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A/N: When I use a '~' after an 's' it is to emphasize a hissing sound as a certain something speaks.
In the remote plains of Seven, a kingdom just north of Fiore, there was a small farming town called Greenbale. This scarcely populated settlement sat in the center of 5 square miles of feilds, which served as a reliable source of quality crop for surrounding cities. Nestled up on a hill, watching over the rest of the village, was a home that belonged to a boy named Natsu.
Inside this house, so unusually quiet, you'd almost be startled to see a 7 year old boy standing in the middle of the kitchen all by himself. His glazed expression made him look absent-minded in a way that grew increasingly eery the longer he held it. A mangled mess of spiky pink hair covered his head and cast jagged shadows over his face. His eyes were open, yet seemingly staring off into another world and his mouth moved in repeating sequences as quiet whispers; something along the lines of 'Where's dad? Where's dad? Where's dad? Where's dad? Where's dad? Where's dad?'
"You spilled the juice again." Natsu glanced over to the fluffy little dog that had just spoken to him. The creature stared back at him with a look of concern.
"What?" He asked, blinking at the tiny canine curiously.
"The grape juice, Natsu." The boy looked down to his feet after feeling a sticky mess between his toes. Surely enough.
"Oh!" Natsu chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry."
Instead of being graced with the calm reply of the small pooch, an uncanny hissing sound slithered through the room, causing the Pomeranian to whimper in dismay.
"You s~tupid child. Look at what you've done now. What on earth would your parents~ think?" The snake poked its head out from behind a shadow under the windowsill, gazing at Natsu with its intimidating yellow eyes.
"Now hold on!" The dog barked, "I don't think it's wise to toss a weight of guilt on him over this now, do you?" The fluffy dog pressed before Natsu could come up with a response. Swiftly, the snake glided over to the dog and curled his body in a circle around him. The serpent spoke as the other side of reason.
"I c~ertainly don't think that s~ending him down the rabbit hole will leave him anymore s~ane than in face~ of reality!" The dog held his gaze with the reptile, but Natsu could tell that he was frighted by the way his short legs shivered. He couldn't help but be slightly annoyed at how dramatic the two were being.
"Shut up! I can clean up the mess all by myself! It's not even such a big deal! My mom won't even know it happened! So stop fighting, okay?" Both animals stared at him in silence, prompting Natsu to roll his eyes in annoyance. He stormed out of the room to look for some sort of fabric to clean up the juice with.
Through the doorway of the kitchen and down a small hallway, he entered a darker room; one where the window was covered by a heavy curtain to block the light. The boy's eyes strained for a few seconds before he could make out anything in the room, causing him to ease his hurried pace. He took in a slow, nervous breath as the blur of darkness began to take shape around him.
Natsu was like other kids his age, being prone to fears of the dark. There was a simple idea that many children seemed to understand: Darkness is a canvas and its medium is fear. A void of incalculable mystery set out in plane sight was a particularly convenient setting for nightmares to exhibit themselves. The unknown was a scary place, he thought. As this occurred to him, in the corner of his eye, he caught a feint silhouette that he hadn't noticed at a first glance. Something was moving on the ceiling; something with beady black eyes that watched him with interest. The shadow swayed back and forth slowly as it crept closer to the boy.
As Natsu's eyes adjusted, he began to make out the fur coat of the long-limbed creature inching closer towards him. The number of unsettling emotions that this figure set off in the child's mind would have normally triggered enough adrenaline to send him sprinting in the opposite direction, yet for some odd and compelling reason, Natsu couldn't be bothered to move from his position in the doorway. He rubbed his eyes lazily and then removed his hands to find a face inches from his own. An upside-down grin curled across the whole length of the sloth's face.
"You shouldn't be afraid of the dark... Only the things... the things that hide inside... the darkness." The Sloth nonchalantly commented on Natsu's thoughts in such a slow-paced diction, that one would assume he was almost confused. The face under the mop of pink hair blinked slowly at the animal that hung in front of him.
"Whatever..." The boy struggled to remember why he was standing there in the first place. He could have sworn that he was going to get something. He steadily turned his gaze behind him and noticed that he was no longer standing at a safe bail-distance in the doorway of the creepily dark room, but actually a couple paces inside
The lightly-colored Pomeranian came into the view of the suddenly distant exit of the room and stared at Natsu with reassuring eyes.
"It's alright Natsu, you can stay here for a while." As calming as the dog's words appeared to be, a slight hint of utter concern or pity caused Natsu to reel his senses back and question what he was doing there.
"But... wait, no... I need to find some towels or.. something." He protested as he began to leave the room warily. A furry clawed hand held his shoulder and pulled him back slowly.
