Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Kalafina. Although I do own the album in question.
Chapter One – Red Moon
The night sky was being covered by the rainclouds that strolled lazily across it. Wind started blowing, making the clouds start to get closer to the moon and making the vegetation that surrounded the now decrepit and abandoned manor rustle ominously.
From the trees, words were formed, in ethereal voices. What they were saying didn't make sense, the words in a dialect long forgotten by Men.
'kontia store
ee maria
maria dore
ema asorta mia daro'
The wind continued to blow, slicing through the manor and making the tattered curtains billow and a much needed lungful of fresh air to the whole place – and pushing away the stale air.
On the main living room, the fireplace was lit and crackling cheerily, while some of the wind came through the hole in the rooftop. The room was filled with debris, dust and old furniture – most of it being broken. Two figures were sitting in front of the fireplace, otherwise shadowed. They were huddled together, speaking in a low voice, sadness discernible in their speech.
The person with light hair suddenly started coughing and curling in on himself, hands grasping at his stomach. The dark haired one helped him lie on the floor, head propped on his thigh. He ran his hand through the other's perspired forehead and through the spiky hair. He pressed his lips together as he took in his friend. And then his eyes locked on the other.
The youth that was lying down raised a hand and poked on the other's cheek, lips contorting into a pained grin.
"Don't you worry Gray. We'll be able to fulfill the promise and see the sky darken once more-" his tirade was cut by a cough that racked his whole body. Blood started sliding from his mouth.
"Natsu…" said the dark haired one while he cleaned the blood with his sleeve. When he finished he cupped Natsu's cheek and directed it so that the other was looking at him once again. He frowned, trying to convey the helplessness he felt. His response was Natsu closing his eyes and exhaling deeply.
"Don't look like that. We knew from the start-" Natsu stopped himself and sighed. "I could feel it, you know?" he looked up. "You raised the note. Only you… but I can hear it, the world is calling."
"No!" Gray grabbed the other's hands. "I won't let it – I won't let you go. It's not fair!" Gray's eyes were starting to prickle with tears. "If you do that, I'll kill you myself, you hear?"
Natsu shook his head slowly, bringing one bloodied palm to rest against Gray's forearm.
"We knew it would happen eventually. It was a curse. They all said that this… love would only end painfully."
"They said that that was what happened to people. The way people became people!" Gray replied harshly.
"Then I guess that we became people," Natsu closed his eyes. "And this was the punishment…"
"No, Natsu! Don't you dare!" One single tear slipped down Gray's cheek and fell on the dusty floor.
From someplace close – oh so close to them – a cymbal resonated.
Time suspended.
Natsu's voice spoke by Gray's ear, although he could still feel the body, the head resting on his leg.
"I believe that this wasn't the end. That song which was ours is still being played throughout the sky." Gray felt a caress run through his arm and a warm kiss being planted on the juncture between shoulder and neck. "I don't think that what we did was a mistake."
The warmth that had filled the room disappeared as red beams of moonlight hit the room, a light drizzle making it look like the moon was crying red tears. Gray's breath caught in his throat.
"You have to live, Gray. Live and continue to share the light."
The moon was covered and darkness flooded the room – the fire now mere embers – and the same ethereal voice resonated,
'sarami amari kantia atore'
When the moment passed, Gray just did one thing.
He screamed.
"Aahhhhhhhh!"
"Hey, Gray!" a voice shouted above the hustle of the crowd.
The dark haired youth turned to see his friend, running towards him, a huge grin adorning his face. He got close to him, clapping him strongly on the back.
"Did you get it?" was the breathless query.
Gray smiled, smugly. "What do you think?" and he raised the small crystal cub, where a small red drop was enclosed. Before their eyes it turned blue before regaining its previous colour. Gray closed his hand and the other grasped Natsu's kimono sleeve before taking his friend's hand and gave a tiny pull. "Come on. We better go and find good seats."
Natsu laughed again, letting himself be pulled and starting to run alongside Gray. "Yes, this year we better have a good seat!"
They climbed the hill, running through the trees that stood imposingly in the back of the Governor's garden.
At some point it seemed like they were running through the sky, through the immense vastness, giving chase to a red moon that was beginning to anoint the world with its balmy light – the light by which the sky blessed the beginning of summer.
They sat on the small promontory that oversaw the crowd, where they had a good view to the stage and to where the action would take place.
"I can hardly believe we did it!" Gray was inspecting his cube, his prize.
"Neither can I. The old man is going to keel over when we show him what we got…" Natsu replied while he was letting his own cube roll from hand to hand. "It's going to be something good, for a change…"
"Are you thinking about that thing he told us about?" Gray asked and saw the other stop his fidgeting. 'Bullseye…' he thought.
"I don't believe it, Gray. to me all that thing of there being a sea of tears somewhere in the," he made a face, raising his voice into a falsetto, "line of our destiny," he sighed. "I don't buy it…"
"Maybe we don't have to. Just, deal with it whenever it happens…"
Natsu grinned and closed his hand over the tiny object.
"You're going to be a great role model to the young ones…"
"Shut it!" Gray shoved the other playfully.
They were so entranced by their banter that they missed what happened on stage, only realizing that something was wrong when they started listening to the screams from people below.
Then, before their eyes, everything around them started collapsing, the ground tearing itself open, engulfing people at the same time that darkness started seeping from those rifts.
