Every Time We Touch

Disclaimer – I do not own Fairy Tail

Author's Note: I have so many fics in progress, I feel as though I've mixed up storylines. Forgive me for the delay!

Chapter 11

"What do you mean we're gonna split up?" Natsu screeched at his friends. Splitting up in the middle of these creepy ass woods had not been something they'd discussed before. And if they really were going to split up, he was doomed. Plain and simple.

"Do you want to find this shrine or not?" inquired Gajeel, hands on his hips. "We'll cover more ground this way. And if anyone finds anything, just scream and everyone will come running."

"But what if we're screaming for a very different reason?" the dragon-slayer mumbled under his breath. Gray seemed to be the only one to catch it, though.

"How are we splitting up then?" Gray asked as he crossed his arms.

Gajeel just smirked. "Excellent question. Loke, Lucy, Levy and myself will be in one group. Wendy, Charle, and Happy will be in another group, and Erza, Juvia, and Cana will be in the next group, which leaves you with Salamander here."

"Happy stays with us," Natsu ground out.

"Aw, come on, Natsu," Happy whined. "Let me go with them! I'll be fine! I promise!" He then pulled out the cutsie-eyes-of-fawking-doom. There was no denying him now.

"Fine. But if anything happens, I want you to go back to the cabin. Okay?"

"Yes, Natsu," replied Happy cheerfully as he darted off toward Wendy and Charle.

Everyone went off in a different direction into the woods, lacrima-lights clicking on simultaneously. But in all this, Natsu stood rooted to his spot.

"Are you coming or what?"

Gray's voice drew the dragon-slayer out of his stupor. "Um, do we have to? We can just pretend we went searching for the shrine."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, the ice mage grabbed Natsu by the wrist and started dragging him off into the woods. When the dragon-slayer didn't put up a fight, Gray became perturbed. Glancing back at him, he noticed that Natsu's eyes were darting here and there frantically, as if he were expecting something to jump out from the shadows and scare them.

Gray stopped walking, which only caused Natsu to bump into him. Startled eyes stared up into narrowed ones.

"Why'd you stop?" the dragon-slayer asked nervously.

"Are you really that scared?" the ice mage asked sincerely. A shaky nod was his only reply. When he realized he was still holding Natsu's wrist, a weird feeling came over him and he felt a strong urge to protect the dragon-slayer no matter what. "Nothing's going to happen."

"But—"

Before the ice mage even knew what he was doing, Gray suddenly embraced him, cutting off what Natsu had been about to say. Although odd, Gray found that he liked this. He liked this very much.

It happened almost instantly. One minute, Natsu was a trembling mess, and the next, he was completely calm. The dragon-slayer felt like he was melting in Gray's embrace.

"Nothing is going to happen. I promise," the ice mage stated in a tone that made Natsu believe him.

"Okay. But if something creepy happens, I want to go back."

"Sure thing."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Now let's go," urged Gray, tentatively taking Natsu's hand in his own. When he did so, he felt his heart flutter. He knew that somehow his feelings had changed toward the dragon-slayer; he just wasn't sure how much yet. Only time would tell.

Natsu tightened his grip on Gray's hand, not caring that his face reddened in embarrassment. It wasn't like the other could see it anyway; it was dark. If the ice mage was offering comfort, who was he to deny it? That meant if anything scary popped out of the woods, he'd already have a human shield. He just…wouldn't let Gray in on that little fact for awhile.

Snap!

"What was that?" Natsu asked hurriedly. Okay, so maybe using the ice mage as a human shield would happen a bit sooner than he thought.

"What was what?" Gray replied.

Natsu's jaw dropped. "You didn't hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"That snapping sound!"

"That? It was probably just some animal getting out of our way."

Snap! Crack!

Now it was Gray's turn to pause and listen. That was no animal getting out of their way. The sound would have depleted, not increased in volume. Something was heading toward them.

Natsu nearly had a heart attack when he felt Gray push him behind him. That could only mean one thing. Something was out there.

"I want to go back," the dragon-slayer whimpered. "I knew there were ghosts out here."

"Quiet," Gray hissed, trying to listen for the sound again. Silence.

Bang!

"Shit!" the ice mage cried, yanking Natsu toward him.

"What the fuck was that?" the dragon-slayer gasped.

"I don't know. Let's—"

"Gray!" Natsu exclaimed, pointing to a shadow moving before them.

The ice mage narrowed his eyes. It was all coming together. "Stay here," he growled.

"What? Don't leave me alone!" the dragon-slayer protested. "You're not supposed to leave me alone."

"I think our friends are messing with us. Stay here."

