When they arrived at their hotel room, Natsu urged Gray to get ready quickly; he wanted to head to the festival as soon as possible. Gray wondered if they would be going out alone also today. He had just jumped to conclusions earlier that day, thinking of it as a date, but Natsu hadn't mentioned anything about whether they were going alone or with the girls and Happy. So he would just have to find out.

"Will the two of us go there alone?" he asked as Natsu stepped out of the bathroom.

"Yeah," Natsu answered with a grin.

"Are you taking me out on a date?" Gray winked, suddenly feeling brave.

"Maybe, ice princess," Natsu said with a cocky smile.

Gray quickly averted his eyes and dropped his head to hide his blush. Not a second later he scolded himself for his girlish behavior. If he was going to flirt with Natsu, he should really prepare for Natsu flirting back... or at least teasing him. And if he was going to blush, he shouldn't hide it. That was also a part of flirting: letting the other know how much his actions affected you.

He pulled himself together and quickly got ready for the festival.

Surprisingly they didn't need to ask for the way. Natsu knew the rough direction and before long they could see the bright colors of the neon lights illuminating the night sky above the town. It looked really big and Gray was feeling a thrill of anticipation when he thought about all the fun things he could do there with Natsu.

"Whoa! They even have a giant wheel! I wanna ride that!" Gray exclaimed in childish joy. He'd loved fairy ground rides since he was a little child. The memories made him feel warm and secure. He didn't notice Natsu's fond look - he was too caught up in his memories.

Gray had unconsciously sped up; he obviously wanted to reach the festival ground as soon as possible. Natsu smiled privately. He had chosen the perfect place for their date. Seeing his friend this happy made his heart overflow with joy.

Judging by his behavior, Gray had been on this kind of festivals sometimes in his childhood. His eyes gleamed happily and Natsu pictured a young Gray dragging his parents or his beloved teacher Ur from one fairy ground ride to the next, always demanding that they ride it with him.

Natsu knew that it was soon that time of the year again. He didn't really know how Gray spent the anniversary of his family's death nowadays. He'd been avoiding meeting the ice mage on that day since the incident 9 years ago despite having erased his memory. He'd always subconsciously known he should not approach Gray on these days... Sometimes he'd taken solo missions to avoid him, sometimes he'd just stayed away from the guild and last year he'd challenged Cana to a drinking duel the evening before the anniversary, so his memories of the following day were all hazy and unclear. His guild mates had told him that he'd spent most of the day passing out and regaining consciousness over and over again and in the time he was conscious he'd just been blabbering nonsense.

This year would be different. He would spend the day with Gray and be there for him. He had every intention of confessing his feelings before that day. He wouldn't leave Gray's side, and even if he couldn't ease his pain, he would still show him that he was there for him.

Natsu was snapped out of his thoughts when they arrived at the festival. He was overwhelmed by the crowd of people. Normally he didn't like the smells of hundreds of people at once, but on festivals like these they usually smelled like joy and love. It was a rather nice scent and it made him happy as well.

Gray didn't waste any time. He grabbed Natsu's wrist and led him to the nearest fairy ground ride: a roller coaster. A high one. Dangerous looking. With three loopings. Oh god.

Natsu had prepared for this. He'd expected as much, so he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and hadn't drunk anything for some hours. He was prepared to face his motion sickness and fight it back in order to make Gray smile.

"I wanna ride this, please come with me! I'll pay for the both of us!"

Natsu didn't trust his voice; he was already feeling a bit nauseous. The pleading look Gray was giving him was just too cute. It made his heart race despite the bad feeling in his gut. So he just nodded and let himself be dragged up the stairs and inside the front car of the roller coaster. Ugh. Did it really have to be the first row in the first car?

When his legs were captured between the lap bar and the seat, Natsu started to panic internally. How should he get this over with without vomi-

"Hey, Natsu."

He gulped and tried to make a neutral face when looking over to Gray.

"Y- yeah?"

"I've been to fairy grounds only twice in my life... the first time was with my parents when I was four and the second time was with Ur and Lyon when I'd just turned six. Those two days were two of the happiest in my life. Being with the people who are most important to me, having fun together - it's everything I need to be happy."

"Gray..."

"I am happy now. Thank you, Natsu."

The fond smile Gray was giving him and the things he'd said made Natsu blush and heat surging through his body. He'd completely forgotten about their surroundings. Only Gray was important, his face, his eyes, his words. If he'd been able to reach out and kiss Gray, he was sure he'd done it now for sure. But the security bars were holding him back.

