Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Be thankful for that…

And in case you wonder, this isn't a lovey-dovey Valentine's fic... You've been warned.

Into the sky

Gasps permeated the room as both youths came down from their highs. Afterwards they scrambled to do a cursory clean up and to get dressed once again. The heavy scent of sweat and sex filled the small, poorly lit space.

Finally dressed, they were about to cross the door to go back to the main room of the guild, but Gray stopped in front of the door.

"Huh, Gray?" Natsu asked, curious about the pause.

"Natsu, let's call it off." The ice mage's shoulders were ramrod straight and his face was hidden by the shadows.

"What? Call what off?" the fire mage was confused.

"This off," Gray waved his hand between them. "I'm fed up with this. It's old news and I can't really see it any more…"

"See it?" Natsu spluttered, disbelievingly.

"Yeah. So, just forget about it, alright?" and he grabbed the handle and left the room, and Natsu there, completely stone still.

The fire mage blinked and caught himself. What kind of fuckery was that? An enraged "Gray!" escaped his throat; he closed his mouth with an audible click, his magic starting to flare around him. Before he could consciously notice it, Natsu was running down the hall, after Gray. When he saw him, he launched himself at the other mage, tackling him to the ground.

With a grunt, Gray started to struggle and trying to get up.

"The fuck! Get off of me!" he snarled.

Natsu leaned more heavily on the other and managed to pin him down. "I won't, not before I get an answer," growled Natsu.

Gray snarled. "There's nothing to say. It's over. Now get off me before I freeze some bits that you hold dear…" But the ice mage didn't give Natsu time to react, flipping them over so that Natsu was the one at the bottom. "Unless you want a goodbye lay, that is…" Gray leaned heavily against him and started to move against the other mage, teasingly.

The fire mage froze, with shock, but in no time he was scrambling up and punching Gray square on his face with such force that the wall collapsed and he fell in plain sight of the whole guild.

Everything froze. It wasn't uncommon to have the boys fighting, but their brawls had decreased some after they had started going out.

Everybody sat still, waiting for the next move.

"You better not cross my path any time soon, if you know what's good for you," Natsu said in a low voice, only for the other to hear. And then he stepped aside, headed to the missions' board and, after a quick glance he plucked one out.

"Lucy, would you care to join me and Happy on a mission?" he asked with a nonchalant voice.

The blonde blinked and exchanged a look with the blue cat, cursing inwardly at Erza being away due to a S-class mission. Her thoughts raced as she stood up and nodded. She could see that the situation was a serious one and it would be best to keep an eye on the fire mage. "Sure… but… you want to go now?"

"Why not?" he asked with fake cheerfulness.

"Okay…" And they left the guild behind, not caring for the curiosity that they were leaving behind.

"You have to stop Natsu." A dead tired Lucy said as she flopped on one of the guild's tables. Both her and Natsu were in a pitiful state and not even Happy had come out of it unscathed, as he had little burnt tufts of fur here and there. Lucy groaned slightly as her left leg started throbbing again and the huge graze on her knee was oozing a transparent fluid. She frowned as she took in her arms, scratches covered them and she was probably looking appalling and all because of him! She threw a hard glare at Natsu, discarding the nasty bruises that covered his upper torso, or his bandaged arm, (she didn't pity him as everything was his fault!) or the frayed clothing that still hung to his form. But he was still looking stubborn. A frustrated noise escaped her throat. "You've been going on missions non-stop. You need to pause for a bit and…" Her head landed on her arms and her following words came out muffled, "…rest. You definitely need to pause to rest."

"What are you talking about? I'm fine." Natsu started to exemplify how good he was, one of the bandages that covered his arm getting loose.

"Natsu," Lucy's tone of voice was of pure disbelief, "you just fought against an entire dark guild. You're not going to say that you're fine when you're not!"

"Pfft, they were weak, Lucy. Hardly a case to worry about." Natsu waved her off, uninterested. "But, okay, fine, if you want it so much I'll go home and sleep. I was thinking of staying for a bit," he leaned on the table in front of him and splayed his hands on it, doing a dismissive noise at the same time, "catch up and eat something as my cupboards are probably as empty as they come. But alright, talk to you tomorrow." He picked an already sleeping Happy and left the guild, a goodbye wave at Mirajane's greeting.

Lucy let out a sigh at her friend's slightly erratic behaviour.

Some days had passed and while he still appeared at the guild, Natsu didn't stay long and was unusually skittish and moody when he did. Lucy had talked to Erza about this situation and they decided that the boys needed to talk to find some closure.

So, the day for their plan to be set in motion came.

