Relentless

Disclaimer (I forgot last time!) Fairy tail. Me. No. Own.

R and R

Chapter II: Why can't I let him go?

What curious sight, is this the early form of human behavior? He is inhaling the food I gave him like some starved animal, I have raised the brat better than this! I have made sure he eats everyday, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why did he suddenly change like this? Its the first time I have witnessed him eat like this, its disgusting! Food is flying everywhere and he has his mouth open while he is munching to. "Stop eating like some wild barbarian and behave like a proper human, or I'll swallow you in one bite!" As Acnologia said that he smacked the blunt side of his razor sharp talon to the back of his head. The hit had so much unintentional power behind it, Natsu's head was smacked forward and into the food plate, splattering his innocent face with meat juice.

"Ow, why did you do that dad?" The pink haired boy said with a childish yet fitting pout on his face. He still called him 'dad' Acnologia thought that was a habit long forgotten but no, every once in a while he would call him 'dad' such an unfitting name for the dragon who is training him in the arts of dragon slaying. Only when he was really focused at his training exercises or just in a grumpy mood, Natsu would actually call him the much more fitting title of master or simply Acnologia, yet the black dragon somehow missed the warm clang his words had when the summer day boy called him 'dad'. On the outside Acnologia seemed unimpressed with his student, but in reality the dragon king was actually proud of his foster son, he had accomplished so much in the eight years he had stayed with him. His magical potential was fearsome for a mere child and while he wasn't the brightest of people, Natsu was by no means stupid, he just took a slightly longer time to process things. Yet one thing annoyed Acnologia to no end, the brats personality was to lively.

Since he was four years old, Acnologia had tried to discipline him to hide his emotions, but to no avail, he just always bounced right back into his cheery mood, it was annoying! Acnologia was an serious individual and his attitude was unacceptable for a warrior under his tutelage. But aside that he was a natural fighter, he never gave up once, even if he was severely wounded and bleeding he just wouldn't quit! He took his training very seriously, and therefore was always up to the tasks Acnologia would assign him to.

They had many fond memories together, although Acnologia always put up a grumpy facade, and played uninterested for the most part. One of his dearest memories was when Natsu had started his training to vastly improve his natural senses and stealth, Acnologia had told him to go hide in the forest and wait, then try to sneak up on him and try to surprise him, at first he seemed reluctant but when he was told that his lunch was on the line he quickly followed suit, and darted of into the lush forest.

Flashback, four years ago...

"So all I have to do is hide from you then jump out and say boo! Right?" Natsu was pondering why this was such necessity and why Acnologia insisted on this exercise being good for him?

"More or less, yes, you are correct! Now go and hide, don't come back until you are sure I have let my guard down!" This was going to be amusing, Natsu was not a very patient type of person and would probably only last about five minutes before trying to 'scare' him.

"Okay, then I am off, I wanna eat when I come back, alright!" He finished off his sentence with his annoying wide grin and left. Now all Acnologia had to do was to play the waiting game, a short one if he may add...

Five, ten, twenty, several minutes had passed along and there were no signs of Natsu, it seemed the brat has some patience as well. The minutes turned into hours and still no sign of Natsu, Acnologia was actually worried now, but hell had freeze over for him to ever admit that. The food Acnologia had placed beside him to lure Natsu out had been a futile attempt, he was being vigilant, although way to much his taste, the sun had started to set and night was approaching fast, Acnologia couldn't help but to think about all the foul creatures that lurked around when darkness fell over the region as a velvet blanket obscuring them from the untrained eye.

But no, his student and foster son would know better than getting himself into after all he, Acnologia had raised him...To hell with it this was getting way out of hand, as he prepared himself mentally to go search for his foster son, the black dragon heard a twig snap behind him, he knew it was Natsu due to his smell, which was mixed with his own. Acnologia pretended to be asleep, not mowing a limb encouraging Natsu to come closer, while on the inside Acnologia was immensely relived that his student had returned safe from harm, he was slowly starting to get himself disgustingly attached to the brat.

