Chapter 1
Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Fairy Tail. But if I did …. Oh the POSSIBILITIES! (Cue Evil Laugh)
The Sun's rays danced gracefully across the surface of the ocean while a vast array of colors burst forth from the dawn. Specks of pink, red, purple, and orange dotted the horizon as the sun reached its hands towards the sky.
Just another typical morning in Magnolia. All was peaceful in the town, and every person was enjoying the beautiful sunrise as they greeted the morning with open arms and warm smiles, just happy to be alive.
And then there was Natsu.
Natsu stalked through cobblestone streets of Magnolia with a sour expression plastered on his face. However, trying to navigate through the ocean of bodies towards Fairy Tail High proved to be challenging for the pinkette. "GAH!" Natsu let out a frustrated cry as his foot was stomped on for the fifth time. Laughter rang out from the crowd to his right side that sounded oddly like something choking, and he only knew one person with a laugh that sounded like a dying bird…
"Oi! Gajeel!" Natsu yelled turning around violently, only to accidentally nail his cousin in the face with his elbow. Sputtering Gajeel emerged from the crowd sporting a black tank top, cargo shorts, and a bloody nose.
"The hell Salamander?!" He exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of the crowd. Gajeel's black school bag slid down his shoulder as his hand came up and loosely grasped his nose. Natsu played it off like he did it on purpose. Shrugging, he let out a rather unapologetic "Sorry."
"Don't worry, I'll get you back later." growled Gajeel turning away from Natsu. Said pinkette only let out an irritated "Tch." The two walked in silence for a while before Gajeel finally asked.
"Dude what happened to your face?"
"Hmm?" Natsu hummed, his hand coming up to lightly touch the deep red cut that ran from his temple down to his chin. "Oh that?" Gajeel nodded. "Went on a journey to a magical land where I harnessed the mysterious powers of the element fire, searched for a dinosaur with wings who taught me how to control said flames-and also happened to be my father, battled other weirdos with powers, watched the winged dinosaur/ mentor/ father die in front of me, met an crybaby, immortal, murdering, power-hungry emperor who wanted to travel back in time to change his past-he was my brother by the way- I kicked his ass, then went on to defeat another immortal murder who committed genocide against both humans and the winged dinosaurs, he tried to kill me and the other students of the dinosaurs in a realm outside of space, so we kicked his butt, then returned to the magical land where we had a party, then set out on a new quest that would probably take a century to complete." Natsu lied.
Gajeel ran a hand through his unruly ponytailed hair looking slightly concerned for Natsu's mental health. "So, when in your story did you get the cut?" He asked. "Falling down some stairs, obviously. Where you even trying to pay attention?" Natsu questioned. Gajeel shook his head in exasperation. Suddenly he smirked darkly and began saying, "Poor Natsi-" before he was cut off due to a fist ramming into his already bloody face.
"I told you never to use that nickname again!" snarled Natsu. Despite the pain in his nose, Gajeel smirked. "What's wrong Natsie? Is it that time of month?" He taunted. "That's it!" Natsu yelled releasing a war cry. He threw his body at Gajeel and, only wincing slightly, tackled him through the gates of Fairy Tail High.
Throwing a kick at Gajeel, the boys roughhoused throughout the school grounds, indirectly initiating a school-wide brawl.
"Fighting is manly!" Elfman called out jumping into the war zone. "Shut up Elfman!" yelled Evergreen as she to joined the fray.
From their spot on a bench, Gray, Erza, and Lucy looked over at the giant dust cloud forming on the campus. "So I take it Natsu and Gajeel arrived." Lucy sweatdropped. "It appears so." exclaimed Erza, glaring at some of the kids throwing punches, casing them to gulp and slowly drop their fists. "Idiots." sighed Gray.
"Gray, your clothes!" Cana yelled from the middle of the brawl. "Damn it! When did that happen?"
Eyebrow twitching, Erza got up and walked into the crowd of fighting high schoolers while Gray scrambled around trying to find his clothes.
As Erza walked into the thick of the fight, the teenagers parted around her like the Red Sea. Sweatdropping again, Lucy just watched, silently pitying whoever was about to feel Erza's wrath. As the brawl came to an end, the teens scattered, slowly revealing the fighting forms of Natsu and a red-faced Gajeel. The pissed-off pinkette had Gajeel in a headlock and was repeatedly kneeing him in the gut.
Despite the fact he was being pummeled, Gajeel still said, "Wow, Natsie. What's got your panties in a wad?" Natsu retaliated by throwing Gajeel to the ground with a growl, and jumped on him with is elbow extended, drilling into Gajeel's gut once more.