They stared intensely at each other for a moment, but then the car sped up quickly and they were going down. Natsu hadn't even noticed they had gone up in the first place. Gray averted his eyes, threw up his hands and shouted in joy. Natsu barely noticed some of the other people behind them screaming as well; he was only focusing on Gray. Even though his stomach felt like it was being kicked around in his body like a football, he didn't feel sick in the slightest. Not while the love of his life looked the most happy he had ever seen him be.

When the car stopped and the security bars were removed, Natsu sighed in disappointment, because Gray's expression was slowly changing back to normal. He'd never forget the expression of pure bliss on his best friend's face.

"Hey, flame brain, what are you daydreaming about? Get out," Gray mocked, smiling, and pushed Natsu towards the exit.

The next hour went by the same scheme; Gray saw a roller coaster or another fairy ground ride, made Natsu ride with him and enjoyed it fully while Natsu enjoyed the view of his best friend who didn't seem to notice even once that he was being stared at. Natsu's motion sickness hadn't kicked in so far. He'd been to fairy grounds before and he knew that he got motion sick on these fairy ground rides - why wasn't he now? Was Gray his cure?

When they reached the giant wheel, Gray was unstoppable and so they found themselves in a cabin together. Only the two of them. They sat on opposite benches, facing each other. When the cabin started to move slowly, Gray let out a small happy sigh.

"The giant wheel was always the last fairy ground ride of the day. It's beautiful to see the whole fairy ground and all the places you've been before from above."

So, that's it then. This is the last ride. Natsu felt strangely sad about this. He averted his eyes and let them wander, over all the attractions and food stalls and people on the fairy ground. They hadn't even reached the highest point and yet the people were already so small. Everything was so far away, so unimportant. It was only him and Gray now and nothing else mattered. This thought made him feel light-headed and he returned his attention to Gray.

The ice mage was staring out of the window, lost in his thoughts. Natsu briefly wondered what he might be thinking about when he smelled salt. A second later he saw a single tear running down Gray's cheeks. His heart clenched painfully; he didn't want Gray to cry, not on this special day.

He was moving without thinking, getting up and sitting down on the bench next to Gray, so close that their sides were pressed together, then put his right arm around Gray's shoulders and with his left hand he wiped away the tear from his friend's face.

"Shhh, please don't cry, I'm here for you, you're not alone..."

This somehow made Gray cry even more. It was too much for Natsu to bear, so he pulled Gray in a tight embrace with his head resting against Natu's chest. His right hand was slowly stroking the incredibly soft hair and his left stroked Gray's shoulder blades soothingly.

Natsu knew it was inevitable that Gray would think about his parents and his teacher when he had such strong memories connected with a fairy ground. It was only logical that he would become sad and also start crying over the happy memory and the sad fact that they were no longer in this world and he could never see them again.

He just hoped it would be enough to hold him close and show him how much he cared for him and that he wouldn't leave him alone. No, he would never again leave Gray alone. He'd made that mistake far too often in the past.

When their cabin passed the entryway for the first time, he distantly noticed some people whispering about two boys hugging, two girls even yelped delightedly when they saw the two of them.

On their way up the wheel stopped turning and the people at the ground got off and new ones entered. It was then when Gray's sobbing subsided and he felt two strong arms closing around his body.

Natsu pulled him even closer. He noticed how Gray's scent slowly changed from sad to nervous and anxious but at the same time happy and content and so in love.

Now would be the perfect moment to confess or just do something. Natsu took a deep breath.

Then he let go of Gray, earning him a confused and disappointed look.

"There's something... I want to tell you..."

Gray's look and scent changed to curious and hopeful. He urged him to go on with a slight nod.

"I... uh... y- you know I don't hate you... Ah... I mean, usually we're fighting and especially the two weeks before we went on this mission, I was a bit... aggressive," he gulped. Gray stared at him in disbelief.

"I'm really sorry for my behavior... I know you suffered, I'm not blind, but even though I knew that I just couldn't help myself... It won't happen again. I, uh, I mean, I'm sure we'll still fight with each other, that's just... how we are, but I never meant to really hurt you..."

What the hell am I saying? Just say 'I love you'.

"Gray... I..." love you. Come on, it's just two more words! "uh..." I. Love. You. Concentrate. It's not that hard, it's just a few words. "I... want you to know that I always considered you my best friend."

Stupid scaredy-cat! Why is it so incredibly difficult to say these three words?

Gray noticed with disappointment that Natsu wasn't going to say more. For a second he had let himself believe that Natsu was about to confess his love. He gulped. Was Natsu just too scared or... was the person he loved somebody else? He had to find out, and soon. Knowing that Natsu was in love and not knowing whom he was in love with was slowly killing him. He'd found that blurting out 'I love you' wasn't an option for him. He had already tried to say it multiple times in last days, but every time a lump in his throat had prevented him from talking.

