Every Time We Touch
Disclaimer – I do not own Fairy Tail
Author's Note: Now back to the main story.
Chapter 10
"It is said that those men never made it out of these woods," continued Master Makarov. "Whether it was due to the fire or the vengeful spirits of Mavis and Zeref, we may never know. But we do know one thing...the young couple never knew what happened to the other, so they aimlessly wander these woods, hoping that one day, they will find each other."
A deafening silence followed.
"Goodnight, everyone!" Makarov said as he rose to his feet. "I hope you all sleep well."
And with that…he left.
The guild members stared after him, dumbfounded. How the hell were they supposed to go to sleep after a story like that? He'd just told them the woods were haunted!
Eventually everyone got up to leave. Natsu, however, stayed put.
"Get up. We need to get back," stated Gray, nudging the stiff pinkette.
"That story was so cool! Wasn't it, Natsu?" Happy cried enthusiastically.
"Yeah. Sure," the dragon-slayer replied softly.
"Don't tell me you're scared," Gray said bluntly.
Natsu's face heated in embarrassment. "Let's just go," he started, bolting to his feet. But he still waited for Happy and Gray to start walking before he did. He didn't want to be alone.
Once they reached the cabin, they changed and slipped into bed. Natsu, on the other hand, was wide awake. He'd never be able to sleep after a story like that. Pulling the covers over his head, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will away his overly vivid imagination. But when the covers were ripped away, he nearly screamed.
"You really are scared, aren't you?" Gray whispered, staring at him in the dark.
"I…I don't like stuff like that. Because I'll start thinking about it and I won't fall asleep. Or I will fall asleep and then have nightmares. Or—what're you doing?" the dragon-slayer hissed when he felt Gray crawl into bed next to him.
"Helping you get to sleep."
"How is you getting into bed with me going to help me get to sleep?" he growled.
"Because nothing is going to get you while I'm here. And if you have a nightmare, I'll wake you up," replied the ice mage.
Natsu turned onto his side, his back facing Gray. When he felt the ice mage settle down next to him, he started to blush. This was just too weird. And why was he feeling this way? It was like his heart skipped a beat whenever Gray was near and then it would do a happy dance when he was really close. Like now.
If he didn't know any better, he'd say that he liked Gray. But he wouldn't say that…because something like that couldn't possibly be true!
Right?
Happy felt like it was his birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. He crept over to the bed Gray and Natsu were sleeping in. Or should he say, snuggling in.
Trying not to laugh, he poked the dragon-slayer in the arm. Natsu stirred and blearily opened his eyes. His dark orbs locked onto Happy's in confusion.
"What is it?" the dragon-slayer asked sleepily. He started frowning when all the Exceed did was giggle. It was then he realized just why he was giggling.
Natsu's body stiffened slightly when he noticed that a strong pair of arms was wrapped securely around him. Shifting his body ever so slightly, he stared at Gray, who had taken to cuddling him like a teddy bear.
"Gray?" he called out softly, nudging him as he did so. The ice mage didn't even move. "Gray?" he tried again. Still nothing.
Wake me up if I have a nightmare, my ass! Natsu hissed inside his head. There could be magical bombs going off outside and Gray would still be asleep!
Well, there was one foolproof way of getting the older teen to wake up.
THUD!
"What the hell?" Gray roared, finding himself on the floor, his legs tangled in the bed sheets. "What did you do that for?"
Natsu blinked at him innocently. "I didn't do anything, Gray. You fell out all on your own," he stated seriously. But his seriousness didn't last very long, especially with Happy trying to stifle his laughter. And soon, both of them burst out laughing.
"You two are messing with me," Gray deadpanned. "There's no way I would have just fallen out of bed."
"What were you doing in Natsu's bed anyway, Gray?" Happy asked, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"The flamebrain was scared, so I kept him company," the ice mage replied, trying to fight the blush that threatened to stain his cheeks.
"It looked like pretty close company," the Exceed continued.
Natsu's face erupted into flames. The damn cat was evil. Wait. Did he think that they—
"Happy! We didn't do anything! I swear!" the dragon-slayer stuttered immediately.
Happy just smirked. "I never said you did. Why would you jump to a conclusion like that? Unless…"
While Natsu sputtered uncontrollably, Gray finally managed to free himself and was now standing in the center of the cabin.
"Nothing happened. End of story. What would make you think we'd do something like that?" started the ice mage, hoping his statement would dismiss the matter.
"I don't know," answered Happy, his face taking on an impish look. "It might have had something to do with the fact that you two were snuggling this morning."
Gray glared at him. "I…do…not…snuggle."
"Who's anyone gonna believe? You or me?" he said, heading out of the cabin before either of the two teens could react.
There was a moment's pause. Gray and Natsu stared at each other, the Exceed's words finally sinking in.
"WHAT?" they screeched. The two couldn't get dressed fast enough. And once they had, hunting down Happy became their top priority. He wouldn't really tell anyone…would he?