He was going in for another hit, when he heard the mighty footsteps that seemed to shake the ground. Titania. Slowly turning, he looked up into the face of the Devil himself. Herself? Details…
Ending his inner monologue, Natsu gulped and sputtered out,"H-hey, Erza!" Gray and Lucy watched amused from the sidelines offering salutes to their soon-to-be fallen comrade.
"Natsu!" Came the reply of the evil ginger from hell. "Kindly explain to me why it is that you're fighting Gajeel on school grounds?"
"Erm, well you see-"
"He's just bitching about me calling him his old nickname." Gajeel bluntly stated. "Oof!" Natsu had tackled him to the ground again. Lucy walked over to the three cautiously as if trying not to turn Natsu's wrath on her, while Gray just strutted up to them and asked, "Which nickname? Was it Flame brai-" Releasing Gajeel from his chokehold, Natsu turned to Gray. "Don't even start with me." he snarled.
"Natsu! Your clothes are filthy!" Erza randomly exclaimed, talking over them. Natsu stood up and looked down at himself. He was wearing a grey long-sleeve shirt under a light green short-sleeved one with some band logo over it. Both shirts had holes. He also wore black jeans that went all the way down to his ankles, almost covering up his sneakers that probably used to be white. "What's wrong with what I wear?" he asked them while receiving several critical stares from Erza.
"Well nothing is wrong with it, you just need a new style!" Lucy happily stated. Erza banged her fist down on Gajeel's head and, ignoring the sound of his soul leaving his body, excitedly yelled, "That is exactly what I was thinking!" she pointed at Natsu. "You will be coming with us after school to go shopping." she told him.
No. He couldn't go with them. One reason being his dad would actually kill him this time if he was late, aaaand he had no money. He wanted to get a job at an animal shelter, but his father wouldn't let him. He wanted Natsu at home at all times when he wasn't at school. 'Only to hide the evidence of his wonderful parenting.' Natsu thought sourly. He could handle his dad, all he had to do was keep the house clean, cook, and make sure his dad had a bottle of whiskey at all times, or risk his father's anger. He wanted to go shopping with his friends, he really did, but he had no money to spare considering that he and his dad were extremely poor.
He felt a hand shaking his shoulder. "Flame brain? You good? Ya totally spaced out there." said Gray. "Yah, yah I'm all good." He answered, putting on his usual cheerful smile. "Well Natsu? You gonna come?" asked Lucy. Deciding to take a risk, Natsu turned to Erza. "Sure. I'll come." he said.
"Oh and by the way," Lucy said,"What happened to your face!?" Smirking, Natsu said,"Well, it's a long and terrifying story, but i'll tell it-"
RRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGG! The school bell rang, kickstarting the day.
"Come on everyone," called Erza as she raised her fist to the sky. "Onwards, to learning!"
On cue, a small army of students formed behind her. The group stepped over an unconscious Gajeel, and made their way to the school building. Natsu slowly trailed behind the crowd of teenagers elbowing their way through the hallway and wondered if he had made a huge mistake agreeing to go with Erza.
30 minutes later
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Smoke filled up the science classroom in thick waves, and only the sound of Natsu's cackling could be heard over their screaming teacher. "Natsu, you have detention for the rest of the week!" He screeched. "But Gramps," he whined, "Its already Friday."
"Then you have detention for the remaining Fridays in the school year!" Makarov hollered at his disobedient student in a blind rage.
"I don't think you can do that Gramps." Natsu replied.
"We will see." Makarov said, laughing darkly.
FIVE MINUTES LATER IN THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE
"Unfortunately Mr. Makarov, your student is correct. You do not possess the authority to give him detention for every Friday still in the school year." Principal Mavis explained.
"Well, drat."
BACK IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM
"Natsu, I might not be able to give you detentions for every Friday, I can still give you one for today."
"Fine." Natsu replied lazily. He the proceeded to daydream for the rest of the school day. However, he briefly remembered punching Gray at lunch. That brought a smile to his face.
LATER THAT EVENING AFTER DETENTION AND SHOPPING WITH ERZA
Natsu was running along the narrow streets of Magnolia tightly clutching a shopping bag and slightly panicking at the fact that he was FOUR hours past his curfew. He was desperately trying to come up with some sort of excuse to tell his father, but all his mind supplied him with was the useless mantra,'CrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP!'
Turning a corner, Natsu was met with his eyesore of a home. Jogging up the concrete path to his door, Natsu swallowed at the faint light of the TV that he could barely make out from the window.
