Author's Note: So this is a very late Halloween story for OracionMist. I was planning to have it done for Halloween, but things just didn't work out. Sorry. Hope you like it all the same, and that you had a good Halloween.

Disclaimer: I'm still working on it, but for the moment I don't own Fairy Tail. I do own the sick and twisted mind that came up with this idea, though some of it does come courtesy of a certain friend of mine.

All Hallows' Eve

"Hiya, everyone!" Mirajane called happily over the noise of everyone assembled in the main room. Slowly the noise level died down until everyone was watching her in complete, and frankly, suspicious silence. "I have decided, in honour of All Hallows' Eve, there will be a guild-wide game of hide and seek. Costumes are mandatory, and if you don't have one, one will be supplied to you," she paused a moment to let the news sink in. "The winner will be the last person found, and will win a prize to be announced on the night."

The guild was so silent you could have heard a pin drop, which certainly wasn't the reaction Mira had been hoping for. Her large blue eyes began to well up with tears, and suddenly everyone hurried to exclaim over what a good idea a game of hide and seek was, especially one with costumes.

"How do we know who hasn't been found?" Cana asked.

Mira smiled widely. "I'll be waiting out here, and when someone is found they have to report to me, and then they can go and help find other people. We'll pull a name from the hat to work out who starts off 'seeking'." She looked around the guild, and resisted the urge to rub her hands together. This was going to be so much fun!

Moving quick, Mira collected the names of everyone who was going to be in town. She didn't expect those off on jobs to come back just for her party, but no one else was going to escape – miss – her guild-wide game of hide and seek. Hat full of names in hand, she cleared her throat, attracting everyone's attention.

"Right," she announced, projecting her voice. "The person who will begin is…." She reached into the hat and pulled out one piece of paper. "Erza!"

The entire guild froze, the horror clear on everyone's faces. Everyone's but Erza's. A smile spread across her face, a smile with just a few too many teeth in it. "This'll be fun," she whispered, running a hand across the hilt of her sword. A deathly hush filled the air, the sound of people preparing to run for their lives.

Mirajane coughed slightly, breaking the silence. "Soooo…." She drew out the word. "Does anyone need a costume?"

One by one, hands lifted into the air, as the members of the guild accepted their fate. The hands that didn't join the others; Lucy, Bisca, Alzack, Natsu and Gray. Mira fixed her gaze on them and hopped off the table, stalking over to where they had grouped together, hoping for strength in numbers.

"Why don't you need costumes?" She asked in a deceptively sweet voice.

"Well," Bisca was quick to explain, "Alzack and I already have costumes, so we don't need costumes, just like Erza doesn't need a costume." She glanced across to see Erza grinning evilly to herself and cringed.

"Same here," Lucy said hurriedly.

"And what about you two?" Mira asked the two very different boys, with the exact same expression on their face. The expression that said they were going to try and come up with a completely false reason as to why they wither didn't need costumes, or were not going to attend.

"Well…" Natsu began.

"You see…" Gray stalled.

Neither were quick enough in thinking up an excuse. Mira leaned in close to them, gesturing as if she would whisper something to them. She waited until they had leant down towards her, and roared as loud as she possibly could.

"BOTH OF YOU WILL PARTICIPATE, IN COSTUMES, EVEN IF I HAVE TO TIE YOU DOWN AND FORCE YOU INTO THEM!" Her yell reverberated throughout the quiet guild, startling a certain blue cat off of the ledge he had been napping on. "What's happening?" Happy grumbled.

"YOU WILL ATTEND!" Mirajane snarled, towering over the two boys.

Natsu and Gray cowered away from the scary demon-lady. "Aye sire!" They chorused.

"Happy #2," Lucy whispered to herself. "And number 3."

Mira smiled a perfect angelic smile, a smile that had long since stopped fooling anyone. "That's good," she chirped. "I would have hated it if any of my friends couldn't come." With a last glare at the trouble-makers, she jumped back up on the table, and directed everyone to reconvene in two hours' time, when she would have costumes ready for everyone.

