Strangled Love

Chapter 8 – Revelations and Trials

A/n: Sorry for the long wait! Also just so you know, this story is set after Alvarez Empire arc but before the 100 years quest. This means that Gajeel and Levy are in an established relationship (they told the guild already) and that Gray is trying to sort out his feelings for Juvia.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail


Gajeel was in Gray's room watching the lacrima whilst Natsu and Gray waited in the living room.

"I see you haven't cleaned up your kitchen." said Natsu trying to start a conversation and break the awkward silence emanating around the room. They hadn't talked since Erza'a party. Gray was sitting on the floor staring at the blank wall and his expression was unreadable.

"Yeah. I'm waiting for you to do that."

"Well that's not going to happen."

They fell back into silence before a small murmur escaped Natsu's lips.

"Pardon?" asked Gray.

"I said thanks. You know, for what happened at the party."

Gray smiled lightly. "No problem."

"You're not mad?" asked Natsu quietly.

"Why would I be?"

"I dunno. I just thought… never mind. It's stupid." Natsu flopped down on the sofa and stared at the ceiling.

Gray shifted over towards him. "Go on." He poked Natsu in the side expecting a reaction but instead Natsu just sighed deeply. His breath stunk of alcohol and it made Gray's nose twitch. "You're really drunk."

"Yeah. I had some more drinks once I got home. Guess I was nervous about this shit or something."

"Were you scared that I would be mad?"

"Scared is a strong word. But yeah." Natsu ran his fingers through his hair.

"Why?"

"'S stupid."

"You're much less talkative when you're drunk. Usually I'd be happy with that but I'm bored and there's no one else to talk to so just tell me."

Natsu sighed again. "It was supposed to be our secret and now Gajeel is finding out too."

"And? Natsu it's a secret to do with your past, not mine. I don't care who else knows. You can tell whoever you want." Gray moved Natsu's legs onto the floor so he could join him on the sofa.

"I guess you're right."

"I'm always right." said Gray whilst smirking.

"Cocky exhibitionist."

"Idiot lizard."

Neither insult had the usual anger behind it. They were sitting close enough so that Gray could hear Natsu's rapid breathing.

"Nervous?" Gray questioned. Natsu nodded mutely. "Gajeel will be fine with it. I was fine with it and who do you like more, me or him?"

"I don't like either of you. You're both annoying jerks. And Gray?" Natsu turned to face him.

"What?"

"You're shit at this whole comforting thing."

"Oh just shut up."

Natsu laughed lowly. Truth be told Gray's words did help and comfort him, admittedly not much but it was better than nothing and he was grateful for it.

Gajeel came into the room looking slightly stunned and walked over to the sofa. He looked directly into Natsu's eyes and then patted him on the head.

"I'm sorry that happened to you." he said whilst patting Natsu's head.

Gray just watched in amusement as Natsu froze. Natsu couldn't believe what Gajeel was doing, overcoming his shock, he shoved Gajeel away and glared at him.

"What am I? A freakin' dog!" he roared.

"Well I don't know what to do in a situation like this!" Gajeel shouted back.

"And that's what you thought you should do?" asked Gray not bothering to cover up the mockery in his voice.

"All you probably did was strip when you first heard the news!"

"For the last time, I don't strip on purpose! Well at least not for the majority of the time." Gray mumbled the last bit to himself.

"Why do the two people who know about this have to be complete idiots!?" Natsu shouted in despair to no one in particular.

"I guess what happened at the party makes sense now. How did Gray even find out?" asked Gajeel turning serious.

"Well, actually, Gray found out before me." explained Natsu.

"Huh?"

Natsu and Gray then proceeded to tell Gajeel about everything that happened, from Gray's necklace being given to Natsu, to the previous night where Natsu had stayed over.

Gajeel rubbed the back of his head. "So….What do we do now?"

"Nothing. I don't want your sympathy. That goes for both of you. I can deal with this on my own. It's just nice to know that someone else knows and understands, that I'm not alone. I know this sounds cheesy and cliché but I just … I dunno. It's just how I feel. Although saying this, if either of you want to be less of a bastard in your general lives, help yourselves. Though I doubt that's possible." Natsu laughed.

