Chapter Text
The day Igneel left had been winter one.
Winter wasn't particularly harsh in Natsu's homeland. Seasons were benign. Springs would burst with life and grow into hot summers that scared autumns away with its relentless heat, leaving winters to be practically non-existent, more of a rumor than actual reality.
But that day... that day had been the exception. Nature had decided to make itself present with a freezing cyclone, declaring war against trees, plants and whoever dared interpose in her way. The wind roared outside the cave, punishing the forest in its angry wake. The rain fell like frozen daggers, promising icy stabs to the unfortunate folk that found themselves out in the open skies at this unholy time.
Natsu waited for Igneel inside the cave. He was used to his dad disappearing for a couple of hours. Igneel usually went away to retrieve food and clothes from human villages, as well as some books to keep his vain attempts to teach Natsu some reading. But today had been peculiar. Today had been different. Dad never just vanished without a word. He would tell Natsu, give him a warning, something.
Maybe he just didn’t want to wake Natsu up. Yeah, that must have been it.
So Natsu sat on the rough floor of the cave he called his home, and waited for his dad to return. The sky was pitch black, eventually cracked apart by the electrical blue of lightening. Seconds after, the mountain would tremble under the thunder, frightened by the sheer power of the natural phenomena. Wind and raindrops would ravish the cave mercilessly, and the stone walls did little to stop the anger of the whirlwind. Honestly, it was a little scary. But it was okay. Dad had strong wings, wings that wouldn’t give in under the pressure of wind. He would come back at any moment now, and he would prepare breakfast for Natsu, like he always did.
Hours passed, hunger increased, but the storm didn’t back off not even one bit, and still no signals of dad.
The cold was slipping into Natsu’s bones, worming its way to his chest, freezing his insides. He felt so cold today. He tried lighting up a fire, but not even his magical breath could fight against the cruel wind. His hands hurt; his fingers were blue, and his lips were bleeding and burning from the bite to hypothermia.
But it was okay. Dad would come back and he would light the fire. His big body would warm up the whole cave in a matter of seconds. No need to worry. He just needed to wait a little bit longer. Wrapping himself around his big, scaly scarf, he laid on the floor and hugged his knees, trying to keep his body temperature constant and his shivers at a minimum.
Finally, the cyclone dwindled to a silent drizzle. Silence took over the world, dead as it was after the massacre that the storm had committed. The wind passed away to other lands but the darkness stayed, imposing its reign of chill and quietness.
Natsu laid unmoving, so still that a distracted passer-by could have thought him dead.
He was so cold. So cold.
Dad would come back. Dad would take the cold away.
The chattering of his teeth was the only thing breaking the white silence the storm had left behind. His eyes were wide open and his pupils shrunk to slits, looking but not seeing, lost on a world of its own. The fire inside of him was barely alive, weakened by the cold, shying away from life.
But it was okay. Dad would light the fire up. Natsu wondered what he would cook him for breakfast. He hoped it was fried chicken, eggs, and bacon. It had been a long time since the last time he ate bacon.
He wasn’t able to feel his feet, and he wondered if that was a bad thing. He tried to move his toes, but a cutting pain was the only answer he got from his nerves. But the worst pain of all was in his chest. It hurt to breath, each inhalation a small battle of his body to try to unfreeze his insides. He had never felt so much cold before in his life.
He felt like he could have died from the pain.
But he didn’t need to worry. Dad would know what to do. He just needed to wait for him. Stay still and wait until dad came back.
If only didn’t he feel so unbearably cold.
Turns out Igneel didn’t show up like Natsu was expecting. He waited until the storm passed and the dawn emerged. He went out to hunt something to eat, and grab some wild berries. Then he went back and kept waiting. And waiting. Until three weeks went by, and still no sign of Igneel.
That was the moment Natsu decided something must have happened. Dad wouldn’t disappear just like that. So he made up his mind and decided to go to the city, where humans lived. It was daunting, but Natsu was brave. He was the son of Igneel, after all.
Life had always been an easy deal for Natsu. Eat, sleep, practice magic, and look for dad's help when something went wrong. Plain sailing. Nothing to worry about.
