Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters and this story is purely for enjoyment and not profit.
Year 326X
Four year old Natsu wasn't exactly the easiest to get along with. Quite the opposite actually.
He couldn't read or write yet, but walked to and from Milidan academy with Zeref everyday. During the day, he would either watch his father train while being taught battle tips, or go to the park in the middle of town and cause trouble with other kids. Even though he was cute, sweet, and kind, he didn't have any friends...because of one reason.
"Hey look, there's little Mr. know-it-all. Where is your brother? Did he finally get tired of your cry baby attitude and decide to stop protecting his older brother?" another kid from the academy taunted after pushing the solitary sibling into an alley. Natsu walked Zeref home to discourage bullies from picking on his brother. Sometimes he'd become sidetracked and wonder off, leaving Zeref to defend for himself when the bullies made there move.
"What, the demon couldn't defend himself? You're not a demon, you are a pathetic insect," a classmate chided. The ever growing group of boys were like a pack of coyotes, tormenting their prey before going for the kill.
Unfortunately, the two boys didn't seem to notice the intense, dark aura behind them that promised death, but Zeref did, and his little brother sending it out in waves.
Continuing, the first boy said," Go on, call for help like the pathetic weakling you are. Maybe your baby brother will be a knight in shining armor." Zeref saw something snap in his brother, oh no.
A demon voice behind the boys made then freeze in terror at its words,"Oh ho ho…you seem so convinced that he's a pathetic weakling, but you arent any different are you?" The voice paused, and the two, once confident, now terrifed, boys slowly turned around to see the demon in human form. Natsu was drowning the alley with murderous intent, before it simply vanished.
"I mean every one has there own weaknesses. I wonder what yours are." Natsu continued as his voice changed back into that of demonic nature halfway through the sentence, the evil aura coming back in such force it could kill a saint. He slowly pulled out an axe, shining with lack of use, from behind his back and holding it in his tiny hands, all the while a face splitting smile and malicious eyes glared at his now deemed enemies.
The boys bolted out of the alley as fast as their legs could carrying them to try and hide in the busy streets, with Natsu cursing them and telling them to accept there punishment for their crimes. The distance slowly closed between the boys and Natsu as they turned a corner. However, a shop keeper on said corner noticed his missing merchandise in the hands of a tiny boy and promtly made chase after them.
Little Zeref chased after them, but was slowly falling behind (running wasn't in his dictionary), begging his brother to stop. Then Dao, which had been on patrol toward the outskirts of town, saw his son recking havoc with an axe, and joined the forming parade to show his son the proper way to hold an axe in battle. Dao's subordinates promptly followed the foolish captain. At one point, a demon joined the end of the line because it thought the knights feared it, but it was a pathetic weakling and the parade quickly slayed without so much as slowing down.
The makeshift parade ran throughout the town, under bridges, though alleys, and above rooftops, until little Natsu tripped on the uneven cobblestone and fell on his face. The poor confused was then dragged by his feet home by his father. But not many turned an eye to the spectical, because shortly after the youngest Dragneel learned to walk, he was a walking disaster.
Natsu caused problems wherever he went.
One time Natsu dyed his hair to look like Zeref then confusing passer-bys. Another time, he planted traps throught the school and town, and then there was the fiasco where he fell in the river scaring a shop keeper when he climbed out down stream.
However, the one to top it all was when Natsu planted a color lacrima inside the headmaster's clothing so the color would change when ever his feet would hit the ground. The poor headmaster was a walking rainbow the entire day, and he didn't even notice. Even the most stoical of people laughed at that.
Honestly, Zeref loved his brother with his whole heart. Zeref would always tell Natsu about his day at school, even though Natsu didn't understand half of the material, and Natsu would always try and play the least active games he knew with his brother, but sometimes Natsu's antics were too much.
"I hate you Natsu. I don't have any friends because of your stupid "protection" and pranks. They just pick on me more. I-I-I wish you were never born!" Zeref yelled to his brother once they arrived home. He was just angry, but he let his emotions get the better of him. Natsu was decimated, he could tell, but he didn't want to apologize. His brother needed to learn not to be so immature. Even the youngest kids knew how to act, but Natsu needed to learn.
Dao and Yokina didn't hear the conversation between the two as they were making dinner.
Natsu didn't speak at dinner at all. Nor was he paying attention to the conversation. It was just the usual "What did you learn at school" and "Did anything interesting happen". Zeref didn't even look at him, the nerve! He did those pranks because all the kids liked them, and he thought Zeref did too! If he didn't like them he could've said something.
