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Romeo Conbolt was no stranger to being alone. As the son of a wizard, it was expected of him, and he had learned to fend for himself at a very young age. He’d had a mother once, but truth be told, he could no longer remember what she even looked like, and even now, at thirteen years of age, he had no idea why she’d left. He doubted anyone, but his father and his best friend Wakaba really knew.
She’d shown up at the guild one day, asked Master Makarov to remove her guild mark, and just like that she was out of their lives. The last memory Romeo had of her was the sound of the chains she liked to wear jingling around her waist as she walked out the door, never to return.
It was an interesting dichotomy. Romeo’s father Macao, was incredibly attentive and loving while his mother didn’t even care enough about either of them to stay. Sometimes he wondered where she was, what she was doing, and if she ever gave a thought to him. He used to wonder if he’d ever see her again, but these days, he’d made his peace. He’d lost so many people that actually cared about him that it seemed a waste of his time and felt like an insult to them.
He wasn’t sure which of his parents he wanted to be like, but it definitely seemed like his father had it the worst. Romeo could see it in the sad looks he tried to hide from everyone but Wakaba while they drank the day away. Or the way he would sometimes still hear his father crying out his mother’s name when he thought Romeo was sleeping. But sometimes, his father also had it the best because even though everyone teased him a lot, there was no doubt everyone in the guild loved him.
And Romeo hadn’t had it so bad. He’d been raised in Fairy Tail, the number one guild in Magnolia, maybe even in all of Fiore. A lot of the other kids there had no parents either, and in exchange for sharing his father, Romeo had had a lot of willing siblings. But they were all much older, the distance between them in both age and power immense. And while he loved them all, he had no particular attachment to any of them save one, Fairy Tail’s Fire Dragon Slayer, Natsu Dragneel.
Natsu understood him better than the others, he too had been abandoned without any explanation, and was also a fire mage. It wasn’t unusual for Macao to bring Natsu home with him. Macao would spend hours trying to teach Natsu how to control his fire, away from the other mages’ prying eyes, especially Fairy Tail’s ice mage Gray Fullbuster. Natsu didn’t like to show any semblance of weakness in front of his rival, so they did these lessons in private, and the added bonus for Romeo was that often he was allowed to join in.
Natsu was also very playful by nature, and he had no problem having fun with Romeo. While Macao made dinner for his small family, Romeo and Natsu would race and make up games. These were good times, but without a doubt, Romeo’s favorite moments were when Natsu would tell him about his childhood growing up with the fire dragon Igneel.
Romeo knew that a lot of the other wizards didn’t believe Natsu had been raised by a dragon. Still, when he saw the longing in Natsu’s face as he recounted the stories, there was no doubt in Romeo’s mind that everything Natsu was saying was the absolute truth.
Romeo looked up to Natsu, the Fire Dragon Slayer was a strong wizard and he eased his loneliness like no one else ever had before. And even though he was okay with never seeing his mother again , every night before he went to bed he wished that one day his friend could be reunited with his dragon.