"Wake up."

The words drifted through Gray's dream, breaking up the strange carnival music that had been playing in the background. He could feel the images dissolving around him and he groaned, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to stay asleep.

"Hey! Wake up."

The edges of the dream blurred and then slipped away entirely, leaving Gray miserably awake with a pounding headache. He sighed, rolling onto his back and rubbing his eyes. The room was still dark, and when he glanced at his phone, he realized it wasn't even two in the morning.

"Fucking hell," he grumbled, pushing himself up and swinging his legs out of bed. He stumbled to the bathroom, grabbing the bottle of aspirin and tossing two back before leaning forward and staring blearily into the mirror. There was a soft meow behind him as the bathroom door opened wider, dragging a bright line of moonlight with it. It cast a strange shadow along the wall and lit up Gray's reflection with an eerie glow.

"Finally, you're awake!"

The voice that filled Gray's head was bright and wild, and for some reason it made Gray think of a matchbook. It curled around his senses, filling him with a strange sense of warmth. He frowned at his reflection. Something wasn't quite right.

"What the…" Gray leaned in further, running his fingers underneath his left eye. The iris, normally a deep blue-black, was shimmering. Gray blinked a few times, then groaned and rubbed his face. "Lyon, you stupid fuck, what the hell did you put in my drink?"

He stood there for a minute, hand over his eyes, until his hazy brain caught up with the fact that someone else had been talking, and he lived alone.

"Happy?" He frowned at the cat that had padded into the bathroom and was now sitting on the back of the toilet, staring at Gray. "Did you…"

"I'm not gonna lie," the voice interrupted again. "I'm really, really tempted to let you think that your cat can talk."

Gray jerked back from Happy and glanced around the bathroom. There was nothing around except the two of them and the moonlight, but he flicked the light on just in case. The only thing that greeted him was his reflection – messy hair, lines on his cheek from the pillowcase, and one glowing eye.

What the fuck?

"I…" He frowned, rubbing his face and blinking a few times. The eye kept glowing. He could feel something behind it – something in his mind, wriggling around like a memory he couldn't quite find. "What?"

"Are you always this eloquent?"

"It's two in the fucking morning," he snapped irritably, then ran both hands over his face. "Am I dreaming?"

"Are you gonna believe me if I say no?" Gray could hear a laugh coloring the voice this time.

"Who are you?" he demanded, looking back out into the bedroom. Nothing greeted him but the empty bed, piles of books, and several cups of cold coffee.

"Look in the mirror." Gray's gaze flicked back to his reflection. "Closer," the voice said, and despite his brain screaming at him that it was a terrible idea, Gray leaned in.

His reflection wobbled for a second – like the surface of a lake after a rock had been thrown. Then the features on the left half of his face started to shift. The glowing eye turned a soft shade of green and changed shape, slanting upward, and a wave of freckles rippled out across his cheek. The piece of hair that hung in his face started to curl and shifted from black to a soft pink. His teeth sharpened into fangs, and his lip quirked up into a smile that Gray definitely wasn't controlling.

"How high am I?" he murmured, touching his teeth to ensure that they were not, in fact, sharp. "I'm gonna kill Lyon."

"Is that the kid with the white hair?"

Gray nodded absently.

"He didn't give you anything. He's a punk-ass bitch who waters down his liquor." There was a pause, and then the voice added, "And he's a fucking terrible warlock."

"A… what?" Gray was only half paying attention to the words. The rest of his focus was still on the way that his reflection was shifting and changing. The right half of the mirror was still him – messy hair, tattooed chest, pierced ear, black boxers. But the left half was quickly becoming something more… Gray wasn't sure what word to use for it.

"Warlock," the voice repeated. Gray's left eye rolled itself in the reflection. He blinked a few times and shook his head.

"You mean that Ouija board shit?" he asked.

Slowly, the left half of Gray's reflection separated, shimmering and then coalescing into the form of a young man standing just behind him. Gray looked over his shoulder to the empty washroom, then back at the mirror. The man waved at him and gave him a cheeky grin.

"I'm Natsu."

Gray blinked a few times, rubbing his temples to try and relieve his throbbing headache. Natsu, who was now almost entirely solid in the reflection, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall. He looked about the same age as Gray, with black tattoos that twisted around his arms and up his neck. His cheeks and temples were smattered with what looked like scales, and his wild pink hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail at the base of his neck.

