Natsu spent the most of his year training, keeping in touch with Gray over the phone as much as she could in between her traveling and training sessions. As the tenth month of his training journey got closer, he started thinking about the operation. He would definitely need some time to recover from the surgery so he had postponed it for as long as she could so he could train his body and magic as much as possible. But now he was ready for it!

So one night, he took the lacrima phone in his hand and called Gray's number. Throughout the year, more and more people started using the small lacrima devices. But Gray's number was still the only one saved in his phone until now, addressed with the name 'Ice Princess 3'
Natsu dialled the number and the phone started ringing. He waited patiently for Gray to pick up the phone. When he finally did, Natsu was relieved.

"Hey Natsu, what's up?", his voice sounded through the phone and Natsu smiled upon hearing it.
"Nothing much. Just wanted to let you know I'm having my transitioning surgery tomorrow afternoon."
"That's great news Natsu. Do you want me to come with you?
Natsu swallowed. He would like that very much. But wasn't that asking too much of Gray? He didn't know where Gray was in Fiore… "If you don't mind…"
"Of course I don't mind Natsu. When do I have to be where?"
"How quickly can you be in Crocus?" Natsu asked. The best hospitals and medicine mages were in Crocus after all.
"Crocus is fairly close to where I live now, I can be there by tomorrow, how about you?"
"How close are you to Crocus? I'm fairly close to Crocus as well. Perhaps we could meet up today and sleep together once more before my body changes so drastically…"
"Sounds like a plan. I live 2 kilometres North from Crocus, how about we meet up at the northern gate and walk to my place together?" Gray proposed and Natsu smiled. "Sure, can't wait to see you again."
Natsu pressed the red button on the screen and started walking toward the northern gate of Crocus so he could meet up with his boyfriend again.

When Gray arrived at the gate, he didn't spot Natsu at first sight. As a matter of fact, he was the only person who was still out here this late. After waiting for a few minutes, another person walked through the gate and Gray didn't mind the person much until he suddenly heard a high pitched voice "Hey Natsu, that's Gray over there!". His head snapped in the direction of the person that had just walked through the gate and his mouth fell open. He hadn't recognised Natsu in the dark like that; but as he walked up to him and came to a stop underneath the light of a street light, Gray was finally able to get a good look at him. His hair had grown considerably and reached till his waist where it first was only shoulder length and his body had gotten more curves while still staying in shape with light traces of muscles underneath the soft skin.

Gray walked towards her and gave him a hug, which Natsu gladly accepted. Their lips met and he could vaguely hear Happy on the background saying "He llllikkesss herrr,"

As the three of them walked back to Gray's home; Natsu and Gray started talking while Happy was nodding off while clinging onto Natsu's shoulder. "Are you excited for tomorrow?" Gray asked the pinket who looked up and into his eyes. Natsu nodded, but then spoke up "I'm excited. I'm happy too; I'll finally get to be what I have always wanted to be. But I'm scared Gray… What if something goes wrong during the surgery. And I can't help but ask myself over and over if you will still really love me when I've changed like that…"

Gray shook his head "Natsu listen to me. I didn't fall in love with your gender or what's in between your legs. I fell in love with you, with who you are; no matter if the Natsu is a male or a female, I will always love you."
Natsu teared up upon hearing this and silently thanked Gray.

That night, as Natsu was trying to fall asleep in Gray's embrace, he couldn't stop thinking about what would be happening tomorrow. Finally, after nineteen years, he would be a female. He could feel comfortable in society and use a public bathroom without first contemplating which one to use and then just keep up with it until he could go somewhere more private. Finally he could refer to himself in his mind as 'she' and 'her'. He knew most people already did so and called him 'she' and 'her' without a problem. But he had never been able to do that for himself. Not until he really was a girl…

When Natsu was led out of the room for his surgery the next day, Gray saw a mixture of feelings on the pinket's face which he couldn't really make out. Natsu looked happy, but he looked like he was worried too. Gray just hoped that everything would turn out all right for Natsu and that when he would see him again, Natsu finally had the body he wanted to have.
"Sir; I'm afraid you won't be able to wait here. We'll contact you once Miss Dragneel is starting to wake up again," one of the nurses told him and Gray sighed. He had hoped he could wait here and get a first look at Natsu's body when she came back from her surgery…

He reluctantly left the room and walked a bit around Crocus before returning to his little cottage.
He made himself some tea and then made himself comfortable on the couch since it could take a long time before Natsu would return from her surgery. He whipped out his lacrima phone and opened the chat with Erza.

'Natsu's surgery is today.'
'Really? How did it go? When can I visit?'
'She's not back from the surgery yet, they'll call me when she starts to wake up again. But she can have visitors starting the day after tomorrow.'
'I'll make sure to visit then. What hospital is she staying at?'
'The big one in Crocus, I'll send you the address later.'

Gray smiled, he could always count on Erza for stuff like this. He knew that Erza would be the right choice since she had always been the closest to the two of them ever since they were kids. Now all that was left was to contact Makarov; Gray thought as he dialled the number of the old man on his lacrima phone. The phone started ringing and soon the old man picked up the phone "Gray? What a surprise to have you calling me," he said over the phone and Gray couldn't help but smile a little. "Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that Natsu is going through her surgery now. So maybe you could spare some time to pay her a visit this week. I'm sure she would be really happy…"
"Would I ever say no to something like that? Thank you for letting me know; Crocus right?"
"Huh? How do you know about that?"
"Do you honestly think I never talked with Natsu about this Gray? I was the one who told her that the big hospital in Crocus would be the best choice," he explained and Gray just replied with a single "Oh…"
"Makarov laughed and then said "I'll come over tomorrow or the day after. I can't wait to see how the surgery went. I'm sure you won't even be able to see she was a guy at first with the advanced magic they have today. Now, I'll talk to you later, I'm pretty busy restarting the guild again," the old man said and he put down the phone.

