WARNING: SPOILERS!!! ~A Watty's 2019 Submission!

Saved for Kasumi: Wings and the Ocean

Natsu sat close to the fire, shivering at the sounds that the forest made around him, his stomach rumbling a little. He took a small flame for himself from his campfire and munched on it, the rumbling dying down. He still couldn't believe that Igneel just up and left him. Where could he have gone?

Natsu watched as the embers burned, and jumped at a nearby noise. He stood up at once, looking around anxiously. If there was someone else nearby in these woods, he'd find them!

"Who's there?" He called. Nothing. "Come out and face me!" His small hands were balled in fists as he looked around, until he finally saw it. It was a small figure, a little shorter than he was, standing as still as possible. "Hey!" The figure started running in the opposite direction, and Natsu ran after them. He wasn't letting them get away with watching him like a creeper! He ran after them as they ran away from him, but he was much faster, and tackled them to the ground. "Come on! Fight back!" He shouted, holding them tightly.

"Please stop!" Cried out a squeakier voice, sounding like they were sobbing. "You just looked so lonely, and I was so lonely! I wanted to be your friend, but I was scared!" Natsu quickly got up off of the crying person.

"Hey, don't cry, its going to be okay! Here, come over here!" He took them by the hand and led them towards his fire, where he realized it was a little girl. A little girl who looked a lot like him! She had the same big brown eyes, pointed nose, and small mouth he did. Her hair was short and spiky, though it was a little bit of a paler pink, and she was looking at him like she was thinking the same thing. "Whoa! You look just like me!" She covered her face.

"And you look just like me! Why do we look so alike? I'm so confused!" That was when Natsu got an idea, and grabbed at the end of the little girl's dress, trying to pull it up. She screamed and grabbed onto it, pushing it back down. "H-Hey! Cut that out!" She squealed in her squeaky voice, pushing him away quickly, making him yell since she hit his head.

"Ow!" He yelped, rubbing his head. "What's the big idea? I wanted to see if we both had a flame on our hip! Then we could really see if we look alike!" She looked up at that. "See?" He pulled his shirt up and his pants down just a little bit to show her a small mark that indeed sat on the right side of his hip. It was a little mark that was rounded at the bottom, and had a small point that curled towards the top like a flame.

"Huh?" She looked at it closer. "That's not a flame. That's a water droplet." She pulled up her skirt enough to show her own left hip, and the same mark sat on it! "That's what Ryuu told me, anyways. It's my birthmark."

"A water droplet?" Natsu shook his head, looking intently at her mark. "No way! Igneel told me it was a flame!" She shook her head.

"I guess it doesn't matter. But look at them, they match!" They put their legs together, comparing the two marks to each other. As they studied them, Natsu had a new question for her.

"Who's Ryuu?" 

"Ryuu's my mother." she told him, tears springing in her eyes. "She disappeared though." She wiped her tears away. "I just woke up this morning, and she was gone!" Natsu looked up in shock.

"No way! My father Igneel disappeared too!" She jumped up, her skirt falling back down to cover her birthmark.

"Wait! Was Igneel a dragon?" Natsu nodded, his eyes going wide as his mark was re covered by his clothes. "So was Ryuu! Do you think they know each other?" Natsu rubbed his head.