A/N: Hey guys! So I thought it would be a cool idea to make a collection of oneshots with holiday themes, and here it is. So that does mean there will be a oneshot for Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, etc. and they will come out near their actual days. Some will be AU and some won't, just kinda depends on how I'm feeling about it and what would fit well.
Notice: The old Holiday collection got deleted because of some, let's just say, "technical difficulties". Anyways, don't mind that too much.
Halloween Special: Gray, Erza, Natsu, and Lucy decide to go to the old house that was said to be haunted and belonged to the deceased old man Makarov for their annual Halloween Dare. What will happen in this old mansion? Is Erza scared? And does anyone know where Natsu and Lucy went? Modern AU
Pairings: Natsu/Lucy and Gray/Erza
Happy Halloween everyone!
"So, what's it gonna be Lucy?" A pink haired boy asked impatiently, wanting to know the blonde's decision.
"Uh… I don't really know, I've never done this before…" The blonde scratched her head, trying to come up with what to do.
Natsu, Gray, and Erza all had a tradition where every Halloween they would take turns coming up with a dare for all three of them to do. The only rules were that the dare had to be scary and to win, you had to be the last person at the place. Last year, Natsu suggested that they go to Tartaros Graveyard, where it is said to have demons that lurk around there at night. Long story short, Natsu and Gray went running for their lives when they saw a bush shaking, which ended up just being Erza eating strawberry cake during dare time. The scarlet girl had won the Halloween Dare tradition every year since they started it 7 years ago. Somehow, Erza was never phased by anything that ever happened at any of the dares. But now that the three of them got to be friends with Lucy since she just joined their college, they practically forced her to be a part of the "fun".
They all decided that Lucy would get to choose where they go this time since it was her first. There was a place she had in mind, but she honestly didn't want to go there so she didn't want to say it. But the blonde was having trouble coming up with any other place, and besides, her friends would be there also so how bad could it be?
"Alright, I know where we should go. The Makarov Mansion. I heard that the old man that lived there died in that house like 50 years ago. From what I can tell, nobody has been near that place since then." Lucy provided some background info on the place, and she felt a small chill just thinking about it.
"Yes. The Makarov Mansion. A short, old man with the name of Makarov Dreyar lived there once. It is said that his son and later, his grandson, tried to leave him because he was acting strange but they ended up going missing. That would be the perfect place to go Lucy." Erza had clearly known some history regarding the old house, and just as clearly wasn't at all afraid. Although, knowing more about its past made Lucy, and definitely Natsu and Gray, skin crawl just thinking about going there. Natsu and Gray had already known about that old mansion, everyone did. But nobody had ever tried to go there since the owner died. The boys thought about trying to talk them all out of going, but knew that Erza would force them anyways.
"Well," Erza stood up "let's head on over there while the night is young". She looked over at Natsu and Gray who were so pale you would think they were already dead, and grabbed them by their shirt collars forcing them to come along anyways. Lucy trailed behind them wondering, If they all hate doing this so much, why do they even do it? Maybe because Erza just makes them.
The towering black steel gates that made the entrance of the Makarov property were broken in many places and no longer served as much of a gate. The four walked on in, pushing the metal out of the way, producing an eerie creaking sound. It would be pitch black outside, but the full moon created plenty of light to see around. All of the trees that surrounded the mansion were dead and the leaves on the ground blew with the breeze. Gray and Natsu were now walking with their own will, with Erza leading the pack.
Two large, ebony doors lay between them and the inside of the house now. The scarlet girl pushed them open, revealing the enormous interior of the mansion, with all of its antiquities and furniture. Erza stepped in, clearly still not at all phased by anything, followed by Gray and then Natsu.
The latter called back," Hey Lucy, you comin'?".
"Y-yeah… sorry, I just thought I saw something". The blonde quickly caught up with the group, but couldn't get what she knew she saw out of her head. She could have sworn she saw a silhouette in one of the windows, and she knows she saw something move when Erza opened the doors up. Lucy decided against telling the rest of the group, hoping that it was just the wind. There's no way anything else would be here, right?
The place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Erza led the journey through the house, followed by Gray, with Natsu and Lucy trailing behind. They wandered around, "hoping" to encounter something scary, it was Halloween after all.
The four walked through the hallways, noticing strange looking paintings on the walls. But nothing had really happened yet, despite the creepy aura the mansion was giving off. The entire time there so far was relatively quiet, with the occasional creaking in the floors and the wind blowing the curtains, both of which scared the crap out of Natsu, Lucy, and Gray every time.
Erza finally spoke, with some impatience in her voice, "Everyone stop! The floor in front of here is weak, it might brea-"
Gray was spacing out and didn't quite hear what the redhead said. "The floor did wha-" The onyx haired man bumped into the scarlet haired girl in front of him, not realizing that she stopped, and pushed her a little forward. The floor underneath Gray and Erza gave way, and the two landed into a sub-floor of the mansion.
