Chapter 4
the disclaimer's on chapter 1, seriously, its at the top
Much to Lisanna's dismay, Natsu quickly joined Erza's posse, well … Sort of. He only hung around with them because that's where all the people of a similar strength to him hung around and the young boy took any and every opportunity to challenge anything that moved to a fight
One rainy day, after the master had firmly told Natsu to stop attacking his guild mates, he and the rest of them were sitting at a table and Natsu was eagerly telling them about his childhood so far
Lisanna and Erza were both shocked to hear about Igneel's inability to teach Natsu how to read and write, Neiberosa taught me how to read and write, I could teach him just as Lisanna thought this, Erza beat her to the punch
"That is unacceptable! I will personally see to it that you are properly educated. You will be here at seven o'clock sharp tomorrow morning for tuition. Do I make myself clear?", Erza exclaimed, oblivious to lisanna's slight pout
"WHAT!? I don't need to know how to read or write! I onl…", Natsu was cut off by Erza requiping a sword and slamming the flat of the blade over Natsu's head
"Do I make myself clear?", Erza repeated in a stern voice
"Yes ma'am.", Natsu said looking down rubbing the rather comical bump on his head, "pfft" Gray snorted
"How can you have been raised by a dragon if you can't even take that?", He added looking smug
"I WAS RAISED BY A DRAGON!", Natsu yelled standing up
"OH YEA, PROVE IT", Gray yelled back also getting to his feet
"BRATS!", the master thundered from the bartop
"NO FIGHTING!", He admonished
"Well y'gunna prove it or what?", Gray said after begrudgingly sitting down
"I would, but I can't find Igneel, he's gone", Natsu said tearing up slightly
"Pfft, He probably never existed, dragons are extinct after all", Gray said
At that Lisanna bristled and Natsu abruptly stood up, knocking his chair back and ran out of the guild into the pouring rain.
Lisanna shot a glare at Gray so cold it surprised everyone present and ran to grab an umbrella from a bucket beside the bar before practically sprinting out of the guild after the pink haired dragon slayer.
She followed his scent trail easily enough even in the rain and found him crouched next to one of magnolia's famous canals, clutching on to his white scarf with the scale patterns that he never seemed to take off, she could smell his tears and could see in his face that he had been crying.
"Hey", she called, startling him
"You'll catch cold if stay here in the rain", she said walking over to him and holding the bright red umbrella over both their heads.
"Thank you… uhh", Natsu said in a sad voice
"Lisanna, my names Lisanna.", She put in and Natsu gave her a small smile but Lisanna could tell it was just an act
"My name's Natsu", he said pointing proudly to his chest causing Lisanna to giggle
"Hey Natsu … Could you tell me about your father?", Lisanna asked timidly, trying to cheer the boy up and to see if Igneel was anything like Neiberosa. After her question Natsu actually visibly brightened and a grin covered his face
"Sure…", He said completely forgetting his melancholy mood from moments before
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months and Natsu came in one day carrying what he claimed was a dragon egg which Lisanna offered to help him raise, help that Natsu gladly accepted
The forests that flank magnolia was where the two decided to hatch the egg, they found a clearing and Natsu declared the should build a hut for them to live in while raising the egg, acknowledging that he wasn't very good at building stuff (not for lack of trying mind you), Natsu focused on gathering materials while Lisanna built the hut
Once it was finally finished the two spent almost all their time in there together, playing and taking turns to warm and look after the egg. Lisanna's favourite game was to play 'family' where she and Natsu pretended to be married and that the egg was their child, it was fun and Natsu was so easy to embarrass.
The rest of the guild especially Erza and Mira expected both of them to not get along at all, they thought: they're so different, there's no way they could ever agree on anything
They were right of course, Natsu was hot headed, impulsive and always itching for a fight while Lisanna was quiet, collected and usually shied away from conflict.
But despite their differences they got along like a house on fire and were practically inseparable up until the egg hatched.
The egg hatching was a surprise for everybody, they all believed that a dragon would come out of that egg, but everyone was surprised when instead of a dragon they got a small blue kitten with angel like wings?
The shocked looks soon turned to smiles as the blue kitten slowly floated up, did a lazy backflip and promptly flopped down on top of Natsu's head with an exclamation of "Aye!" Causing a wave of laughter throughout those watching
"So what should we call him?", Natsu asked Lisanna
"Hmm", Lisanna thought, looking around the room she saw all the bright happy and amused faces of her guild mates
"How about Happy?", She asked
"Happy? Happy. Hmm. I like it, Happy it is!", Natsu said picking up the small blue cat off his head and holding him in his arms "Aye!" Was all Happy said in confirmation
"Ok everybody gather round, I'll draw a portrait", a skinny man with a Boscan (French) accent called
"Hey Reedus, can you draw happy as a dragon like we all expected him to be?", Natsu asked
It was a rule in fairy tail that to partake on a job of any kind, supervised or no you had to be of at least ten years of age, and while master Makarov knew that Natsu and Gray could both decently handle themselves he refused to alleviate the rule
As a result Natsu grew quickly restless and regressed back to fighting anyone and everyone, except perhaps not so strangely, Lisanna. When the famous Mage Gildarts returned from a ten year job he had been doing, the crash magic user took an immediate liking for the two new faces in the guild and offered to train them
While Natsu agreed readily, Lisanna was a bit more withdrawn in her agreement, she didn't really like fighting and preferred other methods to settle conflict, but Natsu managed to convince her that once they were old enough, they needed to be strong enough to take jobs and fight, Lisanna eventually conceded the point and the two spent most weekends training with Gildarts
By the time they were old enough to be brought on jobs with supervision, Natsu could probably complete the simpler missions on his own and Lisanna's versatility made her a valuable asset to any team
Lisanna generally took jobs with Mira and Elfman, often with an accompaniment of both Natsu and Laxus as backup (much to Elfman's dislike) and the three plus the occasional two made a frightfully effective team, plus the on and off nature of two team mates made them remarkably able to adapt to most situations
When Natsu and Lisanna were twelve they were allowed to take jobs without the supervision of another member and so the two did a lot of missions together as a 'family', just Lisanna, Natsu and Happy who rarely left Natsu's side
Their solo job taking and Laxus' disappearance from the guild caused the Strauss team to collapse, while they took missions together from time to time, they were no longer really considered a proper team by the rest of the guild, not that any of them minded very much
During all this time both still trained with Gildarts when he was around, and to his credit he did make a special effort to come in more often now that he had students to teach, but at fourteen their training changed. At fourteen Natsu found out about her dragon slayer magic.