Bliss belies Chaos
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
This is a long chapter. It is also emotional. Features snippets of Mira x Laxus, Erza x Jellal & Erik x Kinana.
Enjoy!
2 years later
The sounds of young children panting and groaning as they worked on their fighting techniques echoes in the training room of the Dragneel estate. This is the norm for a Sunday afternoon.
"Break." Sting calls out after catching his breath. He's eleven now, Natsu is thirteen and Zeref is fifteen. They pant hard as the bruises sting and the blood gathers where gravity lets it flow to.
"I think we're good for the day. Tomorrow we train with the others and then we have a few jobs." Natsu states. At ten was when you went to work in the field, and not just the business side of things. At thirteen, Natsu had already captured twenty people and killed twenty five. Zeref was at fifteen and fifteen each and Sting only at five and three.
"Who are we working with?" Sting asks.
"Cheney, Redfox and Fullbuster. You know, the crew." Natsu pants out.
"At least it's not the she-devil and red death." Sting mutters. Yes, Mirajane and Erza were terrifying to work with, but they were fiercely protective of their family.
"They aren't bad to work with, but their on a job with Dreyar and Fernandez." Zeref says.
"You can just say their boyfriends since we all know they fuckin." Natsu chuckles with a snort coming from Sting.
"I doubt that, but they are fond of each other." Zeref says.
"Jokes aside, they are a scary team. I feel bad for who they are going after." Sting chuckles.
"True that!" Natsu laughs as he vaults himself upright. The others get up and decide to hit the shower before they meet up with the others.
"Oh, did Sting land a few hits?" Gajeel jokes.
"Shut it Redfox or I'll show you how Eucliffe got the busted lip." Natsu snarls. Gajeel smirks but drops the subject, giving Sting a small thumbs up when Natsu wasn't looking. Gajeel is also fifteen, but with the piercings that he's gained over the years, he looks older. Plus, the gnarly scars on his arm from a nasty fight.
Today was business work, so Zeref, Natsu and Sting were continuing learning the ropes of their respective family businesses, and since the Dragneel, Eucliffe and Cheney families worked close with each other, it usually made sense for Sting and Rogue to stick with Igneel despite Rogue living and being raised by the Redfox family.
"What's the order of operation today father?" Zeref asks as they enter the large office.
"Entertainment then hospitality." Igneel says as Zanelia straightens his tie once more before turning her attention to the four young boys. She smiles at Zeref and Natsu, who by now knew how to properly tie their own tie and straighten it, before she looks to Sting and Rogue.
"Did Natsu help you Sting?" Zanelia asks. A blush adorns Stings cheeks as he looks down at the damn article of fabric.
"A little." Sting peeps out as she crouches in front of him and smooths it out and straightens it. Her eyes scan over Rogue and she repeats the action.
"You'll get there, it just takes practice and patience." Zanelia says with an airy laugh in her tone. Igneel looks at the scene before him, a smile touching his lips before they carry on with their work for the day. He knew enough about the work that the Eucliffe and Cheney families did that he could teach Sting and Rogue the essentials, the rest they would need to figure out on their own. But he had noticed that their dynamic was similar to that of their fathers, with Sting being more charismatic and talkative and Rogue being more observant and direct when he spoke. Going to the seedier side of town with young children always left an odd taste in Igneel's mouth, but it was necessary. Luckily, the women in the brothels knew better as well, not even approaching Zeref or Natsu.
"So, how is business this week Madame Cici?" Sting asks casually.
"Doing well young master. Profits are up." The madame says.
"By how much?" Rogue asks.
"Ten percent." Cici replies.
"And all the workers are getting screened properly and taking certain weeks off? After all, even if they are prostitutes, they work hard and do need to take care of themselves." Sting says with a small smirk. Cici smiles.
