Hey everyone. Here's this month's chapter. I finished this pretty quickly because I'm leaving for a vacation with my family tomorrow and I don't need them asking questions why I'm typing frantically for a long period of time, so here it is. I've received a few questions asking if I have any idea where this story is going and I can honestly say I have no idea. Even after the official story ends, there will most definitely be one-shots in the same universe. I will also be participating in Nalu week after I get home from vacation. We're almost to 300 followers! Anyway, I hope you enjoy and your reviews make me really happy.
When Lucy heard a shriek, it was only Natsu's arm that kept her from tumbling off the couch in surprise. Lucy opened her eyes to see Natsu was already up. He kept one arm around her waist, his bandaged wrist pressed against the cushions, out of sight. The other was behind his head. "Hey Wendy," Natsu said in greeting, as if this were an everyday occurrence. As if Lucy hadn't just kissed Natsu. Lucy squealed and tried to wriggle free from his grasp but Natsu wasn't relenting. If anything, he held her tighter. Lucy felt her face flush and she buried her face in Natsu's neck.
"Um, I'll leave if you want me to," Wendy offered, looking just as uncomfortable as Lucy felt.
"Please."
"You don't have to." Lucy and Natsu said at the same time. Lucy picked her head back up and glared at Natsu.
"Wendy, don't tell anyone about this?" Lucy asked and Natsu's younger cousin just smiled and nodded. She slipped out of the room and the door gently thudded shut. Lucy rested her head against his chest, where the rhythm of his heart was reassuring.
"Why do you not want the others to know?" Natsu asked.
"Because they'd make a big deal out of it and then Zeref would find out," Lucy replied. Natsu rolled his eyes at the mention of his brother.
"Hate to break it to ya, but he probably already knows," Natsu said.
"How?" Natsu just shook his head.
"You don't want to know." Lucy was quiet for a little bit and Natsu busied himself by playing with her hair.
"Will Zeref tell the others about this?"
"If he thinks he can use it to manipulate the others, or manipulate you or me, then yes. We would have to offer something, or do something, in return for him to keep quiet," Natsu replied. The hatred and anger in his voice was obvious. It was quiet for a moment before Lucy bit her lip.
"If the etherious genes were to be activated, what would happen to you?"
"There'd probably be a lot of physical changes—"
"That's not what I meant," Lucy interrupted. "What will happen to you?" Natsu exhaled slowly.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Natsu. Please?" He sighed and tilted his head back, studying the white, flawless ceiling as if it were something interesting.
"I'll be more aggressive but have less," he hesitated, searching for the right word, "righteousness." He finished the sentence with his voice going up at the end like it was a question instead of a statement. "I won't care as much about killing and hurting people." Lucy felt his hand stop moving in her hair. "I could live with it. It wouldn't kill me, but it would hurt Fairy Tail's reputation, and mine." His eyes drifted closed as he considered it. He could work to control it, just like he could control other emotions as well, but it was the physical changes he was worried about. There was no way to hide that. Unless…he sighed again for the third time in as many minutes. He could talk with Zeref to alter that part of the genetic code but he had nothing to offer.
"I could try to make a deal with Zeref about the physical aspect. But it would be really difficult to negotiate with him." And with that he changed the topic. "But we can deal with that later, I'm starved."
"Are you going to keep your wrists out of sight?" Lucy asked. Natsu grumbled something under his breath and went to the closet. He was out of sight before re-emerging in a black, long-sleeved jacket with a gold skull on the back. Lucy arched an eyebrow. "Zeref's choice or yours?" Natsu glared.
"He always keeps my bedroom and bathroom stocked with shit and I don't like it."
"That he acknowledges you're his brother or because it cements that you have strong connections to Alvarez?"
"Both." He looked in the full-body mirror and tugged at the sleeves, unbuttoning the cuffs so they were all the way down. Natsu moved his arms a little bit to make sure nothing showed. Satisfied that everyone would be fooled he went to leave the room and Lucy followed. When they got to the kitchen, the others were sitting at the island, Zeref was nowhere to be found.
"Where did the two of you go?" Happy asked, his tone full of implications that had, unfortunately, some merit. "You were alone for a long time." He stretched the 'o' out in 'long'.
"You don't know what you're talking about Happy," Natsu countered but patted the Exceed on his head. Natsu tugged again on the end of his sleeves. "Did anyone make coffee?"
Wendy shook her head no. Natsu sighed and got up to start making coffee. His movements were sluggish. Lucy wondered if it was because of blood loss. She shook her head. The less suspicious she acted, the better. Zeref wasn't around which should have been a relief, but it just made her uneasy and on edge. If he wasn't around, then he was planning something and Lucy doubted the plans were anything but benevolent. The coffee machine had beeped and Natsu poured himself way more coffee than he should have.
"You don't need all that caffeine Natsu," Erza chastised. Natsu just glared at her and took a huge gulp of it in defiance, wincing as it more than likely burned his tongue and throat. He leaned against the counter and ignored Erza as she lectured him, his gaze set on some distant point outside through the window. It looked like his mind was miles away.
Lucy had to wonder if being back here brought some nostalgic memories from when he was still a child. Zeref clearly had loved his brother enough to bring him back to life so it must have been somewhat ok before Natsu was taken to Fiore and out of Alvarez. Lucy bit her lip. From her talk with Zeref, he still harbored a sort of twisted affection for his brother that Lucy didn't want to try to understand, especially seeing as how Zeref manipulated Natsu with no genuine regret or inner turmoil.
