Fairytale of Doom

By CrimsonStarbird


Chapter Twelve – Someday, My Prince Will Come

Natsu wasn't a patient person at the best of times. And, as he sat at Gray's bedside, what little patience he could muster for the sake of his sick friend was very quickly being worn away by the disgusting smell of the dried herbs the physician had shoved under Gray's pillow.

How the hell were these supposed to soothe Gray's throat and lungs? If anything, they were making Natsu do all he could not to breathe in. To think that this was what passed for healing in this world! If only Wendy were here…

No, he wouldn't wish for any of his friends to be trapped in this world with him, separated from the others, with a vague promise from Zeref being their only hope of getting home.

Gray was here, though.

So, when Zeref had said there were other Fairy Tail mages in this world, he had been telling the truth.

Zeref was, as always, the last thing Natsu wanted to think about. Unfortunately, with Gray still asleep – he looked too natural now, with enough of the colour back in his cheeks, to be described as merely unconscious – there was nothing else here to distract him.

Of course Zeref was acting like a half-decent human being at the moment. He needed to keep Natsu on his side because of how easily Natsu could defeat him in this world; Zeref had said so himself on multiple occasions. He was a shamelessly manipulative villain with no care for those around him. One only had to look at how he'd raised an army in Alvarez for his own personal goals to see that.

It was all just a ploy to pacify Natsu until he, Zeref, was too powerful to be stopped.

Which made it all the more frustrating that there had been a moment, back when they had casually been discussing Lady Tremaine's plot to overthrow Zeref, when Natsu had almost forgotten he was talking to his guild's greatest enemy. It had felt like he was chatting with a friend.

Zeref… wasn't supposed to be like this.

Calm. Reasonable. Patient. Dedicated to their temporary truce despite Natsu's outbursts. And, when he'd had to go and face his privy council for the first time, he'd even looked nervous. His imperfections made him so much harder to hate.

No matter how many times Natsu told himself it was all an act to win his sympathy and buy Zeref time to escape to a world with magic again, he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it. In person, Zeref wasn't at all like the evil, shadowy, indistinct boss figure they'd all been picturing at the head of the Alvarez Army.

And Natsu knew it better than anyone, because Zeref hadn't been like that during any of their encounters.

Tenrou Island? If not for Grimoire Heart rampaging round the place, proselytizing about the World of Great Magic and how they needed Zeref to take them there, Natsu would never have guessed that the lost, frightened stranger he'd run into had been the Black Mage. When Natsu had attacked him, believing Zeref had tried to kill Elfman and Evergreen – though, after everything Mavis had told them, he now knew better – Zeref hadn't retaliated. He'd cried. It had made no sense at the time, but for a man unexpectedly seeing his little brother again for the first time in four hundred years, maybe it wasn't so strange.

Their meeting during the battle against Tartaros had been just as odd. To this day, Natsu didn't understand why Zeref had come to speak to him, even going to the trouble of stopping time or whatever the hell he'd done to ensure they had privacy. He hadn't helped his demons, though he could easily have done so. Rather, he had offered Natsu some cryptic comments and then gone on his way again. Cryptic comments that still meant little to Natsu, even with the knowledge that he was END. Maybe Zeref really had just wanted to say hello.

And then there was Alvarez. Zeref had been leading an army of a million men in an unstoppable crusade across the kingdom when Natsu had rushed out to intercept him, and yet Zeref's first reaction hadn't been to attack, but to talk. He'd fought back, but at the same time, he sort of hadn't. No death magic. Nothing that would have demonstrated why he had the reputation he did.

Instead, he'd taken the chance to share with Natsu the truth.

At the time, Natsu had thought that Zeref was trying to distract him with his fanciful tales, and then when that failed, to dissuade him from landing the finishing blow by telling Natsu it would lead to his death too.

But when Natsu had been about to strike him down, Zeref had seemed almost grateful.

Since then, Natsu had tried so hard to forget about it.

This was supposed to be a simple battle. Fairy Tail vs Alvarez. Good vs evil. Heroes vs villains.

Just because Zeref acted strangely around Natsu – just because they might have some sort of connection that meant absolutely nothing to him, for what was blood in the absence of memories, of love, of the true family that his guild embodied? – didn't mean he wasn't threatening to destroy Fairy Tail and capture their First Master; didn't mean his henchmen weren't coming frighteningly close to killing Natsu's friends.