Natsu crept up the front porch to the screen door. He opened the screen and shoved past the heavy wooden door behind it. He got one foot inside his house before he was roughly yanked inside by the collar of his shirt. His backpack and shopping bag went flying somewhere in the room as his father threw him to the ground and in the process, accidentally smashed his empty whiskey bottle down next to Natsu's limp form.
Recovering from his shock Natsu just stared up at his drunk father and nervously awaited a beating.
Natsu could taste the whiskey on his dad's breath as he rasped,"Where ya been, Brat? Your Pappy was startin' to miss you."
As if to prove this he gave Natsu a swift kick to the gut that had his son coughing and curling up into the fetal position. Natsu's father continued his actions for five more minutes before relenting and saying,"Get your lazy ass up and make me dinner."
He stumbled back to the living room and ploped down on the couch watching whatever sports game was on.
Grateful that his father didn't make Natsu tell him where he had been for the past four hours, he used the wall for support to drag his beaten body to the kitchen to begin making his father dinner. He wiped away the blood from the broken skin on his abdomen and messily bandaged himself up. After all these years of being tortured by his father and he still couldn't properly tie a bandage. Typical.
Natsu let out a sigh. He was glad his cousin didn't live with him, or Natsu would have a lot of explaining to do. If Gajeel was in this situation, Natsu knew he wouldn't just take it. He would probably call the police and get Jiemma arrested for child abuse. Natsu desperately wanted to do the same, but he couldn't bring himself to. He wasn't being a coward, he just could not bring himself to hate his father. Natsu didn't want his father to go to prison because he didn't hate him. That being said he did not love his father either. Did he?
On more than one occasion Natsu had wished that himself, Gajeel, and all of their other cousins had been adopted at the same time. Then, he wouldn't have to dread coming home each day wondering what new kind of torture his father had thought up. All of Natsu's cousins had been adopted at different times minus Sting and Rogue. His two younger cousins had almost been adopted by Jiemma along with Natsu, but in the end Jiemma had decided against it since his wife didn't want multiple children. Natsu only faintly remembered Jiemma's wife. She had been a kind woman in the three years Natsu had known her. It had been after her lost battle with cancer that Jiemma had started hurting Natsu. He had been only nine at the time.
Looking back on it, Natsu was glad that Sting and Rogue were adopted into a different family. He was also happy for Wendy. He knew she was adopted into a nice family who had recently adopted two toddlers. Wendy enjoyed telling him and Gajeel about how adorable they were and how fast they learned things. They always responded by telling her what an amazing big sister she was, it never failed to make he blush and stutter.
Natsu didn't know Gajeel's adopted mother very well. All he knew was that Gajeel loved her dearly. In the first year they had been adopted, all of his cousin's adopted parents, including Jiemma, would take them to the park and let them play together. After Natsu's mother died, Jiemma stopped taking him. Gajeel had been worried at first asking Natsu if he was alright after seeing the black eye Jiemma had given him. Natsu had said he was fine and soon, Gajeel stopped asking.
Soon after Jiemma's wife's death, Sting and Rogue moved away. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy had a group chat with them that they would all text on when they missed each other, but Natsu still desperately missed his younger cousins.
Natsu was finishing making his father dinner when his phone buzzed. He was quick to silence it after sending a nervous glance at the living room. Looking down, Natsu saw a text from Gajeel.
Party 8 tonight. Lucy's place. U in?
Natsu glanced at the clock. 7:28 P.M. Natsu didn't want to get beat up twice in one day, but it was Friday, and his dad usually slept in late on Saturdays.
Making up his mind, Natsu started typing on his phone.
I'll be there.
Gajeel's reply was almost instantaneous.
Gr8! Bring three bottles of hot sauce, a gallon of milk and a snickers bar.
Natsu laughed as he remembered Loke's irrational fear of snickers candy bars. Although he was slightly afraid at what his cousin had planned with hot sauce and milk, he found himself anticipating the party. Knowing his friends, he was pretty sure they had agreed to have the party at Lucy's without telling her first.
After finishing, Natsu walked out to the living room to give his father dinner, only to find him totally knocked out on the couch. After thanking God for his luck, he placed the plate down on the coffee table in front of his father along with another bottle of whiskey(his father's favorite.) He picked up his backpack and shopping bag from the corner of the living room and walked down the hallway to his room. He threw on some of the clothes that Erza bought him and checked the time 7:37 P.M.
He ran a hand through his pink locks of hair in a vain attempt to smooth down the small curls in the back. After deeming himself presentable and grabbing 35 dollars from his father's whiskey funds, he snuck out his bedroom window and ran the three miles to the dollar store then to Lucy's apartment, grinning stupidly the whole way.