Chapter Six

A/N: Chapter 6, also known as "in which the fan-service chapter turns into everything going terribly wrong." Ha. Enjoy!

Also, I started a new Gratsu story! It's called "Color of Love", and is love if you'd check it out!! I'm super excited to write it :) (Side note: I will probably be making an update schedule soon. Who knows if I'll actually follow it haha)

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Gray

Moving faster than I ever had before, I skidded down the ornate-carpeted hallway and fumbled with our room key before managing to open the door and look for Natsu.

"Natsu?" I called out. "Are you in here?"

I poked my head in the bathroom. The lights were off. He wasn't in the main area either, meaning he was out somewhere. I almost turned around and headed out when I noticed a small piece of paper sitting on the desk.

Walking over towards the desk, I picked up the paper to inspect the message written on it.

Gray, it read. I'm at the training rooms if you need me. Floor 20. I hope your x-ray went well. Natsu.

Trying to ignore the way my heart skipped when I saw the heart by where Natsu signed his name, I crumpled the note and tossed it in the wastebasket below the desk. Bolting out of the room again, I headed towards the elevator down the hall and went to the twentieth floor.

Waiting for the elevator to move up was like watching paint dry; incredibly slow and boring. The elevator stopped twice to accommodate passengers on the sixteenth and eighteenth floor, making the journey to the twentieth that much more unbearable. When the doors opened on floor twenty, I rushed out of the elevator, surveying my surroundings.

The open-floor plan opened up after walking up tiled steps, revealing an over-glorified gym. Carpeted walkways went left and right, leading down to other training rooms. In the front was a tiled space with various punching bags, gymnastic equipment and sparring paraphernalia hanging on the racks that covered the walls. I scanned the area for Natsu, having to step into the middle of the room to see him beyond the other mutant humans training.

I ducked to avoid the kick of the same stretchy girl who was doing flips on the gymnastic rings and moved towards the fighting equipment, where I saw a flash of salmon hair.

I spotted Natsu by a punching bag, concentration etched on his features as he hit the bag. It swung on the metal chain, creaking loudly as he hit it. He was shirtless, and I couldn't help but stare at his back muscles flexing as he moved his arms. His wings were extended out behind him, the multicolored feathers ruffled.

I walked around the bag so he could see me, clearing my throat obnoxiously. When Natsu saw me standing there, he extended his palms to stop the punching bag from moving. "Hey," He grinned cheekily, wiping his forehead off with a sweat-resistant wristband.

I was at a loss for words as my eyes trailed down to his abdomen. Glistening with sweat, it made it extremely difficult to tear my eyes away. Natsu noticed this, and I practically heard the smirk in his voice as he commented, "Like what you see?"

"I-" I struggled to find the words, forgetting why I was here. Focus, I thought firmly.

Laughing at my incapability to form a sentence, he folded his wings behind him. "How did your x-ray go, by the way?" He asked, crossing his arms across his well-built chest.

"Fine," I deadpanned. "They said it was just some bruises, and I needed to do strength training for my back, shoulders, and wings."

Nodding in understanding, Natsu moved towards one of the racks that held staffs of different sizes. He grabbed two, both about six feet tall each. "Well, let's begin then," He smirked, tossing one to me.

Forcing myself to look away from his chest, I barely caught the bo staff and finally remembered that I came here to warn him about the angel boy. "Natsu-" I started, voice hanging desperately in the air as I clutched the staff.

"You're holding it wrong," Natsu cut me off, looking at my grip on the stick. "Move your right hand higher up, and keep your left one just a little bit lower than straight out in front of you."

Listening to his instructions, I moved my hands. I tried to speak again. "Hey-"

"Stance wide," He instructed. "One foot back slightly. It helps you keep a better balance in a fight."

"Natsu, would you please listen to me?!" I was getting impatient, but he didn't notice. He twirled the bo staff in his hands and around his body before stepping back into a fighting stance. Annoyed, I let my guard down, which allowed him the opportunity to go in for an attack swing across my body. I barely blocked the move, clutching the staff tightly to withstand the force of the blow.

"After you beat me in a spar," Natsu challenged, grinning. I don't have time for this, I thought in annoyance. I mirrored his stance and held my bo staff out to protect me, waiting for him to make the first move. When he didn't move, smirking at me, I clicked my tongue and moved swiftly to strike his chest.

He quickly blocked by jumping back before springing forward again, whirling the staff in one hand and aiming for my torso. I barely blocked, feeling myself go on the defensive side as he make more offensive attacks.

I stepped back to distance us, clutching the bo staff tighter. Natsu stepped back as well, twirling the staff casually with one hand. "What's the problem?" Natsu arched an eyebrow. Taunting me with that smile of his. He was enjoying every moment of this, I realized, clenching my jaw.