Fuck, he was hot.

"Do you have a name?" Natsu prompted, giving Gray a grin that showed off his pointy teeth.

"Um." Gray's brain blipped and he frowned and blinked at the same time, making what he assumed was an extremely unattractive face. Heat rushed to his cheeks as he ran his hands through his hair and quickly said, "Gray."

"Hm." Natsu tipped his head to one side, studying Gray's reflection. "You're not a warlock."

Gray shook his head. "No, it's just Lyon. Well, he's into magic stuff. Like tarot cards, and he's got the Ouija board. I thought it was just… weird college shit."

"I am not 'weird college shit,'" Natsu said indignantly, making quotation marks in the air as he raised a pierced eyebrow at Gray. "I'm a demon. From—" Here, he said a series of words in a rough language Gray didn't understand.

"Is that, um… in Germany?"

Natsu glared at him.

Gray sighed and ran both hands over his face. Happy, who had been watching him with vague disinterest, hopped up onto the sink and rubbed his face against the mirror. Gray felt a tugging sensation in his arm, and before he realized what he was doing, he reached out to pet Happy. His hand felt strange and weightless and it took him a second to realize that he wasn't controlling it.

"What the hell?" he yelped, jumping back and pulling his hand toward his chest like he'd been burned. "What did you—"

"Not hell," Natsu reassured him. His reflection was no longer against the wall, and he was instead standing directly behind Gray as he stared down at Happy. "Hells. Plural."

"No, what did you do with my…" Gray gestured vaguely at his arm. His fingers were still tingling.

"Oh. I just wanted to pet him." Natsu nodded at Happy. "I haven't seen a cat in a long time. Not alive, anyway. He's soft."

Gray frowned at Natsu in the mirror, then reached out – on his own, this time – and ran his fingers over Happy's fur again. "He's kind of an asshole," Gray warned as Happy purred, then turned and nipped his fingers.

Natsu grinned. "We'll get along just fine, then." The weightless sensation appeared in Gray's hand again as Natsu took over, but this time he let it. Despite Natsu's fangs and scales, he didn't seem particularly scary. In fact, the expression on his face as he petted Happy was one of almost child-like excitement.

"Wait," Gray said as Natsu's words finally caught up to him. "You're staying? In me? I mean not—not in me like that, but in…" He trailed off and ran a hand over his burning cheeks. Natsu started to answer but Gray shook his head. "Nope. No. It's two in the morning and I'm still not convinced this isn't just a side effect of Lyon accidentally giving me mushrooms again, so I'm going to sleep and deal with all of this—" he gestured vaguely to Natsu's reflection in the mirror "—once I'm awake and sober."

Before Natsu could argue Gray flicked off the light, grabbed Happy, and headed back to the bed.

"I'm not a side effect," Natsu grumbled as Gray burrowed under the blankets and pulled a pillow over his head.

"Shut up," he said through a yawn. "If you're still around tomorrow, we can talk."

"Gray. Graaay. Graaaaaaaay."

Gray groaned as he blinked slowly awake. His head still throbbed and he felt vaguely sick, and the insistent voice calling out his name wasn't helping.

"What'you want?" he mumbled. His mouth felt fuzzy.

"Finally! I've been trying to wake you up for like half an hour now. Did you know that you snore? Like, a lot. It's a good thing I don't need sleep, or I'd be pretty annoyed at you right now."

The voice was much too chipper for – Gray squinted at his phone – 7:36 a.m. He groaned and flopped back against the pillow, then looked around for the source of the voice. Nobody was there except for Happy, who was curled up on the pillow next to him, fast asleep.

"Who—"

"In your head, remember?"

The events of early morning started to come back to Gray in pieces – the hot guy in the mirror who claimed he was from… somewhere that wasn't Germany. He frowned and looked over at the bathroom.

"I don't live in the mirror, idiot."

"Well how the fuck am I supposed to know that?" Gray glared at the ceiling. "It's not like I've ever done this before."

"Aw, I'm your first?"

"No," Gray said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. "I get possessed by demons all the time. It's a hobby."

