Gray held true to his word. The next morning Natsu got himself up, made breakfast for Happy and himself, and set out for the guild when the ice wizard ambushed him only ten feet from his house.

Natsu's immediate reaction was to bristle. The last time he'd gone around town, he'd done so by himself. Technically with Happy, but Happy wasn't there to help him. He was there because he was always there. The part of Natsu that still hadn't accepted his condition, which was a large part of him, resented the idea that Gray thought he needed an escort to buy groceries and wander around town.

Pretending not to notice that Natsu wasn't happy to see him, Gray said, "Where all did you plan to go today?"

"I don't know. Anywhere. I need something for dinner, and I thought it might be nice to buy lunch, but that's about it."

"How about the park first?" Gray suggested.

Natsu couldn't quite keep from sounding tart when he asked, "Why? Because it has benches?"

"Because it has a path to walk on."

"Oh." Natsu paused. "Yeah. I should be able to walk that much. And I'm not carrying anything. Happy, does that work with you?"

"Aye, sir!"

Gray's efforts not to look like he was hovering as they walked across town didn't escape Natsu's notice. Nor did the way that whenever his step faltered, Gray tensed to spring forward and grab him. It made Natsu scowl and focus harder on walking steady, and the fact that this was something that required focus at all only frustrated him more. But it beat having Gray insist the walk side by side, or worse, that Natsu sling one arm over his shoulder for support.

They almost made it to the park when disaster struck. This, mercifully, was not any health related disaster. Natsu didn't know what he would do if he'd collapsed on such a simple walk. Gray would probably lock him up at home for the rest of his life.

No. The disaster had nothing to do with Natsu. In fact, the disaster was quite pleased to keep Natsu as far away from itself and all things Gray as possible.

"Gray! Juvia heard you were going shopping today and came to help!"

Natsu heard a yelp, then a thump, and looked back to see that Gray had been tackled to the ground, and was struggling to get out of Juvia's arms.

He wouldn't lie, it was nice to see Gray be the one to struggle with what should have been a simple task for once. But Gray had helped him when he struggled a great many times the past few weeks, and even if Natsu didn't really want the help, there were times when it had been… well… helpful. So he decided he could lend Gray a hand.

"You should let him stand. I need him to be able to catch me if my legs give out."

Juvia froze, a brief flash of guilt passing over her features before she had the chance to register that Natsu was in no danger of collapsing in the next few minutes. In the time it took her to realize that, Gray took advantage of her distraction to drag himself out from under her, and readied a spell to put up a shield if it looked like she might tackle him the ground again.

"Gray, where are you going?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does? How can I enjoy our date if I don't know what it is? Or… could it be… are you planning to surprise Juvia?"

"This isn't a date! I'm just escorting Natsu to the park!"

"Ah! Gray!" Juvia cried, seeming not to hear, or perhaps pretending not to hear Gray dispute her. "Juvia would love to walk through the park with you."

"Well, too bad I didn't offer!"

Despite his refusal, she ended up tagging along. Well, tagging might not have been the best word. It was more like she physically attached herself to Gray and he had no choice but to pull her along with them.

Natsu walked ahead, careful not to get so far that Gray would throw a fit, but not staying as close as Gray liked him to be. Happy was still at his side, ready to help if needed. And besides, it was nice to not have someone stand three feet away from him, tensed like they thought he was about to fall. Maybe seven feet wasn't a huge difference, but it was something.

To show Gray that he could be responsible with himself and that it would be totally fine if he tagged along on a job, Natsu didn't walk ahead forever. After wandering halfway around the park, enjoying the scents and scanning for fun distractions, Natsu took a seat at a bench and gave himself a moment to rest.

He expected Gray to sit behind him, and to make the offer to help him stand if he needed it. (Not that he ever did. Usually.) Instead, Juvia dragged Gray off into the bushes. Natsu watched his teammate disappear beneath the leaves, and despite Gray's protests and his own want for more freedom, he couldn't help but feel a little abandoned.

"Too bad Mira isn't here to see this," Happy said.

"What's to see?"

There was certainly quite a bit of fussing to hear, but not much to look at, with Gray and Juvia hidden in the bushes. It sounded like Gray was fighting to keep his clothes on, while Juvia was talking about hers kept slipping off.

