Warning: some violence

Chapter Six – Clockwork Journey

There were a few more repeats where they got closer. Natsu felt like exploring the different side that Gray had been showing him. And then came the day when he decided that it was his turn…

Slipping into wakefulness came easily to Natsu, with the feeling of being held and in a comfortable and warm place.

Natsu sighed.

Even before opening his eyes he knew he'd steeled his resolve. They would change positions and he'd let Gray fuck him. After all, it couldn't be all that hard – he'd been getting better acquainted with the other's body and now knew how to better respond to him.

Groping half-aimlessly his hand came to rest on Gray's cheek. Natsu opened his eyes and looked at the ice mage, he was still sleeping peacefully, their limbs still entwined and feeling right.

He couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his lips.

He'd come to a conclusion. And it was still a bit hard for him to reconcile his self from before the day started repeating and the one he was now. Not that he had to think about that, in the comfortable cocoon they found themselves in.

His hand reaching down to Gray's shoulder, Natsu grasped it and gave a small shake.

He had no reaction.

He shook Gray again, this time calling out his name softly.

The ice mage seemed to react to his voice. Natsu sat up and the movement made him cringe as a sudden, snap-like, ache shot through his head. It was fleeting for Natsu blinked and pain was gone again, leaving the fire mage to his previous endeavour.

"Hey, Gray. Wake up, come on." Natsu repeated, slightly louder.

"Shuddup. Lemme sleep." Gray's voice came slightly muffled by the arm that he'd thrown over his face to block Natsu.

"No. It's already day. Besides, we have a matter to discuss." Natsu pressed.

"What matter?" Gray grumbled, one eye opening to look – if he were more awake it might have passed as a glare – at Natsu.

"What we started last night." Natsu replied in a purposefully light tone.

Those words had an effect on the ice mage. His whole body seemed to go taut before Gray looked at Natsu. He sat up, opened his mouth but no sound left it. He closed it, narrowed his eyes at the fire mage before shaking his head.

"What?" he asked, blinking slowly.

"You heard me. What… what we were doing last night. I… we can continue." Natsu replied, his early sureness becoming rushed as he got more and more flustered.

"You do know that we were probably going to have sex." Gray stated, waiting for confirmation.

"Yes." Natsu rolled his eyes.

"And…"

"Yes! Fucking hell, Gray. Is it that hard of you to understand that I want you to fuck me?" Natsu said in one go, getting tired of Gray's hesitation. "It's fine, you know?"

"But… hm." Gray looked down at his hands, which were poised on his lap. Natsu noticed what they were hiding. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. And don't you think that I haven't noticed how you like that idea." Natsu said with a mischievous grin, leaning forward so that he was standing on all fours, his hand coming to pat Gray's leg. He patted in a slightly dangerous place, making Gray hold his hand and throw him a reproachful look.

"Fine. I like that idea." Gray said, his cheeks burning bright. "But there are some things we need." He cautioned.

"Slick." Natsu promptly said.

"Yes. You can find some in that drawer." Gray motioned with his hand. Natsu did as ordered, once again, remembering very well what happened when he grabbed the vial. Once again he inspected the sloshing golden fluid inside.

"Got it." Natsu handed the vial to Gray. Then he paused. A slightly embarrassed look on his face. "Help me get ready?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

(1)

Gray fell on Natsu's side, a content smile on his lips.

Natsu replied with his own content smile. Before it morphed into a grimace as he took in the coldness of the patch he was lying in.

The fire mage slapped Gray, wordlessly telling him to roll over so that he could get away from the wet place.

They ended up in a mock struggle over the dry area of the bed, limbs entangled and a lot of laughter in the air.

And Natsu… he realized that, with Gray, it didn't matter who topped. It was quite fun either way.

As yet another repeat of the day went by Natsu decided that he really had to find a way for the repetition to end. Also, there was the problem of knowing where Happy was, as he hadn't seen him, and of the dark-clad figure.

Natsu woke up from the inexistent sleep, the slumber didn't allow for him to properly rest.

He let himself indulge in the comfortable bed, the intimate twine of his limbs in another's as well as the heartbeat and rise and fall of Gray's chest.

But then, he opened his eyes, carefully extracting himself from the other's embrace. Natsu sat up, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed and cradling his head in his hands as an overwhelming pain seemed to burst from behind his eyes and expand towards the rest of his head.

Natsu took a few deep breaths and straightened up. Slowly, he got up and walked around the room, picking up his clothes and quickly putting his trousers on. He felt the weight of something against his leg and finally decided to go look into it.

He closed the door of the bedroom silently after himself and headed to the sofa, slumping onto it with uncharacteristic tiredness. It wasn't exactly a physical tiredness but, the various repeats of the day were taking a toll in him. Natsu plunged his hand inside the pocked, extracting the scarf and what it was containing. The fire mage placed the scarf on his lap, taking a moment to run his hand through it with a wistful half-smile appearing in his lips.

