Being a baby sucked.
Natsu knew that much right away.
He was cold half the time, couldn't move properly, and worst of all, he was tiny. He'd been tiny before (Courtesy of Gildarts and his early life), sure. But he never remembered being this small. He was at the mercy of the giant woman with soft eyes and warm hands… Rei. His new mother.
At first, everything had been a blur. He remembered the fire. He'd eaten it. It tasted good. But it also felt different. It felt like sustenance. That was weird. Even for him.
But then there was light. Crying. Cold. Then arms. He kept dozing off at every chance.
The first few days or weeks were just that. Blurry and loud and cold and limiting. He hated it. Couldn't talk. Couldn't walk. Could barely flail his arms.
And strangest of all… the hunger.
His "mother" would panic every time he started going pale, and after the first couple incidents, Natsu started recognizing the signs himself. The lightheadedness. The fading colors. The twitch in his limbs.
He needed fire. It initially annoyed him at first. However, he was slowly getting used to it. All he had to do was eat fire and he would be okay. No big deal.
His "mother" had figured it out. She'd started keeping a lighter on hand, hidden in her apron, sometimes her pockets. Every few hours, she'd carefully flick the flame and let him nibble at it like a snack. Sometimes, one of the other servants would awkwardly hold a candle or lighter for him when Rei wasn't nearby. Even that moody, sharp-eyed older kid, Toya once snuck a flame from his quirk when he thought no one was watching. Natsu remembered the look on Toya's face as he watched him slurp it up like noodles. It was shock, awe… and a little fear.
Eventually, everyone just got used to it. Fire? That was part of the baby's food. Deal with it.
But Natsu wasn't just annoyed at the fire, he was annoyed at his size. He didn't want to be so small. He thrashed around, trying to move, however, it was just seen as throwing a fit. Rei thought he just wanted attention which wasn't the case.
Natsu knew he used to be taller and stronger. And now here he was, throwing tantrums in diapers and drooling on Rei's shoulder while trying to shout "FWIWAH DWAGWON" with a gummy mouth.
His name didn't help either. His siblings also picked him up from time to time. Mostly his supposed elder sister Fuyumi and his Elder brother Natsuo who kept getting called "Natsu" for short.
That's my name damn it!
"Yakuto~," Fuyumi cooed gently, rocking him while Natsuo stood behind her.
He scowled as he looked at Natsuo. "That's not my name! It's Natsu!" he tried to say, except it came out more like "Naaah-tuuhh!"
"Look, he's trying to say my name." Natsuo beamed. Fuyumi pouted and stared at Natsu.
"Comeon Yakuto, say my name, "Fu-yu-mi".
"Naaah-tuuu" Natsu tried to say. 'Stop calling me that! I am Natsu damn it! '
Everyone kept calling him "Yakuto."
Finally 5-6 months in. Natsu was able to properly crawl. No more needing to have others carrying him around.
'Finally! Freedom!' Natsu smiled as he crawled around.
One moment he was in Rei's lap, chewing on a warm bottle of milk, the next he was gone, off exploring under the table, trying to open doors, tugging on curtains, trying to pull open drawers. The moment his chubby little legs figured out how to work in coordination, he was a menace and Rei was tired of it all.
She tried baby-proofing everything. But Natsu was too clever. He hid in cabinets. Climbed furniture. Tried to open the oven once just to see if the flames tasted different (there were no flames or heat. It was just a metal box). She had to keep her eyes on him constantly, because the second she blinked, he was crawling up a bookshelf.
-
Natsu was excited. Even he understood that this world was a little more advanced. He wanted to walk outside. He wanted to see different people. But the doors were always locked. There were always people watching him to make sure he didn't crawl away. His family always kept a close watch as well. His "elder siblings" frequently played with him. Although he didn't mind them most of the time, some days Fuyumi would spend time taking care of him.
Then there was him.
That other baby. His older brother by only a few minutes.
The one with snow-white skin and shimmering turquoise eyes and the face of a perfect little angel.
Natsu glared at him from across the playpen.
He didn't know why he didn't like him. Something about the way he blinked. Or the way his face looked too calm.
There was a vague tug in his chest every time he saw him. Something familiar. Something that irked him.
He stared at him a lot. Watched his expressions. Compared their crawling speeds.
Haise.
That's what everyone called him.
Whatever. The guy was smug for a baby. Natsu just knew it.
Eventually, Rei sat all three of them down in a soft pile of blankets. She kissed their foreheads, one by one. "My beautiful boys," she whispered, her voice full of love and exhaustion.
Natsu squirmed. He had business to attend to. Crawling. Fire eating. Plotting against the smug baby in the corner. Oh and maybe figure out where the hell he was.
This new world was weird. Everyone had powers, but it wasn't magic. He didn't feel any. No ethernano. Just strange abilities. He watched the older siblings and servants show off quirks. They looked like magic but weren't. He didn't understand it yet.
And even if he was stuck in a baby body with a fire eating habit and a weird new name.
He was going to figure this place out.
And maybe punch Haise later.
Just for fun.
—----------
From the moment he was born, Gray was quiet. There was a blinding light washing over his closed eyelids. His small body was lifted, swaddled, then gently placed into a warm and soft bed beside someone.
He couldn't make sense of it yet, not the muffled voices or the distant shuffle of movement. He felt warmth to his left, another tiny form, breathing faintly.
He blinked, slowly, his turquoise eyes flickering open for the first time. The room above him was a blur of white, shifting shadows and shapes. He didn't cry, just remained silent.
Not silent out of fear or weakness. He was just just calm. Alert. He was trying to process what was happening. He was fighting Zeref one moment and the next he woke up here.
