Amnesia

-Fairy Tail-

-A-

"You two should go out."

Natsu choked on his drink, blushing; spit and pop flew. Across the table Gray's head fell off his hand and his chair dumped him on the floor.

Lucy scowled. "I was being serious, you two would make a cute couple."

The team was sat at a far table in the main room, thankfully away from prying eyes, or ears. If one member had heard what she had to say the two targets, Gray and Natsu, would turn into the laughing stock of the guild. Or worse. They would agree with her.

"Listen, Lucy," Gray started, using the table as leverage to get him off the floor. "Me and Natsu hat-t-" Abruptly cut off by the titan across the table, the ice mage returned to his seat to sulk.

"I think it's a good idea, you two would be adorable together," voiced the air dragon-slayer.

Lucy beamed down at Wendy, proud to have her idea approved of by somebody. "Thank you. What about you Erza? What do you think?"

The red head picked up her glass, twirling the ice around. "It's up to them. Something like this can't be decided lightly." The blonde sighed. If Erza didn't approve then immediately one had lost the race. "However, I do believe that you two have something to work out."

"Something to work out?" Gray scowled at her from his seat. Natsu just blinked quizzically.

"Indeed."

"I know," Lucy spouted. She probably hadn't heard what Erza had said at all. "Why don't you two go on a mission and sort this all out. We girls are going on a spa date and this way you guys can have something to do."

She sounded too proud of the idea, and to her credit, Gray did seem to be considering it. Probably for the second reason, Natsu decided. Eventually he shrugged and looked to Natsu for his two cents – something he probably wouldn't have done if Erza wasn't sitting there too.

His mouth split into a grin. "Sounds good to me."

-A-

Gray slouched in the cabin of the train; Natsu slouched farther. The only difference between the two was that one was grinning.

"Why did we have to take the train?" the fire mage moaned. His hand was draped loosely over his stomach, which tossed and turned greatly thanks to the momentum of the train. He couldn't even feel the train move. Somehow knowing that it was moving was enough. That was probably the sole reason he could still talk.

"Because Erza insisted on it. So we could get there faster."

He sounded weary. Natsu couldn't blame him. The reason why they were coupling this mission – both used that term loosely – had turned taboo the minute they had left the guild room.

To be fair, it depressed Natsu. At twenty he had never though of dating and for a second, the second it took for a blush, one that Erza had noticed, to appear and fade, he had considered it. He still had yet to dismiss the though. Gray was his equal, more than just brothers-in-arms. They had history. Both mages had been through the worst and each one had clung to the other's side with an amiable confidence that they would do better together then alone. That and Gray's stripping habit was a little hard to ignore.

Natsu's pondering worried him slightly. He had been pondering it when they picked out the mission, that had resulted in him blindly saying yes to the first one Gray had offered.

Maybe it would be good to-

The train gave an unhealthy lurch, sending the pink haired mage to the window. Thank god, they were almost there.

When the train slowed to a stop, Natsu all but collapsed onto Gray. The ice mage didn't seem to have the patience to wait for him to recover, lifting the woozy mage onto his back and dragging him out the door; all without a word.

"You have no idea what this mission is, do you?" Natsu shook his head meekly. "Fine. I'll book us into a hotel before explaining it to you." Dumping the fire mage roughly onto the ground, the other quickly vanished around the corner.

At this point Natsu had recovered. Mildly. He could see straight and his stomach didn't constantly vault over any other organ, even if his legs and arms had turned to gum and remained so. So he settled with looking around. Most of the things were typical of a city, however small. Oshibana was a place they went to a lot, the dragon slayer was used to the smells and sounds – none of it excited him like it did Lucy.

One thing, however, was new. There was a man passing out fliers, and dancing to his own beat. Children laughed and cheered. Several words in those cheers caught his attention, they were repeating them over a over again; "read my mind."

"Natsu, come on. I need you up to speed on the mission today, not next week."

The dragon slayer looked up at his partner, noting his sour demeanour before pushing himself to his feet, plus a few complaints. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'," he scowled.

Mission, as it turned out, was cheap and reaped a low profit. But it was enough to take some time off their hands – which was probably why Gray had picked this one. And it involved researching quite a bit, something that Natsu despised. People though he was just a fight-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy. They were right.

It also involved a lot of people in the hospital. Even though these cases were never serious they all exhibited common symptoms. Though the symptoms where never disclosed. The culprit, however, had fallen off the police's radar over the last few months. That was why they posted out the notice, Gray explained. They didn't want to waste time on someone small scale so they left it up to the guilds.