Natsu stood, completely frozen. Gray had left him to go chasing after shadows. That…bastard! He said he wouldn't leave him alone. He wasn't supposed to leave him alone.

Maaaaaaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiiiiis!

His head shot up. No way in hell that was the wind. The trees weren't even moving. Taking a step back, his eyes panned his surroundings. Nothing. Absolutely noth—

"Aah!" he screamed. Something had touched him! Grabbed him!

Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis! Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis!

Aw, hell. He wasn't sticking around for this. So Natsu did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

"Where the fuck are you?" Gray rasped as he wandered through the woods, trying to find whoever it was who was attempting to scare them. He just knew it was the others.

Another snapping sound drew his attention to his left. So that's where the perpetrator was, huh? Well, he'd make sure that this sort of thing never happened again.

Lunging into the bushes, his hands came in contact with—

"Happy?"

The small Exceed looked up at Gray sheepishly. "Heh. Hi, Gray."

The ice mage glared at him. "What are you doing?"

"Well, uh, we were just going to…scare you and Natsu a bit. That's all," Happy replied meekly.

"We?" Gray echoed. "Who else was in on this?"

"Um…everyone? Gray, don't look at me like that! It was only for a bit of fun!"

"A bit of fun? You call scaring the crap out Natsu a bit of fun? He's absolutely terrified!" roared the ice mage.

Happy stared up at him blankly. "So you left him alone?"

"I told him to stay put," he explained.

A scream suddenly erupted in the woods. It was Natsu.

"I don't think he stayed put, Gray."

Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis! Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis!

Natsu covered his ears as he tried to block out the sound that kept rushing past him. Why couldn't it just go away? Why did it have to be him who—

Smack!

The dragon-slayer collided with something hard. It wasn't a person. It wasn't an animal. It wasn't even a fucking tree. He stepped back, his eyes widening in horror as he realized just what he'd run into. Something must have hated him because that would be the only reason why he would have found the damned haunted shrine!

Subconsciously hugging himself, he backed away from it. If what had happened in that story occurred so long ago, why didn't this place look like it had aged?

A popping sound nearly made him jump out of his skin. The unlit torches that were displayed in the front entrance of the shrine were now lit. This was just way too creepy.

Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis! Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis! Maaaaaaaviiiiiiiiiis!

Natsu spun around. The whispering wasn't whispering anymore! It sounded more like it was moaning, and loudly at that! He really didn't want to be here. And he really didn't want to go back into the woods. He wanted Gray.

MAAAAAAAVIIIIIIIS!

That was it! He was going into the shrine.

Bolting for the inside, he immediately came to a stop when he reached the center of the shrine. In the middle of the floor lay a circle of blood. And it looked fresh.

"Mavis!"

Natsu screamed when he felt icy breath hissing in his ear. But he didn't even have a chance to run away, for something had pushed him forward. The dragon-slayer then found himself hurtling toward the center of the floor and into the fresh blood.

Panicking, Natsu slipped and slid on the red liquid. He could feel it seeping into his clothes. He could feel its warmth on his skin. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get up and away from it.

"Mavis! Mavis! Mavis!"

The name kept lashing out at him. It was all around him. In his ear. In his head. It echoed all around him.

The dragon-slayer finally managed to get into a sitting position. He brought his knees to his chest, covered his ears with his hands, and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to high hell that this would all go away.

He could feel it now, the consequence of being away from Gray for this long. Natsu felt his magic building up. His magic would lash out soon if Gray didn't come.

A tear escaped from his eye as he stifled a frightened sob. Gray, where are you?

"This is all your fault," Gray spat at the others as they frantically searched for the missing dragon-slayer. Hearing him scream like that had put him on edge and he wanted more than anything to find him. Something kept telling him to go to the dragon-slayer, but Gray just couldn't tell where Natsu was. "You knew he was afraid of this kind of stuff!"

"You're the one who left him alone!" Gajeel retaliated, looking miffed.

"I left him alone so that I could find you assholes and get you to stop! Now he's run off somewhere! And I swear, if he's hurt or anything, the lot of you will pay dearly for it," Gray growled threateningly.

"Gray?" Happy called out, halting the ice mage in his tracks. "What's that sound?"

Everyone stopped moving, listening intently. There was nothing but silence until a soft whimper—like someone crying—echoed around them.

Gray started jogging in the direction of the noise, leaving the others behind as he gripped his lacrima-light firmly in hand. When the noise started getting louder, he slowed down and shone his lacrima-light in the direction the sound was coming from.

There, sitting in the middle of the forest floor, was Natsu. The area around him was scorched black and his clothes even looked burnt. He looked a wreck. His skin seemed deathly pale and he was rocking back and forth. The dragon-slayer's eyes were shut tightly, his hands were pressed against his ears as if trying to block everything out, and his legs were forced against his torso.

