Chapter Text
"IGNEEL!" A voice yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" As Blake opened his eyes, he quickly realized that things were different. For starters, he was in the middle of a forest, sleeping on a tree branch, with his camp nowhere in sight. 'What happened?' he thought to himself. He thought back to what happened the night before, 'Primus mentioned dropping me off with a friend for a while, but I don't see anyone nearby.' He hopped down from the tree, landing in a roll before popping up on his feet. "IGNEEL!" ‘Sweet mercy, that guy is loud. Why is he screaming for... Igneel? As in the king of the fire dragons? That must be the friend Primus mentioned! Strange that he decided to live in a forest. Hmmm... Ah, whatever. How do I get this guys attention?' As soon as that final thought crossed his mind, he wanted to face palm. "Partial Takeover: Astral Arm: Heatblast !" His right arm glowed as the spell changed it from flesh and blood, to stone and magma. He quickly built up a compressed ball of fire in my hand before throwing it up into the air as high as he could.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ball quickly expanded from small enough to fit in his hand to three times his height in diameter. As he undid the transformation, the voice screamed out once again. "IGNEEEEEL!!!!" Suddenly, a small boy burst through the underbrush, blinked twice, and threw a wild haymaker at Blake. He quickly grabbed the boy’s wrist and twisted away from himself, causing him to bend backwards before Blake swept his legs from under him. "Did no one teach you manners, pinky? You're supposed to introduce yourself when you meet new people, not try to punch them." Blake told him. "RAAAGHH!!!!" the boy bellowed, trying for a flaming right hook. Blake scoffed, sidestepped it, and grabbed him by the back of his shirt, yanking him up and roundhouse kicking him into a tree. All the while he quietly cast another spell, transforming his arm yet again just as the kids back impacted the bark.
THUMP! SWISH!
The brat looked up at Blake with an adorable glare as the older boy stood over him, a razor sharp blade stretching off of his crystalline arm towards the younger's throat.
GRROOOWWLLL!!
Suddenly, a loud rumble came from the boy's stomach, making Blake grin. “Do you want to keep fighting, or do you want to get some food?” He perked up at that but remained guarded. “What do you have?” He asked. In response Blake dispelled the transformation and reached into the magical pocket dimension that is his requip space and pulled out a large bundle of deer jerky with two water bottles. “Deer jerky, it might not be as good as fresh, but it is filling,” he said, passing the smaller boy a portion.
“If you boys want something fresh, I recently caught a few fish I’d be willing to share.” I turned to look at the old man who spoke in shock. “How did you sneak up on me?” both boys asked in unison. The old man chuckled. “You have to have a few tricks up your sleeve to make it to my age.” Blake snorted in amusement. “Fair enough, old timer. I’m Blake Stardust, son of Primus.”
“WHAT?!” Blake and the old man flinched at the volume of the pink haired boy’s shout. “Can you please keep your voice at a non-deafening level? My ears are starting to hurt from all your yelling.” The boy just stared at Blake. “Um, kid, are you alright?” No response. “Old timer, do you know of any medics in the area? I think he-”
“Primus, the astral dragon, high emperor of all dragons, and ruler of the cosmic plane. That’s your DAD?” the kid interrupted, making the old man blink and Blake sigh. “Yes, that would be my father-” the kid burst into flames and knelt before him. “I am Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel, the fire dragon king, and by the power of my father, I swear to follow you as long as you remain a just and kind ruler. Let my flames be your light in the dark, your warmth in the cold, and your weapon against the wicked.”
Now it was Blake's turn to stare. “Well, this is unexpected,” the old timer chimed in. “Here I thought dragons were extinct.” That snapped Blake out of his trance. “Actually, most dragons are nomadic and travel across multiple planes of existence. If they settle in one plane for an extended period of time, it’s only so they can raise their young,” he automatically corrected before turning his attention back to Natsu. “You have dragon slayer magic. Do you know of any other dragon slayers?”