Gray spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting in the living room with his phone nearby for when the doctor would call him about Natsu. Late that night, just after 9PM, the phone rang and Gray was quick to pick it up "Hello?"
"Am I talking to Mr. Fullbuster?" the voice at the other side of the phone asked.
"Yes," Gray answered .Trying his best to hide his enthusiasm. They had finally called him. Now he could see Natsu again.
"Miss Natsu's surgery was a success. We normally don't allow visitors at the hospital this late anymore, but we made an exception for you this time. Do you think you could still come over?"
"Yes, of course. I'll be there in thirty minutes!" Gray said and got up to take his jacket, which he would probably strip off a few minutes later anyway, and started heading to the hospital.

When Gray arrived at the hospital, a doctor took him to Natsu's room and the ravenet knocked briefly. He entered the room when a feminine voice told him to come in. Then on the bed, he saw Natsu sitting up. She looked at Gray with a smile as a raspy, but still feminine voice said "Hey Gray,"

Gray then took a good look at Natsu who was in the hospital bed. And as the old man had said, if you didn't know that Natsu had first been a male specimen of the human race, you would never be able to spot it now. While she was taking the hormones, she still looked a little like a guy. But now, not even Gray could spot anything male on her. She looked like an entirely different person, and yet she still looked like Natsu.
"You look great, how are you feeling?"
"My head is killing me and my throat is pretty sore, but other than that I'm feeling amazing," Natsu explained and just then a doctor walked into the room as well. "So Miss Dragneel, how are you feeling? I know you must want to tell your boyfriend everything since you two haven't seen each other in a while, but you must refrain from talking too much since your voice needs to heal," she explained as she was checking up on the bag connected to Natsu's arm. "I'll take Mr. Fullbuster with me and explain everything so you can rest a bit, okay?" she asked and Natsu nodded as she sank back into the pillow.

Gray followed the doctor outside of the room and towards a room he suspected was the break room. They were the only ones there at this hour and the doctor handed him a cup of coffee which he gladly accepted.

"So, how did that surgery work actually?" Gray asked.
"Well, since our magic has advanced so much over the last few years, we are now able to fully 'transform the body however the person pleases. That is how most plastic surgery and body transformations like this happen these days. It leaves less scars since we don't actually need to cut into the body and it looks more natural because it's a 'new body'. This also shortens the recovery time drastically. If everything goes well and Natsu is happy with her new body, she will be able to leave next week already; normally this would take up to three weeks. It's much more efficient like this and patients have to wait less long for their own surgeries," she explained as Gray finished his coffee

"So, how will Natsu's recovery go?" the male asked and the nurse answered as she put their cups on the counter "We have contacted a small healing mage, I think her name was Wendy, and she was very willing to help with the healing of miss Dragneel. She will mostly help with the healing of Natsu's voice and upper body. The lower parts are a bit more complicated so we leave that to the experts on this matter."

The two of them walked back to Natsu's room where they found Natsu sleeping with Happy curled up in her arms. Gray wanted to wake up the little blue cat when the doctor stopped him. "The cat can stay here overnight. He's like Natsu's son anyway, right?" she asked. Gray nodded. He could understand that Happy would want to be with Natsu now after this big change "I'll come back tomorrow," he told the doctor who moved out of the way so Gray could pass through the door and said "Please do so Mr. Fullbuster."

The days passed way too slow for Natsu who couldn't wait till she could finally get out of the hospital bed and back to training. But that dream was quickly crushed when the nurses told her that she shouldn't be training or doing any hard labor like quests and such for the next month. Gray and Happy were with her most of the time to help her pass the time in the hospital and a few days after Natsu's surgery, more and more members of the guild started to drop by. First it was only Wendy, who was helping with the healing, Erza and Master Makarov, who was busy starting the guild back up; but slowly, Lucy, Juvia and other members started visiting to see how Natsu had changed. After a week of staying in bed and healing and recovery every day, Natsu was finally released from the hospital and on the same day, the members of the guild got the news that Fairy Tail would be starting up again in a few days. Gray proposed to move back to Magnolia in the meantime so they could settle in before the guild opened again. But this seemed a lot harder than Gray had originally expected since Natsu was still recovering and she couldn't carry anything heavy to not burden her new body.

"I'm sorry I can't be of much help…" she apologised to her boyfriend who shook his head "Hey, it's the boyfriend's job to show off and do the work, right?" he said as he stuck out his tongue at a pouting Natsu. "It's not because my body changed that you suddenly have to treat me as a weak little girl, you know? I haven't been training the past year for nothing," Natsu told the ravenet who carried another box to the hired car. "I know, I know. But I can't help but tease you a little," he told her as he dropped the box in the car and pressed a kiss on Natsu's lips.

"We'll be ready to depart soon," Gray told her. "Do you have all of your stuff?"
"We didn't have much to begin with. I really should invest in some clothes for girls instead of just my old outfit Lucy adjusted for me…" Natsu seemed to be in thought. "How about we go shopping once we're back in Magnolia?"
"Look Natsu, I know you asked me to not treat you any difference than before just because your body changed; but if you start going crazy about shopping like the rest of the girls in the guild, I'm gonna have to punch you back to your normal line of thought…" Gray said and the two of them burst out in laughter.

The two of them, and Happy of course got into the vehicle and as Gray started driving, Natsu immediately leaned over and held her stomach as her motion sickness kicked in again.

"Seems like you haven't changed as much as I thought; you really are the same old Natsu…" Gray noticed and smiled. Even though her appearance had changed, Natsu hadn't. She was still the same old Natsu Gray had always known; the same old Natsu Gray had fallen in love with…