The next day Zeref left for school before Natsu woke up. He didn't even say goodbye. So Natsu sat in his room untill he heard his father leaving to train.
He loved to watch his father practice. There was an inexplicable beauty to it, the grace of punches and the transition of kicks seemed to be a hypnotic dance. He wanted his father to teach him soon, he wanted to dance that beatless tune.
Before any true training could start, his mom came with brown package for his father.
It turned out to be a package from the army, sent afrom a village in the far east, practically uninhabitable from the dragon war raging all around. The army actually managed to obtain a dragon seed from Igneel, a lacrima containing a small portion of magic from one of Igneel's attacks. The messenger keep yelling how lucky my father was, how Igneel actually willingly produced the lacrima, to mock the humans.
Dao was supposed to be the fire dragon slayer because his affinity with fire magic was so high compared to even other fire mages. Yokina jumped for joy when she heard the news, but Natsu honestly didn't care, Zeref left for school before they could even make amends.
Natsu's parents left shortly after to insert the lacrimation as soon as possible and then make lunch, but Natsu stayed at the training grounds a moment longer to think (don't be too surprised, he does have a brain).
The blue sky seemed so vaste that it could swallow the world in an instant, it seemed at peace. Wind blew through the trees, and everything was in harmony with each other. Would a small child's life like him really matter in this infinite world?
Natsu shook his head, he didn't like depressing questions, so he walked home for the mac and cheese lunch his mother would have prepared for him. But when he stepped inside, he nearly barfed.
It was a scene straight from the pits of hell.
His mother was laying in a pool of her own blood, her head missing from her shoulders. Flames were spreading through the room, eminating from the monster standing with his mother's head. His father was driven certifiably insane from the lacrima's sheer power and influence. Natsu was about to run, run very far, but his father ripping flesh from his throat denied him that privilege. He collapsed from the pain coming from the bloody wound.
Dao danced in the blood on the floor as the beginning of wings and horns began to form, skin burning and pealing where they appeared, flames swallowing him from the inside out. As the new appendages began to form, the flames once surrounding his body began to burn through him, his face charring as he laughed.
It was silent soon after, the flames destroyed important organs, causing Dao to crash on the floor with a thud, dead. However, the flames did not disappear, nor slow, they covered the walls, and boiled the blood on the floor, creeping ever closer to Natsu's broken body. It would have been considered a miracle to say that he was alive, if he wasn't in so much pain.
Dao effectively ripped Natsu's vocal cords from his trachea. Blood flooded his lungs, causing him to gasp, heave, and couch to remove even a little of the poisonous red liquid.
An unknown amount of time passed, it felt like hours but very well could have been seconds. Natsu's senses began to fade, no longer feeling the pain that plagued his body, all was numb 'Please, please, please hold out until someone comes. Someone must have noticed our burning house by now, they'll save me. Please save me,' Natsu pleaded to himself, panic seeping into all rational thought.
The flames creeped ever closer, nibbling on his fingers, crawling up his left arm, ever closer to his heart, yet he could not smell his own burning flesh, nor could he feel the pain that would have surely come.
He realized,'Even if someone did come, they would never make it in time, I'm going to die. Mankind, demons wearing a different skin, knew no such thing as heroes, everyone lived for themselves, why would anyone even bother coming for me?'
His vision faded black, colors of the world forgotten, the only reassurance that he was alive was the thumping of his chest, consuming every other sound within the creaking, dying home. But he wanted it to stop, he was so tired, so numb, as if cotton were stuffed between his ears forcing his mind into a white fog.
What was there to live for?…His mother and father were both dead, and his brother loathed his existence. He though back to the the training grounds, so at peace. The world didn't need him, it didn't need a Natsu Dragneel. He had no purpose. He wanted peace.
Finally, the struggling gasps and hammering beat slowed, and slowed, and finally stopped. The world was gone… falling within a endless abyss.
Midnight: Sorry everyone, I honestly didn't mean to take so long, I usually read, and this is my first story, so I'm still trying to perfect everything
Dao: Why did I die!? Wasn't I supposed to be a hero!
Midnight: About that...
Dao: Uhhh... Anyway, thank you everyone for following, Midnight was kinda practicing writing so that he could make people cry, but he isn't very good.
Midnigh: Hey! Don't run away! Sorry, gotta run, but I'll see you when I play the next installment!