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“What’s that?” Natsu asked, leaning over Cana’s shoulder to peer at the contraption in her hands, a box with extra bits stuck on it and a lacrima implanted in one side.
“A disposable camera!” she said, ducking away from him and swinging around to point the camera at him, lifting it to her face with a grin. “Say cheese!”
“Cheese?”
The lacrima in the middle of the camera flashed bright enough to half blind him, and when he’d cleared the spots from his vision Cana had extracted it from the box, revealing the crystal was set half in a silvery casing with a flat bottom. Cana tossed it in her hand, then set it down on the nearest table and a small haze of light appeared above it. “I thought you said that thing was a camera.” Natsu frowned. Cameras made flat images, he was pretty damn sure.
“It’s a disposable camera.” Cana said, rolling her eyes. “The lacrima displays a single image itself instead of storing a bunch for later printing. It’s a new branch of picto magic.” as she spoke, the haze of colour condensed, gaining definition until Natsu was able to identify himself by the blob of pink in the middle of the image.
“You’re not very good at taking pictures.” he informed Cana, who swatted the back of his head. He slapped at her arm, and she stuck her tongue out at him before cradling the boxy part of the camera to her chest.
“It’s still developing.” she huffed. “See? Your dumb face is in focus now.” she gestured at the magical image again, and Natsu chuckled.
“Take another one, I wanna make an even goofier face!” he pulled a face at her, and narrowly avoided getting kicked in the shin.
“Image capture lacrimae like these aren’t exactly cheap, you know!” she scolded, shaking her finger at him.
“Then how’d you get them?” Natsu frowned.
“The thief I stopped on my last job had a day job as a landmark photographer for tourists. I helped myself to her stash after she was arrested.” she patted the bag at her side.
“Hey, could I pay you to take some pics of me an’ Happy?” he asked, glancing around for his cat. Unsurprisingly, the fluff ball was loafing in Lisanna’s lap, but his ears twitched up and towards Natsu at a quick whistle.
“Uh, sure, but why?” Cana frowned, fishing out a fresh lacrima and slotting it into the front of the camera.
“As gifts.” Natsu beamed, snagging Happy out of the air when his cat flew into grabbing range.
“Since when are you a photographer, Cana?” Lisanna asked as she walked up, and Natsu slung an arm around her shoulders, Happy curling up in the other one with a contented purr.
“Since today, I guess.” Cana shrugged lifting the camera to her face. “Say cheese!”
“Cheese!” Natsu grinned, showing off all his nice shiny kal’edee [fangs].
“You know, this is sorta like a family portrait.” Lisanna mused as Cana swapped out the lacrima for another one.
“Ha! No way, Erza would kill me.” Natsu shook his head. Also Gajeel would give him that dumb look and feel so fucking smug and amused again. Natsu had no idea what was so funny to his ori’vod [big brother] about his friendship with Lisanna, and it was super annoying that Gajeel refused to tell him.
“How many pictures did you want, anyways?” Cana asked as she removed the second lacrima from her camera.
“Just three.” Natsu decided after a moment. The twins shared a room, after all, and it would be some years yet before they grew too territorial against even each other to continue cohabiting. And even when that happened, Natsu had a feeling they would still be in each other’s spaces all the time.
“Alright then. One more time.” Cana lifted the camera too her face, and Lisanna rested her head against Natsu’s, her chin on his shoulder. “Now, about payment.” Cana grinned, and Natsu wondered how much it would be to get his own camera and image capture lacrimae.
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Natsu ripped open Wendy's latest letter, and chuckled at the image lacrima which fell out when he pulled the paper free.
“She really likes that camera, huh?” Cana asked, pausing on her way back to her table with a fresh mug of beer. Natsu briefly wondered how long it’d be until she just started buying it by the barrel, but quickly drew his mind back on track.
“Yeah. Not half as much as Rogue likes his though.” he grinned, thinking of the shelf in his den which was quickly filling with picture lacrimae sent by his siblings. He set Wendy’s latest one upright, and Cana snorted at the picture which appeared, Wendy and Carla in matching dresses, clearly caught mid-motion alongside several guildmates wearing the same outfits. The dance she’d mentioned having been part of at the guild’s latest festival, no doubt.
“I swear she gets cuter every time I see her.” Cana cooed, sticking her hand in the projection to trace Wendy’s face.
“She’s adorable.” Natsu agreed.
“Do you even have space for more?” Cana asked, and Natsu shot her his best offended look.
“I will always have space for gifts my tra’viin [flight] send me.” he informed her. Half the reason he’d saved up to build his own place was so he could put up as many shelves as he needed, after all. He’d need more soon though, unless he wanted to start crowding the ones he kept in place of pride on the shelf at the foot of his bed. Rogue had asked for a proper camera for his birthday next month though, so once he had that and a darkroom set up Natsu should be able to start framing pictures and keeping an album to save shelf space.
The image lacrima sat in his pocket the rest of the day, and when he got home Natsu looked over the shelves of pictures his siblings had sent him in the months since he discovered the existence of disposable cameras. The shelf of landscapes and building shots from Sting and Rogue (mostly Rogue) was full to bursting, while pictures of Gajeel and Wendy’s guilds and adventures crowded the one below. Natsu nudged aside two shots of Oak Town festivals, and set the new lacrima between them, smiling broadly as its image appeared in the air above the little crystal. The other dancers were obscured slightly on one side by Gajeel’s blurry face and on the other by his perpetually gloomy friend threatening someone with her pink umbrella, but Wendy and Carla were still visible, so Natsu was happy with it.
“Next time you have Laki over to help install a shelf, I’m going fishing.” Happy informed him. Natsu chuckled and scratched his cat behind the ears.
“Sure thing, buddy.” he promised, kicking off his shoes and flopping down next to Happy on his bed. The shelf of his most treasured gifts sat squarely in his field of vision, and his eyes tracked over it sleepily as exhaustion slowly but surely dragged him down.
Gajeel’s first photograph, slightly out of focus but still clearly a picture he’d taken of himself while chaperoning his water mage friend on a job to assess her abilities for their Master, his hair slicked to his face with rain and smile as bright as it was sharp, his friend behind him in the midst of dispatching a vulcan with her magic. Next to it, a picture of Wendy and Carla in the main plaza of their guild’s town, Wendy’s eyes squeezed shut with the force of her smile and Carla’s shining golden-green from the flash. Sting and Rogue’s photograph was on the far right, the twins’ beaming faces filling the image, one of Sting’s arms stretched out to hold the camera and the other giving Rogue bunny ears while Rogue held both their cats, though only the tops of Lector and Frosch’s heads were actually visible. They’d sent better pictures since, but the shelf above his bed was reserved for firsts.
Behind the photographs sat the first set of birthday presents his siblings had sent him, though each of them had picked their birthday sorta at random. Wendy’s scaled vest which he had quickly outgrown, Gajeel’s attempt at a small sculpture, Rogue’s glittery card, and the painting Sting had said was supposed to be Igneel. Happy climbed onto his chest, kneading at him briefly before settling down in a purring loaf, and Natsu purred back as he let his eyes slide shut, sleep stealing over him gently.