"That isn't possible." Levy mumbled to herself as she paced the second floor loft, not sure how to decipher anything Earth Natsu had told her.
His tale, as wild as it was, seemed just stupid enough to be true. He had most certainly left some more personal tid-bits out, but he had been surprisingly well spoken.
Earth Natsu, perched on a brown ottoman, remarked blankly, "You've said that like four times now."
Before she would've shivered at the natural growl in his voice, but Levy was too busy seething at the countless impossibilities, "Because it isn't possible! There is no way you should be able to use your magic!"
"I just told ya how the time-space lady tried erasing my ability to use magic n' stuff, and failed. Why is this a surprise?" he reminded with his signature head scratch.
Even if he was from a different world, even if he tittering on the edge of man and dragon, he was still Natsu.
"All the magic in this universe is gone, the Anima took what was left of it. And since no human can produce Ethernano on their own, that means nobody can create or use their own magic. Period." she explained emphatically, her voice edging out the first floor's lively chatter for control over the loft.
Earth Natsu went stiff, "Oh."
"What?"
"I-it's nothing." he shook his head stiffly, "Can we get back to how the universe pooped me out here and how I can get back?"
"So is phrasing not a thing in your world anymore?" Levy raised a brow out at him, grabbing the notepad she had stored in her armpit to file through several pages stuffed with scribbles and notes.
"No, not really. Please tell me there is a really, really convenient fix to all of this?" Earth Natsu got straight to the point.
"Uhm, I'm not so sure." Levy admitted, taking the half chewed pen in her headband to jot something down, "Have you ever studied what happens when ludicrous amounts of energy punch holes in the fabric of spacetime?"
"Only to make conversation."
"What about how the bending of space-time creates gravity and such?"
He huffed, "I thought that was common knowledge."
"The snark won't speed things up." Levy chastised softly, "Besides, you wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't blown up a portal through time. I mean, who does that? Is that your solution to every problem?"
"I mean… yeah, it's got a good track record so far."
Levy rolled her eyes, "Well this time, you ended up taking a precise portal through time and turned it into a rupture in the dimensional confines of space."
"I said so far." Earth Natsu corrected as he grabbed a pillow and groaned into it, "Look, just give me a quick exposition dump, l-like just lay it all on me before I check out"
"Fine. My best guess as to how you got here would be that your attack was so powerful it turned a tiny precise hole in the fabric of space-time, into a massive breach between our dimensions."
"Is there an easy fix for getting me home?"
"Yes, but actually no." Levy began, "We would need to restart Anima. It's been dry for years, so it would need a quite the kick."
"If we're talkin' fueling it with magic, I'm pretty sure I can juice it up." Earth Natsu jumped on the idea with an offer.
"I was gonna say we'll burn that bridge when we get to it, but this entire plan revolves around you being able to restart that thing." Levy rasped to herself, lips pursed thoughtfully.
"Your losin' me here Levy." he waved a hand in her direction to refocus her, "Remember, you like a gazillion times smarter than me, even in Edolas."
Levy squinted through her glasses at her notes before prompting, "Explosions are kinda your thing, right?"
"Yep."
"Well, how much energy can you safely gather into one point?"
"A lot."
"No, that's not-" she paused, "I meant in joules."
"I don't have any cash on me. Sorta blew it all on your wedding."
"My what?" Levy's eyes went wide, taking a moment before correcting him, "And no hon, not jewels, j-o-u-l-e-s, it's a measurement of energy. How much?"
"Uh… seven."
"You know what? That's on me." Levy divulged in defeat. So far he had been keeping up with the conversation remarkably well, she would take what she could get.
"I'll tell you straight up, I need you to produce energy the likes of which our universe hasn't seen since its inception. That's the only way to create a rift between our worlds."
"Hold on, that doesn't make any sense, if we need that much energy, why haven't holes in time or whatever been made already?" Earth Natsu tilted his head, disclosing, "Dad ate stars when he was hungry, and I'm… 60 percent sure he was never sent to another world."
Levy just stared blankly "I-i'm not sure how to respond to that."
Earth Natsu emphasized, "But ya get the point, right?"
"Look, the energy we need will be several orders of magnitude more powerful than any naturally occurring cosmological phenomenon." Levy explained, adding, "Supernovas and Gamma Ray Bursts don't break reality because they simply aren't powerful enough to do so."
