Chapter 7: Fairy Tail!
Natsu adjusted his tie, the article of clothing constricting around his throat, he found it hard to breathe. Of course the tie wasn't the only reason, he was currently staring down at the casket that held his father's body. A closed casket funeral, he didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to Igneel to his face. Placing his hand on the cold black metal he found his heart stopped beating, tears dripped down his face. This was real. Gathering his notebook in his other hand he slowly turned from the casket and walked over to a podium with a microphone attached to it. Setting his notebook down he flipped it open to the page where he had scribbled a bunch of words. He looked around the empty room, in about an hour the room would be filled with a small crowd of people who knew him or his father. Then he will be forced to say goodbye to the man who raised him since he was a baby. Walking back to the casket Natsu looked down at it, in this metal box his father would be laid to rest Natsu wasn't able to see his face, the funeral planners were told that his skin was so badly burnt that he was unrecognizable.
"Natsu…" A gentle voice announced their presence from behind him, his eyes didn't leave his father's casket as skinny arms wrapped themselves around his torso from behind. His lip quivered as Lucy hugged him from behind. Natsu began to shake and Lucy gave him a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm right here." She whispered into his back. Natsu rubbed his still stinging and bandaged wrapped arm from the fight against Erigor a week ago. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, his father was getting buried before Christmas, this sucked. At least Lucy was right next to him this entire time and that made it a little easier.
"Thank you Luce…." Natsu croaked out, turning to face the blonde who was clad in a simple black dress, with her hair tied up in a bun, her eyes red and puffy. Natsu enveloped her into a full hug resting his head in between her neck and shoulder. Lucy squeezed him in response.
"It's okay Natsu I'm not going anywhere." Natsu tightens his grip on his best friend weeping into her shoulder.
The two stayed in each other's embrace until Jude informed them that guests were arriving. Soon the small room was crowded with people, Natsu made his way to his seat after greeting all the guests. He sat next to Wendy in the front row who wrapped her arm around his shoulders, he rested his head on her shoulder. The pastor walked over to the podium and laid a stack of papers down, clearing his throat he began to speak.
"Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Igneel Atlas Dragneel, adoptive father to Natsu, and friend to all. Today we gather to remember his lasting impact on us all, to honor his legacy and mourn his passing. Although he is no longer with us, we will keep him alive in our hearts and memories. Young Natsu, everyone in this room is your family, in you Igneel lives on forever, if you would come up to deliver the eulogy you have prepared." The pastor took a few steps back, opening up the podium for Natsu to come up. He stood with one last hand squeeze from Lucy, and walked up to the podium stopping at his father's casket and placing his hand on it one final time. Letting out a small breath he walked over to the podium looking down at his notebook he cleared his throat.
"I ummm wanted to start by thanking everyone for coming here today. Call him what you'd like, a friend, a cousin, boring old Igneel, Mr. Dragneel, he had many nicknames and titles, but for me he was just dad. The man who raised me, and for all my faults never stopped loving me. To those who know me this may be shocking, but...I was not an easy child to take care of...I know shocking right." Natsu paused as a few people giggled, Lucy cracked a smile.
"I was reckless, and loud, energetic, always hungry, and so many other things. He was always able to keep up with me, no matter how fast ahead I ran he just seemed to be able to run faster in order to keep up with me. I owe him so much, and now I'll never be able to make it up to him, all I can do is keep on moving forward like I know he'd want me to do. He always used to tell me that no matter how bad things get, tomorrow is right around the corner. You just need to keep going to make it there. If you run out of energy and find it's hard to get through the day, then all you need to do is reach inwards and borrow it from tomorrow. So that's what I'm going to do…..borrow the energy I need from tomorrow to make it through today." Natsu wore a soft smile before turning away from the crowd to hide his wet eyes and walk over to his father.
"I love you dad….thank you for everything…." He whispered before walking back to his seat.
