All rights to Fairy Tail belong to Hiro Mashima.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" Lucy asked her scarlet-haired friend. Again.
"There is really no need to worry Lucy. It is just a small scrape, nothing to make a fuss about." Erza reassured her for what seemed to be the thousandth time that night.
Upon leaving the storage room, with two new keys this time, Lucy saw that Erza was limping, even if it was just the smallest bit. However, Lucy knew that Erza was never one to show pain, and her true motto was to "deal with it", so it could have been a lot worse than Erza let off. Discretely inspecting the back of her leg, Lucy noticed a large area in her left calf that had discoloration, showing internal bleeding. The sickish blue and slightly yellow color was very unappealing on the scarlet beauty's flawless skin, and it looked like it hurt, so Lucy, instinctively, started to worry immensely.
"But still, it looks a lot worse than what you describe the pain to be as." Lucy said, kneeling to inspect it released a soft, almost inaudible chuckle as she gently grabbed Lucy's arm and made her stand. Lucy looked at her with confused eyes. She softly stroked Lucy's hair a few times.
"Appearances may be deceiving." She simply said as she let go of Lucy's arm to continue down the hallway. Lucy just stood there, frozen, not knowing in the slightest what to say. She would never understand how Erza was able to endure so much pain. If this was when Lucy first met Erza, she would have taken her word for it and left it be, but after knowing her for so long, leaving an injured Erza alone was definitely not an option for her. "Are you coming or not Lucy?" Erza asked as she turned back to look at her blonde companion.
"Uh...yeah, yeah. I'm coming." Lucy said as she tried to shake herself away from her thoughts. Lucy limped her way to the spot beside Erza.
"Stupid Erza, making me go get back the journal that we left in the hatch. We don't even use the damn thing." Natsu muttered as he stalked through the hallway with Gray on his back and the journal in his hand. "They could have at least taken the damn stripper." He mumbled again.
"Wh-who're ya ca-callin' a stripper?" He heard someone call weakly from behind him. He immediately recognized the voice, and crouched down to let Gray off his back. Gray's breathing was heavy and slow, as if he were still inside his unconscious state. His eyes were just barely open, but through those lidded eyes, he was still glaring at Natsu.
"Ice-prick! You're okay!" Natsu said as he sighed in relief. I don't have to carry his fat ass anymore! Natsu mentally cheered.
"As long as you define 'okay' as 'in massive agony', then yeah, I'm real okay." Gray groaned as he tried to sit up. He then felt a sting in his chest which pushed him back down. Natsu was starting to get a little worried, but he would rather die than show it. Gray looked like he was in a lot of pain.
"Come on, we have to go. I'll carry you on my back again." Natsu reluctantly offered. His response was a scoff.
"Like I want to be carried on your sweaty back." Gray said as he gave a strained chuckle. Natsu was about to retort, but Gray interrupted him. "Just give me a minute, I'll be up and at 'em before you can count to ten." Gray paused. "Hang on, less time than that. It'll take you a lot of time to figure out how to count to ten." Gray said snarkily. Natsu's elicited reply was a punch to Gray's stomach, purposefully missing (or accidentally, you never know with Natsu) the burn mark on his chest. Natsu then took a seat next to him. "Anyway, what happened to me?" Gray asked.
"You were shot by some bolt of lightning that came out of nowhere. You've been knocked out for several hours now." Natsu checked the time on his phone, which he noticed was at 18 percent. "It's 6:48 and I have 18 percent left on my phone." Natsu said.
Gray gave a dry laugh. "Don't worry about it. It's still better than your physics grade." Gray said nonchalantly. Natsu looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"I would punch you again, but Lucy says that injuring the weak is dishonorable." Natsu said.
Gray put a hand to his chest and portrayed an expression on mocked shock. "Natsu used a big word with more than three syllables." Gray said. He was really testing Natsu's patience now. "And speaking of Lucy, why don't you grow some balls and ask her out already?" He asked.
