Disclaimer: I do not own Fairytail.
Summary: This is Natsu's first day at kindergarten and he's pretty excited. Unfortunately, his school life doesn't go quite like he hoped.
Warning: Bullying, and Zeref's a jerk sometimes.
Natsu was cheerfully walking home from his first day at kindergarten and he'd had a pretty good day. On his way out of the school. Natsu ran into a boy named Happy. Literally. "Oh, sorry." Natsu said hurriedly. He didn't want Happy to think he'd done it on purpose or anything.
"What was that for?" Happy growled.
"Oh, it was an accident! I didn't mean to bump into you."
"Yeah right, you did that on purpose!" he exclaimed.
"No, I didn't. I'm sorry, but I have to go home now. My parents are waiting in the car." Natsu started to walk passed Happy, but Happy stuck out his foot and tripped poor, poor, Natsu. Natsu cried out and fell to the floor with a bang.
"Oops, sorry. It was an accident." Happy said mockingly. Natsu frowned. "What, did it hurt?" he teased. "Is the poor little baby hurt?" Tears started to fill Natsu's eyes. "Oh, the little baby's going to cry now! C'mon little baby cry!" Natsu jumped to his feet and ran. He was crying but he wouldn't let Happy have the satisfaction of knowing that.
Natsu recomposed himself before he went to his mom and dad's car… well, just his dad's now. His mother had died in child birth. His dad didn't blame him. but Natsu blamed himself enough for the both of them. Natsu climbed in the car. "How was your day." His dad asked.
"Pretty good." It wasn't a total lie. It had been good until the very end. His 15-year-old brother sat beside him in the back seat. Neither of them ever rode in the front. That was mom's seat. Igneel, Natsu's dad, believed him. his brother, Zeref, did not.
"What did you do?" their dad asked.
"Um… well, we did some arts and crafts. And I colored in a picture! And then we ate lunch, then we went and played… when we came back in we drew a picture of the most fun thing we did over the summer… oh, and I wrote my name on it! It didn't look like you or Zeref's writing though." Natsu said. He'd been a little disappointed that his words weren't tight and neat like Zeref's or scribbling that somehow looked beautiful like his father's. Natsu's writing had just looked like… a shapeless blob.
"Well, you just have to practice." His dad said. "Anything else?"
"Um… no." Natsu lied.
"What about you Zeref? How was your day."
"Fine." Zeref said shortly. Their father didn't pry. That was one sure way to get Zeref irritated. When his brother first got home from school he tended to be rather snappish. Natsu had learned to avoid him for about an hour. Instead, he and his dad played dragons while Zeref was busy brooding in his room.
The next day Natsu went to school albeit reluctantly. Much like yesterday Happy picked on him. teased him, called him names, said Natsu's picture was stupid. "If you don't stop I'm telling teacher!" Natsu said, glaring at Happy.
"Ooo, looks like we have a tattle tail on our hands!" Happy exclaimed. Natsu narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"… Tattle… tail?" he asked. he didn't know what that meant but it must be bad because the other children were sniggering. Natsu felt himself start to tear-up again but he pushed them back and stared back down at his drawing. He had to admit it was a little lop-sided. And they did look kind of like scribbles. He looked over at the other children's. they weren't great either, but they were better than his. Natsu bit his lip and kept drawing, trying to be better and more careful this time. Occasionally a child would look over at his work and snigger.
"Hey, would all of you just leave him alone." a blonde girl said. She looked pretty in Natsu's opinion. And then he reminded himself that girls had cooties. Natsu took a peek over at the blonde's drawing. Hers was one of the best. Natsu felt captivated by it. He looked at his drawing then at the blonde's, and then Natsu felt like crying again. Natsu's drawing didn't get any better and Natsu was left with what looked more like lots of scribbles than a dragon like what he'd been going for.
