When the four mages and Happy met in the morning to receive their first task, Gray looked like a picture of misery, dark circles under his eyes, unnerved and not at all looking forward to what they would have to do. On the opposite and to everybody's surprise, Natsu was smiling wide and being positive, trying to cheer everyone up. When Happy flew to his embrace, telling him how Erza had bought him fish and how good it had tasted and that he wanted more of it, he was laughing loudly and telling his blue Exceed that he was sure he'd get more fish from Erza and Lucy the next days.

The two girls exchanged surprised glances; they didn't know what to think of this, if they should be happy that Natsu seemed to be back to his old self, or be sad because now Gray was being gloomy instead. Lucy subtly shook her head, showing the red haired mage that they should just watch and see what would happen. So neither of them commented on this situation, they just shrugged and started heading to their client's office.

The first task for the Fairy Tail mages was to log trees in a forest close to the town they were staying in, cut them in about same-sized parts and piling them up. To fulfil this task, Erza used Requip to summon many swords which cut through wood like it was made out of butter. Lucy summoned Taurus, used 'Star Dress: Taurus Form' on herself, ordered Taurus to give her an axe and then both of them were logging trees in a high pace. Gray used 'Ice Make: Axe' to summon many axes, which cut wood controlled by Gray's thoughts. Happy was busying himself with carrying all the wood to one location and piling them up.

Natsu was... a whole different story. He tried to log trees with his fire magic, forming it like a blade and cutting through it, but every time he tried, he just set the tree on fire. He couldn't eat his own flames, so there was no way he could put the fire out himself. If it wasn't for his frustrated yell and for Gray noticing what he had done and putting the flames out by his ice, he would have caused a forest fire. Out of pity, the ice mage formed another ice axe and gave it to him. Natsu eyed the axe warily, but still tried to use it, with the result that his body heat melted the icy handle in no time.

"Your ice axe sucks! I can't even hold it without melting it!" He shouted in frustration.

"That's your fault for having such warm hands!"

"Your ice usually withstands even my fire without problem, so my body temperature shouldn't cause it to melt."

Gray knew his friend was right, but he just couldn't focus on his magic while being around the fire Dragon Slayer, his mind and his feelings were too much in an uproar plus the lack of sleep of especially last night left his nerves tense.

"I guess I'm just too exhausted for this shit", he whispered to himself, but Natsu heard him anyway.

"Then you should take a brea-", Natsu began, but was interrupted by Lucy's high-pitched yell.

"NATSU! WATCH OUT!"

Before he knew what was happening, he was hit hard on the back of his head by the falling tree Lucy had just logged. But instead of burying Natsu under it, the tree broke apart where it had hit his head. All eyes were on him, everyone had stopped moving, preparing to give first aid to their friend if needed. Natsu didn't move for a few seconds. Then he suddenly shoved the trunk aside, made a fiery fist and jumped in Lucy's direction, ready to punch her.

"That freaking hurt!"

Everyone was relieved that the fire mage didn't seem to have suffered any severe damage, Lucy took a defensive stance and Taurus was positioning himself between the celestial mage and the furious Natsu, ready to protect Lucy from the heavy strike that was to come- when the Dragon Slayer abruptly came to a halt, his flames evaporating, staggering and searching for something that could give him stability, but he couldn't seem to find any.

Gray moved without thinking twice, running towards his best friend, catching him in his strong arms while the Dragon Slayer was tipping over, then carefully sitting down and bedding Natsu's head in his lap. The fire mage hadn't lost conscience, just seemed to be a bit dizzy, he was looking around a bit cluelessly. When he found the eyes of the ice mage, which were focusing on him with a worried look, he smiled faintly.

"That's gonna be a big bump, huh..."

Despite the situation, Gray's heart was racing. Their eyes were interlocked with each other's and if it hadn't been physically impossible to do so, he would have leaned down and kissed Natsu right then and there. He hadn't noticed the others approaching and nearly jumped at Erza's voice so close to him.

"Hey, you okay?"

"It hurts like hell..."

"You should take a rest and cool that spot where the tree hit you. Gray, take him to your room and take good care of him. You two take the rest of the day off, we'll cover for you."

