It was several months before Natsu next noticed something was amiss. Things had been quiet, and all the jobs they'd taken, at Lucy's insistence, had been on the lighter side. Rounding up bandits or suppressing a single monster. Nothing their team couldn't finish in a few hours.
Erza was the one who finally declared she was itching for a challenge and grabbed an S-Class quest. When Lucy protested, she claimed that Natsu and Gray both more or less counted, since one of them probably would have been S-Class had the last trial not been interrupted. This wasn't enough. Erza then pointed out that after they divided up the pay, the reward was enough to keep Lucy from having to worry about rent for half a year, and Lucy stopped complaining. Gray and Natsu, who were both eager to prove that they were the one who would have won the S-Class trial, took no effort at all to convince. In the end, only Wendy begged out, insisting that she would take a smaller mission with a few other members who might depend more on her healing abilities.
On the train ride over, they reviewed the plan. Their mission was a fairly straightforward one. A large number of monsters had emerged in the foothills on the far side of Mount Hakobe. Several other guilds had already tried to fight them, and claimed that it took their whole team just to take out one. But as Erza pointed out, those teams lacked Fairy Tail wizards, and as Lucy pointed out, in the foothills, there would be nothing that the team needed to hold back and refrain from destroying.
"You hold back when there's something we aren't supposed to break?" Gray asked, since Natsu was out cold from motion sickness.
"You don't?" Lucy shook her head in disappointment. "Geeze. No wonder you two are always causing trouble. At least you won't have the chance this time."
To give Natsu a little time to recuperate, when they reached the last town before the foothills, they took their time with lunch and asked around for information about the monsters. From that they learned that their plans to hire a carriage to cover the remainder of the trip wouldn't work, as no one was willing to head out that way.
"Guess we have to go on foot," Natsu told everyone. "Hey, Sorry Lucy."
"You don't look that sorry."
And she never looked that sorry when dragging him onto a vehicle, but Natsu was happy enough to get out of the carriage ride not to care. Carriages were even worse than trains. Lately, it seemed like it took him even longer to recover from being forced onto a vehicle too. He'd almost turned down lunch because his stomach was still churning a whole hour after they disembarked.
He didn't see why the other three were so upset about having to walk the rest of the way. It wasn't like it was that far, and since Erza had suspected they might spend a few nights camping in the foothills as they cleared out monsters, it hardly mattered that they had to stop for the night two thirds of the way there.
Close as they were to the site of the reported attacks, Erza insisted that they take turns guarding the camp. She went first, then Gray, then Natsu. After that was supposed to be Lucy, but Natsu felt energetic enough to keep up watch, and if Lucy had to get up early, she would probably complain a lot more throughout the day. Natsu took her watch too, and woke her just a little before the others so Erza wouldn't find out.
"Thanks," Lucy yawned and dragged herself out of her sleeping bag. "Now turn around. Keep watching for any monsters."
"But it's light out."
"Turn around. I need to get dressed."
Blushing, Natsu looked back out towards the foothills, and lamented having such good hearing. He could hear Lucy's small huffs as she struggled out of a pajama top that was slightly too small, and was keenly aware of exactly when he would get the best sight, should he glance over his shoulder. But that would get him slapped, and Lucy yelling at him might wake Erza. Then he would be slapped by Erza, which was a serious punishment to try and avoid.
"Can I turn back yet?"
"Hold on."
"Lucy, you're taking too long."
"I said hold on! I've almost… there! It's safe to look."
Natsu turned back around and glimpsed over her outfit. Too short skirt. Heels. Tight top. He couldn't imagine fighting in that. In all honesty, he was impressed with how well Lucy could manage.
"Well? How do I look?"
"You look like Lucy. C'mon. Let's get the others up."
-o-
After a quick breakfast they set out again, and encountered their first monster before lunch time. Erza made short work of it, and ordered that the four of them split up and begin to clear out the area. They rejoined for lunch, split back up to fight again, and after rejoining once more to make a campfire dinner, set up camp for the day.
Gray boasted about how many monsters he'd slain, and Natsu fired back with a higher number. To maintain their pride, neither dared ask Erza for her head count, and let her instead focus on roasting s'mores.
Something pricked at the back of Natsu's neck. Some vague sense of wrongness that he knew he'd felt some time recently, but couldn't recall when. But Gray was laughing about how well he'd done that day, and Lucy was blushing and reading a book intently, and Erza, who had the keenest sense after Natsu, was drooling as she watched her marshmallow turn brown. If none of them thought anything was amiss, then until the feeling became any worse, Natsu decided to dismiss it. He had been up since almost midnight. He was getting tired. If all his better rested friends noticed nothing, he was probably imagining it.
