This chapter ended up a lot longer than intended. No one is in love yet, sorry about it. Gray feeling..things..

I do not own Fairy Tail

"Natsu, get up! Erza said to be at the train station by 8:00 and it's already 7:30!" Natsu felt something bouncing on his chest and groaned, turning onto his stomach and hoping it would go away so he could sleep a little longer. The fight from the day before had left him sore and aching all over, he didn't know if he could get up even if he wanted to.

"-o-ay-appya-inta-eep" Natsu mumbled into his pillow incoherently. The magical blue cat that had been jumping on his stomach was set off-kilter by the movement of the dragon slayer and fell off of the hammock the mage was sleeping on, growing little white wings before he could land on the floor. With a shout of protest he flew up and stood on Natsu's back with his paws on his hips, a flame of determination in his eyes and an annoyed frown on his blue face.

"Hey watch it, Natsu! What kind of best friend throws his partner off a bed! And I can't even tell what you're saying. Get up before Erza kills us!"

Natsu turned his head to the side, eyes still closed but brows furrowed together. "I said go away Happy I'm trying to sleep!" Natsu's tone was sharp. He groaned again before dramatically slamming his face back into the pillow. Happy flew away and Natsu sighed in relief at the disappearance of the added pressure on his already sore body. He began daydreaming about dragons and soaring with them when he was met with a rude awakening.

SPLASH!

Natsu yelped and fell out of his hammock, landing on his back on the wooden floor. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPY?!" Natsu jumped up and let out a battle cry before chasing the flying cat through the house. Happy looked back at the enraged dragon slayer in a panic and flew to the front door, trying to open it, but the poor blue cat was snatched from behind and dragged toward the bathroom. Happy let out a desperate yelp and started crying and begging for forgiveness.

"I didn't mean it Natsu, I swear! I just wanted to avoid Erza's angry face! Where are you taking me?!" Natsu opened the door of the bathroom, blue fuzzy friend in tow, and turned the shower on.

"NO NOT THE SHOWER! Please Natsu I'll do anything! I HATE showers!" Happy clawed at Natsu's hands but the fire mage ignored him and raised his little friend up in front of his face. He had a huge but evil smile on his face that sent a shudder throughout the blue cat's small body.

Scary!

"Hehe this is what you get for waking me up little buddy!" Natsu shoved Happy under the water and the cat frantically struggled, trying in vain to escape. After he was thoroughly soaked, Natsu pulled Happy out from under the water and set him on the sink to his left, throwing a small red towel over the shivering cat's head.

"You're a meanie Natsu!" the cat accused, voice muffled by the towel on his head. He took the towel off and started drying himself, grumbling about terrible best friends and being late.

Natsu had walked to the kitchen and glanced at the time, noticing that it was now 7:45. He went to cook some food, pulling eggs and some bacon out of the large white fridge and placing it on the small counter space next to the stove. As he was whisking the eggs and heating up a pan, his mind wandered to the events of the day before.

Natsu stood beside Gray while he asked for Levy's help searching for information on demon slaying magic.

"Sure Gray! I'd love to help you look in the Library of Sorcery, I've been aching to go back there since our last visit! I just haven't really had a good reason to go… And Gajeel can come help too!" The blue haired mage looked hopefully at the dark, heavily pierced mage beside her.

"Huh?! Why would I want to help this loser?! It's his fault that he can't control his own magic, that's not my problem!" The iron dragon slayer turned his head away stubbornly and Levy looked dejected.

"Oh ok fine, I'll just go without you…" Gajeel opened one eye and looked at his companion, a guilty look passing over his face.

"Fine, I'll go!" he said, glaring down at the table they were sitting at. "But only to watch your guys' backs, I hate reading and someone should keep a lookout!" Levy's eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together. Natsu smirked, inwardly amused at how Levy had his fellow dragon slayer wrapped around her little finger.

"So when are we going?" Levy inquired, excited to get to explore all the knowledge of the giant library. Gray opened his mouth to speak when he was interrupted by the clanking of armor coming toward them.

"We leave at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow morning" the scarlet haired requip mage said sternly before training her sharp eyes on Natsu, "and you better not be late." Natsu gave a quick salute.

