» chapter five

» in which natsu cedes

"Funnily enough," Erza remarked as they were aboard the train home, glancing out the window at the passing resort, "I don't remember much of our one-day vacation."

"Me neither," Lucy sighed. "What a waste."

"That's one way to put it," Gray supposed, glancing at Natsu who, for once, wasn't suffering from motion sickness. His fatigue was already using up all of his body's energy and he literally couldn't be any weaker.

"Mph," he grumbled in agreement, sinking into the seat's cushions. While he didn't catch a second of sleep himself, occupied by his haphazard pet kitty, Gray was the first up, him and Erza being the usual morning risers, and saw the predicament he was in. Together they managed to pry Lucy away and Natsu crashed on the couch for the next two minutes or so before their train was due to arrive. As Loki returned from his recharge in the Spirit World while they prepared to leave, Natsu got the feeling that he knew something was off.

"She was drunk off her ass last night," Natsu had said as Loki looked into the girls' room. "And if hungover Lucy is anything like angry Lucy, you don't wanna be around her."

"Mm," he hummed thoughtfully, not responding at all. It was unsettling and a little chilling to be honest. Natsu may have had his…jealous moments, but he still liked Loki, at least when he wasn't all over Lucy.

"Guys?" Lucy's voice startled him from his thoughts and he looked back to see her looking between the two of them expectantly. "How was the trip for you guys?"

"The fish was good!" was Happy's anticipated response.

"Well, I'm honestly happy I could get some time in the water without the fear of getting secretly groped by Juvia," Gray said with a sigh. "Although that public nudity fine was bullshit."

"Yes, very… And you, Natsu?"

"Average," he said uncommittedly. Then, as Lucy narrowed her eyes a little, he added, "Wish that kraken would've put up a better fight though. I didn't even have time to get fired up."

"Of course you didn't—it was pretty small fry," she laughed, buying into his act. "I probably could've even taken it by myself!"

"Is that so?" he challenged. She chuckled awkwardly, tapping her fingers together.

"Perhaps with a Dress to aid me…" Natsu cracked a smile in return, but as with all of his happiness as of late, it was quickly tampered by Loki's reappearance. Even the breakfast he brought from the other car couldn't lift Natsu's spirits, which was saying a whole lot right there.

"Hey, Natsu," Loki said as he worked himself into eating a scrambled egg sandwich, "what do you think of Lucy?" Natsu never thought he'd say it, but thank the gods for Gray, who caught him before he choked to death.

"Wha— Where the hell did that come from?" he sputtered, his head snapping between Loki's coolly inquisitive expression and Lucy's surprised one.

"Yeah, Loki, why ask?" she agreed. Loki simply shrugged a shoulder, eyes never leaving Natsu's. He didn't usually sweat, but there was certainly something building beneath the warmth of his scarf. "But since you've brought it up…"

Oh gods no I'm going to get found out aren't I oh no—

"…he thinks I'm a weirdo—even I can tell you that," she deadpanned, a sour note creeping into her tone. Natsu was so elated he could cry.

"I see," he said, not quite satisfied.

"Trust me, Loki, if you're looking for depth, you're not going to find much in his kiddie pool brain," Gray remarked, digging his fist into the side of Natsu's skull. He pretended to be occupied with his meal but mouthed a Thanks a lot to Gray, who snorted and waved it off.

"Aha, I guess you're right," he chuckled, adjusting his glasses. Erza looked between the four of them with a slightly mystified expression.

"Am I missing something here…?"

"Nope, not anything, because there's nothing to miss," Natsu said with the lying capabilities of a newborn baby. "That is to say, we're all having a normal conversation on a normal day and bleurgh motion sickness is back."

He was never so glad to have an excuse to jam his foot in his mouth as when his motion sickness made him barf over Erza's boots and consequently take those same boots to his head.

He just wanted to give up and admit the truth, that he loved Lucy, but it wouldn't mean anything but consternation from the both of them. And Loki would realize that Natsu did, in fact, attack him out of jealousy—there was that too. He so wished that things could go back to how they were not too long ago, when all he had to worry about was if Lucy would kick him out of her apartment before he had time to eat.