Later, after lunch Natsu was out on the playground but he wasn't friends with anyone in his class. And he didn't know anybody else. Natsu was lonely and sighed as he sat there and drew his knees up to his chest. Happy, after making fun of his pink hair, left in favor of swinging from the monkey bars. Natsu sat on the grass and pulled handfuls of it out of the dirt. It was something to do. he would've gone and played but to be honest he knew someone would just push him off the jungle gym.
After that they started learning the alphabet. Natsu was trying to write it so it was legible, but he couldn't make any of the letters look like the letters the teacher had written on the board. Natsu looked at his letters then the ones on the board. "C comes after b not d, you pink freak." Happy told him. Natsu scrunched his brows together. He had written a c!
"That is a c." Natsu defended himself. How could he get it wrong when the teacher had written it on the board!
"Oh, I couldn't read it." Happy said. Natsu slumped into his seat. He knew his hand-writing was bad but Happy's wasn't exactly peachy either. Natsu wanted to cry again. that was the third time that day! Natsu never wanted to come back to kindergarten. Not ever! It was a horrible place!
"That's because you can't read." The blonde told Happy. "And didn't I tell you to leave him alone!" she said.
"I don't have to do what you tell me Loopy!"
"My name's Lucy!" the newly named Lucy growled. The two glared at each other before they both looked away at the same time. Natsu went back to doing his alphabet.
At the end of class their teacher gave them their drawing and their alphabet back to them and told them to show their parents. All of them had a gold star but it was obvious which ones actually deserved it. Natsu walked with his head hung to his parents car and climbed in the back seat. "How was your day?" his dad asked. Natsu managed a shaky smile when his father looked into the rearview mirror.
"It was great daddy." Natsu said. When his father returned to looking out the front window Natsu let the smile drop and snuggled up to his brother. Zeref flashed him an annoyed look and pushed Natsu off. Natsu sighed and turned to look out his window. A few tears dropped but he didn't allow himself to make a single noise.
When they got home, much like Zeref did Natsu just walked up to his room. He closed the door softly and then started crying into his pillow. About ten minutes later he was done and went to go show his dad and brother his work in progress. His daddy was making dinner in the kitchen. "Daddy look!" Natsu said, holding out the papers. His father dried his hands with a towel and then took the papers from Natsu.
"Why what's this? Did you make it in class?" Natsu nodded. Igneel squinted at his alphabet. "This is great honey. I can tell you worked really hard. And did you draw this?" now his father was looking at the drawing he'd done earlier that morning. "Now what's this supposed to be?" he asked.
"Guess." Natsu said. Igneel visibly paled and then looked back at the drawing, scrunching his face up in concentration. As the silence went on Natsu's heart started to sink.
"Give me a hint." Igneel said. Natsu sighed. he knew it. If the drawing was good, then his father wouldn't need a hint.
"It's a dragon." Natsu said. Igneel blinked and then looked back at the picture.
"Oh yes! Now that you said that I can see it! It's really good sweetheart! And look you got a gold star. Gold stars mean you did really great!" Igneel said.
"Everyone got a gold star." Natsu said flatly.
"Well then that means everyone did great! You should go show these works of art to your brother." Natsu thought about it and then figured his brother couldn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
Natsu climbed the stairs and knocked on his brother's door. He had to. It was one of Zeref's rules. "Come in." a calm voice said. Natsu walked into his brother's room. It was tidy with black everywhere. Black walls black bedding. Basically, the only thing that wasn't black was the carpet. And even then Zeref had a black rug over it. All of Zeref's clothes were black too. Igneel had said Zeref was going through a phase. Natsu didn't think it was a phase. Zeref looked like he'd die at the mere sight of color. So of course, Zeref hated Natsu's hair. It wasn't that it was pink, it was just that it wasn't black or dark brown. Zeref would've hated it if his hair was blonde too. He also didn't like it because it was their mother's hair color. Natsu had never met her but from the pictures and stories he'd heard, she seemed very nice. Natsu also thought Zeref might resent him because he blamed Natsu for her death. After all, even Natsu knew that if he hadn't been born that she would still be with them.
