I Will Keep You Safe

Disclaimer : All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima

Natsu knew that Gray was his mate from the moment he saw him. The second he set eyes on him he felt as though a bolt of lightning had hit his little body. The sensation was exactly the way Igneel had described feeling while meeting his own mate.

He would always follow that by saying of "Of course, she was a lightning dragon so I suppose that was to be expected." before breaking down into the deep rumbling laughs that Natsu loved.

He wished Igneel was around now to help him know what to do next but he wasn't, so Natsu had to use whatever smarts and instinct he had developed in his few years on this Earthland.

He walked right over to Gray and confidently introduced himself flashing him his biggest, brightest smile, trying to ingratiate himself to the boy. He told him all about himself. How he had been brought up by a fire dragon and had recently been abandoned, how he was a fire dragon slayer. The boy looked Natsu over and showed him his opposing magic, sneering at him and immediately challenging him to a fight.

Natsu complied, seeing it as an opportunity to get to know his mate better, wanting very much to impress this boy who would hold his heart until he died. The fight turned serious quickly as neither boy wanted to lose to the other.

Gray had been expecting an easy fight. The boy had pink hair for God's sakes. He was mistaken, they matched each other hit for hit until Erza forcibly separated them. Both boys sported gigantic grins and Gray found himself hoping that Natsu would join the guild. There were no other boys his age and as much as he liked Cana and Erza he wanted someone he could relate to, someone all his own. He was ecstatic when a week later he saw the red Fairy Tail emblem on Natsu's right shoulder.

Over the next few years they would develop a friendship that was not understood by many. They developed a language all their own full of insults and violence but there were occasional moments of genuine friendship and tenderness mixed in as well. Although they would never admit it, they were happy together in their own way, neither one acknowledging the place they held in each other's world.

Natsu did not think that Gray was yet ready to know that he was his mate. He worried about doing the wrong thing and scaring the ice mage away, his instinct told him he needed to wait. There was a niggling itch in his brain that tried to remind him that something bad could happen if he was rejected but he cheerfully told it to go to hell because Gray was beautiful and his and they would live their lives out together happily.

Everything went well until the first time that Natsu got hurt protecting Gray during a job when they were 14 years old. Natsu dashed in front of Gray and took a hit meant for the ice mage. Natsu was in the infirmary recovering for a week but he did not even seem to feel any pain. When Gray went to visit Natsu in the infirmary he was greeted with a wide smile. Natsu felt very proud of himself for having protected his mate which was why he felt blindsided when Gray punched him in the stomach and stormed out. He had looked angry and Natsu could not understand what he had done wrong.

Gray was a very private person, he did not usually talk about his childhood to anyone. He had lost everyone he had ever loved by the time he was eight years old. His mother, his father and his teacher had all chosen to sacrifice themselves so that he could live, just like Natsu had almost done. Natsu's selfless actions had shaken Gray to his very core. All week long he had been haunted by nightmares where he relived every one of their deaths, except right before they died they would all turn into Natsu. Gray would wake up in tears having to remind himself that the pink haired idiot was alive and well. He made the decision that the only way he could keep Natsu safe was to let him go. To make him so disgusted with Gray that he would never attempt to sacrifice himself to save Gray ever again. It physically hurt him to do this but he knew it was the only way to keep the person he loved the most from what he now considered to be his curse.