That bothered Natsu, for a number of reasons, but whatever happened between Gray and Juvia wasn't his business. Whatever he thought of it, that wasn't the reason he decided to butt in. The real reason he interrupted their… whatever it was they were doing, was much pettier than that.

"Gray!" Natsu called. "I want to stand."

"Juvia has seen Natsu stand on his own plenty of times," a voice answered back.

"I want to be up all day. That means I have to 'pace myself' or something. So help."

Why exactly he was insisting upon this, Natsu couldn't say. Less than twenty seconds ago, the possibility of Gray offering to help, much less insisting, had irritated Natsu. Now it irritated him when Juvia emerged from the bushes and said, "Juvia will help, but Gray can't be left alone too long."

"Gray's been helping me," Natsu told her. "He can help now."

They stared one another down, both trying to figure out why it mattered so much to Natsu that Gray be the one to pull him off the bench, and in that time, Gray extracted himself from the bushes, pulled up the pants Juvia had yanked down, rebuckled his belt, and stepped between them.

"Let's get you up."

Natsu held out a hand and let Gray help hoist him into a standing position, wondering all the while what damage he must be doing to his 'I can totally follow you on a job without getting in the way or getting hurt' image by asking Gray for help so early in the day.

Gray, mercifully, didn't seem to take it as a sign of weakness that Natsu had asked, babbling on about how it was good of Natsu to pace himself until they had taken a few steps forward, at which point he whispered, "Thank you."

It was soft. So quiet that even without his sharp hearing, Natsu wouldn't have picked it up. Why Gray might be thanking him, Natsu couldn't guess, until Juvia called out for them to wait up, and that she knew Gray was shy but he didn't need to leave her behind on their date. Realizing what Gray thought he was doing, which, for all Natsu knew, was what he was doing, Natsu grinned. If Gray took all of his requests for help, or reminders that he needed it, as excuses for Gray to get out of Juvia's grasp, then maybe when the time came that he genuinely needed the assistance, he could try and pass it off as more covering for Gray. It wasn't usually his M.O. to insert himself between couples, which Gray and Juvia must have been for as often as Juvia insisted on it. Regardless, Natsu found himself oddly satisfied with the idea of keeping the two apart for the day.

After the park he wanted to go to the market, but Gray and Happy talked him into saving that for last. Happy on the grounds that they would have to carry everything around for the rest of the day, and Gray giving vague statements of agreement in between telling Juvia that he was not going to the mall with her, and would not carry her clothes.

Instead, they went to pay a visit to Lucy's where things didn't quite go as planned. Natsu had hoped to climb in through her bedroom window, like he usually did when she was already there, but that window was on the second floor, and he wasn't about to delude himself into thinking he could climb on his own. It didn't look like it would be too tricky with help. The hard part was getting that help.

"I'm not lifting you up there," Gray told him. "We can use her front door."

"But it'd be fun. If you just made some stairs leading up to her window, it would hardly take any effort at all."

"Aside from forcing the window open?"

"She doesn't lock it."

"I'm not doing this. Besides, those stairs would be ice. What if you slip?"

"What if I slip?"

Gray threw his hands up, growling in frustration. "No stairs!"

"Fine. Happy."

"Natsu, we use Lucy's door all the time when she isn't home. Let's go that way today."

"But if you carry me—"

"I might drop you while I'm opening the window."

"You've dropped me from higher before."

Happy shook his head. "That was when I knew for sure that you could make the landing."

"I can still do that! It's only one—"

"Natsu?" Natsu flinched and looked up to the window he'd hoped to sneak in from. The one Lucy was now leaning out of. "Hey. I didn't know you were coming over. Give me just a second. I wasn't expecting guests."

Seeing that it was too late to sneak in, Natsu grudgingly submitted to Gray and Happy's insistence that they take the front entrance, sulking all the while about how both of them were too worried he'd hurt himself doing something he always used to do.

"If it's so scary to let me walk up a few stairs, maybe you should just carry me," Natsu said, mostly for the sake of being a brat. No one thought he was likely to slip on regular wooden stairs.

What Gray did think was that without an excuse to walk up those stares, Juvia was going to drag him back down them and demand he not go into another girl's room. Ignoring that Natsu was obviously being sarcastic, he swept the fire slayer up princess style and carried him up the stairs, expecting to be swatted in the face a few times by Natsu's flailing and protesting. To his surprise, this act was met with no resistance.