"Yes, I make sure they get proper medical care and time off. Than you for your concern." Cici says. It was standard protocol in the Eucliffe and Cheney brothels that the women were clear of drugs, venereal disease and were given their menstruation time off. If any of those were violated, the madame of the brothel was demoted and a new one would take over that would stick with protocol. Cici was one of the longest running madams, so she knew the drill and made sure her girls were taken care of. Reaching under the large desk, she grabs three deposit bags and hands them to Sting.
"Very good, see you in a few days." Sting says. Igneel smiles at Sting, a quiet praise. As they leave, the women chat.
"The two teens are already handsome, and bound to get even more so, and the little boys are going to be gorgeous I bet." The women murmured. Sting looks to Natsu, who rolls his eyes at the comments. He was used to women going gaga over him, as was Zeref. Unlike Zeref though, who never gave into his baser needs, Natsu had already gone to bed with a girl, two in fact, in just the last month.
As they left the building and got into the car, Rogue had a burning question.
"Natsu, Sting tells me you've already had a girl or two, but your phone has yet to explode. Gajeel is the same way. Why?" Rogue asks.
"Simple. Don't give your number to someone who isn't worth a second night. Those two were just to get the basic idea of what I do with a girl. The next ones, and there will be more, won't mean anything to me." Natsu chuckles. Igneel smirks, he was the same way, and in fact, he even mentioned that to Natsu.
"So do you treat them bad or…?" Sting asks as they drive to the next brothel.
"No, but I don't treat them like anything other than any of those girls back there. All they want is sex and to say who they slept with, and all I want is to relieve stress. Never treat an easy women like a goddess, otherwise you get attached." Natsu says casually. Sting looks to Igneel and smirks.
(A/N): Yes, Natsu is a bit of a playboy in this story. Don't worry, he straightens out!
"Is that why you treat Zanelia like she is a goddess? Because she made you wait?" Sting asks. Igneel chuckles.
"There are many reasons why, that is one of them, but also because she was the woman who when I saw her, I knew right there my game was up and I was fine with that. Sometimes you feel your days as a roaming bachelor are up before you meet the woman you've been waiting for, other times, she walks into a room, and you feel the whole earth shift and gladly stop the game to devote to one woman. Something in your gut will tell you, so you just gotta know when to listen to it." Igneel chuckles. A low gurgle lets out in Zeref's stomach, and everyone looks to him.
"Well, my gut is telling me I'm hungry." Zeref deadpans causing the car to break out in a chorus of laughter.
1 month later
Igneel had slowly been setting things up to be in mainly Natsu's name with Zeref as a second, but he had yet to have the others do the same for their children. He couldn't exactly explain why he had been doing this for a few months now, but he felt the need to have the others do the same. As the others walked in, Igneel straightens up.
"I know this is informal, but what is the issue?" Metalicanna says.
"No issue, just curious about something." Igneel says. Silver scoffs at this.
"Please, you have a strange gut feeling, don't lie to us old friend." Silver smirks. Igneel glares at the man before he lets out a sigh.
"I can't explain it, but I think the majority of us should start switching things into our children's names, save for you Grandeeney. I get the weird sense that you'll be ok for a while yet." Igneel says.
"Have you received any threats?" Mamba Toxidea asks.
"No, just a gut feeling." Igneel replies. The others were quiet for a moment.
"As you know, I've switched everything to Laxus and he's pretty much in charge of everything with the Dreyar family with me as council. I doubt they'll do anything to me, Laxus is the threat now." Makarov chuckles.
"You never know, but I did know about your switching things over to Laxus since he's eighteen." Igneel says.
"I've switched almost everything to Jellal since he's seventeen, everything will be final once he turns eighteen." James Fernandez chuckles. Igneel nods. He knew that Weisslogia and Skiadrum had switched everything to Sting and Rogue days before they were killed and that once they were eighteen the lock would come off their accounts.
"I've been slowly switching things over, but I can hasten that process for Erik." Mamba says, humoring his boss.
"Good." Igneel says. Silver and Metalicanna chuckle.
"I guess we're slacking then." Both men chuckle.
"I've been switching things to Natsu with Zeref as a second and a lock until Natsu is eighteen." Igneel says.
