Important Author's notes
Please head over to Ao3 (Archive of our Own) and read "Rewind" there.
If you continue here, you are reading an old and outdated version of "Rewind". I edited all the chapters on Ao3, and it's not just grammatical adjustments, but also plot updates.
I will not update the chapters here or post new ones. This site is a pain in the ass for authors and thus I discontinued "Rewind" on here, so if you want to read the latest chapters, you gotta read them on Ao3. You'll easily find me there as my name is the same and the fic title is the same.
If you're not familiar with posting fanfics on ffn, here's why this site's a huge pain in the ass:
- it doesn't save chapters for you to edit later on, but deletes the raw data of the chapters if you didn't touch it in 90 days (though they seem to have added an "Export to Doc Manager" option, but whatever. Let me vent my bottled-up frustration of all these years without it)
- if you copy-paste text in here, a part of the formatting is destroyed and you have to go through the whole chapter to format everything again (for example, I sometimes use three stars to indicate time skips between two paragraphs. ffn simply deletes them for whatever reason)
- ffn removes all hyperlinks (what, you thought I was deliberately being a dick by not posting the link to the Ao3 version of this fic?)
- ffn doesn't allow for fanarts to be posted within a chapter (I do this sometimes on Ao3). So, there's no way for me to share fanart that has been created based on my fic (which surprisingly are quite a few for Rewind - I shared them on Ao3, with permission of the artist of course)
I could go on, but this isn't the reason why I'm here. Just telling you to please head over to Ao3 and read "Rewind" there.
If you still insist on reading it here, then here you have an updated chapter 1 without proper formatting and then outdated chapters 2 to 22. Still, enjoy!
Natsu awoke with a start, his heart pounding. A glance at his alarm clock told him that it was much too early for him to be awake. He buried his face in the crook of his elbow and sighed.
They'd come back late the day before. Makarov had called them to his office the second he'd taken notice of their arrival. He'd asked them to accept a very urgent and important mission that would start the next day in the afternoon. There was only one train per day to their destination and the ride would take hours. Naturally, Natsu hadn't been happy to hear that.
Natsu was wide awake, and he knew from experience that he wouldn't fall back asleep, no matter how long he rolled around in his bed. So he peeled himself from the covers only to find that his hands were shaking. What was wrong with him? Usually, if he had nightmares, he could remember them.
He felt a tingling in his gut, but it was always like this when he knew that he'd have to ride something that made him nauseous. Natsu clenched his hands into fists to make the trembling go away, but the motion just made him realize that his palms were sweaty. He gulped. There was no use denying that something was wrong. Was he getting sick? He should probably talk to Wendy later.
For now, he decided to just take a shower and get ready for the day, since dwelling on it wouldn't help.
The guild hall was unusually quiet when Happy and Natsu arrived. Most of the members were on a mission or still at home. Gray sat alone at a table, playing with his glass of water, oblivious to everything around him. Was he always here this early in the morning? Natsu was one for sleeping in, so he usually arrived when the guild was lively and loud, with his best friend and rival always right in the middle of it. Seeing him sitting there, turning his water to ice and melting it again, then absentmindedly tapping his finger against the glass... It was strange. Was there even a sad look in Gray's eyes, or was it just Natsu's imagination?
Whatever it was, Natsu didn't like it. He couldn't stand the thought of Gray being sad, so he went over to him, flopped down on the opposite bench, made himself comfortable and fixed his eyes on Gray. He distantly noted Happy flying towards the bar, where Mirajane chatted with Wendy and Carla, but everything around him was forgotten as a pair of icy blue eyes focused on him with a questioning look. Natsu stared back without blinking. Gray didn't look away, but his expression grew more and more confused, his eyebrows raising higher.
After a few seconds, Gray sighed and broke the silence. "Why are you up so early? We should be well-rested for today's mission."
Natsu tilted his head. "The same goes for you."
Gray rolled his eyes. "I didn't sleep well last night."
Yeah, he did look kind of tired. Maybe that look from earlier hadn't been sadness, but exhaustion. As if to prove his point, Gray let out a long yawn, then rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. When his vision was sharp again, he asked, "So?"
'So... what?'
Natsu's confusion seemed to be written all over his face because Gray repeated his question. "Why didn't you sleep longer?"
'Oh, right.'
"Dunno. I woke up much too early and I don't even know why."
Gray's expression changed into one of amusement. "Oh? I didn't know there was something that could steal your sleep. What is it? Did Lucy dump you?"
Natsu didn't know why Gray was lately so hell-bent on the idea that he had a crush on Lucy, but it never failed to make him angry. Gray should have seen it coming that Natsu grabbed him by the collar a second later.
"Are you boys fighting again?"
Natsu froze at Erza's voice. He turned his head slowly, afraid Erza would attack if he made a quick movement. She had just arrived, still standing in the door, a dark aura surrounding her. That was impeccable timing she had there. Now Natsu looked like the guilty one, crouching on the table and threatening Gray with a clenched fist, when Gray had been the one to taunt him. He sighed and let go, then flopped down on the bench again. He didn't want to incur Erza's wrath first thing in the morning. Erza rewarded him with an appeased smile and busied herself with carrying nearly all of her belongings into the guild hall. Natsu would never understand how she could seriously think that all this luggage was necessary.