Natsu sighed unhappily, and Gray reached out to pat him on the back. "Hey, look on the bright side," he said, trying to be comforting. He knew how much Natsu hated the costumes Mira forced him into. "With your sense of smell, it shouldn't be too hard to know when someone's getting close, and avoid them."

"Yeah, I guess so," Natsu said, perking up at the thoughts of winning. "I guess so."

Gray stared into the bag Mirajane had given him, and frowned. Was that a tri-corn hat? Why was there a tri-corn hat in the bag? Only pirates wore tri-corn hats. What…

"Oh no," Gray said, digging through the bag, throwing hat, shirt and coat onto the bed. "She does not want me to dress up as a pirate!" He stared at the clothes on the bed. "I guess she does." He picked up the loose white shirt and held it up. "At least it should be comfortable. I can't imagine that all of the costumes she gave out were very comfortable."

He threw off his remaining clothes, not that there were many of them, and slid into the skin-tight black pants. He put on the white shirt and fastened the tan vest over the top. With a slight struggle he pulled on the long black boots and got to his feet. Finally, he slipped on the long, dark blue coat, with its silver fastenings and arranged the tri-corn hat over his dark hair. Looking in the mirror, Gray grimaced. So Mira did know what she was talking about when it came to costumes. It didn't mean he had to be happy about it though.

The door slammed closed behind him as he marched to the guild, one hand holding the hat on his head to avoid it being blown off by the strong wind. No longer did the guild look like a fairy-tale castle. Now it looked more like a haunted mansion, complete with threatening clouds overhead. He reached out to the doors, which looked stained and worn, like it and the building had been left neglected for decades, only to have it open before he could even touch it.

"Welcome," A monotone voice intoned.

Gray turned to see a pale figure standing in the entry way, her entire body covered in a pale, lacy film. She looked like a ghost from long ago.

"Nice costume, Mira. And nice work on the guild." Gray said with a lopsided grin that matched his pirate outfit perfectly.

"Thanks, Gray," Mira replied, smiling angelically. "You look good as a pirate. The costume suits you."

"As I'm sure you knew it would," he said, inclining his head to her.

She inclined her head in return and pointed off to a corridor to the left. "Go through that hall, and find some place to hide. Erza will be here in an hour, and then the games shall begin. You'll know who's been caught because the names of those who have been found will be announced throughout the guild for those who are still hiding."

"Right," Gray nodded, waving a farewell to Mira and walked down the hallway. The hallway was covered in cobwebs and grime, and it was more than a little difficult to see. He ducked into one of the alcoves that had appeared. An hour would give him plenty of time to explore the altered guild and find the perfect hiding place.

"Get your own hiding spot!" A male voice hissed. A voice clearly recognised as Alzack's, even muffled as it was. The question was, why was his voice muffled? "We got here first."

'We'? It wasn't hard to guess who exactly 'we' was. Gray felt a hand on his back and was pushed back out into the corridor. As he was forced out into the hallway, Gray caught a glimpse of what looked like a ninja costume. "Okkkaaayyy," Gray drawled and continued down the corridor to find the perfect hiding spot. It wasn't like what Alzack or Bisca got up to in their spare time was any of his business.

In the next hour, he ran into a lot of the other members of Fairy Tail, all of whom were in costume, and proved that he had been right earlier. His costume was definitely one of the more comfortable ones. He had seen ghosts, zombies, vampires and werewolves; even what he thought might have been a kitsune, though he wasn't quite sure about that one. By comparison, a pirate was tame.

A bell rang through the halls, and all those who were hiding trembled in fear. Erza had arrived and it was time for the game to begin. Gray ducked into a side corridor, and onto a wooden beam near the ceiling, a perfect position to watch unseen. He grinned as Elfman crept down the hallway, ducking into alcoves and peering out to check if the coast was clear. At the same time, he could hear the clanking footsteps as Erza drew nearer. It was only a matter of time before Elfman was caught.

