Chapter 2: The Cockpit

He'd put minor thought into Gajeel's warning on his walk home, not because he didn't believe what the metal head had said, not even because he didn't care. The fact remained that it didn't matter, because Natsu wasn't going to do anything. He wasn't going to the party, and neither was Gray, for that matter, so he was never going to get a chance to interact with the raven that held a special place in his heart. He was never going to be part of the in-crowd and therefore even if he wanted to act on his little crush, he would never have a chance. It was just an interest, at most a distraction for him to think or fantasize about when he was bored and it was never going to be anything more than that.

What he had thought about, was all the ways he would thank his brother when he got home. So when he pushed the door open to his home with a shit eating grin the size of a pineapple, he couldn't help but pounce on the shorter, but much older, guy. "Zeref, you're a fucking angel!" Natsu cheered, "God, I love you!"

Zeref chuckled from below him on the floor, as he'd not managed to withstand the impact of Natsu's attack and tipped over, crashing butt-first into the floor with Natsu on top of him, "thank you, I love you, too."

Natsu jumped up and closed the door that he'd left open in favor of hugging his brother first, "You can't believe how much they were nagging me, I mean, if you hadn't-" he rambled on about the nuisance his friends could be and everything Lucy'd been talking about and how he'd have to socialize with Gajeel and Zeref just let him throw it all out and chuckled and smiled in response. "So, movie night tonight?" Natsu asked eventually, sitting down at the kitchen table and waiting for his brother to set the tea in front of him.

Though Zeref showed him a surprised look instead, "tonight?" he seemed genuinely dumbfounded for a second but Natsu then found that glint of mischief his brother's eyes and smile tended to hold, he was a master manipulator after all, even though Natsu forgot quite too often, "we're going out, tonight, Natsu?"

Natsu's face fell, "no, no, no, no! That was just an excuse so I didn't have to go to that stupid party where I'd have to be at my best behavior all night as to not embarrass my friends."

"Oh, no." Zeref said, and although he didn't say it anywhere near sternly, Natsu already knew he'd lost, he'd lost this argument as soon as he'd said Zeref's name at the lunch table with Erza. "We have plans tonight." He smiled a kind smile that left no room for argument and said instead, "would you like me to pick out your clothing or can you do that yourself?"

Instead of answering, Natsu just dropped his head onto the table and wondered if going out with Zeref was really better than going out with his friends. Especially since Zeref was rather, well… gay, and was very much into Natsu being gay as well and would therefore definitely be in for dragging Natsu to some sort of gay bar or setting him up with a friend or even a prostitute for that matter.

Zeref calmly poured some tea into Natsu's mug, "drink it while it's hot, Natsu, otherwise it's wasted on you."

Natsu grumbled a little but lifted his head from the table and sipped the tea. Zeref knew him well enough to know that he liked the drink best when it was scalding hot. He mumbled something incoherently and Zeref mercilessly let him repeat it a little louder, "you can't force me into talking to people." Natsu said, blushing a little and averting his gaze, slightly disappointed in the fact that he'd already given into going out tonight, but also knowing he always lost his fire quickly when in argument with his brother.

Zeref merely tapped his chin in thought for a second and then laid his hand onto Natsu's pink mop of hair, "only the barman and me, and you don't even have to hit on either of us." He winked and threw his little brother a cheesy smile to which Natsu replied with another loud groan, "don't worry, we're going to have great fun." He ruffled Natsu's hair, which he'd still been touching, and started cleaning up the tea supplies, "it's this club downtown that I've never been to, they say it's really great, but I just couldn't find anyone to go with me."

"Ugh, alright…" Although both of them knew he'd given in ages ago, his vocal agreement finally put a period behind the discussion and put it to rest until Zeref came into Natsu's room later that evening to pick out his clothing.

Apparently, 'down town' meant way too far to walk, and by the way Zeref had called an Uber, it also meant enough alcohol to make either of them unable to drive back.

Natsu'd once wondered out loud what kind of club they were going to, reminiscing his earlier thought about gay bars, which had sparked an almost mysterious glint in Zeref's smile as he evasively answered the question without giving any answers at all, making Natsu drop the question all together to which he later wondered why he even did that.

When they stepped out of the Uber, Natsu quickly realized they were in a part of the city he'd never been before, not in that time of the evening at least. The clubs lining both sides of the streets announced their specialties and club names with huge neon signs and dancing ladies of light. Palm trees and martini glasses alluringly misguiding people into thinking that particular bar or club was more sophisticated than any of the whore-shows on either side of them. Different kinds of music boomed out of the open doors and windows and even through walls and floors, in the case of underground clubs, making the atmosphere thick with loud basses that mixed and matched and made Natsu feel like they took control over the beating of his heart.