Lucy gave him an encouraging nod and that was all it took for Gray to obey Erza's order, to carry Natsu princess-style - in spite of half-hearted complaints from the Dragon Slayer - back to their room.

When Happy tried to follow, Erza caught his tail.

"You still have some wood-carrying to do, or there will be no fish this evening!"

"Ayeeee Sir!"

As soon as they reached their room, Natsu demanded to be put down, face blushed heavily. They had passed so many people on their way back to the hotel; they had been staring at them, whispering something they believed he couldn't hear. Gray didn't seem to care or even notice their looks. It was kind of sweet and soothing, knowing his best friend cared for his health to a level where he didn't even care about what other people might think of him carrying a man around like a fucking princess. Then again, the ice mage had never really cared much about other people's opinions if they weren't a Fairy Tail mage.

Gray carried him to their bed and let Natsu down carefully on his side of the bed. The Dragon Slayer felt the cold feeling on the back of his head vanish and nearly complained as the pain slowly came back, when he heard his friend exhale a shaking breath and lying down on the right side of the bed.

"Sorry, but cooling your head until now without touching was difficult and I'm tired. You have the choice between me making you ice cubes you can use to cool your head... or I could make my hand cold-"

"I'll take your hand. I don't want ice cubes melting in my hair."

He heard Gray swallow hard, then felt the cool touch of a hand that was pushing its way between the back of his head and his pillow. He sighed contently, relaxed into the touch of this cold hand and closed his eyes. He concentrated on the scent of his best friend. He liked the prominent scent of pine trees and snowy hills on Gray. But his emotions seemed to be in chaos, as he could smell fear and nervousness but at the same time happiness, satisfaction and something else that overlapped everything else, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. It was this special smell Gray always had on him. It was soothing and warm but it seemed to be so much stronger now. It bugged Natsu that he didn't know what this feeling was. He could just have asked but something was always holding him back.

He tried to push away the thought for now as thinking about it only made his head hurt. Maybe he had suffered greater damage from that damn tree than he had anticipated. The feeling of Gray's cold hand made him feel secure, easing his pain. He started to feel sleepy again; his body obviously needed all its energy to repair the damage of his head. Slowly he was sinking into a pleasant sleep, where he dreamed of cold hands embracing his body and holding it close.

When Gray had pushed his hand under Natsu's head, the feel of the soft hair and the warm scalp drove him nearly mad with desire, he had only barely been able to refrain from caressing the soft hair and skin, trying hard to ignore how good it felt to touch his best friend. It had been hard on him, his heart beating heavily and he barely managed to keep his breath even. After some time the Dragon Slayer seemed to have fallen asleep, his chest was moving up and down steadily and his face seemed to be relaxed. When Natsu babbled some unidentifiable syllable in his sleep, Gray couldn't help himself but smile at this.

Natsu really had fallen asleep with his head resting in Gray's hand. At this thought heat rolled through his body, making his stomach feel like there were a thousand butterflies inside. Encouraged by the knowledge that the Dragon Slayer really was asleep, he moved his hand a bit, enjoying the feeling of this incredibly soft hair he had craved to touch for so long. He didn't want to wake his best friend though, so he kept his moving to a minimum.

After some minutes of pure bliss the touching was causing, he felt tiredness washing over him, his body demanding the sleep he had been denied for too long. Shifting in what Gray thought to be a comfortable position, he drifted off to sleep.

Natsu had woken up at about 4 p.m., wondering how long he had slept, as he hadn't paid attention to the clock when they had arrived at their room. He brought himself in an upright position and quickly wanted to scan the room around him, but the sleeping figure of his friend caught his eye immediately. His hand was slightly grasping the air, obviously searching for something that was missing. It was searching for his head, he noted, but when it couldn't find what it was searching for, Gray sighed sadly in his sleep, pulled his hand back to his body and shifted his position into something that looked far more comfortable than the one he had been in before. Now he was lying with his back on the mattress, left hand over his head and the right one on his stomach, his face turned towards Natsu. Before Natsu had woken up he had been laying awkwardly on his stretched out right arm, apparently trying to steady his right hand under the Dragon Slayer's head so that he wouldn't be able to move it in his sleep. His shoulder would certainly be giving him hell after he'd woken up.