When he turned his attention back to Gray, he found himself being scrutinized by intense blue eyes.
"What now?"
"Why do you always get so defensive when it comes to you and Lucy?"
"I told you, it's not like that!"
Natsu found it increasingly hard to keep his temper at bay whenever Gray started this topic. Because, seriously, how could he stay calm when Gray was so thoroughly misinterpreting his feelings? How had he not understood already that Lucy wasn't the one he was in love with? He'd tried to give Gray hints that he was the one his heart belonged to, and had for a long time already. But it somehow always ended up in bickering or fighting. Even when he just 'accidentally' brushed his hand against Gray's, the ice mage immediately jumped and bellowed at him. Natsu had nearly given up hope that Gray could ever return his feelings. He'd stopped trying to subtly get closer to him over two years ago. However, Natsu knew that he couldn't hide his feelings very well. He caught himself staring at Gray way too often. Not to mention his nervousness whenever they were close, although Natsu tried his best to mask it as clumsiness.
"You know that the more you deny it, the more likely it seems."
Damn him! Why was he so incredibly stupid? Natsu was tempted to just shout out his love confession, if only to make Gray shut up. Instead he went for, "Lucy is like a sister to me!"
Gray was about to retort something, but Lucy, who apparently just arrived at the guild a second ago, beat him to it. "Ohhh, really? Now that's cute! You're like a brother to me, too!"
Natsu felt heat creeping into his cheeks, both because Lucy called him 'cute', and because all people present had heard it. Fabulous. This really supported his claim that he didn't have any romantic feelings for Lucy. Gray was obviously thinking the same. He uttered a sarcastic, "Yes, like a sister, of course."
Before Natsu knew what to respond, Gray was already on his feet, heading towards the bar, glass in hand. Natsu cursed under his breath, staring at Gray's retreating back as if that could make him realize that he was the one Natsu truly wanted.
What else could he do to make Gray see that he wasn't in love with Lucy? What made Gray believe such a thing in the first place? It was true that he liked Lucy like a sister, and he had no qualms showing it openly. Natsu let out a long, unhappy sigh.
"What's wrong? Trouble with Gray?"
Lucy took a seat next to Natsu. He didn't even bother looking at her. He knew she was worried; he could hear it in her voice.
"He still thinks I'm in love with you."
"Damn. Maybe you should try something more obvious. Well, I personally think you're already pretty obvious, but I guess guys can be kind of dumb when it comes to this..." she trailed off, elbowing Natsu meaningfully.
"Hey! What do you mean, 'guys'? We're not all the same, you know? He's being dumb here!"
Lucy pointedly turned her head towards Natsu, and as soon as their gazes met, she rolled her eyes. "If you think so."
'Yes, I think so indeed.'
"Say, Natsu, why are you already in the guild this early?"
"I woke up early and I couldn't fall back asleep."
"Oh. Is something bothering you?"
He really had a reputation of a heavy sleeper, didn't he?
"Nothing, I don't think."
"Hmmm. I guess we all have nights like that. I didn't sleep well last night, either. It was hard to fall asleep, and I woke up multiple times." She lowered her head until her forehead rested on the table. At least he wasn't the only one who'd had a bad night.
The door to the guild hall opened with a bang, revealing Laxus, the Raijinshuu, and—oh god, please, no—Juvia.
"GRAY-SAMAAA!"
Juvia was at the bar and clinging to Gray in no time at all. Natsu clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, barely noticing when Lucy patted his back soothingly. His brain worked rapidly on an excuse to drag Gray into a fight. Sad how this was the only behavior that would seem normal to the others. Maybe he really needed to work on their relationship. Needed to talk more often to Gray without it ending in an argument or fight. Needed to claim his attention for reasons other than taunting him. But he needed a quick solution, as Juvia was clinging to Gray's neck and trying to kiss him. That woman had gotten bolder over the years. Gray ignoring her assaults had done nothing to lessen her efforts. Alright, it wasn't like he always just ignored her, but since telling her that he wasn't interested wasn't helping either, he'd obviously resigned himself to just letting it happen. Which was raising Juvia's hopes, and that was not okay. Plus he was half naked, so Juvia could touch his muscular upper body to her heart's desire. Which was another thing that was clearly not okay.
Natsu was in front of the two before he even noticed that he'd moved at all. He had to remind himself that he needed to glare at Gray, not Juvia. She jumped aside quickly. As much as she loved Gray, she didn't want to get involved in their fights.
"Not in here, for god's sake!" Erza's angry growl halted their impending fight, much to Natsu's relief. He usually enjoyed fighting with Gray, but hated doing it for no reason other than saving Gray from Juvia's unwanted endeavors.
