It had been two and a half months. Two and a half damn months, and they had no leads. Natsu was getting crabby. Well, they didn't have no leads, but they wouldn't allow Natsu to follow the leads because apparently his was bad at 'recon'. He'd scoffed at that, he was amazing at getting information. Not necessarily in a stealthy way, but they couldn't deny he got results.
A small growl left his throat as he punched the wall, "Stupid stripper, getting kidnapped, making me worry." He muttered angrily at no one in particular. They all felt it, the absence of someone who'd been in the guild so long. No one wanted to halt the search; none of them were going to give up, not on their family, especially not someone as strong and special as Gray.
Natsu punched the wall again, and Lucy walked up behind him and gave a tight chuckle, "You might want to stop abusing that wall you know, it might get angry." Natsu gave a dry chuckle and progressed to sit at a table which was empty. Lucy followed him, out of concern. The fire mage had been becoming more and more despondent, and it was starting to feel like he'd disappeared with Gray to her. She couldn't take seeing her best friend so broken inside, blaming himself over what had happened.
"Erza's following another lead." Lucy said, attempting to make conversation, she got a non-committal grunt in reply which made her heart ache slightly; she understood why Natsu would be angry about that. When it came to recon, Erza was just as hard-headed as Natsu, except she could talk her way out. "It was an influx of temperature drop in the Bosco region, could be Gray." She tried again, when she got the same grunted reply she dropped her head to her arms and rested on the table.
Lucy was not afraid to admit, she felt depressed. They had all practically just stood and watched Gray get taken, completely helpless. With Natsu acting like a hobo and Erza not around, Team Natsu practically consisted of her, no one doing jobs with her, struggling to pay rent, having to ask Mirajane and Cana to cover her food costs. She was really struggling to keep her head up.
Then something snapped in her, she was getting on, but Natsu was not. She stood suddenly and slapped Natsu. "Pull it together." She screamed at him.
Natsu looked at Lucy with a shocked face, and noticed tears going down her face, "Lucy, what's wro-" She slapped him again and then wiped at her face.
Two and a half months of emotion flowed out in a steady current, going straight to her heart, fueling her words, "You. You are what is wrong." She said with anger, "You are not the only one who lost Gray you know?" Natsu opened his mouth, eyes opening in realization but she rolled straight ahead, not letting him speak. "I lost Gray, Erza lost Gray, Juvia, Wendy, Cana, Mira, everyone lost Gray, Natsu. We all lost him, yet you're the only one sitting about moping. Your selfish moping is taking a toll. Happy is sleeping in my house on a regular basis, he wakes up in the night, crying for you. Erza is staying away from the guild as much as possible, because seeing you makes her feel guilty and weak all over again for letting them take Gray."
Lucy was shaking, having gained much of the guilds attention, Mira's eyes were glued on the two ready to help at a moments notice, secretly cheering the blonde on, Natsu looked at the table in shame, "Lucy, I-"
"I can't afford to eat, because no one will do missions with me. Loke won't answer my gate calls unless it's urgent or I'm struggling. Yet you sit here all day, moping, hitting the walls and doing nothing." She motioned to all the halls in the guild walls that people had quickly done a patch up of. Then she caught herself, "Oh, Natsu, I'm sorry." The tears were still rolling down her cheeks, emotion raw, she was also rather hungry.
Natsu shook his head, looking down at the table, he muttered darkly, "No, Lucy. I'm sorry." He slammed his fists down on the table and stood up suddenly, "I think," he suddenly looked up and smiled brightly at Lucy, "It's time we went on a mission, yeah, Lucy? Dry your eyes and grab your coat. I'll be at the board." With a quick wink at Lucy, Natsu walked to the board leaving Lucy stunned.
Lucy rubbed her eyes and looked to Mira who seemed to have a happy smile on her face, Mira sent her thumbs up, and so Lucy smiled through the tears and walked to stand next to Natsu choosing a job.
They ended up choosing a fairly simple 'transportation' mission, only for a few thousand jewels to get back into the swing of things. Unfortunately, this meant being on a horse drawn wagon for a day or so. Lucy found the nostalgia in having Natsu hanging over the edge promising never to get on one again after this, and Happy poking fun at him.
She often found her interest drifting to what they were transporting, it seemed to maybe be some form of scientific equipment, but the mission had asked the mages not to think about it too much, so Lucy distracted herself by humming to herself for the rest of road. She saw a huge compound on the horizon before long, it was a shining white, almost hospital-like building, which seemed eerie as she drew closer.