"Zeref." Natsu said walking in.
"What is it?" Zeref was staring at his phone and he hadn't once looked up. Natsu gulped and climbed on Zeref's bed. Zeref scowled at him for a moment before turning back to the screen. "What do you want, pipsqueak?"
"I'm not a pipsqueak, meanie!" Natsu exclaimed. Zeref didn't say anything. "Look!" Natsu said handing Zeref his papers. Zeref blinked at them.
"They look like blobs to me." Zeref said flatly. Natsu sighed. he knew it. Although coming from Zeref, it didn't sound as mean as when Happy had been saying it. He said it like he said anything else. He said it like a fact.
"Then why'd I get a gold star?" Natsu demanded.
"Because every teenager knows they have to butter you up, tell you that you can do anything, give you gold stars, and then tear down your dreams because school is just that sadistic." Zeref said flatly. Natsu blinked.
"… Sadistic?" he asked.
"Cruel, mean, whatever you kindergarteners call it." Natsu stared at his brother. He didn't know his brother had such dark thoughts all the time. Although, if his choice of bedroom décor and attitude was anything to go by, Natsu really should've seen this coming.
"Zeref did you ever… are kids mean to you?" Zeref glanced at him.
"Why do you ask?" Natsu stared at his feet.
"I don't know, just wondering, I guess." Zeref sighed and looked back at his phone.
"Well I'm not exactly popular." He grumbled. "But I have my clique like anyone else in that forsaken place." Natsu didn't understand half of those words but nodded like he understood anyway. Basically, the answer he was getting was a yes said in a Zeref-like way. "Are you sure there's no reason you're asking?"
"Well… nobody at my school likes me. I don't have any friends yet. And compared to everyone else I'm horrible at writing and I'm horrible at drawing. Nobody will ever be my friend…" Natsu trailed off and stared at his feet, dangling off the side of the bed.
"I see. I wondered why you were crying on the drive home."
Natsu had thought he'd hid it well! "How did you know?" Natsu cried.
"It honestly wasn't hard. Even dad noticed. He's worried about you. What's the kid who's been teasing you named?"
"Happy." Natsu said.
"Well that's a stupid name." Zeref said. Natsu snorted. That had honestly been his first thought. And then he'd been mad at himself because those were mean thoughts. Just then Igneel called the two down for dinner and the two left the room together.
The next day was filled with relentless teasing and to make it worse he didn't know where his dad's car was at the end of the day. Natsu was searching all over the place. He started imagining the worst-case scenarios. His father got into a car accident, kidnapped, caught in a burning building started by dragons, etc. "Natsu!" Natsu's head whipped around with his brother there. Natsu ran to him, relieved.
"… wait." Natsu said as he reached his brother. He looked around with a frown. "Where's daddy?"
"He had to work late so he told me to come and pick you up. We'll walk home."
"See ya later, pink freak!" Happy called from across the playground. Natsu sighed and looked down at his feet. He could feel tears threatening to fall again. maybe he was just a pink freak.
"Come on. Let's go home." Zeref said softly as he guided Natsu toward the sidewalk.
"Why don't they like me?" Natsu asked as they walked.
"I don't know." Zeref said. Natsu glanced at him.
"Why don't you like me?" he asked. Zeref answered without even the slightest hesitation.
"Because you killed her." Natsu's eyes filled with more tears. He couldn't even bring himself to defend himself. He couldn't even find it in himself to be mad. Zeref hadn't meant it as an insult. He'd meant it as a fact. He always meant something as a fact. Still Natsu found himself shaking. He was bad at kindergarten and he'd hurt those he'd loved just by being born. He probably was a mistake. He should never have been born. That's when Natsu dropped to his knees and started sobbing. He didn't even care about the pain in his knees anymore. For all he knew, he deserved it and more. Zeref, who was not keen on wasting time, scooped Natsu up in his arms and started walking again.