"I'll get to switching." Metalicanna grumbles. Silver nods and winks, his silent way of saying he'll do the same.
"I also suggest that in three years' time we send our wives away. Again, Grandeeney, ignore this." Igneel says.
"I gathered since I know Jiemma, Jose and Mard all tend to think women as the weak sex and will therefore ignore me and my daughter." Grandeeney huffs indignantly.
"Really, an idiotic mistake on their part, but chauvinism is strong with those three." Silver chuckles.
"Indeed." Mamba smirks. Grandeeney smiles at their acknowledgment of her and her accomplishments.
2 years later
Shots ring out and Sting rolls behind a wall with Rogue close behind him. This was supposed to be an easy capture, interrogate, off job not a fire fight.
"Fuck!" Rogue growls as he rips his shirt and quickly covers the bullet graze.
"They're just a couple of fucking dumb kids, shoot 'em and get going. Ivan will be pissed if we don't get this supply in." one man calls out.
"Shut up moron, do you want those brats to hear you?" another growls.
"They'll be dead, who can dead men tell anything to?" the other laughs. Sting observes his surroundings quick before he thinks up a strategy. He quietly relays his idea to Rogue and quickly they enact it, going in opposite directions with Sting creating as much noise as possible one way while Rogue loops around to catch the loud one. Sting's job was to kill the bigger one. Simple, right? The men chase Sting thru the alleyway, unaware that Rogue was behind them. Using his momentum, Sting launches off the ground, jumps off the wall, pulls out his knives, flips and lands on the bigger man, burying his knives into the chest of the man before quickly pulling them in separate directions, puncturing both his lungs and cutting several veins all at once. The larger man is dead before he hits the ground and the loudmouth stands there, silent and shocked as Sting stands on his dead comrades torso, the blood pooling. He turns to run only to be met with a gun at his gut and a pair of knives at his back.
"What do you want?" The man says.
"Good job boys. Cars here, load him up." The lilting voice that they recognize all too well. The man sees three men walk out from around the corner of the alleyway. A tall man with long black hair and several piercings adorning his body, his eyes red and sharp. Another man, paler, midnight black hair, a scar above his eyebrow, and eyes uninterested but intense. And then a man with salmon pink hair, sharp eyes, lightly tanned skin and a wicked grin on his face showing his longer than normal canine teeth. The loudmouth felt his stomach drop at the sight of these three. The quick jab Sting inflicts gets the man to move without hesitation into the car. There are two cars, Gajeel's new car that they were loading the man into, and the other was for Gray and Natsu since neither of them were able to drive yet.
"Where are you taking me?" The man asks.
"That don't really matter. Point is, we got some questions, you got the answers, and by then you may know more than we can allow." Gajeel states as they drive back to the main complex. The man lets out an audible sob and goes to move.
"Cover his head." Gajeel says as they round a corner. The man goes to fight but Sting has a knife to his throat, and he stops just as Rogue throws a bag over the man's head.
"Don't, every single one of you blabber mouths tries that shit and quite frankly I'm getting sick of the shit." Rogue growls. The man goes ramrod stiff before sitting completely still. Sting chuckles and keeps a close eye on the man as they get closer to the complex. Pulling into the large complex, Sting lets out a low chuckle as he sees the others waiting and the man they have captured starts to hyperventilate.
"Tie his hands and drag him out." Gajeel says.
"I'll go willingly, I swear, no need to tie me up." The man pleads. Sting snorts as Rogue begins to tie anyway and the man starts to sob. Gajeel rolls his eyes as Sting opens the back door and they pull the man out of the car. Rogue hands him the rope silently and then grips the mans arm as to guide him along as Sting pull shim up the stairs and through the large front manor to the main interrogation room, Jellal's expertise. Knocking twice, the man lets out a strangled noise as the door opens to the large figure of Laxus, accompanied by the slender figure of Jellal, smirks on their faces. They walk into the room, proud smiles on their faces and Sting places the rope in Jellal's waiting hand.
