The END of winter

The curtains must open, or the show will never end

Natsu's POV:
        "Look Natsu, if we don't try to defeat END now, we might never get another chance. Last time Zeref took the book away, and I'm not gonna let that freak ruin this for me twice."
         Gray blatantly looked over at me as he said those words, giving me a stare that was both confused and eager at the same time.
          "I know ice princess, geez, I get how badly your itching for a fight, but let's wait for the others before we take on whatever kind of beast this thing is."
          Gray cocked his head, sighed in annoyance, and put the book under his arm.
          "What's with you flame brain? You scared of the big bad demon all the sudden? You told me last time we had the book that we should wait for everyone else, and it got taken away. So, I'm not making that mistake again. What's wrong, anyhow? Is something going on?"
          I looked away, and pretended to be interested with the flame I was creating in my hand for a moment. The truth was, while fighting Zeref I had found out who I really was - END. Etherious Natsu Dragneel. Zeref's most powerful demon. I wasn't sure if all this was true, but I sure as hell wasn't going to to find out. And if Gray opened the book I didn't know what would happen to me, or what exactly I would become. To stop all this I guess I could tell Gray what I was, but he either wouldn't believe me, or might attempt to fight me. Even though I always loved a good battle with him, we were worn and beaten after defeating one of the spriggan twelve and obtaining the book, and if we tried to fight we would lose all our strength. The others needed us, so we couldn't do that now. No, my best bet was just to convince him to try later.  "I swear there's a reason that we shouldn't fight END now, but I can't explain it here. I'm just going to need you to trust me, ok frosty?" I looked up from the flames in my palm to a gray who was kneeling on the ground with the book in front of him, staring intently at the cover and possibly not listening to a word I was saying. "OI!" I shouted as a few of my veins bulged in anger, "Get up, ELSA, or I'll kick your ass to Antarctica!" I watched him stiffen at my comment, and slowly stand up, completely forgetting the book. Guess I got his attention. I've always prided myself on being able to get on everyone's nerves.
          "What did you say to me, dragon breath."
          "Didn't realize you were deaf. Guess that's just another weakness to add to the long list of 'em."
At that point, Gray came hurling at me, fists up and ready. Any other time I would've been all sorts of ready to kick his ass, but for once I needed to focus. So, when ice princess was about a foot away, I leapt around him and grabbed the book of END that he had dropped and put it safely under my arm. After checking to make sure it was alright, I turned around and almost died laughing at the sight of a very ticked man lying on the ground in confusion, which had probably come from wondering why I hadn't fought him.
"HAHAHA Yo, ice princess, we don't got all day so why don't you just-"
Wait; something was wrong. Gray never took this long to get up from a small fall like that one. I had learned everything about the way he fought from over the years, and something wasn't fitting the bill. Oh no. The one I was looking at was an ice Gray. A decoy. Shit. He must have gotten up and placed a fake while I was dealing with the book. Whipping my head up and around, I jumped to the left after seeing a very angry ball of snow hurtling towards me.
"NATSU WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT? You to afraid to fight me? Not that I care, you would lose anyhow, but that doesn't matter now because if you don't give me that book back I will finish this once and for all!"
Cursing silently at my own stupidity, and his ignorance, I attempted to dodge Gray as he came plummeting towards me again with blades of ice on his arms. I miscalculated though, and ice boy landed in front of me, grabbed on to the book, and attempted to pull it out of my hands.
"Give it back Flame brain, why do you even care!"
"OI! I told you I would explain later! Did you not hear me?"
We must have looked so stupid standing there, like bickering little kids over who's toy was whose. If Ezra had been around she would have given us both concussions with each other's heads. Not that we had ever stopped fighting or learned our lesson because of that though. No injury was going to make me let HIM win. At anything.
At the same time we both yelled,
"Give it here!"
And that's when, because of all the jostling, the book of END opened. And the curtains to a show of hell began to rise.

HEY!
Real quick, it's me, the author. If you are liking this story I'd love if you could take a quick break and go give my short story for the perfect date prompt a little attention. It would mean the world. Thanks! Continue on~