"My head hurts." Earth Natsu shoved his head right back into the pillow in his lap, the fluff sticking to the crevices between his scales.
"Stay with me." she encouraged as she padded over to gently rub the back of his neck, "Can you do it?"
Levy could feel the crimson scales radiate warmth, even through his shawl.
Earth Natsu visibly calmed as he straightened back up, his head of horns twisting up to look at her, still deep in thought.
His thin eyes felt like narrow gateways to hellish brimstone, roiling with draconian fire.
But right now, they were almost... lost.
Levy felt a croon echo in her belly as her terse brows went loose, and the mother in her came out.
She repeated gently, "Can you?"
"I-i don't know."
"Well you just said you Dad ate stars, so-"
"I am not as strong as him." Earth Natsu cut her off stiffly.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to touch a nerve or bring up some unhappy memories."
"It's fine Levy." he reassured, rubbing his scaled face with his palms before sighing quietly.
Levy readjusted his scarf for him and tried to lighten the mood, "This is a lotta pressure on you, but for someone strong like a dragon, I know you can do it.
"Strong like a dragon?"
Levy gave a small smile, "I just sorta figured since your starting to look like a dragon with the scales, horns, weird black diamonds on said horns, sharp teeth-"
His golden slits snapped to her, "What did you just say?" he demanded with a whisper.
"U-uh, sharp teeth?"
"Before that."
"Horns?"
"Levy, please do not make me repeat myself."
Now sweating bullets, she mewled, "There are w-weird black diamonds on your horns?"
Earth Natsu paled.
Excusing himself with a strangled rasp, he stood up and slinked down stairs with a pace that suggested he was moments away from vomiting.
Levy held a hand to her own forehead and grimaced "Oh crap."
"I told you, he's well past the 'oh no scary lady' gimmick." Natsu remarked to his wife slyly, his hands busy repairing the leaky pipes beneath one of the bar's many sinks.
Lucy, who paced back and forth behind him, desperately trying to hobble together various dishes from the several recipe books lying about the counter, only growled in annoyance. She was never the cooking type, but she most certainly tried her best.
"And here I was thinking I was the only man who could draw those noises out of you."
That earned him a swat on the shoulder.
"Listen buster, keep squawking and I'm gonna hafta' explain to your Mom why I shoved her son's head in a turkey." she threatened tersely.
Snickering, he asked, "So, how was he?"
"What?"
"Earthland Natsu, he settlin' in okay? From what I heard, he was having fun with some of the girls."
Lucy shrugged, clearly preoccupied, "I dunno, he is more annoying than last time, but he seems the same otherwise."
"You're joking right?" he said, voice muffled as he ducked head beneath the sink.
"I don't know, it's a lot to take in. I never thought we would see him again." she defended herself, voice almost regretful as she replayed her interaction with Earth Natsu for anything she could have missed.
"How do you think I feel babe? I'm thinking 'tonight's gonna be great, Mom and my brother are coming over for a nice Thanksgiving' then all the sudden I see me from another dimension wandering around a forest."
"Look, I didn't ask for a complete rundown on what happened since last time." Lucy told him, mumbling, "He wasn't much talkative as he was smug."
"Sure, he's stronger, and scarier, but he is still pure of heart, dumb of ass."
There was a resounding thud form beneath the counter.
"Cotton-picking-!" Natsu cursed to himself as he retreated from beneath the sink, holding the fingers he had crushed between the pipe and the handle of his wrench, "Dag-nabit, that blasted bolt."
Handing her husband a washcloth so he could inspect his bruised digits, Lucy couldn't help but say, "I don't get why you're acting so weird about him."
"How could I not?" he said, holstering a wrench in his tool-belt, "I've spent the last 9 years trying to be him, the complete puzzle. Now he's back, and I know when a few pieces are missing."
They both stopped what they were doing to make eye contact.
"Hon, look at him, he's exhausted. He's seven years younger than me yet he looks twice my age, beyond the scales and horns and stuff."
Natsu continued, "The entire trip back here, he said basically nothing. I was expecting to get an earful about how he got here, and him bellyaching about his motion sickness." he paused for effect, "And I got silence."
His wife's beautiful features scrunched as she tried to follow along, eyes downcast in thought.
"So… we're supposed to treat him like a wounded veteran?"
