Foreword
I first had the idea to this story a short time after I started writing Instinct. I was dreaming about it regularly, and no matter how much I tried to ignore the idea (I wanted to focus on Instinct), it just kept growing, and the plot became more and more detailed. Since I'm not one to just drop a project, I swore to myself to not start writing this before Instinct wasn't finished.
This fic is loosely based on canon, but I twisted timelines, cut some events entirely, and I also altered the magic used by a certain mage a bit. You'll notice when you get there (I'm not fond of spoilers). So it could be considered an AU.
In case anyone is wondering—this fic was inspired by:
- the movie 'Groundhog Day'
- an episode of Stargate SG-1 (which I don't remember the name of, but it was basically a day that was always repeating itself, with only two of the characters remembering the whole thing, which eventually led to them playing golf through the stargate and other stupidities)
- the Anime 'Death Note'
- the movies 'Final Destination'
- and probably some other things I don't remember now.
This fanfic will have weekly updates, I'll be uploading a new chapter every Sunday around noon (German time zone).
For updates, info, and other issues regarding this fic, follow my Rewind blog on tumblr (chiyalawritesrewind).
Before you start reading, I have a plea: Please review. Even if you click out of the fanfic after some sentences, some paragraphs, some chapters, please just take a few seconds to tell me what exactly made you decide not to continue reading. It's the only way I can improve.
That being said, have fun reading!
Natsu awoke with a start, his heart pounding. A glance at his alarm clock told him that it was still seven and thus much too early for him to be awake. He buried his face in the crook of his elbow and sighed.
They'd come back somewhat late the day before. Makarov had called them to his office immediately once he'd taken notice of their arrival—which had been pretty much the second they set foot into the guild hall, seeing as they'd caused a lot of noise, like always. He'd asked them to accept a very urgent and important mission that would start today in the afternoon. There was only one train per day to their destination. The departure was one P.M., and the ride would last approximately three hours. Naturally, Natsu hadn't been happy to hear that.
He wasn't tired anymore. Even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. Well, six and a half hours of sleep should be enough. He peeled himself from the covers only to find that his hands were shaking slightly. What was wrong with him? He hadn't had a nightmare or else he would remember it if he'd woken up from it.
There was a tingling in his gut, but he always felt this way when he knew that he'd later have to ride a train or any other vehicle that made him nauseous. Natsu clenched his hands into fists to make the trembling go away, but the motion made him realize that his palms were sweating. He gulped. There was no use denying that something was clearly wrong. Was he getting sick? He should probably talk to Wendy later. She'd be accompanying them anyway, seeing as their mission involved countless non-mages who could get hurt.
For now, he decided to just take a shower and get ready for the day, since dwelling on it wouldn't help the matter.
The guild hall was unusually quiet when Happy and Natsu arrived. Most of the members were on a mission or still at home. Gray sat alone at a table, playing with his glass of water, oblivious to everything around him. Was he always here so early in the morning? Natsu was one for sleeping in, so he usually arrived when the guild was lively and loud, with his best friend and rival always right in the middle of it. Seeing him sitting there, wearing a bored expression, turning his water to ice and melting it again, then absentmindedly tipping his finger against the glass... It was strange. Was there even a sad look in Gray's eyes, or was it just Natsu's imagination?
Whatever it was, Natsu didn't like it. He couldn't stand the thought of Gray being sad, so he went over to his table, flopped down on the opposite bench, put his crossed arms on the table, and rested his chin on them. He distantly noted that Happy flew towards the bar, where Mirajane was chatting with Wendy and Carla, but the only thing that mattered to him now was the pair of icy blue eyes that focused on him with a questioning look. Natsu stared back without blinking, refusing to answer an unspoken question. Gray didn't look away, but his expression grew more and more confused, his eyebrows being raised higher.
Natsu didn't budge as the seconds tricked by. Gray sighed and turned his attention back to the glass on the table. He looked tense now, which was still unsettling, but still better than a sad expression.
After minutes of being started at by Natsu, Gray looked back to him.
"Why are you here so early today? We were supposed to get as much sleep as we could."
Natsu lifted and tilted his head at that. "The same goes for you."
Gray rolled his eyes. "I couldn't sleep well last night."
Yeah, he did look kind of tired today. Maybe that look from earlier hadn't been sadness, but exhaustion. As if to prove his point, Gray let out a long yawn, then rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. When his vision was focused again, he raised an eyebrow at Natsu, and asked, "So?"
So... what?
His confusion seemed to be written all over his face, because Gray repeated his question. "Why are you here so early?"
Oh, right. "I woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep."
Gray's expression changed into one of amusement. "Oh? I didn't know there was something that could steal your sleep. What is it? Did Lucy dump you?"
Natsu didn't know why Gray was lately so hell-bent on the idea that he had a crush on Lucy, but it never failed to make him angry. So Gray shouldn't have been surprised when he was being grabbed by the collar a second later.
"Are you boys fighting again?"
Natsu froze at Erza's voice. He turned his head slowly, afraid Erza would attack if he made a quick movement. She had just arrived, still standing in the door, looking angry. That was an impeccable timing she had there. Now he looked like the guilty one, crouching on the table and threatening Gray with a clenched fist, when Gray had been the one to taunt him. He sighed and let go of Gray's collar, then flopped himself on the bench again. He didn't want to incur Erza's wrath first thing in the morning. Erza rewarded him with an appeased smile, and busied herself with carrying all her luggage into the guild hall. Natsu would never understand how she could seriously think that all this luggage was necessary.
