Magnolia was a town of beautiful flowery trees, cobbled roads, and quaint little houses. It was also a town that loved to party.

Though the most prominent mages guild in town, Fairy Tail, had it's own much rowdier reputation. It was the town itself that seemed to radiate a simple joyous energy that invited a feeling of good will into the hearts of it's citizens.

Kardia Cathedral drew in many tourists by itself to be sure. But what kept people coming back were the many festivals and events the town held. The fantasia festival, the yearly cherry blossom viewing, and the magically themed endurance road race were only a few of the many many festivities that the town had to offer.

And now that the leaves of the trees had taken on their autumn colors one of the most beloved holidays was just around the corner.

Despite the springtime feel of the town, Halloween was just as beloved a holiday as any other. Children and adults alike would dress up in costumes, special halloween parties would be thrown, bakeries would sell specially made autumn sweets, and the whole town would be adorned with Jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, and ghosts.
And Fairy Tail was no exception.

Magic made decorating the massive guild building much easier. Putting up false cobwebs that shimmered in the light of the enchanted floating candles was the simplest part. Ensuring that the guild members didn't kill each other while organizing the festivities on the other hand…

"Stop blowing out so much fire you ash brained moron!" Gray admonished the fire mage. "You're lighting candles not burning down the building!"

"Shut up and let me do my job!" Natsu spat back. Small flames flickered around the corners of his mouth as he spoke. "I'm getting them all lit aren't I?!"

"Yeah and melting them halfway while yer doing it!" Gray pointed up at the candles which were now running with wax. "Do you want em all to to go out before the party's over?!"

"Mind yer own business ice breath!" Natsu huffed. "Focus on yer own work!"

"I've already finished my work!" Gray gestured towards the buffet where a massive ice-make cauldron sat filled to the brim with punch. "But now I've gotta make sure you don't screw everything up like you always do!"

Natsu glared at the ice mage. "I do NOT screw things up! YOU screw things up!"

"You care to repeat that?" the black haired man brought his face dangerously close to Natsu.

In return the fire mage smashed his face against the others forehead. "Why? Are your ears frozen over?"

Everyone present deliberately moved away from the two while rolling their eyes. It really was a wonder that the guild could get anything done with Natsu and Gray's constant quarreling. Their fights weren't a big issue most days, but on holidays their constant fighting often caused setbacks.

Thankfully, there was someone who could ring both boys in.

Just as their argument reached a pitch and the two were grappling each other's collars fully prepared to devolve into an all out brawl a shadow appeared suddenly just behind them.

Erza grabbed both boys by the back of the head and slammed their foreheads together. As the two recoiled, nursing their injured heads she uttered a simple, "Boo."

"E-Erza?!" the two backed away from her.

The red headed woman glared at the two as she spoke, "Are the two of you done with your little spat?"

"A-Aye." both men stammered as they suddenly stood erect.

"Good," Erza's tone became more pleasant as she smiled at them. "In that case I have a special job for you two."

Both Natsu and Gray's face scrunched up in distaste.
They were not going to enjoy this.

"We're lost."

"We are NOT lost."

"I'm pretty sure this is the third time I've seen that rock."

"Yer imagining it. My nose tells me we're going the right way."

"Your nose has had us looking for three hours!"

"If yer so sick of looking Ice Princess," Natsu spat. "Then you can go home!"

"And be skewered by Erza?!" Gray asked in horror. "No thanks!"

"Then quit complaining!"

Gray huffed but let the topic go.

Erza had decided that they would need a special kind of berry that grew in the deepest reaches of the East forest but only in autumn. It was supposedly like an apple but with a sweet thick peel. Almost like a natural candy apple.

Natsu and Gray were going to say no. They really would have. But then Asuka had come in and looked so excited and happy and well… both men lost the will to argue.

They weren't complete monsters.

Of course that didn't mean either was at all happy about the current situation. The only lead they had as to the fruits location was a general area and Natsu's nose. Something Gray wasn't confident about.

The number of times Natsu had insisted that he could find his way based on his nose were too innumerable to count. In Gray's experience the pink haired boy only ever managed to find his way with his nose when he was following a person. It wasn't that he doubted he could find the fruit, but rather that he wouldn't be able to find his way back.

"Ah ha!" Natsu cheered triumphantly. "What did I tell you!"

Stopping in his tracks Gray looked up to find a tree with a purple trunk and dim blue leaves looming before them. Dotted amongst the strangely colored leaves were small red orbs that shone in the dimming light of the sun. A sweet smell tickled the ice mages nose causing him to twitch.

Gray had never been particularly attracted to sweets, but even he was attracted to the savory fruity scent. Natsu, who loved almost every kind of good food, didn't hesitate to head straight for the tree.

"Okay princess give me a boost."

