"I'm Sting and I'm five."

Natsu frowned, setting down the fruit he'd been inspecting and looking around for the source of the voice. Eventually there was a tug on his pants, and he looked down to see a little blond boy staring up at him.

"Hey, bud," Natsu said, glancing around the market for the kid's parents. "Are you lost?"

"Nu-uh." Sting shook his head. "You're Natsu! I know 'cause your hair is pink an' I saw you on the screen." He pointed to the enormous lacrima overlooking the market that was showing the highlights from the morning's fights. The Grand Magic Games logo flashed in the bottom corner as Natsu's face filled the screen, brows furrowed in concentration as he tag-teamed against another guild with Gray.

"See?" Sting looked pleased with himself and grinned, and when Natsu saw pointy incisors poking out over his lip, he raised an eyebrow.

"Those are some pretty sharp teeth," he said, flashing his own in a wide smile.

"I'm a dragon slayer too!" Sting said, nearly vibrating with excitement. His eyes were wide and as bright blue as the summer sky, and he had a wild smattering of freckles across his nose. Now that Natsu was looking for it, he could just barely see the pearlescent white sheen of dragon scales that ran from Sting's temples down the sides of his face to his neck.

"You are, huh?" Natsu crouched down next to Sting, who bounced on the balls of his feet. The scales were similar to Natsu's own, and he had the faint scent of draconic magic, but Natsu only knew two other slayers that had been born with the power – Wendy and Gajeel. It was an incredibly rare power, and something about the situation didn't feel quite right.

"What kind of dragon slayer?" he asked as he tried to pick out what was masking the dragon scent. There was something else, something familiar that faded away each time he tried to remember it.

"A brave one!" Sting grinned. "Like you! An' when I'm big I'm gonna win too 'cause I'm super strong. Me an' Rogue!"

"Rogue?"

Sting turned to stare at the soft shadow of the fruit stand that spread out in the afternoon sun and put his hands on his hips. "Rooooogue," he grumbled, poking it with his toe. "Come out!" The shadow wobbled. "Please?"

Natsu frowned as the shadow on the ground shifted, coalescing as it rose and forming into another small child. They were thin and lean where Sting was still round and baby-faced, with long dark hair that hung in front of their face. It didn't quite conceal their own scales – dark where Sting's were light.

"That's Rogue!" Sting said brightly, grabbing Rogue's hand as they shifted uncertainly. "They're shy. But they're my best friend. Who's your best friend?"

Natsu laughed at Sting's wild exuberance. "Uh, probably Gray," he admitted.

"Gray is your best friend?" Sting asked, eyes wide as he pulled Rogue closer to him. Natsu nodded. "You did a fight with him today! He's super strong. But not as strong as you 'cause you're the strongest."

"Is that so?"

Another shadow appeared behind Natsu followed by a chill breeze and the scent of peppermint. He looked up to see Gray standing above him, arms crossed over his chest with an amused look on his face.

"Hey, he's only speaking he truth," Natsu said, grinning and pushing himself to his feet. Gray rolled his eyes. "This is Sting and Rog—"

"Can you make anything out of ice?" Sting interrupted, taking a step forward and staring up at Gray.

"Yeah, I guess so?" Gray said. "As long as I know what it looks like."

"Can you make a snake?"

Rogue, who had moved to hide behind Sting, perked up at the suggestion. Natsu watched the nervous expression on their face transform into a shy smile as Gray held out his hands. Snowflakes spiraled out from his fingertips in pretty patterns, then coalesced in his palm, swirling together into the form of a tiny snake.

"Whooooa," Sting said, leaning forward to stare at it. "Can I have it?" Rogue kicked the back of his leg and whispered something, and Sting quickly added, "Please."

Gray laughed, handing the ice sculpture to Sting, who said a quick thank you, then promptly turned around and held it out to Rogue.

"It's for you!" he said, grinning. "Snakes are Rogue's favorite," Sting explained to Gray as Rogue took the sculpture and gazed at it with a tiny smile on their face.

