Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Pairing(s): Natsu Dragneal x Zeref
WARNINGS: Slight AU , Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned
Firelight and Shadows
By V. Shalyr
Scroll XXV: Odd Tales
Pantry
"This is a disaster!"
Zeref stifled a yawn, wandering into the kitchen to see what the shouting was about.
"What is?"
The Dragon Slayer stood back so he could look past him into the many different cupboards. Natsu had opened all of them, and—
"They're all empty! There's no food."
"Well, we didn't know how long we'd be gone, so it made sense not to leave any perishables."
"This is unacceptable! Come on, we're going grocery shopping. And we can grab something to eat while we're at it."
The Black Wizard nodded and went in search of the extra large, cloth bags that he always brought these days for groceries.
Z was so happy to be home that he didn't even notice the new stares they received. Word had gotten around about the competition, and those who hadn't seen it couldn't help their curiosity.
They bought breakfast from a new food cart that had opened up down their street in their absence. It sold only three things: chocolate pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and these small, round, fried things made of pancake batter. The stuff was simple but good, and it didn't hurt that the owner gave them an extra pancake for being first-time customers.
"Anything in particular that you want to eat?" Z asked as they moved through the marketplace.
"Steak sounds good, or maybe chicken? That vegetable stew you threw together a few weeks ago was great too. Ugh, it's so hard to decide!"
"Ah, why don't we see what looks the most fresh?"
"Sounds like a plan."
They ran into Erza exiting a bakery with three cake boxes balanced in her arms.
"Hey, you two," she said, shifting the white cardboard boxes so she could see them more clearly, "I thought I'd head over to Lucy's and see if she wanted to share some cake. Would you like to join us? I bought plenty to go around."
Natsu glanced at Z, who shrugged.
"Sure," the Dragon Slayer said. "We'll head over after we drop these bags off at home."
No reason to haul all those meats and vegetables around.
.
Anthology
"Hey, check this out," Lucy said, laying the black-bound book on the dining table with a flourish. "I was inspired by that Sunrise Lake thing to go back through some of the ghost stories I used to like. Well, ghost stories and other strange tales. They're not all about ghosts. I found this anthology in the books I took from the old family library."
"Ghost stories?" Erza repeated, arching an eyebrow at the book over her second slice of strawberry cake. "Could be interesting. Do you want to tell us a few?"
"Sure, if you're all interested. Let me see..." Lucy started to riffle through the pages then paused, her forehead wrinkling. "That's weird."
"What? Wrong book?" Natsu asked.
The Celestial Wizard shook her head. "No, it's the right book. And the table of contents is right. But I could have sworn there used to be more pictures. Like here."
She turned the book around so the others seated around the table could see.
"This page, it's blank now, but it used to have a sketch of a skeleton in a suit with a top hat. And here," she turned a few more pages and pointed at an empty square, "there used to be an animal statue here. I don't remember what animal exactly, but it had these glowing eyes—three of them. This one too." Instead of an empty page, this one had the illustration of an old barn house. "I'm almost positive there used to be a cat in this picture."
"Well, you did say it was when you were little," Natsu pointed out. "Maybe you just remember wrong."
"Maybe."
Before she could glance through the rest of the stories, the doorbell rang and she went to answer it. Gray and Wendy entered moments later carrying several boxes of items that the guild master wanted the lot of them to sort through and categorize, and the book of ghost stories lay forgotten in the corner.
.
Following
"Oh, you're back," Mirajane greeted them with a warm smile. "It's too bad you guys didn't stay away for at least another day."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu demanded.
The pale-haired woman set down the glass she'd been cleaning. "There's been a journalist snooping around here looking for Z. If you two had come back one day later, he was scheduled to leave. Here he comes now."
The Dragon Slayer followed the direction of her gaze and swore.
"No way. He followed us all the way from the capital?"
"I take it you recognize him then?"
Natsu didn't answer, already halfway towards the corner table where his partner was seated. The drinks he was supposed to be retrieving were left forgotten on the countertop.