But things changed when he went to the “civilization”, as Igneel would usually call it. Finding food and shelter proved to be a difficult task. "Fighting to survive" had entered the equation, something that had never worried him before. Escaping from thugs and robbing his food has also been something new, but he had managed. He had fought against adversity and had defeated his enemies, just like his dad had taught him. Every day was a struggle, but he was a warrior. The strong, proud son of a mighty dragon- even if nobody believed him.
Things got better when the Old Man found him. Finding food became an easier task, and so did finding a dry place to sleep in. The guild was a weird place, much noisier than the quiet cave he had lived in with Igneel, but he got used to it quickly. He thought he fitted in quite well. Igneel would have liked it.
He had never been around so many humans in an enclosed space before, so it was a little bit awkward at the beginning. The icy-stripper and the red-haired demon didn’t make it any better, but they were a good fight, at least. They were practice, and practice was always necessary. He had to remain strong in order to find Igneel, after all.
The coldness hadn’t gone away.
Ever since that day in the cave, he could still feel the tickling of a shiver snaking up his spine, threatening to freeze him away from time. He woke up every now and then in the middle of the night, covered in sweat and panting with fear. The dream was always the same. He was in the cave again, freezing to death, waiting for his father to come back, unable to pull even the slightest flame of magic, powerless and useless. Only this time, the storm didn’t calm down and gave him a chance to recover himself. No, in the dream, the wind roared with rage and uprooted the walls of the cave. In his dream, the frost crawled towards him like frozen magma aching to burn him. He tried to escape, tried to move his body and run away from the frost, but he was so hungry, and his legs and fingers hurt so much, and even breathing felt like a million of icy stabs driving into his lungs.
In the end, the living frost got to him and his tiny body fell under it, fighting inside the ice until the drowning nightmare gave away to a startled waking up.
Maybe that’s why he hated the ice bastard so much. He just couldn’t stand his presence in the same room. It reminded him too much of that day.
But then there was the other girl. The one with white hair and sky-like eyes. At first he had distrusted her. Somebody with such a hellish older sister could only bring him trouble. Besides, those blue eyes were another reminder of the storm he desperately wanted to forget.
That’s why the first time she approached him, feet fidgeting and nails suffering under shy teeth, his reaction was harsh and hostile.
“Ummhh… uhm… boy? What’s your name?” She had been staring at him for quite some time now, and Natsu had noticed. His defenses had snapped alert; a year of living on the street taught you never to trust strangers, especially those who stared at you. Those were the dangerous ones, the ones who wanted something from you, either the piece of bread you had managed to steal from the bakery or those little jewels you had snatched from a distracted pocket.
“What do you want?” The girl recoiled immediately, her eyes wide with surprise and a little bit of fear. He realized a warning growl had slipped under his tone and he cursed silently. He hadn’t meant to be that rude. These people were supposed to be his family now, he reminded himself. Besides, this particular girl looked pretty harmless, and he smelled no challenge in her scent, so perhaps his aggressiveness was unnecessary.
He dropped the aggressive stance and lowered his gaze before muttering, “Sorry. Natsu. My name is Natsu.”
“Natsu? Like the summer?” She approached him timidly but bravely once again.
“Yeah. Like the summer.”
“You are the son of the dragon, right?”
Natsu stiffened. Nobody had believed his story so far, only laughing at the crazy kid who thought he was the spawn of a flying beast.
“Ye-yeah. I am.” Bracing himself, he waited for the mocking and laughter that was sure to come.
It never came.
“Wow, you really are the son of a dragon?! That’s amazing!! Did you ride on his back? Like, flying with him? Where did you live with him? You probably couldn’t live in a house because of his size, could you? Did you live in a castle? Did you meet a princess? Tell me you have met a princess!” Her blue eyes were big and curious, and the questions fell from her lips like a waterfall. Natsu found himself perplex for a second, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of questions.
“I… ah, no, I have never met a princess. Igneel and I lived in a cave in the mountains. And yes, I have ridden on his back and flown with him. Many times, actually. It’s really amazing.”
“Really? Oh my gosh, that must be wonderful! Tell me about it! How does it feel to be so high? Were you scared?” So much fascination in her eyes. It was kind of contagious. Encourage by her enthusiasm, Natsu found his tongue unrolling and his lips parting with excitement.