Natsu clutched Zeref's shirt like a lifeline, his legs wrapped around his brothers mid-section. His brother had one arm supporting his legs and the other wrapped around his back. They had a long walk back home, so thankfully Natsu had a long time to calm down. "There's nothing to cry about." Zeref told him as he rubbed comforting circles on the small of his back. "Why does no one like me?" he whispered. Zeref didn't respond. Natsu waited. Zeref always responded, usually to tell him some snarky answer as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Dad likes you. He loves you." Zeref said finally. Natsu sniffed. That didn't mean anything. It was his daddy. He meant other kids, like Happy.
"I mean kids." Natsu said.
"Maybe you smell." Zeref said dryly. Natsu subtly sniffed himself. Nope, nothing. Natsu yawned quietly and closed his eyes. He was exhausted after his long day of worrying about stupid things and people liking him.
"I don't smell." He told Zeref sleepily.
"Really? Because you reek of depression." Zeref said. Natsu didn't know what that meant either, but he figured it was something snarky. Natsu laid his head down on Zeref shoulder and curled up in his arms. "Why did I have to get stuck with a freak like you as a brother?" Zeref said with a sigh.
"I may be a freak, but you love me." Natsu said quietly. He wasn't actually sure about that though, did Zeref love him? if he did, he sure had a funny way of showing it.
"Yeah, I guess I do." Zeref said.
When they reached the house Zeref set Natsu down on the couch. Natsu curled up and took a nap.
Natsu woke up soon after when Zeref told him to get up before he drop-kicked him to the dining room table. That got Natsu moving quickly. "Ah, my son's adorable while sleeping." Igneel said with a grin. Natsu scowled.
"I am not adorable." He grumbled.
"Oh, of course not. You're my tough little dragon." Natsu pouted. Igneel always called Natsu that. It was one of his more personalized nicknames. Natsu thought it was unfair. His dad didn't call Zeref anything but by his name or sometimes son. Why did he have to get called such demeaning nicknames? Natsu was a tough dragon! Not little!
Over the course of the next few days Igneel worked late and the teasing got worse and worse. "Hey, what're you doing out here alone." a dark-haired kid asked. "I'm Gray, by the way." He said.
"That rhymes." Natsu said.
"Huh, I didn't notice. So, you wanna play?" he asked. Natsu's head shot up. Maybe this was a trick. Natsu had seen Gray hang around Happy sometimes.
"Hey Gray, you don't want to play with pink freak!" one boy jeered on the playground.
"Yeah, come play with us! Pink freak has cooties!" one girl said. Natsu's shoulders slumped. There went his shot at making one friend.
"Pink freak?" Gray asked, not seeming to make the connections. "Oh…" he said finally. "It's because you have pink hair."
"You're not the brightest of the bunch, are you?" Natsu grumbled. "Oh, and it's salmon." Gray scowled at him.
"Hey! I'm plenty smart!" he cried. "You're just jealous because you don't have a brain in that hollow head of yours!" Gray said. All at once Gray thwacked his forehead. "I can hear it echo in there." He heard children from the playground laugh. Natsu glared.
"I didn't think smart was in your voca- voca…" Natsu trailed off.
"Vocabulary?" Gray asked.
"Yeah, vocabulary!" Natsu cried. Gray smirked.
"Well I'm not the idiot who doesn't even have the word vocabulary in my vocabulary." Natsu flushed red. Why did Gray even have to come over? Natsu was perfectly happy before he did! Natsu crossed his arms and looked at the floor. He felt tears coming to his eyes again. he couldn't seem to do anything right.
"Yeah little pink freak, cry!" Happy jeered. Gray stared at him for a moment and then gave Happy a scalding look.
"You aren't exactly normal yourself! You have blue hair after all! So, you can just shut up!"
