*Crawls back into fandom* So, hey.

Sorry I've been gone for...over a year... But I just kind of got detached from anime for a while, especially this fandom. To be honest I haven't even caught up with all the episodes or chapters I've missed yet. I haven't even finished Chapter 13 for this story-which completely breaks the promise I made to myself and told you all about in the previous chapter, however long ago that was.

The point is I've had this sitting and gathering dust for a while. Then in come all of you new people with your comments and favourites/follows and all that and I feel worse about neglecting this story. So, I'm posting this here. Be warned, CHAPTER 13 MIGHT NEVER COME. AND IF IT DOES, IT WILL MORE THAN LIKELY IGNORE ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE ANIME/MANGA SINCE I POSTED CHAPTER 11.

So with that message delivered and (hopefully) read, enjoy the latest installment of this story.

Groggily, Gray's half-conscious mind registered an annoying sound. It was like an insistent banging accompanied by the screeching of a thousand angered souls. Vaguely, Gray's mind managed to connect the dots that the thousand angered souls sounded familiar. Although, finding out from where was too much work for the sleep hazed mind. It did, however, recognize that it usually meant danger. Again though, the why of the situation was just too much work to find out.

He sighed in relief when the sounds stopped. Smiling contently at that, he snuggled deeper into the soft material beneath him. He brought the warmth in his arms closer and buried his nose into something soft and slightly tickly that vaguely smelled of ashes and spices.

Wait a minute.

Warmth? Ashes and spices?

Almost reluctantly, Gray cracked open one eye only to be met with… pink. Lots of pink. He blinked both eyes open and tiredly raised his head to look around. By the time he realized that he wasn't in his room at his and Loke's apartment, a mysterious and forceful hand was already grabbing him by his collar and (harshly, rudely, roughly) pulling him up and away from the couch.

"Gray Fullbuster!" that same thousand angered spirits voice yelled right in his face, "Please now explain to me what the fuck is going on and did you or did you not steal Natsu's innocence!"

Gray blinked multiple times, still trying to get his brain properly functioning. "Uhm…" he managed, "Wha…?"

"Wha's happ'in?" a dazed, confused and (this time) blissfully familiar voice said.

"Natsu!" Gray felt a shoving force against him, and then a brief moment of weightlessness before he hit his head on what might've been a wall. "Oh thank goodness you're alright!" There was a choking sound like someone being squeezed to death and Gray was a tad offended that the thousand angered souls voice now sounded worried and fretted over Natsu when he was the one who was just thrown against a wall. "We were all so worried about your virtue! Tell me, what has hedone to you?"

"E-Erza! Let me go; I can't b-breathe!" Ah, so the thousand angered souls voice was Erza- that explained everything now.

When Gray was finally able to blink the spots from his eyes, he looked up to see Erza setting a gasping for air Natsu on the ground. "My apologies Natsu," she said (hey, how come she apologizes to him?), "I was just worried about whether or not you were okay. We all believed Gray had done something sinister to you."

There was a pregnant pause as both Natsu and Gray simply stared at Erza.

"What?" they both finally said at the same time.

Before she could answer, a panting and very much out of breath Loki burst into the room followed by, well, everyone.

"What happened?" he said between breaths.

It took a while but, thankfully, Gray and Natsu were able to straighten out the fact that no, they had not had sex nor had they done anything sex related.

Loke, Mira, Lisanna, Sting, Lucy and, strangely enough, Rogue all seemed varying levels of disappointed over that. Loke naturally being the most devastated.

Of course when the matter of 'did they have sex or not?' was settled, there then came the matters of 'why was Gray spending the night so unexpectedly?' and 'what had caused this?' and, of course, 'why?'.

Gray, naturally being the (not so) smooth guy he was, simply brushed it off with a wave of his hand (and a slight red to his cheeks) and said, "I was just helping Natsu with something." Which wasn't a complete and total lie.

The rest of the day was spent with everyone just bumming out around Natsu's house, watching TV and movies, teasing Gray and Natsu and, of course, emptying the fridge.

Later, when sun and day where quickly switching with moon and night and the guests were starting to lessen, Natsu and Gray found themselves at the front door, Loke outside waiting to walk back with Gray while Lisanna, Mira, Elfman, Sting and Rogue were still inside, more or less spying on the couple.

