"oh..oh my god. is he going to faint?"
"gray, stay with us. we're going to be back to the hotel in a few minutes."
the world started to return to him in oversaturated blotches, and gray winced. he pushed as much strength as he could into his legs and attempted to lean on erza less heavily. the light headedness had subdued to a tolerable level, and the pain, which had been so blinding a few moments before, could be forgotten for these last few moments of consciousness.
"y-yeah. sorry," he said. lucy offered him an encouraging smile, before looking off in the direction of the hotel.
"do you think natsu and happy made it back by now?" she mused. "i hope he's okay. that fight with the guild master really took a lot out of him."
"i told happy to clean his wounds before he woke up."
"yeah, great idea! leave the medical work to the cat," lucy said, and gray chuckled softly. they had always been here for each other like this, in times of pain and persistence, with good humor and kind smiles. gray blacked out again, stumbling against erza with a groan. the requip mage sighed, before lifting gray's limp figure onto her back. his eyes blinked languidly and he weakly muttered out a "thank you".
"he lost too much blood in that fight," erza whispered, more to herself than to lucy. "if i can't stop the bleeding when we get home, we'll have to take him to a hospital. this could be really dangerous." lucy's breath hitched and she looked down at the floor.
"you should get some sleep, erza. i think you might have gotten a concussion."
"isn't it the other way around?"
"what do you mean?"
"those who have gotten a head injury should, instead of sleeping, stay awake until medically attended to."
"i...i don't know," lucy whispered, each word coming out laboriously from her lips. neither had the energy to continue the conversation, so they took the elevator up to their hotel room and pressed the key into the lock, turning.
natsu was sitting up in his bed, neatly bandaged and propped up by two pillows. he smiled brightly as the trio entered the hotel room, his eyes landing on his sleeping best friend. the expression on his face tightened.
"did ice block faint on the way home?" he asked, and erza nodded briskly before dropping gray on the bed. his face was peaceful, though not covering the hint of pain on his features, and the blood from his abdomen and right leg had already soaked through the sheets. natsu winced, moving over to give the ice mage more space.
"that'll be a hell of a lot for the hotel workers to clean up," he said. erza ignored him, extracting a few towels from her bag and placing them under gray's wounds. happy hovered over the ice mage's head, worry evident in his eyes.
"you can seal that up, right erza?" he asked.
"of course i can, happy."
lucy returned to the hotel room with bandages and a bucket of water in her arms, placing them on the night stand next to gray. erza started to put pressure on gray's abdomen wound with a large dry cloth, turning back to face lucy.
"can you try to stop the bleeding on his leg?" she asked her, and the blonde nodded before kneeling next to the bedside and uncovering the lower part of his body. lucy turned over to natsu, examining his bandages.
"how are you feeling natsu, by the way? did the bleeding stop?" she asked, and natsu nodded.
"if it stopped for natsu, it'll definitely stop for gray in the next few minutes. his wounds were deeper, i think."
"good," erza said, "good job, happy." the blue exceed blushed, rubbing his head with a large smile. he retreated back to natsu's side, cuddling against the dragon slayer's chest.
three minutes had passed, and everyone's breaths were tightening. natsu's eyes had not left gray's abdomen, the white cloth that had become more coated in red with each passing second.
"i think we should take him to the hospital."
"natsu, calm down. the blood is slowing down."
"what if he's lost too much blood already? he could be dying for all we know!"
"as i was said, the blood is slowing down. he's going to be okay."
"his breathing is really shallow. i can hear it."
"natsu, for goodness sakes, calm down!" lucy said, her hands still putting pressure on gray's leg. "besides, aren't you the one that always says that he's going to be okay? or that he's a stupid ice princess and way too annoying to die?" natsu looked away, drumming his fingers on the nightstand.
"of course i said that. i'm not worried at all...just, you know, i'd rather put him in a hospital rather than take up the energy of my fellow teammates. it's not like i really care what's going on with him anyway. that's all."
"okay, natsu, you've convinced us. you really are the dragon of apathy and we should have never doubted your ability to not care at all in the first place," lucy teased, before a large smile broke across her face. "hey, he stopped bleeding!" lucy removed the cloth and began to flush the wound with the warm water. natsu peered over.
"anything i can do to help?"
"seeing as you can't walk or, rather, put on bandages correctly, i don't think so," erza said dryly, throwing the bloody cloth in the trash and applying water to the ice mage's abdomen. natsu watched as the two girls managed to clean and cover gray's wounds in the next few minutes. erza sighed in exhaustion, walking over to the bed next to them and going under the covers. the sun had already set below the evergreen trees, leaving the four in darkness save for the flickering light that washed the room in gold.