Natsu shook his head and freely admitted, "No, just- I-i don't know…"
He glanced up at the loft, and could see two boney dragon horns sticking over the rafters, bobbing ever so slightly as Earth Natsu talked with Levy.
"He's got a lot on his plate, a lot more than just being stuck in Edolas, being stuck like that." it was an educated guess, Natsu would admit.
"You're being more intuitive than usual." Lucy said as gently as she could, "Are you sure you ain't reading into things that aren't there?"
"I'm speaking from experience baby." he admonished.
Lucy couldn't help her shuffling.
Her husband was not the type to share his train of thought, and getting him to do so made getting Nasha to stay in bed look trivial.
Even before he changed, when he was oh so unreliable, he kept things to himself.
He was so far past that. Her Natsu now was bright, outgoing, wise like a leader yet warm like a loving husband, like a doting father, like a loyal friend.
Yet he still gave her the same old 'Oh I'm fine, just thinking' almost every time she asked what was wrong.
Absently sorting through his tool-belt, Natsu murmured as if he had heard her thoughts, "I know that look in his eye, I know the silence, the 'I'm fine don't worry about me', the 'I'll figure it out'. I-i've been there Luce."
"This isn't who he was, it's who he became," fiddling with an Allen wrench, Natsu continued to theorize dulcetly, "Since we've last met, my guess is that he's had such an imbalance of give and take he's forgotten how to let people help him."
"I'm sorry." Lucy began as she knelt next to him, "I guess I-i... I just... never looked at it like, like i-in that way."
"Don't say sorry." Natsu chided softly with a shoulder nudge, "You didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault he's good at hiding it. If I hadn't been there once myself, I'd have no idea there was something going on."
Lucy set her delicate jaw, "Are you… still there? Still where he is?"
He gave a temperate chuckle in response.
"No, not anymore." he answered, his trademark honestly still there, "You and Nasha helped me get over it."
"But," Lucy's brows furrowed as she gave his hand a squeeze, "I didn't do anything."
This drew another soft laugh as Natsu leaned in to snatch a kiss from his wife, "Trust me baby, you did."
"Uncle Natsu! Uncle Natsu!" a voice chirped loudly, tiny feet loudly scampering across the floor as a small figure rounded the bar.
Asuka, wearing a giddy face, zoomed up to the crouching couple to proudly display what she had clutched in her hands, "I got the tool you wanted me to-" she gasped, "-are you two smooching!?"
Natsu didn't waste any time, firmly grabbing his wife's waist to claim yet another kiss, this time making sure to be as loud of possible.
While his wife squealed in surprise, Asuka giggled and covered her eyes, "Ew!"
Eventually, Lucy wriggled free with her face beat red, slinking off to resume her cooking, growling to herself that she was still Lucy Ashley in one way or another.
"Alright my lil' courier, what's new?" Natsu said as he crouched in front of his niece, righting her cowboy hat.
"I got the tool from Daddy you asked me to!"
Natsu grabbed the wrench from her and looked back at the sink, "Good, did you tell him if I don't get back my drill I leant him in the next week I'm stealing all the spark plugs from his mower?
"Yep!" she nodded eagerly, "He choked on his drink!"
Natsu promptly high-fived her, "That-a-girl, now, are you wearing a shirt you don't mind getting dirty?"
Asuka shrugged, "I dunno, I guess. Mommy does laundry."
"Fantastic." Natsu reached up to snatch a flashlight from off the counter and handed it to her, "Now, I need you to use that, and shine it on my hands, not in the corner, not somewhere random, on my hands-" he cut himself off upon noticing a flash of pink streak past his peripheral.
He turned his head to see his Earthland counterpart stalk past the bar, his face almost colored a sickly green, his cheeks waxy from the strain of holding up a neutral expression.
"Hold that thought sweetie," Natsu said, patting Asuka's head before he stood up, "Hey bud, you good?" he called out.
Earth Natsu gave no response, making a beeline for the hallway that held the bathrooms.
His frown deepened upon noticing Levy urgently scramble after him from the second floor.
"Lev, did you talk him to the point of vomiting?" he called out.
Stiffening at his voice, Levy restlessly jogged in place for a moment, "W-what? No, I didn't do anything, nothing at all!"
Natsu unlatched his tool belt and set it down, "Uh huh."
"What happened?" he requested, his tone of voice no different to when he asked his daughter to reveal what she had broken.