When he turned his attention back to Gray, he found himself being scrutinized by intense blue eyes.
"What now?"
"Why do you always get so defensive when it comes to you and Lucy?"
"I told you, it's not like that!"
It was hard to keep his temper at bay when they were talking about this topic. Because, seriously, how could he stay calm when Gray was so thoroughly misinterpreting his feelings? How had he not understood already that Lucy wasn't the one he was in love with? He'd tried to give Gray hints that he was the one his heart belonged to, and had for a long time already. But it somehow always went wrong, always ending up in bickering or fighting. Even when he just 'accidentally' brushed his hand against Gray's, the ice mage immediately jumped and bellowed at him. Natsu had long since given up on the hope that Gray could ever return his feelings, let alone accept them if he confessed. He'd stopped trying to subtly get closer to him over two years ago, when he'd been sixteen. However, he was sure that he didn't manage to hide his feelings very well. He'd caught himself staring at Gray more often than he liked to admit. Not to mention his nervousness whenever Gray was too close, although he masked this pretty well as clumsiness.
"You know that the more you deny it, the more likely it seems."
Damn him! Why was he being so incredibly stupid? For a second, he was really tempted to just shout out his love confession, if only to make Gray shut up. However, Natsu caught himself, and instead went for, "Lucy is like a sister to me!"
Gray opened his mouth to retort something, but Lucy, who had obviously just arrived at the guild a second before, beat him to it. "Ohhh, really? Now that's cute! You're like a brother to me, too!"
Natsu felt heat creeping into his cheeks, both because he was being called 'cute', and because seemingly all people present had heard it. Fabulous. This really supported his claim that he didn't have any romantic feelings for Lucy. Gray was obviously thinking the exact same thing, seeing as he rolled his eyes, uttering a sarcastic, "Yes, like a sister, of course."
Before Natsu had the chance to respond, Gray was already on his feet and heading towards the bar, glass in hand. Natsu cursed under his breath, staring at Gray's retreating back as if that could make him realize that he was the one Natsu truly wanted.
What else could he do to make Gray see that he wasn't in love with Lucy? What made Gray think he was in the first place? It was true that he liked Lucy like a sister, and he showed it openly. Natsu let out a long unhappy sigh.
"What's wrong? Trouble with Gray?"
Lucy set down two glasses of water on the table, then took a seat next to Natsu. He didn't even bother looking at her. He knew she was worried; he could hear it in her voice.
"He still thinks I'm in love with you."
"Oh man. Maybe you should try to be a bit more obvious. Well, I personally think you're already pretty obvious, but I guess guys can be kind of dumb when it comes to this..." She trailed off, elbowing Natsu meaningfully.
"Hey! What do you mean, 'guys'? We're not all the same, you know? He's being dumb here!"
Lucy pointedly turned her head towards Natsu, and as soon as their gazes met, she rolled her eyes. "If you think so."
Yes, I think so indeed.
"Say, Natsu, why are you already in the guild this early?"
Natsu wanted to ask why everyone was so shocked to see him here early, but thinking back, he couldn't remember more than one or two days when Lucy had arrived after him. He'd just have to resign himself to answering this question a few more times today.
"I woke up early and I couldn't fall back asleep."
"Oh. Is something bothering you?"
He really had a reputation of a heavy sleeper, didn't he?
"Nothing, I don't think."
"Hmmm. I guess we all have nights like that. I didn't sleep well last night, either. It was hard to fall asleep, and I woke up multiple times." She lowered her head until her forehead was resting against the table. At least he wasn't the only one who'd had a bad night.
About an hour later, the door to the guild hall was slammed open, revealing Laxus, the Raijinshuu, and—oh god, please, no—Juvia.
"GRAY-SAMAAA!"
Juvia was at the bar and clinging to Gray in no time at all. Natsu clenched his fists and grit his teeth, barely noticing when Lucy patted his back soothingly. His brain worked rapidly on an excuse to drag Gray into a fight. Sad how this was the only behavior that would seem normal to the others. Maybe he really needed to work on their relationship. Needed to talk more often to Gray without it ending up in an argument or fight. Needed to claim his attention for reasons other than for taunting him. But right now Juvia was clinging at Gray's neck and trying to kiss him. That woman had gotten bolder over the years. Gray ignoring her assaults had done nothing to lessen her efforts. Alright, it wasn't like he always just ignored her, but since telling her that he wasn't interested wasn't helping either, he'd obviously resigned himself to just let it happen. Which was raising Juvia's hopes, and that was not okay. Plus he was half naked again right now, so Juvia could touch his muscular upper body to her heart's desire. Which was another thing that was clearly not okay.
Natsu was in front of the two of them before he even noticed that he had moved at all. He had to remind himself that he needed to glare at Gray, not at Juvia. She jumped aside quickly. As much as she loved Gray, she also didn't want to get involved in their fights.
"Not in here, for god's sake!" Erza's angry growl halted their impending fight, much to Natsu's relief. As much as he usually enjoyed fighting with Gray, he hated doing it for no reason other than saving Gray from Juvia's unwanted endeavors.
"Outside, now!" Gray snarled at him. Natsu was all too happy to follow him. He ignored Lucy's worried look, and gave Erza a nod when she warned them that they'd need their strength later on the mission. He wasn't going to fight Gray. Not this time.
When they arrived at the clearing next to a river where they usually fought, Gray turned around sharply, an angry look on his face.
