Author's Note: Well here's the second chapter. In response to a review on the last chapter from whisper, I do not plan the stories out, but just let them develop themselves as they go I do not yet know if Natsu as E.N.D will come into play. Currently it is not in my plans, but that could change. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter and please review. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Fairy Tail.
Gray dreamed he could fly. He had been on a mission that was going wrong. The enemy had chased him to a cliff's edge and were going to kill him. Not wanting his death to be at their hands he'd jumped, but instead of falling he flew. He cried in amazement as he left his enemies behind. He flew high up into the air before diving back down sending ice pellets at the dark mages. He whooped with glee, having defeated them single handedly. He flew higher and higher celebrating his victory. He didn't even notice the feel of the heat burning his back until it was too late. He turned around only to find that he'd flown too high and was about to crash into the sun. He desperately tried to fly down to a lower altitude but no matter what he did he only got closer and closer to the sun. He was going to be burned alive.
Gray jackknifed straight up in bed breathing hard. "What the…?" he murmured glancing around the room on instinct. Nothing seemed amiss, but he knew something was wrong. The room was swelteringly hot. His sheets were plastered to him, soaked through. A moan sounded from beside him and he looked down to see Natsu, paler than a corpse, sweat running like a river over the flame-brain's body.
"Jesus Christ!" Gray exclaimed. "Natsu!" He grabbed the dragon slayer's shoulders and shook him a little, trying to wake him up. Natsu only moaned again, a torturous expression on his face. Gray covered the palms of his hands in ice and placed one on the fire mages forehead while the other roamed over Natsu's torso. But after a minute he gave up. He was clearly not helping Natsu at all. Gray stared at the bandages wrapped around the fire idiot and remembered the welts covering his back. One of them had to be infected.
Carefully, he rolled the fire mage onto his stomach and began to peel back the bandages. His face paled as he saw that the dragon slayer was suffering from infection. One of the largest welts across Natsu's back was leaking a greenish pus. Gray could smell its putrid stench even though his face was a good foot above it. The skin around the welt was red, and inflamed and the welt itself was turning a dead looking black.
"Shit!" Gray hissed hopping off the bed and quickly pulling on his clothes from yesterday, in too big of a hurry to find something clean. He pulled his boots on and then started for the door before stopping and turning around, heading back to Natsu. He sat beside him and ran a cool hand through the spiky pink hair. "I'm going to get a healer for you, okay? You're going to be okay I promise." He looked down at the fire mage for another minute before forcing himself away and running out of the room. He paused long enough to freeze the door's lock shut so no one could get to Natsu before hurrying towards the throne room where the Master would be found.
"Master Arlock!" Gray cried running into the room.
"Ah, Gray," Jerome said sending him a menacing glare. "How is your pet?"
Gray remembered himself then. He couldn't act like he actually cared about Natsu or he wouldn't be allowed to keep him. And then he wouldn't be able to keep the flame-brain safe. He forced himself to remain composed as he answered Jerome. "Sick," he replied. "One of the wounds one of you inflicted upon him has become infected and now I can't have my fun with him."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have waited so long to take an interest in him," Jerome said.
Gray gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to send an ice lance straight for his pompous guild mate. "I've been busy," he growled, and it was true. Gray had been the one to find a new base for their guild. He'd also been the one to clean up the mess his old guild mates had created when they ruined the purification ceremony. He had had very little time for anything in the past three months. "You had time to save your old friend," a little voice in the back of his mind chided him. He forced the thought back before turning back to Master Arlock, who had been watching his and Jerome's banter with cold indifference.
"Master Arlock," Gray said making his case. "I can't have any fun with him the way he is now. I'm requesting you for permission to hire a healer from the nearest town to get him back into shape for me to use."
Master Arlock stared at him thoughtfully for a few moments before nodding his head. "I will permit you to do so, but on your own jewels," he granted. "Avatar will not be funding your little pet's health bill."
"But Master Arlock!" Jerome cried. "This is…"
"Shut up, Jerome!" Master Arlock ordered harshly. "If Gray wants his turn with our captive it's only fair. And besides, you were saying just the other day how you'd tired of the fire mage." Jerome scowled but said nothing back. Master Arlock turned back to Gray. "Try to find a healer that won't pose a problem to our guild. Absolutely no healer from an actual hospital."
