Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Fairy Tail. If I Did It Would Be Very Different

Masquerade

Gray slowly made his way towards Fairy Tail. He had been out on mission for the last week and was looking forward to relaxing at the guild. And, if he was honest with himself, looking forward for a chance to get into a fight with Natsu. It wouldn't be hard to find an excuse; that pink haired idiot was always doing something stupid. Smiling to himself in anticipation, Gray entered the guild. And stopped, frozen in place. What. The. Hell?

All the tables had been moved to the sides, some piled on top of others. There wasn't anyone just hanging around and relaxing 'cos absolutely everyone was doing something. If they weren't hanging panels of fabric on the walls, they were carrying tables and chairs down to the basement and those who weren't doing either were standing in a circle around someone. He caught a glimpse of pale hair and knew they were standing around Mirajane. What was she planning now? He looked around what had been the tavern room of Fairy Tail, but which was quickly becoming something else entirely. A glimpse of a white, scale-like scarf made him look up, to where Natsu hung from the roof. Was he… hanging a chandelier?

"What are you doing?" Gray asked, looking up from underneath shadow cast by that thing.

Natsu jerked and stared down at him, eyes wide with horror. "Run." He yelled down to the ice mage. "Don't get caught like us. Run before she gets you!"

The terror in Natsu's voice startled Gray and without thinking about it, he braced himself to run. However, before he could move, a huge hand grabbed his shoulder. He looked up at Elfman.

"Where do you think you're going?" he roared in Gray's face. "Real men don't run!"

Gray turned his head in an effort to regain at least some personal space. What had Elfman been eating? His breath was diabolical. Turning his head, he came face to face with the smiling face of the woman who he assumed had cooked up this insane plan, whatever it was.

"I'm so glad you're back," Mirajane trilled happily. "I was worried you weren't going to get back in time. I would have hated you to have missed all the fun." When Gray didn't respond she frowned, and slapped at Elfman's hand, still on Gray's shoulder, pinning him to the spot. "Let him go," she grumbled. "How can he help set everything up if you keep hanging on to him?"

"What's going on, Mirajane?" Gray asked as Elfman let him go and went back to carrying tables out of the room and down to the basement.

She smiled cheerfully. "We're going to have a masquerade ball. Everyone's helping me set up." She looked at him thoughtfully. "You know, we could use your help as well."

Gray felt a bolt of pure panic shot through him and hurriedly searched for an excuse, any excuse to get out of whatever it was Mirajane wanted him to do. "Umm… I'd love to help, but… I just got back and I've got to report to the Master and then I've got to go home and unpack and…" he looked around as if searching for a reason that couldn't be put off. "And I need to wash my clothes."

"What are you talking about?" Natsu yelled from the roof. "You don't wear clothes."

"Exactly," Gray said hurriedly, already seeing the suspicion on Mirajane's face. "That's why I need to wash them now, so that I will actually have something to wear."

"But Gray," Mirajane said, and he knew straight away that she wasn't going to buy it. "We need you to do the ice sculptures. I wanted to have ice sculptures centrepieces on the tables and you're the only person who could make them."

"Look, Mira, I really do need to…" He trailed off as her blue eyes filled with tears and her mouth began to quiver.

"Gray doesn't want to help. Gray doesn't like my idea. I just wanted everyone to have some fun," she began to sob softly.

"Okay, okay," Gray said, stopping her before she could burst into full blown tears. "I'll help out. What do you want me to do?"

Miraculously Mira's tears cleared instantly and happiness lit up her face. Even knowing that she had been faking, Gray knew he wouldn't have done anything else. Real tears or not, he hated to see people cry. She smiled brilliantly at him. "Can you go into the kitchen and make some nice ice sculptures for tonight? Nothing too big, because I want them to go on the table for tonight."

Gray nodded cautiously. "Anything in particular?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind a swan, if you could make one."

"I'll do my best," Gray replied, not wanting her to start crying again. "Umm… By the way, if this ball thing is tonight, I may not be able to get a costume." He flinched, just waiting for Mirajane to start crying again. When nothing happened, he looked over at her suspiciously. She was smiling sweetly, as if to show him that there was nothing to be suspicious of.

"That's okay," she chimed happily. "I already have a costume for you, just like I had a costume for everyone else. It's in the kitchen, in a clothes bag with your name on it."

Gray frowned, it seemed like she'd planned this out pretty well, but started toward the kitchen anyway.

"Oh, and Gray," Mira called, and he half turned his body to look at her. "You have to wear all of the outfit I've given you." She smiled and moved off to attack another unexpecting member of Fairy Tail, leaving Gray to stew about what on earth she had given him to wear as he moved towards the kitchen.