"What did I do this time?"
Natsu shrugged. "Nothing. That's the problem."
"What are you talking about?"
"Juvia. You keep giving her false hope."
Gray's eyes narrowed to slits. "I don't see how that's any of your business."
"You're both my friends, and I hate seeing my friends unhappy!"
"How do I make Juvia unhappy with not rejecting her?"
Natsu let out a sigh. "I'm talking about you..."
This stunned Gray, and his angry expression faltered, making way for a confused one. "Me...? How would you know whether I'm happy or not?"
Natsu's answer came quick like a shot. "You tense up whenever you know Juvia is approaching you, I can tell from your smell and from the hunching of your shoulders. You flinch when she's reaching out for you, you look like you've bitten into a lemon whenever she clings to you. You never return any gestures. You never let her kiss you or hold your hand. When she hugs you, you always look around as if searching for somebody or something that would help you get out of that situation. I just... wanted to be that somebody to help you."
Gray's eyes were wide with surprise, watching Natsu intently. Had he said too much?
"You..." Gray trailed off, and then started over again. "You aren't actually as stupid as you make people think you are."
Natsu closed his eyes, trying hard to resist the retort that was trying to fight its way out of his mouth. Now was not the time to fight. Not the time to fight. Calm down. No. Fighting. It was disturbing that the voice in his head sounded like Erza, but he dismissed it.
"If that's all, then let's go back to the guild already."
This earned him a wary look. Gray took a careful step towards Natsu, but then paused. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat, and tried again. "Natsu... Is everything alright? Your behavior is kind of... well, off?"
He nearly said, 'no, everything's alright,' but then a thought occurred to him. Gray was taking him seriously right now, so maybe this was his chance?
"It bugs me that you don't believe me when I say I'm not into Lucy."
"Well, you spend a lot of time with her, and you're often at her house. You seem to enjoy yourself when she's around. It makes sense."
Natsu sighed in defeat. "It's true that I like her, but it's not romantic at all. She's the only one who puts up with me like this, and her flat is way cleaner than my house. I don't see her that way, and I never will."
Gray swallowed, then took a small step towards Natsu. "I didn't realize it's bothering you so much." His gaze was intense. "I believe you now, if it makes you feel better."
Natsu had expected to be more relieved to hear these words than he actually was. Gray's proximity was making him too nervous. Should he confess right now? Or just kiss him, and confess afterwards? Gray was so close... Just two more steps and he could kiss him, embrace him, whisper sweet nothings into his ear...
Yeah, right. As if Gray would appreciate that. Being kissed and hugged out of the blue, by another guy no less. For all Natsu knew, Gray wasn't even into guys.
All of those thoughts faded when Gray took another tentative step forward, his eyes never leaving Natsu's. He stretched out his hand towards Natsu's face, and Natsu's eyes widened. When Gray's cool fingers touched his cheek, Natsu's heart missed a beat. The touch was brief, just a quick swipe across his skin, and then it was gone.
Gray checked his hand, rubbing his fingers against each other... as if trying to determine the tackiness of... a liquid? With a start, Natsu reached for his own cheeks, startled to feel wetness there. He was crying? Why?
He looked back up into Gray's face, unsure of how to handle this situation or how Gray would react. What he found in his eyes was concern and confusion.
"Natsu...? What's wrong? That's not like you. Is it something I said?"
"N-no. I don't know... w-why I'm crying."
"Come on. You can tell me. I know we fight most of the time, but I still consider you my best friend."
Natsu took the last step forwards without thinking. He bumped into Gray harder than he'd intended; Gray needed to take a half step back in order to regain his balance. After a brief moment of hesitation, they wrapped their arms around each other. Gray patted his back soothingly, trying to shush him.
"I'm sorry... I... I really don't know wh-what's wrong. I have n-no reason to cry." Especially not now, when you're so close to me and holding me like that, he added in his thoughts. "I just feel... really strange today, is all..." And it was true. Today was a weird day. There was no way he'd act like this on a normal day. But something was depressing him.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I also feel a bit strange today..."
Natsu stiffened. Gray felt it, too? Then it wasn't just his imagination, and there was really something going on! Natsu was on alert all of a sudden, peeling himself free of Gray's arms, ready to fight whatever threat there was to come. He closed his eyes and sniffed the air, but there seemed to be nothing amiss—though there was a breeze that would make it impossible to smell somebody who was hiding in the wind direction.
"Show yourself!" he shouted into the trees, just to make sure. Gray took up a fighting stance, shooting Natsu a wary look.
"Did you smell somebody?"
"No."
"Then why are you doing this? Did you hear something?"
"No. I'm just trying to make sure."
Gray rolled his eyes. "Let's go back to the guild."
Natsu let his gaze rove over the landscape around them, trying to spot anything that was amiss. When he didn't find anything, he sighed and nodded, taking off towards their guild after Gray.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
Natsu's stomach turned upside down at the mere sight of the train as it arrived.
The five of them and their two Exceeds had arrived half an hour too early, driven by Erza who feared that something might happen to cause them to miss the train if they didn't plan for any eventualities. So they'd had lots of time to talk about the fact that somehow everybody on their team hadn't slept well and everybody felt off, though nobody knew what it was about. Carla was oddly quiet the whole time, and when asked, she shook her head, saying she also didn't know what was going on.
All of them were tired, so it wasn't surprising when Lucy's head slumped down on Erza's shoulder not five minutes after the train's departure. Erza was also fighting with herself to stay awake, but she gave in soon enough, letting her head rest against Lucy's.