Zeref started in surprise when a stranger plopped into the chair Natsu had vacated only a minute earlier. The man was tall and swarthy with bright red hair and a tanned face that looked vaguely familiar.
"I'm sorry, but that chair is taken."
The newcomer ignored this, asking instead, "Your name is Z, correct?"
Zeref didn't answer right away, and he didn't wait for him to.
"I thought I was familiar with all of Fairy Tail's wizards until I saw you at the Fiore Magic Festival. I have to say, you displayed some pretty amazing magic there. I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about you. Did you just join this guild?"
"Um, yes?"
"So why did you choose Fairy Tail? There are a number of well known guilds around, and I'm sure any one of them would have been glad to have you."
Actually, Zeref was quite sure that they would not, and even if they had wanted him, he wouldn't have wanted to be a part of them. He couldn't and didn't want to give this person the details, however, so he went for the simplest explanation.
"I helped Natsu with some of his jobs. If I was going to join a guild, I wanted it to be his."
"Ah, yes, the Fire Dragon Slayer. You two participated in that team battle together. It seems that you two are quite close."
Zeref wondered if he should excuse himself to use the restroom—and then maybe sneak out a back door.
"Hey! Back off!"
Oh good, Natsu was back. Z turned and gave him his best "please get me out of here" look.
"I thought I already told you that we weren't doing interviews," Natsu snapped.
A pen and notebook appeared in the man's hands like magic. "Can you tell me why not?"
"No!"
"No, you don't know, or no, you don't want to tell me?"
On the other side of the room, Mirajane shook her head. She had to give the journalist points for persistence if not for tact. He would have had more luck if he refrained from ambushing the pair. No one liked a surprise interview. It was kind of like getting a pop quiz while on vacation.
.
Escapees
"I can't believe that guy," Natsu said, pulling Z up after him onto the roof of the local university. "It's like he's got some kind of inbuilt tracking device. What's it going to take to get it through his skull that we don't want to be interviewed?"
The Black Wizard sat down on the sun-warmed shingles with a heavy sigh.
"I don't think he is capable of understanding the concept."
All of a sudden, the Dragon Slayer began to laugh. Zeref's brow furrowed and he tilted his head back to give him a quizzical look.
Eyes gleaming, Natsu explained, "I can't believe we've spent all afternoon running from someone who isn't even a wizard."
The corners of his partner's mouth twitched. Yes, if he thought about it, that was a little funny. A little ridiculous too, but it was fun to be silly sometimes.
"So what do you think?" Natsu asked, sitting down next to him. "Can we make it home without being spotted?"
.
Bones
Waking up in their own bed felt like a luxury. Neither of them had anywhere they needed to be, so they lazed about until nearly noon when Natsu's stomach decided that it would no longer be ignored.
"We have some leftovers from last night," Z said. "We could always make steak sandwiches."
"Hmmm, might need to run out for some bread then. We forgot to get some yesterday."
"I could do salad instead. We have plenty of greens."
"Sure, why not?"
Z opened their bedroom door, already making a mental list of what vegetables they had, stared into the sitting room, and then very slowly shut the door again.
"Natsu... You didn't bring a skeleton home by any chance, did you?"
The Slayer paused with his vest still in his hands. "What? Of course not. Why would I do that?"
"There is a skeleton on the couch. It's drinking tea."
It took Natsu a moment to process this revelation. "How? It wouldn't have a stomach to put it in."
That was true. Z opened the door to look again.
"We may need to send the couch to the cleaners."
Or just buy a new couch.
Of course, they were sort of missing the point here. Not that freaking out would have done them any good.
.
Houseguest
"I seem to have lost my suit," the skeleton informed them, sounding aggrieved.
Natsu was unsympathetic.
"So? Just get yourself a new one."
"I could do that, but this suit is important to me. It's been my suit since I became the owner of my own business. And anyway, I don't have any money, and I'm not going to become a thief."
"Why don't you go to the police then?"
"You two are wizards, are you not? You can help me. I can feel it in my bones."