The conversation was interrupted by a muffled burst of static from the lacrima screen, which was followed quickly by an announcement from the stands, marking the twenty-minute countdown to the start of the next event.

"We're not up, are we?" Natsu asked, squinting at the screen.

Gray shook his head. "Nah, it's Erza. We should head up to watch, though."

Natsu nodded, then looked back at Sting and Rogue. "Where are your parents?" he asked.

Sting's bright smile darkened for a second. "Gone," he said. Then he quickly added, "We got a guild though." He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to show them the mark there – a while tiger's head.

"You guys are with Sabertooth?" Natsu asked, giving Gray an uncertain look. Sabertooth had almost won the games last year, and Erza had barely managed to pull Fairy Tail to a victory. The guild was strong, but they were also known for their ruthlessness, which seemed incredibly at odds with Sting's bright personality.

"Yeah!" Sting wrapped his arm around Rogue. "When we get bigger, we're gonna be on the team an' be the strongest and win!"

"Oh yeah?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, trying to hide a smile. "You think you're gonna beat me?"

"Oh." Sting frowned as if he hadn't considered the idea. Then he perked up again. "That's in lots of years so you'll be too old to fight an' we'll fight different persons."

Gray burst out laughing, slapping Natsu's shoulder. "Yeah, pyro, you'll be ancient in a few years, don't you know?"

"Shut up," Natsu said, rolling his eyes and swatting away Gray's hand. "All right you two, where's your guild sitting?"

Sting chewed his lip. "We're not allowed," he said, looking back at Rogue, who nodded.

Natsu frowned as the uneasy feeling in his stomach intensified. Sting seemed like a sweet kid, but he and Rogue certainly weren't old enough to be wandering around Crocus on their own.

"You're not allowed to sit with your guild?"

"Master said we have to be bigger," Sting said sullenly. He kicked at a rock on the ground. "An' stronger."

"Asshole," Gray muttered, glaring up at the screen. Jiemma, the master of Sabertooth, was featured in the pan-over of the crowd, large and imposing with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What's a asshole?" Sting asked, and Natsu sighed, elbowing Gray in the ribs before shaking his head.

"Not a word for little kids," Natsu said. Before Sting could argue that he wasn't little, Natsu added, "How 'bout you two come sit with us?"

Sting's eyes widened and he stared up at Natsu in shock. "With you?"

"Yup."

Gray gave Natsu a look that clearly meant we're not here to babysit, but Natsu ignored him and held out his hand to Sting.

"C'mon," he said, smiling when Sting tentatively took his hand, Rogue trailing along behind him. "Come meet Fairy Tail."

~

And that was how Natsu ended up spending the afternoon with an excitable, incredibly talkative five-year-old in his lap. Sting was remarkably well-versed in magic for someone so young, and Natsu was impressed by his ability to quickly assess the player's strengths and weaknesses. He also had a million questions that Natsu had trouble keeping up with.

"Where Erza's armor goes when she stops using it?"

"Why Lucy's keys don't need a door?"

"Where does Gray's ice come from?"

"Is Laxus made of lightning?"

"Did Gajeel's piercings hurt?"

Rogue, meanwhile, sat quietly between Gray and Natsu, watching the battles with the intensity of someone much older. They held the snake ice sculpture on their lap the whole time, looking down at it with a shy smile when they thought nobody was looking.

"Who are the brats?" Laxus asked when he rejoined the group after his event, raising his eyebrow at the two kids. Sting turned to scowl at him but brightened when he realized who it was.

"I'm Sting and that's Rogue and we're dragon slayers too!" He bounced in Natsu's lap, staring up at the scales on Laxus' face. "I'm gonna be strong like Natsu when I grow up."

"You are, huh?" Laxus sat down next to them, taking up enough room for three people. "You look pretty scrawny to me." Sting huffed at him and Laxus laughed. "Well, hothead here wasn't very big at your age either, so you might have a chance."

"You knowed Natsu when he was little?"

Laxus laughed. "Yup. He used to follow me around all the time, asking me to—"

"Nobody wants to hear about that," Natsu said quickly, kicking Laxus in the ankle and glaring at him.