“I don’t know their names but Igneel mentioned a wind based dragon a couple times, plus a metal based dragon. He said they both had taken students…” Natsu trailed off as Blake began radiating magic power. “Primus! You overgrown lying lizard! You told me that you couldn’t teach me dragon slayer magic! Why did this kid get to learn it and not me?!” He bellowed to the heavens. “You taught me requip, archive, teleportation, and more, but you said it wasn’t possible for me to learn dragon slayer magic! So why do three other people know how to use it?!”
WHAM!! CRASH!!
“Are you done with your little hissy fit?” Blake heard the old man say as he pulled himself from the remains of a tree. As he looked at the diminutive elder standing where he previously was, he recognized the magic the man used, “Giant magic, huh?” The old man blinked. “Yes, how did you know? You couldn’t have seen it.” Blake simply laughed, “Given that I took a full body hit, and you are now standing where I was, it just makes sense for you to have giant magic. Though I feel like you used a bit of speed magic to get a harder hit.”
The old man grinned. “You have a good head on your shoulders, Blake. How about you join my guild?” That made Blake pause. “You want to recruit me? How do you know I’ll even be a good fit with your guild?” the old man broke into raucous laughter. “Hey! It’s a genuine question! Why are you laughing?!” As the old man calmed down, he explained about his guild, “Fairy Tail is different from most guilds. We don’t really care about strength as much as character, and I like to think that after all these decades of life I've become a good judge of character.”
“Fairy Tail? Why would you call it that?” Natsu asked. “Do fairies have tails? Do they even exist? Like the answers to those questions, the Fairy Tail guild is an eternal mystery, a never ending adventure.” That made the young dragon slayer grin. “A never ending adventure? Sounds like fun! Let's join, Boss!” Blake looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Boss?”
“Yeah! You’re the son of the high emperor, you have a ton of magic power, and you know a lot of types of magic! It only makes sense that you would be the leader of the clan!” Blake snorted, “So we're a clan now? When was I going to be made aware of this?” Despite his words, the son of Primus couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Come on Boss! You know you want to!” Yeah, he really did. “Alright, lead the way… I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to ask for your name,” he said, turning to the old man who merely chuckled. “Not a problem dear boy. My name is Makarov Dreyar, guild master of Fairy Tail.”
Blake stared up at the large building in front of him. “Damn, Fairy Tail must be a pretty big guild if you need a building this size just to hold everyone based here.” He turned to look at Makarov. “How many members does the guild have?” The guild master blinked, rubbed his chin in thought, and said, “Around one hundred. If you want an exact number, I’ll have to look through the records.” Blake’s eyes went wide. “One hundred?! That’s all?! Primus told me most major guilds were at least triple that! Wait, no, you meant one hundred at this location, right? That makes more sense.” Just as Blake calmed down, the diminutive guild master sent his train of thought off the rails once more. “No, that’s for the whole guild. We pride ourselves on being close knit, unlike some guilds where certain members have never even met,” Makarov grumbled. “So this is your only guild hall? You don’t have another location in another city? Or even just on the outskirts of Magnolia?”
“Indeed, this is the one and only Fairy Tail guild hall. Now, let's head in so you can meet the other-” the old man suddenly ducked as a chair came flying out the doors at him. “BRATS!” he roared. All noise coming from the guild vanished instantly. “YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO CLEAN BEFORE I COME IN! WHEN I WALK THROUGH THE DOORS I EXPECT THE HALL TO BE SPOTLESS! GET TO IT!” the sounds of people rushing to clean came pouring out of the building. “Damn, talk about authority.” Blake said, looking at the elderly guild master in a whole new light. Meanwhile, Natsu was bouncing on the balls of his feet, a massive fanged grin across his face. “This is going to be awesome!” he shouted excitedly.
Soon enough, thirty seconds had passed, and Makarov brought the two boys into the guild. Looking around, Blake saw several people sitting at tables, a few by the job board, and… ‘Is that a bar?’ he thought to himself. “Everyone, meet Blake Stardust and Natsu Dragneel. They both have a rare form of magic, although in Blake's case it’s more of a rare variant. Regardless, they will both be joining the guild, so let's celebrate two new family members!”