Natsu, who hadn't really expected to be picked up in such a fashion and needed a moment to get over the shock, was used to warmth. It was part of the whole fire wizard thing. The warmth in his cheeks when he felt Gray's cool arms around him, however, was not one he was used to, and he found himself staring blankly at Gray's chin while he tried to make sense of it.

Gray carried Natsu all the way into Lucy's room, waiting just a moment to let Happy in before shutting the door behind him, and grimacing at the wail that emanated from outside.

"I need a break," was the only explanation he gave for that.

Natsu was set down at Lucy's desk while Gray went back to lock the door and, for good measure, pulled his shirt off and lined the crack along the floor with it. Since Lucy seemed to have fled into the bathroom to prepare herself for their arrival and Gray was busy making sure she didn't have too many visitors, Natsu decided to occupy himself by picking up her story and seeing what all she'd added since the last time he broke in and had a chance to read.

It had been a while since he'd had an opportunity to catch up, he realized. Lucy rarely finished more than ten pages between his visits, but he had over a hundred to get through now. He'd realized it had been a long time since he was active. In fact, being restricted as he was, it felt like an eternity, but seeing this little portion of Lucy's life that had gone on without him, Natsu felt a twinge of nausea. This was something that had gone on without him. He'd been there at the guild with everyone else, but in a way, he'd been gone, and everyone else's lives had gone on without him.

"Hey! Who said you could look at that!" Lucy cried, snatching the manuscript from Natsu's hands. Stunned as he was, he offered up no resistance.

Out of habit, Lucy lifted a foot back to kick the scoundrel who dared look at the book she'd been writing, but remembering Natsu's situation, stopped herself. Alongside transportation, taking a beating wasn't something they'd tested Natsu's tolerance for, but it seemed like a given that it would do his health no good.

"Just… don't take my things without asking." She huffed and turned away expecting Natsu to innocently ask why she was writing something she didn't want anyone to read, like he usually did when she caught him with her writing. When no protest was made, she glanced back, and saw him staring blankly at his hands.

"Natsu...?"

"You wrote a lot…"

Lucy wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to that, and while she stared, trying to come up with something, Natsu stood and turned to Gray.

"I want to go."

"We just got here."

"I don't care. I don't want to be here anymore." He hadn't been to Lucy's in too long, and she'd gone about her home life all the same. "We need to find a place to get lunch."

Lucy grabbed his arm. "Hold on! You haven't been here in too long. I had something on the stove, if you're hungry."

Natsu glanced back at her as blankly as he'd been looking at his hands, and she shivered.

"I'll let you read," Lucy said. "I promised Levy, but you can read my story, if you want. Sit down and read it, Natsu. I'll finish lunch and we can all eat together. I haven't missed coming out of the shower to find someone waiting for me, but I've missed having you over."

Lucy's home life had gone on without him… but it didn't have to. Natsu managed a smile for her, and let her gently push him back into the chair.

"You're not allowed to tell me anything about it," Lucy insisted when she handed the manuscript back. "I still want to hear from Levy first."

Natsu almost told her that this allowance should apply to all future visits as well, since sneaking in and reading her book behind her back was now beyond him. Then it occurred to him that, at present, trips to Lucy's still probably required Gray escort him. He wasn't sure how many times he could ask Gray to walk him around town while still feeling as if he was getting better. There was the option to ask that Lucy bring her writing to him, but that still felt defeatist, and would also be pushing it when she had only let him read period to make him stay for lunch.

"Thanks," he said instead, and went to work relocating his page.

"You actually like my writing?" Lucy asked.

Natsu looked up at her, confused. "Of course I do. You wrote it."

Blushing, Lucy said, "Well, if that's all it takes, maybe I can write something for you. Zaleon often wrote stories based on his adventures as a wizard. How about I write about the jobs we go on. It would be like you were there."

"Except I'm not, and I'm going to notice my absence from your stories."

"Then I'll write them like you were there," Lucy declared. "And I'll even do it specifically from my perspective, so you can see through my eyes what a pain it is to have to do damage control after you lose control and wreck half a town."

Gray cringed, both he and Natsu thinking that this sounded like a wonderful way to rub salt in the wounds left by having to stay behind. But Lucy was still blushing and fidgeting and looked like she was sincerely trying to offer something to make him feel better, and until he had permission to tag along on work, it was the next best thing to being there.

"Don't write me into it, but sure," Natsu told her. "I think I'd like to read that."

