Thanks for all the follows, favorites and reviews on Memories In Isvan and Saving Them From The Darkness, and thanks for anyone whose simply read them.
I hope you all enjoy this short story based off a few of the childhood scenes from the anime but built up into a bigger story with more to it than what it appeared to be in the anime.
Also, this is NOT a pairing story.
Have a nice day and thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the characters. And a few little bits in here that were from some of the childhood scenes in the anime.
Get Up
"So, how do you like the guild Natsu?" Makarov, master of the guild Fairy Tail asked the young boy after spending a day with the guild.
"I think it's great! Erza can be pretty scary...but everyone else is really cool! I learned a ton of new words and stuff... I wanna stay and become a new member!" Young Natsu replied.
It had been months since Natsu had joined Fairy Tail. He smiled as he recalled how awesome it had been to join.
He quickly got ready for his day and rushed to the guild, excited to see everyone.
As he ran he wondered what he should do first. Should he take a job? Fight with Gray?
Both would be fun. As long as Erza didn't get involved. She'd been giving him lectures and dragging him and Gray out to do things with her a lot lately. Always so bossy and scary.
Arriving at the front of Fairy Tail, Natsu shoved open the doors to the guild.
"Morning everyone!" Natsu shouted happily.
Most of the guild glanced up and smiled or greeted him back.
He walked through the guild searching for whatever it was he had decided he was going to do first.
He couldn't really remember what that was at this point, but he knew it had been exciting.
Natsu frowned as he tried to remember.
Suddenly Erza came up to him.
"You call this morning?" Erza asked suspiciously.
"Uh, yeah. That sun's come up and it's all light outside-" Natsu started, but then Erza interrupted.
"It's nearly noon!" Erza exclaimed. "I've been waiting hours for you to get here. Were you that tired from your mission yesterday?" Erza asked firmly.
Natsu shuddered.
"Uh-oops! Well...I guess I was, had to run around all over the place and I saw this cave and had to try to get to it to see if Igneel was...wait...mission?" Natsu asked suddenly alarmed.
Erza's expression turned even more serious.
"The job you completed yesterday. The one where you were to find and escort the missing girl back home safely. She was supposed to be somewhere in that big forest. Remember?" Erza asked him.
Natsu suddenly felt panicked.
He had went out and found the girl, but they had gotten a bit lost. Then they heard a huge noise, and the girl freaked out asking him if it was a dragon coming to eat them. Natsu assured her that if it was a dragon it wouldn't eat her, then he had gotten excited and told her he'd go check and that he'd be right back.
On his way towards the noise he kept thinking, and hoping that it was Igneel. But he searched everywhere and hadn't been able to find anything, so he tried to check a cave...until he noticed it had been getting dark and he had decided to return to the guild so he could look for Igneel again tomorrow...forgetting all about the mission and the girl in the forest.
"Oh no!" Natsu exclaimed, starting to completely freak out.
"Natsu! Calm down now! What's wrong?" Erza asked.
"I can't believe I forgot!" Natsu cried, "I've got to go find that girl!"
Natsu was freaking out so bad that Erza wasn't sure what the boy was even saying.
Suddenly a fist bopped Natsu on the head and he fell to the ground.
"Ow...! What was that for Erza?"! Natsu demanded.
"Calm down. Why are you upset?" Erza asked.
Her voice was strangely gentle and concerned sounding all of a sudden. Which made no sense as to why she had to go and punch him.
"I forgot the mission!" Natsu exclaimed.
Just at that moment, a tired looking Gray walked into the guild. He didn't make any kind of scene like Natsu had. In fact he seemed to avoid as much conversation as possible as he tiredly walked over to his usual spot and sat down, glancing slightly at the scene with Natsu and Erza.
"That's okay Natsu. Just don't do it again." Erza said.
"But Erza she's still out in the forest! I forgot her there!" Natsu shouted, his eyes feeling with tears slightly.
Erza blinked.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Why aren't you being all scary and 'Natsu, go back out there and fix this right now or else" or something?" Natsu asked in a panic.
Erza's expression hardened.
"For one, I'm not scary. And two, you completed your job yesterday, you didn't leave her out in the forest." Erza told him.
"I...I didn't?" Natsu asked, having no recollection of completing the mission.
"Course not. After you returned and went home for the night, Gray told Master that you had finished your job but he saw you drop your reward money as you walked passed the guild on your way home, so he picked it up and gave it to the Master." Erza explained.
"But...I don't remember any of this!" Natsu exclaimed, dumbfounded.
"You must've been really tired after all that." Erza stated.
"But-" Natsu started.
Erza then noticed that Gray had arrived.
