Disclaimer: I don't own anything but college owns me! Holidays, come back! *cries*
Chapter 25 – Shock and Conversations
"You've got to be kidding!" Gray exclaimed in disbelief. Natsu shook his head and sighed. Did these surprises have no end or what?
"Then how do you explain this?" As Gray shook his head in a negative way Natsu continued, "You feel bad when I'm away. You've got any better explanation?"
Gray was starting to lose his temper, a frown already marring his face, "…No, not right now. But this is just too much! I mean, what'll happen next? I'm already in what feels like a dangerous situation that…I'm afraid of what else might happen…"
Natsu was slightly taken aback by this confession, because what had begun as something that most likely would've lead to an argument had ended in a very out of character answer. Though he was flattered by being able to witness this glimpse into Gray's inner thoughts, Natsu felt a twinge of regret at having put him in this position. But then he remembered, if he hadn't acted the way he had, Gray would've been dead long ago. Yes, that was one thing that he couldn't forget.
He decided to take the typical course of action, "I had no idea that you had that in you," Natsu said while he sat by the end of the bed. As Gray looked at him with a slightly confused expression, the Salamander shrugged as he added for clarification, "That bit of a cowardly streak." His voice then took on a defiant tone as he mused, "You didn't have that before…"
Natsu was looking up at the ceiling and from the corner of his eye he watched as Gray fumed. Good. Gray shouldn't be down and beaten and if Natsu had to rile him up to get him in the right mood – he would.
On his side, Gray was almost trembling with rage. How dare he? How could Natsu say those things? "I'd like to know how you'd be taking this if it were happening to you!" Gray almost yelled before he threw himself at Natsu. The pink-haired boy wasn't expecting this – though he had been watching Gray – so when the other's body hit his, Natsu lost his balance and they both fell to the floor, ending up sprawled. Gray kept struggling though he had ended on top of Natsu, but he was so weak that it wasn't difficult for Natsu to reverse their positions, securing Gray's hands near his head. Gray was breathing heavily and he was sure that if he were stronger he would've frozen Natsu's face to death, more than once!
"Now that I've grabbed your attention…"
Gray tried to break free from the other's grasp but it was in vain, "What the hell are you talking about! First you insult me then—!"
"I just said that to snap you out of that—"
"And what makes you think that I needed you to—?" Gray started squirming.
"Gray!" Natsu's bark halted the ice mage momentarily. Then a light creak caught their attention.
"Boys, what is—?" Erza was opening the door while she looked around the room. When her eyes caught the scene she froze. With both boys on the floor, Natsu was on top of Gray, holding his wrists down and straddling him. Now that was unexpected…then again, unexpected was an understatement. "We could hear you from the other room and it sounded as if the argument was becoming heated so I just wanted to….er…" she spoke in a thin, embarrassed voice as she turned to the door, almost as if she was going to leave the room. She stopped and turned back around. "Could either of you explain me what's happening? Why in Delos are you on the floor?" she asked in her big sister tone.
Several minutes went by and no-one answered her, Natsu's serious profile looking intently into the eyes of the person underneath him. After a while Natsu's clipped voice answered her, "Erza, leave the room please."
She lifted her eyebrow. What was this, now? Natsu ordering her around?
"Go, now!" Natsu's growl had a confused Erza out of the room before she had completely realized what she was doing.
Natsu looked intently at Gray. "Do I need to keep holding you down or can I let go?"
With a defeated sigh Gray let his body relax and lie limp on the floor. Natsu let go got off him to sit down beside him, only vaguely aware of the fact that his leg was touching Gray's.
"Feeling calmer now?" Gray didn't move nor answer Natsu's question, lying motionless on the floor, head turned to the wall. Natsu continued, "You do know you'll have to talk to me sooner or later…" as he spoke he leaned back against the bed. A few moments later he saw Gray struggling to sit up. Natsu let himself be as he was sure that any help he might provide would be unwelcome. When Gray was finally up – and heaving heavily due to the effort made – he looked at Natsu with furious eyes.
"Do you have any idea how I feel about this? Can you imagine how useless I feel, being like this? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, of living a normal life – on my own. Can't you even understand how trapped I'm feeling?" Natsu was opening his mouth to answer but Gray didn't let him, "Don't you realize that if had the strength I'd kick you out of this room?" he steadied himself by placing a hand on the floor when a bout of dizziness hit him. A heavy silence settled on the room, only to be broken by Natsu.
"You're not the only feeling effects from this. I do too—"
"Then why is it you're the same as always?"
