So finally, I'm done with everything. I am free! *sniff sniff*

Before I went back to my other stories, I wanted to publish this as a, you know, warm up chapter. Hope you enjoy the ride filled with attempted humor and angst!

Warning: Angst af. Sudden mood changes. You may assume that the story is PMSing.

Disclaimer: I no own. STFU.

Chapter - 1

The Eclipse

21 July X795

9:00 AM

"So," Natsu started hesitantly, placing down the flowers, "Mr. Fullbuster… Haha, it feels weird to call you that."

A month had passed since that fateful day. It was Gray's birthday today. Funny, how their birthdays fell on the same dates of two adjoining months.

"Sorry, I hadn't been visiting you for a few days. I was busy with the preparations of the party." A slight breeze blew through the trees in the graveyard. Natsu sat down in front of the familiar gravestone he had been visiting since the past month. "Lucy even asked me to bring a cake. Me, of all people! I mean… Erza specializes in that field. She loves cakes! Or even Lyon would have been a better choice because he's the brother." He sighed. "I brought a Black Forest one, anyway. So deal with it."

"Natsu," he heard someone call him from behind.

"Lyon. So you come here too, huh?"

"Of course I do." Lyon replied haughtily. "Even if it was a surrogate relationship, we were still related. And there's no way that I won't visit him on this special occasion."

"Anyway, Erza was wondering where the cake was. She expected it to be at the hall half an hour ago."

"Oh crap." Natsu completely forgot! He turned white as Lyon smirked at the satisfying reaction. Natsu turned to the grave, "I'd leave then. I promise I'll be back soon." And with that, Natsu got up and ran off. Lyon smiled sadly and turned at the grave.

"He has changed so much, ne? Reforming him like that in just a day… Even though I witnessed it all, I still can't believe in what all happened that day." Lyon looked up at the sky.

"Only you can do such wonders, Gray."

20 June X795

11:30 AM

When Natsu agreed to play Truth and Dare with Gray, he thought that it would be a peaceful, non – violent game. He expected minor fighting, maiming and disembowelling for dares. He did not expect that he would be standing in the middle a parking lot, wearing a pink tutu.

"Natsu chan,"Gray smirked at the pinkette, stressing on the 'chan' purposefully. That guy even had the nerve to record the annihilation of the pinkette's dignity, on his phone!

"You are forgetting your lines, Natsu chan," Gray urged, totally enjoying the moment of his lifetime. Natsu muttered under his breath, giving off an impression of doing some sort of witchcraft. Oh, Gray was so going to pay for this.

Natsu finally mustered up courage, waved goodbye to his remaining specs of dignity and shouted, "I LOVE HARRY STYLES!"

Oh gods, that was distressing!

Natsu blushed furiously, tapping out of the parking lot in the most ungraceful manner, as fast as he could. He went right into the bushes where Gray was hiding - no, scratch that – where Gray was laughing his ass off. Natsu glared hard at him, looking as terrifying as a pink-haired guy in a tutu could.

After what seemed like an eternity, Gray stopped laughing. "You should be lucky that there was no one around," Gray said, saving the wretched video on his phone.

"No one? I saw at least three people laughing at a distance. And that one over there is probably internally dead from the shock!" Natsu continued whining, pointing at random people. Then he turned sharply at Gray and glared again with a creepy smirk. "You'll pay for this, Gray Fullbuster."

"Yeah sure, whatever," Gray got up and dusted his clothes, "We'll see to that later. Now let's head back before Erza realizes what a disgrace you are to the school." Gray smirked as Natsu grumbled. He turned around and made a beeline to the costume room with the ninja skills he didn't know he possessed.

"Oh!" Igneel grinned, opening the door, "all of you brats are finally here, eh?" Natsu, along with Gray, Lucy and Erza, stepped into the house. "Good evening, Igneel-san. Sorry for disturbing you again," Erza said politely. Suddenly, Igneel enveloped them into a hug. "It's been so long!" He declared excitedly.

"Umm… We were here yesterday," Gray muttered.

"I can't breathe!" Lucy squealed.

"Haha! You kids, C'mon in. Lemme order some pizza." Igneel released them from the death grip and went into the kitchen. Natsu sighed at his father's antics and led his friends to the living room.

"So, Natsu," Lucy started mischievously, "I heard about this guy in the parking lo-"

"Don't even dare," Natsu glared at a certain raven-haired boy who was secretly smirking behind his phone he was scrolling through. Lucy and Erza snickered.

"Natsu nii? Are you home?" A blue-haired little girl asked, coming downstairs. "Hello, Wendy," Erza greeted her with a smile. "Come and join us."

