Author's Note: Wow. This is a baby chapter, but I decided to end it where I did because I wanted a small break from the angst and I thought it was a good place to stop before leading into Gratsu together in a relationship. I was listening to my ipod while typing this up on my laptop and Collide by Howie Day came on. I now totally think of it as Gratsu's song. If you want listen to the song while you're reading the chapter. I hope you all enjoy the chapter and please leave a review. I promise the next chapter will be much longer.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Fairy Tail.

Gray and Natsu didn't stop running until they were deep into the forest and were sure they couldn't be followed. They both fell to their knees and gasped for breath. Gray closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing. He couldn't get the expression on Natsu's face when he'd attacked Jerome out of his head. There had been something off in the expression. There had been a cold fury in his face that he had never seen before. It was an expression that didn't belong to Natsu.

"I'm sorry, Gray."

Natsu's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to stare at the dragon slayer. "For what?" he asked.

"For making you follow me into town and accept that girl's offer," Natsu said. "What happened this morning was my fault."

"No it wasn't, Natsu," Gray told him. "You couldn't have known that would happen."

"You said it would," Natsu argued.

"I was being paranoid," Gray replied.

Natsu was silent for a moment. "I feel bad for getting that nice girl involved," he sighed after a minute.

Gray gawked at him. "Natsu," he said, "she's the one who gave our location to Avatar."

"Natsu's eyes widened in realization. "Oh," he stated and they both burst out laughing. When they both calmed down Gray sat up.

"We need to move," he said.

"We can't stay here?" Natsu asked.

"No. I want as much ground between us and Avatar as possible," Gray replied getting to his feet.

"Do we have to live in the woods for the rest of our lives?" Natsu whined.

Gray laughed and helped him up. "Of course not, but right now it's the safest option," he said.

"Fine," Natsu grumbled. "Can we at least find someplace fun to camp?"

"Define someplace fun," Gray replied as they started moving again.

"I don't know," Natsu huffed. "Some place we could have fun and relax."

"Something tells me those places are in short supply out here, Natsu," Gray commented.

"Well, we'll just have to look for one," Natsu replied cheerfully.

"I'll keep my eyes open," Gray returned dryly before smiling slightly. "What does this place look like?"

"It's by a lake," Natsu answered quickly. "That way we could fish."

"Practical," Gray stated. "But all the mosquitos would bite. Get it?"

"That was lame," Natsu said unamused.

"You're lame, Flame-Brain," Gray replied shoving Natsu slightly. Natsu shoved him back. Harder. The play fight quickly escalated and soon they were full out wrestling. Before Avatar had held Natsu captive he'd had the advantage when it came to their wrestling matches. The dragon slayer had always been bulkier than him, much to his annoyance. When he was younger he had tried to compete and build up muscle, but just wasn't able to bulk up like Natsu. Now though, he was the stronger of the two and he easily floored Natsu. He climbed over and straddled the fire mage's hips to keep him down.

"I win," he gloated holding Natsu's arms above his head.

Natsu glared up at him. "Only because I'm out of shape," he said.

Gray laughed. "Better get you back into…" he cut off as he felt something hard poking into his backside.

Natsu blushed under him. "Sorry," he muttered. "I know you don't like me like that."

Gray's eyes widened. "I…that's not what I said, Natsu," he replied.

"But you don't want to be close to me," Natsu said sadly.

Gray sighed. "That's not true," he returned. "I want to be with you Natsu. I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Why?" Natsu asked.

"Because I can't be sure if it's what you really want or if it's the result of what Avatar did to you," Gray answered.

Natsu frowned. "Isn't that something I would know?" he questioned.

Gray smiled sadly. "Do you know?" he asked softly. "Did you ever like me before this all happened?"

"No. I never thought of you that way before," Natsu admitted.

Gray nodded, schooling his expression into one of neutrality. "My point exactly," he replied.

"But why does that mean I can't like you now?" Natsu demanded.

"Because you're confused," Gray cried.

Natsu looked angry now. "Quit telling me how I feel!" he shouted up at him. "I know how I feel about you. I don't care why my feelings towards you have changed. I think you're the one who's confused."

Gray blinked in surprise. "I'm not confused," he said. "I'm just trying to do what's best for you."

"Without including me in the decision or asking how I feel about it," Natsu stated. "I get that you're trying to protect me and make amends for what you did, which you know I don't blame you for, but you're making decisions about me and what I feel without asking for my input."

"You're right," Gray admitted after a moment. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Natsu told him. "Just, from now on can we work out what we're doing about me together?"

Gray huffed out a laugh. "Okay. So how do you feel?" he asked.

"I want to be with you," Natsu said bluntly. "I don't know if it's because of Avatar or not. To me it doesn't matter. How I felt about you in the past, or what I didn't feel about you in the past, has no bearing of how I feel about you now. And I know you're going to put a bar on sex in the relationship but I don't care if we never do that. I just want to be with you."

Gray smiled and shook his head. He bent down and pecked a quick kiss on Natsu's lips. "I do too," he replied sitting up. "But we're taking this slow."

Natsu smiled and leaned up to steal another kiss. "Okay," he agreed. "But we'll take it slow together."