He ignored the sensation.
"Erza," Gray said, "If you have that much sugar, you'll never be able to fall asleep."
"Is that so?" Erza tried to recall how many marshmallows she'd eaten, and could not. "I'll take watch first, then. Unless any of you want it."
"I'll take the last shift," Gray told her. "Natsu, Lucy, you two work out who's second and third."
Natsu considered telling Erza he wanted to go first. Uninterrupted sleep was a nice thing. But he'd already been up since a little past midnight, and when he glanced at the still rolled up sleeping bags sitting a few feet away, he wasn't willing to offer to go any longer than he had to without crawling into one.
"I can go second," he decided.
Since she had gotten out of watch the night before, Lucy refrained from complaining that she hadn't been given any choice at all with what shift she would take.
They rolled out sleeping bags not long after, and Erza stayed up to continue roasting sweets while everyone else got ready for sleep.
No sooner had Natsu shut his eyes than did Erza suddenly stand, dropping her marshmallow into the fire as she drew her sword.
"Incoming!"
Gray leapt from his sleeping bag and readied a battle stance. Natsu and Lucy were still struggling to get out of their bags when the first attack hit, sending the two of them rolling several feet.
"Dammit!" Flames igniting around his body, Natsu burned his way out of the bag and scrambled to his feet. "Who did that? You're gonna pay!"
He scanned for any suspect looking beasts, but none of them paid much attention to him, instead striking at Gray and Erza, who had been in a better position to fight.
Well… fine! If none of them were obviously guilty, they could all share the blame. Wrapping his fists in flames, Natsu kicked off to rush the nearest monster…
And promptly fell flat on his face.
"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, having finally wiggled her way out of her bag. "What did you trip on?"
"Must've been a rock," Natsu muttered, although that wasn't the case at all. He'd leaned forward, attempted to jump, and not kicked off hard enough. How had he not kicked off hard enough? It felt like he'd put as much force as normal into that kick. It was a move he pulled all the time. Messing it up like that was just embarrassing!
Now wanting to repeat that mistake, Natsu decided to run at the nearest monster instead. He swung as he got close, but missed. The thing didn't even dodge, and he missed. Hissing in frustration, he swung with his other fist and hit, but the monster didn't budge. It felt like hitting a brick wall with a pillow. The target didn't so much as wince, and Natsu's fist bounced harmlessly off.
Had he been putting real force into that, it would have knocked the monster over. Or at least made his own fist sore. That neither took damage meant that… that… that he hadn't punched hard? But it had felt like he was putting his all into it. Just like it had felt like that first punch would hit, and that his attempted leap would get him airborne.
Something felt really, horribly wrong, and Natsu went rigid, unable to ignore the sensation any longer.
"Natsu! Stop messing around!" Erza snapped.
"You don't need to tell me twice." He took in a deep breath, feeling fire well up in his belly. "Roar of the—"
Sharp pain exploded in his head, and he doubled over. The roar attack, rather than blasting a cone of flames that would have incinerated the beast right in front of him, was reduced a few sad wisps of flame and smoke mixed into his choked gasp of pain.
The world tilted and split itself in two. When Natsu managed to raise his head to look back at the monster, he couldn't tell if it was above him, or below. He saw it raise two right arms back to strike him. Did it have two before? He realized he needed to dodge, but even shifting the slightest bit made the tilting worse, and he didn't know whether to move left or right.
Someone cried out for him. The noise was muddled, but it was probably one of the girls. The monster's fist connected with his head then, and he lost consciousness before he was able to figure out who it was screaming his name.
-x-
STA: This chapter and the last were both a little shorter than what I usually like to write, so I didn't want to put either of them up alone, really. But at the same time I don't like posting two chapters at the exact same time, so have them half a day apart.
Like I said before, this fic was originally going to be a Nalu. The moment that changed is just a tad big after this. I'm not sure I'd have included that bit where Natsu takes Lucy's night watch otherwise, but... I don't really mind that it's there. It still works good as a friends moment, and serves it's main purpose—which was to help tire Natsu out.
Next chapter is where the plot really kicks off, so look forward to it.
-x-
Daygon Yuuki: I suppose Sting has the potential to appear, in that I had no plans to exclude him. It honestly hadn't occured to me to include him either, although I can think of some things I could do with his character