Natsu felt the arms around him slackening, he felt the tight grip slipping away and he shot a hand out toward Gray desperately, his hands gripping a pale thigh as they hurled through the air. He heard the piercing scratch of metal against the ceiling and then everything was crashing down and Natsu felt his feet his the ground for one split second before he was running and launching Gray away from him. Natsu flung himself down over Gray and what could only be described as the carcass of a vehicle landed a mere two inches from them.
He was so stupid, so so stupid. Gray and him both. They were foolish. Natsu had thought a fire that sixe must have started because of a gas leak. If he could just find the source and cut it off, it would minimize the spread of the flames to the direction the storm carried it instead of outward in every direction. It could save more people. He'd left Gray behind for that chance and he would have died out there. And Gray walked into the smoke for him, he walked toward the fire because he couldn't let Natsu die and Natsu was always making Gray do things he didn't want to.
Now he could feel the ground moving beneath them, the structure shaking and their bodies being thrown in the air and he clutched Gray's ankle with all of his strengths because he couldn't lose him. He was so in love with Gray it hurt. He kept trying to push Gray away to keep him safe and Gray kept stubbornly holding on and now he was bleeding and his lungs hadn't been much better than Natsu's and the air around them was so hot it was stifling and Natsu just wanted them to fall back down to earth so he could make sure Gray was still breathing. If Gray wasn't alive, Natsu didn't have a reason to try. He wouldn't have a reason to exist. Gray was everything he had, everything he needed and he would die for him, he would die in his place if given the option. He wouldn't hesitate.
Gray's eyes were shut and Natsu shot a hand out to his wrist, climbing forward on Gray's body mid-air, hoping with all of his being that he would feel something. It was slow. I was hard to feel, but Natsu pressed deep and a slow, steady thudding pulsed against his fingertips and he let out a sharp breath of relief that got lost in the sound of the storm and sucked the air out of his lungs.
Natsu didn't worry about himself. He gripped Gray tightly and wrapped his limbs around his unconscious roommate, one calf behind his spine so that it couldn't take the impact of a hit, so that it wouldn't be his fault if Gray was paralyzed because Natsu knew he would never forgive himself if he let that happen. He wrapped both arms around a pale neck, shielding the top of his spine and his head. He kept Gray's chest right against his own, not letting anything his his heart. Natsu felt something sharp pierce his shoulder. He felt but didn't hear the scream that ripped from his throat. He saw the droplets of red floating in the air for a brief three seconds, as if they couldn't decide which direction to fall in, before they shot to the ceiling.
Everything was moving too fast and he had no more than a second of warning each time something hard slammed into his side or cut open a fresh wound on his shoulder blade. He didn't see what objects marred his arms in bruises. He didn't know what caused the blistering feeling along his legs. He wasn't aware of what kept ripping blood from him each time the air knocked it back toward him. He didn't know what his screams sounded like. He didn't move. He kept himself locked around Gray, limbs frozen in their protective position no matter how many times they fell, no matter what stabbing pains Natsu felt along his legs, no matter how much everything hurt. It felt like forever before the wind grew weaker. It had probably been maybe ten minutes as the tornado passed over the structure. It felt like an eternity. There was one final lurch and Natsu had a brief second to curse the irony of his own blood marking the point of impact as they crashed into the ceiling and flew right back down with gravity, a sickening broken sound ringing out in the lot and the feeling of fire rushing through his left arm.
The sound of his own scream was foreign to him, escaping through gritted teeth and still, he didn't allow himself to stop and consider it. The moment the ground felt steady beneath him, he looked up at the parking exit, the area blocked by a thick cloud of black smoke that rose upward. He knew the fire would be burning stronger now. He would have worried about running out of oxygen if he didn't know that the government required enclosed parking structures to have filtered ventilation shafts. They would have air to breathe. He just needed to keep Gray alive to breathe it.
He was fucking terrified because he didn't know how to do that. He wasn't a doctor. He only knew the basics because of the way Gray took care of him. He hated himself all the more for fighting Gray every step of the way. He'd just wanted Gray to be happy and not worry about him so much because he simply wasn't worth it and Gray still went the extra mile for him and now he was bleeding from the left side of his head in a parking lot and Natsu didn't know how to save him. He'd never been able to save anyone that mattered to him. Things never changed.