When she pulled up to a stop next to it, Natsu dropped out of the wagon to lay on the ground, while Happy jumped up and down on his head for a few seconds. Lucy felt a chill in the air and shivered, the air seemed to be misty, and her breath was visible as she huffed out. Natsu was visibly steaming from where Lucy was stood, causing her to giggle slightly.
"I'm gonna take this in, okay, Natsu?" He just groaned from the floored and Happy giggled. Lucy called out Taurus and had him move the thing to the door while she knocked.
A small girl dressed in a lab coat answered the door, she had long purple hair and seemed adorable. When she saw Lucy she squealed in delight, "You brought my toy." She cheered; jumping up and down as Taurus placed it down, leaving with a moo. The girl ran forward, picked up the heavy equipment, and ran it inside giggling yelling, "Matthew, pay them, I want to play." Lucy watched the girl with amazement, so strong.
A taller man appeared and was blushing, "I apologize for my sister. She's easily excited by new toys, I do admit it's because I spoil her."
Lucy shook her head, "No, that's fine, she's really cute." She said with a smile.
Matthew smiled, "She's even cuter when she doesn't get what she wants. Has a tantrum and everything." He said with a chuckle, before reaching behind the door and pulling out Lucy and Natsu's payment.
Lucy shivered and took it with thanks, "It's very cold." She pointed out as she was about to turn to leave.
Matthew looked apologetic, "We recently installed a magic air conditioner, but neither of us can control it. Within a few mile radius of our house seems to be freezing, can I offer you compensation?"
"No, no, it's fine." Lucy said with a small smile, "I better go."
She made her way back to the wagon to see Natsu recovered and sitting in the wagon looking very concerned. When Lucy was within hearing distance she heard Natsu mutter, or rather whine, a very drawn out name, "Gray."
When Verity entered the glass room, Gray fought the ingrained instinct to pounce on her, but followed the newer habit which was to kneel for her. He didn't expect the knee which collided with his chin though. It sent him flying across the room, but he immediately got up again to kneel so as not to anger her anymore. It didn't work, as shocks flew through his body he let out a scream, as electricity at an intensity he wasn't used to course his system.
Matthew was suddenly on top of Verity, trying to drag her away from Gray, screaming for her to stop. The shock stopped and Gray went up to his knees and placed his face on the floor. He didn't know what he had done wrong, but he wasn't sure what he was meant to be doing. After a month of shock therapy he knew how to mostly avoid getting shocked, it hurt so much. He didn't like it.
He was still shaking from aftershock and with his face in the ground when he felt a warm hand on his hair. He prepared himself for the pain of hair being pulled but it never came, instead it was ruffled and he looked up into the slightly warmer eyes of Matthew. Gray lent into the hand slightly, and looked to Matthew for forgiveness. He hated himself for stooping this low, but he also couldn't take constant torture.
Matthew sighed, "Verity is upset because some people were here who shouldn't have been here. We need to assure her that you're happy with her again, or she'll hurt you again. Would you do it?"
Gray nodded and held both his hands out in front of him, he pounded his right fist into his left palm, pulled back to see a ice-statue of the Fairy Tail guild mark. Gray bit his lip, no matter how many times he did this, it hurt every time. Anything to gain their trust. With a small grunt, he smashed it in one hand and crumbled it to dust and let the small bits of ice fall out of his hand with a sigh.
Matthew smiled and ruffled Gray's hair some, "There's our little one." He then left the glass room, leaving Gray to wonder just who had annoyed Verity.
That night Gray heard screaming down the hall, Matthew and Verity were having a heated argument. He walked to the glass, dispersed it and walked to the door to the observation room to listen better. They'd trusted him to walk around his floor, but if he went past his boundaries the shocks would kick in, and he'd be left paralysed until someone found him. It had happened once about 2 weeks ago, Verity had left him there for hours until Matthew had found him.
He could hear them clearer outside of the glass room; nothing to hinder his newly-enhanced hearing.
"They were Fairy Tail." Verity screeched, "Fairy Tail mages, they know, they must know." Gray's heart ached at the mention of Fairy Tail, he wanted to go home so much, he let out a little whine.
"Only one of them came near the house, the other stayed far away. They do not know." Matthew reasoned.
