A/N Thank you for clicking on my story, and here is the summary for this oneshot.

Summary: Zeref and his little brother Natsu have never gotten along. But now their parents have sent them on a day trip together with no supervision. Zeref thinks that the rest of his sanity will be gone by the end of the day, and Natsu just hopes he'll live to see the sunrise.

Warning: Psychotic Zeref and mentions of killing. Don't try this at home kids.

"ZEREF!"

Zeref flinched as he heard that awful voice. His parents were out. That meant that Zeref was supposed to take care of his 5-year-old little brother. But supposed to and going to, were two different things in his opinion. Plus, the fact that something as vague as "taking care" of someone, could be interpreted in an infinite amount of ways. Zeref's way just happened to be locking his brother up in his room so he could do whatever he pleased. He had convinced himself that if he locked Natsu in his room then he'd have peace and quiet. Well, whichever part of his brain gave him that idea was undoubtedly stupid.

"SHUT UP!" Zeref shouted. There was another scream and then pounding. Zeref growled under his breath. "WE MADE A DEAL! ZIP IT!" Zeref was rewarded with a higher-pitched scream.

"LET ME OUT!"

"I CAN'T! I ATE THE KEY." When it got quiet Zeref thought he might've persuaded Natsu to quiet down. Then, however, he heard a warrior cry and a loud thud. Zeref gritted his teeth and thrummed his fingers on the desk.

"IF YOU DON'T LET ME OUT, I'M TELLING MOMMY!" Natsu screamed.

"FINE! TELL MOM, SEE IF I CARE!" Zeref then thought long and hard on his actions. Another thump, more screams. Then he heard something shatter and jumped up from his seat. "This means war." He growled under his breath. Zeref would not call himself a "great" big brother, or even a good one. In fact, he was probably the worst. His list of crimes didn't end with him locking his brother in his room. Oh no, the list went on for miles. He schemed of ways to get Natsu in trouble with their parents. Overall, he was seen as "the good child" though he most certainly was not. He taunted Natsu's abilities and tried hard to knock his self-esteem to zero. He even paid kindergarteners to tease his brother. Although "paid" meant giving them candy. Most of all, he wanted to see Natsu fail. To see him hit a low, so low, that he wouldn't be able to recover. To put it simply, he wanted to test his brother's limits. He didn't, however, want Natsu to break a window, fall out, and kill himself.

Although, he'd be lying if he said he didn't often ponder about life as an only child. He did wonder whether this was a trick, to get him to open the door, but decided that Natsu wasn't clever enough to come up with something like that. So, he unlocked the door and walked inside. "Natsu?" he wondered, looking cautiously around the room. His brother seemed to be nowhere in sight. Zeref vaguely wondered if Natsu had jumped out the window and killed himself. He didn't think Natsu was completely above such a thing. In fact, he didn't think very highly of his brother in general.

This thought however was proven wrong when a warrior cry sounded behind him and he felt something jump on his back. Zeref was 99% sure that this being was Natsu. "Get off me this instant!" Natsu bit him. now, despite how horrible that seemed it was a common occurrence in the Dragneel household. Zeref was the plotter and Natsu was the monster. Neither hated each other, yet each would've been happier had they not had a brother. "Why you!" Zeref ripped Natsu off him and glared at the raging beast.

"I told you to let me out of here. You didn't do what I said!" Natsu screamed and struggled in Zeref's superior grip. Zeref scoffed,

"And just why would I do anything you tell me? You're and idiot and a brute, I would never listen to a single thing you ever told me to do, animal." With that he dropped Natsu. It was true Zeref thought of Natsu as more of a wild wolf than anything else. But in Zeref's opinion, if someone decided to act like an animal they should be treated as one. Zeref had even wanted to make Natsu hunt for his own food and often tried to set it up so Natsu would have to. Unfortunately, that was one experiment that would probably be impossible.

"I may be a beast, but at least I'm not a heartless swine!" Natsu screeched pointing at him.

"Oh yes, but I can pretend to care. Isn't that why mother and father like me better? You on the other hand, will always be a beast. You will always act like one. I honestly wonder how long we'd have to stay in the woods for you to join a wolf pack." Zeref smirked and tapped Natsu's nose. His brother tried to bite him but was unsuccessful. "See? Beast."

