Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

Pairing(s): Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read

CHAPTER WARNINGS: None

The Things We Dream

By V. Shalyr

1. Prologue

"Here's the sad truth. All men are not created equal."

~ Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia, season 1 episode 1

13 years ago...

"That child is a monster."

"It's lucky that none of his classmates were nearby when his Quirk manifested."

"It's not a Quirk. It's a curse!"

Zeref sat in a corner of his room with his knees pulled to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around himself. He hadn't bothered to turn on the lights and the curtains were drawn across the window over his bed, so the room was dark.

He was cold even though he'd put on the heaviest coat he had. He didn't think he'd ever felt so cold before, and it was almost summer. Despite the closed door, he could hear the voices of the grownups all too clearly—his parents, a representative from his school, two men from the police force, and another representative from the government. Not that he needed to hear. It was easy to imagine what they were saying because he'd been thinking it himself since the incident after school.

The elementary school in question didn't want him back. They had been absolutely clear about that. He was the reason all the trees by the parking lot were now dead. The small, black bird that had been perched on one of the trees at the time was dead now too, and he couldn't get the image of it out of his head.

Zeref shivered.

He hadn't realized before that it was possible to feel this awful.

"What are we going to do with him?"

"He can't be allowed to live with the general population. It would be far too dangerous."

"But he's only seven."

"What choice do we have?"

His parents sounded upset at least, but not upset enough to want to keep him. Not that he could blame them really. The only thing left was where they wanted to send him. Where everyone else would be safe from his new powers. Why couldn't he have had a normal Quirk like most of the rest of his class? He'd have been happy to be one of the twenty percent minority that had no powers at all. Seven was really late to start developing powers, generally speaking. And it wasn't like he'd had any particular career ambitions that would have required having a Quirk. Anything would have been better than this.

A single tear escaped the corner of his eye and slid down his pale cheek, dripping into the collar of his coat.

How was he going to live like this? Would he even be allowed to live at all—if people thought his Quirk would cause too much of a disaster?

A sharp tap on his window jolted him out of his anxious thoughts. He uncurled enough to reach out and tug the curtains open a fraction. Sunlight spilled into his room, blotted out in part by a wild-haired boy who wasted no time shoving up the unlocked windowpane and climbing through.

"Natsu, you shouldn't be here," Zeref said, worried that the adults next door would hear them.

"I'm your best friend. Of course I should be here."

Natsu sat down on the ground in front of Zeref's corner and frowned at him.

"I heard about what happened today. They're going to make you switch schools or something."

"I know."

Zeref shrank further back into his corner, pressing his back firmly against the cool walls.

"Natsu, you can't sit that close to me. You might—I might kill you too."

"No, you won't."

"But Natsu, we don't know when it happens or why it happens. I can't control it, and—and that bird."

The bird fallen to the ground with its wings spread but unmoving—wings that would never fly again.

Zeref wanted to throw up, but he hadn't eaten anything since that event and had nothing in his stomach to throw up. Instead, more tears escaped his eyes and dripped onto the sleeves of his black coat.

"Maybe they should just let me die. I'll only cause trouble for everyone."

"No," Natsu said forcefully, slamming a fist into the wall by his friend's bowed head. "Don't say things like that. Nobody's going to just kill you because you got a bit unlucky and ended up with a Quirk that takes away life. There are plenty of people with dangerous and destructive Quirks out there. There has to be a way to make everything work out—so you can go back to school with us and get a job and live a normal life."

The dark-haired boy sniffled. A normal life seemed like the last thing he was ever going to have. He appreciated Natsu's determination and defiance, but sometimes, he thought his friend was a little too optimistic.

"I'm not being too optimistic," Natsu said, reading his mind—metaphorically, of course. "I'm making you a promise."

He reached out and pried one of Zeref's hands from his knees before lacing their fingers together. Zeref's hand was cold, but Natsu's was warm—almost hot. That's right, Zeref thought. His friend had begun showing signs of a powerful Fire-type Quirk similar to his father's.

"I promise you," Natsu said, catching and holding his gaze, "that you're going to live a proper life, and that you're not going to just be killed or locked away somewhere forever. You trust me, don't you?"