Fighting against the urge to slap the bastard for calling him 'princess' again, Gray moved to give the firebreather a leg up so they could get this over with.

Backing up against the tree Gray put his hands together to give Natsu a step to boost himself up into the tree. He felt a strange sticky feeling on his back from what he assumed to be tree sap, but ignored it. His clothes could be washed later.

Natsu took the step and pulled himself into the tree grasping several apples and dropping it into the bag they had brought with them. After he had grabbed about 20 or 30 of them Gray's arms began to tire.

"Hurry up!" the ice mage grunted. "My arms are gonna snap off."

"Oh stop being a baby." Natsu dropped down with the filled back over his shoulder. "There I'm done. Now let's go."

"Finally." Gray tried to move forward but felt something hold him back. Pausing he tried again only to be stopped by something pulling on the back of his clothes.

"What are you goofing around for?" Natsu asked annoyed. "If we don't get going we're not gonna make it back in time for the party!"

"I know that idiot!" he grunted as he pushed against the trunk with both hands. "Somethings got me stuck!"

Frowning Natsu walked up to him. "What's the matter? Got your fancy clothes stuck on a tiny branch or something?"

"Oh shut up!" Gray was going to slap him upside the head only to find that neither of his hands would remove themselves from the tree. He could feel something sticky and gooey between his fingers. Looking down he saw some brown syrupy material pushing its way out of the.

"Ugh, what is this stuff?!" he said disgusted.

Natsu blinked at the stuff before putting his own hand on the tree and trying to pull it back only for it to remain where it had been placed. He tugged again and again but his hand remained where it was.

"I'm stuck." Natsu stated simply.

"No shit sherlock!" Gray yelled. "Why the hell would you go and put your hand on a tree that I'm stuck to?!"

"Sh-shut up!" the fire breather spat embarrassed.

The two spent the next several minutes pulling and tugging to get free. In their struggles Gray managed to get the seat of his pants stuck, while Natsu got his upper arm glued to the tree along with his free hand on the other side of Gray. After trying for some time the two eventually stopped for a breather.

"Well," Natsu sighed. "this is awkward."

The two were practically pressed against one another by this point. It was uncomfortable and humiliating.

"Way to go flame brain." Gray hissed. "I hope you have some idea of how to get out of this."

"Well what about you?!" Natsu shot back. "You're the one who got us into this situation in the first place!"

The two glared at each other.

"Look." Gray sighed. "If we don't get back to the guild with these apples on time. You and I both know what's going to happen."

Natsu's face paled considerably. "Erza?"

"Erza."

"Well… I guess I could just burn down the tree." Natsu suggested.

"Don't even suggest that!" Gray sounded shocked. "What if you burn down the forest?!"

"Why don't you just freeze it then?!"

"If I did that I'd end up freezing both of us too."

They both sighed irritably.

The sun was starting to set and the forest was beginning to darken. it was getting late. If they didn't do something soon, both boys would be left stuck to the tree all night.

"Maybe we could dig up the tree." Natsu suggested.

"Both our hands are stuck to this tree. And what would we use to dig it up with? Our feet?"

"Well at least I'm making suggestions!"

"Yeah, retarded suggestions!"

"Do you want me to burn your hair off?!"

"Try it and I freeze that scarf of yours!"

"If you burn my scarf," Natsu snarled. "I'll melt you."

Gray turned away irritated.

Okay maybe that last comment had been going too far. He would never deliberately damage Natsu's scarf. It was too important to the other boy for Gray to go that far. Still he wished the dragon slayer was more useful at times like this.

If the guild ever needed some big threat taken out or something destroyed, Natsu was the go to guy. But any time delicate work needed to be done he always seemed to muck it up somehow. If he wasn't careful, one of these days he would go too far and end up dead. Gray was sure of it.

Just like with the candles back at the guild, Natsu would just get too hyped up and start melting everything in his way. LIke the wax and the ice…

Gray paused for a moment before saying, "Hey."

"What is it?!"

"I think I have an idea."

"Well what is it?!"

"Just calm down and let me explain okay?!"

Natsu growled but quieted down.

"I'm gonna freeze part of the trunk-"

"But you said-"

"What did I say about letting me explain?!" Sighing he continued. "I'll ONLY freeze the part of the trunk underneath my hand. Since I can't use both of my hands right now it's gonna be slow going. If I'm not careful I could end up freezing us both. Once it's frozen it'll be your job to melt the ice into water. If we do this right and it works, the water should help wash off the tree sap so we can get free. Any questions?"

"Both my hands are stuck how am I gonna melt the ice?"

"You can use your feet right?!"

"Ohh right! Okay then let's do this!"

"But DON'T catch me on fire!"

