The idea was simple.
When Natsu would be preparing for the S-class exams, Happy was supposed to follow Gildarts onto Tenrōjima and scout ahead. This level of forethought was highly unusual for Natsu, and Happy strongly suspected it wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for Levy's attempt to convince Natsu that literature can be interesting – mainly, by presenting him with a book about actual ninja techniques.
Happy really didn't think Natsu had learnt anything from the ten minutes he had spent reading the book before jumping into yet another brawl with Gray.
Happy was wrong.
According to the book, a good ninja infiltrated a castle via a gate (by pretending he has every right to come to the castle), not a wall, and – most importantly – started gaining information on the enemy before the enemy even realized you are enemies. Spy had to be planted before the situation indicated a spy would be needed. In their situation, Natsu informed him in a hushed whisper, a good ninja would go to Tenrōjima before any other participant, learn everything to be learnt and return without arousing any suspicions.
That's how Happy ended up flying to Tenrōjima on a Super-Secret Ninja Information-Gathering mission.
That's how Happy ended up completely alone in an unfamiliar forest, trying his best not to be eaten by local fauna.
Perhaps, in theory, exploring the terrain ahead of time was a good idea. In practice, he spent what felt like hours wandering in a the same-looking forest full of trees with smooth bark and golden leaves, jumping at the smallest noise, and not daring to fly in the fear of vicious birds which seemed to inhabit every corner of the island.
He wished Natsu was here. Nothing seemed truly scary when he was with Happy. No enemy was too powerful, no task too impossible, no place too creepy to venture in. Without him, shadows seemed to crawl towards Happy. Without him, stupid wildlife made him wary.
As he walked, bird songs started to quiet down. Less and less of the small, spotted creatures rummaged through the undergrowth in search of food. Even flies seemed to avoid this part of the forest.
Then, grass ended.
Once, this place must have been beautiful. Spots of the sunlight filtered through leaves must have been dancing on the surface of a pond, with colourful fish swimming in water and many animals coming here to satisfy the thirst.
Now, husks of the trees were reaching dry finger of their twigs towards the sky. Leaves were nowhere to be seen; neither on the trees, nor on the ground which was decorated only by animal skeletons with skulls full of pointy teeth. The only life here was a stray mosquito and grass blades venturing bravely into the death's territory.
What could possibly bring such devastation to their sacred island? What Calamity?
Was it near?
Super-Secret Ninja Missions be damned, he trotted away fully set on finding a boat Gildarts came here on and returning to Magnolia. Hopefully, he wouldn't run into the cause of the mysterious calamity.
Once again, he was walking. Once again, he was pricking up his ears and carefully watching the environment. The fact nothing seemed out of ordinary only put him on edge.
Given how alert he was, it was a wonder he didn't spot a boy laying in the grass sooner. Black and white robes were hardly discreet on mostly green background, but he was so still Happy's mind didn't register him as a living being at first. He didn't look like he was breathing – and with a skin tone tad too pale, Happy was sure he ran into yet another death body.
The boy shifted slightly; a movement so small Happy didn't register it. Slowly, he lifted the upper side of his body and got himself into a sitting position.
It was too much for an already terrified exceed.
"Don't eat my brain!" Happy shrieked. "It tastes horribly!"
The boy- no, the zombie blinked slowly and frowned in confusion. "Why would I want to eat your brain?"
"Eh?" Happy's flattened ears slowly returned to upright position. Slowly, he realized that the supposed zombie had yet to start groaning, stumbling towards him or moaning 'braaain'. "Oh. You're not a zombie."
In response he received even more disorientated look. "Not to my knowledge, no."
"You looked kinda dead," Happy explained and shuddered. "And there's this creepy pond... Everything was dead, with all those skeletons." He gulped and looked around, as if a monster which caused it would jump on him out of nearby bushes. "It isn't around, right? The thing that did it."
The boy hesitated "You would be safer if you left now," He told Happy with an awkward, dodgy look.
"So it is close?" The cat took a few steps back and perked his ears. He was about to leave, when he realized something and turned back. "Aren't you going to go too?"
They might have known each other for about two minutes, but Happy was not about to leave him on mercy of whatever monster was lurking around on the island. It wouldn't be acceptable even if he was a dark mage, not just a nice, if a bit shy, young man.