"No offense, but when we find the runt, he is so dead," Gray growled, slamming himself into his seat as he started eating his breakfast.
They'd spent a good hour trying to find him. However, he was bound to show up sooner or later. He had to eat sometime.
"You think he'll show up?"
"Knowing Happy, he probably grabbed something from here already and took off while we were looking for him," Gray decided when he didn't see him, stabbing his helpless egg with a fork. "And when we catch him, he's done for."
"Don't you think we should make a deal with him first? If you go after him, he'll just be more likely to say something."
"You have a point." Personally, Gray was impressed by that evaluation. Even though he was reluctant to admit it, the fire mage was right.
"Um…Natsu? We were wondering if…we could talk to you," announced Lucy, the rest of their friends behind her.
"What's up?"
"Well, uh, we just wanted to apologize for how we've been treating you these past few days."
Natsu noticed that this seemed to be all the blonde was going to say, but he wasn't going to make it that easy for them this time. "What are you apologizing for exactly?"
"Huh?" Lucy replied.
"There's gotta be a reason why you're apologizing, right? And if you're apologizing, it means you did something to call for an apology. So what is it? What did you guys do?"
Everyone just stood there in silence, not knowing what to say.
"You can't just say you're sorry and expect everything to go back to normal. It's not just an excuse to use to blow things over and pretend it never happened. And until you can tell me what you guys are apologizing for…I won't accept you're apology," Natsu stated quietly.
"Natsu, don't be like that," interceded Erza.
"Don't be like what?"
"Don't be so hard on us. We're your friends. Let's just put whatever happened behind us and move on," the requip mage continued.
"I knew you were idiots before, but this just takes the cake," Gajeel muttered. "Are you guys really that stupid?"
"That's a rhetorical question," mumbled Gray under his breath.
"As soon as we got here, everyone ignored him save Gray and Happy," continued the iron dragon-slayer. "I ignored him as well because I was too busy trying to keep Levy's attention on me all the time."
"Gajeel," Levy said warningly.
"Right. Moving on," he replied sheepishly. "So if anything, we should apologize for our…you know…"
"Selfishness?" offered Levy.
"Yes. Selfishness. We should apologize for our selfishness and…and…"
"What he's trying to say is that we apologize for leaving you alone. Friendship isn't one sided. You've always been there for us, so the least we can do is be there for you. And we haven't been. We apologize for that. We'll also do our best to ensure it doesn't happen again. Right?" finished Levy, snapping his gaze to everyone else. Who knew she could be so scary?
Natsu watched as everyone nodded in agreement. Well…it was a start. But it just seemed weird that Gajeel was the one to initiate fixing the problem.
"It's…going to take me a bit of time to get over it. But we can still be on friendly terms," stated Natsu.
"Great!" cried Gajeel, looking a little bit too happy. "Now we can all hang out together like we planned!"
Natsu stared blankly at them, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Uh, okay," he agreed, not really knowing what he was agreeing to. The iron dragon-slayer started cackling maniacally at that. The fire mage had a hard time figuring out what was so funny.
"Then we'll hang out tonight," Gajeel continued, "while we search for the haunted shrine from that story we heard last night."
Feeling his blood run cold, Natsu found himself gripping the table. "What?"
"You were serious?" Lucy gasped, looking quite frightened.
"Oh, come on! It'll be fun! Gihi!" cackled Gajeel.
Natsu stifled a whimper. He didn't want to go out into the dark, creepy woods in the middle of the night to search for some haunted shrine. What if there were ghosts or other…ghostly type things?
It seemed everyone in the group agreed; however, Lucy and Levy needed a little coaxing. And Natsu found himself nodding without even realizing he was doing it until Gray said so. After everyone left, anyways.
"I thought you were afraid of this kind of stuff," commented the ice mage.
"I am," the dragon-slayer replied softly.
"Then why did you agree to go?"
"I have no idea. But you'll stay with me, right? You won't leave me alone?" Natsu demanded frantically.
"I never said I wanted to go," said Gray. When he noted the pleading expression on Natsu's face, however, he gave in. "But if you insist, I'll go. We can't have you getting lost out in the woods now."
"Thank you!" he cried, quickly hugging the ice mage. "I really kinda wanna go, but I can't if you're not there. You need to stay with me…remember?"
"I remember," he replied.
"Um…what time are we supposed to meet up?"
"You weren't even listening?" the ice mage asked, eyebrow raised. The dragon-slayer smiled at him meekly. "We're meeting everyone at midnight."
"Midnight?" Natsu echoed. That was even worse. It would probably mean that they'd be out there close to the so-called witching hour. And if the story was real, what would happen then?
"You really do have an overactive imagination, don't you?" Gray muttered. "Nothing's going to happen. It's just some idiotic ghost story set up to scare people away from the woods. It's not real."
Natsu gulped anyway. He really hoped Gray was right.
End Chapter