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Natsu was going through his day about as normally as any 11-year-old would. Starting the day off with a fight with Gray that lead him to run away from Erza, and he is now currently babysitting his little sister while occasionally getting teased by his older brothers. Just a normal summer day for Natsu Dragneel.
“Come on Wendy, let’s play out front for a little bit!”
“O’tay,” Wendy slurred back, waddling after her older brother.
“Let’s play princess and dragon, you can be the pretty princess and I'll be the fierce dragon that protects you from danger!” Natsu said with a cheeky grin. He always thought being a dragon would be cool, especially a big red one that could breathe and eat fire.
“Dragon scary,” Wendy pouted, crossing her arms.
“No they're not Wends, they're really cool,” obviously his baby sister couldn't appreciate the majestic creatures just as much as he did. He watched her waddle away from him, finding a purple sparkly ball across the yard, she sat down and played with it instead. Natsu huffed, crossing his arms and strolling over to the big tree that sat beautifully in front of his house. No one ever wanted to play what he wanted to play, Gray always thought those were sissy games, and Erza never wanted to be the princess. His brother Ignia teased him for wanting to play baby games, and the only baby in the house was scared of dragons and didn’t want to play! He rested his head on the tree, staring up at the sky displaying a beautiful orange/pink hue, a sign that the end of the day was near. Reluctantly, he stood back up and started back for the house. His mom had already picked up Wendy to take her back in the house by now, so it was just him.
“Come on Lucy, I think it'll be good for us,” said a tall man, roughly the same age as Natsu’s father, however this man was much thinner, with dirty blonde hair and tired eyes.
“But I don’t wanna be here, I wanna be with mama,” wept another blonde beside him. She was significantly shorter than the man next to her and looked to be the same age as Natsu. She had bright blonde hair that was almost as bright as the sun, and soft brown eyes that were covered in tears.
“I know sweetheart, but we’ll be okay on our own,” replied the tired looking man.
She’s too pretty to be crying.
Natsu tugged at his chest, his heart aching. He hated seeing people cry, he would always soothe his baby sister when she’d start crying, and hold his friends when they were feeling sad, but seeing that blonde crying made him angry, but not angry at her, angry at whatever made her pretty eyes cry.
Sniffling, the small blonde followed her father to their new house, just across the street from Natsu’s own house. Just as he was about to cross the street and try to talk to his new neighbor, his mother called him in for dinner.
“Mom she looked so sad, her eyes were all red and she was clutching a snowman looking thing”
“Natsu it’s not nice to stalk the girls on our block,” Natsu’s older brother, Ignia, snickered.
“Leave him alone Ignia,” Zeref, Natsu’s second older brother said.
“Yeah Ignia,” Natsu said, sticking out his tongue at his oldest brother. Ignia sighed and rolled his eyes in return.
“Stalker,” Wendy pointed at Natsu giggling, everyone at the table laughed. Natsu held his head low. He wasn’t being a stalker, he just happened to notice a new girl move in and she was crying like she didn’t want to be here. But what was wrong with being here? This place was great! The people were nice, School was cool, and the park was especially fun. Everything you need is here, and Natsu was determined to make this new girl feel welcome here, no matter what.
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The next day, Natsu promptly got up and got ready for his day. He took a look in the bathroom mirror and ran his hands through his hair. He got his hand fairly wet and ran it through his hair once again, he had to make a great first impression. He walked out of the bathroom sparing himself one last look before he was satisfied.
“Why are you looking at yourself so much in the mirror there small fry?” asked Ignia with a smirk plastered over his face.
“Uh, no reason,” Natsu felt his face go warm, he assumed his face matched the color of his hair in that moment, and it did, which made Ignia smile even more.
“Are you crushing on the blondie you saw yesterday little bro?” Ignia asked with a teasing smile. Natsu didn’t know what to say. He simply just wanted to make sure she was okay, and be friends with her, and make her smile, and her laugh, and stare into her eyes, and—okay maybe he was slightly crushing on his new neighbor. Ignia laughed and ruffled Natsu’s hair, “Just be mature about this Natsu, I know that’s hard for you though.” Natsu looked up at his older brother, his eyes were warm, despite his angry features. He knew his brother loved him, he just teased him because he was the youngest, it’s common knowledge.
Running his hands through his hair one last time, Natsu walked out the front door. He marched across the street and up to the house in front of his. He held his breath and knocked, tightly closing his eyes waiting for a response.
“Uh, hello?” answered a soft voice. Natsu opened his eyes, meeting a pair of delicate brown ones. They look like honey. He felt his stomach twist and turn and he forgot how to breathe, she was so pretty.
“H-hi, my n-names Natsu! I live across the street from you, a-and I saw you crying yesterday and I came to make sure you were okay,” he gave the blonde a sheepish smile.
Lucy was stunned, she noticed his unusually bright pink hair yesterday, but she never expected him to just go up to her front door and talk to her. He reminded her of the princes in the storybooks she read, he looked so sweet and kind. She smiled up at him and held out her hand, which he gladly took.