"You should have run," Natsu called from his position on the roof. "Now you're stuck here like the rest of us." He cackled moronically as he used one hand to adjust the large chandelier and held on to the wall with the other. Gray just shook his head as the dragon slayer lost his grip on the wall and swung off the chandelier. He cried out, more in surprise than fear.

"Natsu!" Mira yelled, racing towards them. "Gray, help him!" She screamed.

Gray looked at the blond mage and shrugged. "Ice Make: Platform." Large columns of ice spread up and across, forming at glistening platform just under the struggling fire mage's feet. Natsu felt the sudden chill across his bare skin and looked down to see the ice platform underneath his feet. He let go of the chandelier and dropped down onto the platform. Suddenly he groaned, as it began to shake and slowly lowered to the ground, bringing a motion-sick Natsu with it. Gray rolled his eyes and pulled the Salamander to his feet. Happy flew into the room to circle around his friends. "Where were you when Natsu was dangling from the ceiling about to fall to his death?" Gray asked, only feeling a little bad when the blue cat looked horrified at the thought of his friend coming to harm.

"I was helping Lucy." He said, staring at Natsu's scrunched up face as if trying to memorise it.

Gray held Natsu for a second longer than necessary, before giving him a little shake and putting him back on his feet as he slowly got over his latest bout of motion sickness. "Well from now on, you have to keep an eye on him. If he fell and died, it would probably ruin Mirajane's party and make her cry."

"Aye sir!" Happy said, landing on Natsu's shoulder and giving him a bit of a shake.

"Right," Gray said, and after checking to make sure Natsu wasn't actually hurt, carefully of course, not wanting anyone to notice just how worried he'd been, he headed to the kitchen to make Mira's ice swans.

Mirajane watched from her vantage point over at the bar and rubbed her hands together with glee. This was going even better than she had planned.

Still grumbling to himself about the stupidity of pink haired mages and blue cats, Gray stalked into the kitchen to find Lucy, Levy and Loki covered in what looked like flour. He stared in silence at the three.

Lucy was the first to crack. "Mirajane asked me and Levy to make the cake for tonight and Loki was helping," she explained in a rush. "But I dropped a bag of flour and it went absolutely everywhere." It was a plausible explanation, but she ruined it by blushing bright red. Gray looked over at Levy.

"It's true," she cried, turning to glare at Loki, "but he just made even more of a mess."

"Whatever," Gray shrugged. "Just keep out of my way while I'm making this stupid swan for Mirajane."

The three nodded and made to return to their cake making. Lucy paused, remembering something Mirajane had told her to tell Gray when she next saw him. "Oh, by the way,"

"Yes," Gray responded, turning to face the celestial mage.

"Mirajane said to tell you that your costume was in the bag in that cupboard over there," she said, pointing at a large cupboard that was rarely used.

Gray opened the double doors of the cupboard and looked at the large black bag with the words Gray Fullbuster written on the side. Shaking his head, he closed the doors again. I'll get back to it when I'm done with the ice sculptures, he thought to himself.

To make ice sculptures as intricate as he felt was necessary for this party, Gray had to concentrate, something he was finding very hard to do, what with the bangs and crashes coming from the other side of the kitchen as Lucy and Levy tried to bake a cake and Loki just got in the way. Finally, he got sick and tired of trying to concentrate while those idiots messed around. "Ice make: Wall!" He yelled, creating a wall between him and the would-be bakers. Through the icy barrier, he could just make out their stunned faces and see the movement as they said something, but the ice was thick enough that he couldn't hear a word they said. Sighing in relief, he started work on the delicate task of creating Mirajane's delicate and detailed ice sculptures.

Hours later, the wall separating his work space from the rest of the kitchen had melted until it was about half its original size and he had completed one life-sized swan, perfect in every aspect and two smaller sculptures of the Fairy Tail emblem.

"Wow," Lucy breathed, staring at the beautiful works of art that were Gray's ice sculptures.

Gray stepped back to look at his work and nodded in approval. They would do. He turned to Lucy, only then noticing the strange substance streaking her hair. "What happened to your hair?" He asked.

"Oh, when we were putting the cake mixture in the tin, we spilt a bit. We cleaned everything else up, but I haven't had a chance to shower and clean it out of my hair yet." She touched her hair self-consciously. "Anyway, we finished our jobs, so we're going to go home and start getting ready. You should do the same."