"Really?" Natsu sounded genuinely surprised.

"Oh my god," Gray muttered under his breath. "It's way too early for this." He sighed, then pushed himself up and ran his hands through his hair.

"Is it breakfast time?" Natsu asked. "'cause I'm starving. Or you are. I'm not sure if I can be hungry when I'm possessing you. Maybe we're both hungry! What kind of food do you have?"

"I'm not hungry," Gray interrupted. A low growling from his stomach disagreed with him, but he ignored it.

"Well then I am." Natsu sounded almost petulant. "Do you have coffee? I haven't had coffee in forever. I mean, I haven't had anything in forever – demons don't really eat. Do you like tacos? I wanna try tacos. They weren't around the last time I was here."

"Do you always talk this much?" Gray asked. He stood up and stretched, then rummaged through his drawers until he found a clean shirt to pull on.

"I dunno," Natsu said. "Maybe? Probably. I haven't had anyone to talk to in a long time."

"Aren't there other… demons? Where you're from?"

"Yes. They're boring, though. All they talk about is torturing people."

A cold thread of fear suddenly crept up the back of Gray's neck. The word 'demon' had obviously registered before, but it wasn't until now that he realized that being possessed by one probably wasn't a good thing. Natsu seemed harmless enough, but the mention of torture made Gray's hairs stand on end.

"Don't worry," Natsu reassured him before he could say anything. "I'm not gonna torture you. I mean, I couldn't, even if I wanted to, 'cause I don't have a body. I mean, I can sort control you, so guess I could probably compel you to walk into traffic or something." He must have felt Gray's fear surge because he quickly added, "I wouldn't! I promise."

Gray didn't say anything as he pulled out the tin of coffee from the cupboard and started measuring it into the machine. Now that he was awake, a thousand thoughts were racing through his mind. How had this happened? Did Lyon do this on purpose? If it was an accident, how was he going to reverse it? Would an exorcism work?

"It might." Natsu's voice shoved its way to the forefront of Gray's mind.

"You can hear my thoughts?"

"Mhmm."

"Fuck." Gray watched as his hand moved on its own and added one more scoop of coffee grounds to the machine. "Stop that."

"Why?" Natsu's voice was bright and playful. "It's fun."

"'cause it's my body." The coffee machine started to hiss and sputter. "And it feels weird."

Natsu huffed but acquiesced and Gray was relieved when the sensation returned to his arm. He shook his hand out a few times, then slumped down on one of the stools next to the counter.

"Aren't you gonna make breakfast?" Natsu asked. "Do you have bacon?"

"I'm not hungry," Gray said again.

"Why are you lying?"

"I'm not."

"You are. I'm literally inside of you, I can tell you're hungry. Why don't you want to eat?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Gray said. "This is weird enough without you bossing me around." He pulled out his phone and stared at the screen, then swiped to his text conversation with Lyon.

Natsu was quiet for a few minutes while Gray attempted to compose a message. The only sound in the kitchen was the drip of the coffee machine, and Happy's quiet meow from beside the pantry where he waited to be fed. Gray started and deleted a few messages, then set the phone back down on the counter and dropped his head into his hands, sighing.

"You're really sad," Natsu said quietly.

"No," Gray said, "I'm frustrated."

"I don't mean right now," Natsu said. "I mean just… in general." Gray felt a strange tugging sensation in the back of his mind. "It's kind of a mess in here."

"Stop looking through my brain!" Gray stood up and shook his head as if he could dislodge Natsu from his mind. "I'm fine. I'm just not hungry, is that a fucking crime?"

"When was the last time you ate?"

"None of your goddamn business." Gray could feel heat rising in his cheeks as he ran his hands through his hair. "Leave me alone."

"I can't."

Gray stared across the room at his reflection in the microwave. The shadow of Natsu stood behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't look angry, though, just concerned. Gray hated it. The last thing he needed was someone poking around in his brain – even if that someone was unfairly attractive, and, despite being a demon, actually kind of nice.

"How do I get rid of you?"

"I don't know." There was a note of hurt in Natsu's voice as he disappeared from the reflection. Gray could still hear him, though, when he added, "Ask your warlock friend."

"He's not my friend," Gray said, glaring at his phone. "He's my brother. And he's a fucking idiot."