With Natsu re-caged Zeref got back to his school assignment. They were useless in his opinion, but the school had expressed time and time again that they didn't care about his opinion. "And they call this a democracy." Zeref mumbled.

When his parents arrived home, he knew he was going to hate what they said next. He knew because he and his parents had completely opposite ways of thinking. And because of that whatever made his parents happy conversely made him miserable. Unfortunately, his parents looked ecstatic. "What is it?" he asked, trying to sound interested. He could tell he was failing because of the look his parents exchanged.

"Well, we thought that since you and your brother have not been getting along, you should spend the entire day together tomorrow." Zeref blinked slowly, not quite comprehending what they were saying. He and his brother. Together? That did not seem quite right. Was this what people called hallucinating? Because this could not be so.

"What do you mean, haven't been getting along? We've been getting along perfectly."

"ZEREF! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Zeref gave a tight laugh.

"Hah, we're just playing a game. He doesn't really want to kill me." Just then Natsu walked in with a baseball bat. He paused in the living room and hid the bat behind his back.

"Uh, hi mommy, hi daddy." Natsu gave a nervous chuckle. His parents raised an eyebrow.

"This game looks too dangerous. I don't think you two should be playing it."

"I was just about to tell Natsu that." He turned to his brother. They didn't like each other and went out of their way to make the other miserable, but they were still able to communicate with facial expressions and body languages amazingly well. Natsu could tell immediately that for once they had a mutual interest and that mutual interest included playing along with Zeref's act.

"Uh… yep. He was, we were playing a game." Natsu laughed nervously. "We were playing uh… uh…"

"Baseball." Zeref said giving his brother a look that was insulting. Natsu rolled his eyes.

"Uh yeah, I was just about to get the ball. As for what I said earlier, what I meant was that I'm going to kill Zeref… in baseball. Meaning that I'm going to beat him… hard." Natsu glared at Zeref, and Zeref gave him that smirk.

"Riiiiight, anyway honey, as I was telling your brother, we decided you two should spend time together."

"WHAT!" Natsu screamed. His mother raised an eyebrow. Natsu cleared his throat and kicked the carpet nervously. "Um… I mean, what?"

"You two are going to have so much fun. Brother bonding time. I remember I used to love doing that with my siblings." Their mother sighed dreamily. "We even got you tickets for some feelings booth. It's a small booth where you sit RIGHT next to each other and talk about your feelings."

"Oh mom, you didn't have to." Zeref said, still smiling, but feeling his palms start to lightly sweat.

"Yeah, you REALLY didn't have to." Natsu grumbled. Their mother just smiled.

"You two are going to have so much fun. I made a list of activities for the two of you to do. first, you're going to go eat breakfast at 7:00, here."

"7:00?" Natsu asked. Zeref rolled his eyes. His brother was in bed until at least 8, since he didn't have to be at school at the crack of dawn like Zeref did. 7 was nothing to him.

"Yes, yes. So, after breakfast you'll go to the library. They're going to have a meet and greet with all kinds of authors. You'll both love it."

"Not likely." Natsu muttered under his breath. Zeref however, looked fairly happy.

"And then you'll go to this play. It has dragons and everything." Natsu seemed to get a little more excited. Zeref sighed. plays weren't really his thing, but at least he didn't completely hate them. "And then lunch. After you'll go to the park by the library. You know that one Zeref. Then maybe the ice cream or the public swimming pool. And of course, the feelings booth. You two MUST go there." Mom said. "You two will have loads of fun, I promise. Just the two of you." Both brothers had to admit that the day sounded like it could be fun, except for the fact that they'd be doing all of these things TOGETHER.

Natsu sighed and Zeref didn't look like the happiest person on earth, which was strange since that was always the act he put up with his parents since he was 6 years old. "Alright mom. I'll see you all tomorrow I suppose. Goodnight." Zeref said.

"Yeah, night." The brothers went upstairs together and at the top they kind of stared at each other. After a minute of staring they each went to their rooms without another word.

The next morning Natsu awoke to his brother's face. It wasn't a completely pleasant way to start the day. Natsu scowled. "Get your ugly face out of my room." Zeref scoffed.

