Burning Bridges

Goodbye

Warning: contains blood and violence.

--

Natsu could smell that Gray was still in Magnolia. He only had to sniff for a few minutes before he knew precisely where the Ice-Make wizard was hiding. Sure enough, he walked down to the river where they always fought as children, and Gray was sitting under the branches of a willow tree.

"A drooping willow. Appropriate place for a droopy-eyed bastard."

Gray jolted and looked around in shock.

"You said you were getting out of here right away," Natsu mentioned with a frown. "What happened? Chickened out?"

Gray settled back down. "Something like that. For some reason, I couldn't leave this city. I didn't want to be that far away from you, even if that means getting caught and arrested."

"So you came here? Did you want to get caught?"

Gray looked back out to the glittering water. "Maybe," he muttered.

Natsu walked down to the river and stood in front of Gray, sneering at him. Gray's sad eyes stayed turned away with a melancholy face. Natsu gritted his teeth as a tear slid down his cheek.

"I hate you!"

Gray could not look at him, but his brow tensed at hearing those seething words. "I know," he whispered.

Natsu leaped forward and punched Gray in burning anger. "You fuckin' raped me, bastard!" He gave a left hook that sent blood streaming out of Gray's mouth. "Do you think I can just forgive you? Did you think I'd come here, see your sorry ass, and forget it all?"

"Of course not," Gray admitted. "I expected you to come down here..." His eyes gazed up coldly. "...and fight me one last time."

Natsu's fists stopped, and his face sneered with flames of rage. "Do you think punching you a few times will solve everything?"

Gray shook his head. Although his eyes were melancholy, his face went frigidly serious. "Kill me, Natsu."

The dragon slayer backed up a step, and his cheeks went pale. "Wh-what?"

"By all rights, I should be arrested and left to rot in jail. I don't want to waste away like that. For a fighter like me, that's worse than death. I thought I'd run away, leave you to your happy life, but then I realized you'd never be happy until you got justice, and there's no way I can be happy when I'm away from you. I realized...just how much I hurt you. Knowing you, the fact that I physically hurt you probably doesn't mean much at all. It's the emotional pain that a guy like you holds onto. I thought, what if you were betrayed so badly, it changed the Natsu I love? What if, because of me, you can't make friends in Fairy Tail anymore? What if you were so humiliated, you quit the guild? That terrified me worse than the idea of going off on my own. I didn't want to ruin your life. That's why I've been sitting here since sunrise, waiting for you to come, to fight me and take out your revenge on me. I want to die knowing you can go on and be free from the darkness I plunged you into. You're the one I hurt, so you're the one who should kill me."

The flames on Natsu's body doused. He listened to Gray's words of regret, and again the emotions struggled within him. The side of Natsu who was a carefree member of Fairy Tail wanted to drag him back, let Erza deal with him, then forgive him like how people in Fairy Tail often forgave former enemies. However, the proud and fiery dragon slayer within him wanted to take revenge and show Gray just how deeply his feeling of betrayal ran.

"You confuse me," Natsu accused angrily. "Damn you!" Tears stung the corners of his eyes. "You make me want to stop thinking, just act, grab you, and never let go."