Bite Me

1.

Gray would never call Natsu his best friend, even if by all descriptions he was. They had been at each other's throats since the day Natsu joined Fairy Tail. Had they been older the Guild was big enough they could have avoided each other if they really wanted to, however since there weren't many options of partners around their age more often or not they ended up out on jobs together.

It was hard to truly hate someone when you saved each other's lives on a regular basis. Especially if that person was really quite cool. Not that Gray would ever say that out loud. He'd never hear the end of it.

It was after a joint mission with Natsu that had gone slightly wrong ("They said there was only one ogre. One!") but worked out fine in the end that they made their way back to Magnolia, mostly too tired out to fight, that they had one of their few (unsupervised) mostly-civilised discussions.

"We were so awesome," Natsu announced as they walked along.

"I can't believe we stopped so many ogres," Gray said, stretching out his arm. "I ache all over."

"That's because I'm even more awesome than you."

"Are not."

"Are too. I totally saved your life back there."

"I saved your life more."

"Did not."

"Did too. There was the time the ogre had you trapped, the time the other one was about to club you, and then there was the one that was about to fall on you."

"That last one was your fault. And anyway, I stopped one of them from eating you so I definitely won."

Gray considered this. He didn't want to lose to Natsu but being eaten would have been unpleasant. "How about we're even?"

"Okay. But next time I will be more awesome than you."

"I'm definitely going to beat you."

"But this time we're even?"

"Yeh. Besides, it was because of those villagers we even had to deal with so many ogres in the first place. If it was just one, I would have stopped it first."

"Those villagers sucked," Natsu growled.

"Yeh," Gray agreed forcefully. "Who the hell lies about how many ogres they need taking out?"

"I know! And they didn't even pay us any extra."

"Greedy bastards," they say in unison. They laugh. Then they meet each other's eyes and fall awkwardly silent. It feels odd not to be fighting.

"Hey, Gray?" Natsu says.

"What?"

"When we're older, I'm going to bite you."

Gray blinked. It was an odd threat but Natsu was odd. Gray snorted. "Yeh right. Like I'd let you bite me."

Natsu puffed his cheeks out and stomped ahead in a huff.

Gray shook his head. He really didn't get Natsu sometimes.

2.

Gray didn't know how it happened. One minute he had been on a job with Natsu, going through documents in an old office in order to retrieve a copy of their client's father's will. The next Natsu had pushed him under the table.

"What are y-"

Natsu slapped a hand over his mouth. "Shh…"

A second later the door opened and two pairs of legs walked in. "Do you know where it is?" a vaguely familiar voice asked. After a second Gray placed it as Annette, their client's stepmother and the woman who had inherited the whole of her husband's estate.

"I'm not sure. Anton wasn't exactly in a sharing mood before he died." Gray didn't recognise this voice but he did recognise the name. Anton had been the solicitor holding a copy of the father's will. He'd died under suspicious circumstances.

"He suspected," Annette said quietly, searching through the same files he and Natsu had been. "Like Roger." The woman's voice cracked.

"And I fixed that. All we need is your husband's will and no one will ever know."

A sort of delayed horror rose up in him. He met Natsu's eyes and realised that the other boy had realised it too. Their client had though that Annette had simply switched the real will out. This though, was starting to sound a lot like murder.

The man suddenly shoved files in the air and he and Natsu backed up against the wall as papers fluttered to the floor.

"IT'S NOT HERE!" the man roared.

The air filled with silence. Gray swallowed. His eyes darted down to the rolled up will in his hand he had managed to find seconds before Natsu shoved him. His heart beat faster and he could hear every pump of his blood rushing through his ears.

"This," Annette started, "This is a good thing. The will is gone. Nobody's going to find it."

Annette gasped as the man slammed her against the wall by the throat. "We need that will."

"Cl-Claude," Annette choked, struggling against the man.

He didn't even need to look at Natsu to agree on their next course of action. They burst out from under the table in an explosion of fire and ice. It was almost effortless to take down Claude, despite the way his body was corded with muscles.

Once Claude was unconscious, Annette collapsed to the floor in tears and the whole story came tumbling out of her in guilt and distress.

Claude was her brother and her only living family. For years he had bullied her in taking part of his scans and cons. When he mentioned marrying her off to a wealthy widower, she had protested at first but eventually gave in to his wishes. However once she met Roger, she had been surprised to find herself falling deeply in love with the man. She had been happy for a while, even if Claude came and went from her home, slyly taking her husband's riches.

When Roger had found out what Claude was doing, he had thrown the man out of his house. Annette had felt relieved to be free of her brother, at least until her husband suddenly died and she inherited everything. She thought it all a tragic accident until Claude turned up, asking her to transfer the money over to him.