Gray blinked, and rubbed his eyes. He'd been so focused on what he was doing that he hadn't even noticed the passage of time. He would have to hurry in order to get home, get ready and get back to the guild in whatever insane costume Mirajane had given him, all without being late. He grabbed the bag with his clothes in it and went to go through the guild to leave, but Lucy grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Mira said that we have to go out the back way. She doesn't want anyone going into the guild before she's had a chance to finish setting up and ruin the surprise."

"Whatever," Gray said, turning and heading out the door that opened out into an alleyway behind Fairy Tail. He swung the heavy bag over his shoulder and ran back to his apartment. If he was fast, he'd get a chance to shower before getting changed and heading back out to the guild.

After a shower that had to have broken the record for shortest shower ever, Gray finally opened the black bag that held the clothes Mira had demanded he wear. Lifting the mask that had been sitting on top, and examining the rest of the clothes in the bag, Gray honestly considered just not showing, and putting up with Mira's tears tomorrow.

The mask would obscure half his face, crossing from his forehead to about the middle of his jaw on the left, and was black with spirals of red enamel spreading over it, like flames in the night. The edges were red, as was the part that encircled his left eye. The clothes were simple, a long tunic-style top and leggings, both with the same colour scheme as the mask, black with veins of red that would wind their way over his entire body. At the bottom of the bag was a pair of black leather boots that would end mid-calf on him and a folded cloak.

Shaking his head, Gray got dressed into the surprisingly comfortable clothes, given how much fabric there was compared to what he was used to. Even the boots were comfortable. He examined the mask, trying to work out how it was meant to stay on his face. Eventually he realised that the black ribbons, almost an exact match for the colour of his hair, were meant to be tied around his head, and they would hold the mask in place. On his own, it was a bit of a struggle to tie the ribbons at the back of his head, but he managed it.

Looking in the mirror, Gray had to admit that maybe Mirajane wasn't as insane as he had first thought. Black and red was not what he would normally wear, red being far too reminiscent of a certain fire mage, but something about it looked kinda cool. Noticing that it was getting close to the time he had to leave, he grabbed the folded cloak and shook it out. It was as ink black and long, so long that it would almost brush against the ground as Gray walked. It also looked like it would be hot, but Mira had specified that he wear the entire costume. Shrugging, he swung the cloak over his shoulders and tied the black cord around his neck. It fit perfectly, as if it had been made just for him. He pulled the deep cowl up and over his head, the dark shadow it created blending with the black of the mask so that all that could be seen of his face was glimpses of white skin that wasn't covered by the mask, and the lines of red that decorated and outlined the mask. With the black cloak, Gray looked more like a fiery shadow than he did a person.

Suspicious, but out of options, Gray headed out the door back to the guild, ignoring the looks he got as he walked there, the cloak flaring out with his movements. Mirajane had to be up to something, making him wear an outfit like this. The question was, what exactly she was trying to achieve. He'd been so careful to ensure that nobody knew, so she couldn't possible know. Could she?

He paused at the door to the guild, and took a deep breath. Here went nothing. He pushed the door opened and entered the guild. And immediately froze. It was amazing, looking around the room; he would have sworn he was at the wrong building. Mirajane had done a fantastic job. Large panels of fabric hung from the room, showing images of a beautiful garden as if he was looking out a window at the garden. One of the panels looked like it was glass double doors that would open out onto a balcony which overlooked a pristine lake. The room was lit by the thousands of candles in the graceful chandelier hanging from the ceiling and was full of people, all of whom wore costumes and masks. There were many different types of costume but absolutely everyone wore a mask. Of to one side was a long table full of food. His ice swan had the position of honour in the middle of the table, and his two Fairy Tail emblems were on either side, equally far down the table. He couldn't see the cake that had caused Lucy such trouble but maybe they'd being bringing that out later on.

"Wow, Gray. That outfit looks even better on you then I had expected."

Gray turned to face the woman who had organised everything. "This is amazing, Mira."

She smiled broadly at him. "I'm glad you think so." She looked around the room. "Almost everyone's here. The only one missing is Natsu and he'll probably be late. Anyway…" Mira looked around. "I should go and talk to people. So should you."

Gray nodded absentmindedly; preoccupied with imagining the costume Mira had given Natsu. Knowing her, it could have been anything, and the only way to find out exactly what it was would be to stick around and wait for him to turn up. He moved out into the crowd of guild members, determined to see what Natsu was wearing.

He had talked to Lucy; amused to see that she and Loki had matching masks, avoided Ezra who was in a bit of a rampage over the costume Mira had made her wear and almost got into a fight an hour after he had arrived at the masquerade. In an effort to avoid talking to anymore people, he moved towards the food-heavy table, using the excuse that he had to check on his ice sculptures to escape the chat Elfman wanted to have. Finally finding a quiet corner, Gray pushed back the cowl of the cloak. It was starting to get too hot for him, what with the cloak and he wished Natsu would hurry up. How long did it take him to get ready anyway?

