A/N: Day four, and today's theme is "Vampire" XD Lol tbh I have no idea where I was going with this but hey, it all worked out ^-^ (Yes, ik it's out late, sorry XD)
Day Four: Vampire
Gray's breath came in short gasps, and his legs ached as he pushed them to go faster, taking a blind turn down a random street, not entirely sure where he was going anymore. Behind him he could hear the shouts of his pursuers, and the thumps of their thick-soled shoes against the pavement, their heavy breath echoing his own.
Making a sharp right, Gray grabbed the edge of a fence and using his momentum to vault over it, sprinting across the random backyard he was trespassing upon. He could hear them behind him, leaping the fence easily and continuing their pursuit across the yard.
"C'mon, Fullbuster! Come and face your punishment like a man!" someone yelled, and Gray identified the speaker as Cobra, one of the jocks offended by Gray's previous shenanigans. Really, he hasn't been trying to piss them off. It had just sort of happened, like things often did when Gray was involved. But hey, that wasn't his fault.
Anyway, short version of the story was; they didn't like him, and they chose to express that by repeatedly beating him up. Gray supposed better him than someone else, but still; it wasn't very fun.
Vaulting the fence on the other side of the backyard his pursuers had just torn up, Gray allowed himself a mere second of rest, tossing his head both ways to make a quick note of his surroundings. But hearing them only a few feet behind him now, Gray had to nudge himself into action again, sprinting full-tilt down the street. He figured he had about a minute before they caught up to him.
Spotting something in his peripheral vision, Gray allowed himself another brief respite from running, turning in the direction of the object of his previous fleeting attention.
It was a house, and clearly an abandoned one. Old shutters covered the ground like shed black scales, and the few remaining panes of glass were so dusty you could see nothing through them, cracks spider-webbing across the dirty surface. The roof seemed to be sinking downwards on the edges, as if the house were frowning, and the wind blowing through the streets caused the building to shift and creak, issuing low moans as the foundations sagged, struggling to hold up the structure under the intense pressure. A small, worn plaque hung beside the door, with the number 245 stenciled out in peeling black lacquer.
Gray had no more time to observe, lest he be caught, and made a split-second decision that—although unbeknownst to him—would change his life forever: He changed direction and made a beeline for the house, ducking in past the gaping threshold, the front door lying broken and useless on the front stoop.
Pressing himself against the wall, concealed by the dusty windows, Gray held his breath, listening to his assailants' footsteps as they pounded towards his section of street. They paused just feet away, probably in the center of the street, and Gray listened warily as they debated about where he had gone. No one so much as mentioned the house, and Gray felt himself sagging in relief as they moved on, down the street and away from his impromptu hiding spot. He allowed himself a small smile, proud of his quick thinking.
"Who're you?"
Gray nearly jumped out of his skin, and, scared as he was by the sudden voice, took a startled step back, tripping on a loose floorboard and falling rather ungracefully to the floor, staring up in shock at the origin point of the sudden inquiry.
A boy hung upside-down from one of the low ceiling beams, his black hoodie sliding down—in his backwards position—to reveal a sliver of pale skin. His pink hair hung down, away from his face, revealing a set of piercing olive eyes that seemed to shift to black and then gold—as if they couldn't decide which to settle on, Gray thought—as the shadows shifted their position in the house.
Gray could only manage to stutter something similar to "What?" a few seconds later, his brain still attempting to place this strange upside-down boy in as weird a place as an abandoned house.
"Who are you?" the boy repeated, pronouncing each word carefully, blinking his coalescing eyes at Gray languidly, seeming almost cat-like in his behaviors.
"Who am I?" Gray asked, finally snapping himself out of his surprised stupor to give the boy a befuddled look. "Who are you? And what on earth are you doing in this abandoned house?"
The boy swing himself to a sitting position in the rafters and crossed his legs at the ankles, swinging them gently forwards and backwards. "I'm Natsu."
Gray blinked in surprise, and when he looked up again, Natsu had seemingly disappeared. Yet a creak to his left prompted Gray to turn his gaze that way, where he found the strange boy sitting on a different ceiling beam, lying on his side with his head propped up on his hand this time; Quite the precarious position. Gray blanched for a second, wondering how on earth he's moved so quickly.
"You know," Natsu continued with a nonchalant smile, "not all old places are abandoned."