Approaching the obviously terrified dragon-slayer slowly, he knelt in front of him. "Natsu?"

He didn't respond.

Reaching out, the ice mage placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. That was a mistake.

Natsu screamed and started scrambling away from him.

"It's okay, Natsu. It's me! It's me!" Gray started, hoping his voice would penetrate the dragon-slayer's mind. It did.

"G-Gray?"

"Yes, it's Gray."

At that, Natsu broke down, his body trembling as sobs wracked his body. "You left me! You weren't supposed to leave me! I couldn't control it!"

"It's okay. I'm here. Everything's going to be okay," said the ice mage, mentally cursing himself for leaving him.

"No. Not okay. Not okay," mumbled Natsu as he covered his ears again. "Not okay."

"Natsu?" Gray began in concern.

"It's all over me. It's everywhere. I wanna go. Let's go. I wanna go." The dragon-slayer continued to rant, his dialogue becoming even more rapid and random. It was hard for the ice mage to follow.

"We'll go right now, okay?" he said, hoping that this would appease him. Natsu looked to him and nodded. "Can you get up?"

The dragon-slayer shook his head. "Hurt my ankle when I slipped i-in the blood," he muttered.

Blood? What blood? Gray ran his lacrima-light over Natsu, inspecting every inch of him. There was no blood. Instead, everything looked burnt. What on earth was he talking about?

Multiple footsteps let the ice mage know that the others had finally arrived. Thinking quickly, he lifted the dragon-slayer in his arms and started heading back out of the woods.

Something had scared Natsu…and badly. Leaving him hadn't been wise, either. He hadn't realized Natsu had been serious about not leaving him. The burnt surroundings had been from an intense fire caused by Natsu, and he had probably used a lot of magic. Had him leaving Natsu's side caused the dragon-slayer to do that?

He just hoped Natsu would come out of his shock soon so that he could figure out what was really going on. Because deep down, he knew it hadn't been their friends who'd frightened him.

And if they hadn't…what had?

By the time Gray had gotten Natsu back to the cabin and settled down enough to hear the dragon-slayer's story, he was livid. The only thing going through his mind was 'Kill Gajeel and Happy' among other torturous thoughts. How dare they pull off a prank such as this! Natsu was practically having a nervous breakdown thanks to them!

"Gray? Gray! You believe me, right? Right?" the dragon-slayer asked with pleading eyes. He desperately wanted the ice mage to believe him.

Gray sighed. "I believe you," he replied, ruffling Natsu's hair a bit. "But I need to step outside for a minute."

Hands shooting outward, the dragon-slayer grabbed Gray's arm, trying to prevent him from leaving. "Don't leave me alone. I don't wanna be alone. I don't wanna be alone."

"I won't be gone long, and I won't be far. I just need to speak with the others for a minute. All right?"

"Just a minute?"

"Just a minute."

"Okay," the dragon-slayer said in defeat. He could last a minute.

Making his way to the door, Gray took one last glance at Natsu before stepping outside where the others were waiting. Shutting the door behind him, the ice mage mustered up a glare that could only mean all hell had broken loose. He had hadit with them! After hearing Natsu's story, there was no doubt in his mind that it was them who'd been behind all this.

"What the hell were you guys thinking when you put him through that?" Gray spat. "Bringing that story to life had to be one of the most idiotic—"

"What are you talking about?" Gajeel interrupted.

The ice mage's glare intensified. "You know very well what I'm talking about. To go so far as to set up a fake shrine and stage a bloody mess." He paused, for his voice had trailed off as he remembered the condition he'd found Natsu in. "What happened after he got scared? Did he burn everything to the ground? He did, didn't he? And then what?"

The group stared at him mutely, a mixture of shock and confusion on their faces.

"None…of us did that," said Lucy.

"Yeah. After we saw you heading for us, we stopped and took off," added Gajeel. "We didn't go anywhere nearSalamander after that."

"You really expect me to believe that?" Gray snarled.

"We're telling the truth," stated Happy firmly.

The ice mage stared hardly at each and every one of their faces, trying to find any clue that would indicate that they were lying. He found nothing. This only meant one thing: Natsu had been hallucinating. Perhaps his condition hadn't improved after all.

"Just…what did Natsu see?" asked Lucy, looking nervous.

"He said he kept hearing the name Mavis, so he ran and came across a shrine in the woods somewhere. And he indicated that there was a pool of blood in the center of the shrine and he'd fallen into it. By then, he couldn't get up and the name just got louder and louder. When I found him, he was sitting on the ground. The area around him was burnt, including his clothes. His eyes were shut, he had his hands over his ears, and his knees were against his chest. He was a wreck."

