Chapter 4: My Damaged Family

Family dinners were scarce in the Dragneel household, not due to a lack of desire to spend quality time with one another, but because it was rare that all four family members were home. So rare that for the special occasion, Mr and Mrs Dragneel asked both their sons to invite their best friends just so they could get to know them a little.

In the little time before dinner, Natsu and Lucy spent their time in Natsu's room, talking about the matter; "they want to get to know the people we hang out with," Natsu said with a roll of his eyes, "I mean, shouldn't they first get to know us or something?"

Although Natsu didn't quite blame his parents for their absence, and he didn't even resent them for it, he did feel like they could put in a little more effort to be a father and mother. Yes, they had a weekly phone call, which usually took up about 5 minutes of everyone's time. And yes, they sent gifts for their sons' birthdays and Christmas. But would it really kill a parent to show up every now and then.

Lucy, being familiar with the concept of absent parents only hummed, "I think it's sweet that they're trying. They just want to know who takes care of their sons for them while they're off."

"They know who takes care of us." Natsu rolled his eyes and huffed, crossing his arms over his chest like a little kid, "his name's on top of the paycheck they send him every month."

In return Lucy raised her eyebrow, "at least they leave you with the best care they could find, Igneel's great. I grew up with just Michelle and the hard wooden door to my dad's office."

"Oh, come now." Natsu said, clearly in it for the win in this little contest of who's got the shittiest parents. "Just you and Michelle? What about Aquarius?"

Lucy jumped up from the bed and ruffled Natsu's hair in a spurring change of mood, "you're right, you win, your life's the most depressing."

"You don't make it sound like a win…" Natsu said, jokingly as he, too, allowed his mood to brighten, it was a joyous occasion after all, "so how was the Strauss party?"

And Lucy was off on a ramble before Natsu could stop her; "it was so much fun! Loke was there and Cana of course and Gajeel and, well, the rest of us. We played beer pong and we swam in their pool until the sun came up! Did you know that Lisanna and Mirajane are really good at mixing cocktails? Mirajane's super great, by the way, she said she liked my dress, I was wearing the frilly pink one, you know? Not even my best outfit!"

Natsu could only smile at her for the time being, even if he'd wanted to say something he couldn't find the time to do so. That was… until Lucy asked him about his own night.

"Ah…" Natsu said, "I…"

"Don't tell me you sat home all evening," she scolded, "I know that that Zeref thing was just an excuse but I hoped that you did at least have something planned."

"I did, actually, go out with Zeref." Natsu said in his own defence, feeling slightly offended by the insinuation that would probably be one hundred percent correct had Zeref not forcefully dragged him out of the house. "We went to this…" don't say strip club, anything but strip club, "club, with guys."

Lucy snorted and gave him an 'are you kidding me' look, "Zeref took you to a gay bar, again? When's he ever going to accept that you're straight." Then she chuckled, "wow, that's a sentence you don't hear often."

Natsu didn't get the joke at first, it was after all a very well known fact that he was a bit slow on the uptake every now and then, but when it hit him he laughed loudly, "right." He thought back to all the guys at the Cockpit and how hot he'd thought they were. So, maybe he was a little bit gay, who cares? "It was actually quite fun." He smiled at Lucy when she threw him a disbelieving look, "some of the guys in there were so cute not even I could take my eyes off them!" an image of Gray popped up in his mind, Gray bound and gagged and whimpering with puffy red eyes and an equally red, beaten ass. Oh, how he wished he had not seen that one.

"Aw," Lucy said with a face splitting grin, "look who's growing up!" she softly knocked on Natsu's head with her fist and laughed as she continued; "your brain finally start making those puberty hormones or am I just hearing things?"

"Piss off," Natsu said as he pushed away the blonde's arm, "let's get downstairs, I think I can hear Mavis."

He didn't even wait for her reply before he darted out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Lucy to still contemplate his tiny little bit of a confession before following him with a content smile.

"Mavis!" Natsu said as he came into the living room and found the tiny blonde talking to Zeref. He quickly came up to her and hugged her, which she reciprocated in kind.