"Outside, now!" Gray snarled. Natsu was all too happy to follow him. He ignored Lucy's worried look and gave Erza a nod when she warned them that they'd need their strength later. He wasn't going to fight Gray. Not this time.
When they arrived at the clearing next to a river where they usually fought, Gray turned around sharply, an angry look on his face.
"What did I do this time?"
Natsu shrugged. "Nothing. That's the problem."
"What are you talking about?"
"Juvia. You keep giving her false hope."
Gray's eyes narrowed to slits. "I don't see how that's any of your business."
"You're both my friends, and I hate seeing my friends unhappy!"
"How do I make Juvia unhappy by not rejecting her?"
Natsu let out a sigh. "I'm talking about you."
This stunned Gray and his angry expression faltered, making way for a confused one. "Me...? How would you know whether I'm happy or not?"
"You tense up whenever you know Juvia is approaching you, I can tell from your smell and from the hunching of your shoulders. You flinch when she's reaching out to you; you look like you've bitten into a lemon whenever she clings to you. You never return any gestures. You never let her kiss you or hold your hand. When she hugs you, you look around as if searching for somebody or something that would help you get out of that situation. I just... wanted to be that somebody to help you."
Gray's eyes widened in surprise, watching Natsu intently. Had he said too much?
"You..." Gray trailed off, and then started over again. "You aren't actually as stupid as you make people think you are."
Natsu closed his eyes, trying hard to resist a retort. Now was not the time to fight. 'Not the time to fight. Calm down. No. Fighting.' It was disturbing that the voice in his head sounded like Erza, but he dismissed it.
"If that's all, then let's go back to the guild already."
This earned him a wary look. Gray took a careful step towards Natsu but then paused. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Natsu... Is everything alright? Your behavior is kind of... well, off?"
He nearly said, 'no, everything's alright,' but then a thought occurred to him. Gray was taking him seriously, so maybe this was his chance?
"It bugs me that you don't believe me when I say I'm not into Lucy."
"Well, you spend a lot of time with her, and you're often at her house. You seem to enjoy yourself when she's around. It makes sense."
Natsu sighed in defeat. "It's true that I like her, but it's not romantic at all. She's the only one who puts up with me like this, and her flat is way cleaner than my house. I don't see her that way, and I never will."
Gray swallowed, then took a small step towards Natsu. "I didn't realize it's bothering you so much." His gaze was intense. "I believe you now if it makes you feel better."
Natsu had expected to be more relieved to hear these words than he actually was. Gray's proximity made him way too nervous. Should he confess? Or just kiss him, and confess afterward? Gray was so close... Just two more steps and he could kiss him...
'Yeah, right.' As if Gray would appreciate that. A kiss out of the blue, by another guy no less. For all Natsu knew, Gray wasn't into guys.
All of those thoughts faded when Gray took another tentative step forward, his eyes never leaving Natsu's. He reached out to Natsu's face, and Natsu's eyes widened. When Gray's cool fingers touched his cheek, his heart rate picked up even more. The touch was brief, just a quick swipe across his skin, and then it was gone.
Gray checked his hand, rubbing his fingers against each other, as if trying to determine the tackiness of... a liquid? With a start, Natsu reached for his own cheeks, startled to feel wetness there. He was crying? Why?
He looked back up, unsure how to handle this situation. Gray looked at him in concern and confusion.
"Natsu...? What's wrong? That's not like you. Is it something I said?"
"N-no. I don't know why I'm... crying."
"Come on. You can tell me. I know we fight most of the time, but I still consider you my best friend."
Natsu took the last step forward without thinking. He bumped into Gray harder than intended; Gray needed to take half a step back to regain balance. After a brief moment of hesitation, they wrapped their arms around each other. Gray patted his back soothingly, trying to shush him.
"I'm sorry... I... I really don't know what's wrong. I have no reason to cry."
'Especially not now, when you're so close to me and holding me like this,' he added in his thoughts.
"I just feel... really strange today, is all..."
And it was true. It was a weird day. There was no way he'd act like this on a normal day. But something was depressing him.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I also feel weird today..."
Natsu stiffened. Gray felt it, too? If they both had a bad gut feeling, then there were dangers looming ahead. Natsu pushed Gray away and sniffed the air, but there seemed to be nothing amiss—though there was a breeze that would make it impossible to smell somebody who was hiding in the wind direction.
"Show yourself!" he shouted into the trees, just to make sure. Gray took up a fighting stance, shooting Natsu a wary look.
"Did you smell somebody?"
"No."
"Then why are you doing this? Did you hear something?"
"No. I'm just trying to make sure."
Gray rolled his eyes. "Let's go back to the guild."
Natsu let his gaze rove over the landscape around them, trying to spot anything that was amiss. When he didn't find anything, he sighed and nodded, taking off towards their guild after Gray.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
Natsu's stomach turned upside down at the mere sight of the train.
On the way to the station they'd figured out that somehow everyone on their team hadn't slept well and felt off, though nobody knew what it was about. Carla was oddly quiet the whole time, and when asked, she only shook her head, saying she also didn't know what was going on.