“YEEEAAAAHH!!!” Blake and Natsu both flinched. “Can you celebrate a little quieter, please?” Blake asked. “We both have rather sensitive hearing. A lot of loud noise would be overwhelming and even painful for us,” he explained when the guild members looked at him. They glanced at each other, shrugging and nodding, before a man with dark blue hair called out, “sure thing, kid. I’m Macao, by the way! Let me show you around and introduce you to everyone!” With that, Makarov took his leave and the tour began. Their first stop was the kitchen where Blake was slightly disappointed by the lack of a frozen yogurt machine, but swore to fix that problem later. Once Natsu had grabbed a snack, they went to the guild library where we met Levy McGarden, Freed Justine, and Evergreen. After introductions and a brief conversation, Blake agreed to talk about books with them later in the day or tomorrow morning if things took longer than expected. From there they headed to the central portion of the guild and met Macao’s friend Wakaba. “Ugh! That stuff stinks.” Natsu complained. “It’s also really bad for your lungs. I’m guessing you have smoke magic, correct Mr Wakaba? That should make it work slower, but it doesn’t negate the damage.” Blake continued to lecture about the dangers of smoking as Wakaba sat there staring. Eventually he interrupted, “kid, I know it’s not good for my lungs, but it’s the only way to stop my anxiety from making me paranoid.”
“Oh… fair enough. Have you tried smoking other things? I’ve heard that if you smoke something with stronger effects, you can do it less often.” Wakaba chuckled, “do you know where I could get something stronger than this? Because I’d be happy to do so if you can find it for me.” The space in front of Blake glowed as a small magic circle appeared. “Requip, celebratory smokes.” A small box of rolled joints appeared in his hand. “I got this from a friend when I graduated from my old school. They should be plenty strong, but I warn you now, you will get hungry when you start coming down.” Wakaba accepted the box and smelled it before going very still. “Kid, is this made of what I think it is?” Blake grinned. “Probably not, but it’s just as good, I assure you. This specific strain of herbal goodness is found on a world of plant people. Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that this sounds unbelievable, but I traveled to many worlds with my father, learning as much as he could teach me about them and then some. It was one hell of a childhood,” he finished with a fond smile. “If- if the plants were people then- then what part of them would I be smoking if I- if I lit this up?” Wakaba asked hesitantly. Blake quickly corrected, “oh, not every plant was a person! Apologies, I should have made that more clear. This is a normal plant. The plant people export ones like it and others to various worlds. They are actually able to control how it grows with their chloropathy magic, and although they closely guard the magic itself, the plants are completely normal, if not the peak of their natural growth capabilities.”
“Wait, do you know the magic?” Blake turned and looked at the starry eyed, dark hard young man who asked the question. “Not fully, but it supposedly relies on their own plant like nature to fully master it. I can only use my takeover magic for a partial Florauna transformation.” The boy's eyes shined even brighter. “You can become part plant person?!” Blake chuckled. “Yes, specifically I can turn my arms into a Florauna’s arms, but only one at a time. I’m guessing you use some form of plant magic as well.”
“Oh, yeah! I’m Droy! I use secret seed magic! Hey Jet, get over here!” Another young man, about the same age as Droy, ran over. “What? What is it? What’s wrong? Is something wrong? Everything seems fine.” Blake thanked his lucky star that he spent so much time on Kinet after the ginger blurted out all those questions in a second flat before Droy lightly bopped him on the head. As he sheepishly looked at the ground, he grumbled, “I did it again didn’t I?” Blake laughed. “I’ll answer in order. Your friend seems fascinated by my magic and wanted to show you. Nothing is wrong. Everything is indeed fine. Finally, if you meant to say that you have a habit of using speed magic while you’re speaking, then yes, you did it again.” The whole guild blinked, and asked as one, “how did you understand that?!”