Levy stuttered, "N-nothing! I swear! It was just a conversation, a back and forth, an exchange of ideas, I definitely said nothing about his horns!"
"Gosh darnit Lev." Natsu sighed as he came out from behind the bar, wiping his hands on his cargo pants, "Asuka hon, you're free to go."
"Let's go, you're going to apologize." he announced as he gently grabbed her wrist and made a bee-line for the men's room where Earth Natsu and disappeared into.
"I'm sorry!" the contrite Levy admitted, "He was actually keeping up really well, and I just said his horns have diamonds on them, which was weird because what does that have to do with the whole dragon thing?"
"It's fine, you didn't know. I shoulda told you he wasn't too fond of his Dragon Force."
Levy immediately coughed on a laugh despite her predicament, "Dragon Force?"
"Yes, it's an awesome name, I won't tolerate slander."
They both stopped in front of the door to the men's room. They could still feel heat lingering in the air from when he had passed by this exact spot.
Natsu knocked with little hesitation, finding the wood toasty against his knuckles, "Hey Natsu, is everything alright?"
His circumspect question received no answer.
As Levy's shuffling grew in intensity, Natsu's worry did the same. He glanced to Levy, "Look, just lemme handle this, he probably knows you didn't mean anything by it."
Natsu pushed open the bathroom door to a sight that made him queasy.
Earth Natsu stood shirtless in front of a sink's mirror, duster lazily clumped at his feet as he silently observed his appearance with the same blankness Natsu had grown to expect from him.
Natsu was more focused on the thing that slowly did away with his appetite.
Beneath all the thick crimson scales that lined his arms, shoulders, and sides, were cruel scars wildly varying in age, wildly varying in shape.
Earth Natsu was constructed from hard muscle and deep damage, the broadness of his frame telling he was the ultimate vessel for combat, crafted and honed to be the most powerful fighter possible through extensive trial and error.
His restraint slipped as he blurted, "Holy shit dude."
Beside him, Levy let out a disgusted gasp.
Earth Natsu seemed unbothered that he had been caught staring at himself, not reacting to their presence or their peering in the slightest.
"Lev, wait outside." At his prudent order, Levy stepped to the side as Natsu approached his counterpart, shutting the door behind him.
As horrid as Earth Natsu's physique was, Natsu couldn't help but take his eyes off him. He expected the damage to be bad if his face was any metric to go by, but he wasn't entirely sure he was hungry for dinner tonight after this.
"What's going on man, somethin' up?" Natsu finally found his voice.
With his jaw clenched so tight Natsu feared his counterpart's teeth might break, Earth Natsu offered nothing but several false starts, "I-it's not… Everything's… f-fine…."
All Natsu could do as Earth Natsu underwent untold mental turmoil was shift his weight from one heel to the other.
"Levy didn't mean to hurt your feelings, she didn't know-"
"She did nothing wrong." Earth Natsu firmly rebuked before immediately returning to his silent yet heated mumbling.
Eyeing his horns, Natsu noticed that they did indeed have odd obsidian diamonds running along their length. With a squint, he was able to make out those same marks running along his biceps and lining his fingers.
The raven black tattoos did not stick out well against the vermilion scales, bunching around the sharp curves of jutting muscles.
"Can't believe I didn't notice them till now." as if he had read his thoughts, Earth Natsu bitterly spat to himself.
"W-what are they...? If you don't mind my prodding."
Earth Natsu's deformed lips curled back, "Crests. A King's crest."
A few seconds ticked by before Natsu pieced two and two together, his eyebrows popping.
"Holy crap, that's so raw! You're the King of the Dragons!?"
Earth Natsu's head shot up, eyes blazing, "I'm not." he said with such ferocity that the smooth glass of the mirror shattered.
"Is this a runaway king thing?" Natsu managed to stay steady as he continued questioning, "Is that what this is about?"
"What? No, this just…" Earth Natsu rubbed his face, his still bare palms roughly grinding against his scaled face, "something else entirely."
"I'm not tryna be shrewd, but what's the issue here? You're like the dragon alpha, and here I thought you couldn't get any cooler."
His counterpart huffed, his gaze sliding to nowhere in particular, "Because Dad was the last actual king, an actual dragon. I didn't do anything to actually deserve the stupid title anyway."
"Dude Dad was a dragon!?" was Natsu's takeaway.