Suddenly Lucy sat up straight, "Oh yeah! What do you plan to tomorrow, Natsu?"

Natsu looked at her, "Huh? What's tomorrow?"

Lucy looked at him funny. But soon, she realized that he wasn't joking and resisted her urge to face palm. "Did you seriously forget your own frigging birthday?"

"My birth- OH! Oh yeah that's right. Umm..." Natsu laughed nervously, "... nothing?"

Wrong answer.

"WHAT?! Are you kidding me! I know you hate parties but I won't allow this. Wendy, bring me a pen and paper." Wendy scrambled off the couch as fast as she could. Even she knew Lucy's bad side was terrifying.

And so, the hours-long planning of Natsu's 18th Birthday Bash began.

21 June X795

10:00 AM

Natsu's Birthday Bash turned out to be a Shopping Spree at the Mall.

If Natsu would have known that his birthday would have consisted of him carrying shopping bags for Lucy early in the morning, he happily would have booked the nearest Raddison Blu instead. And to make his life even more insufferable...

"You droopy eyed bastard!" Lyon screamed, "Look what you've done to my lovely hair!"

"Squinty eyed idiot, you're the one who randomly bumped into me!" Gray retorted.

"Oh please, I'm too awesome to bump into someone like you."

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Erza couldn't make it (thankfully) as she had kendo classes to attend with her boyfriend. But that didn't change the fact that Natsu was left with two bickering brothers and a shopaholic blonde.

Then suddenly, Natsu remembered. He had a game to play! "Hey, Gray!"

"What do you want, dumbass?"

"Truth or Dare?"

Gray looked at him. "Truth."

"Hey! That's not fair!" Natsu grumbled. And being the stubborn idiot he was, he said, "Choose dare!"

"What if I don't?"

"Then you're a pussy."

"Why you... Fine!" Gray made a face. "I choose dare."

Natsu internally did a flip. The moment of sweet revenge was finally here! But in his moment of joy, he never noticed how easily Gray had agreed to him.

"I dare you... to ask Lucy out in front of everyone in the mall." Gray groaned. "Natsu you idiot-"

Suddenly, the building rumbled. Alarms blared inside the building and people started running for the exit. "Shit," Natsu said, "I think it's an earthquake! Gray, we have to… Gray?" Gray stood frozen in his place, his eyes wide with shock. "Gray! What happened? Snap out of it," Suddenly, Gray blinked, as if coming out of a trance.

"What? Yeah. Earthquake. We gotta run!"

"Gray," Gray turned to look at Natsu. "What happened to you right now?"

"Nothing, just… panicked a bit." Gray gave a brief look to Lyon. "We gotta find Luc-"

"Natsu! Gray! Lyon! Thank gods you're all right- Hey, stop dragging me! I can run," Lucy huffed, annoyed by the boys. They went down the emergency exit stairs and were right at the exit door when Gray suddenly stopped them. "Hey Lucy…" "Later, Gray." "No! It's important. Will you go out with me?"

Lucy gave him the most judging look ever. "…Gray Fullbuster, are you out of your-"

"I mean… will you out of the mall with me?" he winked at Lucy and dragged her ahead, while Lucy shouted a bunch of censored words at him which certainly destroyed her aristocratic reputation. Then Gray turned around and smirked at Natsu, who in turn was mimicking Lucy's antics mentally.

When they were finally in the park, Natsu exploded, "Gray, you asshole! You did it again!"

"Gray looked at him innocently, "What did I do?"

Natsu growled, "You changed the meaning of my dare again!"

"Well, it's not my fault that your dares have multiple loopholes."

"Why you-"

"WATCH OUT!" The group turned sharply towards the source of sound, only to see the five-storey mall building explode. They turned around to escape the explosion, only to get haphazardly separated. Natsu ran as fast as he could, but the huge explosion reached him. He was thrown off his feet with the amount of force and then everything went black.

When Natsu came to, he was shocked. Everything around him was in utter chaos. He was lying in rubble. All the buildings around him were destroyed. Everything looked as they would have looked 20 years after the zombie apocalypse. Was it even the same day?

Natsu stood up slowly and carefully. Judging from the location, he was at the exact point where he passed out. The mall was at a distance, still alight with scattered fires. And by the looks of it, it was surrounded by the rescue team. But then suddenly a sense of dread settled down on Natsu. He got separated from his friends!

The pinkette ran around the perimeter, looking for any signs of his friends. He called their names several times but no one was in sight. But then, he heard a distant rumbling. Scanning around, he saw a pile of rubble moving at a distance. He went closer, only to find raven hair peeping out.