"Ah, Natsu!" the cheery girl called, "how are you?" Mavis was Zeref's best friend and had been for a couple years. She was really fun and generous and a really good cook too. She often came to the Dragneel household with the sole intention to cook for them and give Igneel a much deserved night off. She was also often the one to help Natsu with his homework if he didn't get it, because her intellect equaled his brother's. All in all she was pretty much a constant in Natsu's life and he really liked her for that.

"I'm good Mavis, are you and Zeref cooking tonight?" he asked excitedly.

Mavis smiled at him, but didn't answer before waving at Lucy, "hey Luce, I like your ribbons." Then she turned her attention back to who she saw more or less as a little brother, "I thought maybe we could all cook together. It would be a fun gesture towards your parents."

Although he was a little reluctant, Lucy's enthusiastic cheer made him shrug and agree, "why not, maybe I'll learn something even."

The next hour was spent with the four of them slaving away in the kitchen, Mavis directing each and every one of them to the details, making sure the paprika was chopped into the right sized squares by Lucy and checking ever minute to see if Zeref was still stirring the soup. They were cleaning up when the door to the house opened up and everyone stopped moving.

"Mom, dad?" Natsu called, ladle in one hand and pan in the other.

"Natsu?" a honey-like voice replied from the living room just before a beautiful woman in her forties entered the kitchen. She was the 'dermatologists hate her' kind of beautiful, with long, raven black hair up in a bun and a light touch of makeup to accentuate her high cheekbones and long lashes. She was wearing an expensive looking suit jacket over a pencil skirt with that highlighted her each and every curve in detail. Her skin was fair like Zeref's. "Ah, pumpkin I missed you!" She spoke as she laid her one hand on Natsu's cheek, giving him a short kiss on the forehead; kind of an anticlimax for someone who'd not seen his mother in about four months. She moved on to the son that clearly inherited most of her features, "Junior! So handsome." Another kiss on the forehead, "what smells so delicious in here?" she lifted the lid to one of the pots on the stove and sniffed, ignoring how the room was filled with people that looked at each other in confusion.

"Don't mind her, boys, she took a little something for the flight." Zeref Dragneel Senior stood in the door opening to the kitchen with a mirror image of Natsu's pink hair, olive skin and humored grin. He at least had the decency to wrap both his sons in a hug before pulling his wife away from the stove by her elbow. He shook off his suit jacket and loosened his tie before finally acknowledging the existence of the two girls in the kitchen. Natsu figured it was a lawyer-thing, ignoring people, possibly to intimidate. "Ah you must be Mavis," he said as he extended his hand towards Lucy, "I've heard a lot of good things about you from my son."

"Actually, sir, I'm Natsu's friend Lucy, we've met before, remember? I'm Jude Heartfillia's daughter," she said with a kind smile.

"Right, right…" he said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "I'm sorry I just assumed since she is so…" he looked at Mavis and frowned a little, obviously restraining from commenting on her height.

"It's a growth disorder, sir." Mavis said kindly, offering her hand, "Mavis Vermillion, nice to meet you."

Mr Dragneel shook her hand and apologized again, "I'm such an idiot. I'm Zeref Dragneel," he smiled, "Senior, that is," he threw a quick glance over to his oldest son, as though he had to remind himself that there was indeed another Zeref Dragneel, "and this is my lovely wife; Raven Dragneel."

Mrs Dragneel sat on top of the recently cleaned kitchen counter, her legs crossed elegantly and her heels softly clicking against the pearly white cabins below. She was attentively picking her glossy crimson nails. At the mention of her name she raised her doe-eyes, not seeming the least bit interested in the conversation. "I'm starving."

Natsu blinked at his mother, anger welling inside him for a moment, until he felt Lucy's fingers on his lower back, willing him to keep calm. Natsu breathed in deeply and took a seat, "how was your trip?"

The rest followed his example and clearly felt about as awkward as he did.