It wasn't surprising when Lucy's head slumped down on Erza's shoulder not five minutes after departure. Erza also appeared to be fighting to stay awake, but she gave in soon enough, letting her head rest against Lucy's.
Wendy had cast Troia on Natsu and herself, which was why they were both fine with the ride. But it would wear off soon enough, she had warned, since both of them had already gotten used to the spell.
Natsu wanted to sleep, at least until his motion sickness kicked in, but he really didn't want to abuse Wendy's shoulder. Knowing himself and his sleeping habits, he knew for a fact that he'd end up leaning against the person sitting next to him, though he'd never slept on a train before. It would be a different story if he'd be sitting next to Gray... In that case he'd gladly fall asleep and let himself slump against Gray, even if it probably ended with a punch to his face and a snide comment. However, Erza had insisted they not sit next to each other, knowing all too well how badly that could end.
Natsu risked a glance at Gray and saw his friend yawning and blinking rapidly, trying to focus his gaze on something before him, probably Lucy. Wendy seemed to be the only one who wasn't tired at all. Even Happy lay next to Natsu on the bench, sleeping with a wide grin on his face, mumbling something about fish.
Natsu slumped in his seat, staring at the floor, thinking about the mission they were entrusted with. A small dark guild had taken a whole town of non-mages hostage. Well, they had one mage, but he wouldn't have stood a chance. He could make himself invisible, so he'd used his ability to sneak out and send the request to Fairy Tail. It was classified as an A-rank mission, though Makarov had insisted on sending their best team since they didn't know the strength of their enemies. They didn't even know the name of the dark guild and they hadn't ever heard of the mages who were briefly described in the request. The dark guild's goal was simple—they wanted all the money the town possessed. When Makarov had told them just how many jewels they were talking about, Erza had let out a screeching sound, Gray had jumped so high he'd hit his head on the ceiling—naturally Natsu had made fun of him for that afterwards—Happy had tried to calculate how much fish he could buy with all these jewels—in vain—, and Natsu had made some shocked poses he'd never admit were hilarious to watch.
The town's safe and its security mechanisms had been crafted by mages. Thus the dark guild had been unable to break into it, and the mayor had refused to tell them how to open it. Now the town was held captive in an underground shelter, and the dark guild had given the mayor forty-eight hours to change his mind, or they would start killing hostages until he either changed his mind, or everybody was dead. The forty-eight hours had begun the previous day at around noon, which left Fairy Tail about a day to find and defeat them. Natsu was determined as ever to kick their asses.
Wendy snapped him out of his reverie when she got up from her seat. Confused, Natsu looked up at her. Wendy leaned down and whispered into his ear that she felt Troia was wearing off and she didn't want to wake up the others with her retching. Upon hearing that, Natsu wanted to get up as well for the same reason, but she motioned him to relax. She was much more used to the spell than him, so he'd still have some time, at least half an hour, probably more like an hour, she guessed. Natsu sunk back on the bench in relief, watching Wendy stumble towards the toilets.
This left him sitting next to Gray. If Natsu let himself doze off, his head would definitely end up in Gray's lap. He tried to subtly catch a glimpse of the ice mage out of the corner of his eyes, but what he saw made him turn his head fully. Gray was sleeping with his lips slightly apart, his head leaning against the window. Natsu licked his lips subconsciously at the sight. Gray was just too sexy for his own good. And when the hell had he stripped off his shirt? Not that Natsu particularly minded, but... damn.
When Natsu felt a tell-tale tightness in his crotch, he jumped to his feet, hurrying off to find the nearest toilet. The last thing he wanted was to be caught getting or being hard around his friends. Who knew when one of them would wake up and see?
The odor of the toilet made him calm down fairly quickly, and when he got back to the cabin, he sat down a row before his sleeping friends. He kept his eyes strictly on the passing landscape, steering his thoughts to the mission ahead.
Only when his motion sickness kicked back in did he allow himself to risk a glance over his shoulder. Gray rubbed his eyes, trying to stifle a yawn. Natsu turned back sharply as a wave of nausea overcame him, leaving him retching dryly. He should have known better than to turn his head against the direction of driving. It always made his nausea worse. Burying his head into his palms, he prayed for the ride to be over soon.
An hour passed, and nothing happened besides the train halting and taking off again, giving Natsu little breaks from his nausea only to have it hit him again harder than before. However, if his sense of time wasn't completely off, then they ought to arrive at their destination soon.
When he felt a determined tap on his shoulder, his first guess was that he'd done something wrong and Erza had come to give him a lecture. So he was surprised to find Gray standing there, his expression unreadable. He took a step back and made a beckoning gesture, then walked over to the farthest bench in the cabin. Natsu followed him a bit wobbly, not understanding the need to sit somewhere else at first. But when he sat down, he realized. The rattling sound of the train would make sure their voices wouldn't carry over to the sleeping girls and Happy.