As if summoned by Gray's thoughts, the doors swung open and the Salamander walked in. Gray's jaw dropped as he stared at the mage, astounded.

Natsu wore a blue half-mask, covering the top half of his face and leaving the bottom bare. A spider-web of silver etchings spread across the mask and made his obsidian eyes looked huge in contrast. His pink hair was covered by a black, leather tricorne hat and a short silvery blue cape covered his otherwise bare shoulders. His chest was bare and tight, blue leather pants encased his legs. The costume was completed by knee-high, soft white boots and all Gray could think was, wow. Mirajane was good!

Silence had fallen when Natsu had entered the transformed guild, but as he moved into the crowd, a soft buzz of conversation started again. Gray leaned against the wall, hiding his face in the shadows of his cowl of his cloak, one handed pressed to his chest. He could have sworn his heart had literally stopped when Natsu had walked in, dressed like that. Holy shit. Maybe Mira did know how Gray felt about Natsu, otherwise why would she have made him wear that? A brief gush of jealously shot through him at the thought that maybe Mira had a thing for Natsu, but he quickly dismissed that idea. It was impossible and even if she did like him, what right had he to get jealous? He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, trying to ignore the heat moving through his veins.

Someone coughed discreetly and Gray looked up into black eyes, surrounded by a lattice-work of silver on a blue background. Of course Natsu would chose that moment to want to talk to him, when it was getting harder and harder to even think straight. For just a moment, Gray entertained the fantasy of grabbing the dragon slayer and dragging him to a place where they'd be alone, but the thought of the look on his face made Gray hesitate.

"So," Natsu asked, biting his lip slightly. "What do you think?"

Gray stared at him. Surely he didn't mean what he thought he meant. "Ummm…. The guild looks amazing. Mira's done a fantastic job to make it look so authentic."

To Gray's surprise, Natsu's face flushed with colour. "Yeah, it does look cool, doesn't it?" He paused as if gathering his courage. "But that wasn't what I meant." He reached up, into the cowl of Gray's cloak and untied the ribbons securing his mask. It fell into Natsu's hands, and he stared into Gray's eyes. Gray stared at him, wide-eyed. "I meant, what did you think….." His face blushed darker and his eyes flicked to the side, as if he couldn't bear to look Gray in the face. "Of me," he whispered, so soft that for a second Gray thought he'd imagined it.

Gray's breath stuttered and he froze for just a second. Natsu looked up at him and a flash of rejection shone in his eyes. He turned his head and moved as if to walk away.

Gray's hand shot out and he grabbed Natsu by wrist, pulling the pink-haired boy up against him. His other hand tilted Natsu's head, forcing him to look Gray in the face. "You look…." He lowered his head, so his mouth hovered inches over Natsu's. He could feel the other boy's breath brush against his skin. "Unbelievable," he finished, closing the miniscule gap between his mouth and Natsu's.

They pressed against each other, tongues battling for supremacy. Gray let go of Natsu's wrist to wrap his arm around his waist and pull him even closer. The skin of his waist was burning hot against the cool skin of Gray's arm and it felt like little shocks of electricity ran through him at every point they touched. He tilted his head, adjusting the angle of the kiss so he could explore deeper in Natsu's mouth.

Natsu pulled away, panting for breath, his happiness clear in his wide eyes.

"Come on," Gray said, "let's get out of here." He took Natsu by the hand and they snuck out of the guild quietly.

Mirajane smiled as she watched them leave. She walked over to the corner where they had been making out and stooped down to pick up Gray's abandoned mask. There was a roar of approval from the rest of the guild, as Lucy and Loki came out of the kitchen, carrying a huge cake. They put it on the table and Lucy looked around, searching for the male members of her team.

"Natsu was right," she said quietly, with a smile. "All Gray needed was a shove in the right direction and an indication that he felt the same. It's about time." She grinned. This was one match-making effort that she couldn't have pulled off without Natsu's help.

"It's about time." Lucy agreed.

Fin

Author's Note: In case you haven't guessed, I have a bit of a thing for boots. And hot guys in revealing clothes and high boots. Hey, we all have our kinks, don't judge! Also not particularly good a kiss scenes and things like that, I'm still working on it, so sorry. I am working on it. Please review. If there are any spelling problems or stuff like that let me know. Sorry if anyone is out of character, I do my best, but sometimes that's not very good. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Masquerade. :)