Zeref took Natsu by the wrist and dragged him further down the street, which was filled with people hurrying from club to club or just lounging out on the streets talking and laughing. Natsu's eyes bulged at the sight of all kinds of drunkards and stoners and all types of revealing outfits on boys and girls ranging from their mid-forties to around Natsu's age. This brings the subject to the exact reason why Natsu'd never been there at that time of the evening; he was only 18 years old and therefore not even allowed in any of the clubs and bars, and by the looks of it, neither were many people roaming around in the streets at the moment.

Zeref on the other hand seemed to know the place like the back of his hand, which was something, Natsu sweat dropped, since Zeref was known to get lost a lot in places and then just wander around until he found his way back. Yet he swerved around the masses of people, with Natsu in tow, like it was second nature to him and ignored the beaming lights that pulled Natsu's attention every which way, as though he'd seen it all countless times before. It even felt like Zeref wasn't looking at all where he needed to go, and that he just naturally knew when he was at the destination, because it seemed the first time that he turned his head to the side was after he'd stopped walking. "Ah, this is it."

Natsu followed his gaze to one of the clubs that perfectly disappeared into the mass at the first glance; bright neon blue letters announced that they were standing in front of The Cockpit. The name was decorated with equally blue and white lighted pilot logo underneath; a five-pointed star with wings on either side. Another dozen smaller stars littered around the letters, in all the bright colors of a neon rainbow.

Natsu looked at his brother, who looked smitten staring at the entrance to the club, where a small group of people crowded to get past the two large bouncers, and smiled a small smile. At least he made his brother happy tonight. Then he looked back at the impressive presence of the large building that seemed at least four stories high with all the windows closed yet a sea of light rolled out of the building through the door and remnants of it seemed to shine behind the thin curtains in the window, making the building look lively nonetheless. Somewhere an ominous feeling washed over him as he wondered what kind of life was going on behind those curtains that had to be shielded of from the night life on the streets, yet lit for the guidance of the inhabitants. What kind of club had multiple stories in use anyway?"

"Are you sure about this, Zer?" He asked, not knowing yet that this moment would change his life forever thereafter. Not knowing that agreeing with his brother, taking that step across the threshold, was the one thing that stood between him and the chaos that became his life that evening.

"What could possibly go wrong?" the other replied, his smile kind and innocent as always but a hint of mischief in his voice that made the younger doubt his brother. And Zeref strengthened his faltering hold on Natsu's wrist and pulled him towards the door.

For a second, Natsu wondered how he was ever going to get in, since he wasn't old enough, but when his mind focused on the two boys roughly around his age before him he slightly relaxed. Even more so when he noticed that the bouncers didn't even ask for an ID, yet frisked all the better for it.

When it was Natsu's turn to get frisked, a voice in the back of his mind was shouting that these two guys with tats and earrings were being particularly thorough searching his chest and ass and for a second his mind even wandered as far as to imagine one of them accidentally 'frisking' his crotch. Perhaps the thought was encouraged by the squeeze one of the bouncers gave his butt. But then again, it might've been all in his head.

After what felt like 10 of the most uncomfortable minutes of Natsu's short little life, he was let through and hastily latched on to his brother's waiting arm, knowing he looked like a wimp but convincing himself that it was alright for a little brother to seek protection with their older sibling in times of extreme discomfort and awkwardness. Zeref didn't seem to think it was weird at all, he just placed his free hand over the one Natsu used to grasp his arm and led him inside where a new exuberance of stimuli awaited to assault Natsu's senses.

Beaming neon lights and stroboscopes forced his eyes to dart left and right and then narrow to block out the blinding flashes. He raised one hand to help his eyelids on the matter and squeezed his brother's arm to signal that he was slightly depending on him to guide them for the time being.

In response, Zeref mercilessly dragged him along, making him stumble over his feet, shouting his objections as he bumped into people left and right, but knowing that his voice wasn't heard over the loud sensual music with a heartbeat like base.

When he finally decided he needed to see to survive this mess of limps, lights and music and he bravely took his arm away from his eyes he was shocked to say the least. Let's just say for one that Zeref had most definitely taken him to a gay… something. And second that that something was a strip club, with naked male dancers. Also, there seemed to be a theme going on that had something to do with the bright neon's and UV-lighting that was all blue or purple tainted, as bright glow in the dark paint colors reflected from people's hands and and faces and bare chests in suggestive marks and messages or sometimes just handprints in places were hands should not be put.

