Dragon Family Values
Disclaimer – I do not own Fairy Tail
Summary: Gray says something that devastates Natsu. Gajeel is there to pick up the pieces.
Author's Note #1 – I'm using the 100 Theme Fanfiction Challenge for this collection. I thought it'd be something different.
Author's Note #2 – This one I am rating T for TEEN.
Author's Note #3 – These drabbles are pretty much one-shots and are not related to each other in any way unless otherwise indicated.
Seeking Solace (Rated T)
"Stupid flamebrain."
"Bastard exhibitionist."
The insults had ensued for nearly two hours, ever since Natsu and Gray had completed their mission, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully.
The mission had requested the services of a fire mage and ice mage, something about defeating some strange, elemental bandits or something. Since Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Carla, and Happy had already taken another mission—Happy had wanted to be with Carla—it was just Natsu and Gray. No one was there to break up their imminent fight.
Sure, they'd defeated the so-called bandits, but had also they damaged the town in the process due to their forthcoming competitiveness. Scorched and frozen buildings now littered the outskirts of the town.
And that meant no reward.
As soon as the two mages entered Magnolia, the rage Gray had been trying to keep under control finally unleashed.
"Just stop it!" he snapped, rounding on Natsu after his latest insult of him being a stripper. "I don't even know why I put up with you! You're nothing but a useless moron! You can't do anything right! You're absolutely worthless! It's no wonder Igneel abandoned you!" Gray knew he shouldn't have said it, but he was just too angry.
Natsu's eyes widened at the declaration, and for once, he was silent. Abandoned? Sure, the thought had crossed his mind before, but he'd brushed it off as a figment of his imagination. But hearing someone say that to him…could it actually be true? Was he really that useless, worthless even? Is that why Igneel left him?
Gray turned on his heel and headed toward the guild, satisfied that he'd finally shut the stupid flamebrain up. Serve him right, he thought.
Natsu, on the other hand, was left standing at the entrance of Magnolia, his heart feeling like it had been ripped in half. Ever so slowly, he entered the city, but he didn't head for the guild. He went where he didn't think anyone would be able to find him.
"It's good to be home," said Erza as she and the rest of her companions returned from their mission.
"Thank goodness," added Lucy. "I didn't think we'd ever get out of that storm. It's really coming down."
Wendy squeezed some water out of her drenched hair. "It's so cold," she said with a shiver." Carla hummed in agreement.
"I'm gonna find Natsu," said Happy when he spotted Gray. He flew over to the ice mage, expecting his friend to be with him since they'd been on a mission together, but the dragon-slayer was nowhere in sight. "Gray, where's Natsu?"
The ice mage shrugged. "Beats me. He never came to the guild."
Erza narrowed her eyes. "Oh? And why is that?" Gray cringed at the threatening tone that seeped into her words. "Were you fighting?"
"M-Maybe?"
Lucy sighed. "Gray, can't you two just get along for once?"
"He started it!" protested Gray. "We didn't get the reward because of him! The damage to the town was insane!"
Carla huffed. "Are you really saying that it was only Natsu who caused the damage?"
"Well…no, but he did most of it!"
As the others continued to squabble with Gray, an uneasy feeling came over Wendy. Something was wrong. She could sense it.
"Wendy!"
"Huh?"
Carla sighed. "I've been calling your name for the past two minutes. Did the mission really take that much out of you?"
Wendy shook her head. "It's not that. It's…" What was this feeling?
A chair suddenly clattered to the ground. All eyes darted toward the source of the sound. Gajeel stood, staring intently at the doors of the guild, Levy staring at him in confusion.
"Gajeel?" she started.
"Something doesn't feel right," said Gajeel as he took a hesitant step toward the door.
"You feel it, too?" asked Wendy.
The two dragon-slayers locked eyes. "Natsu," they both said before racing out of the guild.
Natsu sat in a small outcropping near the end of the river, letting the torrential rain soak into his freezing skin.
Useless.
Worthless.
Abandoned.
Those three words continued haunting his mind and heart; they seemed to be the only thing that mattered. He didn't even care that his body was slowly starting to grow numb from the cold.
Why did those words affect him so much? Was it because he really did think he was useless? He wasn't, was he? Was he truly as worthless as Gray made him out to be? Was that why Igneel left him? Because he was some worthless, useless waste of space?
Maybe he was. He had to have been, right? He'd been found by Igneel, seemingly abandoned. And then when he'd found happiness again, Igneel left him, too. Was he destined to repeat this process over and over again? When someone realized how useless and worthless he was, they would abandon him? Would it happen again?
It already has, Natsu thought to himself. Gray told him those very words and had left him…abandoned him.