"Good job boys, now leave it to us pros to get what we need." Jellal and Laxus chuckle. Sting smirks as he and Rogue walk out of the room, only to hear screaming a few moments later.
"I give it two more minutes until he sings." Sting chuckles.
"You know I don't bet, because you're usually right." Rogue snorts as he rolls his eyes. The screams stop within minutes and Sting smirks. Natsu rounds the corner with Gray and his eyes fall on the two younger boys.
"Seriously, good job holding your own back there." Natsu says with a smile.
"Thanks!" Sting says.
"Have you gone and gotten that graze on your arm looked at yet?" Gray asks.
"Haven't had the time, I don't know if they're gonna finish the dude off or if they're gonna call us in." Rogue says.
"Let me rephrase. Go get your arm taken care of. Lax and Jellal can handle the dumb-ass." Natsu says. Rogue smirks but relents as he and Sting take off to where they know Grandeeney, and Wendy will be. They knock once before entering.
"Hey Grandeeney, hey Wendy!" Sting calls out.
"Ok, what's wrong?" Wendy asks. She had long dark blue black hair and gentle eyes and a sweet voice. She's just a couple years younger than Sting and Rogue. Her chocolate eyes look over the two and whereas Sting has scraped knuckles and a few scratches, he's fine, but her eyes dart to the torn cloth on Rogues arm.
"Sit." Wendy says firmly. Rogue and Sting sit down, and she calls her mother. Grandeeney walks into the small area, looks over the two thirteen year old boys, her eyes landing on Rogues arm.
"I'll take care of Rogue; you take care of Sting but watch what I do." Grandeeney says as Wendy nods.
"Did you get the guy?" Wendy asks. Being eleven, Wendy had worked a few jobs and was good at it, but she, like her mother, was support and skilled in medicine and technology, so that wasn't the primary focus of her job among the nine heads. With that being said, she still had six captures and four kills.
"Yeah, I took down his partner and Rogue and I twin attacked him. Laxus and Jellal are having a word with him. His partner is why Rogue has the graze." Sting says with a hiss as the disinfectant stings his knuckles. Wendy cleans the disinfectant off and then after applying some ointment, she wraps his knuckles as she watches her mother tend to bullet graze wounds.
"Always apply burn cream after its cleaned. Since it wasn't a full gunshot wound, no stitches will be needed." Grandeeney says as she does as she explained to Wendy before wrapping the wound. They examine them just as another knock sounds and the door swings open.
"Igneel, no way you could be here because of an injury, you haven't been injured in what, five years." Grandeeney taunts. Igneel lets out a quiet snort before he walks over to the two.
"The man you captured proved to be very…. talkative. We now know the location of where they go to drop off Ivan's supply of narcotics. We also now know, to an extent, why. Well done you two, your fathers would be proud, I know I am." Igneel says. Sting and Rogue nod with a smile.
1 year later
Three things happen to the heads once they turn sixteen. One, they get their license, typical normal sixteen year old. Two, they get more access to the records of both heir families legal and lucrative business and get to make more calls and demand more; not normal sixteen year old stuff. Three, they get their family mark tattooed on their body, and it's not small. Gray was the most recent in this, getting a black, blue, white and silver ice demon tattooed on his torso. It's horns came to just below his collar bone, the wings half wrapped around to his back with the other going to the middle of his chest and mean looking demon itself took up a good portion the right side of his chest and stomach. It hurt like hell, but he managed. Now it was Natsu's turn. The Dragneel family had on its crest, a fire dragon. Natsu would be getting a fire dragon that would pretty much take up from his right shoulder, over his right pectoral, to the center of his chest, down his stomach with the tip of the tail landing on his right hip. He would be getting just the outline today, and then in a couple weeks getting the first half of the color done.
He knew what it would look like, since his father had the same tattoo and Zeref, though he was not going to take over, got a grey version of the tattoo. The heads and future heads got the colored version, and their wives got the matching smaller once across their shoulder, like what his mother had.