Gray leaned down to hiss a warning, but Elfman didn't hear him in time, and stepped out into the hallway, just as Erza rounded the corner, dressed in a strange armour he had never seen before. It had large metallic wings; just like her Knight armour but the torso section was different. Something about it made her look like an avenging angel, one with a pair of swords crossed across her back and a sword with an ornate hilt at her waist. She looked even more scary than normal.

Erza saw Elfman straight away, and leapt forward, the sword from her waist jumping into her hand. She slammed hard into him, knocking him into the ground.

"Owwwww…" Elfman groaned.

"Erza!" Mirajane's voice rang through the entire guild. "You're just meant to find them, not tackle them! If you do that, people are going to get hurt!"

"Oh, okay," Erza shrugged and lifted Elfman to his feet. "Sorry." She took hold of the collar of Elfman's zombie costume and dragged him down the hallway to the main room, where Mira waited.

"Elfman out!" Her voice rang through the guild, for the first time, but definitely not for the last.

"Alzack out! Bisca out!"

"Levy out!"

"Cana out!"

Gray crawled along another of the beams he had been using to avoid Erza and travel around the guild and froze as Erza came into sight. He retreated back into the shadows and she turned to look at straight at the shadows he was hiding in. He held his breath, hoping that she wouldn't spot him. She took a step forward, drawing her sword slightly. "I know you're here," she said in a sing-song voice. "Come out now and I won't hurt you."

There was a crack, and a flash of magic, and Gajeel leapt out of the darkness as an urban vampire, in torn clothes and with fangs. Really, he didn't look that much different from normal, just a bit paler and wearing skin-tight pants with tears in them, exposing his skin. He lunged at Erza, and grabbed hold of her hair, cackling insanely. He gave it a good tug and then jumped away, running towards the main hall. After staring in shock for a second, Erza chased after him, waving her sword in the air. Gray could hear them as they got to the main hall.

"Gajeel o…" Mira's voice trailed off.

"Gajeel, what are you doing?" Levy's voice rang out, her shock evident. "Wha– Hmph!"

There was shocked silence in the main hall, and Gray really wished he could see what was happening.

"Levy, are you okay?" Mira asked

"What just happened?" Levy asked, panting slightly.

"Umm…" Mirajane seemed to be thinking for a moment. "Oh, I know! He must have run into one of the traps."

"Traps?"

"Did I forget to mention? I laid magical traps around the entire guild." Mira explained.

"Yes, you did forget to mention." Levy whispered. "So the only reason Gajeel kissed me was because of magic?" She sounded slightly disappointed.

"Well, in a way yes, but in another, no. The traps are designed to make you do things you would like to do, but normally wouldn't."

"Then why did he pull my hair?" Erza yelled. There were lots of crashing and banging, then a particularly meaty thud.

"Erza!" Levy yelled, horrified.

"Gajeel out!" Mirajane called. "In more ways than one."

Gray slid through the door, and sighed in relief. He had just managed to avoid Erza for the third time, and had almost run into a few of Mirajane's traps. There seemed to be different types of traps as well, but all of them meant Erza would find you almost straight away. Hopefully he would be safe enough here though. Ever since Gajeel had pulled her hair, Erza had been on a war path and more than one person had been towed away, injured after Erza got a little too enthusiastic while hunting them down.

"A pirate?" A familiar and annoying voice said from behind him.

"It's not like I asked to be a pirate," Gray said, slowly turning to face the pink-haired dragon slayer. His mouth fell open at the sight before him.

Natsu stood with his arms crossed. A pair of red horns sat in his pink hair and a red forked tail was connected to the skin-tight pants he wore. He also wore an unfastened leather vest.

"A devil?" Gray sniggered. Natsu glowered at him, daring him to say more. "That is brilliant!"

Natsu stalked forward, and reached out a hand, wrapping it around Gray's throat. "It. Is. Not. Funny!" He shoved Gray against the wall, and there was a flash of magic, and the scent of pomegranates filled the room.

Natsu backed away, looking around him. "What's going on?" He asked, wrinkling his nose.