"Do you all want to grab a request when we return?" Erza questioned, steering the conversation back to familiar area. "It doesn't have to be a long one either, perhaps one that can be done locally within the next half day. It's been a while since it's been the four of us as a team…oh, no offense, Loki."

"None taken. I can't quite keep up with the four of you anyway."

"I don't need the money for rent, but I could use the pocket change for a little shopping," Lucy supposed. Natsu and Gray and Loki exchanged a look that conveyed their comprehension of a girl's little: "too fucking much."

"I wouldn't pass up some extra money anyway," Gray said. "Just the same, I need to do some clothes shopping."

"Maybe if you didn't strip so often, you wouldn't need to buy new clothes all the time…"

"What was that you said, fire fart?" Gray growled, grabbing half the loaf of remaining everything bread.

"I said—bleurgh," he groaned as the smell of it hit him, followed by another wave of sickness. It at least got Gray as far from him on the train's little bench as possible. "How much, erg, farther to the Guild?"

"Still a few hours," Lucy supplied, earning a desolate moan from Natsu as he resigned himself to a few hours' more worth of pain, not even with Wendy aboard to share in his agony. She opened her mouth to speak again, a hand raised as if to comfort him, then glanced at the surrounding passengers and let it drop back to her lap. Why does this girl have to be so self-conscious? he thought, exasperated.

Natsu felt shitty, but he didn't truly start to resent his condition until an hour into the trip, when the others began to doze from waking up so early in the morning. He glanced at Gray, whose head had slumped over to one side, and had he been in a better state of being, he would've drawn over his face—Happy too, matter of fact, because the cat sure as hell never gave him a break whenever he crashed early back at their shack. In fact, the sight of the great Titania with her head forward and arms slack—away from her sword, might he add—gave him the kind of energy that Troia hadn't in a long while.

"Time to shine!" he snickered, blowing flames onto some of the paper towels Loki had brought until he had a handful of ash. He sketched a big ole curlicue 'stache onto Gray's face, and it made him look better than usual, if he did say so himself. Riding out another wave of nausea, Natsu then gave Happy two big black eyes and a second, grinning mouth with lots of missing teeth.

Descending upon Erza, giddy with the arrogance of a god (a god of ash and suffering from motion sickness, but a god nonetheless), his two primary fingers descended upon the crest of her forehead, soon to be housing a thick monobrow, the scarlet demoness's armored hand lashed out with menacing speed, seizing the offending wrist of his with a grip that could and probably was breaking bones, eyes narrowed to hateful chips that sent shivers down Natsu's ancestors' spines.

"Don't. Even. Dare," she growled with the ferocity of a lion and the killing intent of a cobra. He swallowed three times before he could speak, and even then, his voice was more of a mousy squeak than a voice. Right after, her hand dropped and she fell back against the seat's plush leather once more, a small smile on her face that was once again relaxed into REM.

Guess I've learned my lesson about that, he thought, feeling three inches tall and like he needed a new pair of pants. He decided that Erza was, after all, not a good person to attempt desecrating if he wanted to live long enough to have kids, or even keep the three things that allowed him to have kids.

He would've done Loki next, but after what happened with Erza, he was more than a bit paranoid that the lion had some sort of Spirit ESP, and this time it wouldn't be a warning that he was given. He gulped at the thought and instead moved onto Lucy, whose head was against the cool glass and fogging it slightly with her gentle, steady breaths. She let her hair down that day, something she didn't do too often, and it fell in long waves down to the black sleeveless top she chose to wear. One lock was curling about her nose, making it twitch every few seconds like she was a bunny. He was smiling and laughing at the sight without even being conscious of doing so.

Has Luce always been this cute? I wonder…

He reached out and pulled the strand away, tucking it behind her ear. As he did so, his hand lingered on her cheek longer than he intended. He was briefly reminded of when he found her at his home and touched her face in much the same way, prepared to do something he would regret. The difference between then and now was that she was asleep, all the witnesses were, and he could stare at her as long as he wanted. Stare at and never touch… That wasn't what he wanted, was it?

"Damn it, you know how much trouble you're causing me right now, Luce?" he sighed with all the energy of a man damned by the world, poking her hard in the forehead. She shifted but didn't wake, just exhaled and changed positions until she was fully facing him. He tilted his head and drank in the sight of her, all her gentle curves and bright lights, and frowned before a grin pushed itself out of him. "But I'll be damned if I never enjoyed a good dose of trouble."