"i forgot to ask erza, will you be okay? you should tend to your wounds before going to sleep," lucy said, pouting.
"i'm too tired. let's deal with it tomorrow," erza said softly, "if gray and natsu are feeling up to it, we'll head home and i'll get treated by mira. okay?" lucy paused, before nodding and turning off the light.
gray woke up to the sound of natsu's snores in his ears and the sound of throwing up. he sat up too quickly and held his head, bullets of pain shooting through his body. gingerly, he stepped on his good leg, attempting to hop over to the bathroom and clear the fuzziness from his brain.
"gray, are you alright?" erza asked, her face pale yet composed. gray nodded, before narrowing his eyes.
"were you throwing up?" he asked, and erza looked away before nodding.
"it's nothing to worry about."
"you're right, i guess. you should probably get that concussion checked out by mira soon, though. we wouldn't want a repeat of our second mission together."
"what happened on...?...oh right," erza said, laughing softly. "we were so young and stupid." gray smiled, knowing that a part of this conversation was merely fabrication. the childhood that they referenced with nostalgia had never existed, not in the time that they had known each other; both had shared the same fate of having their innocence ripped from their fists, of growing up too fast and becoming too wise.
yet in some way, they were able to find childhood again, if not in themselves, in each other.
"are you going back to sleep?" gray asked. the drowsiness was beginning to clear up, and pain was returning with every second. erza seemed to have noticed, and she examined him with worry.
"no, i have a concussion. i heard from somewhere that you need to stay awake," she said, sighing heavily. she was beginning to feel nauseous again, and her eyes darted in distraction across the darkness. gray scoffed, a knowing grin spreading across his face.
"that's also what you said eight years ago."
"oh really?" she asked. "and was i right?"
"no, so let's get you to sleep," he said, placing a steady hand on her back as they made their way back to the room. erza sank into her bed first, curling under the comforters with a sigh of relief. the nausea immediately subsided, and she smiled sleepily up at the ice mage.
"good night, gray."
"good night," he said. "thanks...thanks for bandaging me up." yet erza had not heard him, because she had fallen asleep, and he pulled the blankets over his head and tried to close his eyes.
the morning passed by smoothly, and all felt well enough to take the long train ride home. natsu sat next to lucy and gray next to erza, with happy curled up on the dragon slayer's lap, sleeping, and light conversation was made as natsu's head remained firmly out of the window. gray complained that natsu's nauseated groans were preventing him from getting any sleep, and erza resolved this problem by knocking the dragon slayer out, as she always did, against the harsh metal of her chest plate.
it was then that gray and lucy started their usual banter: the ice mage pulling her stolen manuscript out of his bag, and lucy's face dropping in horror. it was as if he hadn't taken her writing countlessly to missions for years now, and pulled it out of his luggage a million times with the same unabashed, shameless expression. and it was as if he, with his wide eyes and confused countenance, could not have foreseen her annoyance. erza brought out her sketchbook, as she sometimes did during missions, and decided to sketch the two on one of the last empty pages. happy, who had awoken due to gray and lucy's quarrel, looked over her shoulder with amusement.
"it looks like them, doesn't it happy?" she asked him, her eyes glittering with pride. her head had been bandaged up that morning with gray's help, and, though her face was a few shades paler than her normal color, she glowed with full happiness.
"i...i guess," happy said. if he were being honest, erza had made gray and lucy to look more like fish than people...yet this could have been a production of his overactive, slightly hungry imagination. erza smiled at him.
"do you want me to draw you next?"
"no! ... no thanks," he said quickly, before a thought came to his mind. he smiled mischievously, turning back to the face the requip mage. "hey, why don't you draw natsu?"
"what...WHAT IS THAT?" natsu said, his senses jumping back to alertness. erza grinned with an air of pride.
"it's a drawing of you. happy told me that you would enjoy it, and i thought that it would be a nice present since you got so beaten up over the mission," she said, before pausing. "it pains me to say this...but if you want, i'll give it to you for free. you don't need to clean my armor or anything." she tore the page out of her sketchbook and placed it in his hands. natsu stared down at it, still being rendered speechless.
"w..why do i look like a cockroach..."