Just then, a knock came at the door. When Natsu opened it, he found Lucy on the other side with a frown etched across her face. Before she could tell them why she was there, however, her gaze landed on their skinny houseguest and the book in her hands fell to the floor.
"Oh my god, what is that?"
"Our new client, apparently," Natsu said. "His name's Jingo or something. Z and I are about to show him around town so we can help him find his business suit and send him on his way. You want to help? We could use the extra eyes."
"You can't take him out into the streets!" Lucy exclaimed. "Are you both insane? How do you think people will react?"
They'd probably scream their heads off for one thing. And she'd bet there would be several job request at the guild by the end of the day for somebody to destroy the animated skeleton.
"I'll be back in a second," Lucy said, spinning on her heels and making a dash for the guild. Erza should be there, and Erza's theatre memorabilia.
After she'd gone, Z moved to pick up her discarded book and turn it over.
.
Wardrobe
"I see," Erza said after listening to Lucy's hasty and somewhat freaked out explanation. "Well, I certainly don't mind lending this... client a few things."
She was always happy to take her theatre paraphernalia out for an airing.
She returned with Lucy to Natsu's apartment carrying several articles of clothing that had the frills, feathers, and vivid colors of a prime drama collection. There were tall, black leather boots, shiny and buckled with silver squares. The pants hung loosely on jutting hip bones, mostly covered by a robe patched with crescent moons and stars. A heavy scarf hid the skeleton's far too skinny neck, and almost all of its skull was obscured by a wide-brimmed hat decorated with colorful feathers.
"Now you can go," Erza declared, very satisfied with her handiwork. "Just make sure you return everything to me when he's got his own clothes."
No one would notice a thing—as long as no one tried to shake the skeleton's hand. You could feel the bones like segmented sticks through the thin material of the ivory gloves.
They drew quite a number of stares as they wove their way through the streets, keeping a look out for old, patchy blue suit jackets and pants. The occasional passerby paused to squint at the partially obscured face, probably wondering if he or she really saw empty eye sockets or not.
Preferably not.
"I mean, what kind of child goes robbing graves?" the skeleton lamented. "I'm almost certain it was a child. To think that the world has come to this. Perhaps his friends dared him to perform the deed, or perhaps his family can't afford to give him a decent coat of his own. Of course, if that's the case, I don't know what I shall do. It would be a shame to leave him without a coat to wear, but I simply can't continue on my way as I am."
"He sure talks a lot for a dead guy," Natsu muttered, rubbing at his ear, "and it's weird, but he doesn't seem to have much of a scent."
"I suspect that that is because he's not real."
"Looks real enough to me. And the tea stains on our couch are plenty real."
"I believe he came out of Lucy's book. The one she dropped in our doorway. It's the same one from yesterday."
Natsu paused, his mind going back to yesterday evening when Lucy had opened her book of ghost stories only to find several of the pictures missing.
"Huh, you're probably right. Wonder if that's what she wants to talk to us about later."
.
Scarecrow
The loose blue suit jacket with its worn patches and one missing button fluttered a little in the breeze. The person in it was skinny, stiff, and made predominantly of straw.
"Why is there a scarecrow in the middle of this yard?"
It wasn't the kind of yard crows usually bothered with, full of wilting grass and yellow weeds. The house beyond might have been large, but the peeling paint and cracked front steps stood as evidence of long abandonment.
"It's my suit!" the skeleton cheered, doing a little jig as he twirled and hopped his way over to the scarecrow. "Oh, how I've missed you!"
"What kind of business do you think he owned?" Natsu asked.
His partner looked a little sheepish when e admitted, "I was wondering the same thing. He is very... flamboyant."
Perhaps event planning or party supplies.
"Well, let's hope that this will get him out of our hair," Natsu muttered.
Before they could take down the scarecrow, however, a cry rang out from the direction of the house.
No, wait! Stop!"
So it wasn't empty after all.
The gangly, ginger-haired boy threw himself between them and the scarecrow and flung his arms out to either side. "Please don't take it apart. We need this scarecrow."