He leaned against the window and looked out at the mountainous savannahs they were passing through. They blurred into one another after long enough, and his motion sickness didn't help him make any distinctions in particular. It wasn't bothering him too much until the others woke up as they were finally passing into Magnolia, and Gray and consequently Erza and even Happy tore him a new one for the face-drawing stint. Then he was motion sick and bruised and swollen all at once.

"I think I'll pass on the job," Natsu said as they stepped into the station and he had kissed every stable, unmoving tree in the vicinity.

"Really?" Loki questioned, eyebrow raised. "I could see that if it was something boring, but we haven't even picked a job yet. There surely are a lot of monster-slaying ones still hanging around since the Guild's just opened for the morning."

"I dunno, I just don't feel in the mood to do it," he said, trying hard not to sound petulant about the whole thing. Even if he did, his teammates were giving him some worrisome looks. "What, do I have an octopus on my face or something? Why're you guys burning holes in my face like that?"

"Will you do it, or shall I?" Erza said to Gray. Gray shrugged and abruptly grabbed Natsu by the arm. He shouted a protest that went unheard as right after, his legs were cuffed with some of the strongest ice that the Mage could make, and Gray was never a pushover. His wrists followed right after, and in the blink of an eye Natsu was being toted front and back by Erza and Gray while Loki and Lucy trotted easily on either side of him. The situation was so batshit insane off the chain that Natsu thought he was dreaming for a moment.

"What in the great green land of Earthland is fucking going on here!?" he yelled, attracting even more eyes than a human sacrifice already was.

"We're worried for you," Lucy said, gently touching his forehead like it was alright and it was not alright.

"What!?"

"You've been acting off for a long time," Erza expounded. "Initially, we chalked it up to normal Natsu weirdness—" he protested loudly at that, which she ignored, "—but now it's time for an intervention. We're taking you to Porlyusica's."

"And why not just ask me to go?"

"Because you wouldn't, flames-for-brains," Gray snorted, and although Natsu wanted to sock him for it, he was right.

"I—don't—want—to—go! I'm fine!" Moreover, if they went, she would just tell them what she told him, and while he got the sense that his newest draconic issue would come off as freaky to them (yes, even to the cake-loving knight and stripper wizard), Lucy's reaction would be a lot stronger. She was, after all, more refined than the rest of them, and if she heard anything along the lines of "raging hormones" or "dragon hormones," she'd dodge him for the rest of forever. Hell, he would dodge himself, having endured ten years of demonesses and their demon version of hormonal shifts. Erza during her cycle…oh, gods, that was a living nightmare.

"We'll see," she replied.

"Well at least put me down, because I'm getting—" He started dry-heaving, as he was already on an empty stomach, but for once, the prospect of getting sicked (sickened? Was there a verb for getting puke all over one's self?) did not affect them. That was how he knew the situation was serious.

Well, this was bound to happen at some point, he thought resignedly. But why did it have to happen so soon!?

"Don't worry," Lucy said with a smile. "If there is something wrong, we'll get it fixed."

He laughed at the irony, because Lucy was the only one that could fix his problem. Happy flew up to land on his stomach, looking at him with wide eyes. "Any help here?" Natsu asked pitifully.

"Nope!" he said. "I'm outnumbered and outclassed here. Sorry, Natsu."

"O-O-Ooh…"

He couldn't think a way out of the situation short of exploding in a giant inferno, but not only would that not work, it would leave him even more nauseous and with the day's second ass-kicking before ten A.M.

"So, this is really happening?" Happy asked as no combustion occurred. Natsu could only groan in response. Maybe, if his brains weren't tied up in a knot alongside his intestines, he could think better, but two vehicles one after another was certainly his limit.

Call it fortunate, then, that right as they stepped out of the station and onto the street, an explosion occurred a block down. "Oh, I guess we should go investigate—damn," Natsu said, trying and failing to sound innocent.

"Lucy, Loki?" Erza nodded in the general direction of screaming people and smoke, and the two icky lovebirds nodded and went to investigate. His heart sunk—now he was sick, chained, and inadvertently set up Loki and Lucy for another date. Could things get any worse? He was scared to find out.