Gray shot Natsu a careful look that clearly said, 'If you dare puke on me I swear I'll chop your head off.' Natsu shook his head, trying to convey that he wasn't going to puke anytime soon, but Gray didn't look too convinced. So he stood up and sat next to Natsu, probably wanting to be out of the line of fire. Although that didn't explain why he was sitting so close to Natsu that he could feel the body warmth Gray was radiating through his clothes.
"I just wanted to say... thank you. For saving me from Juvia. That was... nice of you."
Natsu knew that looking to the side would cause his nausea to intensify, but his curiosity was just too strong. He turned his head and saw that Gray's eyes were closed firmly, his lips taut, and there was even a faint blush on his cheeks.
Natsu wanted to say something, but the words died in his throat as another wave of sickness washed over him and made him retch. Gray flinched and scrambled to his feet, probably surprised that Natsu was facing him. Natsu doubled over, his hands coming to his stomach automatically. He needed to go to the toilet immediately.
Half an hour later, they stood at an abandoned train station. Lucy studied a map, Gray talked with Erza while Happy tried to woo Carla, and Wendy and Natsu leaned against a wall with their faces down, both panting and trying to recover from the ride.
Lucy pointed in the direction they'd come from. "This way, if I'm not mistaken... Let's go!"
She was in high spirits. And it wasn't just her—everyone seemed to be in a better mood after their nap—except for Wendy and Natsu, of course. When everyone started walking in the direction Lucy had pointed, Natsu and Wendy reluctantly let go of the wall, stood up, and followed their friends.
It took them about half an hour to find the dugout, but once they were inside, the rest of the search was easy; there was only one possible path. It was dark, so Natsu was in charge of lighting their way.
When they reached a heavy and old looking metal door, Erza signaled them to prepare for battle. Once she'd gotten a nod from everyone, she burst through the door, holding her sword defensively in front of her body.
"Ohh, welcome, welcome! No need to be that hostile, now. Come in, all of you, come in," a cheery female voice rang out.
Nobody moved at first, but then Erza shouted, "Follow her orders!"
So they did. The room was small and they needed to huddle together in order to fit. There were three people, two men and a woman, holding sharp knives to the throats of one hostage each. Plus there were three more people behind them, hovering in mid-air, caught in some kind of liquid bubble.
"Close the door. Come on. Come on!" the only female mage ordered. Wendy obediently closed it behind her.
"Good girl. Good girl. Now, we don't want to be impolite, so we'll introduce ourselves first. Hiii! I'm Ichika!" She smiled broadly, and as a greeting, she waved her knife back and forth excitedly. Her hair was long and black, her face small. Natsu considered launching a surprise attack, but dismissed the idea immediately. They didn't know what they were facing yet, plus endangering civilians for the sake of surprise wasn't his cup of tea.
The younger man sighed in annoyance, rolling his eyes at Ichika. Then he turned his head back towards the Fairy Tail mages, introducing himself with another sigh and one word: "Bubbles." He was tan and tall, with brown, shoulder-length hair. His eyes were brown, too, and all in all, he was very good-looking. Natsu guessed him to be in his twenties.
"Don't be so mean to Ichika," the older man stated in an uninterested tone, and then continued, equally uninterestedly, "I'm Yushin."
Yushin was pale, had blue eyes and blond hair. A scar reached from the outer corner of his left eye to the left corner of his lips, but it did nothing to lessen his attractiveness.
"Tch. Ya ain't better, y'bored piece of trash," Bubbles retorted.
Yushin shrugged nonchalantly. "That's why you like me after all."
Bubbles growled. "I don't like you, y'stupid pervert!" He pointed his knife at Yushin, but since Ichika was in the way, it ended up mere centimeters away from her cheek.
She narrowed her eyes. "Do you think you could interrupt your flirting for the sake of more urgent matters, eh? Our friends here are waiting to introduce themselves, right? Right?"
"But he's try'na make 'em think I'm gay—"
"Well, you are, duh. Now shut up—"
" 'am not!"
"—and let them introduce themselves," Ichika finished as if Bubbles hadn't spoken.
Natsu eyes them warily, as did everyone else on their team. So when Bubbles' complaints had finally died down, and the three enemy mages stared at them, waiting for them to say something, they needed a moment to gather themselves.
Lucy was the first one to regain her voice. She reluctantly introduced everyone on their team curtly.
Ichika smiled at all of them as they were introduced, and when Lucy had finished, she put her knife down and clapped once.
Bubbles growled, but put his knife down, while Yushin followed Ichika's example without hesitation.
"You may go back to the others now! Thanks for your cooperation!" Ichika said cheerily.
The oldest of the hostages mumbled, "It's not as if we had any choice," then followed the other two to a door that was on the opposite of the entrance. Ichika's smile froze for a second, but she caught herself quickly, and then it became even broader. As soon as the three men were out of the room, her smile fell immediately.
"Whew. It's so hard to be a bad girl, right, Bubbles?"
He turned his head sharply towards her, his eyes narrowed to slits. "How the hell'd I know that, huh? 'N stop hintin' that I'm gay, 'coz I'm not!"
