So, if you're reading this, thank you for deciding to read this story! I know it's not much, but I'd still like to know what you think of it. This technically isn't my first story I've written, but I haven't used this site in quite a while, and I'd like to get back into writing for pleasure. I'm going to apologize in advance it I put any terrible cliches in, but I had this idea in my head for a long time now. Onward with the story!

"No! Grey!"

Natsu screamed as he looked on, horrified at the sight before him. Grey Fullbuster fell to the ground, in flames. Natsu didn't know what to do as he saw Grey writhe on the ground, before violently laying still. Still in shock, Natsu stared at the ice mage, before finally snapping to action, desperate to get the heat of of his friend. Immediately setting to work, he tried to cool the mage down. He ran to his fallen friend, and tried to swallow the flames burning him. He choked on it. It tasted of flesh and rot. "No! It doesn't matter! I need to get this off of him, no matter how disgusting it is!" Trying again, he successfully guided the flames away from his friend, doing his best not to gag on the flames as their horrid taste ran over his tongue.

After sucking down the flames, Natsu gritted his teeth. Now came the hard part. 'I need to get that oil off of him. It's still burning him! This isn't good. This isn't fire, so my skin will be vulnerable to this... No! Now isn't the time to think of this! I need to get this off of him!' Making his decision, he reached his hands over his friend, and scooped up as much of the burning oil that he was able to. He clenched his eyes shut. This was the first time he had actually felt his skin being burned, and it hurt like hell. He scraped his hands on the grass, wiping the oil off, and getting ready to scrape more oil off. He did so, this time hurting worse than before. He screamed, and scraped the oil off again. He repeated this process over and over, all the time asking himself where the hell the others were. Five minutes passed, ten minutes. As if by miracle, a rain drop fell, then another, then a whole drizzle fell on the pair. Natsu stopped, and watched as the rain began to wash away the black liquid covering Grey.

Natsu felt relief, watching as the oil dissipated off of his unconscious friend. Then as Grey's skin became visible, reality was all too kind to give the dragon slayer a great smack to his face. Grey was completely covered in vicious skin damages. From head to toe, he was covered in scabbing, and on some points of his body, there wasn't even any flesh covering him.

Natsu stared at his friend in shock. 'No... I thought... This wasn't supposed to happen. I tried to save him, but... Oh god, this is all my fault...' He clenched the ground, not blinking, unable to tear his eyes away from the horrific sight. He kept staring at Grey. He felt tears sting the corners of his eyes, but made no attempt to stop them from falling.

It didn't take long for Erza and the others to find the fire and ice mage, after hearing Juvia's story of Natsu and Grey. Erza personally didn't believe what she heard, but knowing that Natsu and Gray still haven't arrived at the meeting point, it was probably best to search for them; after treading through the forest the two mages had ran into initially, she arrived at a clearing, and seeing a pink head, ran to join with Natsu, with Lucy and Juvia following behind her. She stopped short, looking at the sight before her; Natsu was keeling over a crisp of a person, which she had just barely recognized as Grey, judging from the little amount of clothes he still had on him.

Erza spoke with a stern voice. "Natsu..." No response. "Natsu. Say something." Still nothing. "Natsu... What happened?" He didn't even turn his head, gave no sign that he even heard her. She walked up to him, and punched him in the back of the head. "NATSU! ANSWER ME! DID YOU DO THIS?" She recalled Juvia's small story to the rest of the group.

Erza slashed through the last water demon, watching it fall apart, and splash on the stone ground beneath her. She was glad the demons had caused this damage- it meant Fairy Tail couldn't be blamed for causing the wreck, since it was this way when they found it. Lucy had to force close Taurus' door - again- to make sure he didn't cause any more embarrassments over her body figure again. Suddenly, Juvia had just ran into her. Erza looked at her, a little surprised. "Juvia? What are you doing here? You didn't come with us on this mission. Didn't you say you were staying at the guild? And what's got you looking so terrified?" Juvia wasted no time in response, looking horrified at something, but of what was unknown.

"E-Erza! It was horrible! I-i-i was fo-following Grey after y-you left, and I saw him in th-the forest and... Oh god it was terrible!"

Erza spoke back, "What was it?"

"I s-saw Grey was on f-fire, and N-Natsu, just sat there and ate th-the flames!"

Erza was in disbelief. "That's ridiculous. Don't say stuff like that."