Night dripped on and Natsu stared at Gray. The ice mage was poring over the files of the case, exposed back muscles flexing whenever he encountered something frustrating. The mission was unbearably vague. They had no leads.

Suddenly, Gray threw a stack of blank papers at him. They met his arms and fluttered to the floor. "What the hell?"

He snapped to his feet, glaring down at the... the son of a bitch. Gray just looked coolly from the seat. "Do some work. The faster we get this done the better."

His arms spread, he barked, "Where do you get off-" He reached to grab the other, who bated his hand away.

"You've been lost in some fucking void the whole day. Do you even know what we're supposed to be doing? I told you but it probably flew straight through that empty head of yours!"

Natsu snarled. Gray mimicked. The fire mage snatched the ice mage's collar, slamming him to the wall.

He froze. They were close. At that distance he could taste the other's breath, it was sweet and chilled, like ice cream. He wanted to-

Gray pushed him back and he fell limply to the floor. His face was red. He knew it was red because it felt warm, uncomfortably so.

"The hell is wrong with me?" Gray repeated, mixing up Natsu's words. "The hell is wrong with you? I ask you to do a little work and you go off your head at me like a savage! Did you think that you could..."

Natsu grabbed Gray's hand, letting the ice mage's sentence drift into silence. The way Gray didn't flinch when Natsu used him to pull himself up was commendable, Natsu wasn't light, after all. In seconds, however, Natsu wasn't just rising, he was moving in. His body seemed like an independent being and his movements felt sluggish and disconnected. So when Natsu kissed Gray and everything snapped into focus...

Gray didn't pull away at first. It was only when Natsu attempted to wrestle his lips open that he moved, shifting into a more beneficial position in order to keep his closed. It was Natsu that ended up pulling away first.

The fire mage paused, took one look at Gray, and ran.

-A-

When Natsu stopped running he had no idea where he was or how to get back. Buildings stretched to the sky and impaired his sense of where. He huffed and puffed his breath back, a slow and monotonous process that had his diaphragm trembling.

On the plus side, here, in the middle of nowhere, it was silent as the grave. It gave Natsu the peace he needed to really think about what had just happened; about why he ran so desperately.

He'd kissed Gray. And it was a good kiss too. Not the half-assed peck on the cheek that Lucy always read about.

However, he still couldn't face Gray. What would that man think? What would he say? He didn't seem repulsed by it, after all. But that didn't mean that Gray could accept him.

He growled. "Why'd I have to fall for an ass like Gray, anyway?"

"I wouldn't know."

Natsu snapped around, eyes wide. Behind him was a man, a familiar man, with long, pulled back hair, and bright, child-friendly eyes. His clothes were equally bright, all reds and blues and golds. He was... He was that man from the street.

"This Gray fellow, he seems like a fine young lad, to have caught your interest, hm?" he continued, semi-circling Natsu before taking a seat atop a trash can. The dragon slayer simply blinked back at him.

"Y-yeah. I guess he is." He was fine; loyal, and stubborn, and skilled, but he was also arrogant and pompous and self-absorbed and-

"Arrogant, pompous, and self-absorbed are the same thing, m'dear Natsu."

What? Natsu only thought that. He was sure he did.

For a second, a brief second, the man's eyes flashed killer. Natsu smelt blood on his breath.

Then it was gone and he was all smiles again. "You're not the only mage here, my dear Natsu. My magic allows me to read minds, just like yours allows to you to summon and eat fire. Though mine is only useful in a fight if one has the muscle to back it up."

His grin broadened. "I do."

He got up in sauntering jerks. "I know why you're here, boy. I read it in your friend's head earlier and decided that I couldn't get rid of you soon enough."

The fire mage gaped at the man. He didn't actually know what to think. The man's admittance to his crimes was almost laughable but his power was freaking the young man out. Even now he was nodded approvingly along to each one of the mage's thoughts.

"Son of a bi-"

He launched himself at the target, fists ablaze in dragon fire and rage whipping across his face. A brilliant, brief, dizzying array that the man sidestepped easily. The mage skidded to a stop, pivoting around to glare venomously at Mind-Reader-What's-His-Name.

"Taggart, Roy Taggart," the other supplied. Natsu fumed even more.