"Tell that to my classmates because they don't seem to think that way."

"That's because they haven't seen the rotten core because of the red skin blinding them." Natsu snarled. Today, he knew, was going to be a VERY long day. They were out of the house and in the car by 6:50. Natsu didn't feel safe with Zeref driving. He couldn't trust him to get them safely to breakfast or anywhere else. After all, he was pretty sure his brother was calculating the likely hood of Natsu dying in a car crash. Natsu was positive that his brother had been out to murder him since the day he was brought home from the hospital. he actually thought it a miracle that he had survived this long with Zeref out to get him.

"We're almost there, Natsu." Zeref told him after 30 minutes.

"Oh, did you schedule the car crash for later, swine?"

"Maybe I did, beast." The names they called each other weren't particularly meant to be insults. It was merely what they referred to each other as. Once they were seated and had ordered the table fell into silence. They never really had anything but insults to spew at each other, and somehow neither thought that behavior would be welcome in the restaurant.

"So… what've you been doing?" Natsu asked. he and silence didn't mix very well.

"Nothing." Zeref answered. It seemed he found the designs on his napkin very interesting, because his brother was staring at them like they held the answer to life's greatest mystery.

"How do you feel?"
"Fine."

"What do you think of today's weather?"

"Good." Natsu slumped in his seat and put his face in his elbows. Zeref obviously did NOT want to converse with Natsu. If his brother didn't put in the effort, then why should he?

Zeref, on the other hand, was thinking. Thinking about why his parents were doing this now. He knew that his parents weren't particularly perceptive, after all, they fell for even his most poorly crafted snares. Zeref thought that it was most likely that they just thought of it and decided to do it. That was all.

When they were out on the road again Zeref started to wonder if he could somehow crash the car in such a way that Natsu would die and he would live? see, the main reason why Zeref didn't want Natsu to jump out his window and die, was because Zeref wanted to be in control of his fate. He knew he was crazy, how could he not know? It was just that being allowed control of whether his brother died or not was, for some reason, utterly appealing to Zeref. He glanced back in the rearview mirror at his brother, swinging his legs and kicking the passenger seat. Even if he was given the chance to end his brother's life, would he? He wasn't sure. Zeref did not hate his brother, yet he knew that he despised everything about him. there was a difference, he supposed, in hating what someone does, and simply hating THEM.

The library turned out to be a bust. Their mother obviously got the date wrong on when the authors were coming. They weren't coming until next Saturday. The play however, was not so bad. It was about a dragon who captures the princess and the knight who rescues her. it was such a cliché that Zeref almost fell asleep. His brother, however, had been enthralled.

Afterwards they got hotdogs and Zeref watched as Natsu played in the park. He secretly hoped Natsu would fall off one of the monkey bars and land on his head. But, he didn't. "Zeref, I'm tired of playing in the park." Natsu groaned lying down on the bench.

"I don't care." Zeref said firmly. He found that sitting in the park while the sun no doubt gave him a sunburn, wasn't the worst thing to do after all. Natsu sighed and laid there for about five minutes before he bolted upright again.

"Zeref, can we get ice cream." Zeref didn't intentionally want to bring his brother any joy. He had just been thinking about bribing kids to push Natsu off the tower structure after all. But he had to admit that ice cream didn't sound like the worst thing. "Well swine? Are we getting some or not!" Natsu sounded exasperated. Zeref felt that if he couldn't deny Natsu joy, then he would deny him knowledge.

"You'll have to wait and see." Zeref said, getting up and walking back to the car. Natsu glared at him. "And if you bite me, I'll make sure we get into a car crash before we can reach my intended destination." Natsu let out a snarl and hopped into the backseat.

"Fine."

"Very good." As they were riding along Zeref noticed that it was already 4. The day had passed quicker than he had thought it would. Zeref had to admit that, despite spending the entire day with his brother, it hadn't been completely horrible.

"ICE CREAM!" Natsu shrieked when Zeref pulled in. he rolled his eyes as Natsu scrambled out of the car and into the shop. They ordered and ate the ice cream.

Afterwards they were walking towards the car when Natsu remembered that they were supposed to do something else. "Hey, weren't we supposed to do something else today?" Natsu asked his older brother. Zeref shrugged, unsure.