Verity laughed, "You're such an optimist. That little pink haired thing was with them." At the mention of Natsu, Gray let out a little growl and a whine, he really missed his best friend.
Matthew seemed to raise his tone, "Maybe if you hadn't have acted like a little freak and carried that magic reader like it was candyfloss we wouldn't have any issues." He took a deep breath, "Maybe they won't know that their fellow mage is here."
It could have been all the shock therapy, or maybe it was the fact that he was technically a Dragon Slayer now, but it took until then for Gray to realise that they meant that Fairy Tail had been the people who had visited. He gasped under his breath, eyes going wide, and ran straight back to the glass room. His heart beat out his chest, they were close. He was close to being found, and Natsu must have smelt him, he'd been emitting cold central for at least a month now, probably longer (He really could not control the influx of power).
Gray sank into the bed and prayed, he prayed for a few hours, but no-one came. A day later, still no one. Matthew had come in to do Verity's job of testing him in magic techniques; Gray rattled them off in no time and went back to sitting down. Gray sighed as he realised that they probably were not coming for him and he lay down in the bed to sleep.
That night, his ears exploded. Well, he lost all sense of sound as something exploded somewhere in the house. He pulled the cover up to make himself decent, because despite all the trust he'd gained, clothes were not something they would allow. He listened as fighting seemed to break out around the house, more explosions, it all hurt his head.
Hope reared its head in his heart and he wrapped the cover around himself and cautiously stepped out of his glass box. The noise got louder, but he could immediately tell it was Fairy Tail. He wanted to yell out for them, but then he remembered the impressive strength and magic of the family duo and he wanted to crawl back in the box in hide. Another explosion sounded somewhere, which caused Gray to fall down to cover his ears.
When did you start doubting your family, Gray berated himself, suddenly the door to his observation box was slammed open and in front of him stood Natsu, looking enraged, Erza and Lucy behind him looking just as angry. Gray almost wanted to cry there and then, they'd come for him, his family, he could go home.
Erza noticed the collar and used her sword to immediately cut it, Gray held out his hands for the wrist binds too. He went to get to his feet when Natsu scooped him up bridal style, as Erza cut the ankle binds. Natsu held him as Erza and Lucy smiled at him, "We're gonna take you home now, ice princess."
Gray allowed himself to be carried out of the building, where Natsu put him down and grabbed some clothes out of the wagon, sheltering Gray as he got dressed. They sat in front of the building waiting for the rest of the members to leave the place, and Gray was touched when he saw how many had come for him.
He'd yet to say a word to anyone, but he was too much in shock really, nobody really attempted yet either. Just as the last guild member left the building, dragging Verity and Matthew behind them, Natsu stood up and sucked in as if preparing to burn it down. Gray stood up to stop him though, instead walking up to the building and placing his hands on it, and letting the magic flow through him and encase the building in ice. He gave it one angry punch leaving small cracks, before falling to his knees in front of it, finally letting the emotions and tears go.
Natsu came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder before whispering softly, "I wish I'd been here sooner."
Gray probably wasn't supposed to hear Natsu's guilt, but he replied, "You're here now." And wiped at his eyes before turning to head to the wagon where Erza and Lucy were tearfully watching him. Natsu soon followed piling into the almost full wagon. The guild was heading to the nearest town, where a hotel had heard their plight and offered to put them up for the night.
Lucy smiled and set the horse into motion with a quick whip of the reins. As soon as the wagon started moving, Gray's stomach lurched and he shoved his head off the edge and his dinner made a surprise visit. After a few hurls, and Erza's frantic worrying about his well-being, he turned back and just muttered, "Motion sickness."
Erza raised an eyebrow, but didn't attempt to question further because Gray's face turned a particularly unwell pallor and he went for round two off the side of the carriage. Eventually Erza got so annoyed of sitting between Natsu and Gray's joint sickness that she just pushed Natsu towards the other and moved as far away. Gray and Natsu's shared sympathetic looks with each other for a moment, before the sickness sent them back to leaning over the edge.
Gray was happy to be rescued, unbelievably so, however he now faced the difficult situation of telling them what had happened. The thought terrified him. While nothing particularly terrible had happened to him, he was still whole, he hadn't been cut in half by this thing, he still didn't want to recount it. He did have a small issue though, that needed addressing.
"It's so cold on this wagon." Erza complained, requipping into something warmer.
