A/N: Hello everyone! Since I haven't uploaded in ages, this chapter is pretty long (for my standards, at least). I haven't really checked it so expect errors. This is the last chapter and there will most definitely be an epilogue. Please read the last author's note. On with the story.
Previously,
Just before Dark!Natsu was about to land a fatal hit to Gajeel, the real Natsu diverted the attack a little to the right therefore only hitting Gajeel's tail. Natsu was starting to get a little control of his body! Finally!
….Now….
Though they were able to divert the fatal attacks, the minor blows (which were pretty hard too) were harder to divert. A fatal blow got them extra determined and desperate so they were able to deflect it. It required immense amount of concentration and determination.
The determination – that, both Natsu and Gajeel had. Both of them loved each other too much for their own good. But both of them were known to have the attention span of a gold fish… so the concentration part – yeah… they were having some… uh... difficulties. No matter how much they tried, there was just too much on their mind.
Their thoughts kept on going about their long-lost fathers, about Acnologia, about Zeref, about the guild and most of all about each other. This was getting exhausting. Each attack they managed to avoid was gnawing at their energy and magic supplies.
All too soon, Natsu felt his consciousness slowly slip away. He desperately tried to free himself from that black hole in his mind, but it was just too much.
"I'm s..orry.. Ga…jeel… love… you…" were the last words he muttered before he drifted off to a long, dreamless sleep.
Gajeel realized the sudden change coming from Natsu's body. Dark!Natsu had again gotten full control. 'What happened?' he feared the worst. 'don't tell me he… die'
His train of thoughts were abruptly cut-off by Natsu delivering a sharp blow to his ribs. He grimaced at the sickening cracking sound as blood sputtered out of his mouth. His tail could just dodge another deadly blow aiming for his heart. The fatal attacks were coming faster, stronger and more accurate than ever. He could only slightly defend himself.
He cursed loudly when he too felt himself drifting into the same dreamless sleep that Natsu had gone too.
Their dark versions were in full control of their bodies now. But Gajeel's body had taken too many blows and was thus much weaker. It was clear that Dark!Natsu was winning this battle.
Lightning and shadows clashed and so did flames and steel. The battle still raged on.
Back in Natsu's mind, he awoke in a cold, dark place. He looked around but couldn't see anything. He was scared. Suddenly,
"Squinty eyes!" Gray's pissed (almost naked;3) image flashed like a bright light and disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.
One by one, all the members of fairy tail appeared in front of him like photo flashes.
Elfman screaming about being a man and Evergreen then slapping him. Laxus pulling Lisanna's cheek and the Raijinshuu close behind him. Jet and Droy asking Levy out. Juvia screaming about her Gray-sama. Lucy crying about her rent and Erza killing someone because they dared to step on her precious strawberry cake.
Then flashes about meeting Gajeel and fighting the battle between Phantom Lord and Fairy tail appeared. Then there was a flash about Igneel in his human form, just before disappearing saying 'I will always love you… my son'. The last flash was Gajeel just standing with an incredulous face. But this one didn't disappear, it walked forward and pulled Natsu into a tight, heart-felt embrace.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Gajeel asked.
Natsu's eyes widened. "Wait… you're the real Gajeel, not a photo flash?"
"So you had them too huh? I don't know what happened but I just drifted off to lalaland in the middle of saving our sorry asses." He grinned widely.
'Same old Gajeel…' Natsu thought before grinning. "I saw Igneel…" he quietly said pulling out from the embrace.
"Oh… I saw metallicana too"
"YOU DID?!"
"yeah… same old bastard. But he wasn't a dragon…"
"Igneel was human too… weird… Do you think there is some sort of connection between both of them?"
"I KNOW there is a connection. They are mates"
"WHAT?!" Natsu asked, flabbergasted.
"yep, he told me that with a blushy-blushy face" Gajeel grinned while rubbing his poor ear that was hurt due to the sudden outburst from Natsu.
"uh.. so does that make us… you know… brothers, or something like that… so this thing between us is abnormal or something?" Natsu asked, desperately wishing the answer to be no.
Gajeel kissed Natsu full on the lips. "No, silly. They are our FOSTER parents. So we are not blood-related. And since when have YOU worried about being normal? You have pink hair, a stripper for a friend, a sadistic yaoi fan for a friend and you are from fairy tail. Tell me one person who is absolutely normal from that place, huh?"
Natsu just nodded.
"And the only thing standing between us is our clothes and I suggest you get out of them now" Gajeel said while smirking.
"GAJEEL! YOU PERVERTED PORCUPINE!" Natsu screamed completely astonished about how Gajeel could think of having…uh… you-know-what, while they were trying to kill each other.
"Let's get this stupid thing over with and then I can do whatever I want with you…" Gajeel said before kissing Natsu and completely disappearing from Natsu's inner world.
Natsu sighed before he felt his consciousness come back. He was going back to his body and hopefully, staying that way. But by the time he opened his eyes, it was too late.
-Meanwhile, in fairy tail-
"How long is this going to take?! It has already been two days!" Gray yelled, clearly very worried about his pink-haired rival.