Natsu couldn't tear his eyes away from the sleeping face of his best friend. He liked the peace and happiness the sleeping figure was radiating and he couldn't help himself but think beautiful. An invisible force was pulling Natsu towards Gray's face and he only noticed that he had moved when he already was so close to his friend that he could feel his breathing on his lips. He froze and closed his eyes, feeling his heart beat fast and hard against his ribcage. The feel of Gray's breath against his sensitive skin caused a tingling sensation not only on his face but also in his heart. It felt so right and it made him incredibly happy. He never wanted it to go away.

He just wanted to stay like this forever- but then he heard footsteps coming closer. He could tell they belonged to Lucy and Erza and they were heading to his room. He quickly sat upright again, tried to slow down his pulse as well as his panting breath. He quickly went to the door, slipping out of the hotel room as quietly as he could and greeted the two approaching girls and Happy with a wide smile when they reached him, trying hard to hide the turmoil that was raging inside him.

"Yo, Happy, Lucy, Erza! What's up?"

Happy landed with a heavy sigh on Natsu's shoulder. Poor exceed, he must have worked so hard.

"Natsu, you look much better already. How's your head?" Lucy asked with a smile.

Huh? Head? I've completely forgotten about that...

"A- ahh... yeah, feels completely healed."

He earned a skeptical look from Erza.

"You sure look better, but you're acting strange. Are you hiding something in that hotel room? And did you catch a fever? Your face is red."

Natsu gulped. Why couldn't he hide anything from Erza?

"Gray is sleeping, I didn't want to wake him up and so I thought we should talk on the corridor."

Erza raised her eyebrow even higher.

"Ooh? How thoughtful of you."

"He just... looked so tired earlier, so I thought..." He cleared his throat. "What did you come here for anyway?"

Erza opened her mouth to mock him some more, but Lucy had mercy on him and intervened by cutting Erza off before she even had the chance to say a word.

"We got some money in advance, so we decided we'd use a bit of it to make barbecue. Our client has a cozy garden near the forest, the one we saw on our way to work today. She offered us to use it if we promised not to leave trash behind. So we already bought everything for a barbecue and brought it there and now we came to pick you and Gray up."

"Nice idea! You can already go; we'll come as soon as Gray wakes up."

Erza wanted to say something, but was cut off by Lucy again.

"Okay, but please don't come later than 6 p.m.! Happy, let's go!"

With that, Lucy grabbed Happy and spun Erza around, pushing her away from Natsu until they were out of sight. Natsu was staring at the empty space where his friends had been just a few seconds ago and tried hard to believe what had just happened. Who would have thought that Lucy had this kind of courage, rebelling against Erza. Shaking his head in disbelief, he pushed himself back into the hotel room, making as little noise as possible and sat down on his side of the bed.

This time he didn't allow himself to stare at Gray's sleeping face for more than a few seconds, as the dark haired mage could wake up any second and he didn't want to be caught staring or - god forbid - hovering a few centimeters before Gray's face.

It was 5 p.m. when Gray started to stir, mumbling something incomprehensible and stretching his limbs. Despite his resolution not to stare, Natsu couldn't help but watch the cute process of his best friend waking up.

When Gray opened his eyes only slightly, still half sleeping, he was met with the view of Natsu beaming happily at him. He jolted awake and sat upright quickly, feeling a sharp pain in his right shoulder and upper arm as he did so. He let out a hiss.

"Good morning, princess. Did you sleep well?"

Natsu was beaming even wider at him now. Princess? He blushed heavily, cleared his throat and hoped his voice wouldn't sound too hoarse.

"M- morning. How long did I sleep?"

"About one hour longer than me. Come on, get up. The girls are waiting for us."

Thankful for something other to do than looking in the eyes of the pink haired mage he got out of bed, wondering just when he had stripped out of his shirt, grabbed his shirt from his nightstand and tried to get dressed again. When he lifted his arms to slip into his shirt, his right shoulder ached so much he needed to lower his arms again. Not wanting to show weakness to his best friend, he took a deep breath and quickly slipped over his shirt.