"No, we definitely do," Gray said, leaning on the railing and looking around Rogue at Laxus.

"Oh, fu—"

"Language," Gray interrupted, grinning at Natsu. "Don't wanna corrupt the kids."

"What 'corrupt' means?" Sting asked, looking over at Gray.

"It means that Natsu says bad words that you shouldn't say."

"I wasn't the one who called Jiemma an asshole," Natsu protested, then winced as Sting frowned at him. He was about to apologize when Sting looked away, then quickly turned back to Laxus.

"Why your eye is like that?" he asked, pointing to Laxus' scar.

Gray and Natsu both cringed at the question, but surprisingly, Laxus didn't react. "It happened a long time ago," was all he said, then in an unusual display of affection, he ruffled Sting's hair. "You get lots of scars fighting bad guys."

"Me too!" Sting said excitedly. He squirmed in Natsu's lap and looked at him again, the slight against his guild master clearly forgotten. "I'm gonna fight lots of bad guys and be just like you."

Something warm spread through Natsu's chest at Sting's worshipful gaze. It ached in a soft, quiet way, and it took him a second to realize that it reminded him of the way he used to look at his father. Thoughts of quiet nights in front of the fire surfaced in his mind, time spend talking with his dad about battles he was going to fight and monsters he would kill. His father had always encouraged him and had made up story after story where Natsu was the hero who slayed the dragons and saved Fiore.

Natsu hadn't been able to save him, though, and it still hurt.

"Yeah, bud," he said quietly to Sting, hoping that bright smile never faded. "You're gonna be awesome."

~

By the time the games were over for the day, the sun was setting, and both Rogue and Sting had fallen asleep. Sting was still curled up in Natsu's lap, head tucked under Natsu's chin, breaths slow and even with Natsu's arms wrapped around him. Rogue had drifted off leaning against Gray, and when they'd nearly fallen over, Gray had pulled them into his lap. Now Rogue was fast asleep with their arms around Gray's neck and their face pressed against his shoulder, with the frozen snake still clutched in one hand.

"Aww, you guys are so cute," Lucy said, leaning against the railing across from Natsu. "Shouldn't they be with their parents, though? Not that I'm complaining, they're adorable."

Natsu looked down at Sting's wild curls as a warm sense of protectiveness flooded through him. "They're with Sabertooth," he said.

"Sabertooth?" Erza, who was sitting next to Gray, gave Natsu a surprised look. "You can't be serious. They're only children. As coarse as it sounds, what... use would Jiemma have for them?"

"They're dragon slayers," Natsu said quietly. Gray reached up and brushed Rogue's hair out of their face, tucking it behind their ear to show off the fine, dark scales that ran down their face. Erza's eyes widened and she leaned in, then looked over at Natsu.

"So... he's keeping them for their magic?" she asked.

Natsu sighed, wrapping his arms tighter around Sting and trying to will away the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Children without families joined guilds all the time – Fairy Tail was the perfect example. But Sabertooth had never given an indication of being anything other than ruthless, and from what they'd seen, it was no place for children.

Unless those children had the potential to be powerful.

"That's awful," Lucy said softly, giving Natsu a sympathetic look. "They're not weapons."

"We can't prove anything," Natsu said. Sting shifted on his lap, turning and pressing his face to Natsu's chest. Natsu's leg had been slowly going numb for the last hour, but he refused to move.

"I didn't know there were other dragon slayers," Erza said as she studied Sting's scales. "Are they like you? Or..."

She trailed off, but they all knew that she was referring to Laxus and the lacrima that gave him his powers. Natsu clearly remembered the day Laxus had disappeared with Ivan – it was the first time Natsu had ever seen Gramps look scared. Laxus had reappeared six months later with a scar on his chest and a bitter scent of dragon magic and had refused to speak to anyone but Freed for months.

"I don't know," Natsu said honestly. The question had been plaguing him all afternoon, and he still hadn't been able to figure it out. "They don't... smell right."

