Hello everyone! It has been a while, hasn't it? I'm happy to announce I was part of the Fairy Tail Reverse Bang event this year and had the honour of writing a kid-Nalu oneshot based on the art Narminax drew!

Thanks a lot pencilofawesomeness for betaing this piece, I learned a lot!


It was a humid, early summer day. A lonely wagon disturbed the peace of an abandoned road. Lucy let her legs dangle from the seat, watching them go up and down to the rhythm of the shaking carriage wheels. The sounds of birds chirping and cicadas buzzing couldn't pierce through the wooden walls, resulting in only a murmuring resonance.

It had been a while since the carriage left the cobblestone paths and turned to take a shortcut through the forest. According to their driver, this was supposed to be a shorter route to their holiday destination: a luxurious cabin in the woods, close to the ocean shore. A shorter route, but most certainly not a comfortable one. It was uneven and littered with large rocks and Lucy couldn't even read the little book she'd brought along.

She looked out the window at the passing trees and sighed. Every summer holiday they'd go to the very same cabin, spending their vacation reading and hiking. To Lucy, it was nothing different than the life on their estate—isolated, without other kids, and trapped in an endless cycle of days.

No, Lucy had never liked their summer holidays. Her parents had always thought it was great for her to spend time in the woods, away from her daily life, but she dreamed of adventure, of freedom, of everything beyond the gates of the estate and the doors of the carriage. A boring cabin did not suffice.

This year she had dreaded coming to this place in particular. This was the first holiday since her mom had died, and her father had convinced her they had to go on holiday this year, regardless of what happened.

She picked up the book she had planned to read. It contained mostly pictures and just a few paragraphs of text, but it was one of her favourites. It was about a young witch who travelled the world and helped people with her magic. Lucy was certain she would one day see the world and all its wonders. She was convinced that all the myths in her favourite fantasy books contained a grain of truth, and that all the things she had read about could certainly have happened and happen again.

She would never forget the day she learned that magic was real, and not just something limited to her books and fantasy. Her mother had left her a magic key, one capable of letting a mermaid appear in any body of water the key touched. Lucy had always loved that her mother could use magic. If her mermaid was real, then so were the dragons in her books. Right?

She was violently dragged out of her headspace by a sudden standstill of the wagon and was thrown forwards because of the loss of momentum. She shrieked as her head hit the floor. She immediately reached for it to see if she was bleeding.

She heard her father and the driver cursing outside, followed by hurried footsteps.

"Lucy!" her father let out as he swung the door open, "are you hurt?"

Tears welled up in her eyes and she silently nodded as she rubbed the forming bruise on her head.

"You better get this wagon moving again!" he yelled at the driver as he turned around again, without batting another eye at his daughter.

Lucy stared at the open door. For a second, she had felt her heart jump. Her father barely ever made eye contact with her, let alone talk to her in a way that expressed concern. But she had been too hopeful. He was gone again.

Beyond the door was the endless forest that they were currently crossing. Lucy couldn't even fathom how deep the sea of trees would go. Would it go for miles? Hundreds of miles? Maybe even thousands.

She stood up and leaned outside the door to see what had caused the sudden stop. A fresh breeze of petrichor prickled her nose. As she looked around, she noticed one of the front wheels had snapped in half.

Lucy was just a seven-year-old, but she was smart enough to understand this could not be fixed by themselves. They needed help.

She set her eyes on the treetops, trying to spot chimney smoke that could reveal a village. Finding a village would mean a craftsman who could help them fix the wheel. She couldn't see any, but she was convinced the change in the height of the trees in the distance could point towards houses.

Determined, she jumped down on the soggy soil and let her eyes adjust to the bright sunlight.

She looked back once more, and to her dismay, her father was still scolding the driver, and the horses had started to become restless. Lucy turned around and disappeared into the foliage.

It didn't take long for the forest to swallow her whole. She was too short to see what was beyond her, but she just kept going forward, scratching herself on bushes and getting stuck on prickly branches. Little did she know she wasn't walking a straight line and not even slightly towards the next point of civilisation.

As soon as she realised that she had passed the very same rock twice, panic started to rise up within her. She was lost.

"Dad?!" she yelled frantically as she felt her heartbeat speed up. "Dad, where are you?!"

