Disclaimer: I do not own Fairytail.
Summary: Zeref is forced to babysit some three-year old kid with pink hair. He hopes it will be easy, but alas, he is woefully unprepared for the challenge.
"Babysit? For who?"
"Mr. Dragneel. He could really use all your help. This move has been really hard for him and well… it's either helping us move boxes or babysitting his adorable three-year-old boy." Zeref shuddered at both options. Physical labor when it was avoidable was not happening. Babysitting was even worse. And considering how young the child was, it was sure to be a nightmare.
"Are you sure, crawl into a hole and die is not an option?" Zeref asked half-heartedly, already picturing the glare his mother would give him. indeed, this was the look he received but Zeref was hardly paying attention anymore. He already knew the only option he had. Even if he were to tell his mother he'd rather do labor she would beg him and nag him every few minutes until he caved. He'd learned a long time ago that it was better to just give her what she wanted. "Fine, I'll babysit. But I don't have to be happy about it." Zeref grumbled.
"Wonderful!" she exclaimed and left him in peace. Zeref sighed. how long would it take them to move? Zeref had been to Igneel's old house plenty of times before. there wasn't a lot crammed into the decent sized apartment, but there still was a good amount of junk. If Igneel hadn't sorted through everything then it could take days. No, it wouldn't take days to unload everything, but it was highly likely that his parents would insist on organizing as well. Igneel wasn't one to turn down free help, so he would definitely agree. That meant that Zeref was stuck entertaining his annoying brat for days. Zeref could only hope that he was one of those kids you could stick in front of the TV for hours on end.
Unfortunately, Zeref found out very quickly that he was not. "Good morning Zeref. It's great to see you again." Igneel said, ruffling his hair like he was still 10. Igneel was not Zeref's favorite person ever, even less so now that he found out Igneel finally came back to his home town, unmarried, with a kid. Zeref felt that Igneel probably hadn't even wanted this child, but the mother probably wanted him even less. So, as a result Igneel decided to be the "responsible one". Zeref managed to communicate all these feelings through one, hard stare.
"Yes… wonderful." Zeref said coldly, staring up at the man.
"… We're sorry about Zeref, he's… going through a phase." His father said, clapping Zeref hard on the back and giving him a warning look. Zeref glared up at his father and winced from pain. Igneel just smiled uncertainly and stepped out of the way. A small pink-haired child bolted into the room. He was grinning and seemed to be full of energy. Zeref watched very dismayed by this fact. Why couldn't he have gotten a three-year-old who loved books and math and would sit quietly contemplating the world whilst Zeref did the same. Granted, he'd never met a child of any age who did this, but one could always dream, right? Zeref sighed. how unfortunate, it seemed he hadn't gotten a child who would be easily entertained.
"It's quite alright." Igneel said.
"Very good, please come in." said his mother. "Can I get you anything, is there a specific order in the way you want to do things?" she asked. The adults all moved into the kitchen and Zeref was left alone with the small child.
"Hi." The kid waved at him. "I'm Natsu." Then the child waited only moving to blink occasionally.
"I'm Zeref." He said after a while. Natsu grinned at him.
"I know. Wanna play?" Zeref stared at the child. No, he didn't want to play. Not in the slightest. But if he didn't Natsu would eventually wander into the kitchen and complain about being bored. Then Zeref would really be in trouble. So, he sighed and watched as Natsu didn't even wait for him to answer and was crawling up the steps.
By the time Zeref finally got up the stairs Natsu had already found his room. Zeref didn't have any toys but Natsu had obviously prepared for this. He reached into his red backpack which had a picture of a dragon on it and took out more dragons. "I assume you like dragons." Natsu nodded.
"They're my favorite!" he cried. "So, let's play!" Natsu handed him a green dragon. "I like red." Natsu said as he picked up the red dragon. Zeref sighed and figured that there was no getting out of this.
"So how do you play?" Zeref asked.
"The dragons are fighting the bad people." Natsu took out three action figures. Zeref assumed that those were the bad people. "They hurt the dragon's friends." Natsu said and took out three more action figures. "You can play the bad people." Zeref rolled his eyes. Of course, he could play the bad people.
"Alright."
"You also play the bad dragon." Natsu said. Zeref discerned that the green dragon he was holding was the bad dragon. It was a really boring game. Natsu had a huge imagination but his vocabulary was small, and he said a lot of words wrong. Zeref had to keep correcting him, and once he got tired of that he just let Natsu ramble on and tried to keep up. After an hour Zeref was exhausted and considered running away and joining the circus just so he wouldn't have to take part in this unbearable torture.
"Natsu… don't you want to play by yourself for a little while?" Natsu stared at him blankly.
"By myself?" he asked as if the concept was completely foreign to him. perhaps it was. Zeref wasn't sure. "What do you mean." Zeref was silent staring at the child, thinking of a response that Natsu would accept.
"Um… it means that you… that you play alone… without me here. You can be all the characters and make up all the rules. Doesn't that sound fun?"
"No!" Natsu said with a pout, his face scrunched, and his arms crossed.