"B-but this— There is— You—" Gray struggled to find words for a second, still dumbstruck by Natsu's sudden appearance. "There's no door! The windows are broken!"
Natsu shrugged. "I like it this way."
For several seconds they stared at each other, Gray still sporting that confused, slightly awed look while Natsu wore a Chesire-esque smile, waving his fingers back and forth through a dappled beam of sunlight that shone through one of the holes in the ceiling.
Finally, Gray simply sighed. Gave a small shrug. "Hey, dude, whatever floats your boat. I really just ducked in here to hide from some, er, people, so I'll just be going now. See ya."
"Okay," Natsu said, swinging himself down into his foremost upside-down position and waving. "Come back any time!"
"Sure, Gray muttered," shaking his head with a small, inexplicable smile on his face as he ducked back through the door and started the long walk home through the chilly air.
He did go back. In fact, he went back a lot, after that first meeting. He wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the oddity of a pink-haired boy living in an abandoned house, or the fact that it had turned out to be a fairly good hiding spot. Whatever the reason, Gray found himself inexplicably drawn to the abandoned house on Oak Street.
Today was his eighth visit there in half as many weeks, and he was simply sitting in the center of the floor, doodling shapes in the dust on the wood while Natsu took up his usual upside-down perch atop a ceiling beam, a lollipop dangling precariously from the corner of his lips.
Gray had found out a few days prior that Natsu had never had candy before, and so he amended to get some for him, although curiosity tickled his mind as that little tidbit was added to the other things he had learned about Natsu over the weeks. He'd never had candy, had never been to school, loved heights and climbing things, spent most of his time lounging around in the rafters of 245 Oak Street, was (oddly) addicted to Nicholas Spark's novels, and loved lounging in precarious positions. All of it just added to the mystery of Natsu.
"Why do you live here all alone?" Gray asked now, looking up at his new friend with a curious expression.
Natsu shrugged. "Been alone here for as long as I can remember. People don't come around here. They're scared of me."
"Scared?" Gray snickered. "Of you? Why would anyone be scared of you? A toddler holding a declawed kitten is more threatening than you."
Natsu shot him a dirty look. "For your information, I can be very scary."
"Oh?" Gray asked with an amused smirk. "How so?"
"I'm a vampire, and vampires are scary," Natsu said, sticking his tongue out. Gray shot him an incredulous look. "Ha ha, Natsu. Hilarious. Really. If you make creepy noises when people come in here I swear to god..."
"Hey, I'm telling the truth!" Natsu huffed, crossing his arms with a pout. "I'll prove it to you! I'll... bite you!"
"How would biting me prove anything?" Gray asked, playing along as he crossed his arms and shot Natsu a smirk. "All you'd be proving is that you're weird. You'll at least have to turn into a bat before I'm convinced of anything."
Natsu, for maybe the first time in the entire stretch of time they'd known each other, glared at Gray. "Fine." He did something else unexpected by dropping from the rafters, somehow managing to turn himself upright and land in a crouch in front of him, making Gray jump and clutch a hand to his heart. "Never do that again. You could hurt yourself! I don't want to have to drag you to the hospital when you— When... you..." Gray's words dried up and his mouth dropped open as he stared at the sight in front of him.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it. The transformation had taken all of a millisecond, but now, standing where Natsu had seconds earlier, was a small black cat, blinking up at him with Natsu's familiar, kaleidoscopic olive eyes. Gray blinked once, and in that half-second, the cat was replaced by Natsu once again, and if Gray had had a better imagination, he would've though he'd dreamed it all up.
Natsu stood with his hands on his hips, giving the still awestruck Gray a self-satisfied smirk. "Ha, see! I told you I wasn't lying!" He frowned and cocked his head to the side. "Although, I can't turn into a bat... Sorry. But maybe another vampire could..." He shrugged, as if shape-shifting was as normal a topic as football scores. "I can only turn into a cat."
"So you— This is— You're really a— I can't believe it." Gray stared at Natsu with a look akin to stunned appreciation. Natsu shrugged, seemingly unaffected by Gray's hypnotized look of utter curiosity and surprise. "Well, believe it."
"So, you're really a—"
"Yep."
"And you can shape—"
"Yes."
Gray shook his head, but a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he looked at his new friend. "Well, I can tell this will be an interesting year."