"The time moves differently there, in that dimension. It has just been a few hours there, even though it has been two whole days here" Laxus gruffly replied.
Erza was pacing about, even though she was not fully recovered. She cared deeply for Natsu. He was one of the main reasons why she could be herself today. Hell! He was the reason why she was still alive and not frozen in a chunk of Lacrima. She couldn't bear the thought of losing him.
Lucy and Levy were sitting in a corner of the guild. Even though it was quite obvious that the dragon slayers would never reciprocate their feelings, they still loved them. Both their eyes were red and puffed up and dry tear stains were very much present on their faces, especially on Lucy's face.
Gajeel had never been too friendly to Lucy. He was always cold and her first impression of him was not a very good one, when he had abducted and tortured her in Phantom. But to see Natsu give in to the darkness was too scary. Natsu was light itself and his magic further proved this. During their darkest times, it was always Natsu who would ignite the light and lead them on. But seeing Natsu, kneeling under the darkness was her worst nightmare come true.
Noone in fairy tail had left the guild for the two days. No missions, no booze, no going home, no everything that fairy tail is famous for. Even the residents of Magnolia were starting to get worried about the lack of flamboyant-ness, lack of destruction and noise.
Fairy Tail was going through one of its darkest times and this time there was no light to brighten them.
-Back in the dimension-
Gajeel's body was lying limply on the ground, with a hole in his chest. Natsu was weeping on top of him, crying his heart out, well whatever was left of it.
-Flashback-
Natsu sighed before he felt his consciousness come back. But by the time he opened his eyes, it was too late.
Dark!Natsu was holding Gajeel by the neck above the ground. Gajeel's had were desperately Natsu's arms. His legs were flailing with the lack of air to breathe. But his body was too weak to fight back. He had taken far too many deadly blows. Dark!Natsu's sharpened claws came out of its cuticles and with one sharp move he made a hole in Gajeel's chest cavity. Gajeel's body instantly froze.
Dark!Natsu removed his bloodied hand from his chest before dropping Gajeel to the floor. Smirking, he started to walk away until suddenly, his smug face was replaced by a deep frown. He fell to the ground as the real Natsu burst out of the prison he was in.
-Present time-
Natsu wailed and screamed in agony. He had killed the one person he couldn't bear to live without. All of a sudden his cries stopped. His once dark, endless eyes were now gray and emotionless.
His heart had already shattered into a million pieces and now flames were consuming it. His heart ached as though someone had pierced it. He chuckled dryly at the irony. Gajeel had had his heart pierced by HIM and HE was feeling the pain.
He did not feel the need to live anymore. All his hopes, dreams, ambitions and emotions were destroyed with that one moment when he pierced Gajeel's heart. His soul was condemned to darkness.
He picked a sharp metal piece on the floor and bent over to kiss his love, one last time. But just when he bent down, his over-sensitive ears picked up the faint sound of Gajeel breathing. Suddenly all of his dreams, hopes and the need to live came crashing down on him like an express train. To say that he was relieved would be a huge understatement.
He threw the metal piece away tried to hear his heartbeat. Yes! He could hear it. But it was too faint. He had to find someone to help him. Anyone!
He looked around only to find dry land. He couldn't bear to lose him again. He never wanted to experience that feeling again. But he didn't know how to go back to earthland.
Just as he was about to let his soul be condemned by blackness again the spiral which had brought them here appeared. They were sucked in dropped in the middle of the guild.
Everyone looked at them, completely relieved and so very glad. But Natsu was not looking at Gray and Elfman who very running towards him. He was not looking at Lucy and Levy crying at him. No, his world was narrowed to one sharp point – Gajeel.
He turned to the master before screaming.
"Gajeel needs help! His breathing and heart beat is very faint. He need medical attention. Makarov's relived face was marred by a deep frown.
"Mira, take him to the infirmary. NOW!"
Natsu, suddenly extremely exhausted, collapsed onto the guild floor. The day was too exhausting – emotionally and physically.
"Porlyusca-san!" was the last thing he heard before his world went black.
-Time skip-
When Natsu opened his eyes, all that he could see was white. White wall, white roof, white floor, white sheets. It was rather unnerving. He had to blink several times before he could focus his sight on things without making it look like a blob of paint. He felt as though he had slept for days.
'Gajeel!' suddenly, all his memories came flooding back.
He jumped out of bed and was attacked by sharp pain from everywhere. He ignored it as he ran through the porcelain corridor. He suddenly skidded to a halt when he saw Erza and the master talking.
"How should we set up the funeral?…" Erza asked the master. The master replied something but Natsu's world had stopped at the word 'funeral'.
'Funeral, no… Gajeel… no! no, this cant be…'
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Natsu screamed as fell down to the floor, sobbing.
Makarov and Erza ran towards him and were desperately trying to calm him down.
"Calm down, Natsu!" Erza yelled.
"Why should I? Gajeel is dead!" He replied while sobbing.
"Gajeel is NOT dead!" Makarov screamed at his face.
