No one saw it coming. It was planned to be just a simple mission to get money for rent and food. It all happened too fast. It all ended too fast.
It began as a normal day at the fairy tail guild: Natsu, Lucy, and Erza were all looking at the request board for something with a good reward. Strangely, Gray had to yet appear at the guild. No one thought much of it, it was still before noon. They finished picking out the mission to go on for the next day and decided to sit and relax for the day.
The day continued on and the rest of the guild members came in and out, doing their daily routine; some staying at the guild and others going on missions.
The day began to come to a close and team Natsu started to worry. Gray never came in that day and never has he not come to the guild without a notice.
"Maybe he got sick unexpectedly?" Lucy said to the other 3 members of the team.
"No that can't be it. That ice prick can't get sick no matter what." Natsu said, even though he was truly was worried internally. Worry and fear swooped even more over the team.
It became night time too quickly and only a few members of the guild remained.
"Someone should go check on him." Erza states strongly. It's quiet for a few seconds until Natsu speaks up.
"You all go home. I'll check on him." No one really said anything after that other than Natsu telling happy to head home without him.
The street towards Gray's house was dark and silent.
"Stupid Gray, making everyone worry about him. Making me worry about him.. He's probably just in bed perfectly fine. Yeah.. Perfectly fine." he whispers out loud, failing to convince himself.
The fire mage approaches the dark house. Not a light was on nor were there any sounds coming from inside. Only one dim light emerged from a small window. Fear swirled around inside him. Something wasn't right.
Natsu went to knock on the door, but when his hand made contact with it, the door opened.
'The door would never just be opened..' Natsu thought. Fear and worry both swirrled inside of him again, causing his stomach to drop as he entered the home. Only one light was on, coming from the bathroom. The light was dim, coming from under the door. He approached the door and finds that it is locked. He waits outside on the couch to see if Gray leaves the room.
About 10 minutes later, the house remains silent. Natsu walks towards the bathroom and nocks on the door.
"Gray? You in there?" Natsu says quietly. The room is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Then he heard something. A short and quiet hitched breath. And that's all he needed. He began to bang on the door.
"GRAY! OPEN UP!" He yells while hitting the door. No response. Natsu broke open the door and looked around franticly.
"Gray?" There was no sight of the ice mage. He was about to leave when he felt a light breeze. He whipped around and saw a open window near the ceiling with a box on the ground. "Damn it, ice bastard!"
Natsu looked out the window and saw no trace of anyone. He sighed and moved to the door. When he opened the door he was met face to face with a familiar ice mage.
"Gray?!" he yelled
"Natsu?! What the hell are you doing in my house?!"
"What am I doing here? You never showed up at the guild! I came to check on you."
"Well obviously I'm fine so you can go home now." Gray states coldly. Natsu was a little taken back by the tone of his voice.
"Well then what was that noise in the bathroom? I thought I heard breathing?" Gray went and turned the light back on in the bathroom.
"There. Nothing is wrong other than I forgot to close the window. You probably heard something because you're tired. Now. Go. Home." The fire mage hesitated for a second, but turned around and left.
"Oh and by the way! We have a mission tomorrow, so don't be late!" He yelled outside the closed door. As expected he was never met with a response and so he went home.
The next day was all the same and normal as before. All of team Natsu was there except a certain ice mage. Natsu thinks about the night before and begins to worry. They were all about to go leave to get him when he strolls in casually.
"Hey, sorry I'm late. I had to do something before I came."
"What the hell, Ice princess! Where have you been?" Natsu yells, failing to hide the worry in his voice.
"I wasn't paying attention to the time, okay? Geez, at least I'm here before the train left." Natsu was a bit shocked at how calmly Gray had replied.
"Nice to see you again, Gray." Erza says to him.
"Yeah, you too." Hey replied casually, "Now we should get going to catch the train." Natsu gulped at the word train. He imediantly regretted picking a mission that require travel by vehicle. Gray noticed this and took a quick glance over with worry, but quick enough to go unnoticed by the others.
When the train began to move, Natsu immediately felt sick. Him and Gray were sitting on one side, Lucy and Erza on the other. Happy was on another mission with Charle and Wendy. The train ride would be 3 hours long to get to the village.
'3 hours of misery for him..' Gray thought while glancing at Natsu, pity in his eyes.
"Gray, if you want to swap seats, I can knock him out." Erza states.
"No that's okay. I think he's actually asleep." Gray replies looking over at Natsu.
About an hour into the ride, Everyone had fallen asleep. Gray had leaned his head against the wall and Natsu ended up with his head on Gray's lap. When the girls woke up, they saw the boys' positions. They looked at each other and shrugged.