After releasing a heavy sigh, Natsu answered, "It's not really a matter of comparison…because for one thing, you're still recovering from the magic from before. You have a whole other set of needs, but trust me, the bonds affecting me too."
"I'd like to see that…" Gray half-grumbled.
"It's not like I could show you more than what I've already said, but for now we've got other things to worry about. Like how're we supposed to move around now that you need me to be close by, or Erza—"
"Yeah, what are we going to do now that you ordered her out of the room like that?" Gray consciously omitted the part about the position she had caught them in.
"Hopefully she'll remember that on these things related to you, I'm the one in charge."
"Or you'll be knocked out in less than a minute, she'll go talk to the Master and demand answers, then find out about the bond situation and confront us. No, maybe we should tell her…"
Natsu was pleasantly surprised so he just gave a nod, "I'll talk to her."
This statement was met with an arched brow, "Huh, you do remember that this bond thing restricts us to a certain range – as much as I could understand. We'll have to tell her together."
"No…I think it'd be better for you if I had this conversation alone. We'll make it work. But for now, we should change your bandages and you can tell me about that thing you were taking about before. Weird dreams?"
Catching the subtle yet abrupt change of subject, Gray let Natsu help him to sit back on the bed, still feeling weak. Natsu started to peel off the bandages, but was forced to stop moments later. Some of the bandages had dried up on a few injuries, and if he pulled them the wounds would reopen. Then there was the need to clean up the goo before applying a new portion of ointments. "Now what do we do? I need water to clean you up and I can't leave the room…"
Gray crossed his legs slowly and leaned back, resting on his hands, "What do you suggest? You give me a piggy-back ride to the bathroom or—?"
Natsu interjected quickly, "I'd rather not move you…"
Gray continued, "As I was saying, we could always ask Erza if she can bring us the stuff…"
Natsu nodded and headed slowly to the door. "Right. I was going to say the same thing." He opened the door and exchanged some words with Erza in a low voice, as the door shielded them.
It didn't take long until Gray felt a twinge of something, something that was starting to scream deep inside. Gray clenched his teeth. This was ridiculous! He shouldn't be feeling like this. Why was this happening to him? Logically he shouldn't need anyone, yet the fact that Natsu had walked just a few steps away from him made Gray feel a pressure upon him. A looming pressure that was just waiting for a chance to crush him with unimaginable pain. His hands balled up into fists gripping at the sheets as he tried taking deep breaths. He leaned forward and closed his eyes. It was hard to breathe and Gray felt himself struggling to take the minimal intake of breath, that is until he sensed a change in the air. It felt as if the pressure had cleared, 'Natsu must be getting close,' he thought. Opening his eyes, Gray lifted his head a bit and saw that Natsu was, indeed, by the bed.
"She'll bring the stuff. And, how did you feel?" Natsu's face was dead serious.
"I'm fine now…but I felt a weird force mostly. It wasn't too bad, but I had the feeling that if you had taken another step it would've been a whole different scenario…"
"We'll have to set that up. For now we don't have anything else to do but wait." Natsu kneeled on the bed and made it bounce slightly. In that instant a knock on the door was heard. Natsu answered, "Come in, Erza!" still bouncing on the bed.
A composed Erza entered the room holding two large bowls of tepid water (one could see the slight steam coming from it), while behind her Happy was bringing a couple of towels.
"Gray! You're finally awake!" the flying cat landed on the side of the bed that was nearer to the window and busied himself with the towels (folding them, pilling them and placing them in odd places on the bed).
"Yes, it's good to know that you're feeling better…" Erza placed one hand on Gray's right shoulder. What nobody expected was for Gray to become tense and try to jerk back while giving a pained yelp. Erza pulled her hand back instantly, in shock. Natsu rushed to Gray's side and grabbed his shoulders – that action made Gray calm and relax under his touch. Erza and Happy watched as Natsu helped Gray to lie down on his side.
"Well…that was unexpected…" muttered Natsu as he sat on the bed beside Gray, taking care of remaining in contact with him.
"May someone explain what just happened here? Because I'm not understanding a bit of it!"
"Wait a sec Erza, let me try this." Natsu motioned for Happy to get closer. He looked at Gray questioningly and got a nod of approval before telling Happy that he was to touch Gray's forearm. The small cat did as he was told. Approaching the ice mage slowly, he placed his right paw gently on the other's left forearm. The sharp intake of breath made the other occupants of the room exchange glances. It was evident to all what had just happened. Without words, Natsu showed the others that they had to leave the room. When Natsu was alone with Gray, once again, he voiced what they already knew.