Gray couldn't control it. His magic power just seemed to exude from him, leaking bit by bit, he could control it slightly, no one was freezing to death that was for sure, but plugging it up was impossible. He needed to tell them, before he hurt anyone accidentally.
"Natsu, can you heat us up a little?" Lucy asked, as they were drawing near to the town. Natsu groaned, but the heat did seem to increase because both Erza and Lucy let out content sighs, and Happy curled into Natsu's side.
Gray groaned, he really sucked, he had the worst luck of all. Part of Gray told him that he needed to ask Natsu for helped, but as he looked over at him, another part screamed 'lay on your back and let him do what he wants', which terrified him, because there was no way Gray was submitting to Natsu. Gray shook his head, which cause the sickness to get worse, stomach lurching more.
The wagon pulled up to a grand looking stone hotel, Gray fell off the wagon landing on his face but at least it was solid ground. Natsu landed next to him as Gray attempted to stand up. He sniffed the air slightly, everything was different to the scent of that place before. It excited Gray's senses and he stood there just sniffing until he noticed the weird looks he was getting from Natsu and Erza.
Gray shrugged it off with a chuckle, "Been a while since I smelled some good fresh air." Natsu clapped him on the shoulder with a smile and he let out a little whine, but quickly coughed over it. Natsu narrowed his eyes at him, but shrugged it off walking into the building.
When in the lobby Gray spotted Gajeel who gave him a smile and came over, patting Gray lightly on the arm, as if afraid he would break. Gray leant into the touch regardless and found himself looking at Gajeel with a wide lazy smile, something inside him purred at the feel of a hand on him. Gajeel just laughed, patted a bit harder and walked away. "Icey pervert is all spaced out, it's cute." He whispered to Levy. Levy lightly whacked Gajeel's arm and spared a smile in Gray's direction.
Gray stood spaced out, listening to the loud rumble in his chest, which he didn't realise was him. Natsu snapped his fingers in front of Gray's face, "Come on, snap out of that snowflake, we've gotta get upstairs, then you can act weird." Gray nodded, somewhat broken out of his stupor and followed Natsu.
They had a room with two beds and an en suite, Natsu quickly bagged the shower and ran in. After five minutes Gray shook his head, which felt less fuzzy and felt slightly horrified. Gray had no idea what had happened, only that he'd felt content at being acknowledged by Gajeel. Gray was still expecting the bombardment from Natsu and he did fear it. With a sigh, he leant back on the bed, placing his arm over his face and closing his eyes.
Gray had no idea why Natsu was yelling at him, but when he woke up he saw an angry face and cowered. "Why is this room for cold?" Natsu demanded, while Gray just shook his head, he really hated being shouted at. Natsu seemed to register he was making Gray scared and stepped back, "It's fine, just freezing, how are you not cold?"
Gray was rigid in his bed, he'd been shouted at, shouted at, Natsu was angry. A part of him was crying for forgiveness, but another knew he'd done nothing wrong. Torn he just stared at Natsu, until Natsu sighed and ran a hand over his own face. Gray looked at the floor, reminding himself he needed to answer questions.
"Maybe I left the window open." Gray blurted.
Natsu went to check, but turned back concerned, "The windows covered in frost, Gray, and it's not open."
Gray cursed himself, now was the time to say, feelings aside, he needed help keeping this under wraps and he had no honest reason to hide this from anyone except for his own fear. He obviously could not control it; Gray opened his mouth to confess. He mentally prepared, 'They infused a dragon lacrima into me.' He mentally practiced a few times while Natsu looked at him expectantly.
Their door burst open as Lucy stormed in, "Natsu, Gray, it's too cold in my room so I'm sleepi-" she stopped mid-sentence and shivered, "Woah, it's even colder in your room." She said with concern.
Natsu nodded, looking at Gray with a little nervousness, "We were just trying to get to the bottom of this, weren't we Gray?"
Gray had no idea whether his captivity had made him timid, but he nodded slowly, growling at himself slightly, before he attempted to stutter it out, "They…uh, Matthew and Verity, they may have done something, like, uh, infused-"
"Is anyone else's room freezing cold?" Erza said, appearing in the doorway, then making the same face Lucy had and shivering, "Your room is the coldest." She stated.