"Yeah, but pink's a girl color!" Happy teased. Natsu felt a hand grab his arm and drag him away.
"Don't listen to them." Gray said. "Come on, meet my friends." Gray said. When they reached their intended destination Natsu saw 2 others. Lucy and a redhead. Natsu stared at them. Gray and Lucy were popular and Erza, the redhead was a year older than them. Natsu sniffed as he looked at them. "Hey guys, this is my new friend Natsu." Gray said. Natsu glanced at him. hadn't they just been fighting a moment ago and now Gray was calling Natsu his friend? The two girls waved with smiles on their faces.
"Hey, you're that kid!" Lucy exclaimed. Natsu was glad to know that to her, he was that kid.
"Yep… it's me." Natsu said weakly.
"It's good to meet you." Erza said. Natsu nodded and sighed. this was already exhausting.
Soon, the four of them became inseparable and school got easier. Natsu was writing a bit better and drawing better too! He made friends with Jellal, who was also a year older, and Loke, one of the few boys who didn't believe that girls had cooties and was perfectly happy chasing after them at recess, trying to get a kiss on the cheek. He'd eventually gotten one from every girl he'd chased except Erza because she gave him a black eye.
Now it was Monday and it was the worst day he'd had. It even topped the first day. Happy teased him mercilessly, he got all the answers wrong to the questions the teacher asked. and now he was getting kicked by Happy and his goons. Tears streamed down Natsu's face. He didn't know why Happy hated him so much. All he could do was sob.
At the end of school Natsu walked toward Zeref. Their father had to work late again. Natsu ran to him and threw himself at Zeref and started sobbing. "What is it?" Zeref asked.
"My arms and stomach hurt!" Natsu cried into Zeref's shirt. Zeref rolled his eyes.
"Stop doing that at once, you'll ruin my uniform." Zeref said curtly and jerked Natsu away. His eyes softened when he saw Natsu's face littered with large crocodile tears. "Shh." He said, gently running his fingers through Natsu's hair. "It is alright." He said. Natsu thought Zeref's eyes flashed a dangerous red, but that must've been a trick of the light. However, it still looked freaking scary in Natsu's opinion. "Who did this to you?" Zeref's voice was low and dangerous. Natsu gulped.
"H-Happy." He said, truly unsure of whether or not Zeref was about to kill Happy.
"It's that blue-haired twerp, right?" Natsu nodded. Zeref looked around before he seemed to spot the "twerp". Zeref took Natsu's hand and marched right over there. Natsu noticed there was a dark-haired man next to Happy. He looked too young to be Happy's father. Natsu figured it was Happy's brother here to pick him up. Just like Natsu's brother was here. "Lilly!" Zeref growled as he walked over. Natsu figured that was the dark-haired man's name. he was as tall as ten Natsu's. and he towered over Zeref. "Is this your brother?" he asked, pointing at Happy.
"Yep, and I'm assuming that." Lilly pointed to Natsu. "Is the pink freak my brother's been telling me about." Zeref's scowl only deepened. "Woah, no need to look so sour Spriggan." Natsu glanced up at his brother. Was this his brother's nickname at school? Like he was pink freak? Natsu didn't even know what a Spriggan was.
"What's a Spriggan?" Natsu piped up.
"Nothing!" Zeref said quickly with some of the most emotion that Natsu had ever seen out of him.
"It's an ugly fairy. Spiteful little things." Lilly said. Zeref clenched his fists.
"Well, all I was going to say was that'd I'd appreciate it if your brat of a brother would stop punching mine!" Zeref growled. Lilly rolled his eyes.
"Aw c'mon, the kid needs to toughen up a little, right bud." Lilly punched Happy in the arm. Happy gave him a big smile and nodded. When Lilly turned back Natsu saw Happy grimace and rub his arm. Natsu wrinkled his nose. Natsu was glad he and his brother didn't have that kind of relationship. Zeref had never so much as thwacked him on the back of the head. He preferred to keep to himself, and was usually very calm and expressionless, which was why his outburst was so uncalled for. Natsu wondered if Zeref was sick or something.