Natsu's head turned to him so fast that he felt like he would get whiplash. "What the hell are you talking about?" Natsu asked casually, but it was obvious that he face was getting closer and closer to the color of his hair. "Who would want to date that weirdo?" He said as he gave a fake laugh.
"Apparently you." Gray pointed out. "Jeez, it's so obvious! I feel like tearing my hair out because you're such a pansy." Gray said.
Natsu's glare softened to give a look of confusion with a little bit of desperation. "It's not...that obvious, is it?" Natsu asked, hoping that even though he and Gray joke around with each other, he wouldn't kid about this matter.
"Yes Natsu. It's blatantly obvious. The only person who doesn't know about this little crush of yours is Lucy." Gray said. All joking aside, this was actually a serious matter. "Come on, you've known her for what, twelve years?" Gray asked rhetorically.
"Thirteen-" Natsu tried to correct.
"And, because I know you so well, I know that you've had this crush on her since the seventh grade. That's five years, you idiot!"
Natsu couldn't say anything. He's been wanting to say something to Lucy, but he always chickened out because he thought that it would ruin the beautiful friendship that was between them. It was a funny thing really. Most people thought that he was the real brave one that would take on challenges head on and not care about the consequences.
But if the consequence is losing Lucy, you can bet everything you own that Natsu was going to use his brain.
"Where are Lucy and Erza anyway?" Gray asked, looking around.
"They sent me to get the journal back from the hatch, and they decided to go see if they can find any other keys." Natsu replied, a little relieved that they were straying from the former topic.
"What hatch?" Gray asked.
"I don't wanna explain it to you." Natsu lazily shrugged.
"Alright then, lazy ass. Do you think that it's a good idea to start moving now? I don't want to get attacked by some ghost in the middle of nowhere." Gray asked.
"Yeah, let's go." Natsu said as he pushed himself off the ground and on to his feet. He only took a few steps before he noticed that Gray wasn't following. "You coming or not?" Natsu asked irritably.
"Yeah, hang on." Gray said as he tried to push himself off the ground, using the wall as support. He was really struggling to complete this task, but there was no way in hell that he would tell Natsu.
But Natsu just rolled his eyes at him. Gray was letting his pride get in front of his health. He couldn't blame him, of course, since he did that as well. That's probably what makes them as close as brothers. Even though they argue and they shout mean words to each other, they understand each other. And besides, you can't have a brother without some argument.
So, Natsu decided to help Gray get off the ground by grabbing onto his bicep and forcing him up straight. Gray felt a pain through his chest, like he was getting shot by lightning again, but then it went away because he was in a comfortable standing position. Natsu let him walk the rest of the way, knowing that Gray would do the same for him.
Natsu and Gray turned a corner to see Lucy and Erza leaning against a wall, probably waiting for them. When Lucy spotted them, her eyes immediately lit up knowing Gray was awake. She ran up to him and jumped into his arms, which didn't make him stumble back because she was much smaller compared to him, and gave him a huge bear hug.
"Gray, you're okay!" Lucy said. Gray chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her too, and gave her a brotherly kiss on the top of her head.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. You don't need to worry Lu." He said as he pulled away and gave her a pat on the head. Lucy's gaze then shifted to Natsu and then went to hug him too. Natsu accepted his hug warmly, like he always did, and then he tucked Lucy's head under his chin. He looked over at Gray to see him giving him knowing eyes and a smug smile. Natsu glared as the boy left to go talk with Erza, but didn't get far without stripping his shirt off, making Erza punch him in the gut. Natsu then looked down at Lucy again.
"What's up Luce? It's not like I got shot by lightning." He said as he gently started to stroke her hair.
"I know." She said as she nuzzled her face into his neck. He could feel her hot breath on his skin, which made him shiver, luckily Lucy didn't notice. "You were just gone for such a long time, I was scared something might have happened to you." She said softly.