After about an hour the service had ended and everyone made their way to the local Magnolia cemetery. Natsu rode passenger Lucy in her car, the two in the front of the procession right behind the hurst that held Igneel. Natsu stared out the window while Lucy rubbed her thumb on his hand. It was a gloomy day out, lots of clouds were in the sky, a slight drizzle fell from the sky, it was like every cliché funeral, Igneel probably would have made fun of that.
"Are you doing okay?" Lucy's voice piped up from next to him. Natsu turned to look at her, she didn't take her eyes off the road, but she squeezed his hand to let him know she was paying attention to him.
"I guess…I was just thinking is all…"
"Oh, I getcha….you did great with the eulogy by the way…." Natsu smiled at her.
"Thanks. I had a great writer help me with it." Lucy's face flushed and she wore a small smirk.
"I'm not that good...You just have a way of making anything sound better, it's all in the delivery."
"There would be nothing to deliver if it wasn't for the writer." Natsu mused, and Lucy chuckled.
"I guess we can just agree that we are a great team in that case."
"The best team." Natsu confirmed, Lucy turned to smile at him.
"Indeed we are Natsu Dragneel…"
"And we will always be a team right Luce?" Natsu smirked knowingly, Lucy just shrugged in response.
"I suppose….Unless you touch my innocent fries again...Then we might have problems." Lucy joked and Natsu giggled. Soon though she just smiled back at him and gave his hand a squeeze.
"I promise, we will always be a team." She spoke sincerely. Natsu locked eyes with hers and nodded.
"Same here." They smiled at each other, and made small talk for the next minute before they pulled into the cemetery. Lucy's car came to a stop. Sparing one last look at each other Natsu and Lucy got out of the car and walked over to where Igneel's memorial was. Lucy opened a black umbrella for the two of them, Natsu grabbed it and held it up for them.
Natsu stayed behind as everyone had left, soon the only ones still at the graveyard were Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia, Erza, and Levy. The five friends stood off to the side by their vehicles allowing Natsu to say his final goodbye. He stared at the rectangular black marble stone with a red dragon etched around the perimeter. In gold text the words.
Igneel Atlas Dragneel
July 7 1977 - December 15 2019
Natsu was suddenly thankful for the rainy day, it helped hide the tears that were flowing down his cheeks.
"Dad….there's so much I still want to share with you….I want to show you how strong I am now….I can even control my abilities a little….I'm helping people….I-I...I miss you…" Natsu fell to his hands and knees. He bawled letting not bothering to try and disguise the sobs or hide the tears. This was really happening, and he couldn't believe it, his body grew hotter. Lucy took a step forward, but Gray stopped her. She turned to glare at the black haired teen.
"He needs to let it out, we just need to allow him to."
"Gray is right Lucy. It's unhealthy for him to keep it bottled up." Erza agreed, Lucy looked between the two and sighed.
"We all want to help him Lu, but right now, this is what he needs." Levy hugged her blonde best friend. So Lucy turned back to look at Natsu watching as he quivered, her face fell into a frown. Natsu soon calmed himself down enough to talk once more.
"I'm going to make you proud….I love you so much….I'll come visit you whenever I can so you don't get lonely...until then…..goodbye." Natsu slowly got to his feet, quickly wiping away his tears he turned to his friends and slowly walked over to them, Lucy rushed over to hug him soon followed by the others.
Natsu now sat on his bed in one of the guest rooms in the Heartfilia house where he had moved into. Lucy and the others went out for lunch, but Natsu told them he had needed a nap. In reality, he just wanted to be alone. He rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and undid all the buttons revealing the healing bruises from last week that were painted on his torso, as well as his bandage wrapped arm. In his other hand he clutched a lighter. He flipped it on and then off. Watching the flame spark into existence, before fading in a stream of smoke. It was oddly therapeutic and calming to him as he watched the flame dance about he was also focusing his mind trying to control the small flame. He figured that this could help him gain more control over his powers, after an hour of doing this the best he could manage was to make the flame grow a couple inches before his focus became too strained and he had to turn the lighter off. His eyes drifted to the business card on his nightstand. He set his lighter down and picked up the crumpled and torn card.
