*Spoilers about Tartarus and onwards I suppose, with a twist*

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Came a high pitched yell before a small, blue, furry object slammed into the fire mage's chest. "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME BEHIND?" Tiny blue fists began slamming into Natsu's chest who simply patted the cat on the head comfortingly. "Sorry lil' bro. It was something I needed to do, couldn't risk hurting you." The cat began crying profusely and only quietened once he was gently placed in Natsu's messy pink locks, where he curled into a warm ball.

Gray smiled sadly, "Poor guy, knew he would take it the worst." Natsu nodded in agreement, "Yeah, well I'm back now and I owe him two years' worth of adventures." Then all of a sudden the two mages froze.

They turned around, Natsu careful not to disturb the sleeping cat. Both the boys had terrified looks which only worsened once they locked eyes with the two facing them. Mirajane cracked her knuckles while Erza summoned a sword and both had evil grins. "You two didn't think you had gotten off that easily? We need some strong words about you leaving, not to mention you're going to tell us what the hell that was with the magic you used against Lullaby."

The male mages glanced at each other, visibly shaking. "P…Plan K?" asked Natsu shakily, Gray just about nodded, "M…Might wo…work." They both muttered various pleas to Mavis, random gods and honestly anyone who was crazy enough to help them and then leaned in and kissed the two girls.

Erza gasped, barely able to conceive what was happening, Natsu was… kissing her? He tasted like wood-smoke and burnt cinnamon and the knight could feel herself melting into his warm grasp, she had imagined this countless times, especially when she was younger. But for it to happen? Her mind was at war with itself. 'HOW DARE HE? DON'T FORGET HE'S STILL IN SHIT WITH YOU FOR THE MAGIC AND THE FACT HE LEFT!' screamed part of her. A much calmer and seductive voice then quietened the other, 'Shhhh, you wanted this for a long time remember? Think of all the things we can do now hm? Just look at him! He's such a hunk now, why waste the opportunity?' As the argument raged, Erza shrugged, 'Fuck it. I was planning on doing something like this anyway.' An evil grin spread and she dragged Natsu up. "Come with me!" with that said she dragged him out.

Mirajane was blinking rapidly, 'Gray? I mean sure, he has quite the figure', her eyes dragged over him and she sighed in loss remembering he no longer stripped, 'And there is something rather… appropriate with the two rival pairs shacking up with each other.' She smiled, "The dragon and the knight huh?" she muttered through Gray's surprisingly warm lips, "And the demon and the devil slayer" he retorted, "Besides what are you doing thinking of those guys right now?" his tone was playfully hurt. Mira shrugged as she saw Erza drag Natsu out with a hungry look in her eyes, a certain poor blue cat toppling off of his head as they left. 'Fuck it' she thought 'Seems like it will be fun' then she to stood and began pulling Gray with her.

21 hours later

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTSSSSUUUUUUUUUU!" for the second time the blue ball of fluff known as Happy crashed into the aforementioned mage's chest. "YOU LEFT AGAIN!" he began wailing at full volume. "AH SORRY HAPPY" Natsu yelled, "I had to, Erza dragged me off" the cat nodded sagely in awareness of the scarlet haired woman's wrath. Then the cat grinned, "She liiiikkkeeess you!" he said in a sing song voice, but what Natsu said blew the cats mind, "And I like her so it's all good right?" Natsu grinned as Happy keeled over in shock. "But I brought this as an apology" he dumped a sack bigger than a wine barrel on the ground, the top opened and Happy could see it was brimming with fish. "NATSU YOU'RE THE BEST!" He began gnawing on one immediately. "Also this" he handed the cat a small card, 'Show this to Mr Stevens for free fish anytime, anywhere. No limit.'

Happy looked up at Natsu with tear filled eyes. "Natsu" he said softly, "I have an idea." The cat then grinned evilly and flew off, "THANK YOU NATSSUUUUU!" he yelled behind him. Natsu grinned but it was short lived as the master called out. "Natsu, Gray! Come to my office!" Natsu sighed and jumped up, bypassing the stairs and landing next to the master, "You want to know about Lullaby and our magic huh?" The master nodded and Natsu headed into the office behind him, soon followed by Gray.

