I don't own Fairy Tail
Natsu was suffocating. There was intense pain everywhere, his whole body was on fire and he felt, for the first time, like he was being burned alive. Suddenly it faded. The fire seemed to recede, tracing back to the arm that had been hurt in the battle with Gray. Natsu could feel his body again, and looked at his hands before emitting a yelp. Or it would have been a yelp had he been able to make a sound. His hands were covered in dragon scales, his fingernails turned into talons. Looking at the rest of his body he saw scales covering his arms too. Noticing his head felt heavy he reached up and was shocked to find a pair of horns attached to his head. What the hell?! THIS IS AWESOME! I'VE TURNED INTO A REAL DRAGON MAN! ...But where am I and what am I doing here?
Natsu looked around at his surroundings but couldn't see anything other than red fog. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of light. What's that? He walked towards it, the light steadily glowing brighter with each step. When he reached the light, he noticed it was actually what looked like a doorway, but it was so bright he couldn't tell what was on the other side. Being Natsu he didn't even think to assess risks before walking through the door.
Natsu blinked as he was surrounded by light. When it had subsided and he could finally see, he found himself staring at a tree and under the tree sat small boys around five and three years old, the first black haired and the other pink.
Wait, that's… Me!
Sure enough the pink haired boy under the tree was a small Natsu, wearing a red shirt and brown pants. He was grinning happily, talking to the other boy next to him. This one had black hair with a black shirt and the same brown pants. He was smiling fondly as well. As the adult Natsu got closer, he could hear the two kids talking.
"You should have seen me big brother! I was just about to catch it when all of the sudden a baby dragon appeared out of nowhere and chased it off!" Big Brother?
"Why were you chasing a rabbit anyway?" The darker boy asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Cuz I wanted to eat it!" The young Natsu looked gloomily at the floor while the darker boy laughed.
"Haha of course you wanted to eat it, I swear Natsu, all you ever do is eat."
"Hey no I don't! I do other things!"
"Oh yeah, like what?"
Little Natsu's eyes glinted and he grinned, "LIKE FIGHTING YOU!" He jumped on top of the older boy and both started laughing as they wrestled each other.
The older Natsu while immensely confused watched the two with a smile, when suddenly the world faded out around him and he was placed in a new scene. Everything around him was blueish grey. Awww man, I wanted to see if I would win that fight or not! Ugh.. now where am I? Without warning the oxygen around him disappeared. Natsu couldn't breathe and started panicking. He saw a new light above him and found that he could swim through the air, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the light. Fire Dragon Boosters! Nothing happened Shit I don't have magic in here! Someone help! Natsu felt himself run out of oxygen, felt himself drowning on nothing, and everything started to fade…
Natsu opened his eyes wide as oxygen flooded back into his lungs. He coughed violently though made no sound. Noticing his new surroundings he saw a the same black haired kid leaning over.. Wait that's me again. The black haired kid was sobbing, yelling at the small Natsu who was laying unmoving on the ground. Am I…Dead? Natsu walked closer to the pair and could make out the words of the older boy.
"Natsu!? Natsu I'm so sorry! I didn-I didn't...I didn't mean for th-this to ha-happen!" He buried his face into little Natsu's chest and gave an agonized cry. For some reason Natsu felt a sense of dread and sorrow watching the scene, but was confused as to what was happening. The scene started fading once again and Natsu found himself once again alone, this time floating in blackness. From what he could feel, his talons and scales were gone, but he couldn't see anything. Dammit, I really liked being a dragon.. Natsu thought with a pout.
Unfortunately it seemed the pain was also returning. He felt sore all over and his right shoulder really hurt. Slowly opening his heavy eyes he found himself met with a white ceiling. I must have been dreaming this whole time.. What a weird dream. The black haired boy in his dream had seemed so familiar and everything was still crystal clear in his mind. Natsu couldn't help but feel like the dream meant something but he had no idea what.
As he regained feeling in all his limbs he registered a pressure on his left arm and and lifted his head to find a mop of bluish black hair splayed everywhere. For a second he thought it was the boy from his dreams but as soon as he got a whif.. Oh. It's just Gray. He would recognize that minty winter scent anywhere. He put his head back down and absently used his free arm to pat Gray's head. Ooh it's so soft! He ran his fingers through Gray's hair contentedly. Who would've thought Ice Princess has such nice ha- Natsu froze in shock. What the..? WHY THE HELL IS ICE PRINCESS EVEN HERE AND WHY AM I PETTING HIM?!
Natsu debated whether to throw Gray off of the bed he was laying in or keep petting his soft hair, but seeing as he was exhausted and drained of energy, he decided on the latter. Eh I'll get you next time Frosty...