"Of course not," Gray assured his guild master. "I'll be discreet. Thank you Master." And with that done he rushed out of the guild and into the nearest town. Two hours later he hadn't had any luck. He'd gone to the town's city hall and searched through the town's records to look up all the healers in the town. He'd gone from door to door but the second he mentioned what guild he was from every healer he talked to backed out. They didn't want to get involved with a dark guild. Growing increasingly panicked Gray banged on the door of the last healer he'd marked down.
The door swung open to reveal an angry looking middle aged woman. She had graying brown hair and her violet eyes were glaring daggers at him. "Young man, what is the meaning of all this ruckus?" she asked demandingly.
"Please," Gray begged. "My friend needs help. He has a wound that's seriously infected. It's given him a dangerously high fever. He needs help or I'm afraid he'll die."
The woman sighed. "Where is your friend?" she asked.
Here came the part where all the other healers backed out. "He's in my room at the Avatar guild," he replied quietly.
The woman stared at him silently for a minute before shaking her head. "I don't treat dark wizards," she told him and began to close her door but Gray pushed a leg in the way and forced the door to remain open.
"He's not a dark wizard," he said. "He's our guild's prisoner."
"I thought you said he was your friend," the woman replied frowning.
"We were friends," Gray corrected himself. "We were worked together in the Fairy Tail guild before it disbanded." The woman still looked unmoving. Gray couldn't lose his last chance. "Please. Please, he'll die if he doesn't get help soon."
"Oh fine," the woman sighed giving in. "I'll never get work again in this town once word gets out that I've helped a dark mage, but fine I'll help your friend."
Gray sighed in relief. "Thank you," he said gratefully. The woman grabbed her supplies and then Gray led her to the Avatar guild's building and then directly to his room. He unfroze the lock to let them enter his room. His heart sank at the sight before him. Natsu was thankfully still alive, but in even worse shape than he'd been in only a few hours before. He was obviously still suffering from a fever, but the infection had spread to the other wounds on his back. Pus was dripping down his back and the skin all around the wounds looked dead.
"Natsu!" Gray cried rushing for the bed and running his hand through the pink hair. Natsu didn't show any sign that he had heard him.
"Lord, I'm surprised he's not dead already," the woman whispered shocked at the horrible state of her patient.
Gray looked up at her. "You can help him though, right?" he asked. "You can save him?"
"I can," the woman replied hurrying to set up her stuff. "I hate to make this room any hotter, but I'm afraid the potions I need to cure him will need to be brewed."
"Do you have something to cool down his fever?" Gray questioned desperate for anything that would help the dragon slayer.
The woman glared at him. "Boy, I suggest you don't tell me how to do my job," she snapped. "One of the potions will take care of the fever. You're an ice mage aren't you? Why don't you help him in the mean time?" Gray nodded and turned his full attention on Natsu. Once again he coated his hands in ice and ran them over Natsu's body, avoiding touching the welts on his back. Natsu leaned into Gray's touch. Gray leaned over Natsu and whispered soothing words of comfort into the fire mage's ear. After a half hour the potions were done.
"Get him into a sitting position so I can feed it to him," the woman ordered Gray. He climbed onto the bed and shifted Natsu so that he was resting against his chest. The woman came towards them with a spoonful of her potion. "This'll get rid of the fever while the other takes care of the infection." She fed Natsu a spoonful of each before bottling up the remaining potion. "Put him back on his stomach. I want to inspect those wounds."
Gray did as he was told and carefully turned Natsu onto his stomach. The woman stepped closer and began to clean off the dire mage's back, washing the pus away. Her finger traced the air over one of the welts. "He looks as if he'd been tortured," she said giving Gray a hard look.
Gray hung his head. "My guild mates did it," he spat out before looking back up at the woman. "He's been a prisoner for three months but I only went to check on him yesterday and found him like this." He paused as he watched the woman rub a healing salve over the wounds and inflamed skin. "They beat him." He watched as the wounds and skin instantly healed. "They raped him too."
The woman looked up abruptly and opened her mouth to say something when a small whisper broke through the room. "Gray?"
Gray glanced down to see Natsu looking tiredly up at him. "Natsu!" he cried kneeling down beside the bed so he was eye level with the flame-brain. He ran his fingers through Natsu's hair again. "Hey, you're okay now. I got someone to help you." Natsu just nodded tiredly, too exhausted to speak. Gray looked back up at the woman.
"If they raped him there could be damage to his…"
"There is," Gray said interrupting her. "I put a medicinal salve on it last night like I did to the wounds on his back, but since they got infected still…" He let his sentence trail off.