"Relax... Relax... It's nice and dark... perfect for... a little nap." The sloth pressed, maintaining a pulled grin.
"Eh... Seriously though, I think I'm gonna go find something. I can't really see much in here anyway." The boy insisted as he gently pulled against the claw. Behind him, Natsu didn't even have to look; he could feel the sloth's grin morph into the most disturbing frown he could imagine.
"...Stay..." The long fingernails of Sloth's hand dug into the boy's shoulder, making Natsu wince in pain.
"NO!" He lurched his shoulder backwards and broke free from the creature's grasp. Then sprinting straight for the door, he pulled himself through and slammed it behind him. He would have half expected to find the door being busted open from inside a few seconds later; claws bursting out of the wood and scratching around frantically to feel for him; sharp rows of teeth gnashing through to the other side. But as he stood there panting, with his back pressed against the painted wood, he heard nothing. Not a single disturbance came from the inside of that room. He waited there for a few long moments just to be sure that his fears weren't going to manifest themselves from behind the door.
Natsu was alone again now. Even the watchful Pomeranian was gone. He was slightly relieved of this, however. The dog was a voice of reason to Natsu. He had always offered the correct path to be taken. Yet, despite this, the dog had just advised Natsu to go along with something that seemed wrong. He had never felt this way about his little friend before.
The boy wandered all the way to the end of the hall and opened the door to his room, a place that he was sure would be safe. He peeked inside just to be sure and thankfully saw nothing waiting for him. This had to be a good sign, he told himself. Jumping up to sit comfortably on his bed, he hadn't noticed anything stirring under his bed. He heard an angry growling noise come from beneath him, which made Natsu tuck in his dangling legs just in time for a set of menacing teeth to snap at the empty space.
"GET OUT!" It roared spitefully.
"This is my room you stupid jerk!" There's was a pause after the boy's words. It was his room, after all. With a low growl, a furry red creature crawled out from under Natsu's bed and pulled its head around to snarl at him.
The beast had a thick neck and a large skull with a very powerful looking jaw, but of everything that stood out about this character, it was its teeth. Four sharp canines protruded from its mouth, being somewhat reminiscent of a snake's. A streak of white crossed its chest, adding a contrast to the bright red fur covering the rest of its body. The boy couldn't recall the name of this animal, so he subconsciously named it 'Devil'. A fitting name in fact, because it was actually known to the world as a Tasmanian Devil, possibly the cruelest and most hostile of the mammal family.
"I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS WHOS ROOM THIS IS!" The boy grew dizzy with rage at the Devil's unnecessary shouting.
"FUCK!" Natsu blurted as his hands clung to his head, fingers curling around his pink hair.
"OH YOU'RE UPSET? ARE YOU GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING?!" In retaliation against the Devil's sarcasm, the boy stood up fuming, and tore the sheets off of his bed, tossing them onto the floor.
"MORE!" The Devil spat. In rising anger, Natsu snatched his pillow and tore at it with his hands and teeth until it ripped to shreds, letting feathers spill out into the air. Unsatisfied, he stormed over to his lamp desk, where a thick book sat alongside his night lamp. It was with this book that his mother used to read him fairy tales every night before bed. For some reason, he couldn't recall that he enjoyed those stories immensely at the time.
He swatted the lamp off of the tiny desk and it promptly shattered on the floor. Without pausing, Natsu grabbed at the large book.
"You can't even pick that up! PUT IT DOWN YOU FOOL!"
"FUCK YOU!" And infected as Natsu was with the Tasmanian Devil's wrath, he did pick up that book. He held it above his head as far as it could go and he tossed it against the window next to his bed. The glass shattered instantly and the book toppled out of sight on the other side.
The red Devil scurried out of the room and left Natsu in the wreckage by himself. The boy took a long look at his room. Shattered glass and torn fabric littered the floor, his bed was stripped, and feathers floated through the air like ash after a devastating fire. The most surprising of the after effects, though, was something that he didn't recall causing: A black ring of soot lined the floor around the spot he currently stood. He rubbed his eyes and blinked at the peculiarity.
"Did I do that?" Natsu mumbled to himself in disbelief. He shook his head.
Not wanting to look at his mess for a second longer, the child left his room behind. He went back down the hall and into a tiny bathroom. Inside, he set his eyes on a rather large rat sitting on the sink counter. The rat turned to Natsu as he entered and sniffed the air petulantly.
"Yikes. You smell like soot and death, boy." Natsu's nose crinkled at the rather harsh greeting and immediately protested.
"No I don't!" There was an awkward pause.