I move towards an attack again, this time lower. He jumped to avoid it and sliced his staff upward to cross mine. He hit the other direction, which I blocked. Aiming for his side, He blocked it with a side-kick to the staff, threatening to knock me backwards. We continued to spar until I didn't match the force of his blow hard, causing him to knock my staff out of my grip with his foot.

Still, I managed to block a few of his attacks with the thick part of my palms before scrambling to the floor to grab my staff. It was my fatal move, allowing me to not see him come up behind me and knock me to the ground. The staff skittering away, I looked up at him pointing the nose of his stick right in my face.

"That was a good run," He smiled. "You're better than I was when I first started."

"I've seen my sister do Taekwondo at matches," I countered. At the mention of my sister, my heart lurched. I tried to ignore the feeling of my heart dropping to my stomach.

"That's Korean martial arts," Natsu explained, unaware of my pain. "Bo staff fighting originates from China."

Natsu extended his hand out to me. I grabbed it and he pulled me into a standing position. I walked over to retrieve my staff before turning towards him again, prepared for another round. He struck at me again, which I blocked. I felt myself growing more used to the flow of the fight. Turning around to gain speed, I smashed the staff full-force towards him like a baseball bat, which he blocked in turn by widening the distance of his grasp.

"Stop," He said suddenly, lowering his staff. I paused, wondering why he asked to stop the sparring so randomly. "You're holding it wrong again. Here, let me show you."

He set his own bo staff on the ground gently before walking around me, reaching around to adjust my hands. "When you attempt a more advanced move like that one," He said in a low voice, "Move your hands down lower. Use gravity to allow your hands to slip through the staff, then as you turn around, rotate your wrists." His hands covered mine, moving my hands through the smooth wood of the staff. "The leverage of your hands' position allows you to build up to a greater impact. Try it now, slowly."

The hot air from when he spoke hit the skin of my neck, causing me to feel electric sparks. Breathing out a shaky breath, I tried not to focus on how hot his hands felt over mine, how close we were. I loosened my grip on the stick, allowing it to slide down until the nose tapped the floor. Like life itself had slowed down, I moved in slow-motion, guiding it in a circle before the staff lightly tapped his side.

"Ow," He mock-complained, grinning. I rolled my eyes. It was right then when I realized how his body was pressing against mine, one of his arms looped around my waist. Face flaring up, I pushed down the urge to kiss him senseless and forced myself to focus on the real problems at hand, not my awful, looming crush on this boy.

And to think, I thought amidst the pressing of his torso on mine, Just a few weeks ago I only knew him as the too-good-to-be-true superhero of Starlight City.

And somehow, along the whirlwind ride of the time since then, between kisses and running for our lives, I hadn't been able to contemplate how I truly felt about him.

How did I feel about him, about us, anyway? We had never talked about it seriously before. It just always seemed normal, like it didn't need to be discussed. Still, now that I realized we danced on the wire between friendships and relationships, it only made me overthink it even more.

"Come on," Natsu tore away, much to my dismay. "Let's go again."

Feeling dazed, I nodded absentmindedly, moving back towards the starting position. Natsu whirled the bo staff around his head before positioning it diagonally, prepared to strike. I waited before Natsu lunged forward with his bo staff, causing me to jolt out of my thoughts.

The slashes of the sticks moved like lightning, and there was no time to think. It felt like we were in an actual battle scene, where it was nothing but me, this staff, and my willpower that kept me alive. I couldn't plan, or strategize. It was simply a matter of blocking and attacking, scanning each part of him for a split-second vulnerable spot. I turned to the defensive side, feeling myself take steps back towards the wall. I was losing ground, I thought desperately.

But instead of switching to offense, I remembered why I was here in the first place; to warn Natsu of the angel boy, the hunting, the danger.

"Natsu, stop," I called out, blocking a strike to my head. I caught a glimpse of his face; stoic and expressionless, it was the face of a warrior on a battlefield, fighting for their life. I don't think he heard me amidst his concentration.

"Natsu," I tried again, louder. My movements became sloppy; I knew I was falling behind on reaction time. Eventually, I couldn't take it. When he brought the stick down to meet mine, I kicked it out of his hands, allowing it to fly away, skittering a few feet away from us.

Before I could think, I had grabbed his arm and slammed him against the wall. "Would you just stop for two seconds?!" I nearly shouted, staring him down. His face lit up red, seemingly abashed that I was pinning him to the wall.

"Gray-?" He managed to squeak out.

"Shut up and listen to me!" I hissed, cutting him off. I shortened the distance between us with a step closer. Our noses were mere inches apart, and if I looked hard enough, I could see my reflection in his irises. I didn't even give him time to respond.

My voice dripped with venom as I hissed out the words I'd been meaning to tell him all along, the dream I had that was quickly morphing into our worst nightmare. "There are more of the black angels, Natsu. And I think they have a mission: to find us and bring us back to the Lab."