Then he shook himself out of the trance that almost distracted him. Natsu flicked the bit of folded scarf out of the way and uncovered… a ball. It was on the smallish side, of a light green and a sudden flash of a memory came to him. Of him with Happy and picking the ball up…

Natsu shook his head, slightly out of sorts.

What the fuck is this? He thought to himself, the ball spinning distractedly in his hands. Natsu leaned back and let the ball roll between his palms, looking up at the ceiling and thinking, trying to remember anything, to have a clue as to what had landed them in this situation.

It all led to the mission.

And that was what they had to do. Go back to that place. Hoping that they weren't stopped by the figure clad in dark – in every time they'd met things had become not so good for the team. They always failed to surpass that obstacle, with very bloody results.

But maybe it would appear. They'd gotten to the temple a few times. Maybe this time it was it.

Natsu tossed the ball up, carelessly, grabbing it and placing it once again in his pocket. He put the scarf around his neck, where it belonged, and went back to the bedroom to wake Gray.

They hurried to get ready, then split up (like so many times before) to go find the girls and to meet at the right exit. When they were all together Natsu had to go through the whole thing once more, tell them the whole story and take in their disbelief and give proof as to not having finally gone totally crazy.

The girls made up a bit of a fuss, disbelieving, but Gray was silent for a good part of the way. When they were on the slope that led to the temple Gray curled a hand around Natsu's elbow, making the fire mage pause and look at him.

"What?" he asked, slightly snappishly.

"I just meant to say that I do believe you. Now, let's go and find a way for this day to end." Gray said seriously. His determination etched in his features.

This time was Natsu's turn to stop the ice mage. The dark haired one looked back, confused.

"I just…" Natsu started, fumbling slightly his words. "I know how you feel and I do to…?" he ended with a questioning tone, wondering.

Gray opened his mouth and closed it a few times, surprised.

"Huh, okay… good." He nodded, his dumbfounded expression could be comical, were not this such a serious situation.

"Yeah… good." Natsu repeated.

"Okay, we better go now." Gray turned and started walking to where the girls had stopped, looking at them.

"Yes." Natsu said softly. "Let's get this over with."

They got inside the temple, following the eerily familiar path, crossing those immense doors and rooms towards that one room. It was almost as if their feet were being guided to that one place.

As soon as they entered, the doors closed heavily behind them. The noise echoed in the sepulchral silence, eerily.

And then an invisible force pushed Natsu back. The fire mage's back hit the sturdy door with such force that his breath was knocked out of him. That same invisible force continued to press against him as before his eyes, his friends were encapsulated by a red light before vanishing into thin air. And then the tiled floor started shaking before a strange haze covered it followed by a nearly deafening rumble and then large walls started rising. The lighting also changed somewhere along the way, from dim to very bright.

The fire mage was released and fell forward, one hand holding himself on his knee as he gasped, while the other came to his eyes to try to shield them a little.

As he caught his breath he faced forward. There was what looked like an entrance, imposing and created in what looked like limpid, thick walls of blue ice.

Suddenly, the ball that was on his pocked seemed to burn against his leg.

From the walls on each side of the entrance two figures emerged suddenly; one shrouded in darkness and the other in light.

"It's time." One said.

"You may begin the trigram." The other continued.

And then, in unison, both extended one hand towards the entrance.

It was clear what Natsu had to do.

The fire mage stepped inside and the entrance was immediately closed, a loud rumbling followed by a muted shhh and when Natsu turned around, he only say ice. But then the ice seemed to be polished until it was a reflective surface, a mirror.

"Great." He said to himself. Then turning on his heel, Natsu took in the three directions he could go in. "Fun. A maze." He said in mild wonder. An interested smile forming on his lips.

Natsu took the path in the middle.

The silence was pressing onto him, as were the countless reflections of himself, following him, copying him, and sometimes trying to grasp him.

Natsu paused and turned around, he'd felt a soft brush against his arm, coming from behind.

But he was alone.

Still. He knew what he'd felt.

And no, it wasn't him beginning to get paranoid due to the sense of urgency, the burning against his leg, the worry about his friends' whereabouts, the stress over the repeating day, the pressing silence.

Something made him trip and Natsu fell to his knees, the force of the impact momentarily making pain spike up and down his legs. The fire mage caught himself when he placed his hands on the ground, looking at it, noticing that at some point he'd started stepping on a mirror too.

When he looked up and stood, he realized that in front of himself it was no longer a self-reflection, no, Lucy seemed to be encased inside of it. Her body had scorch marks, her face in a pained rictus and Natsu didn't think twice, he headed to it, calling to his magic, a flaming fist coming to connect with the glass surface and… nothing.

His hand was easily stopped, the fire magic dispelling instantly and leaving Natsu flabbergasted.

But what wasn't his surprise when Lucy's face changed, twisting and becoming a vicious mask, red colouring her eyes and features becoming super sharp and then she extended her hand and grasped Natsu, pulling him inside the mirror.

It was painful.

Natsu first slipped inside as if he were entering a calm pool but before long, sharp needle-like things – he had no idea about what they might be – started stabbing him, from all directions. Lucy's look-alike was approaching him, jagged hands curling around Natsu's throat and squeezing. Blood started flowing.