When the train came to a stop. Natsu was still asleep, so Gray carried him on his back to the inn they were staying at for the night. On the way, Natsu had woken up, but he didn't want to be released from Gray's arms, so he kept quiet and went back to sleep.
They eventually arrived at the inn and got they're room keys, Lucy and Erza in one room and Gray and Natsu in another.
Gray carefully placed Natsu on his bed and put the blanket on him, then he sat on his bed and began to think.
'How am I going to tell them what happened that night? Maybe I can just keep it to myself. I just have to hope no one brings it up.' Gray looked over to the sleeping figure in the other bed. 'Why did I have to fall for this idiot? If he ever found out..' He flew back to lay on his bed out of frustration and landed with an "ugh". He figured that he should get some rest before meeting with the mayor of the town in an hour. He realized how tired he really was and fell asleep before he could get comfortable.
About 45 minutes later, Natsu woke up and looked around. He saw that he was in bed with a blanket covering him. He slightly smiled and looked around for his roommate for the night. He saw him sprawled out on his bed, obviously uncomfortable. Natsu quietly got up and put Gray into a much more comfortable position, covered him in a blanket, and gave him a couple pillows. Luckily, Gray was in a deep sleep, so he never woke up. He made his way to the bathroom to freshen up a little bit and when he opened the door, Gray was sat up on his bed.
"The girls came in a second ago." Hey started, "they said to come down to the lobby when we're done getting ready." The two finished getting ready and made their way to the lobby.
"Thank you for coming," The mayor began, "So as you probably read on the request, your mission should be fairly easy. We are just asking for you to find the group of bandits and catch them. Once you have caught them, please bring them to the towns jail." He handed Erza 5 pairs of magic restraining hand cuffs and they went out to complete the given mission.
The 4 decided to split up and search around the town to see what they all could find. Erza and Lucy went around to ask to townsfolk about the last times the bandits had attacked. Gray and Natsu went around to places the bandits had previously attacked to search for any clues.
Nothing was said between the fire and ice mage. Occasionally one of them would glance over at the other, but nothing was said. About 2 hours into the search, still nothing was found.
"Maybe we should split up." Gray said. This made Natsu jump slightly. They were walking out of another place with no clue found. They were in an abandoned, dessert-type area of the village. Natsu looked up and around and saw that they did still have probably 10 houses to fully search through. He was hesitant before answering yes.
Gray went to the end of the row of abandoned homes and started on the left side to go back and forth and Natsu continued from where they were. They made it through all the houses except one that they both ended up at.
They went inside and it was definitely the creepiest of the houses. There were no windows and small holes in the walls. It was dark inside so Natsu lit a flame. There was dust in every corner. The 2 mages looked at each other before continuing to walk around. Natsu walked around the main area and Gray went inside the rooms.
When Gray went inside the bed room, he saw a small folded paper on the bedside table. He unfolded it and his blood ran cold at what was inside. The letter read 'If you don't want us to hurt your little comrades, be at the beach that lays outside the village at 12 am sharp tonight, ice mage. And don't think of telling that fire mage. Remember, we're watching'.
Gray looked over at the unsuspecting fire mage in the other room, sighed, then folded the paper back up and put it in his pocket.
The two finished up in the house and headed back to the meeting spot to meet up with the other two fairy tail mages. When they came together, Erza and Lucy both shook their head. Natsu sighed and shook his head as well but then spoke up,
"I have smelt something strange ever since we left that last house. Gray?" Gray stiffened up slightly but tried to relax to not show any suspicious signs. This, however, did not go past Natsu. "Did you pick anything and or bring anything you found?"
"If I found something, I would have told you, ash for brains." Gray replied, semi-harshly. Lucy could feel some kind of tension building up and did not want to deal with those two fighting and and angry Erza, so she decided to say something.
"Maybe it's just the smell of those old buildings. Let's go back to the inn for the night so we can get some rest and freshen up. We can start back up tomorrow again."
"Lucy's right," Erza said, "It is pretty late already." The group of four headed back to the inn and split up to their separate rooms.
"I'll use the bathroom first." Natsu said before walking into the restroom. He needed time to think about things that had been happening lately.
Outside, Gray looked at the time and realized that he needed to leave soon to be at the beach by midnight, knowing the beach is an hour away by foot. He double checked to make sure Natsu was still in the shower, then left.
Natsu stepped out of the bathroom to see a sleeping figure under the covers of the bed. He believed Gray was asleep and went to lay down. That was until he realized it was colder than usual. He slowly made his was to the ice mages bed, the air getting colder as he got closer.
"Gray?" He cautiously lifted the blanket up and saw a version of Gray made of ice. He ripped the blanket off the bed and looked at it in shock. Natsu bolted out of the hotel room to inform the girls on what he fears may be happening. He told Erza to contact Wendy on the lacrama to get help.
