Natsu was experimenting with different positions that would be more comfortable for his leg, and so far, he wasn't having much success. It was best if it was stretched out, but both sitting up and lying down seemed to put some weird sort of pressure on it, and it hurt badly enough that it was all Natsu could do not to hyperventilate.

Worse, while Tony had wrapped the bleeding parts and presumably contained some of the swelling, Natsu didn't think his leg had actually been set. It was starting to ache in a way that seemed to indicate something was wrong with it. Natsu was starting to worry that if he didn't get medical help, and probably sooner than the trial, it would heal badly and never be the same again. Natsu wasn't sure if he would be able to set it himself, but he'd broken enough bones over the years, and if it hadn't been for Gray, he surely would have tried. But with Gray on the receiving end of his pain, he wasn't sure if it was more important to try to fix his leg, or to protect Gray. He was just considering touching his leg for the first time, and trying to get a real sense for how bad the break was, when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Natsu looked up in time to see Tony stomp to the bottom of the stairs. He had a lacrima in hand, and through it, Natsu could vaguely see the blurry form of Gray. He was sitting on the ground. Natsu couldn't see his face, but at least there was nothing horribly visibly wrong with him.

"Gray is ruining everything," Tony snarled.

"What?"

"Is this typical behavior for him? Does he normally cry about justice?"

Natsu blinked. The broken leg was making it harder to understand what was going on around him, and now he was very lost. "Does he normally…what?"

"He fell, and his two bodyguards came running. He was crying when they arrived, and he told them it was because he was so fond of the Fiore justice system. Does that sound like normal Gray, or will it raise suspicions?"

Natsu realized it was a sincere question. To be completely honest, he highly doubted Lahar and Doranbolt would be suspicious of anyone who was claiming to love justice that much, but it certainly didn't sound like normal Gray.

"Uh, that's pretty suspicious of him," Natsu managed. His words sounded mushy and slurred with pain, and Natsu half-winced at the sound of his own voice.

"Damn it," Tony muttered, clenching his fingers around the lacrima. Natsu watched his knuckles whiten around the blurry image of Gray within the crystal, and he was glad that the real Gray wasn't there to face Tony.

Vaguely, Natsu realized that Tony had been watching Gray with a lacrima, probably the whole time. He'd probably seen Gray crying. Slowly, a shiver of anger worked its way up his spine, and Natsu fought the urge to growl at Tony.

"This is not going to work," Tony said angrily, and Natsu felt the telltale hum of a telepathic link opening in his mind.

Gray? I can see you're alone. Let's make this quick, before the Rune Knights come back.

Gray's voice responded immediately, and even though Natsu knew he was just hearing it in his mind, and it was a projection of Gray's thoughts, he still sounded tired.

What is it? Is Natsu okay?

Next to him, Tony sighed heavily, and responded in the link. Ask him yourself. Why not?

Natsu almost sat up in excitement, but he remembered to stop himself at the last second. Moving around would just hurt Gray.

Are you okay?

They'd both responded at the same time, and Natsu heard his and Gray's thoughts in stereo over the link.

I'm okay. You? Natsu knew that Gray wasn't, since he wasn't exactly okay either, but he didn't want to upset Gray any more than he had to.

Gray's response felt sad, and the sudden swell of emotion through the soul link made Natsu catch his breath. I'm sorry, Natsu.

What? What are you sorry for?

I dunno. But I must have done something wrong for this to be happening.

Natsu closed his eyes, struggling to deal with the despair he felt welling up inside him, sitting heavy in his stomach. It wasn't a familiar emotion for him, and he knew that it was coming from Gray.

Hey, Gray, no-

That's enough. Tony's voice cut across his, and this time Natsu did growl. Tony ignored him, continuing to talk as though Natsu hadn't said anything. You two can catch up more after the trial. Gray, you're going to get both you and Natsu killed if you go on this way.

I didn't…I'm not trying to make them suspicious. Gray sounded completely miserable.

I'm going to give Natsu painkillers. That should be enough to keep Gray from exposing us.

Natsu knew that while the pain was certainly a big problem for Gray, it was really only half the issue. The other half was the horrifying levels of stress and fear he must be feeling, knowing Natsu was taken and he was going to have to do something really, really bad to get them out of it.

But Natsu didn't want to say anything like that to Tony. To be completely honest, his leg hurt a lot. He really wanted painkillers.

Please, Gray whispered mentally.

That was the final encouragement Natsu needed. He hadn't been planning to fight Tony on this anyways, since he really was in a lot of pain, but knowing that the pain was completely exhausting Gray made the decision easy. Natsu would do anything if it meant Gray might feel better.