Apart from the dancers on the stage, there were two more, distributed among the masses in cages that allowed them to stand up straight and were designed either to keep them in, or others out. By the way pink, orange and yellow hands were reaching in between the bars to leave their prints on straying limps, Natsu guessed it was the latter of the two.

All the dancers seemed in their midtwenties –legal age, at least, and they were nearly all picture perfect men with bulging muscles and v-lines and suggestive bumps underneath their tight and bright reflecting underwear, which seemed to draw all the attention despite the luscious moves the men made with their arms and the erotic expressions they pulled with their faces.

Natsu was, let's say, fascinated. Not directly aroused, but definitely interested in the very least. He would never completely abandon the thought of himself marrying a girl, and though the thought of liking men didn't disgust him he'd never imagined himself with any beside Gray. But looking at the way the lean bodies moved sure made him question his sexuality just a little.

His eyes were pulled towards one of the men on stage, a little younger than the others, by the looks of it, but taller than most. He was attractive, with his crimson eyes lidded halfway as they roamed the masses, resembling a predator in search of his next pray. His blonde hair looked styled and messy altogether, as though he'd run his hands through it a dozen times; which he probably had, judging by the way he was rubbing his hands down his body at that very moment.

When the predator's eyes found Natsu's staring at him, it sent a shiver down Natsu's spine and he wanted to look away, but couldn't when he spotted the dancer's tongue protruding through his lips, licking first the upper, and then the lower in slow, sensual movements, all throughout never breaking eye contact with Natsu.

The moment stopped when Zeref elbowed him softly, "what drink, Natsu?" he shouted overly loud into the pinkette's ear.

"Something alcoholic!" Natsu shouted back over the music after swallowing the lump in his throat.

Zeref eyed him knowingly and Natsu wondered if his observant and plotting brother had seen his brief 'moment' with the dancer. When the raven darted off towards the bar Natsu's eyes travelled back up to the stage to find the blonde, but he was already ogling some other guy nearer to the stage.

"Oi, you new here?" someone bumped into his side and Natsu looked up to find a rather dashing man standing next to him. He had yellow-ish semi-long blonde hair that fell straight down and covered his left eye. His grin was challenging and cocky, in an attractive way that still promised trouble. The man was shirtless, but a neon pink bowtie was tied around his neck, which matched the animalistic patterns he'd drawn in the same color paint on his lower arms and underneath and above his visible eye. He was wearing fancy white slacks that had handprints in all colors all over them. "The name's Jackal," he said, shortly, with a cheesy wink, "and if you want a night of fireworks and explosions, I'm your guy."

Natsu snorted lightly and gave him a disbelieving look, "I'm Natsu and I get the fireworks thing but what do explosions have to do with it?"

Jackal frowned and looked mildly annoyed before he grinned again, "cause we're gonna bang until you explode." Despite the loudness of their surroundings, Jackal's words were as clear as day to Natsu, he couldn't even pretend he didn't hear them. Who'd that guy think he was, saying such blunt things.

Fortunately for Natsu, another guy in much the same attire –white slacks and a pink bowtie- came to his rescue, "Jackal, start working and stop pestering the young 'uns."

"Leave me alone, Temp. It's not like these kids don't got enough alcohol in their system." Jackal whined elbowing his equally gorgeous friend or colleague in the ribs.

'Temp' had a darker complexion with dark green spikey hair that he'd managed to tame. His overall look seemed bored and arrogant. He seemed way too stoic to be working in a strip club.

"What are you looking at, twink?" he said, though it didn't sound like a sneer, or even like an insult.

"Don't call him twink, faggot!" Jackal said with a roll of his eyes. Although Natsu didn't quite understand what was going on, he was kind of glad that the blonde was defending his honor, even if he was probably doing it to defend his own.

Temp muttered something that Natsu couldn't hear over the music but looked a lot like him saying "boom" before hitting the back of Jackal's head.

Jackal yelled something in defense, but Natsu was distracted when he found the familiar mop of black behind the two guys and pushed through to meet him. "Zeref!" He tapped his brother on the shoulder when the addressed didn't hear him and immediately took his drink out of Zeref's hand and took a huge gulp; he was going to need it if he was going to get through this night.

