I do not own Fairy Tail

Natsu couldn't see or feel anything except for an excruciating throb in his temple. It felt like his brain was attempting to tear itself in two and pushed painfully against the sides of his skull. He slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself staring at a blank white ceiling. With great effort he moved his eyes and tilted his head to take in a bland hospital waiting room.

"Not again!" the boy groaned hoarsely. Natsu moved back to lay straight on his hospital bed, trying to block out the harsh lights of the room by squinting his eyes shut. This was now the second time in less than a week that he had woken up injured in an infirmary bed.

The dragon slayer stayed motionless, trying to fall back asleep so as not to feel his migraine anymore, but the sound of a door squeaking open snapped him out of his semi-conscious state. He turned his head and half opened his eyes to take in dark scarlet hair.

"Hey Erza" he greeted with a tired grin.

"Natsu" she acknowledged, nodding. Erza walked up to his bedside and crossed her arms.

"What happened? I have the worst headache ever!" Natsu complained, finally moving his body to bring a hand up to massage his temples.

"I was hoping you could tell me" she replied.

Natsu gave her a confused look and then stared at the ceiling trying to remember what exactly landed him in a hospital bed.

"Well.. I remember walking through the forest, and fighting with Gray a little, and then….oh and then these stupid hooded guys came from nowhere! And then we started fightin' em like usual!" Natsu rubbed his forehead as he slowly started remembering the battle. "And then…" his mind flashed to purple fire, a scream in the distance, Gray on the-"Gray!" Natsu gasped and bolted up, ignoring the searing pain in his head, "Where's Gray!?"

Erza who had been taken aback by the sudden outburst shook her head and lept to action, pinning Natsu's arms back to the bed and yelling at him "Calm down Natsu! Gray is fine! He's fine!" Natsu struggled against her grip yelling his need to see Gray. Erza, impatient with his behavior slapped him across the face and Natsu froze, looking at her with wide eyes.

"That's enough Natsu! Gray is fine, I was just with him a few minutes ago and he's only mildly hurt, he'll be okay." Erza forced him to hold her gaze and feel her sincerity before he breathed deeply and sank back into his bed, exhausted. "Good. Now do you remember anything after Gray getting hurt?"

Natsu squinted his eyes, trying desperately to recall the events after him getting to Gray but all he got was a throbbing pulse in his head at the attempt and he groaned in pain.

"No. I don't remember anything," he breathed out sharply, "just hurts a lot.." He kept his eyes shut but heard Erza moving away for a second before tapping his shoulder. He slowly opened one eye in question and his vision was met with a hand holding a glass of water and a small tablet.

"Here take this" the requip mage said softly, transferring the water and medicine into Natsu's hands. He sat up and threw the pill in his mouth before washing it down with a large gulp of water. He stared at the glass and furrowed his brow, his mind a mess of confused thoughts.

"You went berserk," Erza voiced, breaking through his thoughts. His head snapped up and looked at her with narrowed eyes. She met his gaze, clearly searching for answers that weren't there, or were at least incredibly hidden. "I didn't see much" she continued, "but what I did see was cause for concern. You looked..animalistic in a way, and let out a dragon slayer's roar that wiped out everything in sight before you passed out in the clearing. I didn't see much, just a lot of fire. It was pretty intense."

Natsu looked down in bewilderment at the hands resting in his lap. He then looked back at Erza with a confused gaze. "I really don't remember any of that…" The two continued to stare at the other for a couple moments before Erza turned abruptly around.

"Well Gray is stable and should be awake any moment. That medication should be helping with your own pain, let's go meet with the others and hopefully get going so we can return to Fairy Tail. Her boots clomped on the floor as she walked confidently out of the room. Natsu shook his head and slowly rose out of his bed to follow. His weak legs took a couple staggering steps before he regained his balance and walked out the door. He turned his head and saw the requip mage walking into another room a few doors down, so he followed her and pushed the door to the room open.

Upon entering the identical hospital room, he was bombarded with greetings from the rest of his team. Gajeel was making fun of him, the girls and Happy concerned, but he didn't notice any of it. He ran to the side of the hospital bed in the middle of the room and threw his head onto the chest of the unconscious body lying on top of it.

Thump thump...Thump thump...

Natsu sighed in relief and relaxed on top of Gray's chest, reassured by the steady beating of his heart.

The rest of the room quieted down in confusion and observed the dragon slayer's strange behavior. He stayed there, breathing in time with ice mage.

"So Erza, what exactly….?" Lucy trailed off.

"He doesn't know," the requip mage replied, "It seems like he blacked out after he saw Gray was hurt."

The group remained silent, eyes trained on the pair in the middle of the small room. Suddenly the entire group jumped when Natsu's head shot up. He slowly brought his face close to the ice mage's, and stayed focused on the ice mage's face. After a couple of awkward moments, Gajeel cleared his throat.