Natsu was looking around him with great precaution in case of snare or traps set up by his dad, he couldn't help but to be really paranoid. His stomach twisted and churned painfully, Natsu was starving this was the first time he felt this way, as his dad used feed him when he craved for it. He was so close to accomplishing his task now, nothing could stop him now! Walking up close to Acnologias head, Natsu flicked his finger on the black dragons temple, 'waking' him up.

"Ha, got you, I did it, see I can be patient!" He exclaimed jumping on the spot out of the anticipation of the dragon kings praise.

'This boy...Waited six hours on an opportunity to surprise me...i have underestimated him, a mistake I shan't repeat.' "Natsu, you did well, you actually got me, I have to reward you for your excellent patience!"

All of a sudden Natsu's mood took a one-eighty degree turn and he angrily muttered; "You don't have to pretend that I succeeded, it only makes it more obvious..."

'Are those words the ones of four year old? He seems so innocent, yet so knowing.' "Natsu, I prepared some food for you but its gotten cold, anyhow thats what you get for being stubborn."

"You actually did prepare my food, thank you! I am starving!" Natsu was being exited over mere food, thats was pretty amusing.

"...Just start eating..." Acnologia didn't now how to respond, as this was his first ever 'thank you' or be it any form of appreciation, and with Natsu he was sure he would have to stand many more...

Flash back end, present time...

A juice stained Natsusated at the black dragon king, wondering why he has spaced out all of sudden. "You know, you owe me a new peace of meat..." Was that all he was thinking about now? With a dirty face that had to be cleaned, he only thought about more food? And why did he eat in that barbarian way anyway?

"Oi, Natsu? Why were you eating like starved mongrel earlier, I thought I have raise you better than that!" Upon hearing these words the pink haired boy gave Acnologia a stare as if he was the most stupid being on the planet, as if Natsu knew a whole lot more than the dragon.

"Isn't that obvious? I was trying to copy you dad, because I saw you eating like this before!" He finished off with a wide innocent smile only he could produce.

"Well, you shouldn't copy others, its no good!" Acnologia was amazed on how much the boy trusted him to even start eating like him, it seemed they had a special bond together, if the black dragon didn't sever it in the near future things would go downhill regarding his plan. Yet he found this action to try and copy him somewhat amusing. But now the brat had dirtied himself and needed a wash in the nearby lake to get all cleaned up.

"Natsu, come here we are heading out, hurry if you want to catch up to me." With that said Acnologia flapped his feather like wings and took of in the sky, out of their little cove.

"You bastard! Wait up!" And so Natsu began running after his foster father, with the intention of not losing line of sight of him.

-ooo-

The duo of human and dragon were currently located in the highlands in the west, were nobody lived for miles and the valleys obscured by clouds and mist.The mist rests softly on the mountain peaks like a cloth draped over a pillow. The sun tries to break through the clouds as you trek through tall, green grass wet with morning dew. There are so many valleys and glens that one could walk in and never walk out. This is the ancient land of the dragons and you can feel their presence in the very earth beneath your feet. It's amazing how small you feel in the presence of the breath taking expanse known as the Fiore Highlands

This was the place Natsu currently called home. He trained, ate and slept here, sure the climate could be cold, but thats nothing some laps around the lake could fix, courtesy of Acnologia. The lake they were headed to was in the center of the valley they lived in, surrounded by lush forests which were filled with wildlife, it was summer, yet Acnologia had Natsu wear a yellow turtle neck to keep his body heat, otherwise he would grow sick and start sneezing...Another memory flooded his mind this time a rather unpleasant one, truth to be told he didn't mind Natsu being undemonstrative because it went with his ideals and principles, the dragon king was after all the dragon of chaos, apocalypse and anarchy, but when he was being ignorant and naive thats when Acnologia would set down his foot, just like the time when he tried eating his own magic, that fool just because he thought that similar magic of disorder would power him up, it didn't necessarily mean he could go around munching on his own magic like its some midday snack...