He needed to find another way to convey his feelings. Was it okay to hug Natsu out of the blue? Would Natsu notice his quick pulse? Fuck it. He's supposed to notice. That's the point of it after all.

"Natsu..."

And with that he leaned in, wrapped his arms around Natsu and cuddled his head against his shoulder. He heard him gasp, but after a few seconds he sighed contedly and hugged back.

With his head pressed so close to Natsu's body, Gray noticed he wasn't the only one whose pulse was elevated. Warmth spread through his body like waves when he imagined Natsu being just as madly in love with him as he was with Natsu.

They spent the rest of their ride motionless in the arms of each other, both of them content with their current situation but also too scared to take the next step.

When somebody cleared their throat close to them, they immediately let go of each other, jumped to their feet and left the cabin in a hurry. On their way back into the crowd their eyes met for a split second and they both looked to their feet to hide their heavy blush.

They didn't talk even after they'd reached the crowd, though both didn't really know where they were heading. There was not much choice anyway; the crowd forced them to go in the same direction as everyone else. They two mages were pressed against bodies in all directions and Natsu felt as though he didn't have enough space to breathe.

Gray was always right before him, glancing back to make sure Natsu was still there every few seconds.

After one or two minutes, somebody elbowed Natsu from the left. At first he'd thought it was Gray who was teasing him, but just one second ago he'd seen Gray ahead of him; and it really hurt so he turned left to find the culprit and complain.

However, after some seconds of scanning the people closest to him, he found that it was near impossible to identify the one who had elbowed him, so he sighed and gave up.

When his eyes searched for Gray in the crowd again, he couldn't find him – the people who'd been around Gray were still there but Gray seemed to have vanished. Natsu momentarily panicked.

"GRAAAAY!" he needed to shout to drown out the noise.

The people around him turned their heads towards him, but Natsu didn't care. Finding Gray was important right now and nothing else.

"GRAAAAAAAY!"

"NATSUUUU"

The crowd was moving to make way for the two people who were shouting for each other. A second later Natsu saw Gray heading towards him.

"Natsu! Sorry, I couldn't control where I was going..."

Natsu smiled in relief. He grabbed Gray's wrist.

"It's okay, you're back now. I won't let go of you in this crowd anymore."

He could see Gray blushing crimson, but he didn't avert his eyes. He smiled shyly and wanted to resume walking, but Natsu had other plans; he pulled Gray with him, out of the crowd to a place between two stalls, where they could stand without being in the way of dozens of people. They even had some privacy there; nobody would hear them over the noise of some thousands of people. Plus nobody would bother to pay attention to them.

Natsu leaned in close to Gray's ear so that he didn't need to shout.

"Let's buy something to eat somewhere. I'm so hungry!"

"Me too. What do you want to eat?"

"I don't care, just anything."

"Okay... Hey, Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you need to shout my name to find me? Couldn't you just... I don't know; track me... uh, with your nose?"

Natsu smiled.

"I could smell that you were somewhere close, but not where exactly you were... In such places there are thousands of smells and it's nearly impossible to tell where they are coming from. Plus stressed people smell so bad..." he turned up his nose and then continued in a much lower volume, blushing. "But you smell good..."

"What did you say? I didn't hear-"

Natsu had thrown himself in Gray's arms, effectively silencing him.

"I said-" he was so close to Gray now that he was nearly kissing his earlobe. "-that you smell good."

He heard Gray gasp, then felt his strong arms tighten their grip around his torso to pull him in even closer. Both buried their faces in the crook of the neck of the other.

Standing there like this, hugging so closely, they must've looked like a real couple. And they were about to become a real couple, Natsu thought happily.

Gray smelled like love, happiness, but at the same time nervous and afraid. He hadn't figured out yet, then. At least he wasn't sure yet. And how could he possibly be sure if Natsu didn't tell him unmistakably whom he was in love with? He didn't want to make the both of them wait any longer, he longed for the feel of Gray's lips on his, he craved to touch every part of Gray's body he could possibly reach so much it hurt.

So he disentangled from their hug resolutely, gripped Gray by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes.

Gray was caught by surprise by Natsu's sudden movements. He staggered a bit, but regained his balance quickly. Their faces were so close to each other... If he just leaned in a bit, the tips of their noses would touch...

Natsu took in a deep breath and opened his mouth to say something. But in the same moment his stomach let out a very loud growl that could be heard despite the noise around them. Natsu's eyes opened wide, a blush spread on his beautiful face and his hands let go of Gray's shoulders to hold his stomach.