Earth Natsu groaned, "J-just because he is gone now doesn't make me King. He can't be replaced, especially not by me."
It was clear Earth Natsu was having an entirely different conversation now. With himself.
Finally, the spite and tension collapsed under their own weight and fled the dragon slayer's body, and in denial's place, was defeat, defeat that dragged Earth Natsu's shoulders down.
"I'm not…I'm not him. I ain't strong like he was, nowhere near wise like he was." Earth Natsu trudged over to the wall behind him and slumped down to the tile floor with a frustrated grunt, hissing to himself, "Irene had no idea what she was talkin' about after all."
"I can barely protect my own family, how am I supposed to be the head honcho of the most powerful species to ever live?"
As he sat with his head in his hands and elbows braced on his spread knees, Earth Natsu croaked daintily, "N' if I was, I don't wanna be the king of anyone, that's just not me, I ain't above anybody."
Natsu looked at his counterpart with his chest twisted and brain desperately scrambling for a helpful response. He had no idea what kinds of retorts Earth Natsu's mind sent back at him.
He approached slowly, grabbing his counterpart's duster before sitting down right next to him. The cool tiled surfaces around Earth Natsu had already begun to warm.
Natsu cleared his throat softly, leaving Earth Natsu's eyes to snap up, his golden gaze having been staring sizzling holes into the bathroom's tile floor.
"Look, bud..." Natsu began, gathering together what little pieces Earth Natsu had dropped with his absent mumbling into something productive, something reassuring.
"Everyone fails at who they try to be man, I mean, that's just how these things work." Natsu surmised, handing Earth Natsu the article of clothing, still dirtied with small tears and stains, "Nobody ever lives up to 'who they were supposed to be'."
Earth Natsu took his duster back, remaining quiet as he stared at his lap. His calmer silence told Natsu his small piece of advice had loosened up something.
Natsu rubbed the back of his head, admitting with a great deal of bashfulness, "Truth be told, I've spent a good majority of these last 9 years trying my darndest to be you."
"W-what? Seriously?" Earth Natsu drove his stare over his way.
"Uh huh." Natsu nodded coyly, scratching his stubbled jaw.
He explained, cracking a sheepish grin, "You were like the complete package. Strong and confident, you never let anything slow you down or discourage you, you were like a force of nature man. And you obviously still are."
"Thanks…?"
Natsu snorted at the confused maybe flattered remark, "The point is, I'm still not you. I can't breathe fire or blow up mountains, I ain't have a single idea what's going on inside that head of yours, I got no clue the weight on your shoulders or how long you've been carrying it."
"So? Just because I got things going on doesn't mean the world is gonna just stop for me. Like, I ain't the only person with stuff going on." the way Earth Natsu responded sound like he was reciting a script he was gone through a thousand times.
Natsu just so happened to know that script by heart.
"That smokescreen won't work on me man, I've used that same excuse dozens of times to avoid talking about my thoughts with Luce." Natsu was quick on the uptake.
"I ain't deflecting," Earth Natsu insisted, "it's just, I have no idea how long I'm supposed to do this reflecting thing before I can go back to doing my job."
"Your job?"
"Yeah, my job, the one I gave myself. To keep everyone smiling, to be there when they're low, to make sure they got a fair shot of creating their own future."
"Why? Why give yourself that job?"
"Whaddya mean 'why'? Fairy Tail is our family, we owe em' the world. Having shaky pasts is what makes us, us. But that don't mean that sorta of pain ends."
Earth Natsu sucked in a breath, his knuckles bleached white around his duster, "W-we just had the fight of our lives, and no one in my guild was spared pain, everybody got a raw deal."
"They're Fairy Tail, they'll pull through." Natsu reassured immediately.
"I know, of course they will, they're strong, all of them, heaps stronger than me." Earth Natsu replied, his soured expression dimming,
"They've always figured themselves out, with or without help. I probably never would have figured anything out without Lisanna."
"I can't..." Earth Natsu's voice quivered slightly, "I can't help people like Lis can. I don't get to take credit for anything."
Natsu hummed, "C'mon man, that ain't fair. Lisanna was basically given to us by god."
This solicited a weak laugh in agreement from Earth Natsu.
He nudged his larger Earthland self with a gentle smile, "I get it, all of that, I do. But if you want to do this job, if you wanna keep doing, and keep doing it well, you have to give yourself some grace. We are all human."
