Summary: Sometimes the line between waking and dreaming seems all too thin. (Takes place right after the Grand Magic Games arc. Written for the Tumblr Fairy Tail community's Angstmas celebration in December. This was completed before the end of the Tartaros arc, but there might be a few spoilers for the manga floating around in here.)

Author's Note: Natsu-centric. Contains Nalu, Jerza, Gajevy, and some Gruvia. Beta read by the amazing Snogfairy.

Natsu's eyelids fluttered as he came back into consciousness. He blinked, trying to focus through the throbbing in his skull. That certainly hadn't been a fun fight. Even his teeth hurt this time, and his vision swayed and spun disorientingly. The weird beam of energy he'd been struck with had been so disconcertingly familiar, but he couldn't place why. He only barely registered the natural stone of the ceiling above and the bright, flickering campfire lighting the cave and casting stark shadows that chased into the recesses.

"Are you feeling better?"

The deep voice vibrated through the air and made him jerk. It wasn't that it was unexpected - though it certainly was - but that it was painfully, tragically familiar. Natsu sat up and nearly paid for the motion with the contents of his stomach. It was only the burnished gold eyes studying him that stalled the nausea making his belly throw a fit.

"I-Igneel?" he whispered. Frozen in place as he wracked his brain for missing information, Natsu felt a burning behind his eyes and his breath stuttered in his chest. It was like the whole world hung right on that single point.

"Who else?" the dragon chuckled, reaching out a taloned hand to brush the hair from the boy's forehead. "What's all this now?"

Scalding tears tracked down the fire wizard's face as he threw himself against the solid, scaled wall of his father's torso. He'd almost forgotten how warm the dragon's body was and how it soothed his aches. Even his rebellious stomach quieted. "Y-you… You're real! Where were you?!"

The enormous form curled down to peer at him, muscles shifting under Natsu's clinging grip. "I've been here since… What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was doing a job with my team," the dragon slayer said, face buried against his parent and voice thick with emotion. "I got hit by something… not sure what it was, but who cares? Where were you?!"

Carefully prying the young man away so Igneel could look in his eyes, the dragon's mouth turned down. He traced every feature and only allowed a slight relaxing of the grim expression on his face when Natsu wiped his nose on back of a trembling hand. Some things never changed. "You don't remember? This might have something to do with -"

"What are you talking about? What did I forget?" The fire wizard stepped back a few paces, torn between the comforting presence before him and the confusion that was rising in his pounding head. "And where's everyone else?"

Igneel inhaled, a gusty sound that echoed off the rock walls, and his fingers fell away from his son's body. "Natsu… You don't recall anything, do you? I was afraid of something like this."

"Afraid of what? What am I supposed to remember?" Gritting his teeth, Natsu found the euphoric joy of having finally found his father eroding away under the nagging pain in his skull and the frustratingly vague suggestions that he was missing something. "Maybe how I woke up one day and you were just gone? I'd actually like to forget that."

Igneel stared at him for a long moment when the dragon slayer retreated. He spoke slowly as if he was afraid to rile the boy up even further. "It's been several years since you were a part of that guild."

Natsu's fingers dug into his temples as he tried to massage away the persistent headache. There was no way he heard that right, and it sent an icy shaft of something awful through his being. "That's not possible. I was just with them! Gray, Erza, Lucy and Happy - we were all together! I wouldn't just leave them."

"Calm down -"

"No! This is crazy! How did I even get here?" Walking in a small circle, Natsu finally glanced back at his father, face resolving into determination. "You're just confused or something. Come with me to the guild hall and I'll show you. They'll all want to meet you!"

Shaking his horned head, Igneel let his eyes slant towards the cave entrance past the fire keeping the cold at bay. "I don't think that's such a wise idea. We should probably take you to see Grandeeney first thing in the morning so she can examine you."

"I don't need -" The young man broke off his words, feeling like he was drowning in frustration. This wasn't how his reunion was supposed to go. He was supposed to be ecstatic but all he felt was confusion. And an urgent, driving sense of wrong. "Just come with me, please," he begged. "I'll show you. You can meet Happy and Lucy and everyone else."

Something about the way the dragon slowly withdrew, sighing noisily, just ratcheted up Natsu's misgivings. "Why don't you rest first? We can go at first light if you still want to, but just give yourself some time."

"I've had enough time," Natsu snapped. "Lots of time. Years of waiting for you. I don't know what's going on here, but I can tell that something's really off. If you don't want to come, then just promise me that you'll wait here. I'll bring them to you!" Darting towards the exit, certain his father would follow despite his words, he ignored the flame dragon's urgent protests as he stepped out into the snow.

And into the chaotic guild hall.

Natsu stopped dead, eyes darting around to take in the familiar surroundings of worn wooden tables, the clamor of boisterous mages, and the scent of booze and a mob of bodies. A bright fire was roaring cheerily in the stone heart, sending out waves of warmth that purged the brief memory of biting chill. All around him garish decorations were hanging from whatever surface that could humanly be reached, and even more were being laid out as he watched.