Gray looked up at the dark, calming sky. He knew what was coming, but he accepted his fate. He then heard foot steps coming from behind him. He looked down at the ocean in front of him to take a calming breath before turning around.
Natsu's feet stompted hard on the ground as he ran towards to beach. He found a note on his way out the door. It was what he had smelt since they had left the abandon part of the the village. He read it and immediately ran out the door.
Natsu knew that he had an extremely low chance of making it to the beach on time, but he wouldn't give up. 'I will not let another person I love be killed. I still haven't gotten a chance to tell him how I feel.'
Gray was face to face with his enemy. He refused to let the fear show on his face. The moonlight shined down on him. His enemy smirked at him, knowing his victory was certain. He held up his wepon of choice. A gun with a special kind of bullets. Bullets that releases a poison that makes the victim go unconscious for a certain period of time. The man's magic was not as strong as it should be for a good time length, so the poison would only last for 20 minutes.
Gray stood straight and closed his eyes. He heard a chuckle and then a boom from the gun.
Natsu's eyes widened when he heard a shot. This made him speed up. He was still a good twenty minutes away. He already was going at top speed and there was no way he could get a magic using vehicle at this hour. All he could do now is hope that Gray was okay.
Blood was everywhere. A magic drawing cuff was on his wrist. His body was unconscious on the ground. Shagged breath cane from the body. His opponent stomping his foot impatiently.
"This cuff better hurry up. I need to get all his magic energy before he dies." Gray was bleeding out quickly. There was nothing helping him and he couldn't even help himself. "It really is pathetic you know. You sacrificed yourself just because I threatened to hurt your pathetic comrades. Ha. They're not even here to-" He was cut off by a flaming fist hitting his face, causing him to fly and hit a near by wall.
Natsu ran and eventually made it to the beach. His blood ran cold at what he saw. Gray, bleeding out, unconscious on the ground with a magic draining cuff on his wrist. His expression hardened when he looked over. He saw the man who had done this to the man he loved. Anger piled up and Natsu knew exactly how to release it. He charged straight for the man, a fiery punch hitting him strong. National charged, once again.
"Fire dragon's iron fist!" The attack knocked down the man, but Natsu didn't think it was enough. "Fire dragon's roar!" The opponent was taken down, now unconscious on the ground.
Natsu was immediately snapped out of his anger when he heard loud cough and shallow breaths coming from Gray's behind him. He immediately rushed to his side, unknowing of what he should do.
Gray opened his eyes and saw the fire mage looking around and trying to find something he could do to help. Gray grabbed both of his hands, causing Natsu to look into his eyes.
"Natsu.." Gray began.
"I-it's gonna be okay." The fire mage said, stuttering, trying to not cry. But it was too late. Tears were already pricking at the corners of his eyes. Gray shakily put his hand on Natsu's cheek.
"I always wanted to tell you, Natsu."
"Gray, you can't waste your energy. You need to save it for healing."
"Natsu, you and me both know that I won't be healing. Please Natsu, listen to me." Natsu looks at him with tears falling from his eyes. "I've wanted to tell you something. I just never wanted to tell you with the embarrassment of possible rejection." This caught Natsu's attention. "I love you, Natsu." I took Natsu a second time process what he said, but then it clicked in his head. Gray looked down and sighed, "I knew it wa-" before Gray could finish, and pair of warm lips collided with his. His eyes widened, but then he eased into the kiss. Natsu pulled away after a while.
"I love you too, idiot! Now you can't die on me!" Natsu yelled with tears streaming down his face.
"Natsu.. I'm sorry.." and then Gray's hand slipped from Natsu's face.
"Gray?" Natsu said looking up at his face, "Gray?! Please no. No! GRAY! PLEASE, WAKE UP!" Natsu crashed into Gray's now non-living body with a hug.
Days passed since that tragic night. Then weeks. And that turned to months. The once cheerful and lively dragon slayer now never left his deceased lover's home. No one could get through to him. Not even his best friend happy.
Natsu stopped eating. He no longer had any desire to live. The man missed his love and eventually, it became too much for him when to bare.
The next day, happy went to check on Natsu again but was met with only a note that read,
'The river at which we used to fight and play. It was our special spot. I will meet you there my love. Love, Natsu.'
Happy knew what this ment and he flew straight to the guild.
There now is a memorial there at the river. In honor for the two lost fairies that always made the guild so lively. With Natsu's loudness and cheer and the warm welcoming-ness from Gray, no matter how cold he seemed, gone, the guild was covered with gloom.
No one saw it coming. That year, the guild lost two of it's most important fairies. A team lost two important members. And things were never the same there again.