Gray growled, bringing the attention unwittingly back onto him, so he went for his third attempt, "The people who took me, the locked him in an room and they to this thing, lacrima-"
"Erza, did you find Natsu? I want him to make me warm." Happy asked, hovering into the room. "Oh, Natsu, your room is really cold Natsu."
With a loud growl Gray stood up in frustration and ice crept up the walls, in his frustration Gray had stripped off his shirt. They were all standing around staring at him, as the room's temperature plummeted even more. Gray panted, sure his angry outburst had frozen something but too terrified to look. Every pant that came out didn't mist up when it left his mouth, unlike everyone else's. Gray looked to the floor, "I don't know how to explain it." He admitted, at a loss.
Natsu stepped forward and stared into Gray's eyes, Gray wanted to shy away but instead allowed him to, and before he knew it Natsu had engulfed him in a warm hug, Lucy and Erza soon bundled in, with Happy snuggled between them. After a few moments of hugging Natsu whispered, "It's okay, we've got you."
Gray just shoved his head into the crook of Natsu's neck and allowed himself to be cuddled by his best friends, after a while though, they all detached, but Gray was zoned out. He had been human contacted out. Erza and Lucy noted the lack of chill and smiled, Happy sadly said goodbye to Natsu and followed after Erza.
Natsu smiled and pulled Gray back to hug on the bed, "So, snowflake, want to explain it to me?" Gray looked at Natsu blankly, lacking the ability to get angry for the insult, instead he just shrugged. Natsu raised his eyebrows before sighing, "Seriously here Gray, we need you to help us, help you." Gray felt Natsu's hand on his head and found his head go blank as he leant into the feeling.
"Is a lacrima." He muttered sleepily after a few moments. "Why's you and Gajeel so nice when touching me?" He asked eyes drooping as he looked up at Natsu sleepily.
Natsu chuckled, "I don't know Gray, but you're acting a bit like a baby. Why did they did this to you?"
Gray yawned, "Maybe I like acting like a baby." He suddenly looked intensely at Natsu, "It hurt, Natsu, it really hurt. For ages I had a headache, and then my teeth all came out, and it itched for ages, I bit the pillows apart." Natsu sensed the temperature drop, but didn't want to stop Gray from continuing, so chewed the inside of his mouth, "My body changed too, and now I'm even colder." He looked into Natsu's eyes scared, "She shocked me, cause I couldn't do it, I couldn't use the magic. She said I was broken because I couldn't get it to work for me, I can't control it. Only worked when I got angry; only when she beat me up." He took a deep breath, "She made me destroy the symbol." Suddenly, he sat up, making Natsu jump slightly.
Gray held his hands out and a Fairy Tail symbol appeared in his hands. He smiled at it and clutched it close, "Not again." He whispered.
Natsu looked at Gray in concern, outwardly Gray seemed to be fine, both physically and mentally, but the assessment they'd made seemed to be slowly flushing away. Of course, they couldn't just get him back fine. They had to find they'd implanted some lacrima in him, made him a second generation dragon slayer and then tortured him. They'd hurt his best friend and rival, "I'm going to kill them." Natsu growled.
Gray shook his head, "Don't do that, it's too late now, and Matthew's nice." He said with a smile, and Natsu had to resist being disgusted, of course they must have played good cop bad cop on him, Natsu really wanted their. Then Gray muttered something else which stopped Natsu's revenge thoughts, "I'm glad it was me."
Gray yawned, still clutching the Fairy Tail symbol to his chest, like some frozen teddy bear. Natsu looked at Gray, "What do you mean?"
"They wanted to experiment on you, see if they put it in you, whether you'd explode or something. Was just dumb luck it was me. But I wouldn't wanna switch if we ever got a second chance." Gray muttered, slowly curling against Natsu, he hummed, "You smell nice, fire cracker." He then asked very quietly, "Help me make it work, so I don't hurt someone?"
Natsu dumbfounded started stroking his hand through Gray's hair, it needed cutting soon, almost as unkempt as Natsu's own. Gray would rather go through all of that than switch places with him. He knew that he and Gray were friends, but that made some form of pride brim over, when it came down to it, Gray truly did care.
There was a soft rumble coming from the figure curled against him, and Natsu's lips curled into a smile. "It's okay, we will help you."
AN: Repost of a split chapter 1, to make it easier for sequential readers, the reason it was so long was that originally it was a one-shot I wrote in a few hours and just wanted on AO3, but got convinced to make into a story :) I hope this makes it better for my readers.