"Fairy Tail huh? That Makarov guy did say he could help me control my abilities. I should check it out." Natsu proclaimed getting off the bed and changing out of his suit and into the clothes he had stashed away inside his father's briefcase. Changing into his Salamander getup, he grabbed his phone and the card. Making sure to give food to Happy before he hopped out the window landing onto the snowy ground, it was still drizzling, and chilly out so Natsu used his powers to keep himself warm. He typed out the address from the card into his GPS app and followed the directions. It looked like he would be heading just outside of Magnolia into the woods where him and Igneel used to live. After a long walk he found a dirt trail that led straight to his destination. Putting his phone away he walked towards the building at the end of it, Natsu's eyes widened.
"This...can't be right…." The building looked ready to fall apart. It was made of cobblestone and rotting wood. There was a windmill on the front of it and an orange banner with a strange looking emblem on it. The emblem matched the one on Natsu's card so he must have been in the right place. Plus the words Fairy Tail falling apart right above the door was a dead giveaway. Natsu walked up to the doors and knocked loudly, he could hear commotion from the other side, and a few seconds later the doors swung open and a tall, beautiful woman with long silky white hair, tied up a little in the front opened the door. She smiled brightly.
"Hiya!" The woman beamed looking Natsu up and down.
"Ummm, hi is Makarov here by any chance? Or Gildarts?" Natsu asked, reaching for the card in his pocket. The woman nodded and pushed the door open more.
Natsu took a step inside and made note of the fact that the building looked just as bad on the inside as it did on the outside. There were only three tables scattered around the singular room, a gigantic, muscular man with white hair similar to the woman who greeted Natsu sat next to a girl with her black hair tied into a high ponytail, she was clad only in her bra and capris pants, and held a bottle of whiskey in both of her hands. At the other table two guys were having a conversation, one was stuffing his face with a chicken leg while the orange haired one scolded him. Next to the doors Natsu walked through was a wooden pin board, request board was written in large bold letters at the top. There were only two papers pinned to it, Natsu noted that the only other people in the building were near the bar. Behind the bar was the white haired woman who was talking to the shorter man he met last week seated next to Gildarts. Both turned around smiling and waved him over. The last person in the room sat at the bar as well but looked disinterested. He was muscular and tall, as Natsu came closer he saw he had spikey blonde hair, he wore a purple dress shirt, black pants and wore a black jacket across his shoulders. Natsu knew at once who it was even before seeing the lightning bolt shaped scar. Laxus Dreyer. He stood up with a grunt and walked off, not apologizing when he bumped shoulders with Natsu.
"Ignore him, he always gets like this when someone new joins." Gildarts smirked at Natsu.
"That's our Laxus. It's just part of his charm!" The white haired girl chirped.
"Mira, I don't believe you have been introduced to our newest recruit, Natsu if you wouldn't mind removing your mask. Your identity is safe here." Makarov spoke up, and Natsu nodded and did as he was told. The girl named Mira smiled upon seeing his face.
"Awww aren't you a cutie! I'm Mirajane Strauss, but you can just call me Mira!" Natsu blushed at the compliment.
"I'm Natsu, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Natsu reached out his hand and Mira took it and shook it in her normally bubbly manner.
"Just be careful there Natsu, don't get on Mira's bad side, she's not called the She-Devil for nothing!" Gildarts joked, Natsu chuckled a little while Mira shrugged. Makarov cleared his throat.
"So Natsu. I know it's not much in terms of looks, but this here is our base of operations. Over at the request board we can take jobs from clients...free of charge of course, for better or for worse." Makarov looked around at the state of the crumbling building.
"Our only source of income is my bar to be honest. That doesn't matter though, what matters is what we stand for." Mira giggled.