"Yes, yes, here we go again. Talk to my hand. Maybe you can actually convince it."
" 'm not talkin' bullshit, y' silly bi—"
"Bubbles. Language," Yushin interjected in a bored tone.
Bubbles grumbled, then said, "My bad."
Natsu tuned them out in favor of assessing their situation. There were still three people behind their enemies in their respective bubbles. They were alive and awake, but they didn't say anything. They just watched the scene play out before their eyes. One of the hostages was an old woman, probably around seventy, the second one a man in his twenties, and the third one was a kid, not older than twelve, Natsu guessed. They had to find out what those bubbles were about before they struck.
Natsu wasn't exactly well-known for his patience. However, he managed to get out only the first syllable when Erza's voice drowned out everything in the room.
"CUT IT OUT! Would you just get the fuck down to business? They're hostages as well, right? Just tell us your conditions already, so we can get to kicking your asses." She let out a snort.
Bubbles flinched, cursing under his breath, while Yushin showed no reaction whatsoever. Ichika was another story altogether—she screeched, then jumped right into Erza's arms, giving her a tight hug, uncaring of the sword that was still in Erza's hand.
"What a scary girl! I wanna be like you! Can you teach me how you do that? Can we be best friends? Please, please!"
Erza was completely dumbfounded, looking to her friends for help. Natsu clenched his fists, fire playing around them, but Lucy stretched out her arm and shook her head. Natsu dispersed the flames, sighing in frustration.
"Okay, how about you answer us some questions?" Lucy asked in Yushin's direction. She got a nod from him, so she continued. "What's your reason for taking a whole town hostage?"
"Money."
She sighed. "What do you need that much money for? I mean, you're three people. You could probably feed a hundred people for their whole life with this much money."
"Find Bubble's father. He went missing."
This struck a chord with Natsu. He took a step forward before he even knew what he was doing. But Lucy turned her head sharply, shaking it once more, begging Natsu silently to stay out of it.
"When did he go missing?"
"Hal—"
"SHUDDUP! They don't need t'know ev'rythin'! You already told 'em too much. Let's get down to business. These people are our hostages, I'm the one who's controllin' the bubbles, but you've already figured out that much, haven't 'cha?"
"Yes, indeed." Lucy said.
Ichika paused and turned her head towards Lucy. "So it's starting, eh? Sorry, scary Lady, but for now we're enemies," she declared, stepping away from Erza and returning to her former position. Erza exhaled in relief, her face flushed.
Bubbles opened his mouth, but Ichika covered his mouth with her hand, earning her an eye roll.
"I'm trying to be a bad girl here, so let me talk. First of all, the bubbles in which our hostages are caught contain a highly corrosive substance. If you try to pop them by force, it'll dissolve the captive completely within a matter of seconds; they won't even have time to scream. Only Bubbles himself can release them without killing the one inside, so you better think twice before you do anything against our rules.
"You have three options. One: Pay us as much as this town owns, and they are free."
Lucy glowered at her. "As if a mage guild would have that kind of money."
Ichika smiled. "Thought so. Well, the second option would be: You leave, and nobody's in danger for the next... err, about twenty hours."
Natsu couldn't stop an angry snort. And he wasn't the only one—Lucy grit her teeth, Erza raised her sword higher, Gray let out a "tch", and Wendy clenched her fists.
"I take that as a 'no'. Well, we could just force you to leave us alone by threatening to kill the hostages otherwise, but what fun would that be? Therefore, the third option involves fighting. There are some rules. Number one: This town, including this bunker, is not to be damaged within the next twenty hours. It's a part of our promise to the mayor, and we're keeping promises. Number two: We're fighting one on one. Everyone is only allowed to fight once. Since you're five, that means two of you won't fight. You may choose your enemy, but you have to do it before you know what our abilities are. If you win a duel, we will release one of the hostages. However, if you lose—" she smiled happily— "then we'll kill one of them. If you manage to defeat all of us, we'll release everyone, leave this town and never bother them again. However, if you don't defeat all of us, you will leave and never bother us again."
"And watch you kill innocent people?" Natsu had taken up a fighting stance, his fists on fire.
"There, there. Want to fight that eagerly? If you do anything stupid now, they'll die immediately."
Natsu gritted his teeth, shooting her a vicious glare, but didn't try to attack.
"Great. Number three: If you mess with a fight that is not yours, we'll kill one of the hostages. And last: We'll fight in the nearby hills. Follow me!"
When they finally reached their goal, Natsu was fuming with restrained anger. This girl, Ichika, was eating at his nerves. She was way too cheery and carefree, and nothing seemed to upset her. Yushin was equally frustrating Natsu with his bored and aloof attitude. But the one who was annoying him the most was Bubbles, with his constant denial that he wasn't into Yushin when he obviously was.