She'd wanted to say something but Claude had threatened to take her down with him and was made to help cover his tracks.

"I loved him so much," she cried, and Gray couldn't quite tell which man she was talking about.

He and Natsu left Annette and Claude with the local Rune Knights, along the real will.

Gray finished the job with an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. "Hey, Natsu?"

"What?"

"Do you think Annette really loved Roger?" It bothered him that she could help the man that killed her husband.

"I don't know. If I loved someone, I'd never let anyone hurt them."

"I guess. She married him after all."

Natsu snorted. "Marriage doesn't mean anything."

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too. One day I'll definitely get married," Gray claimed. "What will you?"

"I'll bite you."

Gray tackled Natsu. "I wouldn't let you."

They wrestled in the dirt until they finally collapsed with wide grins on their faces.

3.

Gray looked down at the local newspaper in his hands he'd picked up on his latest mission and wondered whether he really should do this. It wasn't that he didn't believe Natsu about his past (he was at least 80% certain the other boy was telling the truth) but he wasn't sure how he felt about the way Natsu clung to the hope of finding Igneel. He was even less sure how he felt about what could happen if Natsu did find Igneel. Because once he did, he'd have no reason to stay at Fairy Tail, would he?

He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. "Hey, Lisanna," he called, "You seen the idiot anywhere?"

"Natsu went out fishing with Happy. They should be back soon," the girl smiled.

Gray nodded and found somewhere to sit in the guild whilst he waited for Natsu. The longer it took for the other boy to arrive, the more irritated Gray became. He was trying to do something nice for Natsu and the idiot couldn't even be bothered to arrive.

He rested his head on the table and scowled.

"Natsu," he muttered angrily, as heavy eyelids dropped down.

Something shoved him. He blinked up tiredly. Black eyes blinked down at him and a face surrounded by pink hair illuminated by the evening light came into focus.

"Oi. Lisanna said you wanted to talk to me."

The irritation came back in an instant. Gray had been waiting all day. "Here," he said shoving the newspaper into Natsu's hands.

"What's this for?"

"I got it on a mission. There's an article in there. Some guy says he saw a dragon." He pushed away from the table and started to walk off.

Natsu caught his wrist.

"Thank you."

Gray stubbornly fought a blush down. "Whatever. I'm going now."

He made it to the door before Natsu called out behind him. "I'm definitely going to bite you one day!"

"Bastard!" Gray shouted back. "See if I ever do anything nice for you again." He made sure to slam the guild door on the way out.

4.

Gray stalked through the drizzle with a lump in his throat. He wasn't sure why Happy came to him to ask for help but he couldn't turn the blue cat down when he begged with tears in his eyes to get Natsu to come home.

He was going to pound Natsu into the earth for making Happy cry.

Well at least he was until he found Natsu sat out in the cold by Lisanna's second grave, the one by the little grass house they made together whilst waiting for Happy to hatch.

Gray stopped just behind Natsu and waited. Eventually the dragon slayer looked up over his shoulder with a tearstained face.

"Gray… Why'd she have to die, Gray?"

Gray's own tears, the ones he'd managed to hold in the entire time, began to leak. "I don't know."

Gray found himself sitting down in the cold and wet next to Natsu and tried not to react as low cries escaped the other boy. "It's not fair. I… I- I want her back. Why'd she have to go?"

Gray's hands trembled with the grief that rose up inside him. Lisanna was gone and she wasn't coming back. And how could something like that just happen?

He choked a sob as the tears began to flow freely.

"Gray?" It was a quiet whisper, so unlike the usually lively boy.

"Yes?"

"Don't leave. Don't ever leave me alone too."

"I won't if you promise the same."

"I won't. I'm still have to bite you one day."

The familiar threat in the cold and wet broke Gray. "Not going to happen," he said, even as he reached out for Natsu's hand to ground himself. The other boy said nothing about it, even as his hand tightened around Gray's.

They stayed like that until the drizzle soaked through their clothes and left them cold and shivering.

"Natsu, it's time to go. Happy needs you."

Natsu didn't move a moment, before he gave a small nod. They stood as one and Gray waited patiently as Natsu rested one hand on the headstone and whispered goodbyes not meant for his ears.

The next day Gray laughed that the idiot managed to catch a cold from sitting outside in rain. The day after Natsu cackled manically as Gray came into the guild looking like death warmed over.

5.

Gray wasn't sure when he began to dislike Lucy but he suspected it began around the same time he never went on jobs alone with Natsu anymore.