"Aye sir!" the fire mage agreed. Ezra nodded in satisfaction and turned toward Gray. "You better go to Lucy's house now and find out if she's willing to go as well, though I'm sure the idea of a distraction will be welcome after the horrors we all went through with Tartaros." Gray nodded and thanked Levy for offering her assistance with research. The two rivals then turned to walk to the door of the guild when it suddenly slammed open. There were a few shouts of surprise and a flash of blue before something landed on Natsu's chest with a force that knocked the fire mage back a few steps. Natsu looked down in shock before smiling fondly at the blue puffball clutching his vest.

"Happy!" he addressed the blue exceed who looked up with tears in his eyes.

"Natsu! I'm so sorry I wasn't here! I was hanging out with Carla and Pantherlily at Wendy's house when Wendy arrived and told me you were hurt and the infirmary! Are you ok?!" Natsu pet the cat's head to calm him and gave him a wide grin.

"Yep I'm doing just fine, don't worry about me little guy! This Ice Princess could never take ME down!" Gray let out a snort in protest next to him but stayed silent, letting the two have their moment.

"I was so worried when I heard! I'm glad you're ok though." Natsu was caught in surprise when Happy looked at him with a stern expression and reached to lightly smack the top of the mage's head. "That's what you get for fighting all the time, Natsu! I'm surprised you're not dead yet!"

Natsu huffed in indignation, "Hey! Fighting is fun, and I rarely get hurt that bad! The Ice Bastard was just lucky this time, that's all!" Happy looked at him with eyes narrowed, not believing his best friend for a second.

"You two are worse than an old married couple! I don't get why you can't get along!" The fire mage looked at his blue friend in disbelief.

"I could never get along with someone who strips all the time and is so damn cold!"

"Well-"

"Hey" Gray interrupted, restraining himself from punching his rival for all the insults he was throwing. "I hate to interrupt your special moment but I gotta get to Lucy's and I'm leaving now. You can come or not, I don't care," he said casually turning around and waving over his shoulder. Natsu looked at the ice mage, his conversation with Happy already forgotten.

"Alright Happy c'mon, we're going to Lucy's!"

"Aye Sir!"

Natsu threw the bacon and eggs onto two plates for him and his roommate. "Happy! Food's ready!" Happy zoomed into the kitchen eager to eat, putting aside his anger at Natsu for getting him wet. Natsu's eyes passed the clock once more and landed on his plate of food. He froze. Slowly turning his head back toward the clock, his eyes went wide.

7:59

…"OH SHIT!" Natsu jumped up and shovelled food into his mouth, telling Happy in between bites to hurry up as well. In five seconds flat both had eaten their meals and were running out the door, Natsu's hair a mess and only wearing a pair of baggy black pants. Thankfully he kept a bag full of clothes and supplies ready next to his bed at all times for instances just like this one. He put Happy on his head and told him to hold on tight before igniting his fire boosters and running as fast as possible toward the train station.

...

Gray saw a dust cloud in the distance coming closer and spotted a flash of red flame. That must be Natsu. What an idiot. He shook his head and glanced at Erza who was looking intently at a golden pocket watch. Her brow furrowed more with each passing second, to the point where her eyebrows were practically touching each other. Suddenly she snapped the pocket watch closed with a click and glared at the incoming dust storm. Natsu arrived mere seconds later, running faster than anyone he had ever seen him run before. His eyes were hopeful yet scared when he stopped in front of them, trying to gage Erza's mood and backing away from her when he saw that her fists were clenched and her scarlet hair was covering her face.

"You're late." Ezra's voice was calm and stern. Natsu gulped. Happy, still on Natsu's head, sensed a confrontation and cautiously flew off Natsu and over to Lucy who was talking to Levy a few feet away.

"Listen Erza it's only a minute, what's the big deal?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset her any further but also not understanding why she was so upset over one minute. Suddenly she began to glow and Natsu panicked, running behind Gray in an attempt to shield himself from her inevitable wrath. Gray startled and shoved Natsu, not wanting Erza's anger transferred to him instead.

"Oi, Flame Brain! Don't bring me into this!" Gray pushed him away roughly as he kept running behind him.

