Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima
Chapter 2: Over and Over
I feel it every day, it's all the same
It brings me down but I'm the one to blame
I've tried everything to get away
So here I go again, chasing you down again
Why do I do this?
Over and Over - Three Days Grace
Gray stood at the entrance of his house trying to figure out where to go. He very much doubted that Natsu would have taken the train, it gave him motion sickness and if he was planning on getting away he would probably evade places that would be easily reached through the train system.
Yes, the more he thought about it the more he thought that Natsu would have walked. Where would he have gone to? What place would he have felt comfortable enough to escape to? Here was the problem, Natsu walked more than any of them. He knew large parts of Fiore like the back of his hand. He knew the woods and the mountains too. Would he leave Fiore?
That thought gave Gray pause, could Natsu really leave all of them behind? He thought back to the way the Fire Dragon Slayer had been acting since the accident and with a heavy heart came to the conclusion that he very well might.
'You idiot, don't you realize we need you?' Gray thought, full of regret at how his inaction had allowed Natsu to plummet so far from his usual self , 'I need you.'
West, he would head west. There were plenty of mountains and woods and it was far away from the trains. For a moment he wondered whether he should go get Erza. He would be traveling by himself in dangerous parts of the country, ambushes were not uncommon and he would not have Natsu with him to sniff out danger. A drunk Erza was still better than nothing.
No, he'd go by himself this time. If he didn't find the Flame Brain, he would sober Erza up himself. He would start with the mountain range behind Crocus. He walked out of town worried, but refusing to believe that Natsu would even consider taking his own life.
Gray returned to Magnolia in defeat two weeks later. He looked and smelled dreadful, gaunt and sporting a full beard from having spent two weeks exploring the mountains. Food sources were scarce and there weren't many places to bathe. He went straight to the guild to get some food and walked straight into an angry looking Erza.
"How dare you?" Erza yelled at him.
Gray looked at her, tired and confused as to why she was angry with him.
"Mira, please get him some food." Erza barked at the bar maid as she grabbed Gray by the arm and shoved him into a seat at a nearby table. Gray noticed that she deliberately picked a different table from the one their team had always sat.
Once they had sat down, Erza's anger gave way to tears and all Gray could think was 'Shit! I made Erza cry. Flame Breath is going to kill me!'
But of course he wouldn't, he'd left them all behind. Too strong to be broken by the Council but too weak to ask his friends for help.
"When I snapped out of it, both you and Natsu were gone and no one knew where." Erza spoke through her tears. "I was all alone."
"I'm sorry, Erza." Gray said, debating whether he should hug the requip mage."I was trying to bring him back."
"Did you find him?" Erza asked even though she knew the answer. If Gray had found Natsu he would have brought him back, kicking and screaming if he had to.
Gray shook his head. "I'm going to go take a quick shower before Mira gets here with food."
Fifteen minutes later he returned to the table feeling much better. He ate a meal that Natsu would have been proud of and told Erza of his search. He had been ambushed several times by bandits and although he had gotten away he had been injured before he got to the mountains. He had still searched every cavern, cave, hollow tree and anywhere else he thought Natsu might have hidden. He had stopped in town and asked every vendor and everyone he could think of if they had seen Natsu, no one had.
"All of us want to bring him back, Gray. You didn't have to go out on your own." Erza chastised him but then in a softer tone admitted. "I can't lose you too."
Gray nodded at her, overwhelmed by all of the emotions the requip mage had shown since his arrival. He understood what she meant, he felt exactly the same way, He took out the map he had been using and laid it out on the table showing Erza where he had gone.
Romeo watched them from the table where he was sitting with Wendy and guilt churned inside of him. Should he tell them what he knew? Both mages looked distraught but Natsu's words echoed in his mind. This was not an emergency. He couldn't betray his friend's trust no matter how much he wanted to. He cursed at his brother figure's stubbornness but held firm. He didn't have to sit and watch though, it was bad enough to see Wendy and Happy's sad expressions every day and carry the guilt of having that letter. He excused himself and went for a walk, ending up as always at Natsu's house, in front of the Natsu & Happy sign.
o-o
For the next few weeks several search parties went out in search of Natsu, determined to bring him back. They divvied up the map and set out to find their missing mage. Each party returned empty handed. People eventually gave up. Either Natsu really didn't want to be found or he had died. Either way they had to go back to work to be able to earn enough jewel to survive. They looked at Erza and Gray with pity when the two refused to give up.