"What exactly do you guys stand for?" Natsu questioned.
"Why dear boy, we stand for peace, we stand for making each other stronger through the bonds we share, most importantly we believe in protecting those who cannot protect themselves!" Makarov beamed up at the pinkette who smiled at his words.
"...I buried my dad today, I want to get stronger so that I can protect those I love and care about, do you think you could help me achieve my goals?"
"Of course." Makarov stood from his chair and nodded.
"Then I want to join!" Natsu held up his fist and beamed down at him, he spoke a little loudly causing the others to look at him. Mira giggled and fished for something under the counter and walked out from behind it.
"Well then you are going to need one of these!" She showed him the stamp which made him raise one of his eyebrows.
"It's a special kind of stamp, we all have one! It connects us all together!" Makarov explained.
"Ohhhkay? But doesn't it wash off?"
"No silly, these are special stamps, they sink into the skin like a tattoo, the only way to remove it is with a special chemical." Mira chirped.
"Woah! That's actually really awesome!" Natsu proclaimed loudly, Mira smiled and opened up the red ink pad and coated the large stamp in it.
"Where would you like it?" She asked, holding up the stamp. Natsu pondered and then looked at his right shoulder that was left exposed.
"On my shoulder! Right above the bandages." He turned to show her. She beamed and stamped it. Natsu looked at the red Fairy Tail emblem that now donned his shoulder.
"It's official, welcome to the family Natsu!" Mira beamed. Natsu placed his hand on the mark. Family. That's something he hadn't thought about, as of right now Fairy Tail was his new family.
"By the way Natsu, how has that wound healed up?" Gildarts piped up after downing his mug of beer, Natsu turned to face him.
"Oh I actually don't know, I haven't unwrapped it since the fight." Natsu looked down at it.
"Oh my, do you want me to give a call to Porl-"
"No, no that won't be necessary you know how she can get it. I think Natsu will be fine, it will heal in time." Makarov interrupted.
"OI NEW BOY! HOW MANLY ARE YOU!" A voice yelled out interrupting the conversation, Natsu turned to face the burly man with spiky white hair who was now standing cracking his knuckles.
"Now Elfman where are your manners? You haven't even been introduced." Mira giggled at her younger brother's actions.
"Like yah man what's the big deal! You spilled my booze!" The black haired woman stood to her feet as well and threw an empty bottle at Elfman, it bounced off his back and he turned to the his attacker.
"Is that a challenge Cana! I wouldn't be a real man if I turned it down!"
"Oh please Elfman you could never be a real man!"
"WHAT WAS THAT!"
"YOU HEARD ME!"
The two began arguing with each other as Natsu watched on with wide eyes and a smirk, the three people surrounding the bar behind him just groaned. Just then a chair got sent flying and hit the fat guy next to the orange haired boy.
"DROY! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"
"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY JET!"
'WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" A new voice shouted over the chaos, Natsu's eyes widened, he had heard that voice before. It was stern and intimidating. Like a certain redhead.
"Oh hi Erza!" Mira smiled as everyone else cowered and cleared the way for three new figures, Natsu's eyes widened. Erza walked in first clad in a suit of armor, except for her navy blue skirt. Behind her was Gray. He was shirtless and half of his body was black, a white Fairy Tail emblem that matched everyone else's was on his chest. Next to Gray was Juvia who wore a blue and white long fleece jacket with a hat. A blue emblem on her leg was revealed by a leg slit.
"Jesus, this place has never heard of peace and quiet has it?" Gray asked, glancing around the room, his eyes widened as him and Natsu made eye contact, Natsu immediately flipped his hood up.
"Natsu?" He asked Erza to look over to him, and then over to Natsu, as did Juvia.
"Oh Natsu. You didn't tell us you knew Titania, Ice Demon and Rain Woman!" Mira laughed, blowing his cover right away. Natsu gulped and pulled down his hood as the three walked towards him.