"He's not? But the..funeral?" Natsu asked finally calming down, but still sniffing.
"No idiot. He's fine. Next week it is Mavis' 200th death anniversary so we were planning on doing a funeral of sorts… you know. But its rather weird doing it when she's alive… you know her spirit is alive." Erza said.
Natsu chuckled, embarrassed. "It's embarrassing crying like this. Damn! Where is Gajeel?"
"He is in the third room on the right. Oh and Natsu, you better get some clothes on." Erza said with a poker face.
Natsu blush could rival the redness of Erza's hair when he realized that he had run out of the room wearing only his boxer-breifs.
"Cuz… uh…intercourse will delay the recovery" Makarov stated with a flushed face. Natsu turned even redder at that and sputtered out a "Master!" before running back to his room while Erza and Makarov laughed.
It was only on the way that he realized that he had lost his tail and wings Natsu quickly changed into simple pajamas, tied his scarf around his neck and hurried to Gajeel's room. As he reached said room, his heart was filled with anticipation and guilt.
He pushed the door open to find Gajeel sleeping on the bed with an IV line. His face and arms were covered with some intricate tattoos. A nurse was standing nearby putting some metal chunks into a box labeled 'iron supplements'. Natsu chuckled about the actual iron supplements (which were in the form of capsules for those who had iron deficiency in the body) and Gajeel's version of them.
The nursed nodded at him and left the room. He walked over to the bed and pulled him into a rough hug.
"Gajeel, you idiot! Giving me a scare like that. I'm sorry…" He sniffed again. He had cried so much in the last few days that he was astonished that there were still so many tears. Gajeel was sleeping so peacefully in the white room, it was almost angelic. 'Almost' being the key word as his next statement ruining everything.
"yeah… you better be, Pinky" he replied with a coarse voice with a grin in place.
At normal circumstances, Natsu would have protested about the nickname but for this once, he was just happy Gajeel was still the same. He just hugged him tighter.
"Woah! Easy there… in case you forgot, I'm still recovering." Gajeel gasped as pain erupted from his left lung. It seems that in the last moment Natsu had unconsciously been able to deviate the attack that was aiming for the heart to the lung therefore puncturing his lung. Being a Dragon Slayer had its perks. Gajeel's wound starting closing that time itself due to the healing ability of the Slayers.
"Oh! I'm sorry" Natsu squeaked out before gently placing Gajeel onto his bed.
"I like the way you're apologizing to me… that too so many times" Gajeel smugly said.
"Don't get too used to it!" Natsu cockily replied.
Natsu sighed as he sat onto the stool near the bed. Gajeel's hand slowly came up to caress the beautiful tattoos on his cheek.
Natsu leaned into the touch. "Your tattoos are really beautiful you know" Gajeel said. Natsu hadn't noticed that he too had got them. He raced to the mirror on the side of the room to look at them.
And they were beautiful! Red and orange tinted with silver tattoos adorned his face, neck and arms. They were fiery like Natsu and the silver told the world just who he had mated with. Gajeel's tattoos were black and silver edged with a bit of red. They formed a scale-like tattoo on his body. Natsu removed his scarf and shirt to see more of them and held his long strands of hair (A/N: yes he still has them only his wings and tail are gone everything else is as described in the 4th chapter for both of them).
"They are aren't they? Yours too…" Natsu sighed as he was pulled down by the Iron dragon slayer for a soul searing kiss.
Natsu climbed into the bed with Gajeel who started to neck him.
"Aahn… Gajeel, we can't~" Natsu managed to moan out.
"And why the hell not?" Gajeel asked still sucking on Natsu's neck.
"Because it will delay the…ah~ the recovery time and then… you have to be…uh… stuck in the hospital for longer" Natsu replied.
"We can't have that now, can we?" Gajeel said before giving Natsu's scar one last particularly harsh suck. Natsu moaned again and then made himself comfy on Gajeel's arm.
They both cuddled each other and then drifted off to a peaceful sleep in each other's arms.
Meanwhile, outside the door, mages of fairy tail were standing there with flushed faces, bleeding noses and hard-ons (for the guys). Gray asked Reedus to make a portrait of that moment. What? He knows he doesn't stand a chance against Gajeel so he might as well have some fun black-mailing him. The Big Bad Boy of Phantom lord, Gajeel, caught cuddling. Yeah! Sweet revenge!
Oblivious to the sinister plans by Gray or the jealous glares of other people from the guild, Natsu and Gajeel slept for two whole days… and they lived happily ever after… I think.
A/N: How was it guys? As I said before this is the last chappie but there will be a epilogue by the end of this month. The sequel will have to wait though. I have ideas for Slam Dunk, Kuroshitsuji and Naruto.
One more thing, I was thinking about doing a Halloween fic and I wanted to know which mythical creature or monster the FT characters fit. Gray will be Dracula and Elfman will be a were-wolf. But I don't know the rest. It will be AU. Please tell me in your reviews.
Please R&R. Reviews feed my muse.
Till next time. Bye.