"Tell your brother to leave mine alone." Zeref said slowly. Natsu noticed the rage hidden just beneath his calm exterior. Natsu frowned. Maybe Zeref just didn't show emotion around other people, and that's why he was so blank all the time. Maybe Zeref cried at night, just like he did.
"And what're you going to do if I don't?" Lilly asked challengingly. Natsu looked back and forth between the two. Zeref looked so enraged Natsu half expected Lilly to just drop dead from the feeling of pure hatred radiating off Zeref. Natsu was pretty sure this resentment went deeper than his brother simply picking on Natsu.
"Fine!" Zeref snarled. "If you won't do it, I will." He turned his enraged eyes to Happy. As expected Happy had already seemed to shrink to the size of an ant. "You leave my brother alone, you here? Or I swear kid, I will string you by your toes in the middle of my room and curse you, capeesh!" he growled. Happy nodded quickly and Zeref straightened up. Lilly was glaring at Zeref. "Go ahead, hit me and get dragged away by the police. Suddenly Zeref's expression morphed into one that sent shivers up Natsu's spine. His expression became a devious smirk. Now Natsu was sure Zeref's eyes flashed red. "It worked last time, didn't it?" Lilly growled.
"Come on Happy. S-sorry. I didn't know pink fr- er… Natsu was your brother." Lilly said and ran off. Zeref's eyes never left him, nor did he blink until Lilly was out of sight. Finally, the expression slid off Zeref's face and in it's place was the emotionless one again.
"Come Natsu, let's go." Natsu stared up at his brother in amazement.
"Wow, you were awesome. I was so scared!" Natsu cried. Zeref gave him the tiniest of smiles and rubbed Natsu's head.
"As you should've been." Zeref said. "I don't think Happy will be giving you anymore trouble." Natsu nodded enthusiastically. He didn't think so either. In the middle of walking home Zeref had to carry Natsu again because Natsu got tired.
"Zeref, why don't you like me?"
"Didn't I already tell you why?" Zeref said irritably. Natsu sighed.
"It's just, with the way you were acting earlier when I told you Happy hit me, you looked so mad I thought… maybe you started to like me a bit. Or care about me, or something. It was stupid, I shouldn't have asked… sorry." He said quietly his head drooping on Zeref's shoulder again. Zeref rubbed his back and kissed his head.
"I do care for you Natsu. I just do it in my own little way." Yeah, the Zeref way. Natsu smiled slightly and started closing his eyes. "You know Natsu, you're adorable when you're not being an annoying little brat." Zeref said. Natsu rolled his eyes.
"Gee, thanks." He said sarcastically with a sigh.
"Like right now." Zeref said. Natsu nodded and finally fell asleep to the rhythmic clacking of Zeref's shoes on concrete.
Zeref finally reached the house and opened it up. Igneel was already home, so he couldn't have stayed too much later at work. Igneel smiled at them. "You two are adorable. Wait! I'm going to get a picture." He cried. Zeref's eyes went slightly devious.
"Wake up maggot!" Zeref yelled in Natsu's ear. Natsu cried out and jumped up.
"Aw… you ruined the moment!" Igneel whined. Zeref shrugged and started going upstairs. Natsu smiled at Igneel.
"Hi daddy." He said. Igneel smiled.
"My youngest son!" he cried. "Hello!"
"Bye daddy!" Natsu cried, running up the stairs. Igneel blinked after him. when had his little kindergartener become so grown up, and more importantly, like Zeref? Igneel blinked, and then started worrying. Was Zerefitis contagious? He sure hoped not. Igneel still had a need to smile!
A/N I'm pretty happy how this one turned so, thanks for reading, reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated!