It's Friday? Really? I am so sorry about that. I know this was supposed to be up on Tuesday, but I was just so, so tired due to work that I was barely able to move. Going through the text just wasn't just an option, unfortunately. I hope you will forgive me.
Warning: mentions of blood during this chapter
Two figures stood in the guild infirmary, their postures stiff, as they were both preparing themselves mentally. Other to hear a truth – however cruel it may be – and the other to tell it.
The younger finally opened her mouth and asked the difficult question, "what's wrong with him?" The older - and very much smaller – locked his gaze with her's before answering, his expression grim, "It's a curse."
"What?" The red-haired girl asked, wanting to confirm if she heard correctly.
"Someone cast a curse on Natsu so that his body would kill himself in some way. You said he tried to drown himself? That was probably because of the curse," the older, Master Makarov, explained. Erza's mouth turned into a thin line as her brows furrowed tightly.
"So that means... Natsu wasn't trying to kill himself..."
"Right," Master replied.
"But what about the bleeding?"
"It was also due to the curse. All the blood inside his body focused into his wound until he almost bled out."
Erza couldn't say anything, feeling that her armor was too tight. She thought that it was too cruel. Who would want to cause so much pain for someone like Natsu? What had he done to deserve it?
"Same things will continue to happen unless the curse gets lifted. We have to do something quickly before something happens that we aren't going to be able to prevent." Erza nodded and replied, "I should go and tell Gray about this."
Just when she was about to leave, she heard a whimper. She turned to see the pink-haired boy shifting in his sleep on the infirmary bed, his expression looking pained. Erza walked over to his side and saw sweat running down his tanned skin, which was more pale than ever. She found herself brushing Natsu's hair in affection.
'Why do you have to go through all this?' she thought.
"... Gray..." the boy then whimpered, causing Erza's hand to stop and pull away from him. She got up and turned away from the boy, knowing where she had to go.
–
"Are you serious?!"
"Yeah." Erza told me with a serious tone.
I sighed. It was hard to believe that Natsu was actually cursed. It explained a lot of things, and most importantly it meant that that Natsu wasn't suicidal. Remembering that the curse was still on the boy I sat up more upright in worry. Even now, Natsu was in danger.
"Erza, we have to break the curse!" I shouted, causing her to put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down.
"Calm down. I have a plan."
"What plan?"
"I think it will be hard to get to the one who made the curse, so convincing him to break it isn't an option. We have to find another way to-"
"-So you know who cast that curse?" I interrupted her, my voice louder than I had intended it to be.
Erza was silent for a moment before answering, "It's probably the man who beat us up during the mission. I woke up just before the guild came to rescue us and I saw the man stabbing Natsu. I think that there was something wrong with that blade so that's probably when-"Erza turned to look me but couldn't continue her sentence as she saw the expression on my face. I was so angry that I knew that my face must have scared her. I just couldn't control myself any longer. That man was behind it all!
"G-Gray..?" Erza asked carefully.
"So he did all of this..." I hissed angrily. "First, he hurts him emotionally so he refuses to talk to anyone and now he wants to take his life. I'll kill that bastard." I knew that my words unlike myself, but I felt like my anger wouldn't disappear until I felt the cold corpse of that man in my grip, draining all life from him. I would kill him, I swore to myself I was going to do it.
Erza's tone was alarmed as she tried to calm me down, "Calm down Gray! I know how you feel, but we can't kill the man even if we would want to. He's imprisoned right now. We'll find another way to save Natsu."
I noticed that the temperature in the room had dropped due to me getting angry, my magic responding to it by cooling everything around me. I breathed in and out, trying to focus on the most important thing – saving Natsu. "What are we supposed to do then?" I asked.
"I'll go and talk to Porlyusica, she probably knows something about curses and how to break them."
"Right. I should come too," I said and got up, only to be stopped by Erza's voice.
"Wait. You have to stay here."
"WHAT?! You expect me to just sit and wait?!"
"I'm not saying that you need to stay in your apartment, I'm saying that I expect you to stay in town and protect Natsu," Erza said. I understood that it wasn't just a suggestion, it was an order.
"You have to stay by his side. He's weak right now and if someone isn't by his side always he may give up to the curse. It's the most important job anyone could have right now," Erza continued, resting a hand on my shoulder. It wasn't like she was giving me a task that she didn't feel like doing. She was giving me a task which she felt like she was unable to do. Knowing that she trusted me to keep Natsu alive, I felt confidence and my usual cool return inside of me.
"Yeah. I'll keep him safe."
-Natsu's POV-
'It's so dark. I can't see anything,' I thought as I tried to feel my body. I felt numb and very strange. I couldn't really tell if it was a nice feeling or not.
'Where's up and where's down? Am I supposed to be going somewhere?' I wondered and tried to look around myself, only to find darkness all around.
A door then appeared in front of me. It was pearly white and had a golden doorknob. It almost felt like it was calling me, and it felt strangely familiar.
'Right, I was supposed to go in there.'
I found that I could move my legs and so I walked towards the door before I opened it, expecting to see something nice and familiar, but what I found was something completely different. It was horrible.
There was blood everywhere. It colored the walls, which I didn't even know existed, as well as the ground in front of me. It was so dark, yet why did the red color shine so brightly?
I lifted my gaze more to find figures over the red puddles, completely unmoving. It took me a while until I could accept the fact that the figures were people that I knew. They were my friends.
"Lucy! Erza! Gray! Happy!" I shouted and tried to run to them. Then, a figure appeared before me, forcing me to a stop. It was him.
"You were too late... You couldn't save them..." he said in a cold, emotionless voice.
"No! That's not true! It's not-" The man cut me off before I could finish.
"It is... You're useless..."
"No.." I only managed to breathe out the weak objection as I saw a lifeless hand on the floor from behind him.
"You are and you know it..."
"SHUT UP!" I shouted and the man disappeared. I panted as I glanced back at my friends. They were still the same, unmoving, bloodied.
I ran to them and knelt down, not caring that my white pants were getting soaked with the thick liquid.
"Oi, everyone! Wake up!" I shouted and suddenly they all pushed themselves up.
"You're okay..." I breathed out in relief but when I saw their injuries, I realized that they weren't fine at all.
"Natsu...How could you do this to us..." Lucy said and walked closer to me. I couldn't help it as I took steps backward.
"We trusted you... And you betrayed us..." Erza said this time, copying Lucy's movement.
"I thought you promised that you would protect us...Natsu..." Happy said. They all walked towards me and I honestly felt scared of them. I didn't understand why this was happening.
"I-I-" I tried to utter you, but suddenly I was being thrown to a wall by my neck. I gasped and saw Gray holding me up with a furious look on his face.
"G-Gray...I-I'm sorry...I'm so sorry-"
"Cut the act. You never really cared about us. Admit it, you have always just been wishing that we would disappear from your life." I shook my head in desperation. "N-no! That's not-"
"I hate you Natsu. To the extend that I want to kill you." Gray's grip on my neck suddenly got tighter and I couldn't suddenly breathe anymore. I tried to gasp for air but it was useless. Still, what hurt the most right now were his words. 'I hate you.' They echoed inside my mind and soon, tears fell down my face uncontrollably.
Maybe it was really better if I gave up? They all would be happy if I was gone, right?
All the strength seemed to disappear from my body. Gray's angry face was still right in front of me, but it was blurred because of my tears.
'Goodbye...Gray...'
"-su!"
'Huh? Whose voice is that?'
"Natsu!"
'It's calling me. Who is it? Just leave me be. I just want to disappear...'
"Wake up you idiot!"
I finally opened my eyes.
The long dream had ended and it had left me shocked and broken. My eyes were raw and my cheeks were wet. I had been crying. A lot.
Then, a face appeared before me.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice filled with worry.
I wondered at his words for a while, trying to think why he would ask me that. Then I remembered the dream.
Gray was here. He hated me. He was going to kill me.
I quickly turned away from him but I wasn't going to run. If he wanted to kill me, he could do it.
"Natsu...What's wrong?" Gray asked with a gentle voice. It was strange. He was supposed to be angry.
"Sorry, I forgot. You can't speak right now, can you?" I didn't move at all. I wasn't going to answer him.
"Did you see a bad dream? You were crying..." I pushed my lips. I really wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him how scared I had been and how weak I felt, but maybe it wasn't a dream and Gray was still the same.
Suddenly, he touched my cheek to wipe the tears away, causing me to flinch away from him in fear. But when he suddenly lifted me up and pulled me into a hug, I couldn't help it when a few sobs escaped. Gray gently stroked my hair and kept me close.
"It's alright. The nightmare is over already. Whatever you saw, it wasn't true. No one is blaming you," he told me with a soft voice. But how did he know about the dream?
I pushed myself away a bit to look at Gray. He saw the look of puzzlement on my face and gave an understanding smile.
"Was I right? I was just guessing. You have been worried about that for such a long time so it's no wonder you get nightmares..." He looked worried again. I wanted to tell him that I was fine now, but no voice came out.
"It's okay now. I'll stay by your side from now on and when you're all better again, we'll go to missions again together." He sounded sad. What was going on?
I felt confused. Gray held me tightly in his arms and I didn't try to fight back. He buried his head to my shoulder and took a deep breath.
"You have to fight it... You have to win against it..." If I was confused earlier, this made me even more confused. I wanted answers.
I couldn't speak, but I knew that Gray would understand me. So I pulled away from him again and gave him a look that I wanted to know what he was talking about.
His face was twisted in sadness.
"Natsu...You want to know what's going on?" I nodded furiously.
"I understand," he said and patted my head. I felt like he was treating me as I child and I pushed my lips together in annoyance. Gray smiled at this, but it didn't reach his eyes. Now I was the one feeling sad.
"Well... at the lake... you weren't really trying to drown yourself, right?"
I gave a hesitant nod, feeling a bit embarrassed. It wasn't really my fault that he had misunderstood, but somehow I felt like I had been dishonest.
"After you collapsed Master found something out." Gray looked at me and I knew that he was reluctant to continue.
"Natsu you..." Gray's face was filled with worry and sadness as he swallowed. "You are cursed."
It felt like someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water over me. A curse? I must have looked shocked since Gray pulled closer. He looked at me worriedly but decided to continue.
"The curse is controlling your whole body. It's trying to kill you in any way possible and I have no idea what's next. First the drowning, then the massive blood loss.."
I didn't know what to say (not that I even could). I looked at my hands but suddenly they didn't feel like my own anymore. 'The curse is controlling you whole body...' The words rang inside my head. I suddenly felt sick and dizzy.
"Natsu, are you okay?" Gray asked but I couldn't answer him. I knew that something was inside me and I wanted it out. Right now.
I could hear my heartbeat. It was so loud.
Thump, thump, thump
I couldn't hear Gray's voice anymore. Only the sound of my heart could be heard.
'Get out, get out, get out of my body!' I thought loudly. Gray was shaking my shoulders but I was too concentrated on trying to find the curse inside of me. I couldn't even hear him calling my name over and over again.
'Get out!' I shouted inside my mind. I knew something, or rather, someone was in there.
"No way..." a voice then said teasingly inside my head. It echoed through my whole body, making me feel even worse than earlier.
"I promised to show you hell... So sit back and watch the show as I take control~!" he sang inside my mind.
'No! No! Stop it!' I would've shouted if I had my voice and held my head. It hurt. Every little thing he said.
"Natsu, get a grip!" Gray shouted and shook my shoulders once again.
I knew I had to do something. I tried to imagine him inside my mind, running around.
Then, I imagined him running inside a maze and finally coming to a dead-end. Then, I imagined a huge gate being dropped behind him, leaving him trapped.
As the painful feeling was disappeared in a flash, I collapsed into Gray's arms. I felt exhausted. Gray held me in his arms gently and I felt safe there. I didn't want to move from my comfortable spot, and I was grateful when Gray pulled me even closer.
"Was it...the curse?" he asked. I gave a tiny, tired nod.
"Damn it... What am I supposed to do?" Gray said and gritted his teeth. I knew that he felt frustrated and I somehow wanted to tell him that it was alright. So, I gripped his shirt and buried my face in his chest.
'Just stay here. Don't go anywhere,' I thought, knowing that even if I had had my voice, I wouldn't have voiced those words.
Gray gently stroked my hair and I could sense that he was calming down.
"I won't go anywhere. I'll stay with you." Those words made me very happy and I lifted my head to look at Gray. I gave a smile as big as I could and suddenly Gray bent over and kissed me.
First, I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. But, his lips felt nice. I felt my face heat up and my eyes closing on their own. Gray pulled me closer and I gripped his shirt even tighter. Then, he deepened the kiss and I clumsily answered it. We stayed for a while before Gray broke away, both of us panting slightly. His face was red, just like mine.
"I-I'm sorry! I just-" Gray tried to explain, but I gave him a reassuring smile.
'It's okay.'
Then, I leaned closer and gave a smaller kiss to his lips. I felt a bit embarrassed as Gray stared at me with wide eyes.
"Natsu..." he almost whispered and I turned to look at him, my face still feeling hot.
Then, he gave a smile and said the words I had wanted to hear for some time now.
"I love you."
I felt so happy. A big smile crept to my face and I hugged Gray tightly. He hugged me back and I was sure that he heard my feelings too.
"I love you too!"
I felt so safe in Gray's arms that I soon fell asleep. Everything was definitely going to end up alright.
If there are mistakes or this seems like sloppy work, I know the reason to that. I am SO TIRED. So, for this once, I won't even care. fuck-everything-week for me.
Also, I will be taking a break from this story next week so I can finish my work without hapving to stress about this. See you later girls and...are there any guys reading this?