'Ugh, where am I?' He thought to himself as he tried to move. However, no matter how much he struggled it wasn't possible. Eyes barely open, he craned his neck to the left to see the other person next to him. It was a baby with half white hair and half red hair.
'SHIT' It suddenly dawned on him. He was a baby. 'Is this magic??? Did someone put me in an illusion?' He closed his eyes and tried to find any trace of magic. To his surprise, there was no magic he could sense in this world. He couldn't even sense any magic inside him. 'What in the world is going on???' His heart raced. Panic bloomed in his tiny chest. Was this Zeref's doing? Had he been trapped in some twisted spell and forced to relive life as an infant? No, this place wasn't where he was born. It looked different. The thought clawed at his mind. He let out a small, frustrated whine, his heart pounding beneath his skin. If this was reincarnation… then where the hell was he? He kept going in and out of sleep as he tried to analyze what was happening.
His thoughts were interrupted when a loud wailing suddenly appeared next to him.
Gray flinched at the noise, his tiny brow twitching. Great, he thought with a ghost of his old sarcasm, another loud one. But even that was more thought than he could keep up. Everything was so slow, so small. His breathing evened, the exhaustion of rebirth pulling him under, and he slipped into sleep before he could piece together more. 'Damn it, maybe this is all just a dream.'
The next time he woke, everything was different. Softer. Quieter. He was no longer surrounded by the cold sterility of the hospital. Instead, gentle arms held him. A calm heartbeat thudded beneath him. He cracked his eyes open again, just enough to glimpse a face above him. She looked like a kid, maybe 8 to 10 years of age. She had a round face, her hair was mostly white with a few red streaks and turquoise eyes.
She was murmuring softly, rocking him with practiced ease. The motion soothed him more than he wanted to admit. He didn't know this girl, but his newborn instincts recognized the safety. Still, somewhere beneath the calm, his thoughts stirred restlessly.
Where are we? Who else was here? Was he able to save his friends? As his heavy lids fluttered closed again, a small part of him hoped this wasn't some illusion. And that the loud baby would just stop crying.
They were fraternal triplets. Shoto was the quiet one and was always pressed between him and the red-haired screamer. The loud one, Yakuto, had a ridiculous amount of energy for someone who barely knew how to sit up straight.
Gray couldn't explain it, but the moment he laid eyes on him, something in him sparked. That baby was familiar and irritating all at once.
And then there was the fire..
The first time he saw Yakuto eat fire he almost choked on his own breath. His wide, barely-opened eyes stared, stunned, as the red-haired baby sucked in the flame.
Natsu? No there's no way. That idiot wouldn't have gotten himself killed, right?. He'd almost thought it was magic, but there was no signature. No ethernano. Just… raw, wild flame.
"A quirk?" he wondered internally, barely grasping the term. He'd picked it up from the occasional murmurs around the room. That's what they called it here. Powers that didn't come from magic. It made him anxious. He didn't know what sort of powers were at play here. .
Month 6
He couldn't crawl yet, but he was trying. Watching Yakuto scoot around only made him more determined. For some reason it really annoyed him. He got competitive. But his body didn't always listen. His limbs flailed. The whole ordeal was frustrating.
The older kids, Fuyumi and Natsuo, would occasionally cradle him, their hands careful but awkward. Natsuo would make faces at him, trying to get a smile. Fuyumi was more gentle, humming lullabies while brushing his soft hair back, calling him "the beautiful one." He liked her the most.
Rei, their mother, kept a constant eye on all three of them. But Gray noticed her gaze always lingered on Yakuto just a little longer, always checking on him. The lighter she kept on her wasn't missed, either. Gray put it together quickly, he had to eat the fire to stay alive.
In those quiet moments when the others were sleeping or babbling, Gray would just stare. At the ceiling, at the hands that weren't yet strong, at the strange new world he couldn't quite grasp. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing yet.
Still, a part of him stayed observant. He was going to figure this out, and until then… he'd bide his time.
Even if Yakuto's crying made him want to punch him in the face.
Just once.
Just for fun.
—
9 months in
Gray spent most of his early infant years quiet, observing the surroundings and taking everything in. He slowly began to learn the language they were speaking here. It had similarities to the language they spoke in his old life so it wasn't very difficult. As he tried to put his thoughts together though, he was disrupted every time by his other sibling, Yakuto. He got along with everyone great, especially with Fuyumi who was basically like a second mother. Everyone except the youngest.
There was something familiar about his sibling. This familiarity made Gray unreasonably agitated and he did not understand why. The way he held himself, his personality, quirks, and energy. The more Gray looked at him, the more irritated he got.
One day Gray was playing with building blocks in the middle of the living room. Despite his small size now, his creative mind was larger than ever. He began assembling the blocks into a castle. Rei walked by and noticed what he was doing.
"Haise you made this? This is really good!" Rei was impressed at the level of craftsmanship Gray had as a baby. It was truly artistic talent.
Gray looked up at his mom and smiled. Rei leaned over further and asked him to say "Mama."
Gray really didn't care for speaking much as he had no reason to. But he looked into his mother's proud eyes and felt a surge of happiness he hadn't felt in a long time. This time, he decided why not, let's make that my first word.
Out of the corner of his eye, a figure crawled at high speed towards them. There was a loud crash as Gray's castle of blocks collapsed around the room. Rei was silent in shock as Natsu had just somersaulted into the blocks and was laying flat on his back in a daze.
At that moment, Gray's first words would forever be remembered by both Rei and Natsu. Gray stood up and shouted, almost on instinct.
"YOU STUPID FLAME BRAIN!" Gray yelled out, surprising himself and Rei.
–
Natsu looked up, stunned at what he just heard. 'What did this guy just call me??'