"I—I do."

"Then don't give up. Even if they do take you away for awhile, even if we don't see each other for awhile—don't give up. I'll find you, and I'll make it happen."

Zeref blinked away his tears and looked up into his friend's fierce scowl. Despite the situation, his first thought was to wonder when his friend's eyes, formerly black, had turned green.

"You don't have to keep that promise," he said at last in a very small voice. Natsu glared at him, but Zeref continued before he could snap at him, "But okay, I—I won't give up."

Because Natsu had asked him not to, and if even just one person still cared honestly about what happened to him, Zeref felt that maybe he could find the strength inside himself not to fall apart even though his world was unraveling at the seams.

Natsu relaxed, but didn't let go of the other boy's hand.

"Good."

It was the last thing Natsu would say to him for the next seven years.

.

When the men in black suits and ties took Zeref away, Natsu watched from the roof of his family's home two houses away. He didn't wave or say good bye, because doing either of those things would have made his friend's departure feel that much more real.

"It isn't fair," he'd told his father the night before. "It's not his fault."

To which Igneal had said, "No, it isn't fair. People do their best, but the fact is that the world's not a fair place."

The wild-haired boy had bristled at that and demanded to know, "Are you siding with them?"

"No, that's not what I said."

Natsu could picture his father, lowering the day's newspapers and frowning at him over their smelly gray pages.

"Son, you have to be patient. If you want to help him, you will find a way. I have every confidence in you. But it's not going to happen by tomorrow. It might not be his fault, but the fact is that Zeref's new abilities could ruin thousands of lives. Blind anger is not going to do either of you any good. You have to think things through."

Natsu's fists clenched at his sides. He knew his father was right, but seeing his friend's slight figure disappear into the back of the giant white van, his thin shoulders hunched under his heavy coat as though trying to withdraw into himself, Natsu couldn't stop the anger from boiling back up. All the government representatives—and even Zeref's own parents—kept at least five meters away from him on all sides, which was the radius of the patch of dead vegetation before their elementary school. There was no sign of the black fog from that incident, but no one was taking any chances. Even from this distance, Natsu could sense the tension and the fear.

They didn't have a choice, Natsu reminded himself. They didn't know for sure yet that the black fog would always be visible, or how quickly the fog would spread. But—damn it, what about Zeref? Was anyone bothering to ask him how he felt about all this? What had they told the people who would be looking after him wherever it was they were taking him? Just that his Quirk was deadly and unpredictable, and that he had to be kept isolated from all living things? Whatever their reasons were and however reasonable those reasons might be, this was no different from sending Zeref to prison.

Natsu hoped the other boy wasn't letting the poisonous atmosphere get to him. Zeref was, at heart, one of the most thoughtful and sensitive people that Natsu knew. All of this was bound to be hurting him.

"He'll be okay," Natsu said aloud, half to reassure himself and half to remind the dejected figure in the distance, although he knew Zeref couldn't hear him. It was a promise too, and Natsu never forgot his promises.

TBC...

AN: Okay, so a few things...

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I am still struggling to decide if I need to up the rating for this story. If I do, it will only be for a few scenes. Or I might just cut the scenes that I'm not sure about out of the version I post (or maybe mark them out). I'm not sure. As a precaution, no matter what I decide, I will be including chapter warnings in addition to general warnings at the start of each chapter.

Not So Important Notes:

I will be modifying Fairy Tail characters' original magical abilities a little to fit the world better. For one thing, Dragon Slayers will NOT be able to "eat" their elements, but they will be immune/resistant. There will be a brief description of Slayer characteristics in chapter 2, and a detailed description of Zeref's abilities in chapter 4. As a heads up, I am also dispensing with Dragon Slayer motion sickness, because I don't feel like dealing with it in this story.

For people unfamiliar with my Fairy Tail stuff, character relations for my fics are always only as explicitly stated in the fic (i.e. who is or is not related to whom). I am a huge NatsuxZeref fan (have been for a very long time), and the way I write them comes from when in the series I fell in love with the pairing.

.