That was the thought that had let him push it all aside and return to the guildhall as if nothing had happened. He'd win this fight, protect his guild, and they could all move on. End of.

Then they'd found themselves here, and Zeref was not playing along.

Natsu wished Zeref had turned out to be responsible for Gray's condition. Or that he'd tried to keep Gray in a weak, unconscious state instead of arranging treatment for him. Something to demonstrate that this side of him, the decent side, was all a sham, and the real him needed a Fire Dragon's Iron Fist to the face as soon as they were back in the real world.

Hell. This was just so difficult.

He wanted to punch someone, not have moral debates with himself.

His draconic eyesight picked up a faint motion from Gray's bed and he pushed that train of thought violently away, as if afraid that his friend might somehow overhear it. "Gray!" he shouted, too loudly for a makeshift infirmary, but it did the trick.

Gray stirred again, and then opened bleary eyes. "Keep it down, you idiot," he rasped. "It hurts."

"Oh, come off it," Natsu laughed, unable to stop himself from grinning. "You gonna let yourself be taken down by a headache?"

"It's not just my head," Gray grumbled. "My chest hurts, and my throat-" A cough shook his entire body. At once, he was fully awake, and retching. "What the hell is that smell? It's disgusting!"

"It's good for you," Natsu smirked, immediately deciding that his own suffering had been worth it. Then his smile faded, although the warmth remained. "I'm glad you're alright."

He felt almost rebellious saying it straight, but after spending so long in Zeref's conflicting presence, he wanted to. His feelings about Zeref were complicated, and growing more so every minute. His friendship with Gray wasn't complicated at all, and it seemed so childish to pretend otherwise.

Maybe the unexpected honesty shocked Gray into silence, or maybe he was falling back towards unconsciousness, but Natsu had to prompt him, "What happened to you?"

"Not sure," Gray reflected. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, as if trying to get his nose as far from the source of the hostile smell as possible. "There was a boat… and a storm… and Lucy…" All trace of weakness was abruptly gone from his face as he sat bolt upright. "Oh hell, is she here?"

"Luce?" Natsu echoed, bewildered by the look of horror on his friend's face. "Nah. I've not seen her since waking up in this world. Why?"

"Oh… no reason." Gray sank back down into the overly fluffy duvets.

"She's trapped here with us, though?"

"Yeah. We were caught in a storm at sea, and… well, I thought I'd drowned, but clearly not because I woke up here. I guess I must have washed ashore, and then someone found me and brought me here. Where is here, anyway?"

"A castle," Natsu supplied.

"Well, duh. I can see that. But which fairytale?"

"Eh?"

"We're in a world of fairytales," Gray explained, shooting the ceiling an annoyed look because turning his head to deliver it towards Natsu was a bit too much effort right now. "I'm in The Little Mermaid, as Prince Eric, and Lucy is the lead in Cinderella." He paused, processing what he'd just said. "Guess that means you're probably in Cinderella, too. Seen any girls in glass slippers recently?"

"No?" answered a baffled Natsu.

"Well, you'll probably find yourself at a ball soon enough," Gray yawned.

That unnerved Natsu slightly; he'd been trying not to think about the ball to find him a wife that he'd sort of inadvertently told Zeref he'd go to. Now he wished he knew what this Cinderella fairytale was all about. The name sounded vaguely familiar – maybe it was one of those kids' films Cana used to watch years ago – but he had no recollection of ever being told the story as a child. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd have pinned that on being raised by a dragon, but now he couldn't help wondering if the fairytale had only become popular in its current form at some point in the four hundred years he'd apparently missed.

He opened his mouth to ask what was in store for him, but Gray was already speaking. "I'm… quite tired."

"Yeah," Natsu conceded. "You get some rest."

Gray was already asleep. For a moment, Natsu felt envious. Would Gray be so comfortable if he knew this was the royal bedroom of Zeref's castle?

Then Natsu ground his teeth. The conversation hadn't been done for ten seconds and already his thoughts were cycling back to Zeref.

Coming to a sudden decision, he got to his feet. There was no point pretending that creepily staring at Gray was helping him recover. No answers would be found here – not while Gray was asleep, and perhaps not when he was awake either, since Gray remembered nothing of how he had got to the castle.

Not to mention, Natsu had no intention of sharing his internal tumult with anyone else any more than he had the truth about who and what he was. Instead, he went to find Zeref.