Natsu crouched so he could meet the child's eyes. "Sorry, kid. We can get you a new set of clothes for this guy, but our friend here needs his suit back."
The boy glanced at the skeleton and blanched, but he held his ground.
"I'm really sorry," he said, bowing his head towards the bony figure, "but my family just moved here and this house turned out to be haunted. A friend told me that the clothes of a dead man would keep the ghosts away."
"Are you sure your friend was not mistaken?" Z asked, inspecting the scarecrow with new eyes. He couldn't detect anything special about it. "I would have thought the relics of the deceased would draw ghosts, not ward them away."
The boy shuffled his feet but didn't drop his arms. "I know that, but this is different. And it worked last night."
Natsu and Z exchanged puzzled looks.
"On what?"
.
Smell
The bone-white wolf loomed over the rickety, wooden fence that surrounded the property, huge and hairy and—eyeless.
"I think we need to talk with Lucy."
"Its smell?"
"Like our bony friend's."
"I suspected as much."
The four of them peered out through the first-floor window across the ragged tufts of weeds and yellow grass that did not bend under the beast's weight. The ghastly creature sniffed about the scarecrow, seemingly confused by it, and didn't draw any closer to the house. Against the graying horizon, its semitransparent form made it look like it was composed of smoke.
"Wonder what it's problem is."
"Perhaps it cannot smell the living through the smell of death," Z suggested.
"Maybe." Natsu rose and headed for the front door. "Right, let's get rid of it, and the skeleton can have his suit."
.
Footsteps
It had started the night before, but she'd discounted it then as her imagination. Magnolia was a city after all, and the sound of footsteps was not unusual. People passed by on the street outside her rental residence all the time, and the walls weren't exactly soundproof.
This morning, however... Well, footsteps outside were one thing. Footsteps in her apartment where she lived by herself were another entirely.
She'd spent the entire morning scouring every room in the building—just in case this was her teammates playing a prank on her.
It wasn't until lunch that she'd remembered the story. She hadn't seen anyone because there wasn't anyone to see. Finding the source of the footsteps, however, didn't make her any happier.
"They keep following me," she said, waving a hand wildly in the direction of the crowds of people passing by on the street.
"Who?" Natsu asked. "I don't see anyone."
"Um, well, I wouldn't exactly call them "anyone"."
Just then, there was a lull in the tide of people and the Dragon Slayer's keen eyes landed on a bright red toe poking out from behind a trash can on the other side of the street.
"Is that a shoe?"
"Shoes. Dancing shoes to be exact."
"Lucy," Zeref said, "we gave the skeleton back his suit and Natsu chased the wolf away. Do you know if they are back in the book?"
"I need to check."
"Please do."
Natsu sighed. "Guess I'll go catch the shoes while you're at it. Be back in a second."
As if they had heard or sensed his intent, the shoes took off running.
"Hey, come back here!"
.
Spill
The sketch of the boy with his scarecrow looked exactly as they had in real life. The skeleton was back too, grinning out from his patch of parchment with his rumpled suit hanging off his tall, gaunt frame.
"I don't understand," Lucy said, staring down at the book. "I'm pretty sure this book isn't—wasn't—magical."
Getting up from her table, she went to rummage through the cardboard box of items she'd brought from her family's old estate. There were a handful of photographs, some trinkets from her mother, a couple other books, a—cracked flask?
"Oh, oops."
"Another potion gone wrong?" Natsu asked. It certainly smelled like it.
"Looks like it. Sorry, I guess this means it's my fault."
"Another?" Zeref repeated, confused.
"That's right," Natsu said, "you weren't here then. It was right after we got back from those seven years on the island. Lucy left a potion too long, and it turned her invisible. Almost wiped her entire existence out entirely."
Most potions were like food. You couldn't leave them too long or they went bad.
Z nodded slowly and leafed back through the anthology. "Can you tell us what else is left?"