Tony handed Natsu an uncapped bottle of painkillers and a glass of water. Natsu thought it was a little strange that Tony hadn't measured out a specific amount, but maybe he didn't know how many Natsu would need based on his dragon slayer constitution. To be honest, Natsu didn't totally know either - all he knew was that he had a slightly higher tolerance for substances than a normal human. He shook a good few into his hand, with a somewhat awkward movement necessitated by the fact that his hands were cuffed. He washed everything down with a swallow of water.

It occurred to him that Tony hadn't had to do anything at all to force Natsu to take the pills - all he'd had to do was offer them to him. Natsu didn't know how he felt about that, but he tried not to think about it too much. He was just doing what he needed to do to survive. He was doing what he needed to do to help Gray.

Natsu wasn't sure exactly how long it took for the painkillers to start to kick in, but he didn't think it could have been more than a few minutes. Between one blink and the next, the world seemed to smooth out before him. He was pretty sure he'd been holding his head up before, but all of a sudden the muscles in his neck went so loose he felt his head hit the rough stone wall. His leg didn't particularly hurt anymore, but he kind of felt like he didn't have a leg at all.

That was better, Natsu thought. He usually didn't love painkillers - they made him feel confused and disjointed from the world around him, and his pain tolerance was high enough that he rarely needed them. But now, he kind of wanted to be disjointed from what was actually happening to him. That seemed like it would be a lot easier. Before the hazy feeling completely swallowed him, Natsu wondered if it would be easier for Gray, too. He hoped so. Natsu blinked again and surrendered to the fog rolling across his mind.

"Here."

The voice seemed to filter in from a very, very long way away. Gray couldn't see anything but blackness, which surprised him until he remembered his eyes were closed. He pulled them open, but the only thing in his field of vision was a book. A book with a lot of tiny, long-looking words.

"Here," the voice said again, sounding impatient. After a few seconds, Gray realized that it was coming from his left, slightly above. With only a few attempts, Gray finally managed to look up and around.

It was Lahar, holding a box of thick files. Behind him was Doranbolt, holding an even larger box.

"I hope you're enjoying 'The Bylaws of Fiore: Fourteenth Edition, Introduction by the Magic Council,'" Lahar said, nodding towards the book in front of Gray.

Gray looked down at the book, then up at Lahar. He didn't remember reading a single word of it. About five minutes ago, ninety percent of his brain seemed to have shut down, which he vaguely remembered had something to do with Natsu and painkillers.

"It's a gripping read," Lahar told him. "Tell him, Doranbolt."

"I think I read the abridged version," Doranbolt said quietly.

There was a short, awkward pause in the conversation, and Gray managed a nod.

"How are you finding it so far?" Lahar asked.

"...Long?" Gray hoped that would be a satisfactory enough answer for the pair. The book did seem long to Gray - it was thick, and heavy, and the pages were big, but maybe Lahar had a completely different opinion. Gray was starting to think, with what few faculties remained to him, that he might have gotten himself in over his head.

"It is pretty long," Doranbolt said, poking Lahar gently in the back with his massive box. "Maybe we should give him one of the files, instead. Like, what about 202A? That's the first one you gave me to read…. It really changed my whole outlook on what a legal file could be."

"That's…good," Gray managed. He wasn't completely sure it was good. Maybe Doranbolt hadn't wanted his entire outlook on what a legal file could be changed. But Gray knew he sure wasn't going to come up with another comment that would avoid suspicion. This was just about the best he could do.

He had the sudden, sharp wish that Natsu was here. Natsu probably would have grabbed the box of files from Lahar and set it on fire. And at this point, Gray couldn't quite remember what he'd said to get himself into this situation in the first place, but he was pretty sure Natsu would have been able to avoid that too. If Natsu was here, they could be snuggling in bed instead of reading files. Natsu would have known just how to calm Gray down. The wish to see him was so immediate that Gray could almost taste it on the back of his tongue.

Gray idly flipped a page without thinking about it, then realized that Doranbolt and Lahar were standing directly in front of him, and he wasn't supposed to be pretending to be reading. God, he couldn't do anything right. He just wanted to close his eyes.

There was a heavy thud as Doranbolt's box was set down on the table, directly in front of Gray's face. Doranbolt started rifling through it, and eventually seemed to come up with the folder he'd been so excited about. He handed it to Gray. Gray spent a long moment just blinking at it, and then realized that he was probably supposed to take it from Doranbolt.

They were going to know something was wrong. They were going to know something was wrong, and that was going to ruin everything.

"I'm a little nervous about the trial," Gray finally managed. Was he slurring? He thought he might be slurring. Maybe they wouldn't notice. Then, he realized that hadn't exactly been the explanation he'd been hoping for. There was a long pause. God, this was going badly. "I didn't sleep very well last night."

