Changes (GraTsu Fanfic)

.: Chapter 5 :.

Natsu had slept on the corridor floor all night, after banging on Gray's door until about 2 in the morning, screaming curses and trying to get it. Unfortunately for him, Gray had headphones in the drown out the sound. He suddenly went silent as he collapsed due to fatigue.

Getting out of bed, the ice wizard went to his on suite and went through his morning routine - he did this all before he remembered his and Natsu punishment. He let out an irritated groan and went to make himself breakfast, only to find himself tripping over something....a body.....Natsu's body.

Alarm ran through the ice-mage for a second as he waited for Natsu to breathe, and for a minute he didn't. Gray, crouched next to Natsu, trying to shake him awake.

"Get up, baka!" He growled. It was right at this moment that Natsu decided to attempt to beat the world record for loudest snore. The penguin could have sworn the house shook. He face-palmed and kicked him awake, a little harder then he intended as he drew a helpless whine of pain out of the Pyro.

"Good morning, Luce...........GRAY?!" He yelled, sitting straight up and colliding his forehead with his rival's. "Did you switch bodies with Lucy again?!"

"You've already forgotten about the punishment, haven't you?" Gray said in a dead-pan tone.

"The punishment? THE PUNISHMENT!" Natsu yelled in realization. He looked like he was prepared to strangle the Ice-mage. "I knew you were cruel, but making me sleep in the hall all night?"

"It's not my fault you're such a persistent baka!" Gray snapped back. "And you could've slept in the other room!"

"I've already told you, that room gives me the creeps!!" Natsu snapped.

"Then sleep on the couch!!" Gray yelled.

"I didn't think of that!!!!!!!" The Pyro growled. "Now make me breakfast!"

"Why should I?" Gray asked with a growl.

"Well, you did make me sleep in the hallway all night."

"That wasn't my fault!" The Ice-boy repeated himself, louder this time.

"Gray." Natsu began in a gentle tone, surprising the ice-wizard.

"What?" Gray replied.

"Clothes?" He smirked as the Penguin glanced down to find himself in his underwear.

"CRAP!" He growled, running to around to find his clothes.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The smoke alarm yelled down Gray's ears, causing him to let out a high pitched squeak.

"Natsu! What did you do?!" Gray screamed running into the kitchen to see the.....toaster on fire. Natsu turned around, his eyes widening as the flame began to spread.

"Crap!" Natsu hissed, rushing to it to eat the flame. Gray sprinted to open the window to stop that ear-splitting alarm.

The two wizards collapsed on the floor, leaning against each other's back, trying to calm down after the miniature panic.

"I'm cooking from now on." Gray instructed....no reply...."Dammit Natsu!" He turned his head, to see Natsu sleeping and snuggling into his back. As the ice-wizard moved, the fire one mumbled in his sleep and tightened his grip on the Penguin. "God dammit Natsu." He growled, turning around completely which caused Natsu head to fall and hit the wooden floor.

"Oops! Sorry Natsu." He apologized to the wincing mage. Analyzing his situation, he decided to put Natsu to bed since he probably had a horrible sleep last night - besides when he woke up he might be less annoying then normal. Maybe?

He lifted his rival's head off the ground and hoisted him into a bridal position before walking up the stairs and down the hall to the comfortable bedroom and placing Natsu on top of the covers.

"You owe me for this." Gray growled before turning around and going to make himself breakfast.

Natsu woke up around 3 o'clock after a 4 hour nap, he found himself in the nice bedroom with a plate of toast and eggs on the table - it was probably cold now but it was the thought that counts. Did Gray do this for him? Ha! Yeah right, Gray didn't give a damn about what happened to him. After all they were rivals. At most a fierce brother-relationship. They weren't friends. But they weren't enemies...well I guess they were but compared to people like the Phantom Lord, Gray was just a rival.

Frenemies then?

He got up and went downstairs to find Gray reading some sort of book on the couch. It was the quietest Natsu had ever seen the ice-mage since they got here.

"This place is too quiet without you blowing your fuse at me." Gray chuckled.

"Ummm.......Aye?" Natsu replied with uncertainty. "Thanks for the eggs on toast by the way...."

Shrugging, Gray put the book down and turned towards him.

"W-what?" He asked as Gray stared at him in a daze.

"Well, if we wanna go home next week then we're gonna have to convince Erza that we can get along. I don't wanna be here anymore then you do, so let's try and get along so we can leave sooner." Gray explained what he had realised during Natsu's nap.

"Okay, I'll try." Natsu agreed. "I'm going for a walk outside." He turned towards the door, only to feel a presence behind him. He turned around and jumped as Gray had basically teleported from on the couch to right behind him in the span of half a second.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, calming down.

"Got nothing else to do, might as well join you." Gray shrugged.

"Okay, what's wrong?" The Pyro asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you normally don't want anything to do with me unless Erza forces us to." Natsu pointed out.

"W...Well.....It's nothing." Gray replied uncertainly, there was a bit of a shudder in his voice.

"You sure?" Natsu asked.

"If we're gonna convince Erza then we might as well try to get along." Gray replied, his confidence back.

"Fine." Natsu gave up. There was definitely something Gray was hiding, he seemed almost scared - this concerned the Pyro because normally Gray would swallow his fear due to his pride. The only time he had seen Gray act frightened was on Galuna Island. Something was wrong. Maybe if he and Gray became friendly enough, Gray would open up to him?

Woop! First original chapter, I really like the idea I came up with for this story and since I'm on break I wanna be able to publish frequently!

See you at the next update!

~ Gale / Graci / Jaci