Disclaimer: I do not own Fairytail.
Summary: Zeref is eleven and being sent to daycare. He's furious about it because he thinks he can take care of himself. He's determined to have the worst day ever merely so he can complain, only, at daycare, it's harder to have the most horrible day than he thought.
"Daycare! Mom, I'm eleven!" Zeref cried. "I'm nearly all grown up!"
"You are not! As you're proving to me right now by having an outburst instead of trying to talk it over calmly with me!" his mom cried, clearly exasperated.
"But mom!" Zeref cried. "At daycare there'll only be babies… and girls!" Zeref complained.
"I won't hear another word of it. You're going to that daycare you hear me." Zeref glared.
"Mom." He said reasonably. "All the other kids at school can stay home by themselves now. If I'm the only one that goes to daycare, I'll be the laughing stock!" Zeref cried dramatically.
"Aren't already the laughing stock?" his father asked. His mother shot him a glare and Mr. Black quickly looked back down at the newspaper he was reading. His mom, then, turned to him.
"Listen, honey, I'm just worried. What if something happens? You don't know how to work the stove, or operate a gun, and every time I ask you what number the police is, you answer, 119! I'm sorry baby, I just want you to be safe, you understand, that don't you?"
"No." Zeref said stubbornly. His mother sighed.
"Well, you will when you get older." Zeref growled under his breath. He hated when adults told him he'd understand when he was older! He already was older! He wasn't a child, and he was smart and responsible, and it felt like his parents didn't trust him!
"Mom… what's the likelihood that something will happen?"
"Very slim, but what if it does? I want you to be happy, baby, but I also want you to be safe."
"Fine, whatever, do what you want!" Zeref grumbled unhappily, stomped back up to his room, and slammed the door. He knew that was childish and only proving his mother's point, but he didn't care. He was beyond reasoning.
The next day his mother had to go to work, so she was driving him to daycare. He really did NOT like his mother right now. He knew that came off as sounding like a spoiled brat, but he didn't care about that either. He just didn't like her. "Have a good day honey." His mother said as he got out of the car.
"I won't." he said glaring at her. His mother frowned.
"Do you want me to walk you up?"
"No." his mother was silent.
"Alright well… Love you honey." Zeref only glared at the ground and stomped inside the daycare. He heard his mother sigh and pull out of the parking lot.
Then, Zeref stomped up to the daycare center. He had thought about turning around and walking home but then he realized… he didn't know the way home. "Zeref! There you are." Zeref peered up at the woman.
"Who are you." He asked flatly. The woman smiled.
"My name is Anna Heartfillia, a friend of your mother's. She said you would be here today." She said. The woman had blonde hair and doe-brown eyes and she had a warm, welcoming expression on her face. Zeref instantly hated her.
It wasn't because of anything other than she made it harder for him to hate this place, so he hated her. He wanted to be able to go home and tell his mother he had a horrible day. And this woman was ruining that plan. "Oh, you're so cute!" she exclaimed. Zeref glared at the ground. He. Was. NOT. Cute. He was practically an adult already and Zeref would not tolerate being talked to like he was only three years old.
"I'm eleven, not three." He reminded her curtly. He thought this might deter her, but she only smiled.
"Oh, yes, of course. I beg your pardon, sir." She said. Zeref nodded and marched inside. That was much better. She giggled and he half-realized she was humoring him. The other half thoroughly believed her though. She was an adult. She knew everything and did everything right. She would never tease him…
The daycare looked like a place meant for babies. There were building blocks and rubber ducks. It looked like the most boring place in the world. "How long do I have to stay here?" Zeref asked.
"Until your mother comes and picks you up." Anna responded. Zeref grumbled under his breath and stomped into the room. As he'd suspected there were only babies and little girls there. Zeref couldn't believe this! He was entering Junior High in the next few months and his mother was treating him like some little baby, incapable of taking care of himself! Seriously?
So, Zeref sighed and went to go build something with some stupid blocks, all the while thinking of how he would die of boredom and then his mother would be sorry she ever sent him.
"This is so stupid." Zeref grumbled. "I can't believe their treating me like a child."
"Well then, you could stop acting like one." He heard a voice say behind him. Zeref whirled around, blocks raised as if to defend himself. Then he remembered he was at daycare. No one scary was behind him either. It was just another boy with pink hair. He looked to be a few years older than Zeref with onyx eyes. Another boy his age! Maybe he and Zeref could play!... hang out. That's what Zeref meant, hang out. Like middle schoolers do. Unfortunately, Zeref didn't have much of a filter. So, it came out wrong.
"Hey, you want to play!" Zeref asked and then clapped a hand over his mouth. "I-I mean hang out." The pink-haired boy laughed and patted him on the head.
"Mrs. Heartfillia was right. You ARE adorable." Zeref puffed out his cheeks and glared.
"I am not! I'm almost all grown up and I'm going into 6th grade once the summer ends!" Zeref knew that he acted a little young for his age and he was constantly teased for it. Zeref tried to act more grown-up but he tended to have extreme emotional reactions. Even too little things.
"Sure, we can play." The pink-haired boy said, plopping down beside him. "I'm considered a little old for playing but it can still be fun if you play with the right kind of person." Too old for playing? Zeref eyed the boy up and down.
"Just how old are you?" Zeref asked incredulously. The boy laughed.
"I'm a sophomore in high school." Natsu told him. Zeref stared at him in amazement. He was talking to a high schooler! And he'd asked him if they could play! Just how much of an idiot did Zeref insist on being in one day?
"Oh…" he said quietly. "Wait… so you still come to daycare even though you're in high school?" Zeref asked in horror. Would he still be here with the babies when he was in high school?