"Gray, can't you get me outta this?" he urged. "I don't ask you many favors, but please do me this one?"

"I'm not gonna fight Erza's wishes," he protested, "even for you. Sorry, but I'm not quite in the mood to die today."

He had nothing left to do but close his eyes and wait for them to reach Porlyusica's. Hopefully, it would be one of the days she was really averse to humankind.

Then a golden flare shot into the sky, bursting into a shower of filaments that reflected from the sun's light. They couldn't tell if it was Lucy's or Loki's, but the message was clear either way. Natsu's flames were restoked and he melted Gray's manacles to land in a crouch, and he was the first one launching towards the direction of the commotion.

It pretty much looked like a generic everyday occurrence: some rogue Mages thought they were hot shit and were causing a little trouble. At first, Natsu couldn't see why Lucy and Loki would need the help, as three Mages were already bound with anti-magic cuffs and still stuck in unconsciousness. Then his eyes shifted to the center of the street, where Lucy was on her knees staring in shock as Loki battled—Taurus? Yet the bull looked nothing like himself, the usual lusty look in his eyes replaced with a white glow that did not mask a rage beneath.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried. He raced to her side immediately.

"You're hurt?"

"Not badly, but it's Taurus! One of the Mages had a weird artifact that made him go crazy, and he's even refusing to be dispelled."

"There's always some sort of wrench in our machine, isn't there?" he smirked bitterly just before Loki was struck down. Taurus raised the battleax for a final blow, punctuated by Lucy's shriek, and Natsu chose that moment to slide into the fray, clapping his hands on both sides of the blade. He gave Loki enough time to slide away, but right after Natsu was overwhelmed, pushed down to his knees. "Ack! Jeez, man, what kinda vitamins are you takin'?"

"I think it's a kind of curse that amplifies one's primal instincts," Loki said, crawling to Lucy's side before flopping on his back. His suit was torn down the middle and around his left shoulder, baring two large slits that hurt just to look at. Lucy held his hand with a reassuring squeeze before glancing back at Natsu.

"Then I'm surprised he's not holding up a girls' locker room or something." Natsu's hands flared up as he dug his fingers into the chipped steel, growling with the effort until he'd managed to pierce through and superheat the whole thing to red-hot, reminiscent of a fighting a certain other perverted primate wielding Taurus' jacked ax.

"Listen, you, I've just suffered two bouts of motion sickness and am in no mood to play, even with you, so do me a favor and back the fuck up!" he bellowed, shoving Taurus back with greater force. He had to release the ax to not trip, and even then, he stumbled backwards over the uneven crosshatched stone of the avenue. While he was still stunned, Natsu leapt forward with fist cocked. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He couldn't lie and say that it wasn't a little satisfying to hear his knuckles connect with Taurus' nose bones, not that he was aiming to seriously hurt or anything, but he did succeed in knocking the bovine out cold.

"Nat—oh, what did I expect?" Lucy sighed while Loki chuckled. By that time, Erza and Gray had caught up as well. Lucy filled them in on a more detailed account of events, and afterwards they consoled the injured and scared and started investigating the area before ERA showed.

"Have you seen the artifact?" Erza inquired Lucy as she was helping Loki limp away with makeshift bandages made from her shirt. "These three are empty-handed." Then, not a second after she spoke, one of the unconscious Mages proved himself to not be unconscious.

"Erza, look out!" Gray called. Erza's warrior reflexes kicked in and she leapt from where the three Mages were stationed. Natsu, startled, snapped his head towards them, and he stared into his eyes reflected in an oddly-shaped silver mirror. As he stared, his reflection morphed into a phantom doppelganger, one with crimson sclera and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. He felt his heart beat out of place, then his memories stopped from thereon.

"Where…am I?" Natsu croaked as he swam back through the murky black to the world of the living. It took him a moment, but he placed the wooden interior and heady herbal scent as Porlyusica's tree home. He couldn't manage to sit up yet, not with his head throbbing and enough muscle relaxants in his system to put down an adult horse, but it didn't matter, as his friends came to him.

"We're at Porlyusica's," Erza explained, gesturing to the pink-haired woman that scoffed at him before returning to her potion making. "You needed to be patched up so we rushed over."

"Patched up…?" He raised his arm, which felt more like a lead weight than an arm, and noticed bandages across most of it. His other arm was immobilized in a sling. "What happened again?"