"Normally, I would take credit for a good scare like that, but we had nothing to do with it," said Gajeel.

Gray grunted in response. "That means when he got scared while I was still with him…it triggered a hallucination or something. Maybe he went hysterical for a moment. But right now, he firmly believes that what he saw out there was real."

"Maybe it was," stated Levy thoughtfully.

"Oh, come on!" hissed Gray. "Do you really expect me to believe that some stupid ghost story is real? Things like that don't exist. They are just used as tools to frighten people from doing things that they probably shouldn't be doing."

It was Erza's turn to look like she wanted to murder someone. "How can you say that? After everything all of us have been through, how can you say that?"

Gray shrugged

Erza nowlooked like she wanted to strangle him.

"I-I think what Erza is trying to say is that maybe we shouldn't rule anything out just yet. I mean…anything is possible," commented Lucy.

Gray found that veryhard to believe. "I want you all to leave now. It's been a long night," he said in a means to dismiss them. Eventually, however, the group heeded his words and left, leaving the ice mage standing in the doorway of the cabin. After a few minutes, he opened the door and stepped back inside, where Happy was desperately trying to comfort a still frantic dragon-slayer.

"I'm back," he announced, making his way over to where the two of them were.

Natsu's head snapped up. "That was longer than a minute," he started anxiously. "You said—"

"I know what I said and I'm sorry. I really needed to talk to the others about what happened," Gray began slowly. "I asked them if they were the ones who scared you."

The dragon-slayer looked at him, confusion evident on his face. "The others?"

"Yes. They claimed they had nothing to do with it," he continued. "Can you explain to me again what you thought you saw?"

"What I…thoughtI saw?" Natsu ground out. "I knowwhat I saw! Does that mean…y-you don't believe me? You said you believed me, Gray." The dragon-slayer was starting to sound helpless.

"I know, and I do believe you. It's just that I think there's a reasonable explanation for what you saw. I mean, you don't actually think what you saw was real, do you?"

That, apparently, had been the wrong thing to say.

"I'm not crazy!" Natsu yelled, making both Gray and Happy flinch.

"I never said you were!" the ice mage countered.

"No! You don't believe me! You think I was seeing things and I'm not! What I saw was real! It was real!"

"It wasn't real!" Gray roared. He was losing his patience. How was he going to get this through the dragon-slayer's head? "Look, you've been through a lot lately. Getting scared probably induced a hallucination or something."

"Then did I hallucinate this?" Natsu screamed, yanking up his shirt sleeve.

Gray stepped closer to the dragon-slayer and inspected him. On his forearm, there was a red imprint of a hand…like someone had grabbed him quite roughly.

"Who did this?" the ice mage asked immediately.

"I told you already," Natsu replied softly, on the brink of tears. "It was real. Everything was real, Gray. I heard that name and then something grabbed me. That's when I ran and…you know…"

"Do…you think you might have done that to yourself when you were scared?" Gray inquired, examining his arm again. It was possible. The mark was on Natsu's left arm, and the hand imprint was right-handed.

"Did it…to myself?" the dragon-slayer echoed quietly.

Gray nodded, hoping that Natsu finally understood where he was coming from. But the look of fury on the dragon-slayer's face after the words sank in indicated that he hadn't.

"How can you still not believe me?"

"Gray, maybe—" Happy started, but the ice mage cut him off.

"Fine!" Gray finally snapped. "Believe that what you saw in the woods was real. But if someone comes to take you and lock you away in some mental institution, don't come crying to me. You're nothing but a worthless piece of shit anyway. Perhaps it'd be better off for you to go crazy. Then I won't have to deal with taking care of your sorry ass anymore."

And with that, Gray stormed out of the cabin and slammed the door behind him.

But he didn't leave. How could he? Instead, he slid down the door until he was sitting on the ground, hands buried in his hair.

He hadn't wanted to say any of that to him. Hell, he didn't even remember all of what he'd said. The only thing going through his mind at that point was…fuck. He didn't know what else to do. He thought that maybe if he could rile the dragon-slayer up again, make him hate him again, then maybe—just maybe—things would go back to normal in Natsu's mind.

But the last thing he'd wanted to do was hurt him. And that was the image he could not erase from his mind. Seeing that devastated and hopeless look on Natsu's face after he'd said all that was enough to make him want to cry himself.

"I didn't mean it, Natsu," he muttered under his breath. "I promise you, I didn't mean it." But those words didn't make it hurt any less.

End Chapter