The master frowned as he sat cross-legged on his desk. "I was told what you two did at Clover Town, care to explain?" The two mages had vaguely worried looks. "When we were… uh gone" started Natsu, "we ran into some trouble with some dark guilds, beat them easily enough but we caught the attention of some powerful people, we uh… kinda got caught by Tartarus." He scratched the back of his mop of hair sheepishly, "Gave them hell though! Defeated a fair few of their Demon Gates or whatever, that Franmalth dude, Keyes…" he trailed off awkwardly and Gray stepped in "And my dad master." Makarov looked shocked, "We learnt a lot of stuff about our pasts. My father had been resurrected by the necromancer Keyes, he had learnt Ice Devil Slayer magic and when pops was defeated he passed his magic onto me. That's what I used." Gray then shot a sympathetic look at Natsu, who again scratched his mess of hair "Yeah, I wish mine was that simple." Natsu frowned, "Turns out I'm some demon called E.N.D"

The master gaped in shock, "E.N.D? Demon?" he looked worried and Natsu frowned again, "Yup. Etherious Natsu Dragneel. When we were caught I got put in this thing called Hell's Core, which we destroyed by the way, those guys can't reform for a while at least. But it can also be used to turn humans to demons. When they used it on me though, apparently their old master E.N.D, his magic or curse or whatever was very specific, and my magic container and body were the perfect host, in their eyes I am the reincarnation of E.N.D. But when they tried to bring him back I only got his curse and not his 'being'. It's locked away in some book that the master carries around, Igneel fought the guy hundreds of years ago and defeated him, destroyed his body but not his soul, they couldn't reform him, too much magic is needed to make a body strong enough so Igneel was able to seal him away. So then we managed to escape, the curse I gained easily broke us free. But I don't like to use it too much."

Makarov looked on worriedly, "Why not brat?" and Natsu looked down ashamed, "The curse feeds off magic, the longer and more I use it the more my Dragon Slaying magic burns away, if I use it too much the only thing I will have left of Igneel will be my scarf." The master rested a hand on Natsu's shoulder, who was shaking slightly. "And your memories, you will always have those." Natsu nodded and squared himself, "That was about a year ago yeah. Now we're here!" He finished with a rather forced grin.

Erza and Mira stood outside the master's office with worried looks on the face but were quickly shook out of their stupor. "OI YOU COMING IN?" the voice sounded like Natsu, "Why does everyone forget the nose?!" He continued in a quieter voice, "Like honestly, you'd think they don't know me at all." The two S-Class walked into the office sheepishly and Erza was the first to speak, "Natsu I'm so sorry how do you…" The fire mage quickly raised a hand to silence her, "Don't even stress Erz, if anyone should be worried about anyone it should be me about you. Why didn't you ever mention the tower to us?" Erza gasped in shock and was barely audible "You know?" she mouthed in a whisper and Natsu nodded sadly before embracing her. "Ran into some assassination group a while ago that were working for the head guy, we learnt what happens there and that you were there, but the mages had some kind of secrecy rune or magic. They died before we learned more." Natsu frowned darkly, "Like the location."

The two separated and Erza whispered into Natsu's ear "I'll tell you everything some other time." The mage nodded again then grinned, "C'mon Gramps it's not like us to be so down! Tell me you got a mission for us?" The master raised an eyebrow, "As it happens, brat. I do have one for all four of you, a lot of suspicious activity has been happening in the underworld of late and a worrying surge of recruitment sprung up in both independent dark guilds and the alleged strongest of them all, Grimoire Heart. I was hoping I could monopolise on your reputations as the Demon Twins, and of course the Majin and Titania helps." With that the master smiled quite evilly, "I would like you to investigate in Dawn city near the western coast. I'll expect you to leave five days from now, prepare accordingly." Mira and Erza grinned at getting such an important mission and Gray and Natsu lazily saluted. "Alright then, seeya Gramps" said Gray and the mages filed out.

"Um Erza" came a call from behind said person, Erza turned and to her surprise it was Natsu, looking… Nervous? "Yes Natsu?" she asked suspiciously, "Well, I was just wondering you know, if you wanted to spend." The rest of the sentence was an incoherent mumble and Natsu was bright red, leaving Erza confused, after several moments of silence she sighed and Natsu nearly shouted, fumbling over his words, "Would you like to prepare for the mission together!" the words almost sounded foreign to him, like someone else said it, not him. Erza turned bright red as well, "That would be" she coughed loudly to cover her growing excitement, "Practical Natsu, we will pack quicker that way." Natsu beamed at her and her smile grew. "Oi! Happy c'mon we need to get ready!" he yelled and sprinted out the door leaving Erza chuckling.