It would absolutely hurt, seeing what everyone's lives without him looked like. But then at the same time, it would kind of feel like he wasn't missing out on what they all got to experience while he was home sick. The adventures and the fights and, most of all, the time they spent together without him. Too much happened without him now.

Positively beaming at her first request from a reader, Lucy gave Natsu a thumbs up before going to attend to the soup she'd been cooking, leaving Natsu and Gray alone together. Or rather, leaving Natsu to read, and Gray to try and find some way to occupy his time with Happy.

Natsu pretended not to notice when Gray asked, at a low enough volume that their hostess wouldn't hear, "Does Natsu like Lucy?"

He bit his lip so hard it bled to keep from protesting when Happy, rolling his tongue, said, "He lllloves her."

-o-

After lunch, they bid Lucy farewell and left her house. Juvia reattached herself to Gray's arm, promising never to let go again, and Happy settled into Gray's other arm, complaining that he already walked a lot, but didn't want to make Natsu carry him. This, much to Natsu's annoyance, sent off alarm bells in Gray's head. "You aren't getting tired, are you?"

"I'm fine."

"Coming from you, that means nothing."

With a growl and a glare, Natsu gave the full report. "I feel more tired than I did when we started, but I sat for a while at Lucy's, and I don't feel like I need to stop again yet. My legs aren't wobbly, and I don't have that weird feeling I get when I'm in danger of having an attack."

"In that case do you want to pick one or two more things then call it a day?"

"I can manage more than two things."

"The point is to work within your limits, not to work yourself to exhaustion."

Natsu scowled at the idea that walking around town counted as exhausting work. When Juvia pulled herself closer to Gray and began making plans for what they could do around town once Natsu had returned home and was no longer demanding Gray's attention, that scowl only deepened.

Why did she have to show up anyway? This was supposed to be a day where Gray helped him feel like things were returning to normal, and walked around town with him just in case things weren't close enough to normal yet for him to manage. She kept trying to drag Gray off and acting like it was such an imposition that Gray wanted to help. Granted, Natsu had yet to need Gray's help, for all the times he'd requested it, but the whole situation still irked him.

She wasn't making enough of a scene for Gray to take anything Natsu did as an attempt to rescue him from some deed of Juvia's, and after claiming to be fine, Natsu couldn't fake weakness. Gray already thought it meant nothing when he said he was fine. If explaining that he was fine became a thing Gray similarly dismissed, Natsu would never be able to argue for his freedom again.

Gritting his teeth, Natsu decided to sacrifice that second activity Gray thought he might be up for, turned in the direction of Magnolia's market square, and took off running.

It was only mid-stride that he realized how stupid a move this was. Half the point of the trip had been to prove to Gray that he could be trusted to manage his energy. And even if Juvia kept subtly, or not so subtly, insisting that he was in the way, there was no good reason Natsu could think of to dislike that she was taking Gray's attention. In fact, there was a good reason he should appreciate it. Less of Gray's attention on him meant more freedom to do what he wanted without someone overbearing insisting that he take it easy.

Despite all the arguments he came up with to stop, when Gray called out for him to wait, to not exert himself, to come back, Natsu doubled down and ran harder.

Weakened as he was by his disease, he wasn't as fast a runner as he'd once been. He only managed to outrun Gray for a few blocks because surprise had given him a head start. After that, he felt his vest tug as Gray grabbed it, and shed it with a speed that would have impressed his pursuer. Were he in better health, this might have led to a clean get away. In his condition, twisting out of the vest mid-run threw Natsu off balance, and he stumbled a few steps before crashing to the ground.

"What the hell, Natsu?" Gray demanded.

Good question. What was he supposed to say to that? That he was jealous of all the attention Gray was trying not to give Juvia?

"Natsu, why did you do that?" Happy asked. "You knew you shouldn't have."

"I wanted to run," he said lamely.

"No running."

Pushing himself into a sitting position, Natsu tested putting weight on one of his legs, and determined that he likely wouldn't do much more walking for the day. With no protest or eye contact, he held out a hand so Gray could help pull him up off the ground.

"I mean it, Natsu. You can't just take off because you feel like it."

"Can we go shopping now?"

"I'm not done. You're sick. I know you hate to admit it, but you're sick and you need to pay more attention to your health. I can't watch you collapse like you did in that mansion, Natsu. Not again."

"Are you done now?"

