I led them along to the center of the park where there were no trees or anything. The pale moonlight shone in the middle, creating an almost luminescent look to them. "Alright. Everyone, we're going into my dimension. My dimension is much different, and, if you loosen your grip on us for even one second, your entire head could pop off, you understand?" they all gave me a solemn nod. "Okay good. Now, hold on tight."

Erza grabbed a tight hold of Jellal, her arms wrapping around his middle. Gray did the same to Juvia and Lucy to Mavis. "Hold on tight, darling. I don't think even you could pull off the headless look." I said teasingly. Natsu scowled at me and grabbed tight.

"Just shut up." He muttered. I didn't respond and grabbed his waist tightly. I wasn't about to let him get beheaded, that was for sure. Most of the teasing at this point, I'm afraid to admit, was just to calm my own nerves. I was terrified about what would happen the moment I entered my dimension. In the human world, a god's power was much more limited, but as soon as I stepped over. A god's influence was much more prominent in my world.

When I opened my eyes, the familiar darkness greeted me. I tightened my grip on Natsu as I hung in the air. This here made Natsu clutch me tight. "Woah, we're flying!" he cried.

"Oh yeah, that's another reason why you want to hold on tight. If you slip you'll be falling forever." Zeref said.

"You could've told us that before!" Lucy said, scowling lightly.

"I forgot." I said plainly. I really had. For me, flying was like walking for humans, I hadn't thought that I might need to warn others about falling.

"Anyway, now that we're here, where do we go."

"We can't go anywhere. Not even demons can enter the realm of the gods. We have to wait for Ankhersam to take an interest in us and come here."

"What! Who knows how long that could take!" Natsu cried. "I've got finals!"

"You can leave whenever you desire. This is partly why I didn't want you to come."

"Well what's the other part?" Gray asked.

"The other part doesn't want us to come because he's a stubborn idiot who thinks he can do everything by himself and will someday end up getting himself killed!" Mavis said, hotly. I shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not." I said "Who can really say?

"I can't believe this is where you live." Erza commented, gazing around. "It's so…"

"Empty?" I suggested.

"Well, yes, but dark is what I was going to say."

"Alright, well, how do we entertain ourselves now?" Natsu asked. "I'm already bored!"

"I could spice things up." I gave him a wicked smirk.

"N-no. Forget I said anything." Natsu waved his hands, blushing red.

"You're so vulgar." Jellal commented. "You're the kind of Incubus that gives us all a bad rep."

"Aw, I'm sorry. I'll try to be a little more accommodating, your highness."

Jellal rolled his eyes and held onto Erza a little tighter, glaring at me. I stuck out my tongue at the stupid jerk and then turned my attention to Natsu. It wasn't my fault Natsu responded to dirty talk. I changed my personality to fit my bae. If there was a serious guy who wanted someone cheerful, I'd be their ray of sunshine. If there was a serious guy who wanted another serious guy, I'd say deep and meaningful things when I actually talked and take it slow. If someone liked it gentle, I could be gentle. If they wanted rough I could do that too. Natsu just so happened to like it when I teased him with sexual innuendos so who was I to deny him?

I sat down on what I supposed was air, but it might as well be solid for me, and pulled Natsu into my lap. "You'd be such a good uke." I whispered.

"Yeah, well so would you."

"I can be whatever I need to be. And as a result I've met a lot of different people."

"Zeref… there's something I need to ask of you."

"Yes?"

"Have you ever… raped anyone?" I froze. He had to ask. Did he really think I was so low that he had to ask?

"Everything I have ever done is consensual. Humans are pets, but you treat pets nice, don't you? What kind of person would I be to hurt a puppy?" I spat. "Yes, I have had people who want to reenact such scenarios, but it's still consensual… why did you ask?"

"I just… I don't know. It was stupid. I know you wouldn't do something like that but… but I had to ask anyway."

I frowned and had never wanted to kill something so badly. It felt like I needed something in my hand, even an object, just so I could squeeze the life out of it. I wondered if I had truly played my part right, if he needed to ask such a thing. I wondered if I had lied to him too much for him to trust I was a good person. I had wanted to hurt and break many people before, but never like that. "Besides." I said. "I get energy from a human's pleasure, not their pain and fear."

"I see… I guess that's true. But is that the only reason you haven't?"

I snapped. "The hell, Natsu? Just who do you think I am? Do I tease you too much? Do I lie too much, is that's what's making you think about this?"