"It was fine, thank you, son." Mr Dragneel said, "Fiore Airlines is not what it used to be, not even a good tip got us actually edible food!" he laughed at his own joke, which didn't help with the awkwardness in the slightest. "And then there's this one of course," he poked Mrs Dragneel in the side with his elbow, still chuckling, "no matter how many times she flies, she still gets anxious and sweaty."

Mrs Dragneel made an undignified sound and started to divide the food over everyone's plates, Mavis quickly jumping to her aid. As everyone was provided they sat back down again and she coughed, "you talk about me like I'm not here, darling. I'm a little lightheaded, not a toddler. Now," she said focusing her intense eyes on her oldest son, "how's the internship, Junior?"

"I'd prefer to be called Zeref, mother." Zeref took a sip from his water, he mumbled something else afterwards which Natsu would later swear was something like "you'd know if you were here", but it wasn't loud enough for the intimidating woman to hear.

His mother hummed, "Zeref, hm? You never minded being called Junior before."

"I also didn't mind bathing with Natsu when I was 7." He said sturdily, not even trying to lower his voice, "that's pretty much the concept of growing up, mother. It's sad you weren't here to see it."

There was a long silence in which Natsu was scared to so much as breathe. He was angry with his mother for her behavior that evening but clearly, so was Zeref. Then again, Zeref wasn't the kind of person to act out like that, he was the reserved one of the two. Natsu was the blabbermouth.

He felt Lucy's fingers on his wrist under the table and wondered briefly if she was reassuring him or herself. His eyes remained focused solely on the stare-down between his beloved brother and the mother he hardly knew.

"Zeref, that's quite enough, now." Mr Dragneel said, laying his hand on his wife's shoulder to get her to back down as well, but keeping his eyes on his son. "It's not like you to-…"

"Excuse me," to everyone's surprise, it was Mavis who rudely but also very bravely interrupted him, "with all due respect Mr Dragneel," she was cutting her steak, not even sparing him one glance. "But you have lost your right to finish that sentence." It was almost physically painful how quiet it was. Natsu was actually trembling, fearing an outburst from his parents, or a breakdown or both. But Mavis was not scared, nor was she done: "in fact, did you know Natsu calls Igneel 'dad'?" She finally looked up from her food, popping a piece into her mouth as she smiled kindly at the man. She then looked at Mrs Dragneel in much the same way and continued: "do you know how old I am, Mrs Dragneel?"

The woman let her eyes wander over the blonde girl for a second before locking her eyes on the other again, not giving an answer for she couldn't possibly guess the girls age.

"I may not look it but I'm 24 years old, I have known your sons for five years now and in those years I have cooked and cleaned and done laundry for them, I have helped Natsu in his homework and picked up Zeref from bars when he was drunk."

Both parents stared at her in shock, realizing that what she was describing as her role in the family sounded an awful lot like that of a standard mom, or parent, at least.

"I'm not saying Igneel is anything short of amazing, of course. But if a random college friend of your oldest son gets the call to go to Natsu's principle's office because he got in trouble, there is something seriously wrong with this family." She finished with another bite from her food and a shattered heart on Natsu's side of the table.

He lowered his eyes to his food and sobbed, she was right after all. Normally, Igneel got called to the office whenever he got into trouble –which was a lot-, but that particular day a couple weeks back Igneel had gotten stuck in traffic and since Zeref was working that day he called Mavis to go in his stead. Natsu hadn't thought much about it after Mavis had explained it to him but the way she said it made him realize that none of this was the way it was supposed to go.

"Natsu…" his mother's sweet voice cooed at him, apparently it'd hit her, too, since she didn't sound even remotely angry, although the guilt in her voice racked through Natsu's body like a spear. "I…" instead of saying anything else she looked at her other son, who stared back at her blankly. "Zeref…" she whispered, as though a loud voice would worsen the situation, as though anything at all could possibly worsen this situation.

"I'm done eating," Lucy said as she stood up from her seat, letting the chair scrape over the floor. She started clearing out the table instantly and Zeref rose to the occasion to help her, Mavis following right after she threw one more look at Mr and Mrs Dragneel.

As the three busied themselves, it became clear for the parents of the house that it was their job to cheer up their son. They both scooted over to the chairs on either side of him and looked at each other, at a loss of what to do next.