"what?" erza asked, her head tilting to the side. "well, i tried to make your features more dragon like, but maybe-"
"nevermind," natsu said, waving his hand to silence her. "thanks erza. this means a lot."
the red head's smile returned with full force, and she slapped his shoulder in affection (on second thought, it was never a good idea to give erza compliments. the physical component of her compliment acceptance routine always resulted in a few broken bones). gray and lucy walked ahead of the group, the ice mage leaning on her body so as not to put pressure on his broken leg.
"can you please stop getting so hurt on missions? no offense, but i don't really like having your sweaty body against me all the time," lucy complained. the ice mage scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"gee, i'm sorry lucy. i didn't realize that you suffered so badly because of my injuries," he said dryly. "i'll try to keep them down to a minimum next time so i don't, you know, inconvenience you like this."
"you're such an idiot. i don't know why i do these things for you."
"yes, yes, you're a very good girl lucy. all of us are well aware."
"shut up. what are you doing for dinner tonight?" she asked, adjusting the ice mage more steadily on her shoulders so as to put less pressure on his leg.
"i didn't really think about it. i might ask cana to make some ramen for me," he said, before narrowing his eyes at the ground. "but, as the case may be, i'm incapable of walking anywhere." lucy looked up at the sky.
"ramen does sound good right now. want to go over to her apartment together at six?"
"sounds good," the ice mage responded. "thanks."
"great. now let's get you home so you can rest."
"sleeping in your bed...sounds really good right now," gray admitted. lucy smiled at him before turning back to her other three friends.
"gray and i are heading back home. are you guys coming with us?" she asked. natsu perked up and a huge grin spread across his face.
"home? hell yeah! i'm going to raid your pantry and eat those awesome dragon gummies you bought!" he said.
"i guess i'll go as well. fairy hills doesn't have any hot water right now so i need a place to shower," she said, before hesitating. "but if we're intruding, please let us know. i'll take care of gray and natsu's punishments personally...and you, of course, may hit me as hard as you see fit."
"that won't be necessary," lucy said, smiling nervously at erza's remark. happy giggled, hovering above her head.
"of course, we wouldn't want to be interrupting your date with gray," he said smugly. lucy face turned a bright red, and gray turned to him with darkened eyes.
"can you please, for once in your life, stay out of our love lives?" he asked. happy flew over to him and perched himself on the top of the ice mage's head.
"i wish i could, but it's gotten far to interesting at this point. you're pretty much dating...how many people? erza, lucy, cana, ultear, mira, juvia...maybe even loke, if we're keeping it open!"
"shut the fuck up, right now."
"hey! don't curse in front of happy, he's only nine!"
"oh please, flame brain. it's not like you have the vernacular of saint," gray said, before turning back to happy. "also, i'm getting real tired of you psychoanalyzing my life. i am more than capable of doing that myself."
"i don't know gray...happy does have a point."
"wait, not you to lucy. do you hear what he's saying? he's saying that we're dating! i can't believe you're okay with that."
lucy smirked, adjusting the ice mage again on her shoulders.
"yeah, i guess you're right. why would i be okay with dating you? sweaty, broody, reckless you? i would be insane."
"yeah! you tell him lucy!"
"you know i didn't mean it like that. and natsu, when i start feeling better i'm going to kill you. you've been way to goddamn annoying on this trip."
"okay, gray-chan. i'll wait until your little boo-boos heal."
"natsu, that's incredibly hypocritical. you can't even walk properly at the moment."
"thank you, erza. now can you guys stop ganging up on me?" gray said, throwing a pleading glance towards lucy. the celestial mage chuckled, before taking out the keys to her house.
life returned to normal for the team. or, rather, it had never deviated from their normal routine; wounds and health scares had become the norm for them. the worry never diminished in intensity but became more manageable, and lucy, when she helped gray into bed, was able to tear her eyes away from his figure and onto other things.
they all settled in rather quickly. lucy and erza sat across from each other doing face masks. gray was on his side, his face peaceful in slumber as he emitted small breaths from his lips. natsu and happy were seated on the couch, the fire mage stuffing his mouth with dragon gummies as the two looked over potential jobs they would go on next. in a few minutes, gray would be woken up and the four would eat dinner, the ice mage and lucy at cana's apartment, natsu with romeo at the guild, and erza would take the train again to meet up with minerva and kagura for sushi.
and this would not be aftermath anymore, because wounds healed and people slept away their pain. and beginnings were always too close to their fingertips.
lucy could stay here forever, in this state of suspended security. she would go to sleep knowing that a tomorrow was waiting for her.