“Yes! Flying is the most awesome thing ever! And no, heights don’t scare me! I’m not scared of anything! I’m the proud son of a dragon, I have nothing to fear!”
“Oh, I would be sooo scared! I mean, you could fall and die!”
“Even if I fell, dad would be there to catch me. He’s super strong and fast, he can do anything! He wouldn’t let me die.”
“Oh, Natsu, your dad sounds incredible!”
“He is! Ah…” Her name. What was her name again? Had she said it? No, he had forgotten to ask! How rude! Igneel would be angry at him!
“Ahh… girl… what’s your name?”
She staggered, seeming to realize that she had also forgotten to present herself. She bit her lip with a nice pink in her cheeks and smiled bashfully.
“My name is Lisanna.”
“Lisanna? That’s a nice name!”
Her eyes widened, the surprise evident.
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“Nobody had ever told me that…”
“Well, they should because it’s a really pretty name.”
Her mouth opened with surprise while her face fell with shyness to hide her blush.
“Thank you very much, Natsu.”
“Hey, do you want to be friends?”
Her eyes snapped to him once more, full of glee and childhood innocence.
“I would love to! We can be best friends!”
“Yeah! Best friends forever!”
“Okay, from now on, we will be best friends.”
She smiled again, and Natsu realized her smile was different to the ones he saw every day. It wasn’t mocking, or challenging, or condescending, like the ones the other kids, or even adults had. No, her smile was… kind. Warm.
And suddenly, her eyes didn’t remind him of ice anymore. It reminded him of the sky he used to plough through on Igneel’s back, and the shiny lapis lazuli that doted the walls of his cave. It reminded him of peacefulness. It reminded him of home.
It felt nice to be around her.
“Hey, Natsu?”
They were in their secret hideout, the one only both of them knew about and the dragon egg they had found was resting aside. Not only was Lisanna a lot nicer than the rest of the stupid kids (like the popsicle stripper or Erza), but she could also do some really cool magic that changed her body form into those of animals- and she had transform into this really amazing giant bunny, and had constructed their super-secret-awesome cabin all by herself! She was beyond incredible, in Natsu’s humble opinion.
“Don’t call me Natsu! I’m the Mighty Igneel, remember?!”
They had been playing dragons and knights and Natsu had been fully immersed in his role of a powerful dragon that had kidnapped the princess (AKA Lisanna’s doll). Lisanna, of course, was the white knight who was supposed to defeat the dragon to rescue the princess because, having such a cool magic, what other role could she play? The knight was just perfect for her!
However, Lisanna had had some complains- saying that she wanted to be the princess and Natsu should be the knight, or something like that. The boy, honestly, considered that stupid. Of course, he should be the dragon. He was Igneel’s son, for crying out loud! And Lisanna should be the knight because without knight there wasn’t any way of playing, so… yeah, Natsu didn’t really get her complaints.
“We have already been playing this for a long time… can’t we play something else?” she asked with a small frown, stopping Natsu from the awesome movement he was about to make.
“What? Why, are you tired or something?”
“I’m not, but I just… would like to play something else”.
Something else. Okay, Natsu could work with that.
“What would you like to play? We can play tag, or hide and seek… although I would we able to smell you out in hide and seek so it would be like cheating… so we should play tag instead-”
“Natsu, do you remember that movie Master had us watching in the guild the other day? The one with the magic war, and the boy of a prophecy?” Lisanna had sat down and was patting the place besides her.
“Ahh… yeah, sure,” Natsu mumbled, sitting beside her. The only thing Natsu remembered was that the Master had had the brilliant idea to sit down the kids in front of a TV screen to try to appease them for a while. A brilliant idea that lasted only ten minutes and was ruined the moment Elfman fell asleep over a surprised Gray, who obviously didn’t like one bit of the bulky kid falling over him, and had shoved him recklessly towards Erza. Needless to say, a raging albeit expected brawl started. And of course, Natsu had been a part of it. He didn’t remember much of what had happened after Mirajane knocked him cold.