The woman nodded her head. "I'd better put this salve on those wounds too," she said, but the instant her hand reached down to touch the dragon slayer, Natsu freaked out.
"Don't touch me!" he shouted violently thrashing around. "Please! Stop! Stop, I'm begging you! Please stop!"
Gray felt his heart split in two inside his chest as he grabbed onto Natsu. "Hey, no one's going to hurt you," he tried to assure his old friend. He ran his hand soothingly up and down the fire mage's now healed back. "Okay? No one's here to hurt you. She wants to help you Natsu. If one of your wounds down there is infected you'll get sick again."
Natsu stared at him, tears streaming from those squinty eyes. "Gray, don't let her touch me," he said hiccupping back sobs.
"Natsu, I…" his words were cut off by the woman placing the healing salve down next to him.
"I'll leave it with you," she told him. "He knows you. He knows he's safe with you. That salve will instantly heal any wound he might have as you just saw, so be thorough."
He nodded his head and stood up. "Thank you Ms.?" He questioned just now realizing he didn't know her name. Although, her address had been listed in the records her name had been absent.
The woman snorted. "I don't give my name to dark mages," she answered bluntly. "Now pay up so I can be on my way." Gray dug through his back and came up with a generous sum of money to give to the woman. She glanced down at the large bag of jewels. "Boy, even a healer from some pristine hospital wouldn't charge this much for the service I just provided. What kind of idiot pays more than required?"
"A grateful one," Gray replied in a tone that clearly showed he would not take any of the money back.
The woman shook her head. "I really don't know what to make of you," she scoffed. "Don't need my help again." The woman left with the jewels and Gray turned back to Natsu, picking up the medicine the woman had left. Natsu let him use the salve, although he cried through the treatment. Gray showered after treating Natsu, partly because he hadn't had a chance to that morning and partly to give Natsu some space. After, showering he went to the guild's kitchen and made them some dinner.
Gray was concerned when Natsu only picked at the food he'd given him. He'd had to force Natsu to finish. When a few more hours had passed with Natsu just lying silently in bed Gray couldn't take it anymore. He sat down on his side of the bed and stared down at the pink haired idiot. "You have to be dying to talk, Natsu," Gray said. "How long has it been since you've had a real conversation? What's keeping you silent?"
He was surprised when Natsu glared up at him. "I have nothing to say to you," he replied harshly turning away from Gray.
Gray's eyes widened in surprise. "What? What did I do?" he asked. Natsu didn't answer and Gray felt a twinge of anger flash over him. "I just saved your life, Natsu."
Natsu turned back towards Gray. "You should have just let me die," he cried.
Gray's anger quickly faded away with those words, replaced by sadness. "Natsu," he murmured reaching a hand out to comfort his old friend, but Natsu just pulled away.
"I wanted to die," Natsu whispered. Gray wasn't sure he'd been meant to hear those words, but they startled him. Natsu had never been like this before. He wasn't the defeatist type. Gray was so startled by Natsu's revelation that he almost missed the next part of Natsu's speech. "Maybe then I'd have gotten to be with Happy and Lucy."
Gray's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
Natsu stared up at him. "You don't know, do you?" he replied. "You're new friends never told you." Gray opened his mouth to tell this flame idiot that his new guild mates were not his friends but Natsu didn't give him the chance. "Lucy and Happy are dead."
Gray froze in horror, and then shook his head. "No, we let them go," he told Natsu. "I watched them walk off. Why do you think they're dead?"
"That Jerome guy told me," Natsu replied looking scared at just the thought of the dark mage.
Gray smiled. "Jerome's an ass," he said. "He just told you that to upset you. Lucy and Happy aren't dead. I bet they've gotten at least half of Fairy Tail back together by now." He could tell by the look on Natsu's face that he still didn't believe him. He sighed. "Would it make you feel better if I hired someone to track the two down so you know they're not dead?"
Natsu stared at him for a few seconds longer before replying. "I'm not the one you're trying to make feel better," he said before rolling away from Gray again. Gray blinked in surprise and stared at Natsu's back for a few moments before giving up on talking to the flame-brain. He went to his desk and did paperwork for another hour before deciding to call it a night. Natsu was already asleep as he crawled in beside him and shut off the lights. He'd hire someone to track down Happy and Lucy tomorrow and prove Natsu was wrong and he was right. But as he settled into bed he couldn't help but remember that he'd been wrong to think his guild mates would harm Natsu while they held him prisoner. And then wondered if what Natsu said was right.