Earth Natsu immediately opened his mouth to respond, his body stiffened once more so he could put all the firmness in the world into his response.
But eventually, after his eyes searched along with his brain for an answer, nothing ever fully formed. He opted to bite down on his scarf to stifle a miffed growl.
Natsu could only wonder what had been on his mind.
"Before I got here, the person who sent me here summoned a buncha' people me and my guild had fought in a war before to get rid of me. All these things I wanted to forget, I wanted to move past, had been thrown in my face all at once." Earth Natsu shared distantly, his fingers absently reaching up to trail the base of his horns hidden by brambles of his pink hair.
"One of them was a dragon, a really dangerous one, a-and I don't know what happened but I lost my mind when I saw her. When I came to, when I saw what I did to her, I..."
There was a brief moment of silence before Natsu asked,
"Let me ask you, how do you manage to be so gentle?"
The unrelated question made Earth Natsu double take, "I don't get to say I'm gentle, not when I'm like this."
"Really? If anything, you're like way more mellow than you were last time." Natsu reminded as he folded his arms across his chest, "You seemed to play with my daughter, niece, and wife just fine."
Yet again, Earth Natsu attempted to formulate justification for his sentiments, his narrowed slits telling of someone on the brink of a realization.
Natsu almost had to plug his ears from how loudly the gears inside his counterpart's brain churned and turned.
Natsu took a deep breath and proposed, "Can I tell you something? Just between you and me, just between Natsu's."
"Sure." Earth Natsu's response was automatic.
"During all these years, I've been training at the palace with King Mystogan, tryin' to get stronger like you encouraged me to. A-and it worked, but it worked a little too well." Natsu began, feeling how Earth Natsu's troubled silence turned supportive.
"At first I was breaking plates, then ripping doors off their hinges, then one day-" Natsu lips pursed, the breath in his lungs souring, "-me and Luce were…."
He couldn't bring himself to finish. Memories of his wife's pained squeak and the splotch of purple against her creamy skin whittled away at Natsu's appetite even further.
"I left bruises man." He croaked, with an undeniable quiver to his voice, "I-i couldn't look myself in the mirror for months. It was months, months before I trusted myself to hold my own freakin' daughter or sleep with my own wife."
"How? H-how do you have all that power, but you're so gentle?" Natsu put on an exasperated rasp as he asked, "What's your secret?"
For an entire minute, Earth Natsu just looked at the adjacent wall and thought.
Natsu could understand the type of hurry Earth Natsu's train of thought chugged along with and merely waited.
Earth Natsu had become very good at carrying people on his shoulders, good at carrying their worries and doubts.
A part of Natsu felt dirty for that against him, but hopefully as his counterpart rushed to find a way to reassure him, to help carry someone else's weakness, he would figure something out himself.
Finally, Earth Natsu relaxed yet again, bitterness slipping away.
"Wendy was I think barely twelve years old when she joined the guild." Earth Natsu began to recall as he tilted his head back.
The tile walls of the bathroom had no mood of their own, so every shift in tone, every rise in volume, every smile bounced off them effortlessly.
Now, there was warmth in the air as Earth Natsu stared at the ceiling and thought about his baby sister.
Natsu sunk further against the wall as he recalled Earth Wendy, small and adorable and polite. She had been timid like a mouse, and squeaked like one too.
"I had no idea what to do with myself, she was s-so... tiny n-n' delicate, and I didn't know how to respond to that," he freely admitted, "Lis had been gone for years, and Happy wasn't a kitten anymore, didn't have many people to be... be... be gentle with.
"Worst of all, she looked up to my sorry butt for no reason. She wanted someone's hand to hold, someone's legs to hide behind, she was still a kid who just lost her guild and got thrust into a new one."
Natsu's brow rose at the idea of someone so mild mannered being thrust into the chaos of Fairy Tail, "That sounds..."
"Rough." Earth Natsu finished the thought for him, "Especially for someone so shy. The guild easily overwhelmed her."
"I'm sure they meant well." Natsu tried to placate.
Earth Natsu gave a quick nod, "Of course they did, but they saw the dragon slayer first, and the 12 year old second, least that's what it felt like most of the time."
Rubbing the sides of his face, the space where the scales of the dragon met the flesh of man, Earth Natsu asked, "This stuff ever happened with Nasha?"