"But Erza, I swear I don't remember any of this! I don't even remember getting her home or even out of the forest!" Natsu exclaimed.
Erza rolled her eyes at Natsu, and marched over towards Gray.
"Do you realize how late it is?" Erza demanded.
Gray startled, nearly jumping out of his chair.
"It's noon!" Erza informed the boy who was slightly shaking in fear.
"S-sorry Erza!" Gray stammered.
"And you didn't seem super exhausted after your jobs when you came to the guild last night so you can't use excuses like that." Erza said firmly.
Gray fell silent trying desperately to find something to say to Erza about his tardiness.
But he had just been informed he couldn't use jobs as an excuse, and he really didn't want to tell her about his horrible nightmares he'd had all night. That would lead to questions that would make him have to talk about his parents...or her...
He shook his head.
No. He knew right now was a terrible time to start thinking about everything. Not if he wanted to keep it all secret. He knew if he started thinking too much about all that stuff...his family and her...he might totally lose it and start crying since he didn't exactly have a good enough sleep that was needed to maintain his act. He didn't want anyone to know how upset he was right now. Who knows how they'd react to it all. Besides, he didn't want to talk about it either. So the nightmares, which would be the truth wasn't an option.
And he couldn't use the jobs as an excuse, nor could he tell her it was because he'd had to go fix up Natsu's mission with the missing girl.
Gray knew Natsu got distracted easily. One mention of dragons or Igneel and off the reckless flamebrain would go, forgetting everything he was supposed to be doing.
His thoughts were interrupted as a fist hit into him, making him fall backwards off of the bench.
"No sleeping in. I had plans for this morning." Erza scolded.
"You could've at least told me you had plans to drag us around again." Gray muttered.
"What was that?" Erza asked, turning around.
"N-nothing! Nothing Erza! I won't sleep in next time!" Gray assured her.
"Good." Erza answered, sounding pleased.
When Erza walked away, Gray sighed.
Natsu had been watching the whole thing despite being so frustrated that everyone seemed to think he was so stupid. But he knew, he knew he didn't finish the job. But still they insisted he did, and Gramps had even come over and given him the reward money. But he knew he hadn't completed the job!
Natsu sighed, shaking his head in frustration.
Then he glanced at Gray, who was the one who convinced everyone that he had finished the job when he apparently saw Natsu drop the reward. But Natsu had never had the reward. Even if everyone was going to tell him otherwise, he knew he didn't complete his job, and he also knew that Gray was at fault for this misunderstanding that convinced the guild that he was so tired that he forgot he finished a job he knew he hadn't completed at all.
Yet the mission was down, and there was the reward money right here in his hand.
What in the world had that freezer-brain done?
Natsu looked back at Gray, and was surprised to see the streaker was still sitting on the floor.
Maybe he could convince Gray to explain himself and all this weirdness to him. Gray owed it to him after all, especially for lying to everyone about seeing him drop the reward money he never had until now.
Natsu walked over to the other boy, strangely, the other boy didn't seem to notice.
Natsu looked down at Gray, who's face was downcast and he just sat there deep in thought or something.
Natsu had a funny feeling that something was bothering Gray. Gray was never one to stay down long after being in any kind of fight. It made Natsu feel uneasy. This was not how Gray was supposed to be acting.
Natsu, unsure as to what to say or do decided to go straight for a fight. But he couldn't start a fight if Gray was already on the ground. He had to get the ice Mage to get up first.
"Fight me!" Natsu shouted as he stomped one of his feet to snap Gray out of whatever thoughts were distracting him.
Gray startled and shook his head, slowly rising to his feet.
"Fight me stripper!" Natsu demanded.
Gray seemed to hesitate.
But Natsu was not going to let him say no to this.
Before Gray could say no again, Natsu swung a punch at the other boy.
Gray stumbled back trying to dodge.
"Come on!" Natsu shouted throwing two more punches at Gray.
Gray dodged and blocked. Then he advanced at Natsu, but suddenly ducked lower and did a full on ram at Natsu's tummy, causing both boys to fall to the ground, where the two just continued to punch and kick.
Erza then came over and stood in front of the two boys with her hands on her hips.
"Alright, that's enough. Stop fighting!" Erza demanded.
The two boys didn't seem to hear her, so Erza waited for the right moment and punched them both as hard as she could, sending them at the wall.
"If you're going to keep fighting then go outside!" Erza shouted. "You're supposed to be friends!"
"Sorry Erza..." Natsu moaned rubbing his sore head.
Erza just shook her head and walked off to speak to Makarov.