So somewhere along the way, Natsu had announced that he'd fight Bubbles. Gray had complained because he'd wanted to fight with him, but after a short argument which had been interrupted by Erza, Gray settled for Ichika. That had left the three girls to decide which of them would fight Yushin. It was an easy choice, seeing as Erza was the strongest among them.
The first battle was between Erza and Yushin. They'd agreed on another rule: the duels would end if one of them couldn't stand anymore, surrendered, or, in the worst case, died.
Erza had requipped into her most comfortable fighting clothes—the wide red and yellow cloth trouser, her chest covered in bandages. Yushin stood several meters away, watching her with a neutral expression, and gesturing for Erza to make the first move.
She took the invitation and charged towards Yushin with both swords directed at him—when he raised one hand and shouted, "I surrender."
Erza was so taken aback that she tripped over her own feet, and fell face first.
"Haha, ohh, sorry, sorry! He's our healer, he never fights! You've won your first duel, congratulations, congratulations!" Ichika announced cheerily.
Bubbles immediately dissipated the bubble around the old lady, who landed on all fours. She stood up with difficulty, but as soon as she was on her feet again, she limped over to Bubbles and hit his head with her cane. "Disrespectful youth, you should learn some manners!"
"Ouch! Ey, ya stupid ol' hag, sit down 'n' watch or d'ya wanna die?"
"Bubbles. Language. Apologize," Yushin ordered, and it was the first time Natsu heard a hint of a bite in his tone.
"Tch. Yeah, sorry, whatever. Next fight, c'mon!"
The next fight was a serious one. Gray got to make the first move against Ichika, and he went for an Ice Make: Harpoon. Ichika evaded easily without even moving a muscle - her body just moved on its own, hovering a few meters above the ground. Gray let out a surprised sound but then charged at her, intending to attack with a close ranged Ice Make: Fist. She didn't move at all; this time Gray was the one being moved. Instead of approaching her, he was pushed farther and farther away from her as if an invisible wall was pushing him backward.
Ichika smiled. "Didn't expect that, did you? My magic can manipulate the relative positions of movable items, including humans. Which basically means I can fly and I can make people and items around me fly as well. I have a hundred meter range. Do you wish to surrender?"
Gray let out a low growl, and in the blink of an eye he'd stripped down to nothing but his boxers. He threw his clothes to Natsu.
"Hold onto them, I don't need that bitch using my own clothes against me." Natsu caught them easily, a bit taken aback. Gray could've just left them on for once, but who was he to complain? He'd fulfill the task happily. Watching Gray fight while having a source of his intensely good smell so close... Yes, he could definitely imagine worse.
"Oh my, oh my, you're sexy! Wow! Are you trying to distract me?"
"Just you wait and see." Gray took up his Ice Make stance, then shouted, "Ice Make: Cage!"
In the next moment, an icy cage appeared around Ichika, and her smile fell. "Oh, wow. Clever one, aren't you? But I can also move the cage, too bad."
A confident smile played over Gray's features. His next move was to create ice rods that connected the cage to the trees and the ground.
Ichika's expression changed very quickly from strained to shocked and finally resigned. When she looked up again, Gray was already clinging to the cage, his right arm encompassed by an icy blade. "Do you wish to surrender, milady?"
Ichika let out a long sigh, then raised her hand, and shouted for everyone to hear, "I surrender." Then, in a lower tone, she added, "You're really a clever one, huh. There has only ever been one mage who defeated me, and he needed much longer than you. I think I like you."
Thanks to his sharp ears, Natsu had heard every word. He needed every ounce of self-restraint not to growl at her.
"Thank you," Gray answered, then he dissipated all his ice and returned to his friends.
Natsu handed him his clothes back, and Gray quickly redressed.
Bubbles released the young adult next. He managed to land gracefully on his feet and gave Gray a thumbs up and a "Nice one," before striding over to the old lady and sitting down next to her.
Natsu was admittedly a tiny bit tense. The fact that his enemy was presumably capable of dissolving a person within seconds made him nervous.
His enemy wasn't so nice as to invite him to make the first move; he just attacked. He stretched out his palm towards Natsu. A small blue ball materialized in it and shot towards Natsu. In response, Natsu shot a flame ball towards it, and when they clashed, they dissipated with a hiss.
Natsu proceeded attacking. Close-combat with his body on fire was the plan. But his enemy shot dozens of red and blue bubbles in his direction. Natsu hit them with fiery fists, but he soon realized that the red ones contained fire, while the blue ones apparently contained ice. So instead of trying to evade the red ones, Natsu started catching them with his mouth, swallowing them wholly. This caught Bubbles off-guard, and Natsu landed a kick right in his face, which sent Bubbles flying into a tree.
Coughing, Bubbles got back to his feet, then he formed a green ball in his palm, and shot it towards Natsu. Natsu evaded easily, charging towards his enemy for another kick. Bubbles smirked, then formed many green balls. This time it was impossible to evade all of them. So Natsu decided to fend some of them off with his elbows—a grave mistake.