"Be honest, this is gonna hurt like a bitch isn't it?" Natsu asks Gajeel, who was the most recent dragon to get tatted. Gajeel grins.
"Let me put it to you like this. You will wish you were getting a beat down by fifteen people than having to hold still for this. But hey, it's a right of passage." Gajeel chuckles.
"Great." Natsu sighs out before he leaves with his father for the parlor. There was only one parlor that did these tattoos, but every parlor knew not to let other people get these same tattoos; it usually got a lot of people killed. Walking into the parlor, Natsu looks over the interior and appreciates the privacy the rooms offer before they walk into the room, and he strips off his shirt. The artist smiles and shows him the incredible design. Natsu smirks and nods. The artist takes out a razor and shaves off the fine hairs on Natsu's torso as they make small talk.
"Son, I know this may suck, but no going to any girls places for a while." Igneel says as Natsu lets out a snort.
"Oh no, my sex life." Natsu laughs.
"I'm serious son." Igneel says.
"I know pops." Natsu says. Gray had mentioned the same thing, since some girls tended to scratch, best to just avoid that. He could go a month without getting laid.
"Just think about it like this, the girls will be all over you with the new ink after it's healed and no longer flaking off." The artist laughs.
"Oh, that's not a problem for me, it's keeping them off me." Natsu snickers.
"My man!" the artist laughs as he wipes over Natsu's torso to get it clean before he lays down the design in it's proper placement and starts the process.
4 hours later
They were about three fourths of the way done before needing a small break. Natsu's chest felt like it was on fire but that was normal apparently.
"You're a fucking trooper kid, I'll give you that." The artist says as he stretches his hand. Natsu takes a swig from the water bottle he had brought quickly gets back on the bench and they start up again. The artist knows not to really ask questions when it comes to these tattoos. After a couple more hours, the outline is done, and he gets the second skin on it to keep it protected for the first day or two. After giving some proper after care instructions for Natsu, they make the first of two color appointments and leave. Natsu gives Gajeel a quick call.
"Yeah?" Gajeel gruffs.
"Holy fuck you weren't kidding." Natsu says before he hangs up, barely catching Gajeel's laugh as he does.
1 month later
The first color appointment had hurt. A lot. The second one, since he knew what to expect, hurt less and now with his tattoo fully healed Natsu was glad he could finally get back to the physical aspect of the family business. Didn't mean he didn't like the other side of things, it was necessary, and he did in fact learn quite a lot, but still, he was getting twitchy.
"Now just don't get shot there and all will be fine." Gray teases.
"If I get shot anywhere here I might be dead dumb-ass." Natsu snaps back. Gray shrugs in acknowledgment. Sting chuckles.
"I know it's gonna hurt like hell, but I can't wait to get mine done." Sting says. Natsu knew why, and he also knew that Rogue was just as eager. It would be like getting a part of their dads back. Hearing gunshots ring out near one of the main buildings caused Natsu and the guys with him to run the short distance towards the sound. Upon arrival, there were ten dead men and Igneel had a graze on his shoulder while Zanelia was unharmed and looked a mix of fright and anger.
"What the actual fuck?" Natsu near snarls. It's then that he sees a mark on one the men's arms and knows who it is.
"Fucking Jose." Gajeel growls out before Natsu.
"Never would have expected him to be so damn ballsy." Rogue says.
"It's not just him, those men and the mark of Jiemma, those have some two are from Ivan, and that one is from Mard." Metalicanna says.
"Why here?" Gray asks before he takes notice of everyone there.
"The wives." Laxus says, as Mira grips his arm. Laxus had proposed to Mira a couple months ago, now they were just waiting for her to turn eighteen before they could get married.