"Let there be light!" yelled the Governor, standing on the stage with his arms wide open, hair and clothes in complete disarray. He started cackling madly before shouting, "Hallelujah!" which resounded thorough what remained of the plane.
The youths got up, all the while looking around at the chaos that had taken over the world. As the ground underfoot they instantly grasped at each other's hands, frantically. Their eyes locked, wide and afraid. They strained to remain holding hands but the ground was starting to gape beneath them, forcefully separating them.
As they fell, each was holding the other's crystal cube. The small red drop started shining, enveloping them – each was a bright point in the middle of the darkness, falling vertiginously to the ground.
The light connected them, the cube a liaison to the other's thoughts. As they fell, they remembered a scene from a previous winter, one that brought them to one of the clear nights where they had managed to escape their guardian's keen eye and sneak to the rooftop and sit down there, watching the landscape that had been completely covered by snow. They heard the quiet, intimate even, music that came from the distance, swept in by the wind. They remembered curing in one bed, sharing body heat. And how that event had, years later, when they had shared touches, secretly, made them hear that same music, from so long ago, like it was the first sound, the first song to echo in the world.
'kanti store
toda kore
marti store
marka torda'
They were both pulled back to reality as they collided painfully with what remained of the stable ground. Slowly they stood up, mindless of the chaos – they only knew that they had to reach the other!
The sounds of grief resounded, coming from the living who held dearly onto the broken bodies of loved ones. Soot, blood and dirt covering everything.
Among the confusion, they tried to get to the other, seeing love and dreams disappear from the eyes of people they crossed.
Above the cloud of dust the voice that had started everything hovered, almost as if waiting for the best time to spread out even more. Some people were trying to dig on the hard soil, the skin on their dirty hands breaking and the blood mixing with it, creating mud.
At long last their hands connected, evoking a relieved sigh. They crashed heavily onto the ground. The surrounding darkness sapping their energy. Natsu grabbed the two cubes and let his hand rest on the ground, leaning on it.
"You okay?" Gray asked.
"Yeah, so far. But," Natsu said with a frown. "What the fuck was that? Where did this come from?"
"I have no idea." Gray started tugging at his clothes, restlessly. "All I know is that the Governor seems to have gone insane."
I the far distance they could still hear the 'Hallelujah' that had started everything.
"But we're still here." Natsu said. "Thanks to what we won."
""Yeah, these things seem to have worked as a lucky charm, protecting us from the destruction and… sort of freezing time for us…"
At that moment, yellow beams shot up from the sky, from an immense contraption that was being manned by the Governor. The beams hit what left of the ground and became pink, before being extinguished. Muffled noises accompanied it but Natsu and Gray were too distracted, in astonishment, to realize what it was.
A light that was too bright made Gray close his eyes but he heard the broken gasp all too clearly. He opened his eyes only to stare at Natsu where he was pressing a hand over the quickly expanding red. From his other hand, that was still poised on the ground, fumes arose.
'The crystal cubes. The machine targeted the crystal cubes!' exploded in his mind at the same time that he all but jumped into motion to help his friend. He just would not let his… friend die here!
He managed to pull him up, finding an unexpected strength from the fire that suddenly burst into his veins. Painstakingly slow, they started walking a path that was what remained of the plane. It seemed safe enough and leaving couldn't be worse than where they were and what they had witnessed.
They missed how the Governor was killed by a series of arrows whose had been impregnated with poison and pierced him. This, in turn, made the machine crash to the ground. But what was done, was done and killing the madman wouldn't bring back the dead or heal the ones that had been hurt.
And, most importantly to Gray, Natsu had been hurt.
A chord was struck inside, not letting his strength fail him as he took his friend to the only place he could think of, the old manor, said to have been the home to the œvels a long time ago.
It was falling apart but, after crossing the unwelcome forest, Gray felt comforted between these walls. He took them inside and lay Natsu on the floor, leaning against the back of a sofa while he went to look for some wood and lit a fire – they could use some light after all, and being close to a fire always did wonders to the pink haired one.
The wound was nasty but Gray patched it up, as best as he could, tying the obi extra tight to try to stop the blood flow.
"Don't look like that," Natsu said, voice tight. "If you make that face…"
"I'm not making any face, just-! Just…" he let his head tip forward so that his hair covered his eyes.
From above, moonlight beams started to filter from the broken roof.
"Don't you worry Gray. We'll be able to fulfill the promise and see the sky darken once more-" Natsu started coughing and something inside Gray broke violently.
"Natsu…" he said, trying to grasp at the last thing that made it all worth it.
To add to the overload of emotions that Gray was feeling, ethereal voices coming from the forest seemed to be trying to tell him something, in an imperceptive chanting.
With the light from the red moon, a violent wave prepared to crash against the world. The irate voices passing judgment.
'tomari soltia konstia midia
debari soltia martia filtia
tomari soltia konstia midia
debari mortia samari no doche'
And Natsu…
Natsu had lied.
They didn't get to see the sky together again.
A/N: First oneshot in a new series. This one was a tough one but I'm glad I managed to finish it. Whew. Still, I hope the readers like it. ^^
This story is unbetaed because people don't seem to like to beta this series of fics inspired by Kalafina. Oh well, I hope I didn't made anyone want to poke their eyes out with a spork. :P
As usual, reviews would be awesome. The feedback kind of makes me continue in a writing hype.