Gray cradled his head in his hands. He felt empty, he felt like crying, but more than anything he felt tired. Very tired. Natsu would just not shut up. Sure, normal Natsu wasn't the quietest, but at least he shut up when he ran out of things to say.

"—and you would not believe, you would not believe, what she said next, she was all like, she was totally like, arrogant, and she said—"

Gray had always found Lucy's complaining annoying but she hadn't got anything on Natsu right now. What had Gray ever done to deserve this? Oh yes, that's right, he'd been the last to hurry through a lame excuse and leave. Even Happy had ditched him.

It wasn't like he could leave Natsu alone, Sod's law, he'd probably take a turn for the Emo and start— Gray didn't even want to finish that thought.

If only Natsu had been a little cleverer, a little less naive. Then he would have travelled to the next village to eat or had eaten mushrooms, or had waited out the law-enforced fast, but he wasn't clever or sensible. So he ate the first food he found in the town, a gypsy woman's potion she'd left for airing. Now his personality changed violently every fifteen minutes. Boy was he tiring.

"Gray?! Gray are you listening?!" Natsu was suddenly nose-to-nose with Gray, his large, doubting black eyes like pools of swirling dark water all Gray could see.

"Um—er...?" Gray felt a prickly heat snake up to his face. Come on, pull yourself together, you're a Fullbuster! You have a 50-50 chance! "...yes?"

For a moment, Gray thought he'd answered right. Natsu's eyes dilated slightly, only then to expand and fill with tears. His chin wobbled slightly, and he screwed up his face and brought his hands up like a shroud to cover them. "I hate you Gray Fullbuster! I hate you! I hate you!" He shot out the door, slamming it savagely behind him.

Gray raced after him, tugging the mangled door open, and darting after him. God, he was such an idiot.

Natsu wasn't difficult to find, curled up on a tight ball alongside a slow-flowing stream, autumn leaves falling quickly around him. Gray just had to follow the sound of theatrically loud crying.

Gray flopped down beside him. God, how was Natsu not out of breath, he had just ran across the whole of town. And how the hell did he manage not to collide with any walls or other people. Gray almost had on five different occasions, and he'd been able to see fine.

Gray had no idea how to deal with anyone crying. Nobody really cried at Fairy Tail much, and if, on occasions, they did, nobody expect Gray to comfort them, that was always Mirajane or Levy or Lucy. Nobody really expected Gray to do anything but fight and offer support, eat, and complete missions.

Natsu continued to cry, and it hurt Gray to look and hear him. He wanted to leave, but he knew he'd regret it if he did. What the hell was he so nervous about? It was easy, he'd seen Mirajane do it loads. Gray crawled over to Natsu and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him closer, until they were pressed against each other, Gray sandwiched between Natsu and the tree.

Natsu seemed to quieten down after that, snuggling into Gray and burying his face in his chest like a kitten or a puppy. How on earth Natsu could calm down from distraught to contently asleep in a matter of moments was beyond Gray.

But Gray was tired. Really tired. He fell asleep just as easily.

Gray woke up when the back of a hand connected his he jaw. His head snapped back with a sickening crack and smashed into the tree behind him. Natsu was scrambling out of his arms, a mess of fists and feet, his foot hitting Gray in the chest and knocking the wind out of him easily, shoving him into the ground. Natsu stamped on Gray's hand, Gray gritting his teeth harshly on instinct, grinding them together.

"Don't you ever," Natsu's voice was nothing like his old one, it was layers and layers of posion and loathing and hate, hurting Gray's ears, "Don't you ever, ever do that to me again, Faggot." Natsu's foot shoved into his chest again, to in force his point. "Got that?"

Gray coughed and smirked, earning himself a blindingly painful kick in the groin. Damn his smartass face. He nodded slowly, his brain finally taking charge.

Natsu stood on his for a moment longer as a kind of warning, before levering himself up and stalking off, his shoulders tense and his face suddenly all sharp angles and hatred.

Gray sat up once he'd got his breath back, wincing as his chest spiked up with pain. "Fuck," he groaned breathlessly. He really should've seen that coming, what with the 15-minute thing. After a few moments, he pulled himself up with a branch-stump that belonged to the same tree that gave him a pounding head-ache that felt like every time his head pulsed a hammer slammed down on it. He wobbled. In another fifteen minutes he'd go looking for Natsu, but right now his presence near him seemed to do more harm than good.

"Graaaa~aaaay~sama~" A voice floated through Gray's door (which still looked like it'd gotten forcefully cherry-knocked by the Hulk.)

"Go away Juvia, I'm tired..." Gray said sleepily. He was curled up on the sofa, staring at the wall, waiting for fifteen minutes to pass.

"But! But I've got caaa~aake!" She sang. His traitorous stomach decided that now was the time to decide it was hungry. It grumbled and growled at him. He felt like having a go at it but he didn't want to seem like more of a sociopath.

Gray rolled off the sofa and opened the mutilated door. Something flung itself at him neck, tight arms wrapping around them, dangling from them like the heaviest necklace ever. He was about to shove the person off, but even though he didn't have as good a sense of smell than the owner, he knew it well enough.

"Damnit Natsu," Gray cursed as said boy dropped from his neck, "You don't even have any cake."

