To Kill A Dragon

Threats

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, Tiamat is loosely based on Tiamat from Forgotten Realms which Belongs to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The traits of the chromatic dragons have been altered to match the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail Universe.

Chapter 17: Threats

Warrod had not been able to give them very much information about E.N.D. or Tartaros. He had let them know, however, that Tartaros was a guild of demon worshippers that might have a demon from one of Zeref's Books at their command. They hurried back to Fairy Tail to report to the Master the results of their mission and inform him of the new threat.

During their journey not much changed between them. Lucy was still avoiding Natsu while Natsu and Gray tried to keep some distance between them out of respect for Lucy. The others tried to fill the unusual silence with idle chatter but they all wanted to arrive at the guild as soon as possible so they could escape the tense atmosphere. The train ride was possibly the worst as Natsu slept the whole way home with his head on Gray's lap. Gray was enjoying the closeness but his mood was soon ruined by Lucy's hostile stares. He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep the rest of the ride home. He wasn't sure how long he was going to be able to put up with Lucy's behavior. They weren't doing anything wrong and truth be told he had been a part of Natsu's life for a lot longer than she had.

When they arrived in Magnolia Natsu transformed himself back into Cana just in case anyone had been paying attention to their departure and they began their walk back to the guild from the train station. The girls went on ahead and Natsu and Gray promised to be there shortly. Neither one of them missed the hurt look Lucy sent their way before she quickened her steps towards the guild.

Gray grabbed Natsu's hand and led him towards a bench. They sat down in companiable silence watching the people around them go about their day.

"We should talk about how we want to handle things with the guild.", Gray looked at Natsu with a serious expression, "Can you change back please? I feel weird holding hands with Cana."

Natsu laughed and released the magic that transformed him into the card mage. He massaged Gray's hand with his thumb affectionately. "Sure, Magnolia's rumor mill would have gone into overdrive if you'd kissed me."

Gray took that as permission to do just that and wasted no time in kissing his mate. Natsu returned the gesture, his lips pressing back fervently, relishing how all his nerve endings felt like they were tingling just from feeling Gray's lips pressing on his. They had not done that since they were caught by their friends, the most they had managed was occasionally holding hands while they walked but only when Lucy was ahead of them . All in all they hadn't spent much time together since they had left the Sun Village and it was nice to just sit on a bench at the station. At last they separated and Gray brought up the topic again.

"How do you want to handle things with the guild?"

"What do you mean?", Natsu looked at him in confusion, "We should be the way we've always been. I don't want to have to pretend stuff, I'll probably forget anyway."

"You don't care if they find out about us?", Gray asked with concern, "Some of them might not approve you know. They might treat us differently."