"Right… of course not." Zeref said with a sigh. "Are you sure… maybe you could just watch TV?"
"No! play with me! Daddy said you'd do whatever I told you!" Zeref now glowered at the child.
"He said what?"
"He said you'd do whatever I told you." Zeref tried not to scream. He wanted to punch Igneel in his smiling face. "Okay…" Zeref said quietly. Natsu smirked and continued his stupid game.
"I'm not watching him again." Zeref told his parents. "He treats me like his personal slave and all he wants to do is play with dragons." Zeref said.
"Oh, Zeref dear, it can't be all that bad."
"We'll talk once YOU'VE played dragons for 8 hours straight." His parents looked at each other.
"Well what are we going to tell Igneel? Out son's selfish and can't give up three days of his time to babysit one sweet child?" his father asked. His mother gave his dad a look.
"Dear, antagonizing him is not going to get him to do what we want." His mother said. She turned back to Zeref. "Sweetie don't listen to your father. It's not selfish to want a little time to yourself and I completely understand." Zeref blinked at her.
"You do?" he asked suspiciously.
"Most certainly. When you were born I wanted time to myself too." She said coming over beside him. Oh no, here it came. The guilt trip. "You were always crying, always wanting to be fed. I never got more than a few hours of sleep. You were the most difficult and particular child I've ever seen. And a picky eater as well. Yet I did not take a break because you needed me, and I was your mother. And now look at you! You're a handsome, intelligent young man, and you never would've become so had I taken a break from parenting, now would I?" she pinched his cheek.
"Mom! Mom, stop it, I get it!" she giggled and patted him on the head.
"Good." Zeref sighed and grumbled about how it was her idea to have a child and that was different. His mother however, wasn't listening anymore and was making him cuddle her on the couch.
"Mom, could you stop. I'm too old for this."
"As long as you fit in my arms you are never too old."
"I'm 17." He grumbled. In his opinion that was too old. "I'm almost an adult now."
"Ah, but almost and are, are two different things now, aren't they my dear." Zeref was silent. "Come on, allow your mother to hold you while she still can." His mother said. Zeref didn't think that he could argue with that. Zeref didn't think he could argue with anything his mother said.
The next morning Zeref was forced to watch Natsu again. the child was very annoying in more ways than one. "I don't want to play dragons anymore." Zeref cried.
"Then what do you want to play?"
"Nothing! I want to spend some time alone. so, would you just leave me alone for now?" Zeref asked. Natsu pouted.
"But I want to play." Natsu whined. Zeref groaned and laid back down on the bed.
"You listen here, watching TV is good for you!"
"Really?" Natsu asked. "Daddy says it rots your brain."
"Your father isn't here now, is he?"
"… Are you a bad kid?" Natsu asked. Zeref raised an eyebrow. He couldn't be serious.
"No! you can't be serious." Zeref cried. "I just… why don't you just try it."
"No!" Natsu cried. Zeref sighed and glared at the child. He was the most annoying kid Zeref had ever had to babysit. Granted, he'd never babysat before, but he knew it couldn't be as hard as this, right? Zeref shook his head. He could not believe how difficult Natsu was. "PLAY WITH ME!"
"NO!" Zeref cried.
"But daddy said-."
"Your daddy was wrong." Natsu was silent, staring at him.
"M-my daddy isn't… w-wrong!" Natsu sniffed and started crying. "My daddy's never wrong!" Natsu screamed and started crying harder. Zeref pursed his lips together.
"Of course, he isn't." Natsu sniffed and stared at him.
"My daddy always hugs me when I cry." Natsu sobbed.
"Right, of course." Zeref said quietly. This child was insufferable. So, they played for the rest of the day. Except now Natsu did so on top of Zeref. When this child got older Zeref was going to make him babysit his children. Not that Zeref would have any. But if he did this kid was paying the price!
"One day I'm going to be just like you." Natsu said.
"Honestly? Wouldn't you rather be like your dad."
"No. he's nice, but he's stupid."
"How do you know that?" Zeref asked.
"He told me." Natsu said matter-of-factly. Zeref sighed.
"And you think I'm smart?"
"… You play with me." Natsu said. Zeref narrowed his eyes. The child had avoided answering his questions.
"What's 1x1?" the child stared blankly at him.
"You're actually smart, aren't you?" the child said, staring at him with a wide-eyed expression.
"You don't have to sound so surprised." Zeref grumbled under his breath. Natsu smiled.
"I like dragons."
"I know." Zeref growled. That's all Natsu ever talked about after all.
"I know you know… I'm going to be fun like daddy when I grow up, and smart like you!" Natsu cried as if he'd decided exactly who he was going to become. Zeref raised an eyebrow at his excited statement. It didn't much matter. Natsu would forget this ever happened eventually.
"If you say so."
"I do!" and Natsu did become fun like his father… smart, well… that was debatable.
A/N I hope you enjoyed this because I certainly had a lot of fun writing it! Zeref's so funny when he's irritated and Natsu is just a normal kid who wants to play but Zeref thinks he's out to get him... or something XD So, thanks for reading guys, reviews/follows/favorites are all appreciated. See you tomorrow, bye!