"Uhhhh what the hell are you doing Pinky?" the iron dragon slayer asked.

"...he's waking up," Natsu replied, not moving an inch and completely oblivious to the group's confusion at his odd behavior. The other mages watched in anticipation and surely enough, Gray's eyes began twitching and slowly flickered open. His eyes cleared as he took in his surroundings and upon registering Natsu's face only inches from his own, the group watched his eyes widen.

"AHHHHHHHH!" The entire group panicked as the heard Gray let out a scream of terror and thrash around, pushing Natsu away and landing unceremoniously on the ground.

Gray felt like he was stuck in an eternal nightmare. He breathed heavily as he ran through a foggy, fire-ridden forrest. The flames seemed to be magnetically attracted to him, licking his bare skin and burning every inch of his body. He was running, running from a monster. He had seen if briefly, poking its horn-covered head through the fog and grinning sadistically at him. He knew if it caught him he would be done for, so he ran and ran and ran. His legs were exhausted, quickly running out of strength. Hey yelped as his foot caught on a branch protruding from the forest floor. He tumbled to the ground, pressure in his chest from breathing heavily. He tried to get up but found his legs no longer were capable of holding his weight, and he fell back into the dirt, lying on his back in an attempt to breathe.

A deep and menacing chuckle came out of the bushes beside him and he looked over in fear.

"Well hey there Gray, nice to finally catch up with ya. That was a fun game of tag" a figure walked out of the forrest with a menacing smirk on its face. Gray tried desperately to stand back up, but the figure pounced out of the surrounding foliage and tackled the ice mage back to the round. He grunted as his back hit the dirt hard and his arms were held down by sharp, clawed fingers. Spots danced across his vision as he tried to make out the face of the being now straddling his torso.

"Not so fast Gray," the creature said, tsking playfully, "you're not going 're mine."

Gray struggled as the monster's face got closer to his own, and gasped as he recognized the pink hair, split by strange curved horns, and the narrow black eyes. He had seen them before, in a memory he couldn't quite recall. The demon-man grinned widely and brought his lips to Gray's ear,

"You're it."

Gray slowly regained consciousness and was relieved that the heat from his now-fading nightmare was no longer biting his skin. His eyes fluttered open, and slowly adjusted to the bright light invading them. As a face started coming into view his heart rate spiked and he began to panic. When his vision cleared, he screamed, the face of his nightmares, still there in front of him. He thrashed out and pushed the monster away, rolling over. He groaned as he fell farther than expected onto an incredibly hard tiled floor. His legs burned and his entire body ached as he attempted to sit back up. An arm grabbed his own and Gray looked up, afraid it would be the demon-man again but relieved to see a familiar blonde celestial mage offering her assistance and looking at him concernedly.

"Gray are you okay?!" Lucy asked. Gray grunted and attempted to rise.

"Yeah I'm good.." he replied, pulling himself painfully to his feet using Lucy and the hospital bed as aid to stand, "what the hell happened? Why am I in the hospital?" He rubbed his temple and took a deep breath, looking around the room after he was fully upright. His gaze flickered to each member of his team and landed finally on a certain fire mage.

Gray's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Natsu.. The demon from my dreams… they're so similar..it can't be… Gray's eyes suddenly widened as his memories from the battle before flashed back to him.

Fire suppressing fire on his legs, his friend's pupils consuming his eyes horns growing out of his scalp…

I must be going crazy…Gray unknowingly backed up and jumped when his back hit the wall. Natsu looked at him in dejection and concern, confused by his behavior.

"I remember.." he whispered to himself and trailed off. Gray took a hesitant step toward the hot-headed dragon slayer, eyes wide and unblinking. Natsu, confused just stood there, unsure of what to do. Gray stopped in front of him, and raised a hand slowly to his rival's head. Gray's fingers sifted through soft pink hair and he paused at the top of his head, feeling for horns that were no longer there. When he was satisfied that all traces of the strange demonic Natsu were gone he stepped back and let his hand fall to his side.

The boys held each others' gaze and jumped when a throat cleared across the room.

"Well if you two are done getting romantically lost in each others' eyes," a rough voice of an iron dragon slayer interrupted, "I would like to get back to Fairy Tail so I can get my beauty sleep too." Gajeel rolled his eyes and walked out the door.

"Hey watch what you're saying Metal Head!" Natsu shouted in anger, snapped out of his reverie. He stormed after the other dragon slayer. "You get back here and fight me, you bastard!" The rest of the team followed Natsu out the door, Gray and Erza being left behind. Erza was quiet a moment before addressing her companion.

"What was that, Gray?" she asked. The ice mage continued staring at the door, lost in thought.