The imposter king was in his throne room. It should have looked ridiculous, such a small not-quite-adult on a grand golden throne, but Zeref held himself with an unfair authority. He made it look so easy. Even the haughty wave of his hand as he caught sight of Natsu, dismissing the servants who swiftly departed from the room with bows, seemed natural.

As soon as they were alone, however, Zeref hopped down to greet him on an even footing. "Natsu. How is he?"

It took a moment or so for Natsu to realize he was asking after Gray. "Uh, okay, I guess. He woke up for a bit."

"Did he say how he got here?"

"What, scared he might have given away your involvement in it?" Natsu sniped, before he could stop himself.

Zeref's shoulders sagged in an exaggerated sigh. "Don't be stupid, Natsu. I simply don't want to pass up a chance to find out who our enemies are."

"There's no our, and I'm one of them," Natsu reminded him. "Besides, didn't you say that everyone here is out to get you?"

"Everyone is," came the calm response. "Yet the plans of some will be more advanced than those of others, and we have been flung into the middle of them with no build-up to rely on."

Again with the we. Natsu's scowl deepened, though he deemed correcting him again to not be worth the effort. "The last thing he remembers is being in a shipwreck. Nothing about how he got here," he admitted begrudgingly. "Says he's Prince Eric in this world. Does that mean anything to you?"

Thoughtfully, Zeref shook his head. The observation that Zeref knew as little about fairytales as he himself did almost cheered him, before he realized that their reasons were probably the same.

"I do not recall hearing the name since arriving in this world," Zeref said. "Although, I did discover some information during my council meeting that you may find interesting."

He strode across to the table the servants had been fussing over, retrieving one of the many sheets of paper upon it and passing it to Natsu. It was clearly a map, although the country – or countries – it presented were entirely unfamiliar to him.

Zeref traced the solid black lines that demarcated the countries with one finger. "There appears to be five kingdoms. We are one of the five, the Glass Kingdom." He tapped the northernmost shape on the map. "I expect your friend Gray is from another. To the east of us lies the Guardian Kingdom, which is supposedly famous for its exploits in war, although neither trader nor messenger has arrived from that kingdom for days, and no scouts we have sent have yet returned. South of us lies the Seashell Kingdom, a seafaring nation who control the bay between us and the lands further south still, which form part of the Imperial Kingdom.

"There used to be a fifth kingdom, the Rose Kingdom, until about ten ago. For reasons that have not made it to our borders, if indeed they are logical at all, their Prince suddenly shut himself up in his castle with all his guards, advisors and staff. Left without a leader, the Rose Kingdom spent several days in uncertainty before soldiers from the Imperial Kingdom swept in. Under the guise of a kindly neighbour trying to help them back to their feet, the Imperial Kingdom subsumed the former Rose Kingdom, and now rules it in all but name. They call it the territory of Rozenphalia. Many people within Rozenphalia, as well as the other kingdoms, are displeased with this state of affairs."

"And how does this help us?" Natsu demanded.

Zeref gave him a look. "It certainly won't hinder us, knowing a little more about this world we have been thrust into."

"Well, yeah, but you're supposed to be in charge around here. Couldn't you have found out something a bit more useful? Like, I don't know, how we're gonna get home?"

"I have already told you how we're going to get home," Zeref told him coolly. "Once we find a source of magic, I am going to use it to reverse the spell that trapped us here and send us all back to Fiore."

"But there is no magic here!"

"Wrong. There is at least one source of magic that has been here from the start: Fairy Heart. It created this world, and even now sustains it. It must be here in some form. All we need to do is find out where… a task for which understanding the geographic layout of this world ought to come in handy."

Natsu's eyes narrowed. It was one thing working with Zeref temporarily, but it was quite another to put his ultimate goal – a source of unlimited magic! – right into his hands. Even if he did keep his word and take them all home, would returning even be worth it, if they arrived back in Fiore with Zeref already in possession of Fairy Heart?

They wouldn't be going back to resume the fight. They'd be going back to a war that was already lost.

Maybe obtaining Fairy Heart in this world wouldn't mean it was still in Zeref's possession when they returned. Maybe everything would be reset to the moment before they left. Maybe… but it was far too much to gamble upon a speculation with no backing.

There was only one thing for it, then. If he wanted to get home, he had to help Zeref obtain Fairy Heart, and then steal it from him the moment he had broken the spell that trapped them here.