"Oh no, I work here. My job is to keep the babies entertained, but you looked really bored over here, so I came to talk to you." Zeref blinked and wondered if he'd indirectly been called a baby. "So, what do you want to play?"
"I want to play the leave me alone game." Zeref said, glaring at the older boy. Sure, he felt like he was talking to the wisest person on Earth, but he also felt insulted. He was NOT a baby, and this boy was totally treating him like one!
"Oh, well how do you play that?" Zeref scowled. He had not thought of that.
"It's where, you go over there." Zeref pointed to the other side of the room. "And stay over there." The boy blinked.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"I am not a baby!" Zeref growled.
"I never said you were."
"It was implied."
"No, it wasn't."
"Stop talking to me like I'm some small child who has the vocabulary of a newborn!" The boy only shook his head and sighed.
"Alright then, why don't we start over. My name is Natsu Dragneel." Said the boy. "What's yours." Zeref didn't quite make this connection.
"My what?"
"Your name." Natsu said, chuckling. Zeref flushed red and crossed his arms.
"My name is Zeref Black." Zeref said haughtily. Natsu nodded with that amused expression on his face.
"Well, now that we've started over, what do you want to play?" Natsu asked, crossing his arms. Zeref glared.
"I don't want to PLAY!" He snarled. "I said I want to hang out!"
"Oh, of course." Natsu said. "Well, since we're hanging out, what do you want to do?" Zeref didn't want to admit it, but he hadn't thought about that. He didn't even really know what hang out meant… he wasn't even sure if he wanted to know.
"Um…"
"We could hang out while building stuff with blocks. Whichever structure's better wins." Natsu said. Zeref thought about this for a moment and then nodded cautiously.
"Alright." He said. Natsu smiled.
"Okay. Ready, set, go!" he cried and they both started building rather quickly. Zeref was determined to win and prove his worth to this older boy. To show him that he was someone worth hanging out with. Zeref was rather good at building castles, so he did.
"Wait a second." Zeref said after a while. "How do we know which structure's better? Aren't we biased to our own? And if there's no time limit then this could go on forever!"
"Yeah, well, we'll get a judge, and as for time limit, just build till you think you're done, or we run out of blocks." Natsu said with a shrug.
"Isn't everyone here going to be biased to you because they know you more?
"If anything, people are going to be biased to you because you're cute." Zeref growled.
"I mean… uh… never mind." Natsu said with a small laugh. "Let's just get building!" Zeref was vaguely aware that this was the very definition of playing, but he wasn't aware enough that he saw the older boy had tricked him into playing anyhow.
So, Zeref ended up playing with Natsu all day. He hated to admit it, but he'd had fun. More fun than he would've had at home. More fun than he'd had in his entire lifetime. Zeref was an only child. He'd had to entertain himself all his life. Other kids Zeref's age thought he was weird. No one wanted to play with him or talk to him. So, Zeref was left alone. He'd never realized how much fun playing with others could really be.
Natsu wasn't the only big kid there either. Zeref also met Gray, Lucy, and Erza. He liked all of them, but they were all taking care of the babies. Or at least trying to. Zeref took better care of the babies than Gray did.
Zeref and Natsu played tag and hide and seek. They played dragons and ninjas and wizards too! Zeref hated it, but he'd had so much fun he didn't even notice that his mother was in the room, watching him have fun.
"So, how was your day?" Zeref whirled around to face his mother.
"Mom… how long have you been standing there?"
"Mm, ten minutes, why?" Darn, it was too late to pretend he'd had the worst day ever. He sighed and crossed his arms.
"I guess it wasn't the worst day ever." Zeref grumbled. His mommy laughed and pulled him into a tight hug.
"You are so sweet!" she exclaimed and kissed his forehead. "Thank you Natsu, for playing with him."
"Oh no, we weren't playing. We were hanging out." Natsu corrected her. Though everyone but Zeref could tell that Natsu was being sarcastic. Zeref tugged on his mother's shirt.
"We don't have to go right now, do we?" Zeref asked. His mom patted him on the head.
"Don't you worry sweetheart. We'll be back tomorrow." She said. Zeref sighed and turned toward Natsu. He supposed his first day at daycare hadn't been so bad, even though he knew it would still be cooler to stay home…
But what if he ran into Natsu outside of daycare? Would Natsu want to talk to him, or pretend that he didn't know the kid that was way younger than him? "Come on, let's go home." Zeref's mother said, grabbing his hand. Zeref yanked his fingers out of his mother's grip and glared at her.
"I'm not a baby. You don't have to hold my hand."
"Oh yes, forgive me sir." His mother said, humoring him again. That was almost worse.
"You don't have to mock me." He grumbled. She giggled and shook her head.
"Yes, of course, now come on dear, let's go."
Zeref sighed in disappointment. He didn't really want to leave. "Bye Natsu." Zeref said. Natsu grinned and ruffled his hair.
"See ya later, kiddo. I can't wait to hang out again!" Zeref, for the first time in a long time gave him a beaming smile, turned and ran off.
"Wait for me, mommy!" he cried, running after her.
"That kid sure is a piece of work." Lucy said.
"Yeah, but he's a sweet kid. You can tell he'll go far. Especially with me as an older brother to him." Natsu said proudly. Lucy only giggled.
"Actually Natsu, I'm pretty sure he's the older brother in this." She said, before going back inside. It took Natsu a few minutes to process what she'd said.
"Wait! Lucy, you don't really mean that!" he whined and followed her back into the building.
"So, daycare wasn't as bad as you thought?" his mother asked him.
"No…" Zeref sighed, wishing he could tell her how horrible it had been.
"So you lived happily ever after?" she asked him. He turned to her and gave a small smile.
"Yeah, the end."
A/N Here we go. Another update. Thanks for reading reviews and constructive criticism welcome.