"Thanks." Natsu mumbled quietly so only Gray could hear. "For… you know."

"Yeah." Gray agreed, scratching the side his neck. "I get it and you're welcome. But how 'bout next time there's a problem, you just say so first, okay?"

The pinkette smiled slightly as he pulled Gray close. "Okay." He mumbled against the elder's smiling lips. "And feel free to tell Loke; I know he's gonna pester you anyways."

"You sure?"

"If I wasn't would I say it's okay?"

"Possibly."

"You know me too well."

"Hey Gray!" Loke suddenly called, making the two (and the eavesdroppers inside) turn to look at him curiously. "I'm all for you two hitting it off and everything but it's really cold out here and if you two are going to start fucking then I'd like to know so I can either go inside where it's warm or go home."

Gray snorted rather indignantly and rolled his eyes before turning his gaze back to Natsu. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." They pressed their lips together briefly before pulling back.

After Natsu had properly sent them off, the pinkette plopped down at on the couch and promptly stretched his legs out in Sting's lap.

"I'm still right here you know." The blonde said a tad irritably.

"True but I can't here you over my apathy towards that."

Sting made a vague, annoyed sound in the back of his throat as he resignedly flicked at Natsu's toes for a moment. "Jerk…" he muttered under his breath.

It was silent for a moment before Sting spoke up again. "So you told him huh?"

Natsu tensed briefly before sighing loudly and slinging an arm over his face to cover his eyes. "Not all of it." he responded. "He knows why Brian is how he is but he doesn't know why I know how Brian is how he is."

"Do you plan on actually telling him?" Rogue asked this time.

Natsu didn't respond.

"You told us eventually." Orga stated. "You're gonna have to tell him eventually too."

"Okay first of all," Natsu started as he peeked out from his arm, "I didn't want to tell any of you jack shit. You all forced it out of me. If it was up to me than none of you would know anything."

"That's mean Natsu." Lisanna responded. "We're your friends and we have a right to know what's wrong so we can help."

"It's not mean, it's factual." Was all the pinkette said.

"Real men don't hide things from their friends." Elfman stated.

"Plus it's still affecting you. Don't even try to deny it; you know it is." Rogue stated rather indifferently as he stared hard at the pinkette.

"We haven't seen you this lively since Igneel was here Natsu." Lisanna said concernedly, "Gray has been good for you and if you don't tell him then we will."

"Yeah, but if he does something stupid and it ends badly for you then I'll kick his ass." Sting added to which Natsu snorted at.

"Fine fine," Natsu finally said. "I'll tell him after Atlas gets here. Till then you all leave it be, okay?" There was a chorus of agreements. "Good." Natsu removed his arm from his face before sitting up, "Now get out of my house. It's late and I'm tired and none of you live here so shoo." He made a vague waving motion with his hand and they all, eventually and slowly, filtered out through the door and to their own individual homes.

When they were all gone, the pinkette sighed and curled up on his side, still on the couch, and stared unseeingly before him. All he could hear was sick sadistic laughter and mocking word. All he could feel was pain spiking from every nerve ending in his body and a hollow emptiness that had haunted him for almost 11 years now. All he could see were a pair of cold and merciless dark eyes that almost seemed to glow red. He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe. Why couldn't he breathe?

His moss green eyes darted around frantically. Was it just him or were the walls getting closer?

"Natsu?"

His panicked eyes locked onto a small, blue furred creature with a worried expression directed at him. Who was that again? The name was on the tip of his tongue and he'd probably be able to say it if only he could just breathe!

"Natsu, it's okay." His eyes went back to the blue furred creature (when had they moved?). "Just breathe and everything will be okay." There were tiny paws on his face and the worried expression, while not gone, had turned serious and he felt he could trust those genuine eyes of the blue furred creature.

"Just breathe Natsu."

Just breathe. He could do that. In and out. That was it. The blue furred creature (Happy, wasn't it?) was right. It's okay. It's gonna be okay. Everything's fine. What was he freaking out over again? Who knows. Things were coming back and everything was calming down and that's all that mattered.

For now all he had to do was just breathe.

Well, talk about dramatic huh? Yeah things are definitely (hopefully) getting a shitload of tenser now…. TILL NEXT TIME MY PRECIOUS HELLSPAWNS!