Wendy had cast Troia on Natsu and herself, which was why they were both fine with the ride. But it would wear off soon enough, she had warned, since both of them had already gotten used to the spell.
Natsu wanted to sleep, at least until his motion sickness kicked in, but he really didn't want to abuse Wendy's shoulder. Worse still would be to use her lap, which was already occupied by a sleeping Carla, as pillow. Knowing himself and his sleeping behavior, he knew for a fact that he'd end up leaning against some part of the person sitting next to him, though he'd never slept on a train before. It would be a different story if he'd be sitting next to Gray... then he'd gladly fall asleep and let himself slump against Gray, even if it ended with a punch to his face and a snide comment... but Erza had insisted they not sit next to each other, knowing all too well how that could end.
Yawning, Natsu risked a glance at Gray, and saw that he was blinking rapidly, trying to focus his gaze on something before him, probably Lucy. He was fighting to stay awake as well. Wendy seemed to be the only one who wasn't tired at all. Even Happy lay next to Natsu on the bench, sleeping with a happy grin on his face, mumbling something about fish.
Natsu leaned back against his seat, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the mission they were heading for. A small dark guild had taken a whole town of non-mages called Kinsha hostage. Well, they had one mage, but he wouldn't have stood a chance. He could make himself invisible, so he'd used his ability to sneak out and send the request to Fairy Tail. It was classified as an A rank mission, though Makarov had said that he didn't want to take the risk, that he wanted to send their best team since they didn't know the true strength of the dark guild. They didn't even know the name of the dark guild, nor had they ever heard of the mages who were briefly described in the request. The dark guild's goal was simple—they wanted all the money the town possessed. When Makarov had told them just how many jewels they were talking about, Erza had let out a screeching sound, Gray had jumped so high he'd hit his head on the ceiling—naturally Natsu had made fun of him for that afterwards—Happy had tried to calculate how many fish he could buy with all these jewels—in vain—, and Natsu had made some shocked poses he'd never admit were hilarious to watch.
The safe and its security mechanisms had been crafted by mages, thus the dark guild had been unable to break into it, and the mayor had both refused to tell them how to open it or who else was capable of doing so. Now the town was held captive in an underground shelter, and the leader of the dark guild had given the mayor forty-eight hours to change his mind, or he would start killing hostages until either he changed his mind or everybody was dead. The forty-eight hours had started the previous day at around noon, which left Fairy Tail about a day to find and defeat them. Natsu was determined as ever to kick their asses.
Wendy snapped him out of his reverie by getting up from her seat. Confused, Natsu looked up at her, but didn't dare ask—he didn't want to wake up Lucy or Erza. Wendy leaned down and whispered into his ear that she felt that Troia was wearing off and she didn't want to wake up the others with her retching. Upon hearing that, Natsu wanted to get up as well for the same reason, but she motioned him to relax. She was much more used to the spell than him, so he'd still have some time, at least half an hour, probably more like an hour, she guessed. Natsu sunk back on the bench in relief.
This technically left him sitting next to Gray. Admittedly with a small gap between them, but if Natsu let himself doze off, his head would end up in Gray's lap. Natsu gulped. His face was probably flushed already just from thinking about it. He tried to subtly catch a glimpse of the ice mage out of the corner of his eyes, but what he saw made him turn his head fully towards Gray. He was sleeping with his lips slightly apart, his head leaning against the window. Natsu licked his lips subconsciously at the sight. Gray was just too sexy for his own good. And when the hell had he stripped off his shirt? Not that Natsu particularly minded, but... damn.
When Natsu felt a tell-tale tightness in his crotch, he practically jumped to his feet, hurrying off to find the nearest toilet. The last thing he wanted was to be caught getting or being hard around his friends. Who knew when one of them would wake up and see?
His white cloth pants were thin and flexible, which meant that they always fit snugly in any kind of position. This was a huge advantage while fighting, but in situation like these, he hated it. Sure, there was his dark loincloth which he could always drape over his pants, but he'd still feel exposed.
The strong odor of the toilet made him calm down fairly quickly, and when he got back to the cabin, he sat down one row before his sleeping friends with his back facing them. He kept his eyes strictly on the passing landscape, forcing his thoughts to the mission awaiting them.
Only when his motion sickness kicked back in, he allowed himself to risk a glance over his shoulder. Gray was rubbing his eyes tiredly, trying to stifle a yawn. Natsu turned back sharply as a wave of nausea overcame him, leaving him retching dryly. He should have known better than to turn his head against the direction of driving. It always made his nausea worse than it already was. Burying his head into his palms, he prayed for the ride to be over soon.
An hour passed, and nothing happened besides the train halting and taking off again, giving Natsu little breaks from his nausea only to have it hit him harder than before. However, if his sense of time wasn't completely off, then they ought to arrive at their destination soon. Maybe half an hour, tops.
When he felt a determined tap on his shoulder, his first guess was that he'd done something wrong and Erza was here to give him a lecture. So he was surprised to find Gray standing next to him, his expression unreadable. Before Natsu had the chance to ask what this was about, Gray took a step back and made a beckoning gesture before walking over to the farthest bench in the cabin. Natsu followed him a bit wobbly, not understanding the need to sit somewhere else. But when he sat down opposite of Gray so that he was facing the direction of driving, he realized. The rattling sound of the train would make sure their voices wouldn't carry over to the sleeping girls and Happy.
