Author's note: Thank you all for reading and reviewing; I deeply appreciate your support. Here's another one of those moods that don't make sense that I wrote just for the heck of it. Deliora, really? Damn, go ahead and give me the angst I want! Ahem. I mean, sorry about that, and enjoy the chapter.

DreamscomeTRUEEE: Thanks so much for your praises – I'm so flattered by your kind words I think I might die of embarrassment. Akuma no Uta: Thanks; if you play the violin, you're a star to me. Go Vivaldi!

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I'm just looking for a dying wolf

The summer sun beat down on his back, and the dirt road beneath his feet burnt. Another blister on his foot broke, leaving behind a faint trail of blood, yet forward and forward Natsu lurched, the unshed tears in his eyes burning worse than the pain in his feet.

'Have you seen a dying wolf, good sir?' He asked a passerby on the sun-drenched road.

The man shook his head and moved on, and on Natsu moved.

'Another moon, Natsu, and then I can be human. We'd live together forever and for ever more, and then for even longer after that. Before that, though, if you so much as see me in my human form, I'd die forever a wolf.'

Over the golden fields he traveled, on and on, with the blue sky opening before him and the indigo mountains fading behind each thud of his footsteps. On the roadside the daisies bloomed yellow like little spots of summer, yet all Natsu could see was shaggy black fur that blotched against the fresh snow of winter, and a soft warmth that burnt deep into his heart.

'Have you seen a dying wolf this way, madam?' He asked an old woman walking the opposite way.

Clop, clop, clop, her cane hit the hard ground, and on she moved.

'But I don't want to wait!' Young Natsu used to say.

The young wolf made a frustrated sound and bobbed Natsu on the head with a great paw.

'What part of "we'll have forever together" don't you understand?!'

Young Natsu had pouted, before tackling the wolf to the ground with arms held tight around his shaggy neck.

'Promise me you'll still be there when I turn seventeen?'

Stormy blue eyes twinkled, and the wolf licked his assent across Natsu's happy laughter.

'Have you seen a dying wolf anywhere, Mister Huntsman?' He asked a huntsman with the carcass of a doe slung across his shoulders.

'No, but the forest is just ahead.' The huntsman said, and away he went.

And then there was only Natsu on the road, the afternoon sun casting a long, long shadow that trailed after him in his forlorn quest for that which could not be found.

'What have you done?!'

The fair young man before him had that familiar mane of shaggy hair, but within stormy blue eyes only despair and pain resided.

'I… I'm sorry! I couldn't help wanting to see you in human form. Please, Gray, I'm sorry. Don't go away.'

But Gray only shook his head. With a pained cry, the young man fell sideways. When he stood up again, he was once more a wolf, stormy blue eyes plaintive and moist.

Even limping, the wolf was faster than the weeping Natsu.

The forest greeted him with an abrupt expanse of trees and gnarled roots. Branches extended their bony claws in courteous invitation, ever ready to keep Natsu forever in their cruel embrace. Overhead, the canopy was so thick that even the glaring sunlight was blotted out. Natsu's shadow died away, leaving him all alone once again to weave his way into the dark forest.

And so he weaved, on and on he weaved, between great spider webs and clawing branches, over rotting logs and the carpet of dead leaves that soaked up his blood as though thirsting for more. Once, he stepped on a sharp rock covered underneath the leaves, and from then on the forest floor had more to drink with each step he took. Still, Natsu kept walking, far and deep into the darkness, until suddenly the sky opened above him into a starry stretch of velvet of summer end.

'…tsu.' Faintly, before him, there was a noise, so Natsu turned and looked.

And there he was, the great black wolf in his shaggy mane of fur, although stormy blue eyes were now devoid of any familiar twinkle. Gray leaned heavily against the trunk of an ancient tree as though he was basking in the sunlight of an early morning a lifetime ago, only this time the only thing he was basking in was the grasps of broken magic. He blinked, once, twice, before that soft noise echoed again.

'Natsu.'

Natsu moved without knowing he was moving, and then he was at Gray's side, arms wounding around the shaggy neck to never let go.

'A curse, sweetheart, such that star-crossed from forever are separated till forever by a pelt of wolf skin.'

'Separated?' Young Natsu looked up from his recline against the wolf's warm, warm side. 'How? We're together even now.'

'And may we be together for ever more.' The young wolf touched his forehead to Natsu's with what may have been a sad, sad smile, and suddenly he had felt like crying for no reason.

'I'm seventeen, and you are still here.' He whispered against the pelt of wolf skin that had been separating them in a forever of laughter and light, only to end up together in bittersweet memories and a lifetime worth of regrets.

The wolf blinked again, before the light in his eyes went out in the rush of a sigh. Seventeen years, and they should have been together when the curse broke. Instead, all they had, was a piece of broken magic that drew them together like a moth to flame. Slowly, his eyes slid shut, so Natsu held on tighter to what warmth that was left him.

He was so tired. The long walk had taken all his strength; the sun had burned the life out of him; the forest had sucked the lifeblood from his aching body. Only, now it wasn't aching anymore. He was warm, and lying with his head against the wolf's shaggy side. It was all Natsu had ever wanted.

'I found the dying wolf, only he's not dying anymore.' He told no one in particular, before the strength to even open his mouth left him at last.

'And may we be together for ever more.'

Natsu closed his eyes and let sleep claim him at last.