"Now that you mention it, we were." They paused in the parking lot, thinking. "Oh right, it was that feelings booth." They each looked at each other and shivered.

"Why don't we just tell mom and dad that we did it. They'll never know otherwise." Natsu said.

"Wow, that's actually a promising idea. I didn't know your tiny head was capable of such a thing." Zeref made a face and Natsu snarled at him.

"Whatever." They got in the car and were driving back home. Natsu was still swinging his legs. At last, Natsu looked at him. "Hey Zeref." His brother glanced back at him in the rearview mirror.

"Yes?"

"Do you… do you hate me?" Natsu asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wondering." Natsu said with a shrug. His brother was silent staring at the darkening road. It was quiet for such a long time Natsu wondered if his brother had somehow forgotten the question that Natsu just asked.

"No, I don't hate you." The answer startled Natsu and he jumped.

"You… you don't?" Natsu asked, confused.

"Of course not. I dislike you, and everything you do. but I don't hate you. I'm your brother. I can't hate you. No matter how much I want to. What about you, do you hate me?"

"No, I don't." Natsu said, staring at him. after that the car fell silent. "Did we just make the car our feelings booth?"

"No, YOU just made the car our feelings booth." Natsu shrugged.

"You know Zeref, I actually kind of love you." It was then that Zeref almost got in a car crash unintentionally.

"What?"

"I'm not repeating what I just said." Then, they continued driving in utter silence. It was about ten minutes before Zeref spoke.

"Kid… I actually kind of love you too... maybe" Zeref was answered by a snore. Natsu was sleeping. He glanced in the mirror again and decided that Natsu was, despite being a beast, was at the very least, a cute beast. He kept driving, deciding to take the long way home. Natsu's head was smushed against the window when Zeref got out of the car. Zeref took a picture too. He told himself it was for blackmail purposes, but he also thought that he had perhaps just taken the new photo for his home and lock screen. Zeref also knew that Natsu would never forgive himself for letting Zeref see him in such a vulnerable position. Zeref took some time to study his brother. When he wasn't screaming and kicking and making a nuisance of himself Natsu was actually rather adorable.

Zeref picked Natsu up and took his sleeping brother inside the house. His mother and father were out that night too, urgent business call, the note on the counter had said. Zeref rolled his eyes. His mother and father had likely devised this, so they would have to spend as much time as possible alone together. At that moment he felt Natsu shift in his arms and burrow into Zeref's shoulder. Sleepy eyes blinked open. "Are we home already?" he asked in a tired voice. He had probably forgotten he was supposed to be unpleasant around Zeref.

"Yeah buddy, we're home." Zeref said quietly, taking Natsu up to his room.

"Zeref, why are you being so nice to me?" Natsu asked. Zeref placed him down and pulled the covers over Natsu's tiny body.

"Because I'm your brother." Zeref said quietly and kissed Natsu's forehead. "Go to sleep now." Natsu nodded and closed his eyes. He had a light, cute smile on his face. He sat there for a while longer, stroking Natsu's soft pink hair. Maybe this trip had been good. And maybe his parents had actually had a good idea. that made him think the world must be ending. "Goodnight, Natsu." He was not answered back. He was about to close the door when Natsu spoke.

"Stay with me." He whispered quietly. Zeref blinked at him, unsure how to respond. His brother, for once, acted like he was five. Natsu was finally acting his age! Or maybe he only never acted his age around Zeref, because he couldn't. maybe this was what Zeref had been missing all along. He had always thought his brother was simply a beast, but maybe he'd had something to do with that. Natsu reached for him now and Zeref decided there was no harm in letting this occur ONCE. So, he crawled in bed and allowed his brother to curl up beside him.

"I love you, Natsu." Zeref told him. Natsu stared at him and then smiled and hugged Zeref tightly. Zeref sighed and hugged his brother's tiny body towards him. he wondered if Natsu would even remember any of this tomorrow. He didn't think it mattered. Zeref had decided that for now, he would hold Natsu as close as he was able for as long as he was able. He could always crash the car tomorrow.

A/N This is my first fanfic so, I hope I did it right! Reviews and constructive criticism appreciated.