Gray forced himself to look up at Doranbolt, who was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and sympathy. Doranbolt nodded slightly. "I'm sure things will be easier for you once the trial is over," he said.

"I'm…sure."

Gray took the file from Doranbolt, slapped it down on the table over the book he'd been reading, and started rifling through it. He was pretty sure his vision was still too blurry for him to read right now, but maybe they'd think he was just…organizing the file, or something. Gray felt like he was underwater. He hoped this conversation wouldn't last very much longer.

"Here," Lahar said, plucking the file out of Gray's hands. Gray's fingers closed on thin air, and he looked blankly in front of him for a second or two until he realized what had happened. "Let me find the best place to start."

Gray sat back in his chair and tried to look like he was awake and processing the situation as Doranbolt moved next to Lahar, peering over his shoulder. They started talking to each other, presumably something about the file in question. Gray was happy to let them talk. The more they spoke to each other, hopefully the less he would have to speak to them.

Gray let his eyes drift slightly out of focus, and went back to staring at the stray papers Lahar and Doranbolt were placing on top of the book in front of him. He still wished he had Natsu, even though at this point Natsu would probably be even less help than Gray in trying to read a legal file.

Erza. That's who would really be good at this. She was a big fan of justice, which Gray had always thought was pretty impressive considering she got called into the Council just as much as the rest of them. Plus, she was pretty good at reading, probably even if the book was boring, or if she was on painkillers. She'd taught Natsu to read, and he was sort of okay at it, so that was something.

And just like that, Gray's thoughts were back to hovering desperately around Natsu. When he'd started to feel himself get high, he'd figured that even if it ended up being a problem, at least he wouldn't have to think about Natsu so much. It was just his luck that the one thing his soggy brain could focus around was his boyfriend, and how worried he was, and how much he missed him.

Gray gulped sadly, trying to fight back the possibility of tears, and let his head drop further down towards the paper. After a second, the sudden silence in the room made its way into his brain, and he looked up. Lahar and Doranbolt were both staring at him, looking confused.

What did they want? Gray couldn't even remember why they might be looking at him. The last thing he remembered, he thought they'd been reading over some kind of file. It was still clutched in Doranbolt's hands.

"It's good," Gray mumbled, looking back down at the paper under his nose. "'S…interestin."

"Well, in that case we'll leave you to it," Doranbolt said briskly, dropping the rest of the stack in front of Gray.

"But-" Lahar was interrupted by Doranbolt closing his hand on the other man's elbow and towing him towards the door. Gray watched them go, mostly just relieved to be left alone.

An amount of time passed, and Gray continued to stare at his paper. His vision was definitely too swimmy for even pretending to read now - the thought of trying to force his eyes to focus on the words made him vaguely nauseous.

At least Gray's leg didn't hurt much anymore. But the dull, achy pain coupled with the aggressive lightheadedness and the complete exhaustion - it was almost somehow worse.

Gray was just starting to wonder if he should risk standing in order to get himself to his bed so he could lie down when the door opened again. Gray's head did the drugged-out approximation of snapping up as Lahar and Doranbolt entered the room.

Hadn't they just been here? Had Gray lost that much time? How long had he been sitting at this table?

Gray reached out and definitively closed the file in front of him. Presumably, if they'd been gone that long, he should have finished what he was doing already. Hopefully, Lahar wouldn't quiz him on it or anything.

But Lahar seemed…a little bit nervous. On edge, or something. It was hard for Gray to tell for sure what was going on, since he still couldn't think very well, but it was…definitely something.

"Sorry to barge in on you again so soon," Lahar said. So they hadn't been gone for that long. Gray felt like a detective for putting that together.

"That's…fine," Gray managed. His brain and his tongue still didn't seem to be very well connected. "Did you…need…something?"

Doranbolt stepped forward and sighed. "We actually came to tell you that I am going to be…going away for a bit."

Gray blinked. "Going away."

"Yes."

"For a bit?"

"I'm not sure how long I'll be gone," Doranbolt said. "I have some investigating I need to do."

"In-investigating?"

"Yes." Doranbolt didn't seem to want to elaborate.

"Oh," Gray whispered, trying to sound invested. "Okay."

"So we'll need another guard on you," Lahar explained.

Gray blinked at him, hoping that more would be forthcoming.

"So we were thinking about asking Natsu," Lahar prompted. "To come here and ensure you're protected. We know you've been missing him."

Lahar continued on, but Gray didn't hear him. As soon as he'd said Natsu, that was all Gray could think about.

"N-Natsu?" Gray asked hopefully, and then remembered with a crushing wave of despair that he couldn't have Natsu, because Natsu had been taken. Anything else he might have said was choked off by the horror of remembering that for the hundredth time, and Gray fell silent.