Gray shot Natsu a wary look that clearly said, 'If you dare puke on me I swear I'll chop your head off.' Natsu shook his head, trying to convey that he wasn't going to puke anytime soon, but Gray didn't look too convinced. So he stood up and sat next to Natsu, probably wanting to be out of the line of fire. Although that didn't explain why he was sitting so close to Natsu that he could feel the body warmth Gray was radiating through his clothes.
"I just... th-thank you. For saving me from Juvia. That was... nice of you."
Natsu could tell it wasn't easy for Gray, thanking him like that. He surely felt embarrassed or humiliated by it, and was probably blushing. Natsu knew that looking to the side would cause his nausea to intensify, but his curiosity was just too strong. He turned his head and saw Gray's eyes were closed firmly, his lips taut, and there really was a faint blush on his cheeks.
Natsu wanted to say something, but the words died in his throat as another wave of sickness washed over him, a retching sound breaking free. Gray flinched and scrambled to his feet, probably surprised by the fact that Natsu was facing him. Natsu doubled over, his hands coming to his stomach automatically. He wasn't so sure anymore if he was going to puke or not. Had Troia still had an after effect on him that was now fading? In any case, he needed to go to the toilet now.
Half an hour later, they stood at an abandoned train station. Lucy studied a map of the town, Gray talked with Erza while Happy tried to woo Carla, and Wendy and Natsu leaned against a wall with their faces down, both panting and trying to recover from the train ride.
Lucy pointed in the direction they'd come from. "This way, if I'm not mistaken... Let's go!"
She was in high spirits. And it wasn't just her—everyone seemed to be in a better mood after their nap—except for Wendy and Natsu, of course. When everyone started walking in the direction Lucy had pointed, Natsu and Wendy reluctantly let go of the wall, stood up, and followed their friends.
It took them about half an hour to find the dugout and the entrance to the dugout. But once they'd found the entrance door, the rest of the search was easy; there was only one possible path after all. It was dark, so Natsu was in charge of lighting their way.
When they reached a door, Erza signaled them to prepare for battle. Once she'd gotten a nod from everyone, she burst through the door, holding her sword defensively in front of her body.
"Ohh, welcome, welcome! No need to be that hostile, now. Come in, all of you, come in," a cheery female voice half shouted.
Nobody moved at first, but then Erza shouted, "Follow her orders!"
So they did. The room was small, so they needed to huddle together in order to fit. There were three people holding sharp knifes to the throats of one hostage each. So those were their enemies then. Plus there were three more people behind them, caught in some kind of bubble.
"Close the door. Come on. Come on!" the only female mage ordered. Wendy, who had entered last, obediently closed it behind her.
"Good girl. Good girl. Now, we don't want to impolite, so we'll introduce ourselves first. Hiii! I'm Ichika!" She smiled broadly and as a greeting she waved her knife back and forth excitedly. Her hair was long and black, her face was small and would probably be considered cute by anyone who liked women. Natsu considered if he should use the chance to attack her, but dismissed the idea immediately. They didn't know what they were facing just yet, plus endangering civilians for the sake of surprise wasn't his cup of tea.
The younger man sighed in annoyance, rolling his eyes at Ichika. Then he turned his head back towards the Fairy Tail mages, introducing himself with another sigh and one word: "Bubbles." He was tan and tall, with brown, shoulder-length hair. His eyes were brown, too, and all in all, he was pretty good-looking. Natsu guessed him to be in his twenties.
"Don't be so mean to Ichika," the older man stated in an uninterested tone, and then continued, equally uninterestedly, "I'm Yushin."
Yushin was pale, with blue eyes and blonde hair. He had a scar that reached from the outer corner of his left eye to the left corner of his lips, but it did nothing to lessen his attractiveness. Natsu would say he was a bit over thirty.
"Tch. Ya ain't better, y'bored piece of trash," Bubbles retorted.
Yushin shrugged nonchalantly. "That's why you like me after all."
Bubbles blushed furiously. "I don't like you, y'stupid pervert!" He pointed his knife at Yushin, but since Ichika was in the way, it ended up mere centimeters away from her cheek.
She narrowed her eyes. "Do you think you could interrupt your flirting for the sake of more urgent matters, eh? Our friends here are waiting to introduce themselves, right? Right?"
"But he's try'na make 'em think I'm gay—"
"Well, you are, duh. Now shut up—"
" 'am not!"
"—and let them introduce themselves," Ichika finished as if Bubbles hadn't spoken.
Natsu gaped at them, as did everyone else on their team. So when Bubble's complaints had finally died down and the three enemy mages stared at them, waiting for them to say something, they needed a moment to gather themselves.
Lucy was the first one to regain her voice. "Err... I'm Lucy, the red haired woman to my right is Erza, the raven haired guy to my left is Gray, the pink haired guy next to him is Natsu, and the girl at the entrance is Wendy. The blue Exceed is Happy, and the one lying on Wendy's hair is Carla."
Ichika smiled at all of them when they were introduced, and when Lucy had finished, she put her knife down and clapped her hands once.
Bubbles growled, and put his knife down reluctantly, while Yushin followed Ichika's example without hesitation.
"You may go back to the others now! Thanks for your cooperation!" Ichika said cheerily.
The oldest of the hostages mumbled, "It's not as if we had any choice," then followed the other two to a door that was on the opposite of the entrance. Ichika's smile froze for a second, but she caught herself quickly, and then her smile became even broader. When the three men were out of the room, her smile fell immediately.