Natsu's cheeks just about burst as he cackled, "Nasha?! Timid? Nah, not my little sparkplug!" he informed fondly.
"You should have seen her first day of kindergarten, I came back and she had the rest of her class eating out of her hand." Natsu breathed his amusement, "I swear if that girl sits in one place for more than 10 seconds the universe will implode."
Earth Natsu's worn lips curled in smile at that, "Wish I could relate."
"I saw the way your Wendy looked at you, she really adores you." Natsu told him, remembering the way Earth Natsu growled at anyone who got too intense with their questioning of Earth Wendy.
When Edo Fairy Tail found Earthland Natsu and Wendy hiding under a table with two exceeds to boot, questions came roaring like tidal waves.
But if you had questions for Earth Wendy, you spoke softly, you spoke politely, you were on your best behavior.
Because big brother was watching. Very closely.
One casual guild member, Natsu couldn't remember who, they had long since left, had joked about the young girl's lack of... assets, compared to their own full grown Wendy.
Earth Natsu had broken from one of Lucy's many submission holds and gave that man seven teeth to put under his hospital pillow that night.
"Well, Lis helped out a ton when she came back."
"And before that?" Natsu pressed gently.
"I-i.. uh, instinct I guess. There was this weird lil' voice in the back of my head, telling me to not let her out of my sight, like ever." Earth Natsu swallowed, streams of memories flowing past his golden eyes, "The last part wasn't too hard to accomplish, she was glued to the back of my legs her first few weeks at the guild."
Natsu rubbed his chin and clicked his tongue, "That I can relate to. That's a hard habit to break."
"I didn't want her to break it to be frank." Earth Natsu confessed.
Natsu's brows rose and he brought one knee up to rest an arm on, "Why not?"
"She broke it by herself, after I trained with her a little bit, she found a groove. Starting making friends, looking people in the eye. But I still want her to know she can always cling to me when she wants."
"That's a..." Natsu paused and drew in a breath, "interesting decision."
"Yeah, I know, but Wendy spends so much time being a mini adult, fighting on the front lines, playing peacekeeper in the guild, I have to make sure she still gets to be a kid."
Natsu let that sit, finding the reasoning sound. One's childhood was irreplaceable.
"That was all easier said then done though." Earth Natsu added, this time with a soft smidge of humor.
"What did you do?"
Earth Natsu shrugged, "I worked real hard to be what my family needed me to be. That meant being an adult, for her, and a whole lot of other people."
His eyes dilated, fondness melting his pupils until they were round, a stark difference to their usual diamond shape.
"Now, she's still a squirt, but she's grown so much," Earth Natsu practically sung, grinning giddily to himself, "One day, a lotta people are gonna look up to her, for good reason."
"Nasha ain't there yet, but one day when she starts taking big steps of her own, it's gonna be bittersweet, trust me." Earth Natsu advised as he looked to the ceiling,
"Because that little girl that would come to you when she had a bad dream is starting to grow up."
Natsu wouldn't lie, snakes formed and circled his gut, squeezing with devious intent as he pondered the idea of Nasha growing up.
As fiery and headstrong as she was, at the end of the day, she still wanted to scamper into her father's arms like it was the only safe place on the planet.
"If I'm being honest, a part of me doesn't want her to. Sounds selfish, but you'll get where I'm coming from." he admonished lightly, scratching the largest scar on his cheek.
Earth Natsu did a feeble job at suppressing a laugh, the rather rough sound rattling the shiny tiles of the bathroom floor.
"I want her to stay as my tiny baby sister. I want her keep being my little Wendy. And I guess she will, not matter how old or strong she gets. "
Natsu fiddled with the buttons of his jacket, but said nothing, intent to soak it all in.
"You can't let fear keep you from being there for your family, especially after working to become someone they rely on."
"Stop doubting yourself. Doubt kills. All you need to do is just be." Earth Natsu finally concluded.
Despite all the finality in his voice, it was still obvious those words weren't his own, as if he was telling himself that.
"Huh, that's pretty good advice. Where'd you get it?" Natsu snickered, seeing right through him.
Earth Natsu closed his eyes and shared the laugh, "A friend. A friend who has been too good to me."
"They sound wise." Natsu hummed, watching his counterpart dive himself back into his tank of thoughts.
Earth Natsu vehemently agreed, as thoughts of a compassionate rain woman crossed his mind,
"Yep, she really is."