After all of the dust that was kicked up cleared, it was seen that Gray was on top of Erza, his face buried in her chest. The positioning of the the two was... a bit awkward to say the least. The redhead, noticing where her friend was and, to make matters worse, seeing that his shirt had come off at some point during the process of the fall (making him look even more like a pervert) , shoved him off of her slightly embarrassed and very angry at what happened.
"Are you stupid? I told you to stop and you went and pushed me down here!" Erza scolded as she dusted off her blouse and skirt.
Gray stood up, delirious from both the fall and the sudden push from his friend. He rubbed his head, "Oww, I'm sorry, alright? I was just spacing out because I was getting bored by how completely not scary this place is". Gray said the last statement as an excuse for what happened and a reason to sound like he wasn't scared.
"Oh, that must be why you always hid behind me whenever the wind blew through the windows or when you heard the floor creak." Erza claimed, sarcastically. The raven haired man felt humiliated, there was nothing he could say to that because it was true.
Natsu and Lucy almost fainted from surprise when the floor broke, but at least they were able to stay on the first floor. Natsu called down, feeling a little worried now that Erza wasn't with them (a bit ironic, but true) "So, what do we do now?"
"Well, we will just have to continue in pairs. You and Lucy continue to look above ground, Gray and I will stay down here." She replied, motioning for Gray to follow her.
"A-are you sure? 'Cause I think that we could, y'know, come down there with you guys… and they're gone" Natsu's voice trailed off as he noticed that the redhead and her partner had left.
The pink haired man turned back to Lucy, who was constantly looking around, obviously very paranoid. "Looks like it's just you and me Lucy!" He claimed, trying to sound as brave as possible, because in reality he was very scared. Lucy wouldn't be able to fight off any ghosts, at least not like Erza probably could, if ghosts were even real.
Gray trailed behind Erza like he did before they were split from the rest of the group. The redhead was slightly annoyed by this, she just really didn't like it when people were behind her. "Gray. Stop falling behind and get up here with me. Unless of course, you're too scared to…"
With his pride on the line, the shirtless man sped forward to catch up with her, determined to not let her see that he was actually very scared. "What? Pssh. I'm not scared, maybe you're just scared so you want me to be close to you."
Erza stopped immediately. She turned to Gray, a death glare on her face. "I'll give you something to be scared about." He was sweating bullets, and gulped, "Sorry! I'm the one scared here!"
Satisfied, the scarlet haired girl turned back to wandering through the seemingly endless maze of hallways in this underground part of the mansion. They had just turned another corner when Erza stopped abruptly. The hallways had an eerie silence to them, different that the usual silence. Gray was alert, wondering what he did this time. But she didn't stop because of him.
"G-Gray… What i-is t-that…?" Erza's voice was shaking and her hand pointed to a figure standing no more than 20 feet away. Gray's eyes widened in fear.
Natsu and Lucy wandered through the part of the mansion that made up the living areas, jumping and screaming at every little noise.
"What are we even doing here anymore? Let's just ditch this creepy place and go home. I don't really feel like dying today." The blond claimed, she didn't care if she lost the bet, which speaking of, she had no idea what you had to do if you lost it. But that didn't matter to her, she just wanted out of this place!
Natsu felt the same way as Lucy, but he didn't want to lose to his stripper friend, who he knew was still in because he was with Erza. "No way! You got me here, what's there to be scared about? I promise I'll protect you if anything scary tries to get us." The pink haired man smiled at her with his normal and genuine smile, which caused the blonde to blush slightly and feel a bit reassured. He himself even felt a little better knowing that he could at least sound helpful to a friend.
In the midst of this happy moment, a small figure went sprinting across the room, between Natsu and Lucy and knocked over multiple pieces of furniture along the way. Both of them bolted out of the mansion, yelling "get her" or "get him" or "I don't want to die". Well, they both lost the bet equally.
"G-Gray… What i-is t-that…?" Erza's voice was shaking and her hand pointed to a figure standing no more than 20 feet away. Gray's eyes widened in fear.
The figure moved closer, and strange, inhuman sounds could be heard from it. This time, Erza hid behind Gray, who was frozen in place, unsure what to do. Two bright red orbs shined towards them, and high-pitched sounds were produced.
Believing that this would be the end of both of them, Gray began to speak to Erza. "H-hey, uh Erza. If we don't make it, I want you to know that I, uh, always loved you."
"Gray, I, uh…"
The following events were not gruesome, or painful. Instead, Gray and Erza were blinded by a bright light. Gray squinted, and saw a flashlight being pointed in his face.
"Man, what the hell are you guys doing down here" A husky voice called to the two, "And why do you look so scared?"
Realizing who it was, Erza had shot up immediately and regained her composure. She tried to make what she did look completely normal and act like nothing happened. Gray, on the other hand, did a terrible job of doing so. He had seriously been scared for nothing, and he just confessed his feelings to Erza because he thought it was a life or death situation.