As soon as the first ball came in touch with his fire, it evaporated, but the gas touched his skin, and that freaking hurt! He turned on his heel, but was hit with another two balls while turning, and ran away as fast as he could. However, his left leg gave out after a few steps, and he fell to the floor, face first. He mentally prepared for the pain of being hit by some more balls, but nothing came. They all flew over his head, hitting some trees or the floor in the distance.
All of his teammates shouted in horror. He tried to sit up to inspect the damage, but his limbs hurt so much. He caught a glimpse of his elbow and was shocked to see a part of his skin, muscle, and bone missing, like a hole in his body. His left leg had been hit by two balls. Fighting down the fear, he turned his body so that he could get a look at his left leg—or rather, at the place where it should have been. It was gone, there was only a bleeding stump. An agonizing scream erupted from his throat, and next thing he knew, Gray was there, standing protectively in front of him.
"That's against the rules, stripper! You jus' killed the lil' kid here."
"If you think I'll passively stand by and watch you kill my friend, then you're mistaken, asshole!"
Natsu felt paralyzed. The pain slowly kicked in, and it was much worse than anything he'd ever experienced. His vision became blurry at the edges, and all the sounds were dull, but he fought it. There was no way he'd let himself become unconscious.
After some moments, he felt his senses sharpen again, and noticed that Wendy knelt over him, crying and working healing magic. Looking around, he found Erza, Lucy, Sagittarius, and Taurus all in fighting stances, but their heads were turned towards Natsu. No, not towards him, he noticed belatedly. They were looking at Gray... Gray, whose whole body was caught in a bubble.
'No, no, NO!' Gray had his back turned to their enemy, facing Natsu instead. A gentle smile adorned his features.
"No! Gray!" Natsu shouted, but it was too late. The bubble popped, and the liquid washed over him. Wendy jumped aside, pulling Natsu with her, trying to prevent them from being hit with stray droplets. He couldn't care less about his own safety. All he could do was watch the love of his life dissolve to nothing right before his eyes. He didn't notice he was screaming. He didn't notice that a stray drop hit his already damaged arm. The liquid ate a deep hole into the ground where Gray had been standing a few moments ago.
Natsu crawled towards it, ignoring Wendy's warnings. He leaned over the edge, uncaring that his palm burned at the touch. There was nothing. A deep hole, and nothing else. He turned towards Wendy. "H-help him. Heal him. Please."
But Wendy shook her head, tears streaming down her face.
Natsu snapped, and then everything happened too quickly. His vision turned red; fire surrounded him, he charged towards Bubbles on one leg and arm, dug his fangs and claws into any part of his body that was in reach. Bubbles was there under him, shouting, begging for his life, but Natsu didn't listen, didn't care. The next second, Bubbles face turned emotionless and pale while blood pulsed over his and Natsu's skin. He was dead. Good.
In no time Natsu was back at the spot where Gray had... vanished. He just sat there, staring into the hole disbelievingly. Surely Gray would jump from the next tree soon, saying that he'd created a copy of himself with ice and that he was fine and alive. Or that Natsu's mind had played tricks on him, and that he wasn't wounded at all.
He wasn't dead, he couldn't be. There was a hand on his shoulder, patting him. It was Wendy. Then another, on his other shoulder. Lucy. They had tears in their eyes. Erza was behind him. She was also crying. Carla and Happy were also there, crying. Why was everyone crying? Didn't they know that Gray couldn't just die like this? He would never die like this. Never... He couldn't... Surely he'd... No... He wasn't dead, right? He was fine. He'd come back. Yes. There was no way... Why was everyone crying? Why did he allow Lucy to pull him in her arms? Gray wasn't—he... he... wasn't...
"Lucy... Why? Why him, w-why did he..."
"I don't know, Natsu, I can't... b-believe it, that's just..."
Her voice choked off. She trembled. He barely registered that Carla said with a shaky voice, "I'm s-so sorry... I didn't see this coming... it was too blurry."
Natsu didn't know what happened anymore. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Gray was dead. Gone. Killed for money. He died protecting Natsu. Natsu had failed to protect Gray. He was weak, useless. He was feeling nauseous—but it didn't matter. Gray had been his everything, his whole world. How was he supposed to carry on? Without the hope of seeing one of Gray's smiles ever again. Without the hope of seeing Gray ever again.
Natsu didn't know how long they sat there. Lucy was still holding him, while he still cried. His leg was still gone. Gray was still dead. His vision turned blurry again, but this time he welcomed it. It narrowed down to a circle, then turned completely black.
Natsu awoke with a start, shouting Gray's name. His whole body shook heavily, and he was covered in sweat. Looking down at himself, he noticed that his left leg was still there and that he was in his own bed. A dream? Was that why he'd had such a strange feeling—had it all been a bad dream? Or had they somehow recovered his leg and carried him back to Magnolia?
Natsu was out of the bed and on the way to the guild hall in no time at all. He'd dressed hastily, uncaring that his vest was probably inside out, and that his belt wasn't closed properly.
When he reached the guild hall, he kicked the door open. Sitting alone at a table, staring at him in annoyance, was Gray.