Natsu stared at her, surprised she hadn't noticed that Gray hadn't said sorry or even anything. He was just sitting there putting ice on his cheek where he'd gotten punched.
But when Natsu looked beside him to see what Gray was doing now, he saw that Gray was no longer there. He quickly glanced around the guild just in time to see Gray leaving the guild.
"Hey, wait up!" Natsu called as he stumbled to his feet and ran after the ice Mage.
After exiting the guild, Natsu realized that Gray seemed to have broken into a run.
None of this seemed like the usual way things worked and it was making Natsu anxious.
Everyone in the guild ever since he first joined, had the areas they hung out most, the things they always did, their strange quirks, the people they hung out with most, and their overall behaviour.
And Gray was acting weird.
Not his usual weird, one-moment-you-are-dressed-next-moment-you're-in-your-underwear weird. But weird unlike himself weird. A sort of different weird.
Natsu didn't like it at all.
Natsu ran as fast as he could after Gray.
Wow, he's actually pretty fast, Natsu thought.
Now he totally needed to challenge the ice Mage to a race sometime. That would be really fun! Natsu ran nearly catching up with Gray now. Natsu saw Gray slow down and stop on a large hill above the river they usually would fight at. Natsu ran over towards the other boy, and stopped a few feet behind him.
When he'd caught his breath he glanced up to see that Gray was standing on the top of the hill, staring down at the river or something.
Natsu walked over towards Gray, and stood beside him.
There was an awkward silence as Natsu moved his eyes slightly to look at Gray's face.
Natsu winced as Gray's either extremely blank expression or very tired or sad expression turned into a slight irritated look.
"So..." Natsu said breaking the awkward silence.
Natsu struggled to come up with a good thing to say. He and Gray had spent quite a lot of time together fighting or doing things together when Erza took them to do things, some of which were okay or fun even, but also some that were completely ridiculous and not fun.
"What's up?" He asked casually.
Gray seemed to hesitate, maybe he was having trouble knowing what to say or do too?
"Wanna fight?" Natsu asked.
Gray shook his head side to side.
"Uh, okay..." Natsu muttered awkwardly.
Suddenly Natsu realized something about Gray smelled funny. He was Gray, so of course he smelled funny, but that was just Gray. This was the weird unlike Gray stuff he'd been noticing today, and it smelled almost like fear.
Was it just him noticing this? Thinking back he couldn't recall anyone seeming to notice Gray's odd behaviour except that he'd been late. No one seemed to notice how weird it was of Gray to just continue sitting on the floor like he did.
Natsu sighed. Guess I'll have to make that Freezerbrain act like normal Gray again.
"Hey Freezerbrain?" Natsu started.
"Flamebrain?" Gray replied.
"You smell funny." Natsu told him.
He opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but Gray turned around facing him.
"I do not!" Gray argued suddenly.
"Hey," Natsu started, but Gray was coming at him now.
"Hey I didn't mean it like-" Natsu started, but had to stop as Gray swung another fist at him. "Like that! I didn't mean it like that!" Natsu finished hurriedly as he dodged and fought back.
Gray kicked Natsu nearly tripping him, but Gray felt fear rise for a second realizing he'd almost made Natsu fall down the lumpy and rocky hill and down into the ditch.
That could've been bad.
Natsu noticed Gray hesitate suddenly, and leapt to the side smiling at his friend.
"Gray?" Natsu started.
"Y-yeah?" Gray answered quietly.
Natsu smiled.
"Race you to the river!" He announced, breaking into a run so that Gray would have no choice but to race him.
Natsu glanced back after a moment as he ran to see Gray running closely behind him.
Gray seemed to notice Natsu looking at him and smirked slightly, as he starting to speed up until they were both running right beside each other.
The two ran, seeming completely in sync with each other as they ran towards the rapidly approaching river.
At last they both reached the river...at the exact same time.
"I won!" Both boys exclaimed as they reached the river.
After a few minutes of arguing about who won, despite it being an obvious tie, Natsu suggested an idea.
"How about we settle this with a battle?" Natsu suggestion.
"You're on!" Gray agreed.
Both boys began to punch and kick each other. It was nothing new, both of them always fought each other like this. Natsu thought it was one of the most fun things ever! Especially when he was fighting someone that could keep up and be a really good challenge for his strength, and it was good training too.
Gray also found it fun too, but it was also a great way to let out his bottled up frustrations and other emotions that he bottled up so tightly, and it was good practice for getting stronger too. But for Gray it also reminded him slightly of the days when he'd have sword fights with wooden toy swords with his dad. Back before Deliora took all that away.
Natsu noticed that Gray's attacks were becoming stronger with more power behind them. Maybe he was finally letting out some of the emotions of whatever was bothering him?