When they arrived at the garden, they couldn't believe their eyes. Erza seemed to be already drunk, wielding an empty bottle of beer over her head to greet the two boys. As soon as Lucy noticed them approaching, she got up from the bench, started to set the table and bring food from the small house. Happy was sleeping peacefully on the end of the front bench. Natsu wondered just how much they had made him work today.

The garden really was nice and cozy. There was a fireplace with more than enough space to sit around, a big wooden table with two benches on each side, a small barbecue next to the back bench, a cottage with a refrigerator and a huge freezer and also a small kitchen inside.

Natsu volunteered on being responsible for the barbecue, Gray was taking care of their drinks, cooling them to the requested temperature before he handed them over to the others and Lucy was taking care of the rest. Erza had bought too much alcohol and she was constantly cheering her friends on to drink more. After they had finished eating and everybody had drunken two beers each - except Erza who had drunken five already - and had become a bit tipsy, Erza decided it was time to play 'Truth or Dare'. Nobody dared arguing with a drunken Erza and so they tidied up the table, tried to spin an empty bottle on the table, but then decided that it took too long for the bottle to stop spinning on the flat surface, so they moved to sit in a circle on the warm grass. Lucy was sitting on the left side of Erza and Gray on her right side. Hence Natsu was sitting between Lucy and Gray.

It was Erza's turn to start the game. She spun the bottle so hard it took a long time for it to stop and point on... Lucy.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you still a virgin?"

Lucy coughed hard and blushed heavily.

"N- no."

Erza's grin was evil and she urged Lucy to go on with the game. Lucy twisted the bottle and it stopped pointing at Gray.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Dare."

"Hmmm... let's see... make a headstand and hold it for one minute."

Erza was complaining loudly about Lucy being 'no fun', but seeing Gray struggling to accomplish this task was truly ridiculous. His sense of balance was off to a point where this task was impossible to solve. He cursed and said that this was mean, giving him such a task after he'd already drunken two beers. Erza was quick to invent a new rule as a punishment if somebody lied or couldn't fulfill his task: drink a shot. She had also bought different types of spirits.

Gray had decided on vodka and gulped it down at once, shaking his whole body due to the strong taste of alcohol.

When Gray spun the bottle, it pointed on himself, so he needed to spin it again because you couldn't give yourself a task or a question. It was pointing to Erza this time.

"Truth or-"

"Truth."

"Have you ever kissed Jellal?"

"Yes. My turn!"

Erza got to truth-or-dare Natsu, who decided on truth.

"Are you in love with somebody?"

What? Natsu's cheeks went pink, his heart rate doubling instantly, heat washing through his body. For all he knew he wasn't in love, but the reaction of his body made him doubt his conviction. He was thinking really hard about it, avoiding looking in Gray's direction by all means.

"I- I don't... really know." It was the most honest answer he could give at the moment.

"You're lying!"

"N- no, I really don't know..."

"Natsu, come on, your reaction shows that you are in love, seriously so, so stop lying to yourself."

He was staring in Erza's eyes in disbelief, trying to process what she had just said, trying to understand if it was true, if he really was in love, and if he was, with whom? Gray, obviously. No... No, this couldn't be true, he wasn't-

"Quit dreaming, just believe it already and spin the bottle. It's your turn, Natsu."

He did what he was told and the bottle stopped at... Gray. Shit. He didn't have the courage to look in the eyes of his best friend, so he just stared at his hands while talking.

"T- truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

Screw it! Just do it, everyone is asking shit like this! Gathering all his courage, he looked in Gray's eyes and asked his question.

"Are you in love?"

"Yes."

Oh god... Without hesitation... he felt dizzy, knowing Gray had already found his special one. He wondered who it was, felt fear creeping up his spine when he imagined Gray being in love with one of the girls or boys in their guild or just anyone who wasn't Natsu. He pictured Juvia kissing with her 'Gray-sama' and immediately regretted it; the thought alone made him want to punch Juvia badly if something like this ever happened... I should stop thinking about something like this... Gray hadn't told them who his special one was, so there still was the chance that it was him... Igneel had said it was 'fate', so if he really was in love with Gray - which he wasn't - the two of them were bound to fall in love with each other, right? Please, let it be me...

When he snapped out of his thoughts, he noticed he had obviously missed at least one round, as Lucy's face was flushed dark red and she was spinning the bottle again. It was pointing on Gray.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Who are you in love with?"