Taggart took his turn, pushing himself off the wall behind him and hurdling toward Natsu. He attempted to duck, but Taggart's mind reading intervened and the culprit crashed down on top of him. His skull smashed off the sidewalk, the flesh splitting and spilling blood.

"Believe it or not," the man rambled, already, he was on the other side of the alley, hands folded mockingly behind his back, "I have killed many people. I was just smart enough to hide them. Others I wanted to be found; I'm not heartless. I wanted good husbands and children to have someone to bury even if the victim was bad."

"Ba-?"

"Yes indeed. You see, I killed naughty people. I figured it would help me sleep better at night, even though my intentions were not to seek justice. Just wanted to make the most out of it." He paused, took a step back, and began etching something in the sand with his toe. Lines looped in and out of each other and forced Natsu's gaze away; the concussion already had his head spinning.

"Come to think of it," he continued. "You and your boy toy will be my first so-called 'innocents'."

Gray!

The thought, the very idea, of this man going after Gray set fire to his blood.

He spat flames. Dragon fire decorated the alley in bright, flickering orange. Cardboard burned and walls were painted black, but to no avail. When the flames died the man was left standing there without the smallest of smudges marring his body. Natsu blinked smoke out of his eyes.

But when he opened them the right one wouldn't go. His fingers lifted to it in a slow, disbelieving haze, only to find the surface of his lid covered in the sticky substance. It ran thick and fast down his face, quickly filling in the corner of his mouth and making his vision waver at the loss.

Then came the sharp call of footsteps pounding on cobblestone, then gravel. As Natsu stumbled he felt Gray's, unmistakably Gray's, strong arms wrapping around him. They pulled him to the side while the owner muttered worried curses under his breath. "You run away for five minutes and already you're..."

"Sorry, let me rest a bit and I'll finish what I-"

"What you started?" Gray finished. Taggart had mercifully fallen into silence. "For christ's sake Natsu, I can see your skull." His hands tugged at Natsu's vest, rattling it and him in some endeavour to shake common sense back into him.

Natsu tried to rise and Gray all but shoved him back. His head brushed the wall and blossoms of white hot pain took root behind his eyes. "You sit, I fight, we'll talk about what happened at the hotel after."

"Don't worry Natsu ol' boy, he likes you."

Natsu's attention snapped to Taggart, but Gray was already charging, ice stalking him in violent spires. The ice mage's heal hit the ground just before Roy and he shifted his stance, hand peeled back as Taggart stood there. He still hadn't moved when the contraption below Gray, the contraption he had built seconds before the other mage arrived, took effect.

The alleyway filled with white and Natsu\s world went black.

-A-

The mage woke to the white view and clean smell of a hospital room. His head was throbbing and half of his forehead felt leaden. Whenever he shifted he could feel the gauze coating his head shift with him. The bandages were thick with dried blood. Someone would have to change them soon.

Slowly, determined, the fire mage sat up. He hoped to see Gray; he hoped to tell the ice mage off for stealing his fight and for hitting him with those papers. The only thing in sight, however, was shiny hospital equipment, white-washed walls, and the glossy sight of a figure seen through foggy plastic.

Natsu stood. His world tipped. The concussion didn't seem to agree with him standing up and he stumbled left, then right. Finally he gripped the side of the bed before and froze until the dizzying wave passed. When it ebbed he straightened and inched his way around the curtain.

There lay Gray, pale as a ghost and sheathed in hospital clothes. His entire visible body seemed devoid of wounds. There wasn't even the tiniest paper cut. That being the case... Why was he in there?

The fire mage stumbled to Gray side, taking a seat, feeling the bed buckle under his weight. Two of his hands grasped two of Gray's shoulders, shaking lightly. The ice mage stirred.

"It's about time," Natsu scowled, like he had been at it for hours. The ice mage just looked at him quizzically. "I've been trying to wake you up for a while now. What are you doing in here? Y'don't look hurt."

Gray blinked, his face blank, hinting at curious.

"Who are you?"

A/N: I had the urge to write a oneshot. So I asked my Beta, Miyu, if she had any story prompts; she grazed me with several. 6 pages and 2700 words later and this is one of them, it even came with a song which you can find at her story. It really played no roll in the creation of this one. Though its a gorgeous song :P

I'll say that Miyu did not get her hands on this one. So she couldn't save it from the thousands of mistakes in it. I apologize ^^" I didn't even reread it.

Reviews are welcome; constructive criticism is very welcome :D