Christmas. It was almost time for the annual Christmas party. They'd been worried they might miss it thanks to that last minute mission, but it looked like preparations were in full swing.

He spun back around, staring out the open door at the darkened streets of Magnolia. As he lurched forward, desperately scenting the air for any trace of dragon, he heard Gajeel's irritated shout.

"Shut the damned door! It's freezing out there!"

Natsu ignored him, peering outside past the drifting flakes of snow that created a white haze. There was no trace of Igneel or the cave anywhere. What had happened? Was it some kind of teleportation spell?

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and jerked him away right before the door was slammed. Gajeel glowered and bared his formidable teeth. "Just 'cause you ain't bothered by it doesn't mean the rest of us are okay with the cold."

The fire eater blinked, losing a moment as his brain processed something strange. Gajeel looked just as cranky and metal studded as ever, but his face… Deep valleys were scored into the skin around his left eye socket, old scars distorting the flesh and bisecting where his eyebrow would be. One of the rivets along his brow bore a wicked looking gash that matched. His eyes were beady and red like always, but the lines of his jaw were sharper and somehow more worn at the same time.

"What's yer problem, Salamander?" the iron dragon slayer grunted, turning his back and heading towards where Levy was avidly reading.

"Your face…" Natsu whispered with a sense of disconnect skittering down his spine and slithering into his guts. Raising his hand in a rude salute, Gajeel ignored the other wizard in favor of the blue haired woman who smiled at his approach.

"Are you feeling better?" Wrenching around in the direction of the voice, Natsu was struck dumb again.

Lucy's warm smile should have taken the constricting weight off his chest, but something was just so very out of place. "I was starting to get worried when you didn't come by earlier. I hope the extra sleep did you some good," she said.

Her eyes were still bright and intelligent, nose still blunt and pokable, and hair still silky and golden. But the way she moved, the shape of her face and body… He knew it was Lucy, instinctively and indisputably, and yet as she looped her arms around his neck and rose up on her toes with her plush lips drawing close -

Some strange panic bit into him, and Natsu grabbed her forearms, effectively halting her advance. "What are you doing?" he demanded. Was she trying to kiss him? That didn't sound like Lucy. And since when did she have to stand on her tip-toes to reach him?

Smile fading away, she stepped back until he was forced to let go. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Everything," he grated, dragging a palm down his face. The world felt like someone had knocked it off kilter, and he was looking at everything sideways. It was a struggle to recognize anyone under this layer of change. "Nothing's right. I was just talking to Igneel in a cave, and now suddenly I'm here!"

"Man, you must've gotten hit harder than we thought," Gray muttered, moving to stand behind Lucy. "I was hoping it might've knocked some sense into you, but it looks like -"

The stellar spirit mage sent a quick, silencing glance at the brunette. "Natsu's obviously still not feeling well. Maybe we should take you to see Porlyusica tomorrow. I'll go with you if you want," she offered to the fire wizard.

Happy nodded quickly, landing lightly on the ice mage's naked shoulder. "You scared me, Natsu! When I woke up, you weren't at our house. Where did you go this morning?"

Natsu's mouth opened but the words withered on his tongue when Erza drifted over to join them. He'd already noticed the mysterious transformations in everyone else, but hers were by far the most extreme. "How much cake did you eat?!" he exclaimed at the sight of her large, rounded belly.

"What was that?" Erza's tone was frostier than anything Gray's magic ever made, mahogany eyes narrowing into slits.

"Ah hah hah hah! Now's really not the time for those kind of jokes. The morning sickness was pretty bad today." Natsu stared at the man who slid into position behind the redhead. Jellal's smile looked brittle and desperate while he dragged a hasty hand across his throat in a very recognizable sign for 'stop now before Erza kills you.'

Natsu trailed his eyes around the room, anxious fingers digging into his thick hair. The smells that flooded his nose told him exactly what his eyes did: that these were the people he knew so very well. There were signs everywhere, things that were not quite the same, but this? "You're pregnant?" He had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or really, really drunk.

That last one would be nice right about now.

"Look," he started, palm up placatingly to fend off the stares that were trained on him, "I just need to figure out how I got here from… wherever Igneel is. It was a cave in the forest, so I think it wasn't too far from here, but I'll need -"

"Natsu." Lucy licked her lips, expression taut and careful, "Igneel… died four years ago during the battle… Don't you remem -"

"No!" he denied. "That's not… I just saw him. And what battle?" Why would she say something like that? And why did everyone look older? His head felt like it was too full of… things. Things that didn't belong.

"It's okay," she said quickly. "Why don't you go lie down in the infirmary for a bit? Wendy can look you over and make sure -"

The soft fingers that laid so gently on his arm made the dragon slayer flinch, and he shoved her away, sending the blonde staggering into Gray's chest. Silence descended like a lid being dropped on a tomb, and Natsu felt the roiling wrongness swallow him. "There's nothing wrong with me," he whispered into the room.