Every once in a while one of the dragon slayers would go out with them but there was no trail to follow. The dragon slayers had all followed what they could the first two weeks but there had been no trace of Natsu's magic, and human scents did not linger long. They had help from other guilds. Sting and Rogue would help out searching the areas around them whenever they had free time. To Gray's surprise Lyon and Jura had been doing the same. The reports were all the same, Natsu was nowhere to be found.
Gray had begun to notice that Romeo had been acting differently around him since Natsu had left. They had never been particularly close before but now Gray was getting the distinct feeling that the Rainbow Fire Mage was avoiding him. Romeo would wait in the guild to hear the results of the search, then stare at him and Erza with an odd expression on his face and hurry out of the guild. Gray found that decidedly strange.
He was determined to get to the bottom of the strange behavior and after he returned from his latest failure, a week in Mikage Forest, he decided to follow the young mage and have a talk with him. Natsu had already been gone for almost 2 months.
He waited for a few minutes after Romeo exited and got up to follow, dexterously avoiding Juvia's advance towards him as he made his way out the guild doors as quietly as he could manage. He caught sight of the young fire mage walking towards the path in the woods that led to Natsu's house. He wondered if the Fire Dragon Slayer had been hiding out in plain sight and for a moment his heartbeat quickened at the thought of seeing Natsu again. That had been happening a lot lately and hell if he knew what it meant.
He watched Romeo stop in front of Natsu and Happy's sign and begin to talk. He got closer so that he could hear what the fire mage was saying.
"Why did you give this to me, Natsu-nii?" Romeo spoke to the sign. "What am I supposed to do? Everyone is miserable without you. Happy doesn't smile anymore, he just sits at the guild staring at the door. Erza and Gray are miserable too, they haven't been on a job since the one where Lucy died. You trusted me but I don't know how much longer I can bear this."
"Where is he, Romeo?" Gray spoke up behind the young fire mage. Romeo jumped, he had not realized anyone had followed him.
"How would I know?" Romeo said as he rubbed his hands over his arms to warm himself up from the sudden chill that had settled into the air.
"Don't play dumb, I heard you." Gray stared at the boy, his blue eyes pleading for the truth. "At the very least you know something. He needs us Romeo."
Romeo stared at the ground as he tried to resolve his moral dilemma. Natsu had trusted him with a secret and he wanted to be worthy of that trust, but Natsu had not been in his right mind when he left. Romeo knew Gray was right, Natsu needed help to work through the guilt he was experiencing and Gray and Erza were probably the only two people left who would be able to help him do that.
"I don't know exactly where he is but I saw him leave town and he gave me an envelope. He said I was only to open it in an emergency and it would help us find him." Romeo confessed.
"Where is this envelope?" Gray asked.
"I hid it in Natsu's house, I figured no one would look there and I wouldn't be tempted to open it."
They entered Natsu's house together and Romeo invoked a small fire to help them see in the darkness. He walked over to Natsu's kitchen, which was still a disaster area and removed the envelope from inside of a canister which did not appear to have ever been used. He handed Gray the envelope and they headed back towards the guild to look it over.
Gray had enough presence of mind to reassure the young mage, "You did the right thing, kid."
"I hope so." Romeo knew Gray was right,but he still felt like he had betrayed Natsu. Even so,he felt lighter than he had since the day Natsu had left, the weight of carrying the knowledge of Natsu's whereabouts no longer bearing down on him.
A/N The next chapter will have the actual Day 7 Prompt: Sun, I just felt it needed this chapter. Our writing group Fairy Tail LGBTales has its website up, You can check us out at https://ftlgbtales.home.blog . There is information up already for our first event, When We Take Different Path, coming up in October. Check it out and participate!