It took Natsu a moment to register everything that had happened. All he remembered was fighting Gray and suddenly being consumed by fiery agony. Despite the painful memory, the dragon slayer smirked. Hehe I still won though, Gray was totally knocked out after I punched him! Natsu looked down at the sleeping ice mage again, silently questioning why his magic had affected him so negatively. He looked down at his now patched-up shoulder desperately hoping that the gross black stuff wasn't on his arm anymore. He absently continued petting Gray's soft head as he wondered what was wrong with either himself or the devil slayer's magic.
After some time Natsu felt Gray shift and let out a quiet moan. The fire dragon chuckled and kept his hand in Gray's hair as Gray drowsily raised his head, looking around and taking in his surroundings. His eyes landed on Natsu in front of him and he breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the fire mage awake. Natsu watched in amusement as the look in Gray's eyes quickly morphed to that of confusion and shock. Natsu laughed loudly this time.
"HA! Gray you should see your face! You look so dumb!" Gray gave him a blank stare and he laughed even harder. Gray's eyes narrowed and he felt anger boiling within him.
"What the hell fire breath?! My face does NOT look dumb, YOU are the one laughing like a total idiot! And why they HELL ARE YOU PETTING ME?!" Natsu's laughing slowly died down and he looked at his hand and shrugged.
"I dunno, you're hair is soft, I like it" he explained but quickly added "it's still ugly like the rest of you though!"
"You're the ugly one Pyro!" Gray retorted angrily. Natsu saw his expression quickly change to a more peaceful one as the dark haired mage leaned his head into Natsu's hand, sighing contentedly. Apparently he enjoyed the attention. Gray met Natsu's eyes and stared at him apologetically. "I'm sorry Natsu." Natsu smirked and ruffled Gray's hear roughly, ignoring his rival's yelp of protest.
"For what, almost killing each me?" Gray looked down in shame as Natsu continued. "Don't worry about it Ice Princess, almost killing each other is what we do after all. Beside's I think I finally understand how it feels to be a roasted chicken! I gotta say, I don't know if I like it that well.." Gray knew this was Natsu's way of saying 'I forgive you' and he chuckled.
"Roasted chicken huh? Too bad I didn't finish the job" he teased with an evil smile "could've saved the world loads of trouble had I just taken you out."
"Hey! Don't forget that I won you ice prick!"
"Oh really? Says the one lying in the infirmary bed!"
"You were out cold before I was, and this only happened because of some dumb luck!" Gray was about to retort when he saw Natsu's lips turn down into a frown. He knew what his rival was thinking, they both were wondering what had really happened to Natsu when he was cut.
"I don't know why it happened." Gray said, answering Natsu's thoughts. His eyes furrowed as he continued, "I talked to Gramps, Wendy and Erza, none of them know what's going on. Even more confusing is that the wound reacted to a demonic magic antidote of sorts which suggests the gross black shit coming from the wound was associated with dark magic or curse power. I don't understand though!" Gray slammed his hand on the table and Natsu gave him a concerned look. "My power is supposed to vanquish evil not create it! How can I use this power to defeat demons if I possess magic that is no better than that of a demon itself!?"
Natsu stared at him in surprise, before his gaze hardened. "Listen Gray, there's nothing wrong with your magic." Gray looked into the dragon slayer's determined onyx eyes, surprised that his rival wasn't spitting insults or blaming him for the whole ordeal. Then again, Natsu's always been protective of his guild-mates, he never lets any of us hate on ourselves. "There might be another explanation to this, maybe your magic isn't faulty and there's just something else going on."
Gray raised a skeptical eyebrow, "oh yeah? Like what?"
"Who knows?!" Natsu exclaimed with a smile that was way too cheerful. "Maybe someone shot me from afar and it wasn't your hit at all!"
"Don't be a dumbass!" Gray hit his fist against Natsu's head but smiled as well. "I told Makarov that I would ask Lucy and Levy for help researching devil slaying magic and I've been banned from using it until I find out what happened. I might be gone for a few days, I'm probably going to go to the Library of Sorcery and hope to find something there."
"I'm going with you!"
Gray looked at Natsu like he was crazy. "What?!"
"I'm going with you!" Natsu grabbed his shoulder and held his gaze while Gray shook his head in disbelief.
"This magic almost killed you and now you want to help research it?! As in you're ok with sitting in a library?! Reading books? Do you even know how to read?!"
Natsu scoffed indignantly. "Of course I know how to read, I'm not an idiot! But yeah. I wanna know what the heck is going on and you could use all the help you can get in that giant library!"
Gray shook his head again and briskly stood up. Natsu swung his legs over the bed and stood up too. They walked in silence but kept 'accidentally' running into each other. By the time they reached the infirmary door the gentle pushes had become an all out shoving war, only ending when they reached Levy and Gajeel in the opposite corner of the guild. Gray stepped in front of Natsu and stopped in front of the table Levy and Gajeel were sitting at.
"Gray! Natsu! Are you guys ok?" She glanced worriedly at the bandage on Natsu's right arm.
"Yeah we're doing fine" Gray replied cooly. "Listen Levy, I need your help.."