Chapter 3

Natsu laid himself back on the bed and tried to relax as he took in everything from the day. His eyes closed slowly as the bed's softness reminded him of his pillow on the train but with a distinct lack of frost. He never felt as comfortable or relaxed as he did in that moment. That was such an intense cold feeling, his hot skin had never felt anything so soothing before. His head was swimming through possibilities, ways that he could feel that cold again. Gray would never go for it, he's too stubborn.

'Wait, what? Why am I even considering it? It's not like I want to be that close that ice block.' he thought.

He was now getting irritated with himself. Natsu had been waiting to have a moment of calm peace to think things through, but now he wanted to make it all go away. Hugging a pillow, Natsu's eyes opened. He heard the sounds of the water rushing in the shower and decided he might be in there a while. He leaned his head up, looking around the room, putting his arms behind him for support. Still not very tired, Natsu decided it was time to do a bit of exploring.

'This room is pretty sweet. I mean, ya know, for lovers. It even has a kitchen!' He thought.

The dragon slayer got up and walked towards the so-called kitchen, which was actually a corner of the room that was lined with a marble white and red counter. It had a mini fridge, a coffee pot, a griddle and electric burner. There was also a sink and a cabinet underneath. He opened the fridge hoping to find some kind of drink to quench his thirst but all that was in there were 2 bottles of water and 10 sample shots of different types of alcohol.

He thought about the alcohol for a moment and ultimately shut the mini fridge door. He then walked over to the bed and grabbed the extra blanket and one pillow. He arranged them into a pallet on the floor and then laid in it. He covered himself and began thinking again, still waiting for Gray to get done in the shower. His mind started to wander back to Gray and he slightly smiled.

'I am the only one who notice the changes because the changes are only happening to me,' he remembered. He frowned.

'I'm the only one who's changed,' he sighed. 'I'm the one who started thinking about Gray's shirtless body differently. He does it all the time, how did I not notice before that his tattoo is perfectly placed on sculpted pecks? That his torso is built and his boxers hang low...'

Natsu's thoughts began to trail off but he quickly got up and tried to think about anything else. He wanted to give up on those types of thoughts before they started. He knew he was only setting himself up for bad start. Pacing back and forth, he caught sight of the fridge. He had lost all common sense and decided to throw it all away. He swung the door to the fridge open and stared at the sample shots. He took one out and opened the lid as he sat cross legged on the floor in front of the open fridge. The pink haired boy downed one after another until he was 6 shots down.

Natsu's face was flushed as he got up and his hair covered his eyes as he stumbled toward the bed, but he didn't make it. He laid his head on the bed while his body was settled on the floor. As he moved to sit on his feet, he heard the shower stop.

Gray was fed up with his thoughts. He got out of the shower and dried himself off, paying special attention to the burn on his leg. Sighing, he realized he didn't bring his clothes into the bathroom with him.

After wrapping the towel around his waist, he opened the door and peeked out. The room was quiet but the fridge door was open with empty bottles of alcohol around it. Natsu was laying with his head on the bed facing away from him. His head rested on his hands with the rest of his body still on the floor. It didn't take Gray long to figure out what he had done and he couldn't help but look at him with a 'you-fucking-idiot' expression.

The ice wizard walked passed Natsu to get his clothes and went back into the bathroom to get dressed. He came out of the bathroom again, but by the time he got half way into the room he was in boxers and socks again. Gray walked to the other side of the bed and turned to look at Natsu. His face was a light shade of pink that started under his eyes and seemed to fade down his cheeks. He looked like he was sleeping and Gray couldn't help but stare for a moment. He thought Natsu looked cute but he must have drank the alcohol and passed out.

Gray watched the snoozing dragon slayer for quite some time before he started to shift in his sleep. The ice mage panicked and went back to the bathroom and closed the door quickly and then slowly at the end so that he wouldn't slam it.

