#I learned Erza in an everything is fine AU would be the youngest of the main cast and I had to do something with that

[emile-hides]

So I’m like almost done with Season 7 and got super impatient with whatever is happening with these damn Dragons so I looked up the official Fairy Tail timeline and. My god.

Learning that 1. Natsu is the oldest by a lot in canon and 2. if all had gone okay Erza would have been younger than Wendy really put my brain into some Dummy Mode so here we are.

I’m calling this the Childhood Friend’s AU and putting info under the cut

So I changed like a lot of things I wanted to mess with canon ages, so I needed t visit the timeline eventually anyway. Here’s about how it goes: 

The dragon slayers, after traveling through time, stay together, now with a new born and newly abandoned baby Erza. They still don’t remember what really happened to their parents, and are still looking for them, but now together and with a baby, which makes travel difficult.

Natsu, as the oldest, is doing his best to look out for everyone, as Igneel told him to. He finds hiding spots for them, hunts for and cooks the food, keeps everyone training with their magic, and cares for Erza to the best of his abilities.

But he’s still Natsu.

After getting chased out of yet ANOTHER town for damages, theft, and noise complaints, the Dragon kids find themselves hiding in the yard of the Heartfilia family, where they’re eventually found by Lucy.

If Lucy’s mom was still around she’d probably tell her parents right away about the beat up, tired, hungry homeless kids she found in the garden, but sense it’s just her, her dad, and the staff in the mansion, she decides against it, opting instead to summon Aquarius and ask her advice.

She does eventually end up telling the staff, just because it gets hard for her to sneak enough food out for all of them without Someone taking notice.

The dragon slayers are raised pretty much in secret around the mansion by the Staff and Aquarius, who passes through the gate with her own magic to take care of Erza when a handful of toddlers can’t, which is often.

That’s... about all I’ve thought about. Little bonus thoughts

I aged Natsu and Gajeel down quiet a bit, sense they’re approximately 12 when they get yeeted into the future in canon. I believe Sting and Rouge are Wendy aged though.

Metalicana uses She/Her and is Gajeel’s mom.

Weisslogia and Skiadrum are Dragon Married and raised Rouge and Sting together. They also didn’t twist their kids memories to make them think they killed them because Jesus Christ guys What The Fuck.

Rouge is Transgender and is still a little girl when thrown forward in time, he starts to transition in his teens

Wendy is very protective over Gajeel, same way Sting is protective over Rouge. She’s also usually the one to comfort him. When they get older Gajeel finds the whole ordeal really embarrassing.

Everyone dotes on Erza and as she gets older she gets rather embarrassed by it

Rouge outgrew Sting when they turned 6 and started slouching because he found a lot of comfort in being the same height as his brother. When they finally stop growing they’re on complete opposites of the height scale with Rouge being the tallest in the group and Sting being the shortest.

Also in this AU, Ultear gets to go home

She’s an incredibly short 12 years old due to all the experiments, compared to Grey who’s 8 and Lyon who’s 9. And Ur doesn’t die. Grey still has a lot of trauma around Deliora but he’s the youngest child now he doesn’t have the energy to go fight god. And Ultear would beat him upside the head for trying. Get your ass back in here you are Eight you are not fighting a mega demon on your own.