Natsu's instinct made him react, despite all the stab-like pinpricks, Natsu swung his arm and hit Lucy. She disappeared and Natsu found himself landing on the hard and smooth surface of the mirror-floor outside.

"Okay…" he panted. "That was something." He groped gently at his neck, fingers coming back tinged in red. "Great. She cut me. Shit."

But, he had to continue and find a way out, deliver the ball and find his friends. So he needed to start moving, instead of dallying somewhere near the beginning.

Natsu stood once again and continued the path. His reflection starting to look strangely at him, he noticed that by the corner of his eye. And it was kind of freaky.

As he continued walking, getting deeper and deeper inside the maze, he had to evade the strange limbs that would sometimes pop out of the mirrored walls and tried to pull him inside. He did a good job evading those limbs but he sometimes would be too slow or be distracted with another obstacle and be pulled inside.

There was one of those times when he crashed onto the inside of the mirror, everything feeling leaden and disjointed, and he watched as his friends were being tortured. Happy had been flayed alive, Erza's body had been burned really badly as whoever did that seemed to have had their fun with heating her armour till it became incandescent, Lucy had been placed inside a strange contraption which had been tightened and cut into her skin in many places as blood was flowing down her body and Gray was fastened onto a table with his chest open while strange looking bars were being inserted in both his arms and legs. Blood was flowing freely, falling to the ground and sublimating until the air was a red haze, the iron tang sticking to one's tongue. Natsu felt like throwing up.

And then suddenly he was falling on his ass, outside of that awful tableau, the air still tasting of blood, the cut on his forehead that still oozed sluggishly going unnoticed.

The burn he felt against his leg urged him to get up and continue, to find his way out as soon as possible.

He just had to find his friends.

Natsu managed to stumble from the maze's exit, having punched that last damn wall down. He caught his bearings, standing in front of the stone circle, breathing raggedly and with blood dripping down his arms and fisted hands to the ground. He had a number of injuries but he was very close from the end. He fished the ball from his pocket, half-walking, half-stumbling towards the centre of the circle. He carefully walked over the weird structure and fell to his knees by the central hollow. He extended his bloodied hand and let the green jade ball fall from it, red droplets falling alongside it.

The stone fell and settled into the central groove. A white mist raised from around it, seeming to make the green become even lighter. The hollowed space of the central groove filled with a pearly-white substance what spread out on the carved grooves, heading towards the circles that surrounded the central area, the inner circle.

The ten stones on that circle, five white ones and five black ones, were as if painted with a thin layer of white mist, the black stones becoming light grey.

Light spread out through the whole room and Natsu let out a sigh of relief.

Somewhere from above he could hear a clear joyous laughter.

And after that came a very familiar voice.

"Natsu!" Happy 's voice echoed from a distance, happily.

And that was when everything became black.

Natsu found himself rousing towards consciousness, feeling content, warm and comfortable.

He was lying in a bed and had his limbs twined with another person, cuddling and being cuddled back.

He suddenly noticed that it was just like any of the other mornings and sat up in a jump, throwing Gray's limbs off him without regard for the other's slumber.

"I can't believe it! Another repeat?" He said in a disbelieving voice, eyes opening widely and focusing on Gray when the ice mage curled a hand around his arm.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Came the roughened voice.

"It's still the same…" Natsu started but he then looked at the foot of the bed and down at himself.

There was Happy sleeping peacefully!

And Natsu had a bunch of bandages curling around his chest and arms.

"What the-?" he said dumbly.

"I think that whatever it was, it is over now. Come on. Let's sleep some more." Gray curled a hand around Natsu's waist and gave a small tug.

Natsu almost couldn't believe it but he saw Happy sleeping peacefully, curled upon himself and mumbling something about fish.

Natsu let out a relieved sigh. And let himself be tugged downwards again.

Before long, he was fast asleep. Getting his first real rest in a long time. And surrounded by his loved ones.

(1) You can read the full thing on my AO3

A/N: Here we are, folks! At the end of this story. It's been quite a ride, no?

It took me a while longer than I expected but this chapter was difficult for me to write. I don't know why. I hope it wasn't too much of a disappointment, though... :/

Anyway, I have an announcement and part rant to make.

I'm going on a posting hiatus. I know, I know, nobody cares about what I write and if I post or not. I know my stories are that crappy but yeah, I think I'm kind of reaching a certain limit, you know?

It's been six years (almost) since I entered this fandom and while I did get a little feedback at the beginning and, true, I'm not the most regular of writers (sadly I don't update as much as I would like for this reason), I would like some feedback. My feeling for a good part of being in this fandom has been writing and being met with a wall of silence. I do know that I'm not entitled to have comments but that they help, they do. Do people even like what they read? What do they dislike? It's just that. So I'll just go and not post. Unless I'm in a good mood, lol. Or this funk "lifts". I guess I'm in a bad place right now. *shrugs*

Either way, I know I won't be missed.

Anyways, apologies for the errors and stuff, this wasn't betaed.

Thanks for reading and as per usual, feedback would be nice.

See you sometime.