'What was I doing just sitting there staring at him like that?' He wondered. He was sprawled against the door as if he was scared a predator might come in. He turned his head slowly to rest his ear on the door so that he could listen for when he could come out. Everything sounded quiet except for a small voice.

Natsu awoke from his drunken nap and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked over to the bathroom door and quickly realized Gray was still in there.

"I wish he would just come back in here... Fuck this is boring, I'm lonely." He slapped a hand to his face, covering one eye as he lifted his head only to lay it back down on the bed.

'I'm... lonely?' Natsu thought for a moment. 'I must be really drunk.'

Natsu's head rose again only to let his eyes take in the sight of an enormous red sea of comfort. The very intoxicated pink haired boy put his hands out in front of him as he started to army crawl along the bed to the pillows. He grabbed a pillow and snuggled up to it, cuddling it like it was a human. He let all thoughts of the day dissipate and completely forgot about the agreement they had on the bed. While thinking of Gray again, he slipped off into an intoxicated slumber, face fully relaxed other than his flushed cheeks and soft smile.

Gray was sure he heard it, no, he was positive he heard it. 'I wish he would just come back in here, fuck this is boring, I'm lonely.' Those last two words just echoed in his mind. 'Why would he say something like that?' Gray was only in the shower, in fact, Natsu had told him to go there. He heard the dragon slayer shift around a bit more until the room fell quiet.

The ice wizard figured it was now okay to escape the bathroom. He opened the door and peeked out yet again. Natsu was on the bed and he could tell that he was sleeping. Gray walked over towards the mini fridge and cleaned up the bottles and the caps. He was about to close the fridge door when he caught sight of the 4 sample shots left. He stared at them for a moment and then shut the mini fridge door, but just before it was fully closed, he opened it again.

"What the hell, Natsu! Why did you only leave me 4 shots?" He continued on, mumbling to himself about how Natsu should know better because he is a light weight. Taking out a bottle, he unscrewed the lid as he spoke again. "Ah, what the hell." He downed the rest of the shots, being sure not to make as big of a mess as Natsu had. As he started to walk back to the bed he realized he was feeling quite a bit buzzed himself.

Gray reached the bed and crawled over behind Natsu. He grabbed one of the other pillows and rested his head on it. There was about an arms length of space between them and Gray made sure of it. He laid there for a while, unable to sleep. This time he didn't have the train to rock him to dreamland. He sighed deeply but was cut off by a strange moaning and groaning noise. He knew this noise all too well and he slightly panicked. Natsu was feeling sick again. Must be the alcohol he thought, must not mix with his heat. 'It's a wonder he doesn't spontaneously combust.'

Gray heard it again.

He turned over to Natsu who was facing away from him, resting his head on his arm. He reached his hand out to touch Natsu but instead he just kind of hovered his hand over his back. He stayed still, his mind completely blank. Natsu made the noise again and Gray pushed his hand to the other's back and waited to hear the instant relief as he had before but instead he heard the noise again. Gray started to become flustered. He was sure it would work.

'Why didn't it work this time?'

The ice wizard really didn't want to have Natsu throw up so he pressed harder on his back but there still didn't seem to be any changes. He was starting to get frustrated.

'Maybe this only works with skin to skin contact? No, he was lying on my shorts... Maybe it only works on his head?'

Gray moved his hand from the boy's back and placed it softly on his neck. The fire wizard groaned again and Gray exhaled a frustrated sigh.

'WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING? THIS MAKES NO SENSE!'

Gray lifted the back of the drunken one's shirt and placed a hand on his bare back. Natsu shivered lightly making a bit of a different sound. He instinctively pulled his hand away at the shock of a different noise.

'What the hell was that?'

Gray sat there for a moment thinking, he was sure it sounded more like a moan than a groan. 'Yeah, that definitely sounded more like a '...Mmmm...' than a '...Ughh...ehh...''

Natsu started to stir, groaning again and Gray put his hand under Natsu's shirt again.

"...Mmmm..."

