Summary: In which Zeref is the black angel from Eileen's story…..and I can't let go of my conspiracy theories. Manga Spoilers…ish.

Pairings: Brotherly Zeref/Lucy, Zeref/Capricorn friendship, Brotherly Zeref/Natsu, and implied Natsu/Lucy.

YouTube Prompt: A Zeref tribute to 'Chain of Love' by Journey because I swear if I didn't know better I would have thought that song was written for him.

He was like a black angel.

His clothes were black as were his hair and his eyes….but he had the beauty and gentleness and fierceness of an angel. He moved gracefully like one as well, he ducked and dodged all of her attacks as if it was part of a dance. It would be rather beautiful if it wasn't incredibly annoying.

She stomped the ground and forced her magic deep into it. The world beneath them shook angrily but he kept his footing and glided across their battlefield ready to strike as if he was a panther.

She barely dodged and her attempt to kick his feet out beneath him failed.

Time for another strategy.

Taurus' powers were useless at this point, as was wield a long-range weapon, and he wasn't going to be fooled if another person appeared on the battlefield, at this point he knew Gemini's magic better than she did, it was time she distracted him.

With her hands stretched out she was able to call upon Scorpio's sand magic which blinded her enemy instantly. She savoured her precious few seconds to pull on Virgo's powers and slip beneath him.

He was oblivious at first, breathing out what would have been a curse for anyone else but for him was just an indignant noise - he never swears – as he stared ahead, searching for her. She leaped out into the air and just as he turned she used the last of her magic to call upon Leo's powers.

"REGULUS KICK!"

Her foot lands on her mark and the black angel falls to the ground upon impact.

"YES!"

She jumped up and down excitedly as she pumped her fist in the air. "I did it!" she squealed excitedly. "I did it! I did it! I did it!"

"So you did," he mumbled as he gently touched his cheek and winced, "and you certainly left your mark."

"You said I had to hit your face to win," she argued, "You didn't say I had to be gentle about it."

"And I really wouldn't want you too," he agreed softly, "it would beat the objective of training if you were to hold back."

"So…." She prodded. "I won, didn't I?"

"Indeed you did," he smiled teasingly, "and I suppose you want your prize." She nodded eagerly and waited impatiently as he taunted her with silence. He was nothing like his brother. He would have said something loud and rude by now and would have gotten her name wrong about five times. Despite this obvious difference though, the Dragneel brothers both way too good at teasing her. "Go on then," he said eventually, "go and tell Igneel that Natsu is to have the afternoon off to play with you."

She squealed happily and flung her arms round him. He stiffened, for a good few seconds, but she felt him melt into her embrace and slowly move his arms round her. "Thank you Zeref-nii," she mumbled into shoulder, "for everything."

"You're welcome," he pushed her back gently but firmly, "now go and play before I change my mind and….erm….don't tell your sister that I let you fight in that dress."

She looked down to see her best white dress, the one that Anna wanted her to wear at the festivals tonight to celebrate their alliance with the dragons, dirtied beyond belief and ripped round the edges.

Oh well, she didn't like it that much anyway.

"I won't!" she promised before she started to run towards the other clearing Natsu was training in. "Bye Zeref-nii! Thank you for the training session!"

She barely made it halfway when she felt something cold touch her skin. She looked up and blinked in awe as she took in the white flakes rushing down towards her. "Snow?" she murmured.

And then she shrugged it off. If there was anyone that'll keep her warm it would be Natsu….

"It's beginning to snow," Zeref murmured in awe as he reached out to feel the cold, damp, flakes as they landed on his palm, "and in summer too. You know, I don't think I will ever comprehend the weather in these celestial lands."

He might have been abandoned by his charge but her chaperone, one of the many zodiacs that she was learning magic from, had stayed behind. Silent, stoic, and serene as ever, Capricorn smiled in bemusement at Zeref's almost childish awe.

"It means something divine has just happened," Capricorn explained, "something that'll be retold one day as a tall tale, a legend, a fable, a myth, a fairy tale, and will have an impact on the future."

"I do believe," Zeref said dryly, "that you celestial beings are deliberately ambiguous and vague because you think it makes you come across all dark and mysterious. It doesn't. It just makes you annoying."

Capricorn smirked and said nothing.

Totally proving Zeref's point.

It snowed for the rest of the day and kept on snowing while they hid out on the mountains. Eventually they moved, as neither the Celestial Clans nor the Dragons were prone to staying in one place, and Zeref forgot all about it until one day he returned to find it was still snowing.

It would keep snowing on that spot for another four hundred years.

And the stories that spun from it are indeed outrageous as the next. After all there was no angels and they weren't really fighting over a man…..though one could argue they had been fighting for her right to spend an afternoon with Natsu. The only thing that had been right was that he wore black and she wore white.

And then finally, on the day of reckoning, he gets the constant telepathic report that tells him the snow is gone from one of his scouts.

He is alone, for now, in his tent and takes the time to savour what little peace he had left before he really went to war himself. He pulled out the little chest he keeps with him all times that he had hidden in his desk and opened it up.

It was filled with pictures of them.

He chose his favourite. A lovely one of just the two of them, Natsu was dressed like a gentleman for once in his life, and actually looked clean, while she sat on his lap looking radiant and lovely in her red dress.

They had eyes only for each other and he wonders if they finally got that clue now they were the right age.

(Knowing Natsu….probably not.)

"Eileen has made your divine snow vanish," he said to the picture, "and I have heard that you relearnt your skills from before. I look forwards to our rematch….only this time, Lucy," he felt a darkness cross his face as a surge of anger took over, "I'm not letting you win."