Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Pairing(s): eventually Natsu Dragneal x Zeref

WARNINGS: violence, alternative history, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read

The Will to Live

By V. Shalyr

14. The Third Passenger

"My great uncle was the original owner of that wardrobe," Troy said, rifling through one of the green-bound volumes. "He passed away last year at the ripe old age of a hundred and sixteen. In his will, he asked that someone take the wardrobe and throw it into the sea. That's why we have it, since we often do business in the seaport at the mouth of the Glass River. He told us all it was cursed, but I guess what he really wanted was to destroy these old research notes."

Troy and Maki had invited their two guests to have lunch with them in the captain's cabin, and the square table was littered with books and plates.

"Why though?" Maki wondered, leafing through another volume. "This looks like several years of hard work."

Zeref set down his teacup and sighed. "Perhaps he found something or recovered some piece of information that he wished to protect. Something that he thought was better lost."

Natsu glanced from Zeref to the books, polished off the last bite of his fish stew, and said, "Guess that means we should put them back in the wardrobe."

The trader and his wife shared a brief look of disappointment, but agreed.

"It was his will after all," Troy said. "Although it does seem like such a waste."

"I hate throwing things away," Maki said, shaking her head. "There's even a map in this one. It looks like it could be the area around Eden Lake."

"Maki..."

"I know. I'll stop looking now."

At the mention of Eden Lake, the two wizards exchanged startled glances. But they hadn't actually told anyone of their final destination, and so neither of them commented on the matter. With the knights and the dark wizard searching for them, it was probably safer for these people not to know.

"Speaking of things you have below deck," Natsu said instead, "there's something bad down there on one of the tables. You should really get rid of it."

At the couple's puzzled expressions, Zeref explained, "There were a number of crystal bottles, a comb, and a mirror. I can't say for sure, but I think the problem is mostly the bottles."

"Crystal bottles?" Troy repeated, a wrinkle appearing on his forehead. "Do we have something like that?"

"I might remember what you're referring to," Maki said slowly. "If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, we picked them up from a pawn shop some time ago. The faces carved into their stoppers were quite unusual, like the masks they use in some theatre performances."

"I could go get the tray if you want to see them," Natsu said, pushing his chair back and getting to his feet. "I could destroy them for you too if you want."

Troy rose as well. "I'll put these books back in the wardrobe."

After both men had left, Maki turned to Zeref and gestured at his teacup. "Would you like me to take a look at your future?"

He drew the cup closer to himself instinctively and stared at her. "What do you mean?"

She laughed. "No need to be so apprehensive. It's my hobby. I'm a fortuneteller. Reading the stars is more my specialty, but I find tea leaves more fun."

Zeref wrapped his other hand around his cup as well. "I would really rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you."

Maki's eyebrows shot up to meet her hairline. "I've never met someone so reluctant to hear some predictions about how life's going to go."

"I know how my life is most likely going to go," Zeref said. "I don't want to know if I'm right."

"Not if you're wrong?"

"I would like to be wrong, but I am very rarely wrong about things."

Bemused, Maki sat back in her chair. "You're a strange one, that's for sure. I've met people who don't care and people who don't believe in such predictions. I've never met anyone who thought he already knew."

The wizard dropped his gaze to the clear brown contents of his cup and the collection of dark, fragmented leaves on the bottom. He couldn't tell her that his life had looked pretty much the same for the past century. He couldn't tell her that it was only recently with the addition of Natsu to his life that he had begun to see any hope at all of change, and that half of him was still terrified at the prospect of allowing himself to hope at all. He couldn't believe yet, not completely, that he might actually have any sort of future.

Maki rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin on her clasped hands. The gaze that she fixed upon him was a little too sharp and a little too thoughtful for his peace of mind.

"When I got that letter from Amika," she said quietly. "I did a reading—to see if what she was asking would cause us all trouble. She's too kind for her own good sometimes. This time though... I didn't really understand what I saw in the stars. I still don't. But the gist of it, or so I believe, was that helping you could very well influence all of our futures. That somehow, the choices you make could affect how our entire world turns out. I don't know how that can be. But if it's true, I hope you think carefully about the things you choose to do."

Zeref said nothing. Her words made him feel cold, and he wished fervently that Natsu would hurry back. As far as the Black Wizard was concerned, he didn't want anything to do with the world's future, not anymore. He'd made enough of a mess of things already.

.

"What's that guy's problem?" Natsu grumbled. He didn't bother with the ladder this time, jumping down to the floor below and landing lightly on his feet. "If he gives me or my friend that annoying stare again, I'm going to break his nose."