"Ah, Natsu!" Zeref said with a smile, "bad news…" he waited for Natsu's confused look before he chuckled, "only girls behind the bar!"

Natsu looked like he didn't quite follow for a second before he remembered the deal he'd made with Zeref over tea that included him talking to a bartender. "Right!" he shouted back, "but I already had somewhat of a conversation with them, so I'm good for the night." He pointed at the two guys still bickering behind him with his thumb and watched his brother stretch out to look over his shoulder.

"Ah, Tempester," Zeref said, with a content smile settled on his face as he sipped his drink, keeping his eyes on the waiters, as Natsu'd assumed they were.

"You know them?" Natsu's eyes narrowed in suspicion; his brother often didn't come home after a night out and although it was quite often because he got lost, Natsu knew it wasn't always and that his brother had a habit of ending up in other people's beds. Tempester was probably one of them. He'd already made up his mind that he didn't want to know the answer to his own question, so he cringed involuntarily when Zeref chuckled again and hung in to Natsu's ear to say: "best sex ever."

The night dragged on and Natsu actually caught himself accidentally having some fun every once in a while. For instance when him and Zeref were throwing dollars at one of the guys in the cages and when Zeref dragged neon green army stripes across his cheeks and Natsu gave his brother a cat nose and whiskers. They'd danced with each other and Zeref had laughed loudly as one of the stage dancers gave him a lap dance upon their tour through the mass.

They'd gotten drink after drink and Natsu got to realize that although the female bartenders, Seilah and Kyoka, were beautiful and quite hot, they were not as interesting as all the other guys.

Natsu was actually talking to some guest called Hibiki, who was telling him about how The Cockpit was a fusion between two old strip clubs; Tartaros and Avatar, whist Zeref talked to his friend Ren, when the volume of the music went down considerably and someone took the stage with a microphone in hand. It was an older guy, Natsu would estimate him around his mid-thirties, with dark hair and a stubble beard. He had a huge scar across the left side of his face that disappeared into his hair. Not only was he quite handsome, Natsu realized, he also looked vaguely familiar.

"Ah, good people of the night, welcome to our little devil's den. Gays and guys, welcome to another night at the new and improved Cockpit!" The dancers behind him had stopped dancing and moved to the back of the stage, clapping along with the audience's enthusiasm at the appearance of the man. "You may know me by many names, but I'm Silver and as you might know I'm in charge here." He waited for the cheers and the whistles of the people to die down. Natsu noticed Hibiki was among the enthusiasts. Silver laughed a booming laugh, "If you've visited in the last month you might've already seen these beautiful men," he gestured to the dancers behind him, as well as those in the cages, "but I feel that I must introduce you to them anyhow because you will see a lot of them, since Avatar and Tartarus joined forces; these are Arlock, G-Six, Jerome, Abel and Goumon."

Jerome, the name of the beautiful blonde. Natsu stored the name in the back of his head for safekeeping just when Jerome looked at him and winked. Natsu involuntarily blushed and forced his eyes to focus back on the raven, god he looked familiar.

"Now, the real reason I'm up here!" Silver said, and Natsu felt like everyone already knew the reason, for cheers and whistles only got louder and louder. "The announcing of tomorrow's theme through our traditional little showcase," the man's loud voice was barely audible over the hardly-contained excitement of the audience. "Here come's my son!"

Everyone cheered and Natsu's curiosity grew when Hibiki suddenly grasped him by his elbow and squealed: "this is the best part!" He pointed upwards and Natsu followed his gaze to see a cage like the ones the dancers had been in being lowered down to a little cleared out part in the audience that seemed to have a pedestal in it. Only when the cage was halfway down did Natsu's heart literally stop pounding in his chest since he could finally see what was in inside the cage. Or rather who…

Gray.

AN:

So, that's where it all goes downhill I guess. This chapter is mostly to show what kind of people Zeref and Natsu are, both individually and together, and to inform you about Natsu's wavering sexuality. Also, let me introduce you to our main antagonist: Silver. Although I personally love Silver, I have a tendency to pose him as a bad guy because, well, he's an easy target. So, in this story, Silver will be a little more Absolute Zero and a little less Devil Slayer, if that makes sense. Also FYI, I stole the name The Cockpit from someone's blog online, couldn't find it anymore so can't credit them. Funfact; the strip club was going to be called Uranus Lounge, but that name kind of weirded me out too much and the Cockpit was a little more classy and subtle. Also, the Cockpit's crew is made out of both Avatar and Tartaros characters, if you hadn't already noticed.