The redhead spoke to try to appear indifferent to what had happened, "We should be asking you the same thing" she stepped in front of Gray, "What are you doing down here Gajeel?"
"Well, I was just here with my metal detector, looking for some iron or gold or something, minding my own business, and then you guys come out of nowhere like you own the place". The man replied, clearly annoyed by his confrontation.
"That's it though, right?" Erza questioned, impatiently.
"What do you mean that's it?" Gajeel was sincerely confused.
"We just came out of nowhere. You didn't see anything else, right?" Erza needed to know if he saw her hide behind Gray, if he had saw, she wouldn't hear the end of it.
"No. Did you guys happen to see a black cat?"
Relieved, Erza sighed internally, and replied "No, but we will be going now, you can continue your little… search".
The redhead turned around and began to stroll back the way she came, with Gray following close behind. Once Gajeel was nowhere to be seen, the air between the two was very, very awkward. Neither wanted to start a conversation, not wanting to bring up what happened. But Erza knew she had to settle things with him, fully aware that Gray had seen her hide behind him. And that wasn't even the beginning of it, she heard every word that he had spoken before they were about to "die".
"Gray." She stopped, with the black haired man following suit "Just so we're clear, I didn't hide behind you, and nobody needs to know what happened back there".
Gray, trying to stay as normal as possible simply replied "Sure, and anything I said down here, stays down here." He really felt stupid now for confessing to Erza.
"Alright" Erza moved on, "but we do need to talk about that, just you and I".
Gray could feel his face heating up, man I really wish she didn't have to keep talking about it. "Yeah, uh, I didn't really mean to say that, y'know, people say crazy things when they get scar-"
He was interrupted when he felt lips crash into his. Gray's heartbeat increased so drastically he thought it was going to explode. His eyes were wide in surprise as he realized he was kissing Erza.
The moment they shared was brief, but it felt like an eternity to Gray, who wished it had lasted that long. Erza's cheeks were stained a faint red, and she turned back around to lead the way out of the mansion. Gray was speechless for a second, and when he had gathered himself together, the redhead spoke "Remember Gray, what happens down here, stays down here~".
Gray smiled as he caught up with Erza, it was still very dark outside, but they were clearly outside now. The two came up to the gates where it all began, and found that they were wide open, an obvious sign that someone had come through there in a hurry.
Erza smirked, "This must be the doings of Lucy and Natsu".
Gray scoffed, amused that he had beaten his rival. "Yep. And we are going to win that bet against them." he walked past the gates and turned back around to see Erza still standing there. "C'mon Erza".
"Correction, I won. I was the last to leave." the scarlet haired girl walked out of the mansion property line.
"No no no no no. Erza, that's not fair…" Gray whined. He knew she was technically right, and there was no point in arguing with her.
Erza stood proudly in front of Lucy, Natsu, and Gray, "Well, as you can see, I won again. And you all know what that means."
Lucy was a little worried, seeing Natsu's and Gray's displeasure with what was to come. "Uh, Erza? What exactly do we have to do?"
The redhead raised an eyebrow, "Oh you don't know? Whoever wins gets to tell the losers something to do and they have to do it. Now, I'll start with you, Natsu since you were one of the first to leave." The pink haired man gulped. "You have to go with Lucy to the theater and watch the scariest movie you can find."
"Really? That's it? Alright Lucy let's go!" Natsu was happy at how easy the task was, although he was a little suspicious as to why she was being so "kind".
Lucy was thinking the same, but she openly asked it. "That's it? Don't you think you could come up with something better than that? I mean, you could make him do so many other things."
Erza looked at her and smiled, "Well, let's just say that I'm feeling generous today. Unless you want me to change it... "
"Nope! It's a great idea! Let's go Lucy!" He grabbed the blond by the hand and sped off with her to the nearest theater.
It only left Gray and Erza alone. "And for you, Gray. You have to take me out to that new cake shop, I hear the strawberry cheesecake there is to die for!"
Gray laughed, amused by how much his friend loved the pastry. "Alright, but as long as you don't get too scared when we get outside, it's still Halloween after all."
Erza punched him in the arm playfully, "Let's just go now, lover boy".
A/N: Yay! Happy endings! So, all of the holiday specials will have a happy ending, because it's a holiday, so its gotta be happy!
Side note: Sorry about not making the story have any real scaryness(?) I tried to write it like that, but I was having trouble doing it so I just made it lighthearted. I gotta have some happy stories to balance out the angst in the other stories I do. Speaking of which, I will continue writing my other two main stories now.
I'm glad to have made this collection, and am happy to have you guys along with me in these specials! If you have time, leave a review! I love to get them! :)
The next holiday is Christmas, if you guys have any suggestions for it, feel free to write it in a review or PM me!
-AP