He forced himself to carry Gray, cradling his head in the crook of his neck even as he held him up against his own body with one arm. He knew he wasn't supposed to move him, but he didn't have a choice. He picked him up on shaking limbs and headed to one of the busted up cars beside them. There was one that was missing all four doors and Natsu picked it for its easy access. He couldn't see a way to pick Gray up and pry open a busted up car door at the same time. He gently laid Gray on the back seat, reclining the seat a little so that Gray was lying back back still had his head elevated. He didn't touch the head wound, He knew his fingers weren't clean at this point and he couldn't risk causing Gray an infection. He ran over to the car's glove box and nearly collapse with the force of the relief he felt as he found a small white handkerchief inside. He had to search two more cars before he found duct tape and a first aid kit, but he ran straight back to Gray, ignoring the tremors in his legs that signalled his weakened health. He would keep Gray alive even if he killed himself trying.
He stepped inside the car, looming over Gray. He ripped open a small square of rubbing alcohol with his teeth and pressed lightly against Gray's scalp. It was still bleeding, but the blood flow was slowing. He hoped that was a good sign. He inspected the wound. He could see the pink of scraped flesh and red clotting, but the skull wasn't visible and for that, Natsu was more grateful than he could put into words, a weight rolling off of his shoulders. He didn't for a second think that he was in the clear, but he felt like the fog was thinning and that was a step forward.
He ignored his left arm as it hung awkwardly at his side, the pain throbbing all the way up to his shoulder, and he peeled back the duct take between his teeth, using his right hand to wrap the gauze tightly around Gray's wound, just over his forehead so that he could still see, and then he wrapped the duct tape over that to hold it in place. He wiped away as much blood as he could with the handkerchief, not wanting to waste rubbing alcohol on removing blood stains from skin when he might need it if Gray got any further wounds.
Natsu just wanted Gray to wake up. Looking into gray's eyes gave him the strength to fight, whether it was against Gray or against fires, or against the entire world. Gray was his whole life. Natsu didn't know how to be without him. He'd always known that. It was the reason he'd still pulled Gray back from the edge long after the fire. He didn't want to know what life was like without him. He just never said it out loud, because then Gray wouldn't take care of him the same way, and he would leave and Natsu would lose him because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and their entire friendship was already as fragile as either of them could handle. Because Gray saw Natsu as the family he'd chosen to save over his own blood and Natsu knew there would be no changing that because Gray didn't love him. Not the way he loved Gray. He never would.
Natsu tried to think of a way to get Gray to a hospital, but he took one look at the cloud of blackness on the upper floors and knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon. The wind had strengthened the flames, and while Natsu could hear the tornado thundering in the distance, he didn't know whether it would stay its course or switch back around at any moment. He didn't know if the nightmare was over. Hell, even if the wind remained the way it was, the fire had already grown. No hospitals would be open unless they were many miles away in another city. The hospitals in their own city were probably crumbling away by the minute. He didn't know how to get medical help, especially when they were surrounded by flames and no sane person would come for them even if he did manage to call for help.
He looked into Gray's face anxiously, and then he remembered something Gray had brought up to him maybe four days earlier.
"The news says it's going to rain in week," Gray said.
Natsu sighed tiredly. He knew where this was going. "I'm still going to work."
White fists went paler than their usual shade with the strain of how tightly Gray held his fists at his sides. "There aren't even going to be any fires," Gray argued.
"There could be a fire during a moment when the rain stops," came the quick response.
There was a long, deafening silence. Then Gray spoke, knowing he would regret the words as soon as he said them, but doing so anyway because he couldn't take it anymore. Not after Natsu had come in all bloody and bruised up four days earlier and said that a wound on his abdomen that required twelve stitches was just a scratch. Gray couldn't sit there and watch Natsu destroy himself.
"Do you really think Zeref would have wanted you to die like Igneel?"
Natsu looked stricken for a moment, but that was quickly replaced by a look of cold fury and he walked right past Gray, yanking his arm back as if he were burned when Gray tried to stop him from leaving.
That had happened four days earlier. Natsu hadn't come home for three days and his chest had tightened when he walked into the apartment the night before to see an exhausted Gray passed out on the couch, deep bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep and several empty cups of coffee and energy drinks littering the counter of the kitchen and the coffee table in the living room. Natsu loathed himself more every time he hurt Gray, but he just didn't know how to stop. He didn't let himself think about it for long. The important part of that interaction, the one thing that mattered most at the moment, was that Gray said it would rain in a week. He'd said so four days earlier. That meant that three days from now the fires would die out and Natsu could steal a car and drive Gray to a hospital in the next town himself.