The more she yelled, the more she could feel a presence lurking. It didn't take long before she knew she wasn't alone anymore, and she held her tongue. The bushes not too far from her started to rustle and she ducked away behind a tree.

She could hear light steps crunching the leaves on the forest floor, so she carefully peeked around the tree to catch a glimpse of what had been keeping an eye on her.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief when she found herself standing face to face with a small roe deer.

"Don't scare me like that," she giggled.

The animal gave her a questioning look and took a step closer. Lucy had always dreamed of seeing a deer from up close and she took her chance to reach out her hand and touch it.

Just before her hand reached its nose, it snarled, revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth.

She shrieked and pulled her hand back. It was only now that she realised the creature had glowing red eyes.

A shiver went down her spine and she found herself feeling as if she was nailed to the ground in fear.

The animal growled and readied itself to launch forward towards her. She turned around as fast as she could. She ran and ran, but she knew it was futile. The agile deer would catch up to her in no time.

A million thoughts went through her mind. She should have never wandered off alone! Now her father was going to be even more alone, and she would never go on all the adventures she had dreamed of.

Tears of fear and frustration streamed down her face. This was it, she thought, shielding her face from branches as she ran.

"Leave her alone!" a sudden voice yelled, and Lucy felt a scorching source of heat burn behind her back, followed by a screech from the monster.

She jumped forward, landing in a pile of sticks and leaves.

A little boy around her age stood between her and the creature. From the back, she couldn't make out his face, but his hair had a striking shade of soft pink, and he was wearing a long, white scarf that shimmered a little in the light that peeked through the treetops.

"Get lost!" he screamed. The creature was visibly surprised by whatever had caused the sudden heat. It lowered its head and raised the fur on his withers, growling at them and readying itself to attack again.

The little boy turned around. "Are you okay?"

His eyes were an odd shade of green, and the combination of his torn clothes and worn-down shoes suggested he had spent a lot of time in the forest. There was something entrancing about his overall presence. His glare had a fiery glow, as if a fire was burning behind his eyes.

She nodded despite the pain of the fall, wiping the tearstains off her face.

The boy turned around once more and readied himself to attack the monster.

Lucy could feel the heat again and realised it was emitting from the boy himself. Her eyes shimmered in disbelief as he summoned flames from his hands. She was shocked to find that his fingers didn't appear quite human, they resembled that of a reptile: scaley and pointy. His nails were so long, that they almost looked like claws.

It wasn't some magic trick or some hidden tinsel he had lit; this was real magic.

"Just what on earth are you?" she asked so quietly she was certain he couldn't hear her.

"My name is Natsu," he said, surprising Lucy with his sense of hearing. "I'm a dragonslayer."

He let out a low, rumbling scream that almost resembled a roar before jumping forward and punching the animal with a fiery fist.

She gazed at him in awe. All of her daydreams and books suddenly became reality. "You slay dragons?"

The creature shrieked in pain and left, whimpering with its tail between its legs.

"Well… not exactly…" he said as he rubbed the back of his head, his hand still smoldering. It left his hair sizzling a bit at his touch. "I fight bad people. I love dragons."

She tilted her head. "Then why do you call yourself a slayer of dragons then?"

"Argh, I just am, okay?!" he let out, ''my dad taught me this!"

"Is your father a dragonslayer too?" Lucy kept asking more questions. This was her first time meeting a mage other than her mother and everything about him fascinated her.

He rolled his eyes, visibly getting tired of talking. "No, he is a dragon."

"That's impossible, dragons have been extinct for ages!" Lucy exclaimed. All her books told her that dragons had once roaming the earth, but they haven't been sighted for hundreds of years.

"You're wrong!" he screamed at her, louder than intended. He immediately regretted his action when Lucy startled, stumbling back a few steps.

An awkward silence followed.

He crouched down next to her. The smell of burnt hair and fabric prickled her nostrils.

"Those will turn into some nasty bruises," he said, studying the red spots on her knees. "You'll be fine though!"

"What about these cuts?" she said, holding up her scratched-up arm.

He shrugged. "Dunno. They'll heal up eventually."

"What were you doing here all alone anyway?" he asked. "Don't you know these woods have dangerous monsters lurking around?"