Finally, it was Zeref Senior who laid his hand on his son's shoulder and started talking, "Natsu, son, we're sorry." He sounded serious, but that said nothing about his sincerity. "I'm sorry we're not here for you enough and I'm sorry we leave you alone to fend for yourself."

His wife nodded in agreement and let her hand rest on Natsu's knee, "you must understand that in our eyes the best way we could take care of you was to provide for you, we didn't realize our absence had such a big impact in your day to day life."

"I hope you can forgive us, Natsu?" Mr Dragneel squeezed Natsu's shoulder lightly in an attempt to be supportive.

Natsu took it all in, but truth to be told, it didn't matter what they said. Whether they were genuinely sorry or not, whether they now actually see the error of their ways or not, nothing was going to change. If anything they might be too busy for the next phone call because they'll feel awkward. He breathed in and out deeply and straightened his back, putting a big smile on his face as he blinked away the moisture in his eyes. "Of course you're forgiven."

Although being home technically meant they were off duty, those two always took their work everywhere they went. So much so that Mavis was getting really frustrated with them. At some point in the evening she therefore slammed both their laptops shut and posed before them only to instruct them to come bake cookies with all the kids. Although the cookies were harder than their teeth and they tasted like an exotic kind of shit, they actually had some semblance of fun baking them and actually got to talking about normal things in life. Lucy and Mavis burst into embarrassing tales about the boys and each of them had a few words to say about how great Igneel was. Even Raven and Zeref Sr partook on the fun as they told their kids about each other through means of adventures or cases they worked on themselves. It was quite the tiring evening and by 12:30 that night, Zeref and Natsu had a moment alone in the kitchen whilst the girls and the parents had moved to the living room.

"Hey, Zer," Natsu said, tearing his brother's attention away from the tea he was preparing. The raven looked at him curiously and Natsu almost wanted to drop the subject, they were doing so well that night, "I was curious," he said anyway, "why you got so angry earlier, over dinner."

Zeref blinked, before his eyes darkened a little, "mother was being rude."

"Yes…" Natsu said, "she was," he turned his shoulders to his brother, bowl with snacks in hand, "but that doesn't really explain it, you're normally so composed."

"Well," Zeref sighed and straightened his back, a tell-tale sign of the black haired Dragneel that what he was going to say was a little out of his comfort zone, "it was actually more about this morning, I suppose." When all he got was a clueless Natsu, he continued, "when you said you didn't want to share something that hurt you on such a deep level with mother and father, even though they were the most likely to be able to help you, given their professions and such. I was thinking about that and I suppose it made me angry that even in there," he tapped on the side of his had to show he was talking about his mind, "they left you alone."

Although it was a touching speech, Natsu could hardly focus on the conversation he was having with his brother when all he could hear was the blood rushing through his ears and his heart pounding in his throat, "Gray… I completely forgot about him."

AN:

Whoops! So yeah, this was kind of out of the way and not so Gratsu-ish, but there will be plenty of that next chapter, I promise. In fact; they'll even get some action :)
So, Mavis was a little OOC, as you can see, but keep in mind that in this story Mavis actually aged (she's 24 instead of 13), and I feel like Mavis would really grow up to be kind of the mom-friend, that's also really cheery and cute, but I would definitely see her fearlessly standing up for the people she cares about like this, albeit in a polite way.
Also, I don't really know if the Dragneel parents have actual names, but I couldn't find any online so I made some up. I called Mr. Dragneel Zeref with the idea to put in the little junior/senior thing because I feel like it shows how both Mr. and Mrs. Dragneel don't think of their sons first, because when they say Zeref, they're thinking about senior, whilst for Natsu, Zeref and the girls, 'Zeref Dragneel' is their own. I felt like it shows gap that was between the two generations quite nicely.
I put this chapter in to give Natsu himself a little more depth since he is the protagonist and nobody's life's perfect so yeah. The Dragneel parents will play a more important role, later.

As usual, R&R please! I feed off of those comments and I promise promise promise next chapter will be a little more satisfactory.