He felt sweat falling down his forehead and wiped at it with the back of his right arm. He let his eyes fall on Gray. He cursed when he saw that Gray was practically pouring sweat down his chest, his neck, his arms. Natsu wasn't in a much better state. The space was heating up because of the flames dancing above and if they didn't stay hydrated, they wouldn't survive a single day much less three.
Natsu jumped out of the car and landed on his knees, his legs giving out under his own weight, a violent cough emanating from his chest. He hacked up a black fluid and forced himself to worry about it later. Gray came first. He forced himself to crawl toward the nearest wall and use it as a support to haul himself up. He was glad for the fact that most of the cars were missing at least one door or had their windows busted open. He would need that to find medication of some kind later, but he set to the task of searching for water. He found two half empty water bottles in a beat up corolla and rushed back over to Gray, leaning against the wall for support and walking sideways. He struggled to remove the cap of the water bottle his only one hand, but he managed. Then he realized he would need to tilt Gray's head back to pour the water down his throat and he wouldn't be able to do that with just one hand.
He was panicking until he remembered a feeling of a soft cold pressure on his lips through a hazy dream of black fog and realized Gray must have given him mouth to mouth. He turned crimson and berated himself for it. Of course Gray had given him mouth to mouth. He'd probably thought nothing of it, just doing whatever he thought he had to in order to help his surrogate brother. He steeled himself. It wouldn't mean anything. He would do everything he had to if it meant he could get Gray to wake up. He brought the water bottle to his own lips and filled his mouth, cheeks jutting out slightly, and then he put the water bottle down and tilted Gray's jaw up to relax his throat, one tan finger parting his lips and then Natsu leaned down and let the stream of water pour out into Gray's moth, their lips meeting lightly.
Midnight blue eyes shot open and Natsu pulled back with lightning fast speed as Gray began coughing.
Everything felt hazy and looked blurry and Gray thought maybe he was hallucinating because for a moment, Natsu had felt so close, too close, and that couldn't have been real. The sensation of warmth on his lips was his body lying to him, trying to convince him of possibilities that would never be there.
Natsu smiled a small delirious smile. He didn't hug Gray, because he didn't want to risk moving him and causing him further injury, but the urge was there and he barely managed to contain himself. They were still pouring sweat and the air was stiflingly hot, and Gray had blisters all along his arms and Natsu was starting to feel dizzy and he wondered if maybe he should have tried to see if his back was still bleeding at some point, or if maybe it was dehydration robbing him of his senses, but he forced his eyes to stay open. He forced himself to bring the first water bottle back to Gray's lips, the one that had more water than the other, and then to drink the second bottle himself.
He held Gray's hand in his own and looked into his eyes.
"I'm going to find water and some medicine," he said, willing Gray to understand the words he was saying. Gray's grip tightened and Natsu knew he'd succeeded, although now he would have to calm Gray down. "I promise I'll be right back," he added hastily, "But I need you to stay right here, okay?"
Gray opened his mouth, winced, and then forced out, "N-no."
Natsu tightened his grip on Gray's hand in return. "Gray, I'm serious, you're head got hit. You were bleeding," at that, Gray's eyes widened but Natsu went on through a cough, "You can't move."
Gray grimaced, but his eyes narrowed at the cough and Natsu was grateful for Gray's career choice for the millionth time because Gray wouldn't let him leave the car until he'd memorized a list of what he should be looking for in the other cars to be able to treat both of them.
Just as he stepped down from the car and gripped the edge of the seat to steady himself, Gray asked, "Natsu?"
"Yeah?" Natsu asked in return. He couldn't remember the last time they'd spoken without any hostility.
Gray had a look of complete and utter frustration written all over his features as he looked away, apparently deciding against saying what he wanted to.
He settled on, "Be careful." You have to come back to me. Because I love you. Because I need you. Because I always have and I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you and I'm sorry you got stuck with me, but I have to make sure you're safe. I could spend my entire life making sure you were alright and I wouldn't regret a second of it.
Natsu grinned back at him, "I will." I'll protect you. Because I've hurt you enough. Because this is all my fault. Because I love you and I don't deserve you but I can't let you go and I'm sorry I ruined your life, but I'm going to try to be better. I would do anything for you, anything if it meant you would stay with me.
Natsu breathed in deep, forcing down the raspy sensation that indicated he would be coughing the black sludge up again. He didn't have time to stop and suffer. He had to find them supplies, medication, then worry about getting Gray food.
Three days. He just had to keep them alive for three days.