"Whew. It's so hard to be a bad girl, right, Bubbles?"
He turned his head sharply towards her, his eyes narrowed to slits. "How the hell'd I know that, huh? 'N stop hintin' that I'm gay, 'coz I'm not!"
"Yes, yes, here we go again. Talk to my hand. Maybe you can actually convince it."
" 'm not talkin' bullshit, y' silly bi—"
"Bubbles. Language," Yushin interjected in a bored tone.
Bubbles actually blushed, then said ruefully, "My bad."
Natsu wondered if his friends also had this feeling of being left out. They were here to fight, weren't they? There were still these three people behind their enemies in their respective bubbles. They were alive and awake, but they didn't say anything. They just watched the scene play out before their eyes. One of them was an old woman, probably around seventy, the other one a man in his twenties, and the third one was a kid, not older than twelve, Natsu guessed. They had to find out what those bubbles were about before they struck.
Bubbles was still arguing with Ichika about whether or not he was gay, but Natsu wasn't exactly well-known for his patience. He managed to get out only the first syllable when Erza's voice drowned out everything in the room.
"CUT IT OUT! Would you just get the fuck down to business and tell us what these bubbles with the three people inside behind you mean? They're hostages as well, right? Just tell us your conditions already, so we can get to kicking your asses." She let out a snort.
Bubbles flinched, cursing under his breath, while Yushin showed no reaction whatsoever. Ichika was another story altogether—she screeched, then jumped right into Erza's arms, giving her a tight hug, uncaring of the sword that she was still holding in her hands.
"What a scary girl! I wanna be like you! Can you teach me how you do that? Can we be best friends? Please, please!"
Erza was completely dumbfounded, looking to her friends for help. Natsu was already clenching his fists, fire playing around them, but Lucy stretched out her arm before him, and shook her head. Natsu dispersed the flames, sighing in frustration.
"Okay, how about you answer us some questions?" Lucy asked in Yushin's direction. She got a nod from him, so she continued. "What's your reason for taking a whole town hostage?"
"Money."
She sighed. "What do you need so much money for? I mean, you're three people. You could probably feed a hundred people for their whole life with this much money."
Meanwhile, Erza was still being cuddled by Ichika. She let out strangled sounds and chanting, 'help me, someone!' Lucy ignored them, and the rest of their team just stood in awkward silence, not sure what they should do.
"Find Bubble's father. He went missing."
This struck a chord with Natsu. He had taken a step forward before he even knew what he was doing. But Lucy turned her head sharply, shaking her head once more, begging Natsu silently to stay out of it.
"When did he go missing?"
"Hal—"
"SHUDDUP! They don't need to know ev'rythin'! You've already told 'em too much. Let's get down to business. These three people are our hostages, I'm the one who's controllin' the bubbles, but you've already figured that out, haven't 'cha?"
Oh, thank Mavis, finally! Natsu was tired of all the waiting and observing.
"Yes, indeed." Lucy said.
Ichika paused and turned her head towards Lucy. "So it's starting, eh? Sorry, scary Lady, but for now we're enemies," she declared, stepping away from Erza and returning to her former position. Erza exhaled in relief, her face flushed.
Bubbles opened his mouth to talk, but Ichika silenced him by covering his mouth with her hand, earning her an eye roll from him.
"I'm trying to be a bad girl here, so let me talk. First of all, the outer layer of the bubbles in which our hostages are caught contain a highly corrosive substance. If you try to pop them by force, it'll dissolve the captive completely within a matter of seconds, they won't even have time to scream. Only Bubbles himself can release them without killing the one inside, so you better think twice before you do anything against our rules.
"You have three options. One: Pay us as much as this town owns, and they are free."
Lucy glowered at her. "As if a mage guild would have that kind of money."
Ichika smiled. "Thought so. Well, the second option would be: You leave, and nobody's in danger for the next... err, about twenty hours."
Natsu couldn't stop the angry snort that broke free from his throat. And he wasn't the only one—Lucy grit her teeth, Erza raised her sword higher, Gray let out a "tch", and Wendy clenched her fists.
"I take that as a 'no'. Well, we could just force you to leave us alone by threatening to kill the hostages otherwise, but what fun would that be? Therefore, the third option involves fighting. There are some rules. Number one: This town, including this bunker, is not to be damaged within the next twenty hours. It's a part of our promise to the mayor, and we're keeping promises."
Gray nudged Natsu playfully in the side, and Natsu shot him a poisonous glare in return.
"Number two: We're fighting one on one. Everyone is allowed to fight against one enemy. Since you're five, that means two of you won't fight. You may choose your enemy, but you have to do it before you know what our abilities are. If you win a duel, we will release one of the hostages. However, if you lose–" she smiled happily– "then we'll kill one of them. If you manage to defeat all of us, we'll release everyone, leave this town and never bother them again. However, if you don't defeat all of us, you will leave and never bother us again."
"And watch how you kill innocent people?" Natsu had taken up a fighting stance, his fists on fire.
"There, there. Want to fight that eagerly? If you do anything stupid now, they'll die immediately."
Natsu grit his teeth, shooting her a vicious glare, but didn't try to attack.
"Great. Number three: If you mess with a fight that is not yours, we'll kill one of the hostages. And last: We'll fight in the nearby hills. Follow me!"