"I suppose this goes without saying, but during our brawls in the guild, we're not to attack Natsu's neck and no strangulation." Gajeel ignored Natsu's last few comments, staying serious.

Gray and Natsu looked at each other questioningly before turning back to Gajeel.

"Er… You know that Gramps is lenient to guild brawls as long as we don't seriously hurt each other. Magic is OK, but we can't try and break someone's arm or strangle them for instance. It's one of the few rules Fairy Tail has." said Gray.

"You knew that right, Gajeel?" asked Natsu.

"Of course I knew!" Gajeel snapped. That was a lie. Gajeel would never try and kill or seriously injure any of his fellow guild mates, no matter how annoying they could be, but he had never realised there was an actual rule.

"You're lying! That's why you tried to choke me the other day!" Gray shouted.

"No. I tried to choke you cuz shrimp was trying to do a translation job in the guild and you froze over all her work." Gajeel started heading to the door. "I'll see you two at the guild tomorrow. If you need anything DO hesitate to ask and bother Gray about it first." With that Gajeel left.

Natsu knew Gajeel really did care, he just wasn't great at showing it. He started heading over to Gray's bedroom. Once inside, he started putting some blankets and pillows into a makeshift bed on the floor.

Gray watched Natsu from the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"Making a bed." said Natsu as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Why?"

"You let me stay over last night."

"Yeah that was last night, was makes you think-" Gray stopped himself as a realisation hit him. "Wait! Is this what happened with Lucy? She let you stay over once and then was never able to get rid of you."

"You make it sound worse than it is." Natsu continued making his bed, undeterred by Gray.

"Why would you even want to stay with me?"

That made Natsu freeze. He stopped what he was doing and turned to face Gray, taking a deep breath before answering.

"When I was living with Igneel, I never slept alone. He was always there. I like having someone there when I sleep. The more the merrier, as they say. I hate being alone. Back when I first joined the guild, before Happy was born, I dreaded going home as it was just a constant reminder that I was alone. I felt abandoned. Once I got Happy things started to get a lot better, however, I wanted more. I wanted to surround myself with people I care about. When Lucy first let Happy and me stay at hers I had the best night sleep ever. It became a regular occurrence after that but I knew it wasn't fair on Lucy. She said she didn't mind but still. We don't spend every night together. I alternate spending nights with Happy at my place, spending nights with Happy and Lucy at hers or spending nights with just Lucy. I like being around different people. It all comes down to the fact that I don't like being alone. That's why I want to stay with you. It won't be every night, maybe just once a week."

Gray stared at Natsu as he finished his speech. His look had turned sad when he had mentioned Igneel. Gray could relate. He'd lost people too but he handled it in the complete opposite way to Natsu. Gray closed himself off to others; the less people he surrounded himself with, the less people he had to lose.

"Fine. You can stay." he said after a moment. "But can't you take the sofa?"

"It's way too small." replied Natsu who had gone back to making his bed.

"Well there's floor in the living room, fall asleep there."

"You don't own any curtains in there." Natsu pointed out.

Gray sighed and gave in. "Fine. But do NOT climb into bed with me again."

"I won't. Promise. I do understand that people have their own personal space. I sometimes climb into bed with Lucy when she's in a good mood, but that's because she's Lucy. Even if she does have a bad temper, she's one of the kindest and sweetest people I know, unlike yourself, so no I won't climb into your bed. And don't worry I'll be gone by the time you wake up."

"You better."

Natsu climbed into his pile of blankets and Gray climbed into his own bed.

"I now have a whole lot more respect for Lucy for dealing with your retarded ass."Gray said to Natsu but said boy was fast asleep, and in a few minutes, so was Gray.


Gray awoke to find that true to his word, Natsu was gone and so was his makeshift bed. He got up and headed over to his kitchen, hoping that since he had let Natsu stay he would have cleaned up the mess.

He sighed as he entered his still wrecked kitchen. "I can't live like this.." he mumbled to himself. Deciding that Natsu was never going to clean this up, he went about doing it himself before heading over to the guild.


Gray saw Lucy sitting at a table talking to Erza and Levy in the guild hall and walked over.

"Hey Lucy, why do you deal with the flamebrain constantly staying round yours?"