"If believing that keeps your fuzzy pink head sound asleep on that pillow, who am I to tell you otherwise, ey?" The rat shrugged to himself sagely with a quiet chuckle and crept up to a rack of folded towels. This made Natsu's eyes widened as he noticed that the very object he had come for was now sitting right in front of him.
"So what can I do for you, small fry?" He grinned down at the boy as he situated himself comfortably on top of the linen stack. Ignoring the fact that the rat had called him small when in fact, he was considerably larger than the rodent, Natsu spoke as politely as he could manage.
"Well see.. uh Sir? I spilled some grape juice in the kitchen and I don't want my mama to find out. So I need something to clean it up all by myself." The rat's amused grin suddenly dropped and Natsu continued to explain. "It's from red grapes though and if I leave it there too long it'll leave a nasty stain and get real sticky and maybe even bring ants in for a feast... Mama hates when we get ants."
The rat's expression remained unchanged and unamused.
"That is a pickle you're in." The boy blinked in confusion. He was pretty sure that there were no pickles around. "Poor little kid spills his juice..." By now Natsu suspected that the rat was mocking him. Unfortunately, this became ever so clear once the rat began to mimic the boy's speech.
"Mama! Mama! I spilled some juice! How will I get these stains out of the floor Mama?!" The rat's shrieks paused as he briefly gave way to his own cackling laughter. "I can't let Mama find out, what if we get ants?! AHAHAHAAAA!"
The boy grew more furious with every word, but somehow managed to keep his anger at bay. He did need those towels after all. The rat ceased his hysterical laughter to meet eyes with the child.
"What about that mess in your room, huh? Why would you care about some stupid little stain when you have a broken window on your hands? Don't your priorities seems a little jumbled to you, kid?" The boy didn't respond simply because he didn't know how to. The questions confused him immensely, so he decided to ignore that the rat had said them at all.
"...Or maybe its not as jumbled as we'd like to think, huh?"
"Are you going to help me or what?" He blurted, interrupting the rodent's relentless stream of odd questions. The rat paused and gathered his thoughts.
"Ah well kid, see, the thing is.. these are my towels. I don't like sharing my towels... But since this amuses me, I think I really would like to see you clean up that grape juice mess out there." The rat snickered quietly once more before he met a gaze with the boy. The joy melted off of his furry little face and left a serious expression like before.
"You really have no clue, don't you?"
"Um... What do you mean?" The rat sighed, shook his head and continued.
"Yeah, you can have some... but to be honest, you'll need a bit more than a couple dry towels to clean up something like that... Here's the deal: you go find some cleaning supplies and I'll lend ya as many towels as you need." Natsu nodded at this. The offer seemed rather generous for a greedy little rat, so he was in no position to complain.
"Where do I find cleaning supplies?"
"Uh. Well I know there's none in here, so you're better off looking in the kitchen... That's right, the kitchen, in the cleaning cabinet." The rat eyed the 7 year old carefully as he spoke. Natsu blinked and exited the bathroom without responding.
He stood in the hallway outside of the door and stared down towards the kitchen. He wasn't sure why, but he received the most unsettling feeling that he was staring into the doorway of hopelessness.
The serpent from before was gliding into the kitchen several feet ahead. It lifted its head above its body to turn back and coax Natsu forward.
"This~ way-"
"-No!" The dog barked from behind, prompting the boy to spin around and face him. He was standing in front of the boy's room at the end of the hall.
"I'm sure there are plenty of what you need in your room!" The dog seemed desperate somehow.
"...It's okay, I've already found everything that I need." Natsu flashed the dog a smile in assurance. A whimper was the last thing his Pomeranian friend could offer him before he turned around and stepped towards reality.
Slowly toe-ing forward, Natsu noticed that a trail of grape juice foot prints lined the hallway. It seemed a bit dark, even for purple grape juice.
The light of the room was grayer than he remembered; possibly because of the change in daylight. Unable to recall how long he'd spent looking through the house, he decided to go with that theory. As he entered the kitchen, he somehow knew that he wasn't looking for cleaning supplies anymore. He held his eyes on the fridge and refused to look at anything else. A distinct assurance that he had not taken out the carton of grape juice at all flicked against his memory. He never even wanted any in the first place; it was always too sour to enjoy.
Slowly and with great effort, the boy turned his neck. Steadily and with absolute fear, he moved his eyes to the corner of the room, where the foot prints originated from. Natsu's mother lay motionless in a pool of blood. The Red Devil's cruel gaze peeked over the form of the woman and stared straight into the boy.
Tears pooled up in the child's sharp eyes before trailing down his cheek. His jaw clenched at the sight of the Devil.