Natsu sighed as he leaned his cheek against the side of her head. "Don't worry Lucy. Nothing bad's gonna happen, okay? We'll get out of here eventually, and then we'll all have a sleepover and eat popcorn and talk all night and..."He was cut off when Lucy gave him a kiss on the cheek. It's like she usually does, but like the last one she gave him, he felt a lovely burn in that same area.
"Thank you, Natsu." Lucy said as she pulled away from him. "Now come on, we think we know where the next key is. Come on." She said as she laced her arm with his. He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze before he let Lucy lead him in the direction that Erza and Gray probably disappeared to.
"That is the last place I want to go to." Gray stated bluntly as he looked at the door that Erza was holding open for them.
"Listen Gray, it's not like I want to go down there either, but we think it might be a good place to start looking for another set of keys." Lucy said as she tried to persuade him.
"Yeah come on, stripper. Don't be a chicken." Natsu smirked at his long-time rival. Erza creaked the door open a little bit more.
"Gray, we must go...now." Erza said as she emphasized the last word, making Gray mumble an apology and come quickly through the door. When he caught the noise of Natsu's snickering at him, he immediately leaned in.
"Call me chicken again, and you won't have to go through the trouble of telling Lucy your little secret. I'll make sure to do that for you." Gray half-heartedly threatened. Natsu glared right back at him, and Lucy, who was standing right next to Natsu and had surprisingly not heard anything, just looked at the two and passed it off as their usual banter.
"Oh, guys I forgot! I wanted to give you these before we got down there." She said as she took out three of her golden keys from her pocket. "If we ever encounter something down there, it's best if you have these with you to protect yourselves." She said as she handed a key to each of them.
Gray looked at it weirdly. "How do I use it?"
"It's super cool! We can use it as a sword and stuff!" Natsu said, swinging his key around. Gray looked at the key once more, then looked at Lucy for clarification. When she nodded, he grinned.
"That's pretty sick." Gray admitted.
"Alright, you three, we have to waste no time. We don't know what other parts of the ship are tearing out and we might just lose the key forever. Let us hurry!" Erza demanded as she rushed the other three through the door and closed it. They walked down the grated steps, which was hard because they weren't using their flashlights since they were almost out of power.
"Watch your step!" Natsu called as one of the steps started to slowly disappear. He quickly maneuvered around it. After him went Gray and Lucy, and Erza had to jump to the next step because the matter had ceased to exist.
"It seems like this part of the ship is starting to disappear as well." Erza said as she put a hand on her chin. "But that doesn't make any sense. Matter cannot be destroyed nor created, so it's impossible for the metal of the ship to just disappear like this."
"Well...maybe it isn't getting destroyed, but turning into something else." Gray offered. Erza shook her head after considering the thought for a moment.
"No, that doesn't make any sense. What could evaporated metal turn into?" Erza asked as they finally got off the flight of stairs. They walked down the wide hallway to the engine room, watching carefully for anything that could pop out at them.
"Okay, so now what are we planning to do?" Natsu asked.
"Well, we believe that there is a ghost in here too, because of that story you told us when we first got here. All we have too do is split up and look for it. Remember, keep your keys close. These ghosts seem to be very violent." Erza commanded. The other three nodded as they started to look for anything that could be related to the keys.
However, they weren't happy to hear a little chuckle.
"In the main, ghosts are said to be forlorn and miserable, if not downright depressing. The jolly ghost is rare." ~David Cavett.
So, lots of BrOTPs in here. I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and you'll leave a comment because I want to know how I did. I've just been so busy with life, and I suspect 100 percent that most of you guys have been too.
One more thing, there is this guy who goes to my school, and his last name is Alvarez! I was like O_o!
And, if you didn't notice, I put a little foreshadowing in this chapter. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I think that it's pretty obvious, since I wrote it. If you can't see it, you'll be able to see a similarity as the story progresses. And no, the last part is not what I'm talking about.
Anyway, I hope that everyone is having an absolutely fantastic day wherever they are! Alright bye!