The ice mage shifted nervously, shooting an angry glare at Lucy. Then he poured himself another shot of vodka and downed it at once. He grabbed the bottle and wanted to twist it again, when Erza's hand caught his.

"That doesn't count, Gray. It's Truth or Dare and you decided to say the truth so you have to answer it."

"I'd lie anyway, so I drank a shot, what's the problem? Do I need to tell you a lie to continue?"

Erza was gazing at him angrily, but then apparently noticed there was nothing she could do to force him to say the truth, so she just snorted, leaned back again and demanded to be given another beer. She should really have a drinking contest with Cana when they came back from their mission, after being able to talk clearly like that after five beers she could actually have a chance of not losing so badly.

After Gray had handed out another beer to Erza, he twisted the empty bottle again. It pointed at Erza.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Dare."

"Kiss Lucy on the mouth."

Natsu gulped, that had been pretty brave and he expected Erza to become angry. Never in his life would he have expected what really happened: Erza and Lucy exchanging a quick glance and a nod, then Erza was leaning into Lucy and kissed her sloppily on the mouth, and it was not only a short kiss. They shifted against each other, leaning in even closer. Natsu slowly turned his head to face Gray and after some seconds the ice mage seemed to have noticed his gaze, because he looked straight in Natsu's eyes. They exchanged a surprised and questioning look, both subtly shaking their head and then returned their gaze on the kissing pair.

After what felt like nearly a minute the two parted, smiled at each other, wiped away the drool on their lips and then looked at the boys like nothing had happened.

"Myyy turn!" Erza exclaimed and twisted the bottle. When it stopped, it was hard to tell in whose direction it pointed, Erza's or Gray's. When the ice mage noticed that, he leaned away from Erza, not wanting the bottle to point at him. What he hadn't thought about was that by this he had leaned into the person sitting on his right side - Natsu. When their shoulders touched, the ice mage startled and sat upright again.

The red haired mage sighed and just twisted it again with the result that this time it was doubtlessly pointing on Gray. She grinned.

"Truthordaaare?"

Finally the alcohol seemed to have reached her brain, making her slur.

"Uh... Dare?"

"Kissss Natsu. On his liiiips." She giggled.

Natsu immediately blushed crimson, feeling dizzy again, his heart jumping in anticipation. Gray would kiss him. On his lips. Oh god...

"No. I'll drink..."

Sharp pain surged through him at hearing those words.

"Gray, cm'on. We jus' did the same. You can... can't jus' allllways runnaway."

"You can't force me... something like this... I just... I'm not running away! I just don't want... like this."

"Wu'you eeeever fin' the courage-"

"Stop it, Erza, give him a break, he's right. If he doesn't want to be forced into something like this, then you shouldn't push the issue", Lucy intervened.

"But Gray'sssuch a shybaaaby..."

"Shut it, Erza!" Gray demanded.

"Will you ev- ever confess your looove to-"

"SHUT IT! One more word and I don't know what I'll do, so shut the fuck up!"

"If ya' kiss Natttsu I'll shuddup"

"You-"

"Or I'll tell" Erza threatened.

"That's it; I'm leaving, don't follow me, leave me alone!" And before anyone could react, Gray had jumped over the fence surrounding the garden and had run off into the forest. Erza slumped down in Lucy's lap, weeping, saying "I'm sorry" over and over again. Lucy stroked her hair.

"You meant well. It's okay. Shhhh... Don't cry."

Natsu sat thunderstruck on his place, too confused to understand what happened. Leave me alone, his mind echoed. It reminded him of something... But his mind was hazy, every thought he tried to think was blurry, the only thing he knew for sure was that Gray was angry... and alone. He'd said 'leave me alone', but he wasn't willing to obey this wish. He would go after him; he couldn't leave him alone with his negative feelings.

"I'll bring him back."

It wasn't difficult to pursue the ice mage, as he knew his scent by heart and could follow the trace easily. He found Gray on a clearing they had created earlier that day by logging trees. He was sitting on a trunk with his back turned to Natsu.

This was the moment he remembered something. An important memory he had forgotten.

