University is going to be amazing Natsu!"
"Yeah it is," Natsu copied her and leaned on the door of his red Chevy Malibu, "too bad Gray is gonna be there too."
"Hey, don't be like that. I'm just glad that all our friends are going to be close by."
"Yeah, yeah," he smirked, "the only person you need to care about being around is me anyway."
"Right," she shook her head at the way he puffed his chest muscles.
"Whatever, we still have a few months," he glanced over at their 'home' for the last four years, "hard to believe it's almost over."
"Yeah, hard to believe we all survived," Lucy crossed her arms, "remember Mr. Holden in 9th grade?"
"Ugh! He hated me!"
"Because you blew up the chemistry lab on the first day."
"So what? He teaches every grade, he should have been ready for it," Natsu stuck his tongue out at her.
"Still, maybe you should have waited a few weeks," Lucy held her hair back as the early spring breeze picked up her long strands and tossed them around.
"He still wasn't as bad as Mrs. Keen last year," Natsu gagged.
"She was sweet, you and Gray just made her hate her job."
"She taught a pottery class and was able to make it even more boring than it was."
"You like art classes though, I still don't understand why you didn't like it."
"Who cares!" He lifted his fist up to the sky, gazing at the white clouds that flew with the wind, "in a few weeks we'll be done with this place and have a new round of teachers to annoy!"
"Yeah, that's true," Lucy fondly watched Natsu, "I really am glad we'll be together there."
Natsu smiled, "We'll always be together, Lucy."
Lucy smiled back at him, tossing her gaze down so her blush wouldn't brighten.
Looking around the parking lot, Natsu realized most of the cars around them were gone.
"So, uh, you and Gray were talking about prom in class," he saw her jump a little, "did he say if he'd ask Juvia yet?"
"Not yet, but I'm getting close. I'm going to text Erza tonight and see if she can talk to him in the morning," Lucy's arms came to wrap around her stomach.
"That's great, he needs to ask her…"
Lucy gulped, "And you? Who… are you taking?"
Natsu's breath came out shaky. How long had he liked Lucy? Since he was 13? He knew what type of guy she wanted, and that wasn't the kind of guy he was. But… he couldn't help but want to find out if he wrong.
"I haven't asked anyone yet," he took a step closer to her.
"Who… do you plan on asking?"
"I don't know… if she wants me to ask her."
Lucy's chocolate eyes gazed into his, "Would you ask… if you knew? I… can find out."
He braced one hand on the car next to Lucy's arm, "Who are you going with?"
Avoiding his gaze, she answered, "No one has asked me yet."
Natsu turned his head so he could watch her reactions, "Who do you want to ask you?"
Lucy bravely looked him straight in the eyes, tilting her chin up so she would be level with him. And right before he could hear her answer….
"Um, your phone is ringing," Lucy shied away again, losing all the confidence she had worked up.
"Damn it, whoever it is, is gonna PAY for this…."
Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen, "Mom?" she never called him, "Hang on Lucy… hello?"
"Hi honey, where are you?"
Natsu raised his brow, but lifted his arm to look at his watch, "It's only 3:30, I'm still at school. Talking to Lucy."
"I'm sorry to interrupt. And unless it's important I need you to come straight home when you're done."
She was never this straight forward with him, and usually she would be teasing him about Lucy and letting him stay and talk as much as he liked. "Everything ok?"
"Yes, Everything is fine. I just have something I need to talk to you about."
"Uh," he caught Lucy staring at him, he shrugged because he really didn't know," yeah, I'll be home soon."
"Thank you, Natsu."
"Ok, see ya," he hung up the phone, staring at the picture of him and his mom from a few weeks ago. A goofy snapchat filter of dog faces covering theirs smiled back at him. His mothers beautiful face scrunched up as she giggled at the view of herself.
"What's up?"
"I… don't know. She wants me to come home and talk about something."
"Then you better get going," Lucy snuck in beside him and hugged him, "text me later and let me know what it's about."