"What do you mean?" Gray, who usually teased Natsu about his heightened senses and tendency to find people by smelling for them, looked concerned.

"It's..." Natsu frowned. "Gajeel and Wendy have a specific scent—it's like a color? Like a dragon but a color at the same time. Wendy's blue, Gajeel's gray. Laxus has it too but it's different, like, uh... cherry-flavored soda instead of actual cherries. But it's still cherries. Sort of." He looked back down at the sleeping boy in his arms. "They're different."

"Different how?"

"I don't know, and it's driving me crazy. Something's not right, but I don't know what it is."

Rogue yawned, wrapping their arms tighter around Gray's neck and making a sleepy sound. The expression on Gray's face was soft as he let Rogue get comfortable, and it made something warm spark low in Natsu's stomach. He tried desperately to ignore it, tucking it away with all the other feelings for Gray that made his cheeks hot and his chest tight.

"There they are!" A voice came from behind them and Natsu turned to see a young woman about their age with silver-white hair running up the stadium steps. "I'm so glad you found them," she panted, out of breath when she finally reached them. "I was so worried."

"Yukino?" Lucy asked, frowning, and Natsu realized that she was the other celestial mage from Sabertooth.

"Yes, I'm so sorry." She gave Gray and Natsu both a grateful look. "They weren't back at the inn and Jiemma was—" She cut herself off and gave them a tired smile. "Thank you for taking care of them. This one—" she gestured at Sting, who burrowed deeper against Natsu's chest "—can be a handful."

"He was fine," Natsu insisted, fighting against the urge to hold Sting tighter, to take him and run away from this woman who seemed kind but afraid. "He said they—"

"They're here because they said they couldn't sit with you," Gray interrupted, voicing Natsu's thoughts in a much icier tone. "We found them in the marketplace. Alone."

Yukino's expression turned regretful. "They were supposed to stay at the inn and watch on the lacrima," she said quietly.

"By themselves?" Gray glared. "They're five."

"I know that," Yukino snapped, immediately sighing and rubbing her face. "I'm sorry. It's been a long day. Thank you for keeping them safe." She looked at Natsu, then added, "He really looks up to you. I'm sure he was very excited to finally meet you."

"He's a sweet kid," Natsu said softly. The frustration at not being able to figure out the strangeness of the two children was compounded by the sinking sensation in his stomach at the idea of relinquishing them to this woman. "They're dragon slayers," he said, looking up at Yukino. "Where did—how did—"

"I have to go," Yukino interrupted, glancing behind her furtively. She wrung her hands, and everything about her exuded an aura of anxious fear. "Please. I have to bring them home."

"Is something wrong?" Erza asked, frowning as her hand rested where her sword would normally be sheathed. "Are you in trouble?"

Yukino shook her head. "No, it's just late. I need to get them back."

She reached out her arms to Natsu, giving him a pleading look, and he hesitated before nodding and slowly relinquishing his hold on Sting. Sting made a quiet, sleepy sound as Yukino shifted him onto one hip, then pulled out one of her celestial keys. A second later, Libra appeared, giving Yukino an irritated look before she saw the sleeping kids.

"I'll take them," she said to Gray, who looked ready to knock her down the stands with his ice. Natsu could see the muscles in his jaw tighten as he looked down at Rogue, then back at Libra, and finally to Natsu. There was a pleading look on his face and it made Natsu's heart ache, but he gave Gray a tiny nod. They couldn't just keep the kids – they already had a home, and even if the idea of them being with Sabertooth made Natsu want to punch someone, it wasn't his call to make.

"Thank you," Yukino said softly as Gray reluctantly attempted to lift Rogue from his lap. Rogue's arms tightened around his neck and they made a soft, protesting sound, and the angry lines of Gray's face softened. Eventually Rogue let go and Libra took them, and Gray sat back down, shifting closer to Natsu.

"Thank you," Yukino said again, giving Lucy a quick nod before turning away. As she walked away with the young dragon slayers, Natsu couldn't help but feel like he was making a terrible mistake.