Natsu smiled.
But at that moment Gray landed a hard punch at Natsu and the fire Dragonslayer Mage fell to the ground, and Gray fell to his knees, panting.
Gray then pushed himself to his feet and walked over to where Natsu sat on the ground.
Gray was still panting when Natsu glanced up at the other. Something about Gray right now still made Natsu think something was bothering him. Something in his eyes. But Natsu wasn't sure what it was.
Sure Erza was terrifying sometimes, but was it something more than just the incident with Erza that was getting Gray down?
"Get up!" Natsu shouted, hoping that Gray understood that he was talking about how Gray was upset.
Gray stopped panting and pointed at the fire Mage who was still sitting on the ground.
"You're the one who needs to get up!" Gray shouted back.
Gray started panting again as he leaned forward putting his hands on his knees. Natsu lay back on the ground to catch his breath as he tried to figure out why Gray didn't seem to understand what his meaning of 'get up' was. It made perfect sense to Natsu. If you're feeling down, you should get up, right?
After a long moment Gray straightened up again.
"It's my win." He said as he turned to leave.
"Wait!" Natsu protested, as he pushed himself off the ground and got back up onto his feet.
"This isn't over yet!" Natsu declared.
Natsu felt hope rise inside of him as Gray glanced back, now smiling.
"Fine by me." Gray answered, still smiling.
Natsu smiled back at Gray.
That Freezerbrain seems to be much happier now, Natsu thought. Maybe the fight helped him!
With that, Gray and Natsu both ran at each other. But neither knew or noticed that Erza and Makarov had followed them when they left and had been watching the whole thing from on top of the hill.
"I'm not gonna lose!" Gray shouted he punched and kicked at Natsu.
"Me either!" Natsu shouted back as they fought.
"I can't lose to you!" Natsu shouted.
"You'll have to," Gray started, punching and kicking at Natsu.
Natsu took the hits but didn't fall. Was this helping his guildmate? Either way it sure was fun.
Natsu punched at Gray making him stumbled back a little.
"Cuz...I...wanna win!" Gray finished his sentence, punching Natsu who stumbled back slightly as well.
"You're going down!" Natsu and Gray yelled in unison as they both swung a punch at each others face both strangely in sync with the other again.
Still in sync, both punches hit where they were aimed, and both boys fell backwards to the ground. Natsu and Gray lay on their backs on the dirt ground both staring up at the sky.
Still they were unaware that Makarov and Erza were still watching them from the top of the hill.
Natsu lay there, hoping that maybe he was right and the fight helped Gray feel better from whatever had been making him feel down, and best of all, they both had a ton of fun!
Natsu smiled slightly as he relaxed. He supposed he could settle for this tie. It wasn't so bad. Gray was at least feeling a little better, and they'd both had a pretty awesome fight.
Gray stared up at the sky, his other thoughts slightly resurfacing in his mind. He didn't know why, but for some reason, the sky was so blue and plain it made him feel angry.
But despite that, neither him nor Natsu had given up in the fight, and the first part had given him a way to let out a lot of the emotions he'd been holding in since last night and some he'd had since he'd join the guild over a year ago. There were still so many emotions he had bottled up inside, but he wouldn't think about that stuff anymore today.
He needed to just live in the moment and have fun whenever he could. He needed to keep trying to move forward from his painful past, even though he wasn't sure if he could do it alone. With her...his teacher Ur he might've had more chance. But with her gone, he needed to do what she and his parents would've wanted. He needed to become stronger, move forward, have adventures and see the world.
Even though his parents and Ur were gone, they had all sort of become a part of him.
He wasn't alone anymore. He knew that. He had their memories and he had his guild. He just had to learn to accept them as being close like a family. But it still scared him because everyone he'd ever loved and cared about or got close to had left him alone in some way or the other. But he knew he had to try. He couldn't distance himself from everyone forever.
And besides, even though they were all strange and funny, he really liked it here, and he really did like his guildmates too...no, not just guildmates. His friends. His friends that could in time, maybe become something more like a family even.
Besides, hadn't Erza lectured Natsu on Fairy tail being like a family when he first came to the guild?
And despite his fears, it seemed he wasn't off to a too bad a start if he was already having to clean up all Natsu's messes on the jobs the hot-headed Dragonslayer left for him with his forgetfulness.
What was the flamebrain trying to do? Turn him into some kind of babysitter or was it some kind of slightly older twin brother?
Gray smiled. As his parents helped make him who he is, and Ur helped seal away his darkness also changing parts of who he is, who knew how this guild would change him as well.