Group Hug!
In which a little light is shed on Natsu's side of the hug in Chapter 34 of PAPI as they race on the train to Acalypha to save Lucy.
One minute Natsu was pumping out the 289th push-up on a moving train, the next he was hyperventilating as his racing heart pumped in his ears and he broke out into a cold sweat.
He stood in a panic, gasping for the breath he couldn't seem to find. His mind raced, trying to figure out what was happening to him.
Or rather, to Lucy.
She was either volunteering as tribute in a weird version of the Hunger Games, or being mentally raped by Pennywise the Clown, because her fight or flight instinct was out of control. He pounded lightly on his chest, trying futilely to stop what felt like a serious heart attack from killing him.
But that didn't help. His eyes frantically searched the cabin, looking for some kind of solution, and landing on Gray.
Gray was frozen in shock as he watched his best friend spontaneously freak the fuck out. He was sweating and red in the face and clutching his chest like he was about to go Temple of Doom on himself. And if it took him a little too long to figure out what must be happening, then the sight of his roommate gasping for air and stumbling around like a Magikarp out of water was a valid excuse.
Thankfully he did figure it out: something was happening with Lucy.
"Natsu! What's wrong?" Erza beat Gray to it, sitting up straight as she watched Natsu stare unseeingly at his roommate. But Gray barely heard her, hopping up immediately and getting in the pinkette's face.
"What's she feeling? Is she hurt?" he rushed through, waving his hands unhelpfully in the air around the pinkette, looking like a hermitted recluse trying to learn the arm-work to a Bollywood film dance sequence in real time. Natsu's eyes sharpened on him then, a little bit of focus coming back to his emerald irises.
"No…" he gasped out. "I think...I think she's just really scared. Like, terrified!" The look in his eyes was raw. For a second Gray saw the little kid he'd met first in therapy. Not the bluster and defensiveness, but the look of pure terror after the weird new pink-haired kid's first flashback. The fun- and fire-loving chem major looked like he was close to crying, his wide eyes almost glistening.
And then Gray's mind flashed to the beautiful blonde girl he'd danced with, and talked to, and texted. The reason he was here in the first place. He'd seen her with that exact expression on her face. The look of terror when Michelle had recognized her was almost identical.
Without a second thought, Gray stepped forward and hugged Natsu tightly, willing it to work again. Most of the time these days, he felt like an outside observer, looking in on all his friend's relationships. But this was something they couldn't do for themselves, and a little part of him - below the distant stoic facade - liked being needed.
The train car went silent.
"Uh...Gray? What are you doing?" Mystogan ventured after a moment, only to be startled again when Levy popped out of her seat, dragging Gajeel with her.
"Lucy's that scared?!" she exclaimed, and hugged Natsu's back, wrapping her arms around his waist and giving Gajeel a look that told him to do the same, or spend the next month getting all of the most generic tattoo orders shoved into his schedule while Erik got the interesting artistic ones.
Shut up, it was a very specific look. You had to be there.
With a sigh, he hugged the whole group from behind Levy, bringing he and Gray's faces just a little too close for comfort. They swiftly avoided eye-contact and huffed.
Erza immediately hopped up and wrapped her arms around the group from the side.
"I'm super confused…" dropped from Mystogan's lips as he eyed the group of twenty-something like they were going to ask him to take the red pill any minute, when he would honestly prefer to take the blue one.
"We are providing solacing comfort to Lucy...I assume," Erza murmured into Natsu's shoulder as she snuggled into the group with a grip that was a lot less snuggly for Gajeel and Gray. "Now come hug Natsu and do your part. You too Loke."
While Mystogan shrugged and essentially hugged Erza from behind, deciding Gajeel's solution was the only sane way out of saying no to the Titania, - ahem, that is his girlfriend. Loke just sat back and scoffed.
"Why? It looks like you guys have got it handled."
As one, six pairs of angry eyes rounded on the ginger, sending a chill down his back. The message was clear; if he didn't want to spend the rest of the trip getting his broken nose twisted, he'd pull out his Heart Ring and help them summon Captain Planet! Uh, that is, he'd get cuddly with the group for Lucy's sake...
"Jesus, fine." He got up and took up the mantle for the fourth side, slinging one arm around Natsu's back about Levy's head, and one around Gray's neck, standing as far from the hug as possible. Levy glared up at him.
"Gajeel, if you would…"
With another sigh, Gajeel's hand pushed him up against the rest of the group.
The sound of the wind rushing past the train could be heard clearly as the seven-way hug settled into place.
"She's doing better!" Natsu cried out after a moment, a big grin taking up his face. An answering one lit up Gray's face. An air of contentment settled over them all as they thought of their happy places.
Natsu thought of a campfire.
Gray a perfectly executed boxing combination.
Gajeel that moment when he finished a particularly intricate tattoo.
Erza thought of cake.
Mystogan thought of Erza.
And...Loke thought of not hugging Natsu Dragneel.
"Can we let go yet? This is just getting weird…" Loke ventured, wiggling a little from his place between Gray and Gajeel.
"No!"
"Shut Up!"
"Suck it up!"
"Not yet!"
A blue-haired girl in conservative clothing walked past the doorway of their compartment, darting a glance their way and sighing to herself. She wished she had a group of friends to hug with. She couldn't see much past the broad back and long black hair of the guy closest to her...but it still looked nice.
With a sigh, she continued down the train back to her seat. It really was too bad she didn't have time to stop in Magnolia on her way to Oak Town.
Oh well, she'd have to come back and visit Levy another time.
What's that? I think I hear the fangirling screams of Juvia fans happening in perfect sync...how odd…
And, I may have been in reference withdrawal last chapter, because here's all the stuff I shoved into this 1K word drabble:
Volunteering as tribute in the Hunger Games-...the Hunger Games. Seriously probably didn't need to list this...oh well, done now!
Pennywise the Clown-terrifying main antagonist of Stephen King's It
Going Temple of Doom on himself- referring to any scene in the second Indiana Jones movie, Temple of Doom in which the cult leader rips someone's heart out with his bare hand to sacrifice
Like a Magikarp out of water- sometimes fish out of water just isn't a strong enough visual image anymore ok? Sometimes you need Pokemon to get your point across! Ok, wait, no, that's not a world I want to live in...forget all of this.
like a hermitted recluse trying to learn the arm-work to a Bollywood film dance sequence in real time- have you ever seen a Bollywood film?! Those random dance sequences are simultaneously amazing and ridiculously complicated. If you haven't, rent one. I recommend Bahubali 1 & 2. Fucking amazing.
like they were going to ask him to take the red pill any minute, when he would honestly prefer to take the blue one- obviously a reference to the first Matrix movie. For those out there who don't rewatch this movie at least once a year, the red pill wakes you up from the Matrix, the blue one wipes your memory and lets you live in ignorant bliss.
pull out his Heart Ring and help them summon Captain Planet!- If you've never seen Captain Planet, then your childhood was incomplete. For some reason this reference just popped into my head when I thought of Loke joining a group endeavor to complete a common goal. Because he would totally be Heart...hehe. Also, he uses RING MAGIC! HAHAHAHAHA stupid pointless canon tie-in complete. Whatever, I do what I want.
Oh, and for those who don't remember, Phantom Lord was based out of Oak Town!