Flashback, two years ago...

"You got to focus more thats not nearly enough effort to bring out your dragons roar!" The boy just didn't grasp that the technique to get the roar to expand was actually a matter of much magic one had compressed in your lungs, and if Acnologia would tell him that the brat would soon forget about it, and sometime in the future get himself killed thanks to that. No, he would have to figure it out himself, for it to truly stick inside his head, and not just temporarily stay in his short time memory.

"But what am I doing wrong? I gather so much magic in my belly, but it just flies out of my mouth like...like soup, you know when it tastes gross!" 'Well that was a strange comparison, but good enough, the idea behind the soup is probably how his magic just quickly flares up and immediately dies down and just floats down to the ground and dissipates, even if he is using a sum of magic well beyond the approximate amount required, without compressing the magic, it is not going to work!

"Try again let me see how far you have progressed, as of yet!" Acnologia knew what the initial problem lied but then again practice makes perfect.

"Okay, but don't expect anything flashy, I have yet to get it to work properly." Natsu said wile rubbing his back in a awkward manner a habit that he had picked up. The pink haired boy emptied his lung before filling it with as much magic he could muster, he pushed on to the point which his arteries popped up on his forehead, after all his 'dad' was watching him perform this technique! "Chaos dragons: ROAR! The build up went fine, lots of light blue magic appeared around him creating a fierce aura, as his checks were swelling up Acnologia got an idea, just as the magic was readied in his mouth the black dragon used two of his gleaming talons to pinch the naive rosettes gum, effectively silencing and preventing any 'soup' like magic to flow freely. Natsu's grew redder and redder for every second that was passing, then suddenly it grew into a sickly color of blue then gray, he was being suffocated, thats when the dragon king let go of the brats mouth before he had to scrape his head off the walls, and just as the dragon had suspected a mighty stream of pure 'compressed' turquoise magic flowed out Natsu's mouth, the rose haired boys eyes grew wide in amazement, he finally managed the Chaos breath!

Acnologia who standing in front of the brat this whole time was now faced with a Chaos dragons: Roar equal in size with some of his weaker breaths, no make that 'yawns' but anyhow the dragon was quick to inhale Natsu's breath well before it hit him.

"That actually tasted good brat, but don't aim those at your allies, if you intend to stay allied with them."

"Oh, my bad, but did you see it?" His eyes were sparkling, he probably was dazed his human body could produce so much magic, while he had amazing magical resources his manipulation his atrocious, to put it simply. He used way to much magic required to perform the spells, the dragon king assigned him to perform. Maybe if he was some what more efficient in magic control he wouldn't be fresh out of magic by the end of the day all the time, and this was just a theory he would consume less food. But a theory is a just a theory and differs from reality, the brat is a monster how much does his six year old stomach fill?

"Oh, I did, I did, well done, now do it again!" With the thought and belief that he could do it again, Natsu collected his magical powers in his belly and instantly vented it up to his mouth were he didn't immediately let it but actually compressed it, and the result was the same as before. A majestic blue beam of light blue magic flew directed to the left of Acnologia and not towards him this time.

"See, I nailed it, yes! Jumping up and down and pumping his fists in the air, as if he really did something mayor Natsu was ecstatic about his new supposed victory. Not knowing that the dragon king had helped him in his own way. "but man, I am really tired!" Once again over usage of his magical resources has left him dried out in terms of magic. He was panting, and sweating because of his constant straining on his magical limits, in away this is good training for his body, as it will evolve to be able to adjust to the brats needs. Need has always been the reason for evolution, and when you evolve your abilities you obtain power, and with power everything is possible.

'Rumble' 'groan' Natsu's stomach was making sounds out of hunger and need of new energy. "Will you make me some food? I am starving?"