After hearing it again, Gray was positive it was a good thing. He left his hand there for a while, but his arm started to get tired from holding it in the same spot on Natsu's back. He was also slipping off to sleep so he just threw his arm around the fire wizard's waist, being sure to stick his hand under the shirt to make skin to skin contact. Without thinking of anything, he finally fell asleep comfortably.

Natsu awoke; the light showing through the curtains told him it was morning. He was feeling a bit groggy as he tried to get up. There seemed to be something stopping him from getting up, he felt caught on something. Feeling too tired to fight with the covers, he laid there recalling what happened the night before.

'I must have drank too fast.'

The pink haired boy moved a hand to his head rubbing it as if doing so would automatically cure his tiredness and turn off the sun. It was only then that he noticed that, yet again, he was waking up somewhere he shouldn't be.

Natsu's eyes wandered to the bed. 'This is the bed,' he thought calmly. 'Okay, I must have passed out here.' His mind went blank for a moment but his whole body got a chill when he realized it.

'Gray was supposed to sleep here!'

He was about to shoot up right out of the bed to find out where Gray was but he still felt hung up on something. He reached his hand over himself and grabbed the blanket. It was cold and fleshy; it didn't feel like a blanket at all. Still looking forward, he ran his hand along it, following where it was caught but the more he touched it, the more he wondered why it was wrapped and caught the way it was. Why it was so cold and not very flimsy like a blanket would be.

Natsu pulled on it a bit but then froze; the blanket had grabbed his hand back. Staying completely still, he started to feel the rush of cold all over his back as the blanket tangled itself around him.

'This feeling is so familiar...' he thought as he started to turn around but the blanket again held him in place.

The pink haired boy was starting to panic. 'What kind of blanket grabs your hand?' Just then, the blanket did, in fact, do the unthinkable. It made a noise. Natsu was sure he heard it. The blanked pulled him closer to this cold feeling and he heard another sound.

"Mm...Hmmmm."

Startled, Natsu jumped out of the bed with a force that broke free of the hold. He turned around quickly to see a half naked Gray laying there. He just blinked. Frozen, he stared at the 'blanket' that had held him there.

'HUH?!'

Natsu's mind was in pieces. He immediately ran out of the room, down the stairs and out of the building. He found a bench outside the inn and sat down giving the seat a light pat. Face fully flushed and mind racing, Natsu tried to justify it.

'Uhh, did I get that drunk? Why would gray be that close? ...maybe he is used to cuddling with a stuffed animal.' Natsu let out a small chuckle as he tried to rationalize what he just saw.

Natsu, pondered on the thought longer wondering how they had actually gotten into that position.

'What if I was drunk enough and we...' His eyes widened in shock and he started blush harder than he ever had before. 'No way! Gray's not like that!' He paused for a moment before grabbing a handful of his pink hair. 'No, not the point! I'm not like that, no matter how drunk I would be!'

Natsu then moved his hand from his head and covered his face as if it would hide him from the world. 'Though... I guess... it wouldn't be so bad... if it was him.' He thought. 'So cold...and...'

SMACK!

"Hey noisy, I guess I'm leaving without you." A smack on the back of his head thankfully ripped Natsu away from his train of thought.

A form walked on in front of him with some very distinctive dark hair. "First you wake me up with some loud ass noises like you were running from your worst nightmare, then you slack on the bench like we've been on vacation." Gray continued walking waving his hands as he spoke.

Still sitting on the bench and flustered, Natsu spoke. "I... er... I... was... waiting on you of course. Slow poke!"

Gray stopped and turned to Natsu with a confident smile. "Are you coming or what? We have an ass to kick, remember?"

The dragon slayer smiled clutching a fist in excitement. He hadn't really forgotten about all the events that had happened on the trip between him and Gray, but for right now, he was ready to get his job done with. As Gray turned around to continue walking, the pink haired boy ran after him setting off on foot again towards the location of Jellal, all revved up and ready to go.