"Natsu….what are you doing here?!" Gray asked, staring at him in disbelief. Erza glanced at Natsu's shoulder where his guild mark rested.
"I ummm, I-I am a member now." Natsu spoke looking anywhere but them.
"Juvia didn't know Natsu had abilities!"
"Yeah none of us did, what's the big deal man!" Gray yelled out.
"It's not like you told me you had them either!" Natsu, not willing to ever back down from Gray snapped back.
"Well now I want to see what you got!...Unless you're chicken!" Gray yelled, opening up one of his palms and placing his fist down on the other. The air around them grew cold, Natsu growled, this guy always knew how to get under his skin.
"What was that Ice Princess! I guess now I know that nickname is even more fitting huh!" Natsu clenched his fist summoning his flames into his fists. Gray looked at them for a second before Erza interrupted them.
"Natsu….you are the Salamander aren't you?" She spoke, Gray and Natsu dropped what they were doing out of fear of Erza and Natsu turned to face her.
"Y-yes I am." She nodded.
"I heard we have you to thank for taking out the Eisenwald gang...So thank you, you saved me a lot of hassle." She spoke cordially, but cracked a smile.
"Igneel would be proud of you, if he could see you." She spoke. Natsu's eyes widened, and his heart warmed, but something felt off. Before he even knew what he was happening, words came out of his mouth.
"No, I haven't. Not yet at least."
"What are you talking about man?" Gray asked seriously, Juvia and Erza tilted their heads as did Mira and Makarov, Gildarts sighed, but didn't turn.
"I mean….I won't have made him proud until I find who killed him."
"Juvia is curious as to if you have any leads? We will help you!"
"Nothing...All I know is what Erigor told me about the Netherworld doors opening...whatever that is." The room suddenly grew dead silent. Everyone stared at him in shock.
"The Netherworld doors? Isn't that Tartaros?!" The man named Droy called out, Natsu's eyes widened. Tartaros? They were the strongest members of the Balam Alliance.
"Indeed, but Gildarts and I have looked into it, as far as we could tell it was just an empty threat Erigor made to save his skin." Makarov replied, and at once the air surrounding them cleared. After a little while of explanations and introductions, Natsu was walking back home smiling as he left his new family. Erza, Juvia and Gray walking with him.
"So Natsu, I do want a spar against you sometime!" Gray smirked over at his friend, Natsu nodded.
"I don't know Gray, we all know fire melts ice."
"But then water puts out fire!"
"So what, I don't need my fire to beat you!"
"Yeah is that so then maybe we should go right now! Put your theory to the test!"
"Maybe we should!"
"Knock it off you two! As of tonight we are all on the same team! And as a team I expect no fighting within our ranks! Understood!" Erza turned around to glare at the two. Natsu and Gray threw their arms around each other.
"Yes ma'am we are bestest friends! Right Natsu!"
"Of course best bud!"
"GET YOUR HAND OFF OF MY DARLING YOU PYRO!" Juvia yelled out holding out her hand, Natsu and Gray's eyes widened as a jetstream of water hit them sending them back.
"OH NO I'M SORRY GRAY MY LOVE!" Juvia rushed over to her boyfriend panicking. Erza cracked a smirk.
"I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same."
"HEY GET OFF OF ME NATSU!"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT GET OUT FROM UNDER ME!"
"AHHHHH GRAY DARLING HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!"
"OWWW GRAY YOU FROSTY BASTARD THAT WAS MY NOSE!"
"OOOPS SORRY MY FIST SLIPPED, OWWWW DAMNIT NATSU THAT WAS MY NOSE!"
"OOPS MY FIST SLIPPED TOO!"
"NOW YOU TWO ARE FISTING EACH OTHER! JUVIA CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
"Okay you three we should get going before it gets too late out." Erza spoke before she got hit by water from Juvia, growling she held out a hand and a sword appeared.
Chapter 8: Christmas!