"With the manners you have I think you will have to starve!"

"Could you please mind making my dinner, as I am to tired to do it myself, please?" Since when did he make his own dinner? Rude brat, might reconsider not having him as lunch...

"That's better, I will notify you when the food is ready for digestion."

"Why are you using such big words all of a sudden? I don't understand what you are trying to say!"

"To translate my language to the language you apparently speak, I simply said, go away brat, will tell when food ready!" This should make him understand. Why is the brat still staring?

"You are not fast enough, I am hungry now!" Such insolence will not be tolerated!

"I said wait! Be patient, and stay quiet!"

"Fine, you meanie!" And with that he shut up and went away to do something else, Acnologia really taught about smacking some manners into the boy but that was second priority to his magical training. He would need the strength later on when... he was on his own...

Suddenly the black dragon king felt a strong spike in the brats magic potency, which worried him greatly, what if...'Is the boy crazy? If he is doing what I think he is doing then...' The dragon was growing worried over his students well being, as the black dragon paced towards Natsu, who was hiding behind a rock formation some meters away from where Acnologia currently where. His worries turned out to be right, that ignorant fool, just what does he think he is doing?

Natsu was currently in a meditative sitting positionand had flared some blue magic in his right hand, slowly bringing it closer to his mouth, Acnologia was quick to react and expertly whipped hid tail at Natsu's wrist catching off guard and dissipating the magic. Natsu was so surprised he he let out a small shriek out of shock.

"Natsu, what you were about to do was utterly stupid, you tried eating your own magic! That is taboo, I am so very disappointed in you!"In the heat of the moment Acnologia didn't realize he was yelling and startled the rosette boy to the point of shedding tears, tears the size of pearls and as innocent as as child's, which he were a child and nothing more, how should he had known? The dragon king felt guilty about what he did, but did not regret them in the slightest, this was a lesson Natsu would have to learn, one way or another.

"I am sorry, I just wanted to, to eat magic too since you did it and it seemed tasty, and I was hungry, sorry, sorry!" Natsu said through his hiccups and sniffles, his nose had started running too, his eyes were misty from all the bawling, ugh, it was a horrendous sight. Now was the hard part, to apologize, the dragon king had never done such a thing before, this was going to become a pain.

"No, Natsu it is I who should be sorry for yelling, will you ever forgive me?" There, the dragon managed to utter the words required to fix the situation...if only his pride...

"Daddy, I wont to do it again, I swear, I am ready to make a pinky promise too! Look you hold out your hand and then.." Natsu was however cut short mid rant by his foster father.

"There is no need for a...what-ever-it-was-called-promise, I am just content with your forgiving, okay?"

"Its called a pinky promise! Its okay, you are forgiven!" The boy was ever so resilient and wouldn't dream of giving up. He was smiling now, thats good!

Acnologia was utterly disgusted with himself for being about to actually do this. "Natsu, come here!" The dragon king also gestured with his talons for him to come closer, and that was what the pink haired boy did, and was now standing face to face with the black dragon, while looking away, Acnologia gently proceeded to pat the boys head. Natsu however just used Acnologias hand as a napkin and dried off all the snot that adorned his face. Much to the dragons spite.

"Don't...wipe your self on me, sigh..." Acnologia sometimes wondered if it was even worth all the trouble.

Flashback end...

"Natsu, make sure you wash your face properly alright! I will check."

"Sure thing, pops!" They were currently at the lake, it was a sunny, yet cold day. Natsu was undressing and throwing his clothes on a rock a few feet to the side, the water from the mountains which formed the lake was so clear you could see the bottom as if the water never even existed, there were a healthy amount of fish in the lake, which was what Natsu mostly ate, fish was good for the boy, the nutritious fats and oils in the fish was good for his brain and health.

"Okay, I am done!" He cheerily said, while looking at his own reflection in the water, making stupid grimaces to amuse himself, even though Natsu was an unruly boy he still obediently waited for his foster fathers reply.