"It's not going to hurt me. The same cannot be said about you." The boy stood up – and now that he wasn't even close to being on the same eye level as Happy, calling him a boy no longer felt quite right. He qualified as man even less, though. He looked a bit like Natsu a few years ago and at that age, no one was insane enough to call the young Dragon Slayer a man. "I appreciate your concern, but it'll be the best for both of us if you won't bother yourself with my safety and return to dealing with your own matters."
That sounded like a really long, complicated way of saying 'Don't worry about me, just run!'. Maybe he was trying to hide his stupidly self-sacrificing intentions under fancier wording? Well, something as silly as that wasn't going to fool Happy; with the expansion of their team he became outshined, but he was still the smart one of the original duo.
But then, if the boy decided stupid self-sacrifice was necessary, to convince him openly Happy would need to do some yelling and punch him a few times. The problem was, he wasn't very good at punching or meaningful speeches – so instead of shouting into his face how stupid it is, Happy had to be sneaky about it. He was on a ninja mission, after all.
"I was scouting ahead," He said slowly, trying to sound thoughtful. "But I only found some weird rocks."
"There's not much more out here," The boy said neutrally. "Unless you find ruins from the previous century interesting, that's it. They are little more than rocks as well at this point, though."
So there was more than just forests and cliffs here! "Can you show me where they are?"
"This really isn't a good idea-" He paused.
"I'm Happy."
"Happy. Right." His interlocutor rubbed his temple. "Ruins are on the southeastern side of the island, if you really want to see, but going there with me is asking for trouble, I assure you."
"Does the monster live there?"
Ruins sounded like a place a death-monster would find a befitting lair; depressing and empty, full of reminders of the people who had once lived there.
The boy stood in silence for long moment, not looking at anything in specific. "He doesn't, no."
He? Happy wanted to ask. Could the monster be a person? An evil dark mage executing a vindicative plot against Fairy Tail?
The boy picked up a flower – a dendalion, if dendalions here were purple instead of yellow. In his hand, it started to lose colours; it's stem's vibrant green and soft shade of its petals turned greyish brown and then into dust. He opened his palm and wind blew the ashes away.
"It doesn't obey me," He said quietly, as if not noticing Happy's wide eyes and bristled fur. "Not when I wish to stop it, at least. You could call it a monster, I guess... It's certainly feels like some twisted parasite. It won't kill me, as it is powerless without a host, but besides that, it only cares about its own hunger."
"Why didn't you say something?" Happy asked in a horrified whisper. One step closer and he could have ended up like this flower. One step and he could have been dead.
"Forgive me. An opportunity to exchange even basic pleasantries is rare for me," The boy managed to give him a ghost of an apologetic smile. "Given you didn't attempt to approach me further, I thought that having a little chat won't put you in danger."
Happy wanted to run away. Warn everybody about danger, and let someone else deal with that. A person stronger than him could come and decide if this boy should be helped a or chased away.
Then he recalled how lonely it was to wander Tenrōjima's forest on his own. How terribly he longed to have Natsu – really, anyone – with him. Tried to imagine it being years, not hours; tried to imagine not having any hope for a change, no ability to post a stupid commission with a cry for help.
He tried to imagine having his whole life taken from him and under the weight of it, he shuddered. There was a dark finality to a despare like this, one he didn't dare to put into words.
No, he realized. Chasing this boy away wouldn't be befitting of a Fairy Tail mage.
And so, he smiled. "It's alright."
The boy didn't return a smile. He just looked away guiltily and sighed quietly, as if he didn't hear Happy. "I will go now."
"What? No!" The cat protested, slightly panicked, "You can't just leave!"
"I already stayed for too long," The boy pointed out mildly, but didn't move, "You will be safer without me here."
"But I still don't know where anything here is! And I really have to, there'll be the trials next week, and Natsu's counting on me, and…"
And knowing that because of him, the boy would leave somewhere less safe, where dark guilds bothered to look and innocent people went camping, not their secluded island, made him feel like an awful, awful person. Happy had been lucky and didn't come close enough to trigger the monster… The death magic, as that's what it must have been.
Other people might not be so lucky. Other people might actually die.
Other people may look at him and try to use him as a tool of destruction, like Eisenwald wanted to use Lullaby.
Happy didn't think the boy could handle being a murderer. He seemed soft in a way only Wendy was when they first met her, with no harder streak that came with fighting for living.
"What trials?" The boy sounded alarmed, apparently having realized before his companion that soon, he will find himself close to other people even if he won't leave.