Yes, it would be risky – but everything about standing up to Alvarez, about taking on an immortal death-mage who had it in for his guild, was risky.

And Natsu was more than up to the challenge.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked. "Are we gonna go look for Fairy Heart, or…?"

Only after he had spoken did he realize he'd adopted Zeref's use of we, but Zeref didn't seem to notice. "No," he said slowly. "We are the king and prince of this kingdom; we cannot simply go off on an adventure."

"What's the point of being royalty if we can't do what we want?" Natsu sulked.

Zeref rolled his eyes. "We would be unable to avoid notice, and we would struggle to explain ourselves when we are inevitably caught by those wondering where we have gone. Not to mention, it would not do to draw the attention of others to Fairy Heart, or to its potential. It is, I believe, the only thing that can get us home, and it would be foolish to gamble that chance on the hope of getting there a little sooner. And consider the area we have to search," he added, gesturing at the map once more. "While I am reasonably confident that Fairy Heart is not with my kingdom, the Glass Kingdom, that still leaves us with four kingdoms' worth of ground to cover. How well do you think that will go with just the two of us?"

"Then what are you suggesting?" he snapped, impatience rising as it always did when forced to listen to Zeref being right.

"That we use the existing state of affairs in this world to our advantage. Like I was saying earlier, the Imperial Kingdom's claim to power in the former Rose Kingdom is tenuous, and they are much disliked by their conquered subjects. If we sent in our own army under the guise of opposing the Imperial Kingdom and restoring the Rose Kingdom's sovereignty, no one would question it. It would give us an excuse to have our men search the kingdom for Fairy Heart."

Natsu laughed out loud. "Invade them with an army. That's your answer to everything, isn't it?"

"This world isn't real, Natsu," Zeref reminded him crossly. "These people are just creations of magic."

"But our world is real, and that didn't stop you, did it?"

"They are entirely incomparable," Zeref said, and no, Natsu definitely wasn't imagining the extra snap to his voice. "This is a different game with different rules and different stakes."

"It's not different at all," Natsu scoffed. "You and your I wish I could be decent – well here we are, in a world where your so-called curse has no effect on you, and your first choice is still to launch an unprovoked attack on another kingdom!"

"A kingdom which is entirely fictional. Odds are, it didn't exist before we got here, and will cease to exist again the moment we leave!"

"Odds are," Natsu mocked.

Zeref's eyes darkened. The fastest way to get to him, Natsu was quickly learning, was to insult his intelligence or call him out on his ignorance.

Sure enough, Zeref tried another tactic: "Don't you want to get back home, Natsu?"

"Is that how you justified attacking Fiore without provocation? You wanted Fairy Heart, and that somehow made trying to murder my friends acceptable? Why the hell do you want Fairy Heart, anyway? You'd think someone like you had enough power, being immortal and in charge of half the globe and all that, but no, you won't stop until you've taken everything, will you?"

Zeref said nothing.

"No? Not going to tell me?" Natsu taunted. "Is it because you know your motive is evil, maybe?"

"I am not going to tell you why, Natsu. If you want to find out, come and face me once we're back home. For now, it is in both of our interests to obtain Fairy Heart and allow such an encounter to be possible."

Natsu opened his mouth to rebuff him, blood burning with all the heat his magic could no longer generate, but Zeref cut in first. "As I told you, Natsu, I do not need you to assist me. I will break the spell on my own. And besides, the plans to conquer the former Rose Kingdom far predate my arrival in this world. The army is already prepared; the invasion will take place with or without us."

"Yeah, right."

Zeref gave a sigh. "Do you honestly think that I, knowing as little about the complex political web around me as I do, could turn up on my first day in the job and announce that we're going to invade an allied kingdom?"

"Well, yeah. You're the king," Natsu pointed out.

"And you have no understanding of leadership. No, the preparations have already been made by my privy council. The recent Hun invasion of the Imperial Kingdom has yielded an opportunity that they will take whether I wish it or not. I am merely making the most of the opportunity to look for Fairy Heart while we are there. I'll come up with a way to justify the search to the army. In the meantime, I suggest you concentrate on the upcoming ball."

Natsu hadn't managed to get a word out through his own spluttering when the door to the throne room slammed open. "Wise words indeed, Your Majesty," Lady Tremaine said. Her bow was slight and her back ramrod-straight as she advanced into the room without waiting for an invitation. "Perhaps a good place to start would be with reminding him about the dancing lessons he is supposed to be in right now."