"Natsu… When he saved me from the purple fire.. He looked..well he looked.."

"He looked what?"

Gray paused and met Erza's eyes, expressing confusion but certainty. "Not human. But not dragon either. That was not our Natsu." Gray turned back to the door and left Erza in the hospital room, lost in thought and puzzled by Gray's words.

The ride back to Magnolia was quiet and tense. Everyone was exhausted and grumpy, as well as confused by the proceedings of the mission. Gray stared out his window as he absently pet Natsu's hair again. He had tried getting out of being Natsu's caretaker but the dragon slayed wouldn't stop asking and he didn't want to be thrown up on so he figured it would be the lesser of two evils.

When they arrived, Gray carried an unconscious Natsu out of the train. He tried to wake the fire mage but he wouldn't budge and inch, refusing to wake up even when Gray violently shook him. Gray growled in frustration and mumbled under his breath about idiot dragon slayers who could fall asleep anywhere.

"Oi! Erza! Take Natsu back to the guild, I wanna go home!" Gray shouted at his companion.

Erza turned to him grumpily and glared. "I'm going straight home, have someone else do it, I'm going to sleep." Erza promptly turned away and started walking toward the guild.

"But your place is practically next door the guild hall!" Gray yelled after her.

The requip mage stopped and Gray saw her shoulders tighten before her head snapped around. The glare she gave Gray could have shot lasers into his soul and Gray felt a shudder run through his entire body. He stuck his hands out in defense and backed up a few steps.

"Ya know what? Ha ha nevermind Erza, you just go get some nice rest now and I'll take care of it. Everything's all good over here, no need to stay! Ha. Haha. Ha." Gray chuckled nervously, praying he wouldn't be destroyed by the mighty Titania. Thankfully, she turned away and trudged on. Gray sighed in relief and turned to Lucy.

"How bout you Lucy? Can you take him? Please?"

Lucy frowned. "I'm going straight home too and he's been staying at my place every day for the last month, so no thanks." She took Happy, who had fallen asleep on her head, and cradled him in her arms. "I'll take Happy with me but it's up to you to get him to the guild or get him home."

Gray groaned and ran a hand through his hair in annoyance.

"How about you Gaj-" he stopped when he realized Gajeel and Levy were nowhere in sight. "Agh! Why me?!"

Gray walked to Natsu's side and picked him up bridal style, grunting under the heavy weight and grumbling under his breath.

"Stupid dragon slayers and their stupid heavy ass bodies and stupid sleeping." he mumbled under his breath, now also grumpy. "I mean why do I have to be his personal nurse all of the sudden anyway, this is ridiculous..." Gray adjusted the weight in his arms and continued on, smirking when Natsu made a sound of protest in his sleep about being jostled around.

Well, I could take him to the guild, but that's really far from my place, and I'm dead tired. His place is even farther away so no thanks. I could just take him to my place...Gray sighed in defeat. Yay… He looked up to the night sky while he trekked through the empty streets of Magnolia. He suddenly remembered a song Ur used to sing, and began humming quietly as he walked. It was a song she used to sing to him and Leon on clear nights where you could see the stars, just like the one he was observing now. He didn't remember the words anymore, but Gray could remember how happy he felt when she would sing, and that this particular song was about always being able to find your way when you got lost, no matter where you were. He had dealt with feeling lost a lot as a kid, not knowing where life was going or why he was even bothering to try.

Gray looked at the mage in his arm and smiled subtly. I guess I know why I keep going now.. Even though this guy is annoying as hell, I've found a place to belong.. Even if we fight all the time, it gives me something to look forward to, something to fight for. I never really had that before.. Natsu let out a snore and Gray rolled his eyes. But yeah, annoying as hell. He frowned, And now i have to carry this guy all the way home, stupid Fire Breath…

Gray had never been happier to see his apartment in his life, Natsu was getting painfully heavy and his legs were just about to give out. He pulled his keys out of his pants pocket and struggled to unlock the door with Natsu still in his arms. He finally managed to accomplish the difficult task and pushed the door open, shutting it behind him and turning on the lights.

Gray's apartment was a good sized modern home. The front door led into a hallway that immediately opened up into a decent sized living room. A kitchen was to the left of the living room, a bedroom and bathroom through a door to the right. It was almost all grey furniture in white colored rooms. Not because Gray was only into dull colors, but because the landlord of the apartment had provided furniture and he wasn't really one to care about decoration or embellishment. After all, it's just a place to sleep. Gray carried Natsu through the living room and into his bedroom before tossing the unconscious body of his rival unceremoniously onto his bed. He walked half-asleep to the bathroom to brush his teeth and then stripped to his underwear and slipped into bed next to Natsu. He attempted to cover them both with his comforter and within moments of settling down on his back, fell fast asleep.