Work Text:
Natsu is seven years old when Igneel abandons him and he makes it to Fairy Tail. He meets Cana and Gray. Then he meets Levy. Then Erza, Freed, then the Strauss Trio. He also meets the other guild kids from friends of Fairy Tail, such as Harpy Ring. (People get so surprised when they hear that he grew up with them. Especially Daisuke.) He also grew up with the member of the Xernea Heights member Princeton Sharpe. The Water Dragon Slayer.
He grew up with Quatro Cerberus' members Xavier Espelle, Laki Ollieta (and weren't people surprised that Laki was a Quatro Puppy member before?), and Nicholas Frazier. He also grew up with Mermaid Heel members Melody Cesaire and Mirei Quintelle. They have quite a couple of connections with Mercenary Guild Kids too.
The sunrise of the morning Gramps brought him to Fairy Tail was a bright orange, relenting and unforgiving, showing the state of his life without his Dad, without Dragon Country, and without his Dragon Cousins. (Where even are they? Gajeel, Sting, Rogue, Wendy- Where are you guys?)
He thinks that this may be his life now, existing in a guild full of adults and how he's the only kid here and he's all alone with no dragon and no more hunting-
Huh. There are other kids here.
The orange of the sun still bothers him to a high degree, but it isn't so bad when he meets the others. They make the orange a little less unforgiving, more bearable.
Within the first week of joining the Fairy Tail Guild, he meets Cana Alberona and Gray Fullbuster.
Cana uses cards for magic, which he didn't understand at first, but quickly, very quickly understood when he went out on their very first real job. (Because no Gramps, helping the old lady down in Hargeon clean her house is not a real job.)
Those cards are deadly. He almost feels bad for all those forest monsters they had to get rid of. Almost.
It was almost like hunting with his Cousins again! So cool!
Gray uses Ice Magic, which he also thought was weak magic before the forest monster job, but here's the thing.
He. gets. on. his. last. fucking. scale.
Gray makes his scales itch like nothing else. Not even the orange of the skies made his scales itch and his spine hurt because he had to keep his wings hidden for so long-
He's annoying.
But there are moments, when the skies are darker under the shade of the battles they had to fight when they were kids (because how the hell did we get kidnapped by a dark guild-?), that Gray makes his scales shinier. He makes his Dragon preen. How Gray does his flips and kicks, how when they fight together, back to back, they click so well it makes his Dragon start roaring from the inside.
He gets those moments with the others too.
When Cana spilled the secret of who her dad was to them once everyone had joined the guild, (and he almost burned everything in the vicinity because how can a father knowingly leave their child-) he seethes with her. They both went to the training room and went wild.
They burned the dummies and trashed the room and absolutely broke the hallway and it felt good. It also felt good when everyone in the guild (including the other guild kids from the other guilds) began to throw death glares at the man when he rarely entered the guild hall.
He saw tears brim from Cana's (or as he calls her in his mind, CeCe) eyes, and it warmed his heart just a little bit. Made the unforgiving orange go a little lighter. Made it turn into a baby orange, soft and sheen.
Then he meets Levy. She's sweet. Not the overbearing kind, but the nice sibling kind. She loves to read and she loves spicy food just like he does! She's also really smart, she rivals Freed in smarts sometimes.
Until she brings out her guns. Then all bets are off.
She has aim so good it rivals some Hunter Guilds. Maybe even better. She's agile and fast on her feet since she's the smallest out of all of them.
Her magic? Her magic is powerful if you know how to use it. And trust him, he knows she knows how to use it.
If the 'Solid Script : Shield' that can block attacks from some of the most powerful wizards they've ever faced isn't proof of that, then he doesn't know what is. Her versatility makes him suspicious sometimes. (Being able to infuse that many elements and being able to use them with that level of fluidity has to be a separate ability.)
She also made Laxus work for a win through traps and smarts. She might actually be smarter than Freed.
She also makes the orange lessen up, helps it fade away, makes it less hard on his scales.
And then there's Erza.
Erza also made his scales itch. She was loud and it made his ears ring. She was demanding and rude which made his Dragon growl in madness because who are you to tell me what to do? I'm free to do whatever I please. You are not a dragon.
She told him that dragons weren't real. That he was imagining it all. That Igneel didn't take care of him.
He almost burned her alive. How dare she-
But then Gray fought her and almost won. That was great to see. Gray was a member of the pride.
Then Gramps made them have a mediation. Then he finally understood Erza.
Then Erza slowly started to be integrated to the pride. She became an older sister figure, someone that could lead the pride in the case of his absence. She was the older sister he never had.
And she too, helped the orange lessen. Made it easier on his scales.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that they all make his scales preen and his Dragon roar with pride. His pride is strong. His pride can protect themselves and hold up the others to find their true strength.