"What?" Natsu screeched.

"Yes, Natsu," Zeref said, flicking imaginary lint from his sleeve. "How could you forget?"

"Why, you-!" Natsu snarled, but he hadn't so much as drawn back his fist when Tremaine spoke up again.

"You may have managed to worm your way out of the first two lessons, Your Highness, but this time I must put my foot down. The ball is fast approaching, and at this rate, your lack of prowess will shame us all."

"Who cares about stupid dancing?"

"You do," Zeref interjected casually. "It is how you are going to win yourself a wife, is it not?"

"It bloody well isn't-"

"Got to prove your worthiness of that name Prince Charming, haven't you?"

Natsu was staring at him, jaw agape. He was still angry about the Fairy Heart thing, and Zeref not being evil enough (though apparently he was now trying to demonstrate otherwise). He did not want banter, he did not want familiarity, he did not want Zeref to team up with this irritating woman who was plotting to overthrow him just in order to mock him! And he certainly didn't want him to win!

"If you would care to accompany me to the ballroom, Your Highness," Tremaine said crisply. "We will start with the simple waltz."

"No, I would not care!" Natsu actually stamped his foot at that. If only his flames had been with him, he could have burnt this whole stupid castle and its stupid medieval ways down to the ground.

"You must play your role in this world, Natsu," Zeref reminded him. Though he was keeping a straight face, his black eyes sparkled with a hundred evil stars.

"Why the hell don't you have to dance?"

Zeref waved a scroll at him. "I have no need to attract a young, unmarried woman. I am wed to my kingdom."

"On the subject of young, unmarried women," Tremaine cut in. No matter how soft her words, they always cracked like a whip, too sharp for the vastness of the chamber to deaden them. "You will need a dance partner to help you practice, Your Highness."

"Aren't you going to be his dance partner?" Zeref sounded almost disappointed, the bastard.

"I would not dare to assume such an honour for myself," Tremaine deflected, with a slight bow. "Nor do I have the aptitude that I used to. In my place, I have taken the liberty of inviting my daughters, Anastasia and Drizella, to our practice session. Both of them are excellent dancers, and as they will both be at the ball, you will have a pair of friendly faces in the crowd, to whom – if you so wished – you could offer your first dance without fear of rejection or of the unknown."

As Natsu and Zeref stared – one looking like he was about to face down Acnologia and the other like his birthday had come early – Tremaine called back through the open door, "Girls! Introduce yourselves to His Highness."

Into the throne room traipsed the two ugliest girls Natsu had ever seen. One bore a simpering smile; the other looked as if she had been asked to walk into a pigsty rather than the throne room, scrunching her nose and placing her feet with great distaste. They carried themselves with the same stiffness as Lady Tremaine, but with none of her poise, their arrogance not yet refined.

"Greetings, Your Highness," recited the first, who wore a purple ballgown. "My name is Anastasia. It is a pleasure to meet you in person."

"And I am Drizella," finished the other, who was dressed in murky green. "I would be grateful if you would do me the honour of gifting me your first dance."

There was a moment's pause.

Natsu turned to Zeref. "Absolutely not."

"You have to pick one, Natsu," Zeref lectured him. "These two charming young ladies have travelled all the way here to try and rectify your woeful lack of proficiency in the waltz. It is simple politeness to honour their request."

"I'll dance with one if you dance with the other," Natsu dared.

"Out of the question," Zeref dismissed him coolly. "I have tax legislation to debate. That being said, it may have to wait while I enjoy this spectacle." He waved a hand towards the two girls, who were already shifting testily, clearly lacking the patience to endure being ignored for thirty seconds. "It is hardly my fault if this is the best you can attract."

Desperate now, Natsu seized Zeref by the front of his robes and pulled him closer. "Seriously, Zeref, this isn't funny. Get me out of this."

Zeref affected a shrug. "I don't know what you're expecting me to do, Natsu."

"You're the king! Pass a law banning ballroom dancing!"

"Unfortunately, Natsu, we both have to play our roles in this world… and yours is the role of a hapless young prince in desperate need of a wife." His gaze flicked towards the two scowling sisters. "Very desperate need, apparently."

Natsu clenched his fist. Suddenly, all his moral objections to obtaining Fairy Heart by force melted away. Why stop at just invading one kingdom? This whole fairytale world could burn, as far as he cared.