Natsu pressed himself to Gray suddenly, a hungry look in his eyes. His hot hands slid up his back and pulled Gray against him until their heat mingled. "Aren't I better than cake?"

"No." Gray shoved his knee into Natsu's stomach, gently but definitely firmly shoving him to the floor. "Cake is always better than sex."

Natsu's eyebrow quirked upwards. "It's so obvious you're a virgin."

"It's so obvious you are to." Gray growled, stalking into the kitchen.

"So you ARE a virgin!" Natsu yelped, pulling himself up and bounding after him like some lost puppy.

"Of course I'm a virgin. Who on earth would I have slept with?" Gray picked through his cupboards in dismay. He wondered if he could risk going to the guild for food, whether the risk of Natsu possibly embarrassing him further was worth the definite possibility of starvation. No way.

Natsu tilted his head to the side, considering this. "Loke?"

"Loke...?" Gray asked curiously.

"Loke."

"Loke?"

"Yeah, Loke."

"You've got to be kidding me. According to you I can't have any friends without them being Fuck Buddies."

Natsu's eyes twinkled when he smiled. "Not gay friends, no."

"Wait, Loke isn't gay!" Gray answered sharply, fishing out a very, very old packet of peanuts and inspecting them.

"Of course Loke's gay. Jesus it's so obvious."

Gray binned the moldy peanuts. "Really? But he likes Lucy."

"True. Maybe he's bi."

Gray snorted. "Admit it you're just guessing now."

"Only if you admit it." Natsu's smirk had never been this evil before. He had a wicked glint in his eyes, like light catching a blade.

"Admit what?" Gray started to look through the cupboards again. He'd never envisioned a time when he couldn't go to the guild for a meal so he had absolutely no provisions.

"God you're memory sucks. You didn't even deny it, you are so gay. So gay in fact, it rhymes with your name," Natsu continued to stare at Gray with an expression that seemed hungry.

"I'm not gay and I'm not having this argument with you, flame-brain. If I'm so gay and Loke's so gay, then you're gay too. You have a scarf for god's sake, and your hair is pink," Gray narrowed his eyes at him.

Natsu smiled. "You're right, I'm gay." Okay. That was just not the thing you say as an answer. Gray sat on his ankles, attention lost on the open cupboard as Natsu moved towards him, smoothly and silkily as a snake stalking its prey, and just as deadly.

His eyes, that had always been so expressive and as easy to read as his face, were close and clouded with an emotion he had never seen before, a tone that was dark and dangerous but oh, so tempting. Natsu's hot breath ghosted over his jaw. His voice was just as silky, just as smooth, just as deadly and tempting. "Will you have sex with me now, Gray Fullbuster?"

"Damnit Gray! We could have made hot, sweet love on the cold kitchen floor and you have to go and be a pansy, pathetic ice mage!" Natsu yelped from inside the ice-make cage, his arms flailing between the bars. "Why the hell would you do that?!"

Gray felt he might as well humour him with an answer this time. All this yelling might make him horse. "Lots of reasons. Because you might change personality half way through and beat the crap out of me and that's something I'd rather not do, because you'll definitely regret it afterwards, but mainly because, oh yeah, what's that? I don't shag just about anybody who comes through my door who's horny enough to try and chat me up. Especially if they lie about having cake."

"Don't be like that, Gray! I'd chat you up even if I wasn't horny!" Natsu said sympathetically.

"You're so sweet," Gray said sarcastically. "You make my teeth ache."

Natsu paused in his exclamations. "Are you trying to chat me up?"

"No."

"But—but that was a pick up line!" Natsu said happily.

"Why would you get with someone because they told them they made their teeth hurt?"

"Why would anyone get with anyone just because they said a cheesy pick up line?" Natsu asked, all the anger and indignation going out of him in a huff as he plopped down.

"I don't know, there are some pretty cute ones." Gray sat down, his chest starting to hurt from earlier. He pulled forward the collar of his shirt. There was a rather large boot-shaped bruise. He let go of his collar and sighed.

"Oh yeah?" Natsu shuffled closer along the perimeter of the cage, his eyes large and curious.

"Well," Gray sighed, moving closer despite himself. "If I had a star for every time you made me smile, the night sky would soon be empty."

Natsu leaned in, closing the gap, slowly, slowly. His breath brushed Gray's jaw line and gently, gently, his lips pressed his. Not enough to be bruising or to reopen Gray's split lip or for it to feel anything more than unnaturally comforting warmth against his lips, like he'd had a warm drink or a mouthful of spicy food.

It was comforting. Not forceful or domineering or geared to hurt like anything else had passed between them. It was gentle, and it was... nice. Very nice. Gray leaned in just a little bit, only for Natsu to jerk back in a moment of wild surprise.

"WHAT THE HELL DID I EAT?!" Natsu yelled, tangling his fingers in his hair, he glanced wildly around, trying to work out where he was.

"Aaaaand he's back," Gray sighed, putting a finger to his own lips. It had been nice, though. Very nice. Might try it again some time.

Everytime I finish one story I'm like, "Don't you dare come back, plot bunnies. I already did one. Go away." But they never listen. Aaaaaand I love this one too! It's my most original so far. OF COURSE it's dedicated to all of those Mary-sue/Garry-Sue/Woman-with-dick fics that hang around everywhere. You never fail to make me laugh.

So what do you guys think? Should I continue this Fic?