"Chauvinistic cowardly pigs." Erza snarls out and Jellal smiles at her. He had proposed just last week and was also waiting until she was eighteen as well. Kinana nods in agreement with Erza. Her and Erik had been dating for a couple years now, and Sting was placing bets on when Erik would propose. One man coughs and their heads all snap in his direction. A smirk spreads on Erik's face as he casually walks over, pulls out a vial and lets but a drop into an open wound. The man immediately starts to writhe in agony. The Toxidea family, publicly, was the world best music recording enterprise and label with some of the bests artists working for them. In the criminal world, however, they were the best assassins and poison was their forte. Erik had just taken over as head of the family, so why they went after his father he didn't know, but he and the rest were hellbent on finding out.
"Leave this one to us pops. Besides, Zeref already has the cleanup crew en route." Natsu chuckles. Igneel smiles and nods as they drag the writhing survivor in for interrogation, the Fernandez family trade. James Fernandez was a known politician and Jellal was taking up that mantle, so this could easily be explained as a sloppy hit attempt against the politician and company, which wasn't entirely a lie. The only member not here was Makarov, but since Laxus had taken over both the family electricity empire and the torture business, he was enjoying his retirement.
Igneel looks around to his friends, his wife and lets out a heavy sigh. Zanelia knows what that means without him having to say.
"So, should I go pack?" Zanelia asks quietly with the other wives understanding and letting out the breath they had been holding.
"That may be best. Those old bastards are getting brazen." Igneel says.
Two days later
Zanelia hugged Natsu and Zeref tight, they returned her hug in equal fervor. Her eyes then fell on Sting, the young boy she had practically raised these last few years and she pulls him into a hug, her eyes already wet with tears. Sting hugs her back, holding back his own tears. It was happening again, losing a mother and dreading the moment his adoptive father would cease breathing. He just hoped it wouldn't be in two days.
"I'll give your mom a hug for you, just like I know Rosalia will give Rogues mom a hug. Why do you think I've been taking pictures of you for these years. I know she misses you and will want to see you." Zanelia says.
"Thank you for being my mom for a while." Sting whispers and Natsu barely keeps it together. Zanelia holds Sting a little tighter before Igneel taps her shoulder. Giving Sting one more hug, she looks back to her sons and hugs them again.
"I love you." The three say at once and smile.
"Make sure those old fuckers pay." Zanelia says.
"Oh, I promise that." Natsu says. Zanelia turns to her husband and gives him a kiss, a long passionate kiss because she knows somehow, deep down, she'll never see him again.
"I love you." She says.
"I love you too. Thank you for everything. I'm sure the others will be glad to see you." Igneel says though he can feel his heart breaking. Zanelia gets into the car and watches as her family disappears in the distance. She knew this day may happen, so she made sure to have the other wives create discreet social media accounts so they could keep an eye on things from a distance. The hours went by as she and the others got to their secret hide away, some secret island that only the Dragneel family knew about since they technically owned it. Somehow, the women had managed not to cry the whole ten hour trip but the moment they entered the large manor where the other two women, Natalia and Lilith were staying and saw them there, with equally sad eyes, it was then that they broke down. It was a full hour before they were able to compose themselves again before Zanelia smiles at Natalia and calls her over. She walks over only to receive a hug.
"I promised Sting I would give you a hug from him." Zanelia whispers, and Natalia almost cries before she hugs her back.
"Thank you." Natalia says just before they part. Zanelia smiles before she pulls up her album on her phone labeled Sting and shows Natalia pictures of Sting from the week after he moved until just sixteen hours ago. Rosalia is showing similar pictures of Rogue to Lilith and the two mothers start getting teary eyed.
"He's already a lady killer isn't he?" Natalia asks with a teary chuckle.
"You can blame my son for that." Zanelia snorts, showing a picture of Natsu and Sting posing.
"I expected nothing less, his father was the same." Natalia laughs.
"So, with the cloaking devise in our phones working properly, we made discreet social media accounts no one knows about. You need to make one so that we can still be there without being there." Mika smiles. Natalia and Lilith giggle but agree. This would be the only link they had to their sons until Natsu deemed it safe for them to return, and who knew when that would be.
Sorry for ending on a slightly sad and bitter note. Please R&R and I hope to be back next month, if not though, I will be back in September!