July 7th - X777
Location: Unknown — Somewhere in the Kingdom of Fiore
Haru's P.O.V.
I lie motionless on the ground, exhausted, and feeling sick as usual. It's normal for me to be sick, though I've gotten a lot stronger in the past few years. Despite that, my body refuses to even move. Everything around me is quiet, so it's hard to tell if I'm awake or asleep.
A voice suddenly breaks the silence. "Hey! Sis! Get up!"
I stir a little at the sound of a familiar voice, meaning that I'm clearly awake. Natsu…?
"Come on…get up!"
I feel him pick me up and shift me onto his back. It takes all of what little strength I have to open my eyes. Natsu…? What happened? Where are we?
He understands me, thanks to the telepathic connection. "I dunno. I can't find Igneel either. It's like he just disappeared."
I see… Hearing that scares me. I can't remember a time that we haven't been able to find Igneel. No matter how far away we got from him, we could either find our way back, or he would come find us. He raised us to be independent, but he still kept a close eye on us, especially me, the weaker of the two of us.
If it weren't for me, Natsu could go off on his own to find Igneel. But I'm not an idiot, I know that he would never leave me behind. Not even when we went out to catch food, he wouldn't head back to Igneel until I'd had a chance to rest and recover. My weak constitution was often the cause of many problems.
That is, until Igneel called in a favor from one of his friends. A lacrima, he called it. Something to help me be stronger. And something that would make it less dangerous for me to learn magic. That was five years ago… But we've been with him for as long as I can remember. Six years maybe? I'm not quite sure. We depended on Igneel to tell us how long we'd been together. He even decided how old we were. That makes us… ten, right?
I didn't realize that I thought that out loud until Natsu responded. "Yeah, Igneel said that two months ago. He said that we were born in the summer. That's why my name means summer."
But we still don't know where my name came from, right? I mean my name is the opposite of you. Spring. Should my name be related to the summer season too?
"Right, but I'm sure that whoever gave us our names gave them to us for a reason." I can feel Natsu's smile, even though I can't see it. He's always been like that. Even if you can't see his smile, it's impossible not to know that it's there. He's warm, and bright, and the best brother I could ever ask for.
Hey Natsu…where are we going?
"Isn't it obvious? We're going to go find Igneel?"
But…wouldn't it be faster if you just left me here? I'm slowing you down…
He stops walking all of a sudden, and his hands tighten on my legs. "What are you talking about? I can't just leave you here! You're my little sister, and that means that I'm supposed to protect you with everything I've got! You get it!? That means that we're going to be together forever. I don't care if that means that it'll take us a bit longer to find Igneel. I promised him that I would look after you. That's what big brothers do, right?"
His tirade surprises me, but it warms my heart, I close my eyes again and nuzzle my face into his back. Yeah…of course it is… We'll find Igneel together. We're twins after all…
"Yeah! We're Igneel's dragon slayer twins! We can totally handle this!" Natsu's boundless enthusiasm makes me feel like maybe we'll find Igneel quickly this time. Sure, he's never disappeared like this before, but it's not like he would just abandon us out in the middle of nowhere.
Right…?