Gray... where have you gone? Gray... don't be sad, please... I want to be there for you, let me be with you, let me ease your pain... Gray...

Natsu was following the path his nose led him to find Gray, seriously worried about the ice mage, who had left the guild hall in a gloomy mood some time ago, shouting to everyone "leave me alone". It was that day of the year again. Exactly four years ago Gray had lost everyone who had been important to him by the hand of Deliora, a demon of one of Zeref's books.

The pink haired Dragon Slayer had tried to suppress the urge to follow the ice mage because he knew he should respect the wish of his best friend. He could understand how hard it was to lose somebody important. And Gray hadn't lost only one person important to him, but all of them at once. Seeing him so sad made Natsu want to cry and what made him nearly go insane was the knowledge that he couldn't do anything to make it better. He couldn't undo the past, he couldn't bring Gray's beloved ones back to life. The only thing he could possibly do was to lend him a shoulder to cry on, show him that he cared for him, that he'd always be there for him... It wouldn't make things better, obviously. But he could distract him, comfort him and maybe make him forget his pain for a short time. Anything was better than seeing his best friend in grief. After some pondering Natsu finally had decided to go after the ice mage.

The scent of Gray led him into the forest near Magnolia, to an opening where they were training a lot. When he caught sight of his friend, he stopped dead in his tracks. Gray was standing with his back turned to Natsu, staring into the forest, unmoving. The sight made his heart tighten in pain. He needed to do something, needed to snap his friend out of his dark thoughts.

"Gray!"

No reaction. The ice mage didn't seem to have noticed him. Natsu slowly approached him, not wanting to startle his friend. He got no reaction even when he reached Gray, standing only some feet behind him. He spoke again, with a soft voice.

"Gray..."

Still not moving, the ice mage spoke with a cold and despising voice.

"I'm not in the mood for a brawl, so piss of."

Not letting himself be discouraged by this answer, as he had expected this kind of response, he replied with a gentle voice.

"I'm not here for fighting; I'm here to help you."

Gray had turned around to face Natsu, his face an ugly grimace of disgust.

"Help me? How the hell could you help me?!"

"I- I don't know... I just... want to be there for you..."

"I don't need your pity."

"N- no, that's not-"

"Then WHAT?"

"I can underst-"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW OF LOSING YOUR WHOLE FAMILY? You've only ever had Igneel, and as far as you know he could still be alive, so HOW DARE YOU TELL ME YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Not having expected this kind of emotional outburst, Natsu was having a hard time controlling the tears that threatened to fill his eyes.

"Th- that was not what-"

"Go away. Leave me alone. You cannot help me. Go."

"But-"

"GO! FUCK OFF!"

He didn't dodge the icy fist that raced towards his body. It hit him hard in the stomach, sent him flying a few meters away. By then Natsu had given up fighting the tears, he was weeping, not because of the physical but emotional pain he was feeling. He pulled himself together, stood up, met Gray's gaze briefly with tearstained eyes and then turned around and ran away, as fast as he could, not caring where he was heading, just away from the angry ice mage, to a place where he could be alone with his emotions.

When he finally thought he'd run far enough, he found himself in the hills near Magnolia, in a place he had never been before, by a small and abandoned shack. He went to the threshold, sat down and buried his face between his hands. He had never felt so lost before. It was all only because of his love for Gray. If it hadn't been for his affection for the ice mage, he would never have followed him in the woods. This would never have happened. If he just could... somehow fall out of love. Everything would be better. Everything would be easier. He should forget this feeling.

He was desperate to forget what he was feeling for his best friend, so desperate he subconsciously used his Magic Power to lock away his love for Gray, buried deep inside his heart, to be forgotten forever. He also erased his memories of feeling more than friendship for the ice mage. Then everything went black.

Natsu collapsed to the ground. He closed his eyes, searched inside him for the imaginary box he had sealed his feelings in. He found it immediately, checked its state and found that it was already half-broken, leaking a part of his feelings for Gray into his body. It had cracked the day of his fight with Gray, when he had used a small part of the Magic Power that he had always subconsciously preserved to contain his love.

Natsu released it, destroyed the container utterly, setting his love free, letting himself be overwhelmed by the true extent of his feelings for Gray.