Even though Gray was a bit disappointed that their special moment had ended like this, he couldn't help but laugh. This was just so typical of Natsu.

"Come on; let's get you something to eat. If you starve to death while being with me, Erza's gonna kill me."

Without waiting for an answer, he took Natsu's hand in his, intertwining their fingers. He didn't give Natsu or himself enough time to even think about what he'd just done and just dragged him along back into the crowd of people.

He headed for the closest food stall, which sold Chinese food. They kept holding hands while waiting in the row until it was their turn to order.

When the salesperson noticed they were holding hands, he arched an eyebrow in disbelief and disgust. Feeling embarrassed, Gray wanted to let go of Natsu's hand - but was surprised that Natsu clenched his hand even tighter and shot the man a challenging look. He didn't comment on it, just shook his head and prepared their food, obviously caught off-guard by Natsu's defiance. Natsu only let go of his hand when he needed to pay.

They ate their food in silence, avoiding eye contact as both of them didn't know how to handle this situation.

They'd just hugged each other closely, Natsu had even confessed that he liked Gray's scent, they'd held hands even when it hadn't been necessary any more - it should have been so obvious to both of them what was going on. Only that Gray still had doubts. He knew how passionate Natsu was towards his friends. Though he had never seen him holding hands with any of them, but still... He'd declared that Gray was his 'best friend', so maybe it was just something Natsu considered normal between best friends. Or maybe he'd smelled that Gray would like to hug and hold hands and had just decided to give it to him without even knowing what that meant. Hell, he didn't even know anything about sex, so why would he know something like this? Yeah, Natsu had told him that he knew now whom he was in love with, but that didn't necessarily mean he knew how everything related to love worked, right?

Gray distantly noted that they'd both finished eating and that Natsu was holding out his hand with an inviting gesture. He didn't get it at all and just ended up staring at his hand for a long moment. Natsu sighed and reached for the waste in his hands, retrieving it and went to the nearest bin to throw it away.

Upon reaching Gray again, he just took his hand, intertwined their fingers like it was already normal to do so and pulled Gray back to the place where they'd been before.

Natsu even grabbed his shoulders again, clearly ready to say something, when a bright light illuminated the festival grounds and shortly after, a loud bang could be heard.

Natsu averted his eyes and as soon as he understood where the sound was coming from, his eyes lit up in childish joy.

"Fireworks! Gray, they're making fireworks!"

But Gray couldn't find it in himself to look up and share Natsu's joy over the firework. The sight of his best friend's delighted face was just too beautiful. He'd be damned if he wasted even a fraction of a second of it. And besides, he could see the reflection of the fireworks in Natsu's eyes.

"Natsu..."

He hadn't really meant to speak, but he found that he couldn't hold back what he was about to say any longer.

Natsu focused his eyes back on him and Gray forgot to breathe for some seconds. Natsu's hands were still on his shoulders.

"Natsu, your eyes..." he gulped, suddenly extremely nervous.

The expression of his best friend was hopeful and warm and if he didn't imagine things, also full of love. He gathered all his courage to take this a step further.

"They're beautiful..." he gulped. "Just like the rest of you. You're so beautiful..."

Natsu was so close to him. And now he was pulling Gray even closer. The fond expression on Natsu's face made him burst with happiness. Now he was sure, now he knew that Natsu's heart belonged to him and nobody else. 'The one and only person I'll spend the rest of my life with... Igneel said it's fate.' Fate. Rest of their lives. Together. Gray nearly fainted at the realization.

Natsu had stopped in his movements, giving Gray a questioning and hopeful look. They were so close; Gray could already feel Natsu's breath tickling his lips. How could he not have noticed until now that this was more than okay?

He nodded faintly, then started leaning in closer. His eyes fluttered shut and their lips would meet any moment - when he was hit hard in the back and shoved towards Natsu. Their lips crashed against each other and it was nothing like he had wanted his first kiss to be; it hurt, their lips were mashed by their teeth and he stumbled helplessly into Natsu's arms. They lost their balance and fell to the floor, Gray over Natsu and the person who had caused all this mess landed on Gray.

Gray believed he tasted blood, but he didn't really care at this moment. All he could think about was whether Natsu was alright and that he was going to give the culprit hell. He pushed the one above him roughly away, then quickly got to his feet and helped Natsu get up. After he made sure that his friend wasn't hurt, he furiously turned around to face the culprit - and froze.

Just then he heard two voices close to the culprit.

"Erzaaaaaaaaaa! We were searching for you!"

"Ayeeeee!"