Chapter Text
Immortality and melancholy are a package deal.
Zeref isn’t quite sure when he remembered.
There was just so much time to think, so much time to feel sorry for himself and this curse he was stricken with-- that one day, he just knew something was wrong-- and realized .
There was just something ironic about it.
Here, he bartered an eternity so his younger brother could live-- and yet, he remembered a day he once gave away this meager life for the same reason.
It was in his nature to be a selfless bastard that only caused trouble for everyone.
And well... he’d do it again, every time.
O suicidal tendencies, where have you gone?
Perhaps it was the dullness of the long life that made Zeref a lot less enthusiastic about things he used to love, like chasing wild tigers or running into a typhoon for no reason other than to get some adrenaline in the wind.
Now, his self-preservation (he gasps. A D? With self-preservation? Blasphemy ,) was actually begging him not to do any of that. What a killjoy.
“It’s not like I can die, anyways,” he says.
Mavis smacks him in the head with a large palm leaf. “I heard that! How many times do I have to tell you? Ne-ga-tivity, be-GONE!!”
Thank you for loving me.
As Portgas D. Ace, he discovered the beauty of unconditional familial love.
As Zeref Dragneel, he found himself enamoured with indomitable, romantic love.
Both times, he finds it cruelly torn away from him. Weakened, little arms embrace him, tears in his eyes. Desperately-- desperately, he begs and begs for time to rewind. He pleads for the world, praying for mercy.
Just one soul, just one. Please, please .
The world spares no mercy for the wicked.
First as a curse of his blood, and now a curse of his actions-- it seems like he was just never destined to be loved.
Say goodbye, but don’t you cry, the memories remain.
Zeref sails the seas, wanders the lands-- and finds pubs to get wasted in. Later, he’ll find some other obscure location to do it all again.
He’s alone, but he knows it’ll change soon.
(When he reminisces of the little figure that once clung to his side, he wonders if he’s thinking of Natsu or Luffy.)
He laughs. “There’s no way, right?”
Hell, he had Igneel raise that brat. No way was his brother learning how to wield fire before Zeref could understand how to wield his darkness.
Zeref sings an off-tune shanty, excited for the day they meet again.