Chapter 4 - Recognition
Natsu woke up slowly. There was a sharp pain in his arm, one that ran from the tips of his fingers and towards his shoulder. The shoulder was throbbing and Natsu had flashes of agonizing pain and of seeing his arm laying on the dusty ground. The phantom feeling had the fire mage awareness crash over him, as if it were a bucket of cold water.
Natsu gasped, his body locking momentarily and he stretched up, his lips brushing against a pair of slightly chapped ones. The Salamander's eyes widened as he took in his bearings once again.
He was, unexpectedly, in Gray's bedroom. In Gray's bed. And, more, he was cuddling Gray. The fire mage could feel his cheeks become hot, nearly to flaming points but then the headache hit and his fluster receded slightly.
Shit. Again. He let his head fall and his forehead was resting against the other's chin. It was an awkward position but Natsu wasn't paying it any mind. Not that it came as a surprise but… what the fuck? He groaned, the throbbing in his head making being awake all that much worse. I thought I had it this time. That damn thing. Natsu closed his eyes and his eyebrows knit up. And now this, fucking kiss. What are you doing Gray? He opened one eye and tilted his head so that he could glare at the sleeping ice mage. Why isn't this off?
Slowly, Natsu let out a grumble and started to disentangle himself from Gray but that proved to be slightly more complicated than he expected. And then he brushed against Gray's leg. Natsu bit down a colourful curse that wanted to come out as he came to himself fully and became aware of their positioning. Because his very erect dick was resting against Gray's leg. And any movement that he managed to do would only end up with him humping the other's leg. Not that he could move all that far away since one of Gray's arms had snuck over his waist and was like lead, more, as Natsu tried to escape, the grip the slumbering ice mage had on Natsu seemed to tighten.
Still, Natsu attempted to scoot back – to no avail. But Gray took that opportunity to drag him closer and the friction was doing things to Natsu and he was leaking.
Shit, shit, shit. Get yourself together. Not that this is anything shameful or anything. He was chastising himself mentally.
"Mmmmghphh." Gray's unintelligible mumble suddenly cut through Natsu's internal freak out.
The fire mage held his breath, laying stock-still.
Aw, come on. You're not going to wake up now, asshole. Natsu yelled internally. You can't!
Unfortunately for Natsu, Gray seemed to be coming to. And he didn't know what to tell him about their current compromising position. Besides, the current headache was not helping things in the least.
"Don't wake up, don't wake up." He mumbled against the smooth skin of Gray's collarbone.
Gray was still mostly asleep as he moved, adjusting his position a bit, and Natsu nearly yelped. Gray's erection had rubbed against Natsu's. And that made the fire mage's flush return tenfold because, he wasn't expecting it. And at the same time, there were some echoes of pleasure and familiarity in the far distance. Besides, Natsu would never admit that whatever was going on felt right. What the fuck? Natsu asked himself once more.
When the fire mage looked up, he noticed that Gray's eyes were open, just the barest slit. And his wakefulness made things all the worst.
"'Morning." He said in a sleep-roughened voice. And then he dropped the bomb. "Do you need any help with that?"
"W-what!" Natsu said loudly and then they were both grabbing their heads at the pain.
"Shit, my head." Gray muttered before glancing back at Natsu. "But, do you?"
"Do I what?" Natsu asked flabbergasted.
"We can do a repeat of last night. You already have a bit of a start on things." Gray replied easily, yawning. The arm that had previously been thrown over Natsu's side was slid between them and Gray curled his hand lightly around Natsu's erection.
"But… last night…" Natsu started, embarrassed.
"We didn't do anything much. Besides, you gave as much as you got." Gray's hand started a slow rhythm stroking Natsu's erection.
"Shut up! And they say that I don't think before speaking! They haven't met you yet. Pervert." Natsu mumbled, closing his eyes so that he didn't have to see Gray's amused smile.
"Hey, don't be like that. I'm not a pervert. Dumbass."
"You get naked in public spaces. Isn't that what a pervert does?" Natsu queried in mock-innocence.
"Shut up." Gray grumbled. "Anyway, let's do this. Together, yeah?"
"Yeah, okay." Natsu agreed. How did I go from a kiss to this? He wondered. Though, on the other hand, Natsu was quite curious. As he held Gray's dick a strange sense of déjà vu washed over him. And he decided that it was okay to continue.
#
Natsu rolled to his back, cleaning his hand on the bedsheet and he let out a breath. A mix of awe and surprise coursing through him.