Natsu halted his thoughts when a wave of dizziness struck him. Placing a hand to his head, he swallowed thickly as he waited for the lightheadedness to pass. When it did, he continued to wallow in his grief.
What if everyone else left him, too? What if the members of Fairy Tail left him? What if his dragon family left him? Tears trickled down his face, blending with the rain at the thought of even losing them.
"Natsu?"
The soft, concerned voice of Wendy drew him from his dark thoughts. He turned to look at her, worry and alarm evident in her eyes. Gajeel stood behind her with a similar expression.
"Salamander?" said Gajeel as he stepped closer to the fire dragon-slayer and knelt in front of him.
The tender tone that Gajeel desperately tried to control seemed to be Natsu's breaking point. He let out a sob, crying in anguish. "G-Gajeel-nii!" he whimpered.
Gajeel paused and stared at Natsu apprehensively. It wasn't often the fire dragon-slayer called him that; he was too embarrassed to call him that. The only time he did was when he'd reached his breaking point, which had only happened to him once before. Just what had reduced Natsu to this state?
"Hey," said Gajeel, reaching for Natsu. He rubbed the dragon-slayer's arm with a gloved hand. "Let's get you out of the cold, hm?"
"I don't feel cold," Natsu mumbled. "Don't feel…anything."
He didn't feel anything? How long had Natsu been out here? "Come on. Let's go to the guild. We'll warm you up, get some food in you, and you'll be good as new," said Gajeel, trying to keep his anxiety in check. He did not like the condition Natsu was in right now.
Natsu shook his head. "No. You'll just leave me, too. You'll abandon me," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
At this, Wendy spoke up. "We're not going to abandon you," she said, confused by his words. She approached the fire dragon-slayer and grabbed his hand, which was icy to the touch. "Let's go back to the guild. Together."
Natsu shook his head again. "Why even bother? I'm useless…and worthless…right?"
Useless and worthless? thought Gajeel. Who the hell put these ideas into his head? "Salamander, you're not useless. And you sure as hell ain't worthless. We're not gonna leave you. Now let's go. We need to get you out of the rain."
Natsu believed that those words should have given him comfort, but they didn't. He wasn't sure he could trust those words. And besides, even if he wanted to return to the guild with Gajeel and Wendy, he'd lost all feel in his limbs from the incessant cold.
"Gajeel-nii?" said Natsu softly after the iron dragon-slayer had stood and offered him his hand. "I…I…"
Natsu didn't have a chance to finish his thoughts. His physical and mental turmoil finally caught up with him. The fire dragon-slayer passed out.
"Natsu!"
The members of Fairy Tail jolted when the front doors of the guild were suddenly kicked open and a furious Gajeel—followed by a trepid Wendy—holding a pale and unconscious Natsu in his arms.
"Someone send for Porlyusica!" he shouted. Jet immediately took off, seeing as how he'd retrieve her the fastest.
Master Makarov, quickly pursued by the rest of Team Natsu, approached the iron dragon-slayer. "What happened?" inquired the guild master.
A low, threatening growl came from Gajeel, making everyone—save Makarov—back away.
"Gajeel," Makarov began firmly. "What happened?"
The iron dragon-slayer then let out a noise that sounded a little like a whine. "He's been out in the rain this whole time. He…passed out." Gajeel didn't want to reveal any more than that for the time being.
Makarov frowned in thought. "Let's get him to the infirmary and out of those wet clothes."
Gajeel nodded and quickly made his way there, Wendy hot on his heels. When they entered one of the small rooms of the infirmary, Gajeel started removing Natsu's wet clothes while Wendy found something for him to change into. Once Natsu was redressed and placed into the infirmary bed, Wendy began an analysis of the fire dragon-slayer's condition while they waited for Porlyusica.
"He has a really high fever," said Wendy, sitting down in a chair next to Natsu. "But I'm more worried for his mental state.
Gajeel grunted in agreement. What had brought Natsu to such a state? Surely, someone had to have said something to him that struck a nerve. But who?
Wendy suddenly gasped. "I-I think…I know why Natsu was talking like that."
The iron dragon-slayer turned his attention from Natsu to Wendy. "Who?" he ground out.
"I-It might have been…G-Gray."
Gajeel left the infirmary. He had an ice mage to kill.
"Poor Natsu," said Lucy. "I wonder why he was out in the rain like that."
Erza crossed her arms and scowled. Something wasn't right about this.
"Natsu," moaned Happy.
"Whatever. If that idiot was stupid enough to stay out in this weather, then he deserves to get sick," said Gray.
The response to his statement was an iron fist to his face, which sent him flying into a wall.
Cupping his bruising face, Gray glared at his attacker. "What the hell, Gajeel?!"