"So? Can you contact him?" Doranbolt asked.

Gray didn't know how he was going to talk his way out of this one. He could barely think his way through a complete sentence, much less lie about where Natsu was. Besides, he wanted Natsu with him so bad that there was a physical ache to it, and he didn't think he could bluff his way through that, either.

Gray. Stay silent. Only say the words that I tell you to. If you speak to him, they will know that something is wrong, and Natsu is going to be very badly injured. Don't bother to respond.

Gray froze as Tony's voice echoed in his head. By some miracle, he didn't respond to him out loud, just sat still and waited for his instructions. As horrifying and violating as it felt, Gray was almost glad that Tony was watching him, because he was right. Gray couldn't do this on his own.

Tell Lahar and Doranbolt that Natsu is on a job.

"Natsu is on a job," Gray echoed. His voice sounded tinny and brittle to his own ears, but hopefully not to Lahar and Doranbolt's. At this point, the only thing he could do was muddle his way through and hope.

It's far away, and he's out of lacrima range.

Gray parrotted back those words too, watching the pair's faces with every ounce of concentration he had left. They still looked vaguely nervous, but he didn't think they looked any more nervous now that he was talking to them. Maybe they were also upset about having to be split up.

"Oh," Lahar said, sounding disappointed. "Well, that was my best idea. Gray, is there anyone else that you would recommend, or someone that would make you feel more comfortable?"

Gray swallowed down an uncomfortable burst of semi-hysterical laughter at the thought of someone being able to make him "more comfortable" in his current situation. Natsu was always the one who made him feel most at home, obviously. Him, and Erza. Erza was like an older sister to Gray, and she always seemed to know what was wrong, and how she could help. He owed Erza more than he wanted to think about, but she never minded adding more to the tally.

No further instructions were forthcoming from Tony. Maybe he was still thinking. Gray didn't know how familiar he was with the other members of Fairy Tail. He might not know anyone else who could be a potential guard option for Gray. And regardless, right now Gray was just sitting in front of Lahar and Doranbolt in silence, after he'd already spent the entire conversation acting pretty damn suspicious. If he didn't say something soon, that was probably going to…make this situation worse somehow.

"Erza?" Gray finally whispered. "Erza Scarlet?"

Lahar nodded. "I'm familiar with Erza. I think she'd be a good choice. Do you know that she's available right now?"
Gray shrugged helplessly. Thankfully, Lahar didn't seem to have actually expected an answer.

"Will I be able to get in touch with her if I contact the Guild Hall?"

Mira would surely know where Erza was and if she was available. "Yeah," Gray whispered. "Yeah, that'll work."

"That's excellent to hear."

What are you doing? Tony sounded furious. Gray felt his chest twist with anxiety. But he wouldn't be able to both communicate with Tony and answer Lahar and Doranbolt - he would have to ignore Tony for now. All he could do was pray that that decision wouldn't end up hurting Natsu.

Gray scrubbed a hand across his face. He hoped the movement made him look stressed and overwhelmed, as opposed to drugged out of his mind.

"She…she doesn't know where I am right now, though." Gray hoped he didn't sound as weak and scared as he felt. "You'll have to explain what's happening to her. She thinks I'm on a job. They all do. But if she knows I need her then…I'm sure she'll come."

Lahar nodded. "I'll contact your Guild Hall as soon as Doranbolt leaves. We'll update her on the situation and hopefully have her here in the next couple of hours."

You'll pay for that later. Tony's voice sent a tingle of fear up Gray's spine. But Gray wasn't sure what else he could have done. Don't say anything else to make this worse.

"Th-thank you," Gray managed, nodding at Lahar. Gray wasn't sure how he could tell, but the telepathic connection in his head had been shut off. He was on his own. Maybe Tony had decided Gray had already thoroughly ruined the situation, and there wasn't much further damage he could do.

"No, thank you," Doranbolt said. "Erza's a good choice. Didn't she arrest her boyfriend once, Lahar?"

Lahar frowned. "You mean Jellal? I don't think he was her boyfriend at the time, but maybe. She certainly let him be arrested, anyway. Excellent point."

Gray hadn't entirely thought of that. The ever-present sick feeling in his stomach grew at the thought of what Erza might do if she found out that Gray was planning to let a murderer go free just to protect Natsu. She would be so disappointed in him.

Gray also knew that she would never want Natsu to get hurt, but she didn't have Tony in her head, and she wasn't linked to Natsu's pain and fear. There was no way she would understand the full extent of Tony's hold over him, or what was truly at stake. As much as Gray wanted to see Erza, as much as he just wanted someone to help him get through this, he already felt like he'd made the wrong choice.