Oh, wow. He thought, unmindful of the fluid that slid down his side and to the bed. This really happened. Wow.
"Well, that was a nice repeat." He heard Gray mumble on his side. Natsu turned his head towards Gray who was still lying on his side. He was smiling languidly. "If it weren't this headache…"
"Gray!" Natsu yelled as he sat up with a jump, but whining to himself as he pressed a hand to his forehead. "Fucking headache." Natsu mumbled before straightening up and looking at Gray. His cheeks instantly became dark pink. "Fuck. Do you know what we just did?"
"Yes…?" Gray sat up slowly, tilting his head slightly to his side. "What's your point?"
"We… this… what the fuck?" was the incongruent answer.
"Huh…" Gray's languor immediately evaporated and he looked at Natsu uncertainly. "Were you more wasted than you appeared? Because we talked about this last night. Don't you remember?"
"No! I... I don't think I do?" Natsu looked down at the white linens. His blush had become fiercely red. Even if it's familiar and feels right. He thought.
"Well, that's not so good…" Gray started saying but paused as he saw Natsu standing and cleaning himself in the bedsheet before starting to grab his clothes. "Oi, what are you doing?"
"Leaving. Go get Lucy at the guild. I'll meet you at the exit towards the forest." Natsu put on his trousers, noticing the weight in his pocket. Distractedly, he flicked his scarf before striding out of the room. He stopped by the bathroom and swiped out the gross that was stuck to his skin and then headed towards the door. He froze momentarily as he saw Gray standing by his bedroom door, arms crossed and a thunderous expression on his face.
"What do you think you're doing?" The ice mage started. "You can't just up and leave."
"Like hell, I can't." Natsu retorted, averting his eyes from Gray.
"Natsu. We need to talk…"
"Later!" Natsu cut in, quickly. "I really need to go get Erza. Seriously, I'll explain everything when we're all together. Now, get dressed and let's go."
"Don't think that you're going to get away with running." Gray threatened. "I'll catch you later and we'll have our conversation."
Natsu left the house then, slamming the door. He leaned against it and let out his breath.
Yeah… I don't think so. He thought ruefully.
As the team got together, Natsu looked at the girls then at Gray and then back at the girls. He turned on his heel and started walking down the irregular path.
The girls had instantly noticed the awkward air that was going between him and Gray.
It was not going to be fun.
"Hey, Natsu. Care to tell us why we're, well, doing this?" Lucy finally asked, after a heavy silence.
"We need to hurry to get to the temple." He answered curtly.
"The one from the mission, yesterday?" Erza asked, confusedly.
"Huh, yeah. That one. Though the mission wasn't yesterday." The fire mage said seriously.
"What do you mean with that?" Lucy asked.
"What are you talking about?" Gray said at the same time.
Natsu stopped. He inhaled deeply and then let it all out.
Here we go again.
"I've been reliving the same day." He started. And then told them everything.
The space inside the temple was immense. It was all covered by wood panels, the various brown tones of the wood only being cut by the odd rice paper panel, which had bright colours in whimsical drawings. Besides that, there were the few additions of metal here and there which were accented by the few lights. Inside there was only darkness but the walls seemed to have small sconces that provided the only light inside.
Every now and then there would be a strange shimmer but it was only caught by the corner of their eye, disappearing whenever they tried to catch a better look at it.
The team went deeper inside the first room, stopping before a set of rice paper doors that seemed to have birds drawn on it, in garish oranges, reds, yellows, blues and greens. The birds seemed to be flying outwards, as if by their flight they would open the doors.
Strangely, as they approached that set of doors, they did slide open, leaving the way open to a larger room.
As the team stepped inside, they instantly noticed the vast difference between the one they'd been previously in and the new one.
The floor was paved in stone, though there was a small rim of wood, smaller than a palm, between the stone floor and the walls. However, it was no ordinary stone nor was it placed in a careless way. For the stones were of black and white polished stone and placed alternately, never being placed adjoined to the same colour. In the middle of the room there was a different type of stone, now of a light-grey tone, which was set in a large circle.
As they approached, the team could count that inside the circle, ten hollows were placed in another circle. The ten hollows weren't empty, within the five ones on the left, white spheres were resting, and on the remaining ones on the right, there were black spheres.
In the centre of both circles, one made by the stone and another by the spheres, was another hollow. This one was empty. But it had thin lines connecting to each of the other hollows.