"Yeah yeah…"

Gray immediately began freezing the area under his hand while doing his best to scootch his torso as far from it as possible. Natsu lifted his foot as red flames licked around his leg.

"Tone it down a little!" Gray hissed. "You just need to melt the ice!"

"Yeah but the stronger the flame the quicker it'll melt fight?"

"I'd rather sit here for hours waiting for it to melt than be caught on fire!"

Natsu rolled his eyes in irritation but the flames around his leg noticeably lessened. He stood wobbling awkwardly as the ice around Gray's hand slowly faded. With an effort, Gray managed to pull his hand from the tree, melted tree sap stringing from his hand.

Shaking it Gray proceeded to to the same with his other arm. Things went well after that. Since Gray couldn't reach his back he instead freed one of Natsu's hands so the other didn't have to hobble from one foot to the other in order to get free.

Now only Gray's back and Natsu's right hand remained trapped.

The sun had already completely shrouding the forest in darkness. Natsu's fire produced enough light for Gray to see what he was doing. Reaching both of his hands over to Natsu's right arm he immediately tried to freeze the area around it without freezing Natsu.

"Gah that's cold you ice freak!" Natsu complained.

"Oh shut up! We're almost done!"

But that moment of hesitation was enough for the ice to creep over and cover Natsu's arm.

"Ahhh ahhh cold cold!" The pink haired boy screamed.

"Just calm down Natsu!"

But it was too late, Natsu's cheeks puffed up.

"Shit!" Gray recoiled being careful to cover his face.

Flames engulfed the tree.

"What am I going to do?"

"Just calm down man."

"Calm down, calm down?!" Natsu grabbed Gray by the shoulders. "I burned the tree!"

"We managed to stop the fire before it was completely destroyed so it should be fine." He tried to soothe the other man. "No one needs to know you damaged it. By this time next year the tree should heal itself."

"You don't understand man, you don't understand!" Natsu grabbed his hair almost ready to tear it out. "Erza LOVED this tree. If she tastes one of these apples and LIKES them she'll come back right away to get more! Then she'll see the burn mark and know it was me. ME GRAY!"

The two had completed their mission and were now on the way back to the guild with the apples. Gray's clothes had been almost completely burned off, leaving him in nothing more than his trousers. Not that this was too unusual.

"Hey this isn't a great thing for me to deal with either! I mean I was there too. She'll consider it guilt by association!"

"Yeah but you have Juvia to back you up! Erza likes Juvia! She'll go easy on you for her sake!" Natsu argued.

"She likes Lucy too you know!" Gray pointed out.

"Well yeah but that doesn't mean she's gonna go easy on ME!" he paused and thought for a minute. "Oh wait I see what you mean! If I hide in Lucy's house Erza will pull her punches!"

Gray shook his head, the point completely flying over Natsu's head as per usual.

"Let's just get back to the guild and get this over with."

The two dragged themselves to the guild where the party was already well underway.

"There you two are!" Erza hurried over. "Did you get them?! Did you get the apples?!"

Her eyes were sparkling like crazy as she looked eagerly at the sack expectantly.

With a dour, almost hopeless look on his face, Natsu handed Erza the sack. "H-here…"

Snatching the sack from his hand she hurried over to the main bar where the other girls were sitting expectantly. Collapsing onto a bench the two ate and drank quietly. Too tired to really enjoy themselves. They sat together waiting for Erza to hurry out and demand to know how everything had turned out and demand that they show them the tree.

Once that happened the two might as well have booked their own funerals.

"UUUUGHHHH." the two blinked in surprise at the sudden sound of disgust.

Erza had collapsed onto the ground, on her hands and knees.

"Erza?!" Gray hurried over worried. "What happened?! Are you okay?!"

"It's" she began.

"It's? It's what?! WHAT?!" Natsu demanded.

"It's… It's… DISGUSTING!" she sobbed.

Their shoulders fell in disappointment. Was that all?

"Uuugh the tree must've been beyond its harvesting period!" Erza groaned in regret.

"As a matter of fact…" Gray hummed. "You're probably right."

He nudged Natsu who blinked before slowly catching on.

"Y-yeah, yeah! It's probably totally over ripe and stuff!"

"B-But I was so looking forward to it." Erza cried.

Shrugging Gray simply said, "Oh well. Now that we know we can try to get them earlier next year."

"Yes." Natsu repeated. "Next year."

As they left Erza to her disappointment the two glanced at each other.

Gray sent a look that said, Never speaking of this again?

And Natsu raised an eyebrow as if to respond, Definitely.

Freed of their impending horror the two enjoyed the party.

At least until the two devolved into bickering once more.

(( Another prompt request from my tumblr. This one used:

Prompt #'s

48, "Boo."

49, "Well this is awkward…"

47, "No one needs to know."

There was no ship included so I decided to make it about Gray and Natsu))