“Well, you know how the boy and the girl… kiss… at the end of the movie?” Lisanna blinked innocently, a shy smile on her face.
“Honestly? You sister kind of prevented me from watching that part, Lis.”
“Oh.” This seemed to halt her train of thought. She bit her lip and looked down in disappointment. How weird. What was so important with the movie? Why had she brought it up? “But, don’t you ever wonder about it?”
“About what?”
“About kissing! Adults do it all the time. Sometimes I wonder why they do it, or what it feels like.” She was blushing and twisting her hair, and her smell had taken a nervous shade some seconds ago. “Does that ever happen to you?”
“I… well, no, it never crossed my mind. What’s this whole kissing thing about, anyway? Igneel never told me anything about it.”
She blinked at him slowly, as if he had spoken in another language.
“Natsu…” Her eyes were big, and staring at him with perplexity. “Don’t you know what kissing is?”
“It’s some kind of magic?” he asked, honestly curious.
“No, silly! That’s what you do when you really like someone. You kiss them. With your lips.”
“With my lips?”
“Yeah, like this.” She grabbed his hand and took her to her face, making a smooching sound when her lips connected to his skin. “That’s a kiss. But when two people really like each other, then they kiss each other on the lips. Husbands and wives kiss on the lips.”
“Do humans really do that?” Natsu’s eyes were set in the spot of skin that this so called “kiss” had landed on. It felt weird, like a tingling sensation. Igneel had never talk to him about something like this, and in fact, Natsu doubted dragons had a custom as such. You know, with the lack of lips and everything.
“Yes, we do. It’s supposed to be really nice.”
They fell quiet for a minute, this new piece of information setting in Natsu’s memory.
“Hey… don’t you want to know how it feels like?”
“Feels what?”
“Well, kissing!” Her eyes were sparkling with genuine curiosity. For some unknown reason, Natsu felt his face heating up; something that was extremely weird, considering that his magic allowed him control over his body temperature. “Don’t you wanna try kissing on lips, just to know how it feels like??”
“I… I’m really not interested in it, Lis. I think it’s kind of gross,” Natsu said averting his eyes and fixing his gaze in the floor, a little bit upset with the whole situation. Why couldn’t they go back to playing dragons and knights? That was way more fun than this whole kissing thing.
“Oh… uhmm… okay, sorry I bothered you with this”. She sounded off, like disappointed. It was enough to make Natsu lift his eyes again, and he found her shyly looking away, twisting her hands with nervousness and a small pout on her lips. Red lights and deafening sirens turned on in Natsu’s head as panic invaded him. Lisanna looked like she was about to cry! Mirajane would kill him!
“H-hey, Lis! What’s wrong?! You are not bothered by this, are you? It’s just kissing! Nothing especial, just a weird thing adults do!” He said as he awkwardly put his hands on her shoulders in a sort of attempt to comfort her. Natsu had never needed to comfort someone before. It was usually Igneel cheering him up, so he didn’t really know what to do in this kind of situation. He was acting purely on instinct, based on what he had seen at the guild.
Lisanna bit her lip as she tried to hide her unshed tears. A difficult task, considering how big her eyes were. But still, she sniffled away the pain of his rejection and rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes.
“I know… s-sorry,” she hiccupped. “I just… you know… since every girl kisses with the handsome guy at the end of movies, I thought I would like to know how it felt like… but I understand if you consider it something stupid.”
“Well, I…” Natsu bit off the end of the sentence. What could he answer? This whole kissing thing wasn’t a big deal for him, but it seemed like it was for Lisanna. And he didn’t want to make her cry! What kind of friend would he be if he made his best friend cry? Definitely a horrible one! Igneel would be mad at him if he found out that Natsu had made a friend cry. So he really needed to fix this, or else his dad would be angry at him when he found him. Besides, making Lisanna cry just didn’t feel right for him.
“Lis… ehmm… you know, if it is so important to you, then I don’t really mind doing it.” The words were almost inaudible since he practically chewed them out, and was facing the other side of their hiding place, with a heavy blush tainting his cheeks. So Lisanna, having the hearing of a normal human being, barely heard them. Her head shot up and her now dry eyes looked at him curiously.
“Natsu… what did you say?”