"Sure," he leaned his forehead against hers before letting go.
They parted ways and Natsu went as fast he could to get home.
His mother, Elena Dragneel, was his rock. She was the most awesome woman alive. She passed on her obsession of dragons to him, he got his love of fire from her younger brother, his uncle Igneel.
It had just been the two of them since the day he was born. She never spoke about his father, only said he was a loving man. Natsu never bothered asking. He didn't care, not after one night he heard her and Igneel talking. He was too young to understand most of it, but he remembered his mother saying she missed him but was glad she left. And Igneel said something about how much better off the two of them were. Natsu was thankful for his mother and if Uncle Igneel said they were better off, then he was better off not knowing.
His mom practiced sports with him, she played games with him, she hung out with his friends, she helped him figure out girls… he couldn't ask for a better mom. She was easy going, she could be a dragon herself when he messed up, but most of the time she was laid back.
The way she spoke on the phone… it was like another person was talking. She was too formal. Nothing like he knew.
Pulling into their driveway, Natsu saw his moms Toyota Highlander… and a rental car. He parked behind his moms SUV and got out. He slowly looked over the rental car. She didn't say anything this morning about company, the only thing she said to him this morning, or rather yelled at him to stop drinking the last of her coffee before she kissed him goodbye.
He shook his head, "Must be a surprise visit or something."
"I'm home," he kicked off his shoes and dropped his bag on the table next to his moms purse, their designated 'I'll need it tomorrow' table, "Mom?"
"Living room!"
He took a detour to the kitchen and grabbed an apple before walking into the room with his mother and mystery guest.
"Uh," he stopped walking when his foot his the white carpet.
His mom was sitting on the love seat, her black hair in it's usual sloppy bun on the top of her head. Same white shorts and paint splattered t-shirt she wore all the time. She sat like she always did, ankles crossed and one arm behind her and one in her lap. Across from her sat a young man,
His position was rigid, back straight and arms neatly in his lap with his hands clasped. His feet were firmly planted on the floor shoulder length apart. He was dressed sharply in his black slacks and pristine white button up. Natsu glared at his face, it looked like the guy was insanely bored yet intrigued at his surroundings at the same time. He had hair black as his moms, but a weird little point stood at the top of his head.
The man turned slowly to Natsu, a smile lifted the corner of his lips ever so slightly.
Elena coughed, "Natsu, come in."
Natsu kept glaring as he took a seat next to her. He saw something familiar in the man, but he didn't want to admit what it was.
"Hello, Natsu," he nodded in a polite gesture, "My name is Zeref Dragion. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The formalities disgusted Natsu, he hated this form of talk. So he retaliated in the best way possible, "Yo. What's up?"
He could see that Zeref was visibly repulsed by his responses. What he didn't get was the weird glance Zeref gave his mother, like he was mad at her for her sons actions.
Elena smirked at her sons word choice, not caring at all that their guest didn't like it.
"Natsu, Zeref is from Alvarez. He is going to be staying with us for the next few days."
Natsu turned to his mother and whispered, "Why?"
Alvarez is a small country to the north of Fiore. It was all over the news that the crown prince had just got married just months ago. Why someone from that nation would come here and stay with them was beyond Natsu.
Elena took a deep breath, knowing her next few sentences would change everything, "Zeref is here to talk to you Natsu. He wants to get to know you."
Natsu glared at the newcomer, "What for?"
Closing her eyes, Elena said, "He's your brother."
Zeref smiled, closing his eyes in joy, "I hope we can get along Natsu."
Shock didn't begin to explain what Natsu was feeling. He shot out of his seat, ready to accuse his own mother of lying. But he knew she wasn't, she wouldn't lie about something like that. Her face was covered in regret and sadness.
"My… brother?"
I so wish we could have found out more about Natsu's parents. His mother is GORGEOUS. And since Mother's Day is coming up I decided that this would be perfect to celebrate:) I'm sorry if this went a little fast. Next chapter will be longer!