"B-but it's true!"

"It can't be."

"I'm not lying! If y-you don't believe me,th-then go look y-yourself!"

Erza sighed. "Fine, but if this is a lie, I don't want to hear, anymore of this ever again. Understood?"

"It's my fault..." Came a small whisper. Erza leaned down beside Natsu. "What are you saying?"

"I lit him on fire... He's like that because of me. It wasn't supposed to do that..."

"What wasn't supposed to do what?" Erza didn't like this conversation. Natsu didn't do this, right?

"It was supposed to save him... not harm him... He was right, I shouldn't have went out..." Came the muted voice.

Juvia's eyes widened. She took off in a sprint, and tackled Natsu to the ground. She screamed, "You lit Grey on fire purposefully? Why did you hurt my Grey-sama? You evil bastard!" She began punching Natsu like a training mannequin, pounding on him until his face had began to bleed. And still, he did not make a sound, and did not resist the attack, rather just lying there and taking the blows. Erza ran up and pulled Juvia off of the fire mage. "Enough!" This had just brought Juvia to more tears.

Natsu rarely talked anymore. He had stayed holed up into his house, only allowing Happy to visit him occasionally, that is, whenever Happy went to the house. He hadn't eaten anything within the time after Grey's hospitalization. That was what... a week ago? He had tried at least seeing Grey, but the glares received from everyone at the guild told him he wasn't allowed to.

Happy sometimes came to his house, but know even Happy felt the need to stay away. He would occasionally go to their house, and he would inform Natsu of the status of Grey... and had made sure that he told Natsu he still defended him whenever someone talked ill of the fire mage. Most of the time, he tried to get Natsu to at least say something, but nothing seemed to work anymore.

A knock resounded at the home's door, but Natsu made no effort to get up to open the door. The knock at the door was repeated, this time with the accompanying opening of the door. Natsu had just barely registered the sight of Erza in front of him, telling him that he was requested at the guild. He mindlessly got up, and made his way to the door, following the scarlet haired warrior.

The guild had been much quieter in the past few days, to say the least. In fact, everything seemed to change. Cana even had cut back on her ridiculous amount of drinking, falling in the same pit of depression everyone else had. They all felt confused at the thought of the past weeks' events: How is it even possible that Natsu would even do such a horrid thing to Grey?

What few people murmuring to each other had stopped with the opening of the door, and the arrival of Erza and Natsu. The latter had looked a lot worse for the wear, due to his lack of eating, and kept his head down, although he could still feel the glares burning into him from the rest of the guild. Upon command, Natsu looked up to see Makarov, and beside him, he could see a few other wizards, and from the way they were dressed, ha guessed they were probably from the council.

Makarov's face was devoid of any emotion. He looked at Natsu with blank eyes, and Natsu could just barely focus on that look. Makarov began to speak. "Natsu, according to other Fairy Tail guild members, you had severly endangered the life of Grey Fullbuster by setting him on fire, and devouring the flames that spawned from this action, correct?"

Natsu nodded.

Makarov stated, "You must surely know the appropriate response for this type of action."

Again, he nodded.

Makarov sighed. "Rule One: Never give information that gives a disadvantage to Fairy Tail to anyone." Natsu felt a pang. He knew this was already coming, so why did he feel so sad?

"Two: Never meet a previous customer for personal gain."

Was it because he was loosing all of his friends? No, he knew they already hated him probably... Then was it...

"Three: Even if our paths differ, you must live life, as long as you are still strong."

'Is it because now, I can never make up for my mistakes?'

"Natsu do you understand and swear on your life to carry out these rules rules to their fulfillment?"

He nodded, feeling himself begin to cry once again. Makarov responded, "Then I am sorry, you are effective immediately removed from the guild of Fairy Tail." After saying this, the council members walked up to Natsu. "Natsu Dragneel, you are hear-by arrested for the charges of knowingly harming a fellow guild mate, and the attempted homicide of said guild mate."

Natsu really couldn't explain what happened after that. He saw the anti-magic cuff about to be put on his wrists, and he turned and ran. Before anyone could chase him, he jumped in the air and began shooting fire from his sandals, firing off, moving faster than anyone else could. He was already past the horizon when the other council members began chasing him.

I'm sorry if this story seems crappy to you, but I haven't written in a while, and I still wanted to see if someone still liked my writing. Please let me know how you thought of it. I'd really appreciate it.