When they finally reached their goal, Natsu was fuming with restrained anger. This girl, Ichika, was eating at his nerves. She was way too cheery and carefree, and nothing seemed to upset her. Yushin was equally frustrating Natsu with his bored and aloof attitude. But the one who was annoying him the most was Bubbles, with his constant denial that he wasn't into Yushin when he obviously was.
So somewhere along the way, he had announced that he'd be fighting Bubbles. Gray had complained because he'd wanted to fight with him, but after a short argument which had been interrupted by Erza, he'd settled for Ichika. That had left the three girls to decide which of them would fight Yushin, but Lucy and Wendy both weren't that eager to fight, thus Erza would be the one fighting him.
The three hostages who floated behind Bubbles all the time were set down against trees, so they could watch.
The first battle was between Erza and Yushin. They'd agreed one rule: the duels would end if one of them couldn't stand anymore, surrendered, or, in the worst case, died.
Erza had requipped into her most comfortable fighting clothes—the wide red and yellow cloth trouser, her chest covered in bandages. Yushin stood several meters away, watching her with a neutral expression, and gesturing for Erza to make the first move.
She took the invitation and charged towards Yushin with both swords directed at him—when he raised one hand and shouted, "I surrender."
Erza was so taken aback that she tripped over her own feet, and fell down face first. When she straightened herself, her face was flushed and her expression bewildered.
"Haha, ohh, sorry, sorry! He's our healer, he never fights! You've won your first duel, congratulations, congratulations!" Ichika said cheerily.
Bubbles immediately dissipated the bubble around the old lady, who landed on all fours. She stood up with difficulty, but as soon as she was on her feet again, she limped over to Bubbles, and hit his head with her cane. "Disrespectful youth, you should learn some manners!"
"Ouch! Ey, ya stupid ol' hag, sit down 'n' watch or d'ya wanna die?"
"Bubbles. Language. Apologize," Yushin ordered, and it was the first time Natsu heard a hint of a bite in his tone.
"Tch. Yeah, sorry, whatever. Next fight, c'mon!"
The next fight was a real one. Gray got to make the first move against Ichika, and he went for an Ice Make: Harpoon. Ichika evaded easily without even moving a muscle - her body just moved on its own, hovering a few meters over the ground. Gray made a surprised sound, but then charged at her, intending to attack with a close ranged Ice Make: Fist. She didn't move at all; this time Gray was the one being moved. Instead of approaching her, he was being pushed farer and farer away from her like an invisible wall was pushing him back.
Ichika smiled. "Didn't expect that, did you? My magic can manipulate the relative positions of movable items, including humans. Which basically means I can fly and I can make people and items around me fly as well. I have a hundred meter range. Do you wish to surrender?"
Gray let out a low growl, and in the blink of an eye he'd stripped down to nothing but his boxers. He threw his clothes to Natsu, saying, "Hold onto them, I don't need that bitch using my own clothes against me." Natsu caught them easily, a bit taken aback. Gray could've left them on for once, but who was he to complain? He'd fulfill the task happily. Watching Gray fight while having a source of his intensely good smell so close... Yes, he could definitely imagine worse.
"Oh my, oh my, you're sexy! Wow! Are you trying to distract me?"
"Just you wait and see." Gray took up his Ice Make stance, then shouted, "Ice Make: Cage!"
In the same moment an icy cage appeared around Ichika, and her smile fell. "Oh, wow. Clever one, aren't you? But I can also move the cage, too bad."
A confident smile played over Gray's features. His next move was to create ice rods that were connecting the cage to the trees and the ground.
Ichika's expression changed very quickly from strained to shocked and finally to resigned. When she looked up again, Gray was already clinging to the cage, his right arm encompassed by an icy blade. "Do you wish to surrender, milady?"
Ichika let out a long sigh, then raised her hand, and shouted for everyone to hear, "I surrender." Then, in a lower tone, she added, "You're really a clever one, huh. There has only ever been one mage who defeated me, and he needed much longer than you. I think I like you."
Thanks to his sharp ears, Natsu had heard every word. He needed every ounce of self-restraint not to growl at her.
"Thank you," Gray answered, then he dissipated all his ice and returned to his friends.
Natsu handed him his clothes back, and Gray quickly redressed.
Bubbles released the young adult next. He managed to land gracefully on his feet, then gave Gray a thumbs up and a "Nice one," before striding over to the old lady and sitting down next to her.
Natsu was admittedly a bit tense because of the impending battle, since he didn't know what to expect, but the fact that his enemy was presumably capable of dissolving a person within seconds, made him a bit nervous.
His enemy wasn't so nice and invited him to make the first move; he just attacked. He stretched out his palm towards Natsu. A small blue ball materialized in it and shot towards Natsu. He shot a flame ball towards it, and when they clashed, they dissipated with a hiss.
Natsu proceeded to attacking. Close-combat with his body on fire was the plan. But his enemy shot dozens of red and blue bubbles in his direction while he was approaching. Natsu hit them with fiery fists, but he soon realized that the red ones contained fire, while the blue ones apparently contained ice. So instead of trying to evade the red ones, Natsu started catching them with his mouth, swallowing them wholly. This caught Bubbles off-guard, and Natsu landed a kick right in his face. He was sent flying against a tree.
Coughing, Bubbles got back to his feet, then he formed a green ball in his palm, and shot it towards Natsu. He evaded easily, charging towards him for another kick. Bubbles smirked, then formed many green balls. This time it was impossible to evade all of them. So Natsu decided to fend some of them off with his elbows—a grave mistake.