"It must be one of Mirajane's traps." Gray moved away from the wall, searching for a sign of what was going to happen, all while keeping an ear out for Erza.

"What traps?" Natsu asked.

"Didn't you hear? Mirajane set traps all around the guild." Gray explained, trying to ignore the strange scent that was filtering into the room. "I wonder what this one is meant to do."

Natsu frowned. "I don't like this smell," he muttered, backing away. The scent was so strong, it was almost visible, and it seemed that it was sliding underneath the door, into the corridors, as if to lead Erza to them.

"Crap," Natsu groaned.

"We need to do something," Gray said. "Otherwise, Erza will find us in no time."

"Right." Natsu opened his mouth wide. "Fire Drag…." He coughed, choking on the terrible air. "I can't breathe!" He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.

Gray threw the door open, trying to clear the air quickly. He wrapped his arms around the choking boy and concentrated hard. A wave of cold air spread out from him, freezing the overpowering smell solid. It fell to the ground in huge sheets of glass, shattering on impact. Fresh air filled the room, and Natsu took a deep, rattling breath. He fell back into Gray's arms, panting for breath.

"Thank….you." Natsu panted, his head falling back to rest against Gray's chest.

Gray stared down at the dragon slayer resting in his arms in confusion. Something about him when he was like this was… entrancing. Acting on instinct, Gray leant down and pressed his mouth against Natsu's warm, dry lips. He pulled away, startled. What had made him do that? But still… He looked down at the still sleeping boy. It hadn't felt bad. He licked his lips, and tried it again.

Natsu's eyes flicked open and widened suddenly. Gray was kissing him! A gasp escaped his mouth, and Gray pulled back, sudden fear appearing in his eyes.

"Natsu…" Gray began, pulling away from him.

"Shut up," Natsu said. He reached up and grabbed hold of Gray's tri-corn hat. It was flung, Frisbee-like into a corner of the room. "Shut up, and kiss me again." He pulled Gray's mouth down to his.

It took Gray a moment to react, he was so surprised. Natsu licked at the crease of Gray's lips and he opened them passively. The second Natsu's tongue invaded Gray's mouth, he snapped out of his daze. A slight shift of their balance was all that was needed to tip the two of them over, and Gray propped himself above Natsu, who grinned up at him.

"About time," the fire dragon slayer muttered up at him, his mouth curved in a sly smile.

"You really are a demon," Gray muttered in return. He wrapped his arms around Natsu and kissed him deeply, forgetting all about the game of hide and seek, and the rest of the guild.

Mirajane walked through a more secluded part of the guild. She had sensed one of her traps go off, but Erza hadn't captured anyone new, so she had decided to check it out herself, and make sure that no one had been hurt.

The trap had been intended to fill a room with a certain scent and then led Erza to the person and she didn't think that it could have hurt anyone, but it was always better to check and be certain. The door of the room was open, and she couldn't smell anything. She could hear something though. Mira peeked around the corner, and gasped, quickly covering her mouth to stop any more sound from escaping. Two boys lay in each other's arms, kissing passionately. She caught a glimpse of a long blue coat, and pink hair, and knew immediately who it was that were in that room.

With a small smile, Mira slid the door closed, careful not to make any sound. She didn't want anyone disturbing the two boys in that room. Especially not Erza. She would make sure that no one disturbed them. At least then she could be certain that one of her plans had worked out right. Mira ran back to the main hall, ready to announce the winner of the hide and seek competition. Meanwhile, people hide in various alcoves and rooms, people stumbled into traps, one blue haired girl watched a sleeping dragon slayer and thought of a kiss, and two boys forgot everything but each other.

They never did find out who won, or what the prize was but it didn't matter, for they had found a prize of their own.

Fin

Author's Note: So it turned out to be posted closer to Christmas than Halloween, sorry OracionMist! Hope you enjoyed this Halloween story all the same. Have a happy Christmas, or whatever holiday you may celebrate, or if you don't celebrate any holiday, well have a good time anyway.

Gray dressed by SecretDime. Except for the hat. It's my hat. I love the hat.