Natsu took a deep breath and sighed, shaking his head slowly. "No, Zeref, I'm sorry. I was just wondering and I guess I didn't think about how the question would make you feel so for that I'm sorry. I guess your teasing's kind of funny, but you're right. You do lie too much, you put up too many fronts. But Zeref, I don't want a front, I don't want you to be what you think I want to see. I want you to be, who you are."

No he didn't. He could never be allowed to see what a mess I was inside. I shook my head, "You only think you want to see it because you don't know what's inside. Believe me, if I opened up to you I guarantee you would run away screaming."

"No joke, huh?"

"I'm dead serious." I said, solemn.

"I figured. People don't just say things like that to be funny but with you I can honestly never tell." Maybe I had made my guise too cheap. Maybe I should've made my character with more depth, but I had thought I'd had enough. I thought that… with all the moments of innocence and with letting him into my real fears I had thought I was giving him enough seriousness. Maybe I had read Natsu wrong and he didn't like any of those teasing guys. Maybe he'd wanted someone serious and sweet, who would dirty talk, but only while in bed. Maybe I had been a little too forward a little too fast. I'd wanted to be bold because I knew Natsu liked bold, but maybe I should've slipped myself into his life, always there until one day he finally noticed me.

"I can change if you want."

"God, Zeref. I don't want you to change I want you to be yourself."

I honestly thought my true personality had been lost years ago, but I couldn't be sure. Maybe it was deep down in there, but I was sure by now it had been classified as another personality to show to someone who was into that kind of thing. Maybe that was the price of my choices. Maybe I was envious of people like Jellal who wouldn't change himself for anybody and found someone who loved him for him.

Maybe, I had been attracted to the bad people who'd wanted me to change myself and maybe it was my fault when they called me ugly or stupid. And maybe it hurt so much because it was true. I knew I wasn't ugly, not on the outside.

My face was a box. A gold box, beautiful and alluring. But what was inside would terrify the bravest of warriors. And I knew I wasn't stupid when it came to pure intellect. But I was naïve. Despite all my experience I was still naïve enough to pick the people that would hurt me, and that's what made me stupid.

"You don't want me to be me. If you saw what was inside you would run away like everyone else."

"I thought you were the leaver…"

"Well I'm not. I lied to you again, just to make myself seem tougher and colder than I actually am. You think I want people to leave, Natsu? You think I want the people I love to die because all they are, are useless humans who get old and die. I wanted to hang on to every last one of them, but they all left me. One way or another."

Natsu turned around in my lap and smiled at me. "I won't leave you Zeref, I promise. I stared and blinked. I smiled lightly then, a smile I didn't show often. A genuine smile. He didn't know that was what they all said, and I didn't feel the need to tell him.

So, I guess all I could do was sit there and not love. "Thank you, Natsu." I said.

"Of course, Zeref. You are important to me, and a friend. That's why I'm here to help you out, so of course I'll always be here with you from now on no matter what. And I promise that from here on out I will never call you ugly or stupid."

"Will you still call me a pervert?" I asked.

"Oh, absolutely. Because you are." Natsu said, smirking with a shrug.

"So mean." I said, though I was more amused than I let on.

"Guys, shh." Mavis whispered. Me and Natsu stopped talking as Mavis closed her eyes and listened attentively. "I hear something."

I closed my eyes and listened and soon I too, heard the noise. Only a faint buzzing sound warned me about what was to happen next. Then, a bright light flashed into existence and I knew only one being in the universe could do something like that. Then, as if on cue a small foot, came through the circle of light, sending a terrifying shiver up my spine.


A/N First of all, I'm sorry it's so short but I wanted to get a chapter out. Second of all, I meant to update yesterday but I totally spaced (I almost did today too, but I managed to remember). My whole updating schedules been thrown off now since last week I updated on Tuesday and this week I updated today when my REAL update day is supposed to be Thursday! It's a little frustrating. At the start of this, I feel like Zeref was way OOC but I've tried kind of pulling elements from cannon back into his personality. I knew, if I wanted this story to go a certain way he definitely couldn't be IC all the time (or any of the time really) because he's much too depressing that way. But since he has so many guises not even I'm sure which is the real one XD I suppose it'd be his cannon personality maybe a little different... but still similar. Also, the final showdown is coming up. It might be next chapter (but that might be just a lead-up, we'll see how long I want to make it) so I don't really know. But I'll definitely try and update next week (on time) so look out! Reviews/favorites/follows motivate me to write better/longer chapters so if you like this I'd really appreciate one of those. Thanks for reading, I'll see you next week. Bye!