chapter 4

                                    

                                          
"I'm bored."
                          
Gray looked up at the rearview mirror to see Natsu's reflection in the back seat of the car. He gave Gray a pathetic look as he leaned his head against the window. 
                          
"It's only been an hour," Gray said, rolling his eyes. "How are you going to manage for three days?"
                          
Natsu groaned, tipping his head back against the seat dramatically. The late afternoon sun reflected off his scales, giving his dark skin a reddish glow. 
                          
"Weren't you the one that said three days wasn't a long time?" Gray looked back at the road, continuing to sneak peeks in the mirror when he could. Natsu swallowed, and the tattoos on his neck shifted with his skin. Gray traced the lines where they dipped under Natsu's shirt, and he wondered absently where they ended. 
                          
"My stomach," Natsu said. Gray frowned, then remembered that Natsu could read his mind. He ducked his head, trying to hide his burning cheeks. "And they're not tattoos," Natsu said, seemingly unperturbed by Gray's embarrassment. "They're markings." 
                          
"What's the difference?" Gray asked, trying to keep his voice steady. 
                          
"They're magic," Natsu explained. His image disappeared from the rearview mirror, reappearing in the passenger window as if he were sitting in the seat next to Gray. "It's how I use my powers." 
                          
"So... you got them in hell?" 
                          
"The hells." 
                          
"Why?" 
                          
Natsu hesitated. "'cause, uh... I was bored." 
                          
Gray raised an eyebrow. "You got magic tattoos—"
                          
"Markings." 
                          
"—markings because you were bored?" 
                          
Gray could feel Natsu's indignance when he answered, "Yes." He sighed. "The hells are seriously the worst. Everyone's mean. All they wanna talk about is torturing people and vengeance and shit, and it's boring."
                          
Gray was pretty sure that torture and vengeance didn't usually fall under the umbrella of 'boring conversation,' but he didn't argue. 
                          
"So... what kind of magic can you do?" he asked instead. 
                          
"Fire, mostly," Natsu said. Something flickered in the reflection, and when Gray turned to look, he could see a small flame sitting in Natsu's palm. 
                          
"Please don't burn my car down." 
                          
Natsu laughed, turning his hand palm-down and running the flame across his knuckles like a magician would with a coin. "Don't worry," he reassured Gray, "I can only use my magic up here when I'm inside you." Gray made a choked sound, and Natsu's eyes widened as he quickly added, "Shit, not like—not in you like that, I mean like using your body. To magic. Not for... other stuff." 
                          
He quickly looked away, and Gray could swear there was an embarrassed flush on his cheeks. "Oh," was all Gray could manage as he desperately tried to push the sudden mental image of Natsu inside him out of his head. The soft, warm presence of Natsu in the back of his mind sparked and sputtered like a candle near an open window. 
                          
"What do you do?" Natsu asked quickly. His voice was tight, and he turned away from Gray, staring out the window at the fields of canola. 
                          
"Do?" Gray rubbed his face, trying to compose himself. 
                          
"For work? School? Whatever." 
                          
"Ah." He exhaled, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and focusing on the highway. "I don't." He felt the question in the back of his mind and sighed. "I was working," he said reluctantly, "before I moved here. And I'm not anymore. Not right now, anyway."