"I'll need to think about it. It's been such a long time." She lifted a hand, ticking each picture off on her fingers. "I'm positive there was a tree in one of the remaining pictures. Then there's the cat, and—"
A knock at her front door interrupted her. She yanked it open to find Gray on her front step with his hand upraised to knock again. He dropped the hand when he saw her and coughed.
"I don't suppose Z is here? I already tried Natsu's place."
"They're both here," Lucy said, stepping aside. "We've had a... weird morning."
The Ice Wizard nodded. "Yeah, I thought you might. I think you all had better come see this."
.
Cat Eyes
Magnolia was not a small city and there were several districts that Zeref had never visited. Even so...
"Were these buildings... always like this?"
Gray snorted. "Hardly."
Everything was in shades of black, white, and gray. It looked odd but not especially so until you saw the potted plants that some people kept on their windowsills or doorsteps—white and black flowers nestled amidst gray leaves. Things got even weirder when they saw their first human being. Everything from her wavy ponytail to her high-heels had been drained of color, making her resemble a detailed but unfinished picture from some child's brand new coloring book.
"Oh, I remember this story," Lucy said. "It was about a painter who was really lonely and decided to paint a companion for herself. But when she passed away, the creature needed another source of energy to keep itself alive, and so it began to eat the colors in her other works—and then her town. The people in the town began to lose their ability to feel emotions, and so they finally sought out a wizard to banish the creature."
"That explains why no one seems bothered," Natsu said. "They can't possibly not have noticed."
"How did the story end?" Z asked.
"Um, if I remember correctly, the wizard trapped the creature in an empty picture frame."
The four guild wizards assembled in a small plaza at the center of the district a few minutes later with a bag of colorful paints and a blank canvas. They dumped everything in the middle of the empty space and hid. Only a handful of minutes later, a cat dropped down from the edge of a roof and picked its way towards the many bottles of pigment. While everything else in the area was black and white, the cat's eyes shone like blue gemstones flecked with silver and violet.
Z prepared to cast the sealing spell, but before he could move, the cat's head jerked up and it darted away. The Black Wizard shot to his feet.
"Natsu!"
"I'm on it."
Natsu leapt forward, hoisted the blank canvas over his head, and sprinted after the departing spirit with his partner trailing after him.
.
Antics
Levy sat at the counter that ran along the windows of the smoothie shop, splitting her attention between the text she was deciphering and the people passing on the street outside. Mostly, she'd been watching her fellow guild wizards.
"I wonder what they're up to now?" she mused aloud to herself after Natsu and Z ran by carrying a giant canvas of the kind used for oil painting.
The Fire Dragon Slayer and his teammates had been back for only two days and the entire city already felt more lively. Erza had gone by earlier in the morning with a bulging bag of something slung over her shoulder, and then there had been Natsu with a bird cage containing a pair of shoes.
"Levy? Is that you?"
She lifted her eyes to the white, winged cat that circled the air above her head once before landing by her peach smoothie cup.
"I'm glad I found you," Carla said, folding her small, feathery wings. "Have you seen Wendy, Natsu, and the others?"
"Natsu went by with Z a couple minutes ago. I think they were heading towards the park. Why?"
A frown creased Carla's furry, white face.
"The guild master wants to see them right away. It seems very urgent."
.
Courier
It was strange enough to see a deer in the middle of a city, but this particular deer had a coat the color of lush grass and spring leaves. Its ridged antlers resembled tree branches, and the eyes that turned to regard them glinted with curiosity. It shifted on its hooves as they drew closer, and the woman standing next to it rested her hand on its side.
"He's just nervous around strangers," she told them. "These deer are used to running and hiding from humans."
"He's beautiful," Lucy said. "He doesn't look like a normal stag."
"He's from a very rare species that adapted to blend into the forest," the woman replied, waving them over to the front of the guild house. "Are these the wizards you spoke of, Master Makarov?"
The little old man beside her nodded gravely and faced the newcomers.
"We received an urgent request for assistance from a collection of fellow guilds. Pack what you need and gather back here in an hour. We're leaving as soon as everyone's ready, and I'll explain on the way."
TBC...
.