"Huh? The S-class exams." Happy paused. "Ah."
"Indeed," He said dryly. "Thank you for the warning, I suppose."
After a long moment of silence, the cat finally spoke, "Do you have a boat, or…?"
"…no, not really."
"We could think what to do while going to the ruins?" Happy offered somewhat meekly "And we could always ask Gildarts if you can borrow his boat too…"
The boy's facial expression was enough of an answer on as to what did he thought about telling yet another person about his situation, "To the ruins is it."
One lengthy explanation on as to what S-class exams exactly were and why Happy ended up coming on Tenrōjima over a week before they were supposed to take place later, they arrived to the ruins.
Happy looked at the crumbling walls covered in moss, at once cobbled roads now hidden by grass and bushes. At a tree growing in the middle of what must have been a small building back when it was intact and two spotted animals with big ears which took one look at them and ran off.
He sighed and waved his paw dismissively. "It really is just a bunch of rocks…"
"I did tell you not much is left of it," The boy shrugged. "The island is far away from important trading routes, so after the original inhabitants died, nobody bothered to keep buildings in an usable state."
"They died?" The cat perked his ears. "How?"
The buildings looked quite old, so he doubted his companion had anything to do with it, but the thought crossed his mind nonetheless. The boy glanced at him.
"They were killed about a century ago by an enemy guild," He looked at the ruins wistfully. "Mavis Vermillion was the only survivor."
Happy looked at the ruins again, flattening his ears slightly. It was one thing to look at them with a hazy feeling somebody had lived here, a long time ago. It was completely another to look at them knowing who one of the people who used to call this place home was. "I didn't know."
The boy made a noncommittal noise. "Is there anything else you wanted to see?"
It took him longer than it usually would to answer. This solemn place, their sacred island, couldn't be more different than Fairy Tail, always loud, chaotic and so very much alive.
"Dunno," Happy finally answered. "Is there anything more too see here?"
Some part of him wished for the answer to be 'no'.
"Depends on what you're looking for," His companion wasn't looking at him. "There are caves and underground tunnels running underneath the island, but learning how to navigate them would be tricky with only few days to spare. Different landmarks, trees, edible plants..." He fell quiet, his eyes softening into deep sadness. "And Mavis's grave."
Happy nodded. Of course it would be a grave. For all it's colours and wildlife, Tenrōjima was simply depressing.
He was about to tell the boy he wanted to see the grave, because he still had a ninja mission to complete and backing off because a place sounded spooky was very much not befitting of a Fairy Tail mage (and wouldn't earn him any points with Carla), when he heard a familiar deep voice.
"Happy," Gildarts stated, not sounding very glad to see him. "Mind explaining what are you doing here?"
He glanced where his companion had been just a moment ago, seeking support, but saw no one.
Not a zombie, sure.
Happy silently accepted the fact that most likely, his new friend had been a ghost and turned to deal with Gildarts.
Technically, no rules have been broken. Happy was allowed to go with a sloppy warning not to return until the exams have actually started. He was content to oblige.
He told only Natsu about meeting with the strange ghost-boy. It felt... Private. He never had a friend from outside the guild before; most people didn't really pay attention to him, waving him off as a pet or a summon. Strenger creatures than him could be seen around mages.
The exams went as planned, with Cana emerging as the victor. The only surprise turned out to be the fact Gildarts was her father.
Well, it also turned out that Mest actually worked for the council. Nobody was sure what was he planning to find here and Happy didn't mention the boy. His mission ended up in getting reprimanded for dragging here an armed vessel for nothing, instead of getting a much-desired pay rise.
They returned to the guild and matters came back to their usual track. Natsu swore he would win the next year and promptly ended up in another brawl with Gray, who had a different idea. Soon, nearly everyone were fighting.
A potted plant on a windowsill was dead. Happy blinked. He could have sworn it was lush green a moment ago.
Hello. This little story came to be because of a one observation; with the exception of Mavis a century before the canon events started, Happy is the only one of the good characters to openly consider that Zeref may be alright. It's just a short comment after Natsu met Zeref for the first time, but it's still more than anyone else. As far as the present time goes, it's more than even Mavis, who haven't told a soul anything about Zeref until it was far too late.
So yeah, I thought it would be nice if those two could meet in calmer circumstances. They seemed like they could become friends, even if strange ones.