“Spend enough time around speedsters and you pick up a few tricks,” Blake responded with a snicker. Then he sobered slightly. “Have you tried utilizing your speed magic on your mind? You could make and adjust battle tactics in a snap if you did.” Jet blinked. He blinked again. He grabbed at his head, pulling on his hair. “Holy crap! How did I not realize that I could do that?! I’m going to do that from now on! No one can stop me!” Blake grinned at him. “Good to hear! And who knows, if you learn enough strategy and get enough leadership experience, maybe you will be named guild master one day!” Jet blushed and rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt I'll get that strong. Even if I did, Laxus is more likely to be chosen.” that peaked Blake's interest, “Laxus? I don’t know who that is, but I feel like you should have more faith in yourself.” Suddenly, a young boy crashed into their table wearing only his underwear. Immediately, Blake shouted, “What the hell?! Put some clothes on, you dirty-”
“Say it one more time! Say that my father isn’t real one more time!” Natsu interrupted. “What the hell are you on about?” Blake questioned, but it went ignored. “I’ll say it as many times as it takes for you to stop lying! There have been no reported dragon sightings in the past four hundred years, so there is no possible way that you were raised by one!” That sent Natsu over the edge. He charged the other boy with his whole body wreathed in flames, “RRRAAAGGHH!” Seeing the boy preparing a spell of his own, Blake quickly intervened. “Takeover! Astral Soul: Fourarms!” He grew four feet taller, another pair of arms sprouted from his torso, his skin turned deep red, and he gained several hundred pounds of muscle. Stepping between the two boys, he grabbed both of them by the jaw using his lower pair of arms, swung them around to disrupt their spells, and knocked their heads together before glaring down at them with four amber eyes seeming to glow with annoyance. “Do I have your attention, you little punks? Blink twice if I do.” Two rapid blinks later, he continued. “Good. Now natsu, if i see you attacking someone over something as ridiculous as a bit of name calling, I’ll personally see to your punishment, and believe me, I can be very creative in how I dish it out. Got that?” Another two blinks. “Good. Now for you,” he turned to the other boy.” I don't know what your name is, and quite honestly I don't care. Natsu is telling the truth. Whether you believe it or not, I don't care. He was raised by Igneel, the Fire Dragon King. I was raised by Primus the Astral Dragon, Supreme Ruler of the Astral Plane, and High Emperor of all Dragonkin. As soon as Natsu is strong enough he will be able to make fire dragonkin submit to his rule as prince. That includes salamanders, fire drakes, and flare wyverns just to name a few. Do you want to deal with that coming at you? I doubt you do, so let me give you some advice. Don’t call people liars without thoroughly checking your facts, and even if you have, be kind about it. Finally, if either one of you pulls anything as childish as this complete and utter bullshit ever again, I will see to it that you face the greatest humiliation of your life. Blink twice if you’ve got all that.” A final pair of blinks from each boy later and they were being set down at a table with chairs placed behind them. They quickly sat down, looked at each other, and came to a silent agreement. “We’re never pissing him off like that again.” Little did they know much of the guild felt the same way. “Wow, that was pretty impressive.” a voice called Blake dispelled his transformation. “Normally the only ones who can calm the whole guild like that are gramps and the little redhead. Good to see that our newest member doesn’t put up with bullshit.” A tall blonde teenager with a lightning bolt scar over one side of his face stepped into view and held out a hand to Blake. “Laxus Dreyar, it’s good to meet you Blake.”
“Likewise,” Blake said, shaking hands with him. “I’m guessing you’re the master's grandson. Does that make you the younger members' big brother?” Laxus barked out a laugh. “Nah, not quite. I wouldn’t mind some of them calling me that, but for the most part no.” Blake grinned slyly, “are you sure? Remember, big brother privileges include messing with them at random times, teasing them about having a crush, and more.” Laxus blinked consideringly. “Although the privileges come with responsibilities as well. Looking out for them, teaching them things, and in the case of the girls, you deal with the fools who break their hearts.” The blonde gave a short hum, “ya know, I think I can handle those responsibilities if it means I get to tease and mess with the little squirts.” That made Blake cackle with laughter. “Well then, it's official! You’re the big brother of the guild kids!” Laxus just grinned, “and as their big brother, I think I'll take the two newest members on a job. Come on. Lets get you your guild marks so you can join me.”