Gradually

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Prompt: I could kiss you right now.

Everything that was between them happened gradually. They started at one end of the spectrum and they slid along to the other, moving so slowly that it went almost unnoticed. Only a few payed enough attention to them to see it happen, and Erza was the only one who predicted it early on. Not that she told anyone. If she had ever once suggested that the guild's biggest rivals could fall for each other in the future, she'd be sent to a mental institution.

It all started when they met. Natsu was ten, Gray was eleven, and both of them were completely unaware of what was to come.

The entire guild had gone silent when an odd pink haired child began speaking to their master. Several of them had jumped when he first opened his mouth, having not heard him come inside over the brawl. "Mr. have you see any dragons lately?" He was about the same height as the Wizard Saint, making them believe he could be no older than eight. He had a bright smile that seemed to light up the entire area, and his eyes reflected so much hope that it overwhelmed a few of the onlookers.

Their master nearly spit his beer everywhere. "What in Mavis's name is a child his size doing here without his parents, and asking about dragons no less?" He stared at the child in front of him with an odd expression. The boy bore a powerful seal on his magic that he'd only seen twice. One of those times it had been on the first master herself. "I have not," he answered honestly.

The boys smile faltered, "Oh. Okay. Thank you." He turned around dejectedly, and the urge to hug him was difficult not to act on.

"Since you asked me a question," Makarov began, "I believe that it's alright for me to ask you one in return?" The pinkette turned around to look him in the eyes, and Makarov could suddenly see things he wished he couldn't, especially not in a child, "Why are you looking for the dragons, brat?"

The flat look that he was given would have been comical if not for the sentence that came out of his mouth next, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. No one has. The all think I'm crazy. Fucking humans." This time Makarov did spit his beer, alongside several other people.

Seeing the small, pink-haired child swear had been the breaking point for many of them. Macao slammed his beer down on the bar, pushing it away from him. "I'm never drinking again. I swear I just hallucinated a child dropping the f-bomb."

"No that's what he said," Makarov muttered after the shock wore off. He turned back to the kid, who looked completely unapologetic, and decided to get the full story, "You'll find that I'm not like most people, brat. Tell me everything."

It was the pinkette's turn to raise an eyebrow, "You want the whole thing? Not just why I'm looking for a dragon?" Makarov nodded, once. "Okay, " he plopped down on the floor with a thud, "I can't remember anything from before I was three. It's all just blank. I don't remember my parents or if I lived somewhere else, or if I had siblings. There's just earliest thing I remember is waking up in the middle of the woods next to a cave with a dragon in it, and that I have a big-ass scar on my neck." They all glanced at his scarf as he pulled it off, the to the awful mark across his neck. "Igneel says that it technically killed me, and that it's the reason I don't remember anything else. Igneel's the dragon by the way. He taught me my magic and how to survive, and he named me Natsu. He's the closest thing I have to family, and a week ago, he vanished. I couldn't track his scent, his magic signature, or anything." He paused for a moment to let it sit in, taking in the shock on all of their faces with an odd sense of satisfaction. "I eventually wondered into a city, but I couldn't recognize the language. I stayed there for a couple of days to listen for patterns and pick up on it, so that I could ask people if they'd seen my dad. Fiori is a weird language by the way, especially compared to the one's Igneel taught me."

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"That I can agree with," Several heads turned the speaker including Natsu's, "But the dragon bullshit is just that. Bullshit." Gray had been a newer member of the guild at the time, and he still had a small accent from growing up in Isvan. He was looking at the pinkette like he was nothing more than a stain on the floor, and it shocked those who knew him. "You shouldn't lie to people."

"None of what I said was a lie." The warm voice Natsu had spoken with had disappeared.

Most people began to back away when the temperature started rising, but the rest quickly followed once Gray only got half-way through the words "Proove it." The pinkette had launched himself at the ice mage, decking him in the face with a flaming fist. Gray snaped the table behind him in half when he landed, and from there it was a death match.

Both mages were at each others throats for a good ten minutes before Makarov figured out how to stop them without hurting them. He slammed his enlarged arm in between them, taking an attack from Gray meant for Natsu. Natsu had extinguished his flames and stopped the majority of the momentum from his punch before he basically tapped Makarov's arm. The pinkette sighed and dropped his arm. "I apologize. I shouldn't have let myself get angry." Gray just "tched" and walked out.

The guild had been trashed, and the weaker members were hiding behind the bar. "It's not your fault, Natsu." Makarov said amazed, "You know, you'd fit in here, and if you joined the guild, you would have a place to stay while you looked for Igneel."

Natsu froze half-way finished picking up a table. "What's a guild?"

That had been the first time they fought and it certainly wasn't the last. However, it was the only time they fought out of pure hatred. Gray had apologized after a week, and had even asked him to tell him about the dragon who'd raised him.

Natsu spent almost three hours talking about random things he did with Igneel, and he explained his magic to the ice mage. Gray had missed it when he stormed off.

Their rivalry was strong, and the two of them kept with it. They challenged each other to everything. When they were younger it was consistently more often and more violent. As they got older, it was only once or twice a day, and it didn't last as long. It took six years for them to get down to one physical fight a day.

The arguing and insults were something that never stopped, simply turning themselves into nicknames by the time they were fifteen and sixteen.

"Natsu's quiet. He's never quiet." The thought sent Gray on edge as he watched the dragon slayer from across the room. He had barely spoken a word to anyone all day, and it was starting to worry the ice mage.

Gray decided to do the only thing he could. "I'm bored," He nearly screamed, "There's no good jobs and no one here's doing any thing!" He watched Natsu's head lift up from his arms, and the second they made eye contact, Gray knew he'd taken the bait. "Are you okay, Flame-Brain?"

"Then go be bored somewhere else, Elsa," Natsu spat out. "I'm fine. Just one of those days."

"What if I don't want to, Frire-Freak?" Gray challenged. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Then I'll kick your ass, Icicle-Dick." Their guild members were already shooting back. "Yes, but no."

"I don't think you're capable of that, Ash-For-Brains," Gray shouted, "You sure?"

"Try me, Frosty the Snowman," Natsu declared confidently. "Yeah. Hit first, talk later."

"OUTSIDE!" Erza shouted, and both of them ran.

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