Gray pursed his lips. "I have expressed everything I wanted to, but I don't think I've said enough."

"Running bad. Do nothing and nothing bad will ever happen. I got it. Can we—Woah!" Natsu took a half-step to keep himself from falling over sideways. "Can we go shopping before I hit my limit. I haven't been able to buy my own groceries for a month. You can scold me all you want over dinner."

Grumbling, Gray put an arm around Natsu's waist and steered him towards the shopping district. On occasion, as they walked, he would make a comment about how stupid it had been to run, or how Natsu wasn't bearing enough of his own weight, and if it got to the point where he had to be carried, then they were going straight home. He didn't comment at all on Natsu's implication that he was going to stay for dinner, although he did vehemently deny Juvia's claim that they needed to make reservations for a dinner date. Whether that meant he intended to come home for dinner with Natsu or hadn't noticed the hint at all, Natsu couldn't tell. He hoped it was the latter. He couldn't think of any reason why he might really want Gray there, and he certainly wasn't in the mood for a scolding while he ate.

They were nearly to the shopping district when Natsu's legs gave out completely. With one arm around Gray, and one of Gray's arms around him, Natsu didn't fall so much as slump against his friend's side. Gray, already used to supporting a fair chunk of Natsu's weight, held him firm and lowered him to the ground so they could switch into a carrying position.

"If you hold me like some helpless princess again, I'll set you on fire," Natsu warned.

"I'd like to see you try," Gray said, rather than point t that Natsu was, indeed, helpless. "How do you feel?"

Natsu hesitated before saying, "Kinda weird."

"How so?"

"I don't know. Something feels wrong."

Gray went stiff, recognizing this as how Natsu phrased the sensation that struck him whenever he was in danger of having an attack. "Let's skip shopping for today."

"But—"

"Do you absolutely need groceries?"

"No, but—"

"Then it can wait until tomorrow, okay? I promise, I'll take you first thing tomorrow, and we can go to the guild after that. Let's go home for now and I'll make your tea for you. You didn't have any with lunch."

There was a sort of desperation underneath the firmness of Gray's words that made Natsu reluctant to keep arguing, and he looked away. Gray was, as much as it pained Natsu to admit it, right. He shouldn't have ran so far, even if it was only a few blocks, and he hit his limit early. It was all stupid and frustrating and he still wasn't really sure why he'd felt the need to make Gray fret over him. He hated Gray fretting over him. It pissed him off even then, being told that he couldn't buy his own groceries for another day.

But he wasn't going to give himself another attack when he was on the mend. He didn't want to be left out of everyone's lives even longer than he had, and if he had an attack again, Lucy might finish her book before he had another chance to read it. He couldn't pretend he wasn't in danger of an attack.

Gray knowing that the risk was there also meant he couldn't argue about what he should or shouldn't do. He had to prove he could be responsible with his health.

"Fine." He was so sick of that word. "We can go home. But you have to take me out first thing tomorrow."

Relieved to have Natsu agree so easily, Gray smiled and told him, "Will do."

As a reward for good behavior, Gray agreed to carry Natsu piggy-back instead of princess style. He bent over for Natsu to put his arms around Gray's shoulders, scooped up the fire slayer's legs, and lifted up.

"Gray! Juvia wants to be carried too!"

"My arms are kind of full. Sorry."

Gray couldn't see Natsu stick his tongue out at Juvia, but Happy spotted it and, mistaking it for simple teasing, snickered.

-x-

STA: I have a very strong inclination to mostly focus on the illness, but I'm trying to slowly transition into Gratsu stuff. After all, the illness is going to be there forever and ever, and there's only so much interesting stuff that can happen with it. The Gratsu stuff can be expanded on. It seems like it'd be insensitive to not give the illness a little time when it's new to them, though, so it gets more focus up front.

That aside, I don't know how much it showed, but I really don't like Juvia. I've hated Gruvia for a while, and it's so rare for Juvia to act independently of the ship nowadays that I've stopped liking her too. (It's mostly her contribution to the pairing that makes me hate it anyway.) I tried not to engage in character bashing. I'm not sure how well I succeeded. I feel like if I wanted to write her in a negative light, I'd write her the same way Mashima does, but then I also suspect that, realistically, I would over exaggerate the parts of her that grate on me. Honestly, ever since I lost interest in her I've just tried not to include her in fics period, but for how I want this story to go, I kind of need her.