"So… now it looks like I'm the only one that can touch you without hurting you… Am I the only one seeing the irony in this?"
"This is just good news after good news… What the hell's going on Natsu? How am I- we… gonna overcome this? Tell me!"
"How am I supposed to know? We just gotta focus on things one at a time. The first thing is this situation with your magic – and we know that time will fix it – so we'll just adjust to whatever else is thrown at us by this bond. We'll manage. The books must have tons of information that will help us, so we have to spend some time trying to figure them out, right?
"There's not much else that can be done…" Gray answered with a sigh.
"Good. Now, come on, get up. We need to take off these bandages and apply new ones," said Natsu while gently lifting Gray and taking off the layers of bandages, sometimes dabbing at them with a wet towel. In some parts it was a bit tricky but soon Natsu was cleaning the dried lotions with another towel in precise and gentle movements. It came off easily and Gray didn't shrink too much. While he was working Natsu asked, "You were about to tell me about a dream…" he didn't want Gray's mind to wander too much into some pessimistic thoughts that were surely waiting for a chance to pop into his head.
Gray shrugged (as much as he could with Natsu working on his back) and at some point tried to muffle a laugh that threatened to come out. He turned to Natsu and almost growled, "What had I told you about tickling me?"
"It's not my fault, you know… Now, stay still and let me apply the cream. And spill."
With an impatient huff Gray turned and started to talk about his strange dreams.
"So, suddenly I find myself in a forest. There was something about it that was slightly familiar, it was weird. Then, out of nowhere, three kids appeared along with a large dog. The kids ran away – they were playing or something like that, I guess – but the dog came towards me and suddenly in its place was a woman. She had three large scars on her face, and the way she smiled…" Gray paused to shudder, "Well, she turned to me and started demanding an answer, repeatedly. But how could I answer her when I didn't know the question?"
"Hmm, that's pretty strange…"
"Yeah. At one point I ran away, but she followed me close behind. She got me and – I have no idea how she did it – I started feeling pain. Gods, it hurt so much…" Natsu noticed that Gray's hairs were standing on end and that was a strange occurrence to happen to an ice mage. Gray kept on, "Then something strange happened, a pink mist rose and protected me. I was told that you were the one that provoked the mist and saved me."
Natsu stopped what he was doing, completely shocked. 'I saved him from that? How? And who told him?' he was very confused. He looked at Gray who was expecting an answer, "What? I don't know anything about that."
"You didn't? But they said you were doing the right things. I just assumed you knew…"
"Who- who are 'they'?" by now Natsu was way too confused, not getting the story at all.
"The people I met the second time I woke up – in those dreams, I mean."
"You had two dreams…?"
"Yeah, and in this second one, there was that woman again and a boy. Well, he wasn't exactly a boy, he looked like a little boy but his behaviour said everything except young. They said a lot of weird things about that place. They even mentioned that they were legends…? Like I said, it was all so strange…" Gray lifted his right arm so that Natsu could end his current activity. "It was odd how they kept urging me to wake up, as if someone was in trouble or something like that. Then I woke up. And now I have a question for you, there won't be anymore surprises after this, right?"
Natsu had finished patching Gray up and was looking in a pensive way, trying to process this bunch of information. He scratched lightly at his nose before replying, "Well, I hope so. Hm, and about the other matter, for a while I was really worried about you. I have no idea how these things might be connected…"
"What a surprise…" grumbled Gray.
"Just go to sleep. For now that's probably best." Natsu helped Gray down once again. He hadn't forgotten about the tea, but for now rest should be the most helpful thing. So, he sat on the bed, looking at the wall and thinking about this whole mess. When he looked to his side, Gray was sleeping peacefully. Natsu got up and left the room. There were some things that he had to discuss with Erza.
A/N: Here ya go! I couldn't wait so, here's the new chapter and I'm already on full classes mode (and extremely tired by it…). I hope you like it and that some questions are finally answered. And I know, I know how they are a bit OoC but, that's how they came out… (dodges pointy things)
I would like to thank the marvelous Shiny Pichu-chan for beta-reading this chapter (it's much better now, thank you!)
A huge thanks also to all the reviewers, your words made me smile until it felt like my face was going to freeze like that! You all deserve a scoop of this ice cream I made yesterday (it's really yummy). Of course that I would looove if you continued reviewing.
To GHstyle15: I'm glad that you like this story to that extent, I'll try to delay the end as much as possible and try to continue to make is as enjoyable for you to read as it is for me to write. Thank you so much for reviewing. ^^