7
Flower Power
Natsu was having a good morning. He slept great at Lucy's apartment, where he stayed so Zeref couldn't find and curse him that week. He slept in, so when he woke, Lucy was already gone. He decided to follow and make his way to the guild hall to get breakfast.
He was halfway to his guild when a little girl with flowers ran up to him. He paused to wonder what she could want. He thought about it, and realized she must be one of those who sell flowers.
She stopped right in front of him and handed the whole bouquet of flowers out to him. Now he was really confused. It must have shown on his face, because the little child bagan to talk.
"These flowers are for you, Mr. Natsu," she said cutely. "They are from a fan of yours. They wanted me to give them to you since they were running late for work already."
Natsu heard this, and it cleared up his confusion. 'So the flowers are from a fan, huh? It could be that the girl is shy and she is the fan, but didn't want to admit it, which is fine.' Natsu smiled a winning smile and took the flowers. "Thank you. If you see this fan again, can you tell them I said thanks as well?" he requested.
The little girl grinned brightly and nodded. "Yes, Mr. Natsu!" she said and then turned to run off again. Just before she took off, she waved goodbye to him.
Natsu watched her go with kind eyes. He always had a soft spot for children. 'Well, I should continue on my way to the guild,' he thought.
It took him a few minutes to get to the Fairy Tail guild hall, with the flowers still in hand. He opened the door and made his way to the bar.
"Hey Mira, do you have a vase?" Natsu asked.
Mira looked up from her work and saw the flowers. She smiled and said, "Yes, I have a vase." she bent down to get the flower vase, and as she was doing that she asked, "Where did you get the flowers?" She came back up with a glass cylinder. "Are they for someone special?"
Natsu noticed the sly grin on Mira's face, but didn't react to it. "No, they are from a fan."
"And they gave you flowers?" Natsu heard the annoying voice of his frenemy, Gray. "Aw, it's sweet that you even kept them. What are you, a girl?"
Natsu growled and replied, "They were handed to me by a little girl. I wasn't about to say no to a young child, melt-brain."
"What'd you call me, smoke face?!" Gray exclaimed.
"You heard me!" shouted Natsu, and the two continued arguing, not noticing anyone watching.
Lucy watched the two fight, and couldn't help the feeling that something wasn't right. 'Isn't it time for Zeref to curse Natsu again?' she wondered. She looked over to the flowers and decided to see if there was a note in them.
She stuck her Fairy Tail-branded hand into the flowers and felt a piece of paper. She pulled it out and began to read it. Her suspicion was right, it was from Zeref. She tried to warn Natsu, but it was already too late.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu shouted as he threw a punch at Gray, however, the flames never appeared. This stunned Natsu, who crashed into a table after Gray dodged his fist. Natsu got up from the broken bits of wood and looked at his hands. He tried to bring up a spark of fire, but nothing happened. "What's going on?" he questioned.
Lucy walked up to him, tapped his shoulder, and handed him the note she found. He took it and read it.
When you touch the flowers, your fire dragon slayer magic will be replaced with flower dragon slayer magic. So if you want to use magic, you have to say the appropriate phrases. -Zeref
The pink-haired dragon slayer felt his blood leave his face and arms after he was done reading the note. He stared at the evil letters on the seemingly innocent piece of paper in horror. He couldn't believe it. His precious, destructive, powerful fire was replaced with harmless, pretty, colorful flowers. It couldn't get worse than that, right? The dragon slayer could only hope; however, his hope died in the most awful way possible.
Not only did his guildmates come over and read the note themselves, but some of them couldn't even finish before they fell over laughing. To make matters worse, Erza soon came in and demanded everyone to calm down and then added, "Natsu, I need you to come with me. I need your help on a job."
Natsu was about to protest, but the queen of the fairies had already drug him out the door. Before he could get a word out, Erza began talking about the job.
"There is a monster attacking a village. They want us to send it away, but not kill it. They said it has a fear of fire, so that is why I'm taking you with me." Natsu felt his eyes widen. What Erza just told him wasn't good. He would be no help on the mission because of the curse Zeref had placed on him.
Natsu tried to say something, but his brain was frozen. His horror was too great. He couldn't help on a mission where his fire was needed, and his fire was replaced with flowers. That wasn't going to help him with a monster that feared something he no longer had.