"My father's cart broke. A wheel snapped in half, and I thought I could look for a carpenter in the nearest village…'' she said, now realising how naive her idea sounded.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're not gonna find a village for a long time."

Tears pricked behind her eyes. Of course she wouldn't find a village here in the middle of nowhere! She had acted in a rush, and now she was hurt, her father was probably worried out of his mind, and a complete stranger had to come to her rescue.

"Do you know someone who can help us?" she asked, feeling a tear escape the corner of her eye. "Please?"

He scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes as he seemed to focus really hard on something. "Hmm, someone who can fix a wheel…" he murmured.

His eyes lit up. "I know a mage called Laki! She's in the same guild as I am," he said. "She can make wooden objects appear out of thin air. I'm sure she can fix it!''

"Magic like that really exists?" Lucy let out in disbelief. "Guild mages really are something else."

"Did you grow up underneath a rock or something? We mages are not that rare."

"I— I know…" she admitted shyly, "it's just that I rarely get to see other people…"

"What do you mean? Don't you live with other kids?"

She looked away, pretending to be distracted by the scrapes on her knees.

"I live alone... with my dad," she said. "You're the first kid I've seen in a long time."

"How about you join my guild?" he asked, smiling brightly. "You'll have lots of fun!"

Lucy quickly wiped the tears off her face, leaving dirt stains on her cheeks. Her heart made a little jump at the thought of meeting other mage kids like herself. Her imagination instantly took her to a building full of unrestrained kids, just having fun and practicing their magic. She could totally see herself among them, going on adventures, never worrying about the burden called the future.

Her heart sank back into her chest again. The future.

"I can't…"

He tilted his head like a cat trying to understand an unknown sound.

"My job is to represent the Heartfilia family when I grow up," she said. "My dad wants me to only be educated at home and not be influenced by the outside world."

He snorted in disgust. "What a killjoy. Just run away from home then."

Natsu expected an answer, but only silence followed. He too now realised how trapped she literally was.

"Your cart must have stranded somewhere around the eastern entrance of the forest," he concluded all of a sudden as he jumped back onto his feet again. "I can send some people from my guild there to help, don't worry."

"You know how to find the way back?" she asked, surprised he knew so much about navigating.

"Of course!" he said with his nose high in the air. He looked down at her and reached out a hand.

"Wow!" She took his hand to get on her feet again as well. His hand felt very warm. She wondered if his inner fire was the cause. "How do you know where I came from?"

He tapped the side of his nose and grinned, showing off small fangs. "Dragon sense of smell."


A few days passed and Natsu arrived at the guildhall for the first time in weeks.

He had spent days in his tiny, self-built home planning out his strategy to find his father. However, no matter how much he had tried to focus on his search, his thoughts kept snapping back to the encounter he had had in the forest the other day.

Reluctantly, he had dragged himself to the door he was now standing in front of. It was not he didn't like the people here; it was just that he felt like he was so close to finally finding his father that every activity other than searching and eating seemed absolutely meaningless.

However, there was just one thing he wanted to know before his mind would calm down again.

He opened the door and scanned the area around him for a tiny, lilac-haired mage that was usually hanging around at this time of the day.

It didn't take long for him to spot her. She was chatting with Lisanna and Elfman, probably inventing new words on the spot again. He waved at Lisanna and Elfman, who enthusiastically waved back.

"Hey, Laki! Did you manage to fix that wheel the other day?'' he asked as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah, that was a fun request!" she replied, her eyes lighting up as she recalled the job. "I got to make a beautiful wheel with little effort and the man rewarded me with many metal circles."

Natsu looked her dead in the eye. "Coins, Laki. They're called coins."

"He had a little daughter around our age," she continued, completely ignoring his correction. "It's a shame Mest had to erase some parts of her memory though."

Natsu felt his blood run cold. ''I thought Mest just came along to transport you?''

She shook her head. "Gramps urged us to wipe the client's memory of the mages they interacted with. It had something to do with it being a prestigious family or something and us just being kids. It could give us a bad reputation if important people knew the kids here also made money."

The mages they interacted with. The words resounded through his head. For some reason it made him really sad that the girl he met would never remember their meeting.

He looked at the empty spot on the bench on his opposite side. It was only now that he realised why he had been so bothered by the whole incident all these days:

That spot should have been hers.