age eight

.

"Your map is upside down, dumbass."

Natsu jumps, looking up from the paper in his hands for the source of the voice. It's a boy, about his age, sitting on the ground by a nearby tree, knees against his chest with his arms wrapped around them. He's got a bloody lip and looks like he's been crying.

"That's a grownup word," Natsu says seriously, staring at the boy.

"I'm eight," the boy scoffs. "I can say whatever I want." He sniffs and wipes his nose with his sleeve.

"Why are you crying?" Natsu asks, and the boy scowls at him.

"'m not."

"Yes you are."

"I'm not!" The boy's voice wobbles, and his face turns blotchier as he shouts at Natsu, then hides his face in his arms. "Go 'way," he mumbles.

Natsu stares at the boy for a minute, then folds the map in half and shoves it in his back pocket. He moves closer, sitting down nearby and opening his backpack.

"My uncle made cookies," he says, pulling out a sandwich bag. "They're really good."

The boy peeks up, eyes red, and when Natsu holds out one of the cookies, he slowly takes it. "Thanks."

They sit in silence and eat their cookies, and eventually the boy stops crying. "I'm Gray," he says quietly.

"I'm Natsu."

"That's a funny name."

"You're a funny name," Natsu retorts, sticking his tongue out at Gray. "Why're you bleeding?"

Gray scowls. "My brother."

"He hit you?" Natsu's eyes widen. "That's mean."

"He's a jerk," Gray says, but he doesn't sound quite as angry as before, and he quickly adds, "Sometimes."

"My sister is a jerk sometimes too," Natsu says, poking at a caterpillar that's making its way across the grass between them. "But she never hit me."

"Lyon's sad," Gray mumbles as he presses his forehead to his knees again. "He didn't mean it."

"Why's he sad?"

"None of your business."

"Why are you sad?"

"I'm not."

Natsu frowns at Gray, who ignores him, digging a trench in the dirt by his foot instead. His fingernails are dirty, and the back of his hand has a stripe of blood across it. A silver bracelet that's a bit too big for him hangs off his wrist and Natsu wants to ask about it, but he doesn't.

Instead, he pulls the crumpled map out of his pocket and spreads it out between them. "I'm not dumb," he says. "I just got lost."

"It's because you're going the wrong way," Gray says, peering at the map. "North's that way." He points back to the direction that Natsu had come from.

"Nuh-uh," Natsu says, shaking his head. "North is up. See?" He points to the arrows on the map – the one labelled 'N' is pointing toward the top of the paper.

"That's not how it works," Gray says, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, where's the north star?" Natsu demands, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Gray.

"That's not—"

"It's up," Natsu insists. He tips his head back and looks up into the sky – it's getting dark and he should probably get home before his dad gets worried. "I'm gonna climb that tree."

"That's not north," Gray insists, but Natsu ignores him, standing up and studying the tree. It's a big one with sturdy limbs that are good for climbing, and Natsu easily wriggles up onto the lowest branch.

"Bet I can climb faster than you," he says, turning back to Gray and sticking his tongue out.

"No way," Gray says, and he finally stands up. He's a little taller than Natsu and his jeans have a hole in the knee.

"Race ya," Natsu says, grinning and pulling himself up onto the next branch. He's small but quick, and by the time he gets as high as he can, Gray's lagging behind him, having covered only half the distance. When Gray gets close Natsu reaches out a hand to help him, but Gray stubbornly ignores it.

"No fair," Gray grumbles when he finally makes it to the branch Natsu's on. "You had a head start."

"I still would've beat you," Natsu insists, but he shuffles over to make room for Gray. The branch is thick enough to hold both of them, and the leaves in front of them part just enough to give them a view of the sun setting over the mountains in the distance.

"Look," Natsu says, pointing just past the mountains into the slowly darkening sky. Some of the stars are already visible and he gestures to a group of them. "That's Little Bear, and that's the North star. My uncle told me."

Gray looks along Natsu's finger and nods as he kicks his feet. "I know," he says. "So that way's north." He points straight outward in a line toward the stars. "Not up."

Natsu's about to argue when someone calls his name from down in the forest. "Uh oh," he whispers to Gray. "That's my sister Erza. She's twelve and kinda scary."

"Natsu!" Erza shouts again. "Where are you?"

Natsu makes a face, swinging down off the branch and balancing on the next one. "I gotta go," he says. "Maybe we can play tomorrow?"

Gray gives him a small smile and nods. "Sure," he says, "but I get to draw the map."

When Natsu clambers up the tree the next day, Gray is already there.

"What're you doin' up here?" Natsu asks, squirming up through a tangle of leaves until he's straddling the branch. Gray doesn't answer. He's tucked in near the tree trunk where the branch spreads just enough to make a small seat, and his knees are pulled to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs.

"Did your brother hit you again?" Natsu asks, frowning. Gray shakes his head, wiping his face with his sleeve and refusing to look up. "Are you sick?" Another shake of the head. Natsu chews his lip, trying to think of things that make him upset. "Did you watch a sad movie?"

"No," Gray whispers. His voice is hoarse, like he's been yelling.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Natsu huffs. "It's not nothing. Why are you sad? Did your dad yell at—"

"My dad's dead!" Gray shouts.

Natsu startles at the anger in Gray's voice, but when it's quickly followed by a loud, anguished sob, he shuffles a little closer. Gray doesn't respond, just presses his face into his folded arms and cries, shoulders shaking and fingers digging into his sweater.

Natsu's not sure what to say. When his mom died last year, everyone told him they were sorry, and he didn't understand because it wasn't their fault. Other people said it was God's plan, which had just made Natsu angry.

Natsu doesn't want to make Gray angry or confused, so instead he tries, "You must miss him a lot." Gray doesn't respond and Natsu slides a little bit closer, still straddling the branch, until he's close enough to reach out and touch Gray's arm. At first Gray ignores him, but Natsu pokes him and eventually Gray opens his fist and lets Natsu hold his hand.

They sit like that until Gray's sobs peter out into sniffles, and eventually he wipes his face and pulls his hand away.

"They both died," he says quietly. "My mom and my dad."

"A long time ago?" Natsu asks.

Gray shakes his head. "Last week."

"Oh." Natsu chews his lip, staring down past his feet at the ladder of branches that spiral around the tree. "My mom died too. It sucks."

"Yeah," Gray says quietly. "It sucks."

Natsu suddenly realizes that he's wearing his backpack and shrugs it off, holding it carefully between them and opening it. "I brought cookies again," he says. "Do you want one?"

Gray looks like he might say no, but when Natsu shows him that the cookies have M&Ms in them, he takes one and starts to nibble on the edge.

"Lyon and me live with my aunty now," Gray says after a minute. "There." He points through the trees to a little green house with a big back yard and a trampoline in it.

"Can I come jump on the trampoline?" Natsu asks, bouncing on the branch. "I bet I can jump higher than you. I can jump so high I can see over the house."

"No you can't," Gray says, rolling his eyes. "That's ridiculous."

"You're riduc—ricudulus."

"Ridiculous."

"That's what I said."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did! An' I'm gonna jump way higher than you."

"No you won't," Gray insists. He's scowling, but he's not crying anymore.

"If you jump higher than me I'll let you play my Nintendo," Natsu offers. "I got Super Mario and Duck Hunt."

Gray thinks about it for a second, then nods. "'kay," he says. "But I get to be Mario."

"Only if you beat me down the tree!" Natsu shouts, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and scrambling down the branches with a grin on his face.

Natsu is faster and Gray grumbles about it the whole way to his place, but he's smiling instead of crying, and for some reason that makes Natsu feel like he did something right.