Erza requipped into her purgatory armor and laughed a dark, evil laugh, her face still hidden. Both boys immediately froze, scared to death. "What's the big deal?" She raised her head slowly and talked with quiet venom, a terrifying hard look in her eyes. "The big deal is that I told you eight. And you show yourself at eight o'one. How dare you break my trust and rush our schedule like this. Everything I plan is exact with no room for error. THERE WILL BE JUDGEMENT!" Erza rushed at Natsu and Gray lept out of the way. Natsu tried to run but Erza caught up effortlessly and appeared in front of him, punching him in the stomach with her black gloved fist. Natsu went flying into a nearby ticket station and left a huge dent in the wall, falling onto his face unconscious.

Erza nodded in satisfaction and changed back into her usual grey armor and blue skirt. "Gray pick up Natsu, the train has just arrived and we need to go." Gray groaned but knew better than to protest, jogging over to the Flame Idiot and hoisting him on his shoulders in the same manner as yesterday. Man, do I really have to carry Natsu again?! He's so freaking heavy. And why the hell isn't he wearing a shirt? I thought I was the only stripper around.. His skin is so unnaturally warm.. Gray couldn't help but admit that it actually felt kind of nice and comforting, like sitting by a fire on a cold winter day. Gray may be conditioned and used to the cold but it didn't mean he hated being warm. Gray could also feel the taut abdominal muscles on his rival pressing against his shoulder blades. Ok so maybe his weight isn't ALL from food.. He only half registered Lucy telling Erza that she may have overdone it on Natsu's punishment but considering he was only going to get motion sickness on the train anyway, Gray figured it didn't really matter. It was annoying after all that Natsu showed up late to almost every quest the team went on. The team boarded the train and squished into pairs of seats, all of them facing the front of the train. The seats were off white and run down and looked very uncomfortable. Gray frowned as he saw that Erza and Lucy as well as Gajeel and Levy had already paired up with each other and taken their seats. Happy was nodding off sitting in Lucy's lap.

Are you kidding me?! I have to sit with this idiot the whole train ride! It's ten hours long and even the hardest punch couldn't keep him out that long.. Gray made his way to the seat behind Gajeel and Levy and set the fire dragon slayer down in the window seat before plopping down into his own. Natsu's head was back against the top of the seat and his mouth was opened wide, drooling a little. Gray watched him with his eyebrow raised, crossing his arms indignantly. Disgusting. The world must hate me to keep making me take care of this idiot. I would rather sit by anybody else! Except maybe Erza, she seems a bit testy this morning and I don't want to die… The train started moving and the team mentally prepared themselves for ten long hours of train ride.

After about an hour of staring past Natsu out the window, Gray felt incredibly bored and decided to eavesdrop on Levy and Gajeel, who were whispering in front of him. He quietly scooted to the edge of his seat and brought his head to the back of their seat. His eyes widened in surprise when he heard Levy chastising the iron dragon slayer.

"-n't understand why you pick on them so much, they're just protective of me!" she hissed angrily, keeping her voice low, "besides you know I'm yours anyway, stop being jealous all the time."

"Tch, still," Gajeel grumbled, "I don't like 'em. Why don't you just tell them we're together so they'll leave me the fuck alone!"

Gray heard a pause and decided to scoot back to his seat, realizing he had heard a conversation that could confirm everyone's suspicions. So Levy and Gajeel are together! I knew it! Well I'm pretty sure everyone knows it, they're painfully obvious.. I wonder why they haven't told anyone? I mean Mira would be ecstatic to know one of her ships got together.. But then again maybe that's why. I wouldn't want Mira talking about how cute I was with someone, or anyone else getting in my business. Those two are pretty introverted so I can understand keeping a secret like that. Gray was lost in thought, trying to guess when exactly this relationship development had occurred.

After a couple hours to his thoughts, the train suddenly hit a bump or something because the car jerked violently, sending some people out of their seats. Gray braced himself and stayed seated but the dragon slayer next to him was jerked to the side and fell over onto Gray's lap. The ice mage was about to push him back up but paused and decided against it. He remembered how Natsu had been petting his hair yesterday and placed a hesitant hand on the dragon slayer's head. He ran his fingers through the pink hair in his lap and tilted his head, surprised. His hair is a lot thicker than my own, I guess that's why it sticks up so much.. But it's still soft too..