"It's okay," Lucy repeated, as much for the benefit of everyone tensely watching the scene as for him. She righted herself and cautiously offered him her hand. "Just sit with me for a moment and maybe -"

"There's nothing wrong with me!" he shouted, spinning away from her concern and devotion. Any minute now his stomach was going to turn itself inside out. The door handle felt chilled under his palm when he wrenched it open. "I'll show you! Igneel was right -"

"Here…" His declaration dropped to a soft breath that formed a puff of condensing vapor in the frigid atmosphere of the forest. He was standing shin deep in fresh snow, surrounded by pine trees. The lemony-crisp scent of them replaced the warmth and varnished wood of the guild hall.

"Damn it!" he howled at the night sky. "What the hell is going on?!"

A familiar sound of leathery wings slicing through air caught Natsu's wavering attention, and he turned to face the incoming form. Igneel dropped down in front of him, creating a shower of snow in his haste. "There you are! You worried me when you ran off like that." The relief the dragon felt was visible all over his enormous body. "Where did you go?"

The fire wizard brushed the snow out of his hair, cracking a crooked smile he didn't really feel. "I knew they were wrong. I'd just seen you, so you're definitely not dead."

Igneel leaned in close, hot breath smoking out of huge nostrils. The dragon's eyes skimmed over the boy, and his mouth twisted into a frown. "Where exactly did you go, Natsu?" he repeated.

"I was in Magnolia at the guildhall. I have no idea how I got there, but everything was weird. Lucy said you… you died. I can't figure out why she'd do that." Natsu turned slowly in a circle, trying to get his bearings. "It was really crazy, and everyone looked older. I still don't get -"

He let the words drop off when he found himself facing his father again. The dragon's eyes were so deep and pained that it was impossible not to realize something was gravely amiss. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Igneel watched him a moment longer. "We're quite far from Magnolia and you told me that you would never return to that place." The words were slow, like he was addressing a skittish animal.

"Of course I'd go back!" Natsu cried, hands flinging into the frozen air. "Lucy and Happy are there and everyone else too. Why wouldn't I want to be there?" Even his long-lost dad was being weird now. And he still didn't have an answer for how he had jumped between places.

"Your little feline companion chose to remain behind when you came with me. Lucy… Don't you remember what happened?"

"Remember what?!" He wanted to break something, maybe punch that tree, anything to vent the frustration and unease curdling in his gut. His limbs felt jittery, like there was an excess of energy sparking through his system. "Why the hell isn't anyone making any sense?"

The dragon's breath rattled out of his throat, a shaky sigh puffing clouds in the night. Those big eyes were leery but still kind. "She was killed during a terrible battle. I'm afraid I wasn't able to -"

"That's crazy! I was just talking to her. She hugged me. Tried to -" To kiss him. He could still feel the warmth of her against his skin, but that crawling, gnawing dread was growing stronger by the second. "She said you died. I don't… I can't…" He felt suddenly sick and passed a shaking hand over his mouth in a half-hearted attempt to quell the turmoil in his stomach.

Just what was going on here?

A huge hand settled against his side, heat clinging and comfortable. "It's all right. These hallucinations -" Igneel gestured calmingly with his free hand when Natsu's expression turned outraged, "- or whatever this is might have something to do with your fight yesterday. The item that wizard used could have caused this."

The dragon slayer sucked in a few breaths as his nerves shook his body. He couldn't wrap his mind around the possibility of Lucy being gone. Or rather he could, just all too well. But if that was true, how had he just seen her? Touched her? Smelled her? "C-can we go to Magnolia?"

"I'm not sure that would be wise…" The horned head inclined slightly in concern and regret.

"Please!" Natsu stared up, eyes shining in the winter moonlight. He swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump occupying his throat and choking his voice. "I just need to see." Needed to prove this was all some sort of grotesque misunderstanding.

A moment passed as Igneel studied his distraught child. Finally he nodded. "Alright. We'll go in the morning, but first you should come back and get some rest. You look much too pale and tired to do this tonight."

"But -"

"Just one night." Igneel tilted his head to stare at the boy with a single, imploring eye. It was a gesture Natsu remembered painfully well from childhood. "Nothing will have changed in the morning, I promise you."

"Okay…" Jaw working against the anxiety consuming him, the dragon slayer nodded sharply. He hadn't a clue what was going on, what was happening to himself, but he knew he could trust his father. "Okay. I just… I'm… afraid that… I'm… scared."

Gigantic hands that spanned from his shoulders to hips swept him up into a hug, and he buried his face against the solid, scaled chest as the tears broke out of his tenuous hold. They trailed hot and bitter down his face, tugging a few muffled sobs in their wake. "I know, son. I know…"