They stood between the stone edge and the internal circle, looking at the display and, the whole room, basically.
The room seemed to be lit from the ceiling, though from where, it wasn't possible to tell.
Suddenly, the light flickered and dimmed.
Everyone got into fighting stances, on high alert.
There was an eerie sound coming from the sides, like the chiming of countless bells, and as light began to brighten again, two large and imposing figures were standing before the team.
They were dressed in heavy robes, the heads hidden under hoods; one of the figures was clad in white while the other was in black, they were standing on the opposing sides to the spheres on the floor.
And then, they started speaking.
"Quem temos diante de nós?" The white one asked.
"Aquele que vai passar a prova, o trigram é para ser cumprido." The other one answered.
The team shared confused looks. They didn't understand what was being said.
"Desde tempos imemoriais que a prova ocorre."
"Só aquele que for merecedor é que vai avançar."
"E depois o destino do tempo decidir."
"Até ao infinito e ao ciclo."
As these words were being pronounced, a silvery light appeared around them, making an eight figure whose centre coincided with the centre of the room, that empty hollow.
"As peças já estão no lugar. Vamos a isso." The one in black said, rising their right arm.
"Primeiro passo, então." The other seemed to sigh.
Black and slick tendrils of darkness escaped from the black robed one's hand, heading right towards the team who, narrowly managed to escape by ducking out of the way right before they touched them.
"Ahhh! Natsu!" Happy's squeaky voice cut through the noise sharply.
They stared as the black tendrils curled around Happy, tightened and then expanded, creating a cage.
Natsu stood and started striding towards Happy, fire sprouting from his hands as he was deadest in freeing Happy.
"Stop!" The voice from the white robed one rumbled in the room.
"He will be here until the end of the trigram." The other stated, a dark tinge of gleefulness at the edges of their voice.
Natsu stopped and turned slightly to look at his friends but all he got from them was confusion.
And then, the black figure disappeared suddenly.
"What the-?" Natsu started saying before hurrying towards the cage, where he could see that Happy was twitching painfully. Pitiful noises were coming from him.
The white-clad figure shrunk towards a size more like theirs and walked until it was before the cage, but behind Natsu.
"May I?" Was the simple question.
"How can I know that you won't do worse?" Natsu asked suspiciously.
"I'm sorry about the whole theatrics but that's how it has to go." They said cryptically. "Now you're in the trial, you have to go until the end."
"What do you mean, trial?" Gray asked, coming to stand on the other side of the figure.
"Calm down. I won't do anything. More, I'll help your friend here," they extended their hand and touched the cage, there was a flash and a pop and then Happy was sighing with relief. "See? I don't mean any harm. But you should go now. You have to find the answer to the enigma and time's running out."
"What do you mean by that?" Lucy asked.
"Enigma?" Erza said.
The white robed figure seemed to shake their head before rising their hand and making a wide swiping motion with it.
The team found themselves just outside of the temple, heading back to the guild.
"Huh, were we already here?" Lucy asked suddenly.
"Maybe?" Erza replied. "I don't know exactly what happened."
"Whatever it was, we did it!" Natsu said optimistically as he stretched up.
"But it's weird that we don't remember what happened." Gray countered.
"Sheesh, ice brain. Such a worry-wart."
"Who are you calling a worry-wart, fire breath?"
"Boys… please…" Lucy said in a conciliatory tone.
They continued bickering on their way back to the guild.
A/N: Whew, this chapter was a bit difficult to write. And I wasn't able to post earlier because, well, I've been a bit busy and then got a bit tired to write. Either way, hope this chapter doesn't suck too much.
Ah, notice that this chapter has a bit of a hole in the place where the boys were doing stuff but it's available on my AO3. Not that the scene is much of anything, actually. ^^'
Unbetaed and written well into the night so pardon the mistakes.
Anyway, as usual, feedback would be nice. Any thoughts on things?
By the way, here's a translation for that scene with Portuguese:
"Who do we have before us?" The white one asked.
"The one who's going to undergo the trial, the trigram is to be fulfilled." The other one answered.
The team shared confused looks. They didn't understand what was being said.
"Since immemorial times has this trial happened."
"Only the worthy one will continue."
"And then decide the fate of time."
"Until infinity and the cycle."
As these words were being pronounced, a silvery light appeared around them, making an eight figure whose centre coincided with the centre of the room, that empty hollow.
"The pieces have been placed. Let's go." The one in black said, rising their right arm.
"First step, then." The other seemed to sigh.