A few moments later, Gajeel and Gray walked in with stony expressions. Natsu glanced at them instinctively and then resumed looking out the window. "Salamander, we need to talk," Gajeel said. Natsu ignored him. "What the fuck is happening around here? Blondie seems to know." Lucy rolled her eyes at Gajeel's new nickname for her although she figured it was better than Bunny-Girl. "But you need to tell us too, we deserve to know." Natsu tensed and glared at his cousin.
"Out with it Flame Brain," Gray added. Lucy tried not to visibly flinch when she saw that Natsu's eyes were emotionless. Where there was generally life there was only darkness and emptiness, not unlike his brother's. Their eyes were so similar. Lucy could see Natsu shaking. His emotions were mercurial at the best of times, but this visit had been wearing down on his nerves and Lucy knew if she didn't do something, Natsu would do or say something he'd regret. He wasn't ready to tell his friends, his family, about what was truly going on in this mansion. They didn't need to know about the gauze bandages wrapped around his wrists.
Natsu heard Gajeel and Gray, his cousin and one of his best friends, pressuring him to just tell them what was happening but Natsu stayed silent. He remembered Gray saying that his father's dying wish was for him to kill E.N.D. but he didn't want to say anything because of the chaos that would be unleased if everyone knew. Lucy seemed to accept it but he was positive the others wouldn't be quite as understanding as she was. And they most certainly would push him on the subject even if he didn't want to talk about anything at this point. Natsu couldn't blame them but that didn't mean he had to entertain them. Eventually his head started hurting and he snapped.
He shot up and slammed his hands on the granite countertop beneath him. "Will you just shut the fuck up?" he yelled. His breathing was hard, he was trying to get himself under control and then he felt something happening at the back of his mind. His eyes widened in panic. No. This wasn't possible. Zeref had no reason to trigger it. Natsu hadn't broken his promise! He had been doing the opposite of finding ways to kill his older brother, which is why everyone except for Lucy was in the dark. Zeref was right, if they found out they would do something reckless and Natsu couldn't let that happen. His headache got worse and he clutched his temples and closed his eyes.
"I need to go," Natsu said and then he grabbed Lucy's hand and sprinted down the hallway.
"Natsu?" Lucy asked as he continued pulling her down hallways. "What's wrong?" Natsu didn't say anything. He was just focused on finding his brother. When he did, the door to his office was open and Natsu leaned heavily against the doorway.
"Zeref," he growled. His brother looked up, a look of mild surprise and interest on his face. "What the fuck did you do to me?" Zeref's eyebrows knotted in confusion.
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about," his brother admitted.
"Don't fuck with me." Natsu stormed up to the table where he had been sitting several hours prior, except this time Lucy was with him. "I didn't break my promise so why is it that I'm feeling like something is taking over my mind." Zeref's eyes actually widened.
"That shouldn't be possible. I haven't triggered that yet, you've given me no reason to," Zeref said and he pushed his chair back and made his way to the door. "Come with me, I need to see something. Lucy can come too, if she wishes." Zeref held the door open for them and Natsu and Lucy followed him down the hall, down a secret flight of stairs concealed cleverly behind a wall panel. "My lab is down here," Zeref explained.
The room wasn't entirely different than Fairy Tail's lab from the metal floors to all of the holograms and displays scattered in mid-air. Zeref got a metal helmet with electrodes attached to it and stood in front of Natsu. Natsu eyed it with suspicion.
"Surely, you've seen a brain scanner?" Zeref asked with a hint of exasperation in his voice. To Lucy, he sounded genuinely curious and even concerned. Natsu nodded stiffly and Zeref placed it on his hand, attaching the electrodes to his forehead and temples, trying to avoid getting his hair caught. Zeref tapped some buttons and a hologram was displayed in front of them. Whatever he saw in the image made him frown. He rummaged through a drawer and came back with a needle. Without warning he pricked Natsu's finger, causing his little brother to yelp.
"Hey what was that for?" Natsu whined. Zeref ignored him and put the drop of blood into a machine that soon spit out a large holographic panel of information. Zeref looked at the data and glanced between the image of Natsu's brain and whatever came from Natsu's blood. He shook his head slowly and stepped back.
"That shouldn't be possible. I didn't design it this way," Zeref said. He swiped the image from the brain scan away and replaced it with an image of what Lucy imagined was Natsu's DNA. Lucy had to admit she grudgingly respected Natsu's brother for how intelligent he was. Lucy got the disturbing feeling that if Zeref wasn't an evil genius she would want to be friends with him. There was probably so much she could learn from him.
Zeref had zoomed in on a certain part and whatever he saw made him frown. "This shouldn't be possible," he repeated. "At all." He ran a hand through his neat black hair. He closed all of the images and turned around. His face was serious, and Lucy thought she could see a little bit of concern.
"Zeref?" Natsu asked, fear tinging his voice. Natsu remembered the last time he had sounded like that, and it was from his childhood. "What's wrong?" Zeref stayed quiet and then sighed.
"There must have been some sort of mutation where it doesn't matter whether or not I triggered the activation of the traits that would make you E.N.D.," he started. "It seems that experiencing intense emotions of fear and anger will have the same result." To Lucy, it looked like Natsu was in shock.
"If it's any consolation," Zeref continued, "it only triggered the mentality of the demon, not the physical aspects." Natsu wasn't sure if that made him feel any better.