"Don't face me when you don't have your clothes on, please!"

"Ah, okay!" The brat has no clue what decency is it seems. "Whoa, the water is ice cold! How am I supposed to bath in this?"

"I'll figure something out, don't worry..." And with that the dragon king sneakily picked Natsu up with his talons and threw him in the freezing water, with out any care in the world, the pink haired boy was flailing and cursing, but Acnologia paid no mind, how else would the brat get himself cleaned up? "I-it's c-cold, w-why did y-you do that?" Was the water that cold, it should at least be over zero degrees but oh well, what is done is done! "Natsu scrub your face!" The black dragon king said with a tone of irritation in his voice. "No!" Was the rosettes answer. "You sure?" Acnologia wasn't going to back down on a challenge from a child! "Yeah!" Natsu proceeded to splash some water at the mighty dragon for extra emphasis on his decision on not scrubbing his dirty face clean. "Suit yourself, kid!" At that very moment the fist of the dragon king collided with water surface creating a massive geyser like blast of water up in the air, and back down again on Natsu who could only watch in awe of his foster fathers demonstration of strength.

From head to toe the pink haired boy was soaked, and his face seemed to have lost some of its color, but nonetheless, it was now clean. "Okay, you win this time..." And there he goes again, such a stubborn brat, that has the guts to stands against the might of a dragon, only a fool would do that, a very brave fool.

"Come, lets start the training I have scheduled today." He always did brighten up when training and power was brought up in sentences, he was crazy about learning new techniques and memorizing new spells, even at eight years of age, he would give some of the lower B-class level mages a run for their money, Natsu was a fighting genius, but fighting isn't everything that matters in life and there is a lot he needs to polish, like his spelling, oh god, he is a lost cause in that department, maybe someone will one day smack it into his thick skull...one could always hope. But on the bright side he read a lot of books, which were mostly grimories and other spell related books, but were still legitimately counted as actual books, one would think that by reading these books he would pick up a few things about how the letters should be placed for a word to form but he was a special case. Acnologia however would try his best to sharpen his academical skills as much as he could, the rest was up to himself, after all Acnologia wouldn't always...be there for him...

"Finally, something fun, this whole day has been boring so far!" The rosette said while rolling around in the grass, trying to dry himself.

"Put on your clothes, will you, and hurry, we haven't got all day!" It wasn't an issue time wise, quite the contrary, the real thing lurking in Acnologias mind was to prevent the brat from getting sick again which wasn't a pleasant experience at all.

While smiling, Natsu was happily putting on his clothing articles, starting with his boxers. When he was done the pink haired boy, stood in front of Acnologia clad in a yellow turtle neck shirt, a pair of khaki colored pants and some standard boots, all in all, the boy looked presentable, the clothes Acnologia had bought himself when on his secret trips to the city, in which he takes on a human form to make the business smoother, who in the right mind would try to the consult a dragon about what size his human foster son had!

"All done!" The brat exclaimed out to Acnologia, if only he would have put on his shirt in the right way, the front of the shirt was on his back.

"Good, could you just remove your hands from the shirts sleeves?"

"Okay!" Dragging his arms back inside his shirt and keeping them there made it available for the black dragon to smoothly turn his shirt around do it was worn correct, it was like handling a doll, the human body was so fragile and petty, so insignificant. But Natsu had a very exceptional magic potential, yet to be discovered, Acnologia had tried figuring it out but to no avail. Even when teaching the boy advanced dragon slayer spells, his body wouldn't transform permanently into the one of a dragon, or similar to a dragons, it would only be temporarily turned when ever he needed to perform his spells, this temporary transformation was a very impressive feat, to be switching from human and dragon bodies takes years to master but the brat just naturally possessed that skill, but however, to be able to enter the tier one dragon slayer ability; Dragon force, to be able to withstand the extreme toll on your body, one hast to transform into a dragon like state, and if Natsu can't ever enter dragon force, he remain weak, not in that literal way, Acnologias magic has the most potency out of all the dragon slaying schools of magic, the reason was because, chaos magic which is made unstable with a intention of hiding its real strength, therefore when an individual is hit by chaos magic there will be an attack with a varying aspect of destruction and damage. It seems rather bad on paper but will fool everyone to think your magic is specialized in for an example area of effect attacks when the chaos caster has many more types of attack in his arsenal, thus the enemies will lower their guards. Its quite simple, rock never wins over paper, paper never wins over scissors and scissors never win against rock, thats an universal law, but chaos dragon magic will adapt.

