Disclaimer: I do not own Fairytail

"In the history of the world there was the land of Fiore. This land was a land filled with magic. It was apart of everyday life; used for cooking, and cleaning, and changing the color of clothing. For a select few, however, magic was an art. An art that these few dedicated their lives to practicing. These few were called wizards. These wizards would band together and create a friendly environment for wizards alike to get jobs, and socialize. These places were called guilds. All guilds were approved by the magic council. And if they weren't, they were a dark guild. Many dark guilds are dedicated to an evil man, the evilest wizard in the world. Really though, he was simply a man who had made a wrong decision and…"

Zeref squinted at the page. "What is this crap? Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? Seriously, is this guy an evil wizard or a charity case?"

"Zeref nii-chan, don't say stuff like that!" Natsu cried and pouted. "You're not supposed to say, 'crap', and the story's only giving him a reason for doing what he's doing!"

"I thought he was evil? What more of a motivation does he need?"

"Yeah, but he's not truly evil!" Natsu insisted. "Now keep reading, I worked real hard on this!"

"Fine." He said shortly and then continued to quietly mumble the story to himself. "This story follows a guild full of immensely powerful wizards, with much diversity. This guild was called Fairytail."

Finally, he reached the end of the chapter and took off his glasses. "Seriously? The evil wizard is based off me? I'm the charity case?"

"He's not a charity case! Alios just has trouble with people and he's misunderstood! Just like you!"

"Just like me?" Zeref asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not a piece of crap like Alios, Natsu."

"Don't say stuff like that about my characters! Now look," Natsu huffed and snatched the paper. "I showed this to you 'cause you're my best bet at getting feedback! Nobody else thinks I could ever be a writer!"

"Well… you've got a long way to go."

"Duh! This is only my first manuscript!"

"Yeah, well, you've got a good story line but your characters and writing technique need a lot of work."

"Alright, I'll work on it if it'll make you happy!" Natsu was getting frustrated and Zeref figured he'd need to give him examples.

"Look, Natsu." He said, grabbing the ten-year-old by his hand and setting him down on the bed. "One of the examples I have is this." He held the paper up. "Basically, you're laying everything out for your reader in the very beginning but it would be much more interesting if revealed through dialogue, a character's thoughts, or their circumstances. First, introduce your main character, then slowly give the reader more information as they continue reading. I know you want to get right into it, but setting things up should be done with care, so remember everything I just told you."

Natsu slowly nodded. "Alright." He said. "Fine, I'll try." And Natsu ran out of his room, presumably to go back to his computer and continue typing. Why Natsu had gotten so interested in story-telling, Zeref didn't know, but it was better than playing video games, in his opinion.

Natsu's story was indeed very interesting but the thing he found most interesting was that Natsu had created this story in the first place. In this world, the world of Fairytail was just a story created by a child.

It was almost ideal. Here he was, able to live his life with Natsu, able to be the thing he'd always wanted to be. A good brother. The only thing the world filled with magic had done for him, was beat him when he was down, and thrown every horrible thing his way, expecting him to give up, fall, fail, break. But he had not.

On the contrary. He had taken what they gave him and turned it into one of the best gifts he'd ever recieved. And with this gift he had managed to unlock the secrets of the dead, the secrets of time travel, the secrets of the living, and the secrets of immortality. Zeref smirked as he thought this. The him that was supposed to be here, was in that other reality, with a war on his hands, probably completely overwhelmed.

No, he would never wish the fate of the curse upon anyone. However, the way he figured, his other self had not broken the laws of life and death and was not cursed in that world because despite them being the same person they were, at core, fundamentally different. Meanwhile, he hadn't the curse here either, considering there was no supernatural workings in this world. This world was free of Gods, free of curses, free of magic, and he used it to his advantage.

So, that was his theory. If it wasn't true, it wasn't his problem anymore. Or… well, it was his problem but not HIS problem… that just made it even more confusing in his head.

The Natsu in this world was his Natsu, not altered by the Etherious in any way. It made him tremble in relief and happiness. When he'd first arrived in this world, he realized immediately his choice of clothes were not appropriate for the time era. And he had been panicked for a little while, until he settled into his life. His job, his family, his love with Mavis.

Yes, this was his ideal world, the only thing that would make it better would be if his parents were still alive. But he supposed his life couldn't be completely perfect, and he'd learned a while ago to take what he was given and turn it into much more than what he had before.

The perfect life. The life without magic, the life he'd dreamed of for so long; the world he'd dreamed of for so long. The only slight problem was that he had to keep his sad self a secret. Apparently in this world he was much happier, which made sense, since he had everything here.

Still, sometimes he wanted to cry with happiness. And in the middle of the night he was who he'd been in Earthland yet somehow… different at the same time. He felt the same even though he had everything he could've asked for. He felt the same depression in the late hours of night, he still woke up screaming from the nightmares of blood, and black fog, and dragons.

Nightmares that wouldn't make any sense to anyone else, so Zeref kept the fears to himself like he always did and pretended everything was alright.

This was what he'd always wanted, what he'd always dreamed of.

Natsu came running in then, claiming he wanted to go to the park. Zeref quickly dried his tears and smiled desolately. "Alright." Zeref said, holding out his hand, which Natsu grabbed and dragged.

"Come on, come on!"

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Zeref laughed slightly as he was dragged out of the house, in the heat of summer, the sun shining on his face.

Some might've found what he did to his other self horribly inhuman and horribly wrong but… this was the life Zeref had felt he deserved. This was the life he'd wanted. Free, of heartache, of the curse, of his demons.

He'd never done anything to deserve the curse. He'd never done anything to be rejected by the very universe itself. He'd only lost everything and tried to take a piece of it back.

But in this reality. On Earth, he got to live his life like everyone else. This was where he belonged, this was what he wanted, this was what he got, this was paradise.

A/N This is an apology update. I don't have a new chapter this week for The Devil and Me or Operation: Catch a Dragneel. I'm so sorry for that but it's been so hectic I wanted to update something nice and short and easy, with a tiny story line. I think this will be a three-shot so I will update the next two chapters soon. I have an exact story line for this already drawn so the next chapter should be in two or three days, and then another one after. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I'm a little nervous since I feel this could be better, but I'm not sure how since I already rewrote it. Again, I'm sorry for the lack of update on the other two stories (Even I feel bad I'm missing a week because I always have an update for ongoing stories every week. Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope nothing was confusing and I portrayed what happened well. If you have a question feel free to review or pm me. And feedback is very motivational so I would love some reviews/favs/follows. Thanks for reading, I'm pretty sure I'll have an update by next week! Bye!