"We were fighting those Dark Mages in the middle of town," Lucy said, rubbing gentle patterns into the back of his hand. While the others were standing, she was the only one seated at his bedside, as if she had been there a long while. "They had a certain artifact that cursed the victim with a hex that made them go wild. Taurus was affected, then you."

"It was something to be seen, for sure," Loki added. He was sitting too, but more reasonably because of his casted left leg. "If dragons were still around today, I'd think you were one, the way you lunged at all of us." Gray nodded in agreement. He was pretty bruised and would get one hell of a black eye in the morning, but no broken bones. Damn. "But even then, affected by a curse, you still wouldn't touch Lucy."

"I wouldn't?" He tried and failed to remember the scene. There was just a lot of noise and commotion, and his brain hurt when he tried to force more.

"Loki was the closest one to her, so he shielded her when he saw you rampaging," Gray said. "You ran straight towards him and broke his ankle with a kick, but you acted like Lucy was invisible."

"I see." Actually, he didn't—he was still terribly confused. "But I see you've saved my ass, so thanks you guys."

"It's what friends do," was their automatic response.

"If all that's nice and settled, then get out of my house!" Porlyusica growled, swinging her broomstick back and forth to herd away Erza, Gray, and Lucy.

"Why me? I'm not human," Loki griped as he was swept away as well, then the door slammed behind them, leaving Natsu and Porlyusica alone. He grunted as he forced himself into a sitting-up position.

"Thanks for treating me, Porlyusica." She didn't respond, staring at him for a few seconds before frowning slightly.

"I didn't tell them about your instincts," she said curtly. "And, by the look of things, you haven't either."

"I'm working up to it," he grumbled. "It's not something you can just drop on others. It's…embarrassing. That's one way of putting it."

"But it's also not a problem that will go away if you ignore it," she pointed out. He muttered an expletive and slid under the covers. "And seeing as how the blonde is with the Spirit, you aren't doing anything about it anytime soon."

"What, am I going to snatch her away from him? I'm not that kind of guy." Or rather, that was more Loki's forte, stealing women away. "'sides, this'll have to wear down eventually, won't it? Like a boulder in a river. At least, I'd get used to it."

"The same way one would get used to an amputated arm," she said, and he winced at the analogy. Her eyes softened a fraction as she stepped closer, regarding him with a pensive expression. "You're not one to lie down and take defeat—you never have been, not since you were an impertinent brat that screamed his head off every time I cleaned your wounds." He winced and scowled at that. "As such, I wouldn't expect you to bear things as you are. Why not seize them?"

"Because maybe Things doesn't want to be seized," he muttered petulantly. "Maybe Things just wants to be left the hell alone so friendships can stay fine and boundaries can stay fine."

"…Is that so," she sighed eventually. "Then I have nothing left to say." They were spared an awkward silence by the door opening again, allowing Wendy inside.

"Porlyusica-san, Natsu-san," she greeted. "I heard about the fight! I'm sorry I couldn't get there to help, but Charla and I were just returning from a mission, and…"

"It's okay," Natsu interrupted. "Really. These scratches barely even hurt!" Not until she touched them, and it brought tears to his eyes. "Did I say barely? I meant a lot. Please don't touch them."

But, as Wendy treated his injuries, Natsu came to a decision: he would leave well enough alone, even if he had to step all over his heart to do. Because he valued Lucy more than a romantic relationship with her, and he valued his friends more than his own wellbeing. So he was giving up, words he thought he'd never be saying, but he supposed it was for the greater good. He just needed to take a…vacation of sorts, to get his mind in the right place, and he'd be fine. Perfect. Excellent.

"All done!" she said after a moment, stepping away. "You'll still need to rest the next few days, but your broken arm has been reduced to a sprain, and your other injuries were lessened to some slight bruising."

"Hey, thanks a lot, Wendy!"

"Now," Porlyusica said with a deathly tone, "you all really can get out of my house!"

Author's Note - Said it before on 'Natsu and Salamander,' but for some odd reason, it's really hard to bring myself to write for these two stories. Nonetheless, I'm trying to get better with updates, so hopefully it won't take a month/two months again for another, especially with the summer coming up - more free time to write.