Natsu was sitting at the table, with Lucy and Erza on each side. Levi was in front of Lucy which left Wendy in front of the fire mage. She had been throwing worried glances all around them and was currently twirling her thumbs, a dish filled with food forgotten in front of her. Happy and Charlie were to her right; they were also uneasy, fidgety. Not long after, the fire mage could sense that Gajeel was nearby (and if Levi's blush was a clue, no-one had anything to do with it).

Mirajane had come to their table three times already, with trays overflowing with food. Natsu had thrown himself at the food like there was no tomorrow. Food (and his friends) distracted him enough so that he could relax.

Then, all of a sudden, the atmosphere dropped. Natsu tensed and sat ramrod straight, fists closed tightly on each side of his half-full dish.

Gray had arrived.

"Gray, why don't you sit with us?" Lucy got up and called him, not noticing the incredulous glare that Natsu threw at her.

The ice mage stopped near them, the trotting Juvia doing the same, some steps behind.

"I don't think I'll be welcomed at your table," he said, a malicious tint in his tone.

"Don't say such nonsense," the blonde pushed on, playing the oblivious card. "There's no reason for you to say that, right?" she asked to the rest of the table, taking in Erza's meaningful look. All the stares from the table converged to the Salamander.

Natsu forced himself to relax and to seem nonchalant. His hands loosened up and he picked at his half-eaten olicstuz leg. After taking a bite, he seemed to notice the expectant air all around the table. As he chewed, the fire mage looked down and shrugged, "Mffgo whatchev yoouh va'an…"

At Erza's impatient noise he swallowed and clarified, "Do whatever you want…" before taking another bite.

"Seriously? That's it?" Natsu didn't even pause at the other's evil tone – he was definitively trying to goad him but that was not going to work.

"That's it? All the great Salamander has to say?" Gray kept on, smirking evilly.

Natsu looked up, chewing calmly and swallowing.

"That's it. Now, you better get out of my face. Either you sit as the girls invited you or you leave. Done and done."

"What? Is the little dragon slayer feeling lonely? You must be feeling like a hotshot to say those things, huh?" Gray placed a hand on the table and leaned forward, lowering his voice in such a way that only the people at the table heard him. "Or do you miss how I made you feel good, so much that you could only babble incoherently at the end of the night," a sharp intake of breaths occurred in response, but he was relentless, "after I pounded you into the mattress."

"Gray!" outraged expressions matched his crudeness, with Wendy going a bright tomato red colour and looking intently down at her dish. Gray grinned wickedly.

"You miss being my bitch?"

The guild became deathly silent, one could hear a pin falling, and that silence was only cut off by the screech of a chair being pushed back by Natsu. He stood up and threw a level look at the ice mage.

"I was no such thing." A wave of warm air blasted from around him, but the fire mage was still, surprisingly, holding on his temper. "I may have been on the receiving end," the fire mage was cut by a short bark of laughter coming from Gajeel followed by an "I figured…" but he kept on, "but I wasn't that. For a long time you didn't mind to share that thing with me but now you come here and say that? Ah!" he gave a short cynical laugh, "You're more of an ass than I expected. But, honestly, I need to thank you. For some time I was wasting away in an error but now I'm free. You're dead to me, Gray. And I repeat, don't cross my path again or not even the old man will be able to stop me from killing you. Maybe you're lucky and he'll stop me after burning your arms to a crisp but in that case, what kind of ice mage would you be, right?" Natsu looked around and muttered a quick "Thanks for the lunch," before starting to head to the door, the whole guild still hanging on to his words.

"I'd like to see you do that." Gray objected.

"Try me," Natsu replied, a canine poking out of his smirk. "You know where I am, if you have a death wish." And with that the doors of the guild closed behind the fire mage.

Inside, everybody sat in stunned silence.

"I… wasn't expecting this…" Lucy muttered.

"Neither was I. We didn't envision this eventuality…" Erza replied.

Gajeel started laughing which had some dark looks being thrown at him. Happy became restless, wanting to go after Natsu but still knew to give him some space.

The guild seemed to wake up once again and everybody started talking, shocked at Natsu's statement.

Outside, Natsu stretched as the warm sunbeams bathed his form.

The warmth was welcomed after what felt like a lifetime in which he had been frozen. But that had stopped now. He had told Gray all he wanted in that matter and had gotten the closure he needed, that for some confuse time had been eating him on the inside.

Later he should thank the girls but for now he could go for a stroll, he had a new life where he was free of the things that unknowingly had bound him. It had been all for the best.

For a while he had been devastated and a complete mess but now life opened its arms before him.

He had his freedom – his wings – now, it was only a matter of spreading them and fly.

Into the sky.

A/N: Just a little something I had in mind for a while. I don't think I got the characters where I wanted them but, oh well…

The title came from BENI's song, Into the Sky. It is awesome and has already helped me through some hard times. BENI, why so awesome? ^^

A huge thanks to Nightslayr for the beta. Sorry for the hard work this one gave you… xD