"Please excuse him," Troy said, hurrying down the ladder after him with the books in a large bag slung over his shoulder. "The lad's lived a sheltered life. He's never met anyone like you two before."

"What, wizards?"

"Ah, no." The man flushed and cleared his throat. "Er, I meant, uh... I meant that the idea that two men can be romantically involved with one another is new to him."

Natsu frowned. "So? What does that have to do with us?"

Seriously, humans could be weirdly interested in other people's love lives.

Troy scratched the back of his head, now just as puzzled. "You and that boy, you're not lovers?"

"What gave you that idea?"

"Well, when we stopped by the feast yesterday, we saw—the way you were hovering over him the entire time, we just assumed..." The trader trailed off, embarrassed. "Sorry, it seems we were a bit too quick to jump to conclusions."

Troy changed the subject, launching into a speech about his beloved ship and the wizard shipwright who had designed it for him.

Natsu was no longer listening though. He had no interest in boats, and anyway, what the trader had suggested about him and Zeref was far more interesting. So that was how these people had interpreted their behavior, was it? His first reaction was amusement. Going back over the scene in his mind, he could see how they might reach that conclusion, since there were a lot of unusual circumstances involved that they couldn't know about. His second reaction, however, was thoughtfulness.

Natsu hadn't seriously started looking for a mate yet, although he was about the right age. Generally speaking, claiming a territory came first, and anyway, Natsu had never met another dragon that he would care to share his kills with, let alone spend his life with. It had never occurred to him before that he could look among humans for a potential partner. It wasn't completely unheard of—his father had told him of a friend of his who had fallen in love with a human woman and chosen to live with her as a human—but for the most part, humans were too fragile and too short-lived. That same dragon had been utterly grief-stricken when she passed away of old age and followed her soon after. Unlike that dragon's chosen mate, however, Zeref was immortal, and if what he had told Natsu was to be believed—and Zeref was, overall, a very truthful person—his body was difficult to injure and quick to heal. That meant that he was neither fragile nor short-lived. Of course, it was a bit of a downside that he wouldn't be able to bear Natsu any children, but then Natsu wasn't all that interested in having offspring anyway.

Natsu had already decided that he was fond of Zeref's company, and he'd caught himself thinking on a number of occasions that the human was rather adorable—which was unusual, since Natsu had mostly thought of humans as somewhat funny-looking creatures. Scanning through his own memories of their time together so far, the dragon could say quite honestly that, aside from the first few days, he hadn't experienced any great irritation at the thought of having to share his meals with the boy. Of course, some of that was just the dragon's unwillingness to watch another living creature starve, but that had only been the case at the beginning. Natsu also couldn't deny that he did indeed feel rather protective of the dark-haired wizard, and that he had no intention of parting ways with him even after this whole curse business was sorted out—and it wasn't just because he knew that Zeref would be lonely. Natsu's reasons were more selfish than that.

Huh, the idea was worth considering.

"Here we go," Troy said, opening the cargo room door and weaving his way through the clutter to the wardrobe. "I'll just put these back."

Natsu went over to the table where the crystal bottles had been, but stopped short when he spotted the wooden plate. The bottles that had been on it were gone. He couldn't sense them at all, which meant they were no longer in the room. There were, however, very faint traces of a familiar smell, and he had to bite back a growl.

Amika's warnings might have come just a little too late.

"Did you find them?" Troy asked, following the direction of his gaze.

"They're gone," Natsu said shortly. "Let's go back. I need to check on something."

The very confused trader followed Natsu out of the room and down the hall. Rather than immediately head up the ladder, however, the dragon wizard paused before one of the ship's round, glass windows. It was very faint—hardly noticeable if he hadn't been searching for them—but he could see several needle-thin scratches in the wood, as though something sharp but extremely narrow had scraped past. The smell was stronger here and unmistakable.

.

Zeref looked up expectantly when the cabin door opened, but his relief at seeing Natsu was cut short by the stormy expression on the dragon wizard's face.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

Natsu didn't waste time beating around the bush. "That dark wizard, she was here—or at least one of her paper things was. Those weird crystal bottles are gone too, and I'm sure she took them."

Zeref's heart sank. Of course she'd caught up with them, and at a monumentally terrible time. This was why he should never travel by boat.

"You don't mean the dark wizard Amika mentioned in her letter," Troy said, his voice loud with alarm. "But we haven't let any strangers onboard for weeks aside from you two."

Natsu replied grimly, "You wouldn't have had to. She usually sent these enchanted paper things to do her work for her. It would have been easy for her to sneak a spell onto your ship. She could have done it any time she wanted."