"Gray!" Natsu removed the rubble as fast as he could. He removed the raven from underneath the rubble and laid him on his lap. Gray's forehead was bleeding. "Gray! Wake up." The raven groaned and opened his eyes. "What… happened?" He said as he sat up, pressing a hand onto his forehead. "Natsu? Wh-where are the others?"

"I can't find anyone else. You're the first one I could find."

"Then we should continue the search." Gray stood up and groaned. "Gray. You're bleeding,"

Gray gave a hollow laugh, "So are you." When Natsu didn't reply, he said, "Something has happened which shouldn't have happened. Let's go." He ran forward and Natsu followed.

"There!" Natsu exclaimed, "I can see Lucy over there!" After running around the most affected areas of the explosion, the two of them couldn't find any person at all, not even Lucy or Lyon. So, they deduced that their friends might have escaped the explosion (Natsu wondered how) and wandered off.

It turned out they were right.

Gray looked at the building near which Lucy was unconscious. "I can't believe the building is still intact, with the glass windows and all."

"The Apocalypse mustn't have reached here. Let's go get her!" Natsu ran forward.

"Yeah, umm, Natsu?" Gray started hesitantly, grabbing Natsu's attention.

"What's it?"

"Let's split up." Natsu stared at him. "I mean… I'll go search for Lyon and you see to Lucy, okay?"

"Hey, we can go check on him with Lucy. Don't worry! Lyon must be all-"

"Just do as I say." Gray snapped.

Natsu stared at him strangely, "Are you kidding me?"

"Oh c'mon, Natsu, you know it would be quicker! And then we would get out of here and…" Gray sighed and looked away. Natsu narrowed his eyes, "Gray, from the moment the earthquake occurred; you've been acting all suspicious and fidgety. What's going on?"

For a moment, Gray didn't reply. Then suddenly, he asked, "Truth or Dare?"

"Huh? Gray, don't change the topic."

"Just answer me. Truth or Dare?"

Natsu looked at him quizzically, trying to find out what the raven was trying to achieve with this untimely request. "Dare." As Natsu saw, Gray visibly relaxed.

"Then I dare you to go check on Lucy without looking back."

"What? GRAY-"

"I am not repeating myself, Natsu."

"But what kind of a stupid dare is that! This is not a game, Gray!" Suddenly, Gray tensed up the way he did only while playing basketball, when he would sense someone coming towards him with him having the ball.

"What… what happened?"

"On the day of the eclipse, every living soul should know…"

Gray and Natsu stood there frozen. "What was that? Gray, did you hear that?"

Gray looked at him with wide eyes. "You… you heard that?"

"Of course, I did! What's so special about it?"

"… I was right, then."

"What? Right about WHAT?" Natsu was sure now. He had never been this puzzled in his life, not even in maths class!

And Gray did nothing to clear it. "Just go."

Natsu turned towards him sharply, "Gray I swear to gods I'll-"

"Please!" Natsu's eyes widened. Gray had never sounded so… so tired in his life. Moreover, he had never pleaded Natsu.

"I… I promise I'll explain everything to you later. Just, please go now." Gray's eyes were hidden behind his bangs. "And promise me that whatever happens, you won't look back."

Natsu couldn't comprehend what happened after that. He heard himself say, "I promise." And the rest of it was a blur.

He remembered running towards a fallen Lucy a mile away, feeling an ominous presence behind him. He remembered kneeling beside her. He remembered waking her up and seeing her stare wide-eyed at whatever had been happening behind him. He remembered her crying her eyes out. He remembered Lyon's pained wails from afar following the dreadful, horrific scene unfolding behind him.

He didn't have the guts to turn around. It all happened in mere seconds. He didn't want to see, but his eyes defied him. He didn't want to comprehend, but his brain refused to forget.

What he absolutely refused to remember was the scene in front of him, as he wanted to forget it forever. He remembered Gray's screams. He remembered his blood everywhere. He remembered him being taken away by his cold-blooded murderer. He remembered that evil laughter. He remembered them disappearing into thin air. He remembered seeing everything through the reflecting glass panes of the intact building.

And most of all, he remembered himself kneeling there, frozen, unaware of the tears escaping his eyes. He sat there as the ruthless scenes were displayed by the mirrors. He sat there unable to do anything to stop his best friend from getting murdered. All because Natsu had made a promise he shouldn't have made.

"On the day of the eclipse, every living soul should know that Gray Fullbuster is dead."

End of Chapter 1

So... yeah. Skipped the description cuz it it would be included inb the later parts of the story. And I absolutely despise reading copy-pasted shit so I ain't gonna do that either.

Someone told me once that my writing is weirdly poetic, which may or may not be a good thing. Is that true?

Feedback would be appreciated!

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