It was hard to believe that this was going to be one of the last times the entire grade was going to be together. It was the end-of-the-year party for the seniors of Magnolia High, hosted at none other than the house of Laxus Dreyar. The house's atmosphere was an odd mix of solemn and spirited as the students all attempted to forget the fact that their tight-knit class was going to be separated soon. Smell-wise, acrid fumes suggestive of spirits permeated the house, emanating from suspicious red cups.

Almost every single senior was present at the party. Cana was sitting in the corner of the living room with a scowl, red cups littered around her, grumbling about how uncivilized everyone was acting, Lucy was talking with Mirajane and Erza at a table toward the wall, and everyone else formed a general blob of bodies in the center of the room. The crowd in the center was creating a halfhearted rave, and amazingly, no-one had gotten into a fight yet. The vibe was undeniably that of smiling at a funeral. If you really want to fake it, you can create a thin veneer of happiness, but it can only partially cover such glaring melancholy.

And out of all the guests' feigned frivolity, the person who was doing the worst job with it had to be Natsu Dragneel. The pinket stood at the edge of the crowd, his lips forced into a small, pained smirk, his eyes fixed on the floor. He occasionally shifted his weight or took a step to seem to be invested in the music, but it was clear that his mind was elsewhere.

Noticing his cafard, Lucy excused herself from her table (which was probably a good idea anyway, since Erza was running out of strawberry cake) and stood up to approach him.

"Natsu!" she called out to him over the music. Her friend swiveled around and looked up at her with sad eyes.

"Come on and sit down and talk with us," she offered, "You don't look like you're having much fun."

"No thanks," Natsu responded glumly, looking down and beginning to turn away. Lucy advanced at this refusal, worried.

"What's wrong?"

"There's so much I wanted to do before high school ended. Now I know I wasted the little time I had." Natsu had now fully turned away and was staring blankly at the opposite end of the room, almost unnoticeably scanning the room with his eyes, as if looking for someone.

"Like what? You've always seemed pretty content."

"I don't know. Something just feels… empty, ya know? I just can't believe it's over."

"Well, forget about that! Come sit with us and have some fun. This isn't like you to be such a stick in the mud."

"Lucy, please."

"Come on, you can't actually be this upset! You're Natsu!"

"Lucy, please." Shocked at the discrepancy between normal Natsu and Natsu now, Lucy tacitly walked back to her table, where Erza was now whimpering incoherently about strawberry cake over an empty plate. Maybe he just needs some alone time, she thought, still feeling that Natsu wanting to be alone was too foreign to be a reality.

Meanwhile, Natsu was still silently scanning the crowd of people. The jerk has to be here somewhere, he thought to himself. He must be just as messed up as I am right now. He eventually spotted the mop of jet-black hair he was searching for, but sporting a broad smile and having the time of his life. Natsu couldn't even take solace in the fact that his rival was in the same boat as he was, which made the pinket all the more despondent. Why do I care? Natsu thought. The guy gets on my every nerve anyway. Screw him if he's happy. Right? He bit his lip in emotional contemplation, his heart racing and every muscle slowly becoming transfixed.

With the most inopportune timing, the DJ started playing a song that threw all the teenagers back to their middle school years: "Animal" by Neon Trees. Natsu bit his lip harder, not sure if he was about to scream or cry. All he knew was that all of his insides were doing acrobatics and all of his muscles were tense, threatening to unleash something at any moment. This wasn't aided by the lyrics blaring throughout the room:

"Oh, oh, I want some more," the song taunted, reverberating in his head.

"What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Say goodbye to my heart tonight."

Natsu was physically shaking at this point. Without warning, he darted from his fixed position and clumsily weaved through the crowd of people, making his way to the sliding glass door at the opposite end of the room. When he finally reached it after several bumps and collisions, he darted through it in a panic into the dark of the night. After he'd run halfway through the Dreyars' backyard, his legs gave way and he fell to his knees. With shaky arms and breath, he instinctively reached into his pockets. Finding a crumpled paper in one and a familiar metal box in the other, he took them out and drew them in front of his face. After fumbling with the latter for a second, he eventually heard a small spark go off and beheld a yellow flame dancing in front of his eyes. He could already feel his muscles starting to relax as he coaxed the paper closer. Entranced, he felt the clenching feeling of pain being replaced with that of pleasure as the flame jumped onto the paper and began consuming it. The paper curled and charred as the flame waved in front of his eyes, growing ever taller as the smoke spiralled around its edge, and the pinket closed his eyes in a wave of relief and bliss. He stayed like this for a moment, feeling the warmth pulse around his fingers, until a voice startled him from behind.

"What the hell are you doing!?" the voice of Gray Fullbuster demanded behind the boy.

Natsu jumped as he snapped his eyes open. He stared at the now half-burned paper, but couldn't bring himself to look at the figure looming behind him. Nonetheless, he devolved into a fit of whimpering and hyperventilating as he doubled over in agony.

His inquirer took a step back in shock. Is Natsu Dragneel really on the verge of crying? In front of me, no less? With uncharacteristic compassion for his rival that shocked Gray himself, he awkwardly shuffled over to the boy hyperventilating over a lighter and put his hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay," he reassured in a low tone, bending down to Natsu's level. "Everything is going to be okay."

"No it won't," Natsu managed to choke out in between labored breaths. "There's so much more I could've done…" The painful admission finally made the boy begin to sob.

"There, there," Gray murmured with a twinge of nervousness, putting both of his arms around the pinket in a panicked attempt to comfort him.

"And now you know I'm a fuckin' pyro," Natsu sputtered bitterly, trying to break himself from the arms around him. Gray perked up at the mention of this, noticing that the paper had sagged to the ground and was now spreading the fire to the grass. He hurriedly got up and ran around Natsu, proceeding to stamp out the fire in a frenzy. Having accomplished this, he bent down again, facing Natsu.

"You probably hate me even more now, right?" the pinket whimpered, head still bent in shame.

"I don't hate you," Gray soothed, putting his hand on Natsu's kneecap. "What more did you want to do that's bothering you so much?" Natsu finally looked up at this.

"I… I…" He searched, staring into Gray's eyes, his own still filled with tears.

With that, Gray knew what Natsu was struggling to realize. He'd been waiting four long years for this moment and jumped at the opportunity, now that it was here. He leaned in, brushed away his rival's tears, and let their lips touch. His lips grew hot, most likely from his own embarrassment and the wetness of Natsu's face from his warm tears, but Gray imagined that the pyro had a fire burning within him that he could feel the warmth of through his lips. After a few moments, Gray pulled back.

Natsu's facial expressions contorted to a comic degree, shifting between joy, anger, disgust, and awe. Gray couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked with as much false confidence as he could muster, hoping he wouldn't live to regret what he'd just done.

Natsu's face finally settled on a blank expression with pursed lips, cheeks quickly starting to flush.

"Well… it's a start," he mused carefully, giving a sheepish smile, a lone tear still travelling down his face.

"Come here, flame-brain," Gray said endearingly. Natsu barely had time to roll his eyes before he was tackled by his enemy, and he at last felt a new, more comforting warmth pulse around his fingers.

It took four years, but there was finally nothing left that the two were waiting for.