Natsu shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind, and then tried to speak again. "Erza, there is something you should know," he began, but he realized that they were already on the train.
"I'm sure whatever it is can wait, Natsu. Now why don't you take a nap," said Erza. Natsu felt his shoulders tense and tried to quickly tell her about his curse, but pain blossomed in his lower abdomen, and then everything had gone dark.
His last thought before unconsciousness took him was, 'I was too late… Darn you Zeref and your stupid flowers.'
Natsu slowly followed Erza into the forest where the monster was. He didn't want to go in, but there was no turning back now. 'I should still try to warn her though,' he thought. He looked to Erza and said unsurely, "Um… Erza, about what I said about needing to tell you something?"
"What is it, Natsu?" the red-haired mage asked.
"Well, I was trying to tell you that Zeref cursed me again." This caused Erza to stop walking.
"What?" She turned to look at him. "Why didn't you say something sooner? It isn't anything too bad, is it?" she asked.
"Well… for this mission and my man-pride, yes it is," Natsu replied.
"Tell me what it is," Erza demanded.
Natsu sighed, "My fire dragon slayer magic was replaced with-" before he could finish, a roar cut him off. It came from the monster they were looking for, which had found them.
"I hope whatever he replaced your magic with is still fire based. I don't care if he made it to be pink plazma, as long as it scares this thing off!" said Erza, who equipped a sword and began to attack the monster. Natsu didn't follow her right away, because no, his current magic wasn't fire based either. "Are you just going to STAND there?!" The dragon slayer snapped his head over to Erza again, who was trying her hardest to not kill the beast. "Start scaring it off, Natsu!"
Natsu sighed. He knew this was going to end badly. "Okay…" he whined, but there was no way he would admit that to anyone should they ask. "F-F-Flower Dragon's Roar!" He went with the rip-the-bandaid-off-quickly approach and just shouted the incantation as loudly as he could.
Flowers of all colors came out from his mouth and hit the monster. The flowers stuck to the monster's furry hide, making the beast and Erza pause. Natsu hid his face behind his hands in some ineffective attempt to become invisible. He wished that the ground would just swallow him up and bring him to the core of the planet, where he can sleep for the rest of his days and die of old age. (After all, he was sure the core wouldn't kill him.)
"Natsu...what was that?" He heard Erza question, making him bend down and curl up into the fetal position.
"Zeref's...new curse," he said slowly and quietly, so quietly that he would be shocked if Erza had actually heard him.
If he had looked, he would have seen the look of astonishment on his friend's face. "Zeref…" Erza bagan to say, but a purr sounded from behind her. Natsu peaked from between his fingers to see what caused the sound, only for his hands to completely drop at the sight before him. The monster was rolling around on the ground and purring and pawing at the flowers that Natsu produced.
The same thought of realization crossed both Erza and Natsu's minds, 'The monster likes flowers.'
"Okay Natsu, I need you to use your new flower power to lure the monster back up that mountain where it belongs," Erza ordered.
"Um...right!" The dragon slayer was still thoroughly embarrassed, but now that he knew the curse can be useful for something, it wasn't as bad.
He used Flower Dragon's Roar to make a trail of flora up the mountain. It took him and Erza 30 minutes to get the beast up to its cave, where they found its mother. That was when they realized that the monster was a baby, which got lost while playing. Natsu left a ton of flowers around the cave for the monsters, and then he and Erza left to return to the guild.
Zeref had watched and recorded everything, like always, until Natsu and Erza made it back to the guild. The black wizard had to admit, he wasn't expecting the monster to like flowers, but he wasn't complaining. It just meant that his brother didn't get hurt in the end.
"Well, another successful prank, if I do say so myself." He got up from his hiding spot, which was up in a tree, and teleported away after saying, "Until next time, Natsu."
I think it was my mom who came up with this one too. Well, if any of you have suggestions, let me know. It could be in one of my future chapters. ^-^
Natsu: Flowers… I'm a GUY! DX
Zeref: Flower Dragon Slayer magic! OH THAT IS PRICELESS! X'D
Natsu: SHUT UP!
Enj/Dark: I don't see what the big deal is. Guys can like flowers too, you know. Anyway. please review! ;)