It was difficult, seeing how fast Natsu bonded with Lucy. For a long time Gray couldn't call Natsu a friend in his own head. Even now he was more likely to argue with the other man before he did so out loud.

Lucy seemed to slide into place effortlessly by Natsu's side, as if she had always been there. Like that place hadn't once been occupied by Gray.

Gray knew he was jealous. He also knew why. He'd long accepted the fact that Natsu meant more to him than just a friend. They fought and bickered and squabbled and Gray wouldn't have it any other way. They challenged each other to be better.

And now Gray felt like he was being replaced.

It was pathetic but Gray decided he didn't care and went to sit at the bar with a beer and mope about it. He was there maybe half an hour before a familiar presence slipped into the seat beside him.

"What do you want?"

"Lucy's a good friend," Natsu said, cutting straight to the heart of the matter. He didn't even need to ask what was wrong.

It kind of sucked that Natsu knew him so well.

"I guess she is," Gray said, trying to keep his face blank. Natsu may be able to tell that his issue is with Lucy but the other man probably doesn't know what the issue is and Gray isn't too keen on enlightening him any time soon.

"She's special," Natsu says. It's like an arrow to the heart. Gray grips the beer mug a little tighter. "I've never had a friend like Lucy… Every moment around her is full of warmth, even the sad ones."

Natsu just had to dig the arrow in deeper.

"But you know what," Natsu continued, "that doesn't mean that you aren't important and special to me too. You're still the one I'm going to bite one day."

A small, soft smile creeps up the corners of his mouth. The threat is about as old as their friendship but somehow it eases all his concerns. "You can try."

Gray wonders at the way Natsu's eyes shine happily. The majority of the time he responds to that particular threat, Natsu will end up getting huffy for some reason that only makes sense in his own brain.

A moment later though it doesn't matter. Because somehow or other they end up sitting close enough that their arms are brushed together.

The companionable silence lasts nearly an hour before they start bickering again in an argument that soon expands into guildwide brawl.

They still set out for a job alone the next day though.

+ the time with Wendy and Gajeeel

Gray isn't sure how the argument starts but the tone of it quickly becomes something far different to his usual fights with Natsu. They snap and bite at each other's weak spots. The vicious tone is enough to catch the attention of the rest of their guildmates in the area.

"If I'm such a bastard," Gray was shouting, "then why do you even bother hanging around!"

Natsu pulls himself up to full height and points a finger at Gray. "I'M STILL GOING TO BITE YOU ONE DAY!" he shouted over the guild.

Behind him he hears someone take a sharp breath in and across the room even Gajeel focused sharp eyes on their argument.

"There's no way I'd ever let you bite me," Gray snaps venomously. Gray had had enough of it. Every time Gray thought he was getting closer to Natsu, the idiot broke the mood with threats of violence. He was through.

'Hear that,' he told his heart, 'We're done with this idiot.'

His heart does not agree apparently. It aches painfully when Natsu's face closes in on itself, cutting off what he's truly feeling from Gray. "Fine," Natsu growls angrily, before storming off.

Natsu's never left in the middle of a real argument (the kind that matters) with Gray before. They'd tear each other to shreds before they leave things unsaid. There's a guilty pit deep down in his stomach that says whatever that caused Natsu to react like that is his fault. But that pit is deep, deep down and Gray isn't feeling particularly considerate.

Gray opens his mouth to rant about Natsu but is cut off.

By Wendy bursting into tears.

Everyone in the guild turns to the littlest dragon slayer, who is staring after Natsu looking devastated.

"Wendy?" Charle asked in concern.

The girl shakes her head and sobs harder.

Just as everyone starts to feel alarmed for the girl, Gajeel speaks up from the other side of the room. "That," he told Gray, "was beyond cruel."

Gray's emotions are already at a high, so Gajeel's words only irritate him further. "So I'm just supposed to go along with it?"

Gajeel shrugs. "To be honest I thought you had already but you still should have been nicer about rejecting him."

"Poor Natsu," Wendy sobbed.

Gray felt uncomfortably like he was missing something. "Why the hell would I have let him bite me?"

Gajeel looks at him like he's an idiot. "Because it's instinct?"

"Not following."

Now Gajeel looks at him like he's crazy. "How can you not get it? A Biting a Biting."

There were definitely capital letters there. "What are you talking about?"

Gajeel stares at him a moment before surprise flitters over his face. "You really don't get what I'm talking about do you?"

"You don't?" Wendy asks, sounding hopeful.

"No."

Gajeel swallows, looking around the room. "None of you do?"