No one knew for certain when the dark wizard had escaped. For all they knew, she could have caught up with them days ago and just worked hard to stay off their radar.

"What should we do?" Maki asked, worrying at her lower lip in a manner that made her look very much like her sister.

"If she's looking for us, it would probably be better if we got off this ship," Natsu said, glancing at Zeref to see what he thought of this.

"That would probably be best," the other wizard agreed, rising to his feet. "We can't fight here. Are you certain that she isn't onboard?"

"I can't say for sure. Can you sense her?"

Zeref closed his eyes and let his awareness spread outward—only to recoil a second later with a grimace. This ship was so laced with spellsthat the whole thing practically blazed. In addition to all the magic in the wood, there were all the enchantments attached to various objects and people. Much of the magic felt benign, but almost just as much was tainted with malice or simply undistinguishable. Of all the things these people had to collect, why did they have to choose artifacts of questionable origin? If the dark wizard was any good at concealing herself—and they knew from experience that she was—then there was no way he would be able to locate her amidst this chaos.

"We may have to search the ship more carefully," he said, opening his eyes again. "There's far too much interference."

"I'll get the rest of our crew together above deck," Maki said, standing as well. "Troy, you know this ship best, so if you could go with them and keep an eye out for anything that's out of place?"

Her husband nodded and steppedback out of the cabin,adjusting his coat as he went. Zeref seldom paid much attention to what people wore—or what they looked like for that matter—so he hadn't noticed until now that the vivid blue fabric was sewn with rows of brass disks. He had assumed that they were decorative buttons or badges, but upon closer inspection, they were all bespelled. There were charms against sickness, charms against injury, charms against evil and trickery, and even what looked like it might be a charm against hair loss from the design etched into the burnished metal. Zeref didn't have the heart to tell him that all those charms together wouldn't make the trader any more safe if the dark wizard attacked him. If they helped the man feel more courageous, then perhaps that was a kind of magic too.

.

Natsu let the other two walk ahead of him before following, keeping an eye on their backs. That dark wizard sure had lousy timing, he thought with some annoyance. He had some major thinking to do here, and the dark wizard was getting in the way.

Natsu surveyed the deserted riverbanks before letting his gaze settle back on Zeref. The boy was wearing the gray cloak Natsu had gotten him, although the hood was currently down and pooled in loose folds about his slim shoulders. He was walking straighter, Natsu noted, which meant that he was focused and not feeling overly anxious. That was one good thing at least.

Back below deck, Troy led the two wizards from room to room, unlocking each one for them so they could inspect their contents. They left the rooms that served as sleeping quarters for the other crew members as quickly as possible, not wanting to infringe more than necessary on their privacy. They had reached the last of these when they found the first sign of something wrong.

"Toji?" Troy knocked on the door. "Toji, we just need to come in for a moment. I'm opening the door now."

He added to the wizards as he selected the right key on his key ring," Poor man hasn't been feeling well. We thought he caught a cold after falling into the river a couple days ago."

He lowered his voice when he opened the door. "Toji? We'll just be a second."

The body on the right hand cot groaned.

"Captain?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you feeling any better?"

The lump on the bed groaned again, which was answer enough even without his reply. "I think I feel worse, captain. I might really need to see a healer this time."

"Don't worry. We'll find you a healer in the next town."

The man coughed, the sound rattling in his chest, and he turned to give his captain a weak smile. "Thanks."

He looks horrible, Natsu thought, startled.

Toji had the hollowed out look of a man who had lost a great deal of weight very quickly. His skin was unhealthily pale and hung a little too loosely from his frame to be normal. Combined with the exhaustion that lined his face, they made him look both weatherworn and old.

For a moment, Troy's face froze with shock before he could school his expression into something more comforting.

"Just get some more rest," the trader said carefully. "And give a shout if you need anything. I'll send someone to check on you again before dinner."

When the door of the room was closed once more and they were back out in the hallway, Zeref asked, "When did you say he fell ill?"

"I don't really remember," Troy replied, obviously shaken. "Only a few days. I had no idea it was this bad. He looks like he's aged ten years!"

Zeref's lips thinned, and Natsu realized with some surprise that the wizard was growing angry. It was the first time Zeref had been truly angry about anything since they'd met. Natsu wondered what was going on here on this ship to provoke such a reaction and was about to ask, but just then, the people above began to shout.

TBC...

AN: Sorry about the slight cliffhanger. I dislike cliffhangers myself, so I try not to have too many of them. Still, it was a good place to break the chapter—and the next chapter should be up soon, so the wait won't be too long.

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