"What is wrong with this stupid thing?!"
Zeref was on the warpath again, and Natsu had yet to even have breakfast.
He walked into their dining chambers to find his brother slapping the surface of the lacrima orb he used to spy on people, the picture nothing more than a grey swirling cloud.
Natsu fought hard to keep the smirk from his face. His Lucy seemed to possess brains as well as beauty.
"Show me The Titania!" Zeref screamed at the orb, but it did not answer his command, "King Makarov! Lord Fullbuster! Anyone!"
Zeref screamed at the lacrima until he was red in the face, but no matter which member of the Fairy Tail alliance he demanded to see, the orb showed him nothing. At the finish, Zeref became so enraged that he pushed the orb off its pedestal.
The lacrima shattered, sending pieces of the orb scattering across the floor. The fragments cracked under Zeref's feet as he stormed back to his seat at the head of the table.
Natsu watched it all with a disinterested expression, even when what he really wanted to do was chuckle openly at Lucy's cunning. Instead he merely leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, picking at a large chunk of raw meat that had been served to him on a silver plate.
In truth, he didn't much like the servings of raw meat that Zeref's people prepared for him. He understood that the food they gave him was what they expected a demon to have a taste for, and he couldn't deny how he'd dug in eagerly in the past.
Now though, not so much.
"Where were you last night?" Zeref's curious drawl drew Natsu from his thoughts.
"Hunting," The younger brother replied, "As I told you."
Natsu met his brother's gaze defiantly as his sharp teeth scarped against the bone of whatever carcass had been lain before him.
Zeref narrowed his eyes.
"Was it satisfying? The hunt?"
Natsu thought back to last night. The gentle cadence of Lucy's voice as she spoke softly about her childhood. The colours of the sunset reflected in her brown eyes. The mark now hidden by his scales.
"Very." He replied, and he couldn't help the slight smirk that graced his lips.
Zeref's eyes narrowed further. So much so that he was practically squinting at his brother from across the table. Natsu knew he was walking a dangerous line. This behaviour wasn't like him. For his brother, he was reserved, docile. Tamed.
It had occurred to Natsu that he wasn't much of a person. Not in the sense that he was a demon, not a human, but in the sense that he had no real identity. Who was Natsu Dragneel? For that was who he was. He was not END. He was not the Demon Prince. He didn't want to be those versions of himself.
Around his brother, he was a lap dog. Waiting anxiously for every order. On the battle field, he was rage incarnate. Full of fury and fire. Around his followers, he was bitter and cruel. He varied from one monster, one atrocity to the next.
What had happened to the little boy who died when he went too far looking for treasure? Where had his curiosity gone? His playfulness? There was no room for them in the war, and he missed them. Those parts of him may have been childish, but he had been a child. He had been innocent.
He hadn't asked for this.
His brother had forced it upon him.
"The lacrima is broken." Zeref spoke now.
"I can see that."
Tendrils of darkness snaked across the table as Zeref scowled. They wound their way through the platters of food and the flickering candles. The temperature of the room dropped noticeably.
"Attitude Natsu."
If it ever came down to it, Natsu wasn't sure he could defeat his brother. Moments like this served as a chilling reminder of the true extent of the power Zeref had coiled within him. All he needed was a reason to strike.
Natsu shrunk back in his seat.
"It wasn't showing me anyone," His brother continued, "Not even you hunting last night."
Ah, so his brother had tried to watch him.
"Strange," Natsu gave an exaggerated frown, "I wonder what's wrong with it."
"What indeed." Zeref mumbled.
With a flick of the wrist, Zeref ordered the table be cleared and his work brought to him. Natsu sat in silence as servants filed into the room and placed an assortment of ancient tomes, maps and papers before his brother. All of it pertaining to the war in one way of another.
None of it was presented before Natsu. The younger of the Dragneel brothers had not been made for planning, oh no. The Demon Prince was a weapon. Nothing more. Natsu was used to being treated this way. He didn't doubt that his brother's mind was keener when it came to costs and battle strategies, but the thought occurred to Natsu when the documents were littered on the table.
What did he really know about the war?
What did he know about his brother's plans? His strategies? His goals? Natsu got all his orders no more than 24 hours before a battle, and never once had he questioned it. It was clear that his brother thought things out well in advance, and yet he never let him know his plans until the last minute.
As though sensing his thoughts, Zeref looked up from a particularly interesting piece of parchment and offered him a sinister smile.
"Shouldn't you be busying yourself?" He asked with feigned innocence, "Training perhaps?"
"Training?" Natsu scowled in return.
"You know, honing your skills." Zeref's condescending tone was now brutally obvious, "I'd say they're a bit rusty considering you can't seem to kill one silly little Princess."
Natsu stood, fists clenching at his sides.
He wasn't sure what he was angrier about. The belittling of his strength or the insult to Lucy. He could see it in Zeref's eyes. Zeref knew that he was capable of killing Lucy. His brother was smart. He must already suspect that the Princess was still alive by Natsu's will.
Whatever trust they may have had between then once, it was clear that it was fading from that look in Zeref's eyes. The deceit had begun, but Natsu knew now that it had begun long before he himself had started telling lies.
Their trust was fading.
And fast.