As soon as the first ball came in touch with his fire, it evaporated, but the gas touched his skin, and it freaking hurt! He turned on his heel, was hit with another two balls while turning, and ran away in the other direction as fast as he could. However, his leg gave out after a few steps, and he fell to the floor, face first. He mentally prepared for the pain of being hit by some more balls, but nothing came. They all flew over his head, hitting some trees or the floor in the distance.
All of his teammates shouted his name in horror, asking if he was okay. He tried to sit up to inspect the damage, but his limbs hurt so much. He caught a glimpse of his elbow, and was shocked to see a part of his skin and muscle missing, like a hole in his body. His left leg had been hit by two balls. Fighting down the fear, he turned his body so that he could get a look at his left leg—or rather, at the place where it should have been. It was gone, there was only a bleeding stump. An agonizing scream erupted from his throat, and next thing he knew, Gray was there, standing protectively in front of him.
"That's against the rules, stripper! You jus' killed the lil' kid here."
"If you think I'll passively stand by and see how you kill my friend, then you're mistaken, asshole!"
Natsu felt like he was paralyzed. The pain of his limb slowly kicked in, and it was much worse than anything he'd ever experienced. His vision became blurry at the edges, and all the sounds were dull, but he fought it. There was no way he'd let himself become unconscious now.
After some moments, he felt his sense sharpen again, and noticed that Wendy was kneeling over him, crying and working her healing magic on him. Looking around, he found Erza, Lucy, Sagittarius, and Taurus all in fighting stance, but their heads were turned towards Natsu. No, not towards him, he noticed belatedly. They were looking at Gray, whose whole body was caught in a bubble.
No, no, NO! Gray had turned his back to their enemy, facing Natsu instead. A gentle smile was adorning his features, a single tear running down his cheeks.
"No! Gray!" Natsu shouted, but it was too late. The bubble popped, and the liquid washed over him. Wendy jumped aside, pulling Natsu with her, trying to prevent them from being hit with stray droplets. He couldn't care less about his own safety just then. All he could do was watch the love of his life dissolve to nothing right before his eyes. He didn't notice he was screaming. He didn't notice that a stray drop hit his already damaged arm. The liquid ate a deep hole into the ground where Gray had been standing a few moments ago.
Natsu crawled towards it, ignoring Wendy's warnings. He leaned over the edge, uncaring that his palms burned at the touch. There was nothing. A deep hole, and nothing else. He turned towards Wendy. "H-help him. Heal him. Please."
But Wendy shook her head, tears streaming down her face rapidly.
Natsu snapped, and then everything happened too quickly. His vision turned red, fire surrounded him, he charged towards Bubbles, dug his fangs and claws into any part of his body that was in reach. He was there under him, shouting, begging for his life, but Natsu didn't listen. The next second, Bubbles face turned emotionless and pale while blood from his throat was pulsing over Natsu's hands. He was dead. Good.
In no time Natsu was back at the spot where Gray had... vanished. He just sat there, staring into the hole. Surely Gray would jump from the next tree soon, saying that he'd created a copy of himself with ice and that he was fine and alive. Or that Natsu's mind had played tricks on him, and that he wasn't wounded at all.
He wasn't dead, he couldn't be. There was a hand on his shoulder, patting him. It was Wendy. Then another, on his other shoulder. Lucy. They had tears in their eyes. Erza was behind him. She was also crying. Carla and Happy were also there, crying. Why was everyone crying? Didn't they know that Gray couldn't just die like this? He would never die like this. Never... He couldn't... Surely he'd... No... He wasn't dead, right? He was fine. He'd come back. Yes. There was no way... Why was everyone crying? And why was he crying as well? Why was he letting himself being pulled into Lucy's arms? Gray wasn't—he... he... wasn't...
"Lucy... Why? Why him, w-why did he..."
"I don't know, Natsu, I can't... b- believe it, that's just..."
Her voice choked off. She trembled. He barely registered that Carla said with a shaky voice, "I'm s-so sorry... I didn't see this coming... it was too blurry."
Natsu didn't know what happened anymore. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Gray was dead. Gone. Killed for money. He died protecting Natsu. Natsu had failed to protect Gray. He was weak, useless. He was feeling nauseous—but it didn't matter. Gray had been his everything, his whole world. How was he supposed to carry on? Without the hope of seeing one of Gray's rare smiles ever again. Without the hope of seeing Gray ever again.
Natsu didn't know how long they sat there. Lucy was still holding him, while he still cried. His leg was still gone. Gray was still dead. His vision turned blurry again, but this time he welcomed it. It narrowed down to a circle, then turned completely black.
Natsu awoke with a start, shouting Gray's name. His whole body shook heavily, and he was covered in sweat. Looking down at himself, he noticed that his left leg was still there, and that he was in his own bed. A dream? Was that why he'd had such a strange feeling—had it all been a bad dream? Or had they somehow recovered his leg and put him back to sleep in his own bed?
Natsu was out of the bed and on the way to the guild hall in no time at all. He'd dressed hastily, uncaring that his vest was probably inside out, and that his belt wasn't closed properly.
When he reached the guild hall, he slammed the door open. Sitting alone at a table, staring at him in annoyance, was Gray.
For more information, like cover art, fanart etc. on this story, please visit my tumblr 'Chiyala'/'chiyalawritesrewind' or my AO3 'Chiyala(Shiningangel)' since this site won't allow any links. I will update this once per week, every sunday. Thanks for reading & please leave a review.