“I said I don’t mind doing it!” he shouted. Why was he so embarrassed about this whole ordeal? It was just stupid kissing.
The harsh response made her spring back a little, blinking with surprise.
“Natsu… if you don’t want to do it you don’t have to. I was just curious, that’s all.”
“I already said I would do it, so let’s just get on with it.” He faced her again, planting his hands over his knees and straightening his back. Natsu Dragneel didn’t go back on his words. Igneel had thought him better than that.
But now Lisanna seemed unsure. She was fidgeting again and her eyes rolled everywhere avoiding his face. Natsu wondered just what was bothering her now.
“What’s wrong, Lis?”
“Well… I’m about to give my first kiss!” she snapped suddenly, like it was something obvious. “A girl’s first kiss is supposed to be something important! It should be romantic!”
“Eh?” Romantic? A first kiss? Why should a first kiss be special? Why should kisses in general be special? It was just touching of lips. Natsu found it rather gross, to be honest. But he had already decided to go through with it, and had told Lisanna he would do it, so might as well make it right.
“Okay. I don’t know anything about romantic stuff so you are gonna have to tell me, got it?” he said looking seriously in her eyes.
The girl looked taken aback by this, but she squared her shoulders and a firm line set on her forehead.
“Okay, first of all, we are gonna need to close our eyes.”
“Eh? What for?”
“Well, because it’s less embarrassing that way!”
It made sense.
“Got it, my eyes are closed,” he said as he complied.
“Now…, we will count three and we will do it. The moment we say three, we will close our eyes, lean towards each other and do it”.
“Roger.” He opened his eyes once more and turned his body to face her. Lisanna was fidgeting shyly and worrying her lips. Like some sort of disease, he found her nervousness was contagious. His stomach was eating itself in knots.
“One,” they said together, looking deadly into each other’s eyes.
“Two.” Lisanna’s blushing cheeks looked rather cute. Hmm. How weird.
“Three.”
Eyes closed to the point of wrinkles, there was bumping of noses and a loud “smooch”. Natsu felt something weird in his lips, like a moistness that wasn’t his own, but other than that nothing really different. They separated immediately and blinked at each other for some awkward seconds.
Lisanna scowled with confusion.
“That… wasn’t what I was expecting,” she mumbled, looking down.
Natsu watched her frown with a scowl of his own. So much preparation and it really hadn’t been a big thing. It was almost anti-climatic.
“Well… what were you expecting?” he asked, truly curious.
“Ahm… I don’t know.” Her eyes rolled upwards while she looked for the words to describe her feeling, biting her inner cheek. “Movies always make it look so special. I thought there would be fireworks or music”.
Natsu couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped him. The girl’s gaze fell back to him, outrage.
“What are you laughing at?!”
“Fireworks?” Natsu asked, covering his mouth with his hands in a poor attempt to conceal his laugher. “Lis, this isn’t a movie!”
“I know! Sorry! I just thought it would be something better, not this!” Her cheeks had puffed with embarrassment. Such a disappointment! And here she had thought kissing would be life changing. It was just like the kisses Mira-nee would give her on her forehead to say goodnight, only this one was messier. She wouldn’t be kissing anyone on the lips for a long time. It wasn’t worth it.
“Huh,” she mumbled, lost in thoughts. “Why do you think adults make such a big deal about it?”
“Dunno. Maybe they haven’t got anything better to do, and that’s why they think kissing is great. I feel sorry for them.”
“Yeah, I feel sorry too,” she agreed shrugging.
“Anyway, do you wanna go back to playing something else?”
“I need to go back to the guild. It’s getting late, Mira-nee will be worried.”
“Okay, then let’s go!”
Natsu picked up the dragon egg from the floor and they exited their hut with idle chatter. Children laugher echoed among the trees, melting with the birds’ singing and the natural music of the woods.
“Come on, Natsu! I want to eat cupcakes!”
Her smile was the biggest he had ever seen, and her eyes shone with happiness that was contagious. Natsu felt like that happiness could rub on him, crack the ice his soul had been frozen in since the day his dad left. Chase the cold away.
She was warm.
And Natsu knew they would be best friends forever.