"Huh? I'm not really sure myself. I find myself asking that question frequently. When I asked him why he wanted to stay with me he gave me the most adorable reason. Who knew Natsu had it in him? Also, he always makes me breakfast in the morning as a thank you, so it's not all bad."

Gray found himself filling with anger as he tried to locate the fire mage in the guild. Once his eyes locked on his target he started walking over.

"Hey Gray what's wrong? You're acting weird." asked Lucy in concern.

"The idiot can't just break into other people's houses whenever he feels like it. I'm going to teach him a lesson." his voice showed obvious annoyance.

"It's fine really Gray. I said I don't mind." Lucy said but Gray had already walked off. "Besides, Natsu's not the only one. Talk about being a hypocrite." she added, muttering to herself.

Gray tapped Natsu on the shoulder and simply said "Outside." Natsu could tell Gray was pissed but he didn't know why.

"Can't wait to kick your ass, ice princess!" said Natsu with a beam on his face. He didn't really care why Gray was angry, he was always a little angry it seemed.

The two boys were stopped by Erza just before they reached the guild doors. She looked like a proud mother whose child had just said their first word.

"I can't believe you two have finally learnt to take your fighting outside of the guild hall. You've grown up so fast." Erza was in her own little world.

"What the hell is wrong with her." Gray said as he pulled Natsu around the crazy woman.

When they were a safe distance from the guild hall, Gray gestured for Natsu to take a seat and he did the same.

"You make Lucy breakfast?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Well – Hold on! You left my kitchen in a total mess. Why would Lucy be happy that you cook breakfast for her?"

Natsu snickered.

"It's just my kitchen you wreck isn't it?"

He grinned at Gray and Gray knew that he had found his answer.

"What did I ever do to you?"

"You were going to leave me to face Erza's wrath on my own. It's a good thing I came up with the strawberry cake idea."

"Erza wouldn't have actually killed you, idiot. Though sometimes I wish she would."

"Hey! You shouldn't wish death upon people. It's not nice."

Gray really wanted to bash his head into a wall. "I feel like I'm losing brain cells just talking to you!"

"I don't even know why you care that I make breakfast for Lucy. Unless… You want me to make you breakfast!?"

"What? Of course not. But I do want something in return for letting you stay at mine. I want you to pay rent."

"I can't afford that!"

"I didn't even tell you how much I wanted!"

"Whatever it is, I can't afford it. However, I could do what I do for Lucy if you want."

Gray looked down glumly. "But I really wanted the cash."

"Tough."

"You should be nicer to the guy whose letting you stay at their house. Fine, cook me breakfast, but leave my kitchen in the state you did last time and you will regret it!"

"I won't." Natsu said. "Unless you piss me off." he added.

"I heard that!"

"You were meant too."

Lucy called to the boys from over by the guild's entrance.

"What's up Lucy?" asked Natsu.

"Master has an announcement and if what I heard from Cana was correct, both of you will be very interested." she replied.

"What did you hear?" This time it was Gray who asked.

"That the S-Class trials -" Lucy didn't get to finish as Natsu had zoomed into the guild hall with Gray not far behind him. "Idiots." she muttered.

"All right listen up brats!" shouted Makarov. "Due to multiple wars and time skips, Fairy Tail has not had its S-Class trials in a long time so we are having the trials a little earlier this year. We're also doing it differently so that no unfortunate accidents will happen, hopefully. It is going to be on Tenrou Island again, but this year ALL of Fairy Tail is going, not just competitors. Also, the competition will not be done in pairs and instead individually with two people being promoted to S-Class at the end. This years competitors are as follows: Cana Alberona, Lucy Heartfillia, Wendy Marvel, Juvia Lockser, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox and Natsu Dragneel."

There were a lot of squeals and congratulations from the girls whereas Natsu and Gray stared daggers at each other.

"I'm going to make it to S-Class this year." said Gray.

"No I am!" retaliated Natsu.

They continued to bicker back and forth until Lucy said "You know two people can make it to S-Class right? You could both make it this year."

The two boys didn't stop their fighting and completely ignored Lucy.

"I think they're ignoring you Lucy." said Happy.

"Thanks for stating the obvious."

"I can't believe Master choose you to be S-Class. I guess miracles do happen."

"Shut it you stupid feline."


Next chapter – Let The Games Begin