"Hang on, though," he said suddenly. "Everyone is calling me Prince Charming! I'm definitely the lead character of a fairytale with a name like that! I'm owed a proper princess! There's no way my destiny in this world, which you seem to be so obsessed with, is marrying either of those two horrid women!"

"Tell you what, Natsu," Zeref began, although the grin on his face was already undermining any compromise he was about to make. "If you can find this beautiful princess you think awaits you, I will tell the dear ladies that their services are no longer required. But if you can't…"

Zeref tailed off deliberately, but if he thought Natsu was going to back down, he had another thing coming. Natsu never ran from a challenge – especially when his dignity was on the line.

"Fine!" he muttered. "Gray said he thought I was in Cinderella. And Lucy is too, so that means…" He snapped his fingers, eyes brightening so suddenly that it almost looked as though his magic had returned inside his soul. "That's given me an idea! I'll meet you all in the ballroom!"

And he tore out of the room as if death – or a fate even worse than it – was right behind him.


The ballroom was as ridiculously grand as Natsu had been expecting, and stuffed full of things that glittered, from the chandeliers to the mirrors to the floor tiles speckled with gold. It was more extravagant even than the throne room, and Natsu found himself wondering if more politics actually took place here, in snatches of conversation between twirls of the music, than in the kingdom's supposed seat of power. Zeref could probably have answered that – and as usual, he scowled once again at his brain for reminding him of Zeref's existence.

Anastasia and Drizella were already there, practising stilted steps in front of the biggest mirror. To Natsu's eyes, they looked like peacocks in their bright, puffy dresses, parading clumsily along with a waltz. His gaze flicked up to a balcony overlooking the hall, where Zeref appeared to be in conversation with a clearly displeased Lady Tremaine. Perfect.

"Hey, Anastasia, Drizella!" Natsu called. "You can go home now! I've got my own dance partner!"

And he stepped into the spotlights, tugging Gray along with him.

Gray's sailor's outfit had come out of the shipwreck as little more than rags, and the stink of healing herbs followed him like a bride's wedding train. The poor man blinked owlishly around the bright heart of the palace, apparently taking very little of it in before settling back on Natsu's familiar form. "Can't you just let a guy sleep, Natsu?"

"Nope!" Natsu told him cheerfully. Then, to the thunderstruck sisters, he announced, "Allow me to present Prince Eric, who has kindly offered to stand in for my True Love today, so you are no longer needed. Bye!"

There was a pause.

"Wait, I've what?" Gray exclaimed. "I never signed up for this!"

But Natsu was already moving. Grabbing Gray's hip with all the romanticism of an angry giant crab, Natsu pulled him into a spin in the centre of the glittering floor. Gray was too weak to do more than splutter his outrage as he was carried along with the music.

One look at Drizella's bugged-out eyes and Anastasia's jaw dangling like her consciousness had escaped through it made Natsu laugh out loud. Now he could see why balls were the pinnacle of a fairytale ending. Dancing was a lot more fun than he'd expected.

Lady Tremaine's shriek drowned out the sharp beats of the waltz. "This is an outrage! A prince can't dance with another prince! How dare he mock our kingdom's traditions like this? Your Majesty, you must put a stop to this before he brings disgrace upon us all!"

But Zeref was doubled over laughing.

To Natsu's astonishment, as Tremaine rounded on her king in fury, Zeref just waved her away, still laughing. "Oh, let him be."

"But Your Majesty, the kingdom needs a princess! Surely you understand the importance of finding a worthy wife for the prince-"

"He can dance with whomsoever he wishes," Zeref overrode her. "If he finds your well-bred daughters less appealing than a half-dead prince, perhaps you did not raise them quite as well as you thought."

She looked close to exploding. "But-"

"Natsu has clearly outplayed you this round. I suggest that you admit when you are beaten, take your daughters home, and pick another battle to fight."

As the music brought him round again, Natsu glanced up to see them: Lady Tremaine, who was beyond livid, and Zeref, his eyes bright, not laughing at him but with him. He wasn't irritated that Natsu had ruined his fun or antagonized his advisor. He was proud of him for it.

In that one moment, Natsu actually felt like he could have been looking up at his big brother.


A/N: Looks like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel of Natsu's constant internal drama around Zeref. And it only came at the cost of Gray's dignity! Bargain. ~CS