"YOU MURDERER!" He ran to his mother and clutched her desperately. A slithering from behind him steadily made its presence.
"No Natsu." Warned the Devil. Natsu looked up at the creature with wide eyes. "It was you."
The boy turned to look behind him and saw the manifestations of his imagination standing before him. The compassionate Pomeranian, the truthful snake, the lazy sloth, the greedy rat, and the wrathful Tasmanian Devil watched him with knowing eyes. It was in that instance that the memory of it all flooded back into his mind.
"Mama, where's Dad?" The rose-haired woman glanced down at Natsu with a frown as she entered the kitchen, carrying in a bag of groceries. She shut the door behind her with her foot and sighed roughly. Before answering, she set the bag down, took out a carton of grape juice, and put it in the fridge.
"Natsu... You have to stop asking me that." That was all she would say—he knew this. It wasn't the first time he had tried to bring up the subject. He glared at her angrily. The Devil was behind her, screaming curses at his mother; curses that she remained oblivious to as she put the rest of the groceries away. Things like how she was selfish for keeping Natsu's father to herself and not bothering as to so much as answer a few questions about him. He was one of those boys that just needed a father. His mother was aware of this and it continued to get increasingly frustrating as he grew older.
"Where's dad?" He repeated, gaining nothing but a scoff from his mother before being ignored. She was trying his patience now. The Devil shouted more enraged insults and bit ferociously at her ankles. Again, she heard and felt nothing. This only made him more angry.
"Where's dad?" With that, she slammed the items in her hand down against the counter, making Natsu jump slightly. She looked at her son and screamed.
"GO TO YOUR ROOM, NATSU!" She turned back around, done with his questions and snatched the food. She stormed over to the corner of the room where a step stool gave access to the higher storing cabinets. As she stood on the stool and began shoving things into the top shelves, instead of going to his room, Natsu stepped closer to her.
"Do it! DO IT! She deserves it, THE BITCH! She's keeping your FATHER from you! SHE'LL ALWAYS KEEP HIM FROM YOU IF YOU LET HER! DO IT!"
Natsu crouched in front of the stool and yanked backwards with all of his strength.
Now, in most cases, pulling a step ladder out from below someone more than twice your size would be impossible, but in a world of fairy tails, some children are born with magic inside of them; magic that bends the possibility of what a 7 year old boy can do on his own. This was most certainly true for Natsu.
As the stool lurched backwards, the woman's feet went with it, throwing her completely off balance. She swiped her arms forward in attempt to catch herself against the shelves, but Natsu had tugged that stool out just a little too far. As her arms missed purchase against a surface, she actually ended up spinning herself forward, leaving her to dive straight into the tile-floor, head first. A thud, followed instantly by a loud snap, echoed throughout the kitchen. Natsu watched as his mother's body flopped helplessly onto the floor in a heap.
"Where's dad?"
Natsu was alone now. He sat next to his mother's body expecting and hoping to see so much as a sign of even the Red Devil, but it was just him alone in the kitchen. He turned to his mom and fell into a state of shock. Who knows how long he sat there staring at his mother; time was a haze that mixed between reality and the lies of his illness. The longer he sat there, the more entangled his emotions became. His skin grew hotter and hotter, until it birthed a dull flame. The flame encircled the boy's body and grew larger as he sat there. It rose to the ceiling and spread into the wooden shelves and across the hall, gradually creeping into each room.
Eventually, an unwelcome hint of acceptance seeped into the boy's mind, he was free to move. He noticed that the whole house surrounding him was ablaze. Quickly, he stood up and stepped away from his mother a little too frantically, causing him to slip on the bloody tiles below him. He was now covered from head to toe in what he had once told himself was grape juice. Scrambling backwards, he made his way to his feet and sprinted for the door. He fumbled with it a few seconds before it finally opened.
Natsu ran off into the dark night, out of the cottage, down the hill and into the vast fields of crop. He was moaning and crying in pain. Even though his skin was still covered in flames, he was not physically hurt. He was damaged by other means.
The events that took place that day plucked Natsu's already fragile mental state away from what he knew and tossed it into a blender of chaos. So he ran. He ran as the flames of his grief set fire to the farmer's crop and he didn't stop until something came down from the sky.
A great red dragon gazed down at the child covered in flames. The appearance of the dragon's head made imagining the size of the rest of his body impossible in the dark. The magnificent creature snorted a breath of ember-littered heat at Natsu and the boy looked up in awe.
"Dad?"
Okay, hopefully that wasn't too much of a stretch to follow, but if you did get it, let me know in a review! Same goes to say if you found it confusing, arite? Definitely. If you've graced me with enough of your time to make it all the way down here, why not give me your thoughts? :)