The two were now sat a small distance away from Fairy Hills, the guilds female dorms, in a small wooden covered pavilion where Natsu had lit the large centrepiece fire and lay out his sleeping pack and gear. Natsu had his back resting on a strong fence that circled the whole area and one knee drawn to his chest, looking utterly relaxed. Very close to him Erza sat with her back straight, with her legs in the lotus position. Natsu raised an eyebrow, "Relax Erz, sitting like that is hardly a way to relax with a friend. Her response was almost to be predicted, "This position prevents my muscles from cramping and ensures my posture is perfect." This lead to Natsu sighing and he leant over the knight. "Loosen up Erza. It'll do you good." All of a sudden a vicious tickling attack sent Erza writhing on the floor. "No! Stop!" she giggled, then using her immense strength she flipped them both and was now straddling Natsu and sent a devilish smirk at him. "Revenge!" she hissed in delight.

Gray stood to one side of the kitchen and took in a deep breath. "Never knew you could cook Mira" he said in a surprised tone. The white-haired beauty smiled, "Yeah I always cook for my little brother and… friends." She blinked and her smile returned. Gray gave a smile back to reassure her, "I like this side of you, even if you are the Demon of Fairy Tail you're still human." His hands were stuck deeply in his pockets and to be perfectly honest Mirajane was still getting used to him not stripping, she walked up to him and poked him in the chest. "Yeah well don't cross me, I might have tempered down but don't think for a minute you can take me on and get away with it! I'm still the Demon." Gray's grin simply widened, "I'll just slay you then." Then he pecked her on the lips.

Erza's hair was everywhere and Natsu wasn't in a much better state with clothes ruffled and both mages sweating profusely and taking deep breaths after their tickling battle. Erza traced the scars on Natsu's arm, "How did you get these?" they were quite deep and travelled from the top of the bicep down to midway to his wrist. Natsu grinned, "Ah that's a story and a half! We were tracking a Fenrir in the eastern mountains for about three weeks, super high up, could barely see the trees, then this huge wolf comes barrelling out of the thicket like a train and knocks Ice Princess over…"

"I swear to all that is holy Mira this is the best fish pie I have eaten. Please cook for me more!" Gray was currently prostrating himself before the take-over mage as if she were a deity, who grinned, "Make that all that is unholy and you would be more on the mark. Besides you hang around Happy for any amount of time you learn how to cook fish." Shaking her head at the ice mage in amusement Mira continued eating.

"… then the bastard ends up breaking my third sword and I had to just bury him under my Adamantine shield. Couldn't attack if he couldn't move!" Erza and Natsu were laughing loudly as they swapped stories from the past two years. The knight then pushed a lock of scarlet hair behind an ear. "Natsu I would like to tell you about my time in the Tower of Heaven." Natsu straightened slightly and adopted a serious expression. "It started when I was a child in Rosemary Village…"

"How was I supposed to know people from Caelum find the word trousers offensive? What kind of culture has that kind of behaviour?" Gray was complaining about his training to get rid of his stripping as Mirajane was laughing loudly.

"I still think I betrayed my friends… How can I be forgiven for leaving them?" finished Erza sadly and was shocked as Natsu wrapped her in a huge embrace. "No Erza, it was that tattooed bastard not you, you did all you could, you were what? Eight? Nine?"
"Nine" replied Erza and Natsu pushed her chin up gently staring deeply at her, "Never blame yourself for others sins. If I have learnt anything, you can't blame those who could do nothing about their circumstances. If I worried like that I would already be on the executioners block, what if E.N.D takes over? I'm a real monster Erza not you." Erza's slap to Natsu's face was like a gun crack, "Don't be stupid. You aren't responsible either." The two mages smiled and their foreheads touched softly.

Gray and Mira were curled up on the couch comfortably, "It was tough seeing dad like that you know. He was broken after being used by demons and losing his family. That's why I have to protect my new one." Mira simply hugged the boy closer "Stupid boy, we are protecting you to you know."

The time was ripe for Fairy Tail's missed duo to make a proper comeback.

FLUFFFF, hopefully not cringey though lol, I learned my lesson guys hey, plenty of paragraph gaps now and sorry for like no action and whatever but I want to have a chapter to set stuff up, also in response to people about the whole reasoning with Gray and Mira is literally that I thought it would be neat to have the two pairs of rivals getting together, mirroring and all that jazz. Plus like Natsu gets paired with every single damn female in the manga/anime so why not Gray, I like the whole idea that even though Natsu is powerful he has a counterbalance to him in the form of Gray which really was my motivation behind this story, so they will be on equal footing in this story. That's me done, until the next one guys.

Lmao