Natsu let out a quiet sigh and Gray stopped his hand, startled and slightly disturbed by what he was doing to his head. As soon as the motion stopped however, Natsu growled in his sleep and Gray raised an amused eyebrow. He began petting him again and Natsu let out another contented sigh. Gray snorted. This idiot is like a puppy, what the heck?! Then again I do remember it feeling really good, so I guess I can't really blame him. Still this is kinda out of character for us, and I don't feel like punching him for once, what's going on? Gray blushed slightly, knowing this was more the kind of thing couples do, not rivals whose only touches were punches to the gut. It felt weird but not really bad so Gray continued. Things don't feel exactly the same after that fight yesterday, we've had more civil conversation in two days than we've had in our entire lifetime.. Who knows, maybe things will be different now. Or maybe all of this is just cuz I feel guilty about how everything went yesterday.. On the flip side though, maybe we'll actually be friends from now on, I kinda like having decent conversations with this idiot.. Gray pondered that thought, wondering what it would be like to be friends with him rather than rivals. Of course he knew they were friends already, but it was a deep friendship that ran beneath the surface and didn't really show itself outside of life or death situations. He knew they would both risk their lives for each other and had already saved each other countless times before..

Natsu groaned and stirred in his lap and Gray feared the worst, knowing the fire mage was bound to get sick and puke somewhere as soon as he got up. Hopefully not on me.. Natsu's eyelids fluttered open and Gray moved his hand, ready to push the dragon slayer away in order to avoid meeting his rival's partly digested breakfast. He grabbed Natsu's shoulders and pushed,

Natsu turning greener by the second.

"W-Wait," the sick mage muttered weakly. Gray paused, surprised since usually he couldn't talk at all when he was motion sick. "D-do it some m-more."

"What? Do what?" The ice mage was confused but put the dragon slayer back on his lap. Natsu weakly brought his hand up to his head and pat his head once before dropping his arm back to his side. Gray stared for a moment in shock and put his hand back on Natsu's head before continuing to massage his head. Gray blinked as Natsu's face became slightly less green and he sighed like he had in his sleep earlier. Natsu turned his body to lie on his side, face toward Gray's stomach. It seemed like the pink haired boy was-

"Natsu are you smelling me?!" Gray was perplexed and more than a little weirded out by his rival's behavior but Natsu was oblivious and trying too hard to keep the sickness at bay to answer. He continued to lay on Gray, face coloration almost back to normal when the ice mage felt something warm touch his stomach. He stiffened, eyes wide, before violently shoving Natsu off of him, not caring about the fire mage's motion sickness any longer.

"WHAT THE HELL!? Did you just lick me?!" the ice mage yelled vehemently. Natsu groaned in protest and tried to re-attach himself to Gray, the ice mage using his hands to keep him at arm's length.

Natsu flinched and attempted to explain, fighting again with the desire to throw up, "Y-you j-just smell s-s-so nice and minty and I-I wanted t-to see if you t-tasted minty too…" Natsu stammered weakly, covering his mouth to try and attempting to keep the sickness at bay.. "Y-you don't b-by the way." Gray just stared at him, to shocked to do anything before conceding. I mean I have heard that people will use mint elixirs and candies to help lessen sickness and headaches.. Still what a dumbass, you don't just go around licking people! It is Natsu though and he's just an idiot so I really shouldn't be that surprised.. Natsu had given up and slumped over onto Gray's hands, to weak to function anymore. Gray rolled his eyes at the boy's pitiful state and guided Natsu back to his lap, still weirded out but the feeling was overridden by guilt over the events of the day before and pity for the pink haired idiot. Natsu contentedly went back to breathing in his rival's minty scent and closed his eyed. Gray went back to petting his head and made Natsu promise not to lick him again.

"I won't..you don't..even taste like mint...anyway.." Natsu mumbled, falling asleep. "..still.. taste… kinda good..though…" The dragon slayer fell back asleep and Gray tried to ignore the weird feeling he was getting. The breath on his stomach kind of tickled in a pleasant way and his mind wandered again.

Stupid Flame Brain.. Going around licking people and saying they taste good, who the hell does that?! Still, Gray couldn't deny that the lick had been administered to a very sensitive spot on his stomach and felt kind of good, no matter how strange it was. He wasn't sure if he really minded, and that thought alone was terrifying. Trying desperately not to think about the dragon slayer in his lap, Gray started to drift off to sleep as well, noting that they still had about six hours left.

However Gray couldn't get the tingling feeling and the image of Natsu's tongue on his body out of his head..

Fuck, this is bad… And with that final thought his head rolled back and Gray joined his rival in peaceful slumber, hand still tangled in pink hair.