It's just like what Igneel told him.
"One day, Natsu, you'll find yourself a pride. Your pride has to be strong. If it isn't, you have to make it strong. Train them to be strong, so that they can protect themselves and hold up the others."
"But I don't want another pride! I have Gajeel, Sting, Wendy, Rogue, You, and the other dragons! I-"
"ENOUGH NATSU! One day you're going to find yourself a new pride and you're going to HAVE to build them up to be strong. A storm is coming and you need to be prepared. You might be just a hatchling, but hatchlings GROW and when they grow, their POWER grows. Train yourself up to be strong, and then you train your pride to be strong as well. Do you understand me, Natsu?"
He didn't understand, back then. But he gets it now. He really does.
The harsh and unforgiving orange of the sun and the world around him was a constant, at least for the years that he wasn't in Fairy Tail. It burns his scales and makes them uncomfortable. It makes him uncomfortable.
They're having a rooftop party tonight. It's all the Fairy Tail Guild Kids minus Laxus because he thinks he's too cool to hang out with a bunch of seven and eight year olds. Which is odd because Bickslow, Evergreen, Freed, and Mirajane are here, which are the only people he really tolerates, but that's not so much for him to dig deeper into.
It's warm tonight, it is the middle of summer, and everyone's running around in shorts with Freed acting as supervision so that magic doesn't get involved too much. Bickslow and Evergreen are watching with them while Mirajane runs around with Lisanna.
He gets to playfight with Gray. Gray might be his favorite, with his second being Erza and his third probably being Levy. Which he learned that her real name is Alevia but she prefers to be called Levy for short.
It hits just about 6:00 when Freed tells them to stop and head back to the guild. Levy yells no. Freed doesn't even try to argue, and tells them to be back in the next two days at the earliest.
He knows how they work. They like to adventure a lot. They were gone for a month and a half once. Only Mavis knows where they went.
They start running around in the grass, which is warm in between his toes. Yes, they all don't have shoes on, so what? They're in the woods behind Fairy Tail, which they technically own, so who's gonna say anything? Mavis' ghost?
Eventually, they all tire out and they head over to the big tree on the hill. It allows a perfect view of the sunset and sunrise. They brought blankets with them, mostly for the scenery, but it's warm in the night, so they reasonably don't need them.
When they all get to the tree to lay against it, he lays back a few steps and heads up onto a sturdy branch, using his wings to get up there. He perches there and sits on the branch, his legs dangling off of it.
He wonders what his dad was talking about.
A storm is coming. What did that mean, Dad? The look on your face said that you weren't supposed to say anything about it, but now I'm bothered. Am I gonna lose Gray? Am I gonna lose them all?
He looks down at Erza and Cana, slowly beginning to doze off. He thinks of Erza and how much she loves cake, but also has scary swordswoman (swordsman? swordsgirl?) skills. He thinks of Cana and how she just seems to be good at any type of card game but can just as easily kill someone with a throwing card.
He thinks of Gray, how they bicker and playfight but there's always something there, that solidifies it all. How they can go from playfighting with each other to actively fighting back to back and side by side together against enemies.
Yeah, he thinks. Gray is most definitely his favorite.
He thinks of Levy, and how smart she is. How she seems to just understand things and put the most complicated things together and makes it look easy. He thinks of her love of books, but also of her marksman (markswoman? marksgirl?) skills.
He thinks of them all. How they just seem to click and how they make him feel. He thinks of the Mercenary Guild Kids and the Navigator Guild Kids. How they all just seem to click even if the other guild kids are long-distance pride members.
"Hey, Ashes!"
His head snaps downward to where Gray is. His eyes are glowing, jade green orbs with slight fire behind them. His wings move with his movements.
"We're about to sleep, what're up in the damn tree for? Get down here!" Gray says, and Natsu just sighs with a smile and slinks down into the bottom of the tree.
Gray sits, and Natsu sits next to him. Gray throws the blanket over him and shushes him before he can even protest.
"We're going to be fine, Natsu. I can literally hear your muttering from miles away. Whatever your dad was talking about, we're gonna survive it. We're strong. We train. And if we aren't, we'll just train some more. Now turn your thoughts off and sleep, Ashes. We're probably going on an adventure tomorrow, Cana wanted to go somewhere."
And then they sleep. And his thoughts do indeed quiet down.
When he finally opens his eyes again in the morning, the skies and the sun is no longer the harsh and unforgiving orange he thought it would always be.
Instead, it was a bright yellow, shining in the sky. It was forgiving and excited, as if something good was going to happen. As the golden yellow of the sun shines on them, he sees his pride, his people, all snuggled under the big tree.
The yellow for him was a sign of rightness. A sign of hope.
That maybe, with them by his side through thick and thin, that everything would be alright.