"But it's Biting," Wendy said in disbelief. "How can they not know about Biting? Don't they feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"Instincts. The call," Gajeel tries to explain, struggling to find words to give meaning to what he was trying to explain. He looks almost in shock that none of them know what he's talking about.

"Perhaps," Erza said stepping in, "this is a dragon slayer thing?"

"You really don't feel it?" Wendy asked, sounding a little broken up. "But how do you know who you're supposed to Bite?"

"I'm not sure what you talking about. What does 'Biting' mean to you?"

Wendy covered her mouth and Gajeel looked across everyone in the room almost pityingly. "When you find the one your instincts call you to and you feel you are ready, Biting creates the final lasting bond between you."

"Wait," Laxus burst out from behind Gray. "That's what the feeling is?" His eyes darted over to another guildmate, before his face flushed scarlet as he realised what he said.

Wendy smiled, apparently more at ease knowing that at least Laxus felt what they were talking about.

Gray's heart skipped a beat as he processed what Gajeel had told them. "You're telling me that "Biting" is some dragon slayer equivalent of marriage."

Wendy sniffled and shook her head. "Marriage is temporary," she says in the way Natsu said that marriage was worthless years ago. It sounds odd coming from Wendy and even odder to see Gajeel nodding along like she was telling some undisputable truth. "With Biting there's no parting at death. Biting is claiming someone as your Soul Mate, it binds you together in this life and all lives after."

Gray swallowed, as memories years of Natsu threatening to bite him came to the surface. All this time Natsu had been asking something that was more than marriage of him. Each time Gray rejected him and each time Natsu came back. Natsu didn't give up on him.

Except he had now, hadn't he? With this new context, Gray felt sickened at how unbelievably cruel he had been.

"I've got to…" he trailed off, unable to find the words. "Natsu…" he tried explaining again but the words still failed him.

Luckily his guilldmates seemed to understand and cleared away. Gray ran through the town until he was knocking at Natsu's door. The longer he knocked without a response the more frustrated he became.

"Open the damn door, Natsu!"

"Go away."

'That's it', Gray decided and promptly knocked down the door and walked in.

Natsu was in the hammock, rolled facing away from him. "I told you to go away. You made your point."

"I don't listen to idiots who don't explain what Biting is."

"Huh?"

"You're an idiot. If we had something like Biting, then why would we have marriage?" He kind of got that distain now. If you could feel your soulmate and had Biting to make that commitment to them, then marriage must seem like a weak sham in comparison.

"Huh?" Natsu repeated, but had rolled over so he was facing Gray.

"I said that you're the one who stupidly didn't explain what Biting was."

Natsu looked puzzled. "Biting is Biting," he echoed Gajeel.

Gray understood in that moment that whatever Biting meant to the dragon slayers, it was something so ingrained in them that they couldn't comprehend that it needed explaining to someone else. It was like saying the sun was in the sky or the sea was wet. It was just something fundamentally understood.

Gray rolled his eyes and reached over to the hammock tugging it at an angle so Natsu fell out.

Natsu got to his feet. "What the hell, you bastard," he growled, into Gray's face.

Gray just smirked and tugged Natsu just that little bit closer into a kiss. For a second Natsu was motionless in shock. Once he responded the kiss was like everything Gray had imagined. Like everything else between them, it pretty quickly turned into a rough fight for dominance. One that he didn't want to pull away from but had to in the end.

"What is this?" Natsu asked with heavy breaths. He sounded so vulnerable. Like a nasty trick was about to be revealed.

"This is me asking you to bite me."

"Really?"

Gray nodded. He may not know exactly what Biting was but that didn't mean he didn't know that they weren't meant for each other. They had been side by side for years, Gray didn't need dragon instincts to tell him how much he loved Natsu.

Natsu smiled gently and placed a hand on Gray's face. "I've wanted this."

"And I want it too."

Natsu's lips brushed the underside of his jaw and made their way down to the junction of his neck. He kissed Gray there in brief apology to the skin, before biting down hard enough to draw blood.

Gray didn't notice though. Awareness he hadn't known before bloomed into being. And that was Natsu, Natsu's soul he was feeling. It felt like Natsu, like a fire at the back of his mind. It wasn't large enough to be distracting like a bonfire or even a fireplace. It was like a single candle, keeping shadows at bay. He could feel where the pieces of his own soul fit against Natsu's and where the Biting bound them together.

Gray didn't even realise he was crying until Natsu wiped the tears away. "This is what you wanted with me all along?"

"Yes."

Gray thought he might be the idiot after all.

"Hey," Natsu grinned, "I told you I would bite you one day. I win."

Natsu was wrong about that. Gray was definitely the winner here.

The End