"We are going to train on entering dragon force again today, furthermore we are doing what we did last week." Acnologia wasn't after Natsu initially entering dragon force, he was interested in why it didn't work, but this time he had a came up with a plan, in order for Natsu to synthetically enter dragon force he needed a small push.

"Yup, on it, just let me gather some magic first." He was always awfully cheery, it was most definetly connected to his annoying personality, not even Acnologias harsh and torturous training methods would shape him into mindlessness.

"Face that tree, and start!" There was an Elm tree some meters in front of Acnologia and Natsu, while the boy was facing the tree with the same determination he always had when training, the thing was that Acnologia was going to let some of his high powered magic flow through Natsu with out him eating it, nullifying the risks. The boy was so single minded into gathering his magical energy he probably didn't even notice his foster father flare up his own magic too.

"Okay, lets do this!" Natsu began releasing his magic slowly from his various pores around his body, letting his magic form a thin coating around him, he had nailed the first stage down to perfection but at this rate everything would end up the same if Acnologia didn't interfere. Slowly raising his talons which were all glowing out of the constant magic flow from the black dragon. He used one of the gleaming razor sharp claws of his to tear up the rosettes shirt, then he proceeded to place his palm on Natsu's now bare back, letting his magic flow freely into the boy's body. Slowly the amplified dragon magic started to take effect, scales started forming on Natsu's body, the boys muscle mass seemed to expand too. Everything was going along just fine, but that took a one-eighty change of course.

"MAKE IT STOP, MAKE I-IT STO...AGHH!" The brat was clutching his head out of extreme agony, was this some bizarre bi-effect of dragon force? Nonetheless it was fascinating, why just Natsu reacted to dragon force like this was an unsolved enigma, well looking at things now not so much...

Just as the pain seemed to escalate and go far beyond bearable levels, a strong green light wrapped around Natsu, it was so warm and friendly, Acnologia didn't think for a second that it would do the brat any harm...After all it was her magic! She still watched over him after all these years, and thats the reason, that mark, that blasted mark of a blue bird with a fairies tail, the mother had marked him, after all it seemed strange for a mage of her caliber to just die all of a sudden, no, she had poured all of her remaining powers into her child, the mark seemed familiar but that didn't matter at all, Natsu was crippled of his astounding potential, because that damn mark.

Acnologia didn't often get angry, but when he did he was full of rage. Punching a big rock formation to his side making debris fly around thanks to the impact with the dragon fist. Acnologia was so close to just ripping off the pink haired boys arm just to get rid of that damn mark, but something inside him made him come to his senses, there was something inside him that deeply cared for the boy, even if it disgusted him to no end, there was nothing the dragon could do about it. Just by looking at the boys chest falling and raising when he was asleep made him want to take him under his wing, protecting him from all harm.

Out of frustration Acnologia muttered to himself: "Why can't I let him go..."

AN: And done, phew, I really enjoyed writing the flash backs, they were fun to think up, by the way concerning pairings, there are many good suggestions, Erza, Mira, Ultear, Kagura etc, but as much as I can go on personal preference, I would like to hear my readers out, so when writing a review please state why, you think a pairing is more preferable than the others!

Until next time, bye and have a nice week!