“Hi Natsu, my name’s Lucy, it’s really nice to meet you.”
“it’s nice to meet you too Luigy.”
“it’s Lucy-”
“C’mon, now that we know each other lets go play, we can play in my front yard, you can meet my baby sister!”
And just like that, Lucy was whisked away by her fearsome prince. She had a feeling this would be happening a lot after today, them running away together hand in hand, having so many adventures as they could. At first, she didn’t want anything to do with this new place, but after meeting this fiery pinkette, she can't help but think that maybe everything happens for a reason, maybe her mom sent him down for her. One thing she knew for certain though, she would never let him go.
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The day Natsu got happy was a bittersweet day. His fish had just died, and although Natsu wanted to have a proper funeral for it, Ignia decided it was best to flush it down the toilet as soon as possible, much to Natsu’s protest. Lucy had come over to console him, they were currently sitting under the oak tree in front of his house, with his head draped over Lucy’s lap as she stroked his hair gently
“I really liked that fish Luce.”
“Natsu, you only had that fish for a week.”
“Yeah, well, I'm still gonna miss him.”
“It was a boy?” asked Lucy curiously.
“I think so, it’s tail was stubby, Zeref said the girl fish have bigger tails.”
“Like mermaids?”
“i guess so,” Natsu shrugged.
Lucy sighed, mermaids were so cool. Her favorite mermaid happened to be the mermaid zodiac, Aquarius. It also so happened that her aunt was named Aquarius, the most ironic part was that she was a mermaid for kids' parties in her spare time, although she didn’t especially like kids.
“What if you get a new pet?”
“OH, LIKE A DRAGON!”
“Dragons can’t be pets Natsu”
“Okay then, a lizard.”
“Ew, those are slimy.”
“Not all lizards are slimy” Natsu pouted.
“How about a dog? A puppy like Plue!”
“Plue doesn’t even look like a puppy, he’s built weird.”
“You’re built weird.”
“Excuse me? Did you just say I was built weird?” Natsu asked, absolutely shocked, hand over his heart and all.
“Yes, yes I did,” Lucy snickered. Natsu loved the sound of her laugh, it reminded him of a sweet tune he’d want to replay forever.
“Let’s go play at the park Luce.”
“Can we play dragon and princess?” That brought a smile to Natsu’s face, he finally found someone that loved playing his favorite game, someone that didn’t think it was a baby game and thought it was just as fun as he did.
“Of course, my princess,” Natsu held Lucy’s hand and they walked to the park together right down the street. They planned up their usual scenario and began playing. Suddenly, Natsu felt something soft brush against his leg. He looked down and saw a small white kitten.
“Oh, a kitty!” Lucy went ahead and picked up the kitten, examining it, “he looks okay, doesn’t seem injured, you should take him home Nat, he seems to really like you.”
Natsu eyed the kitten carefully, he was white, and looked really small, he felt a sudden pang of joy just by looking at him. “I’m naming you Happy.”
“Happy?”
“Yeah, cuz’ looking at him just makes ya’ happy,” Natsu responded, proud of the name he came up with for his new companion. Lucy smiled at Natsu, who in return, smiled back while snUggling the new-found kitten. Who knew after flushing down his fish he’d find his new best friend!
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-----BONUS: How Happy became Blue-----
“Natsu, I don’t think what you’re doing is such a good idea,” Zeref said, watching his little brother pour the liquid on the kitten’s coat of fur.
“Leave the kid alone Zeref, if he gets yelled at by mom then that’s his problem,” Said Ignia, leaning against the bathroom door frame.
“Yeah, but as his older brothers we’re supposed to keep him out of trouble,” replied Zeref, getting annoyed at Ignia’s lack of responsibility.
“And as his older brother’s, we get to watch him get yelled out for dumb decisions,” Ignia was right, this was a really dumb decision, but who was he to stop his little brother from doing what he wanted, he wasn’t hurting anybody.
“This is animal abuse,” Zeref continued staring at Natsu’s movements.
“It’s not animal abuse, see, the bottle says it’s animal friendly,” said Natsu finally, holding up the bottle so Zered could read the directions.
“How are you even sure it’s gonna work kid?” Ignia asked,
“I’m actually not sure, I just wanted to try it,” both Zeref and Ignia smacked their foreheads in response to Natsu’s idiocy. Of course, that’s why he decided to dye Happy blue, just because he wanted to try it. It was too late to stop him now, he dumped the whole bottle on the poor kitten. Natsu washed of the blue dye and dried Happy off with a towel. Ignia connected Grandines hairdryer and helped his little brother dry the cat off, all while Zeref stared at them, shaking his head. By the end of their little mess, Natsu came out of the bathroom with a freshly dyed blue cat, and his older brother behind him. One of them smiling proudly at his little brother for making such a bold choice, and the other staring in disappointment, with a small hint of amusement in his eyes.
“Hold it right there you three.”
The three brothers stopped in their tracks, turning around slowly, facing their mother, “Uh-oh.”