The iron dragon-slayer glared furiously at the ice mage. "What did you say to him?" he growled.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about!" snapped Gajeel, lifting Gray into the air by the collar of his shirt. "I'm only gonna ask you one more time. What did you say to Natsu? He wasn't sitting out in the rain for no reason! You said something to him!"
"Gajeel, let him go," demanded Erza. "Let's speak civilly.
Reluctantly, Gajeel removed his hands from the ice mage. "Tell me what you said."
"We were just fighting like we normally do, with the normal insults and stuff," said Gray as he straightened out his shirt—by taking it off.
The iron dragon-slayer shook his head. "No. Something was different this time. You hurt him. Now tell me what you said before I beat it out of you!"
"Why the hell do you even care?"
"Because unlike your stripper ass, I care about him! He's like a baby brother to me, and if you hurt my baby brother, you sure as hell better expect me to hurt you!" Gajeel shouted.
"Okay!" said Gray as he anxiously rubbed the back of his neck. "When we got back from our mission, I kind of…snapped at him. I…called him useless and worthless."
Gajeel narrowed his eyes at the ice mage, noticing how Gray quickly averted his eyes. "You said something else, didn't you? What was it?"
At this, Gray looked ashamed. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "After I told him he was useless and worthless, I said…it's no wonder Igneel abandoned you."
A deathly silence fell on the guild as Gajeel shook with rage. "You son of a bitch," he ground out. "Do you have any idea how your words affected him?"
Gray nervously shook his head.
"He already thought that his birth parents abandoned him and then you go and tell him Igneel did the same! So he sat out there in the rain growing numb from the cold while believing that he really was useless and worthless and that everyone would leave him one day! How could you do something like that?!"
"I…I-I'm sorry," stammered Gray.
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
"Am I interrupting something," announced Porlyusica, shaking the water droplets off her cloak. "I heard there was a patient who needed my attention."
"In the infirmary. I'll take you," offered Lucy. She couldn't bear to be in the same room as Gray at the moment.
Gajeel gave Gray one finally glare before following them to the infirmary.
Gajeel sat next to Natsu's bed, brushing a few strands of hair out of his eyes. His fever had finally broken. Porlyusica gave him some medicine and said that he should be fine in a few days, as long as he got some bed rest.
"Mm," Natsu grunted as he gradually opened his eyes. When his vision cleared, he found a concerned Gajeel staring at him. "Gajeel?"
"Welcome back to the land of the living," responded the iron dragon-slayer.
Natsu tried to swallow, but his throat felt rough and dry. Gajeel seemed to read his mind, for he raised a glass of water to his lips, which the fire dragon-slayer drank greedily.
"How long?"
"Have you been asleep?" Natsu nodded. "About a day. You nearly froze yourself to death out in the rain."
He had? Why was he out in the rain? Three words suddenly flashed through his mind as he remembered the previous day's events. A slight smack to his forehead drew him away from those thoughts.
"What was that for?" snapped Natsu.
"You were thinking about what Gray told you," said Gajeel. "I want you to stop it. You should know that the words that come out of his mouth are a load of crap."
So, Gajeel knew. "But what if it's true?"
"It's not true. You're not useless. You're not worthless. You never have been. Sure, you get into a little trouble now and again, but who doesn't? And don't you dare believe that Igneel abandoned you, because that would mean Metalicana and Grandine abandoned me and Wendy, too. And I don't believe that. Our dragons loved us."
Natsu's hands began to fidget. "I'm just worried that everyone else will leave me, too."
"That ain't gonna happen," insisted Gajeel. "Fairy Tail is your home. Our home. We're family. And even if we fight with each other now and again, we're still here for each other. We're not gonna leave you. I'm not gonna leave you. Now stop thinking those gloomy thoughts."
Natsu felt content by those words. His attempt to thank Gajeel was drowned out by a large yawn.
Gajeel smirked. "Looks like somebody needs a nap."
"Shut up," Natsu replied tiredly as he settled down into the bed. He grew confused when Gajeel attempted tucking him in. "What're you doing?"
"Just…let me look after you," he growled. In a much softer voice, he said, "You scared the shit out of me yesterday. I never want to see you like that again. If someone hurts you, I want you to come get me. Let your big brother handle it, okay?"
Natsu smiled softly at that. "Sure…Gajeel-nii," he replied, his voice thick with sleep. Before he drifted off, he said. "Stay?"
Gajeel made himself more comfortable on the chair next to Natsu's bed. "I'll stay. I'm not going anywhere."
Satisfied with his answer, Natsu let himself fall into a peaceful slumber.
Author's Note – What did you think of this one? Please review!
*Next Theme – Break Away*