Gray felt guilty.
It wasn't fair of Natsu to resist his health precautions. It wasn't fair of Natsu to act so hurt whenever he was reminded that he couldn't do something. It wasn't fair of Natsu to worry Gray by taking off running for no reason other than that he wanted too when he couldn't. He couldn't. And he knew he couldn't.
It wasn't fair that Natsu be sick either, but Gray didn't know who he should blame for that. Natsu's parents? The subject of the man and woman who brought him into the world had never come up, and Gray suspected Natsu couldn't even begin to guess who they might be. Blaming someone for Natsu's condition was too hard. Blaming Natsu for constantly worrying Gray with how he handled his condition, however, was easy.
Nonetheless, Gray felt guilty. Natsu made him sick with worry, but those hurt looks whenever Gray had to tell him he couldn't do something were too much. It had caused Gray physical pain to see Natsu suddenly become so dejected at Lucy's that he wanted to leave immediately, and that look that flashed across his face when she offered to pretend he was still with them on their adventures…
Even worse was telling Natsu they had to wait to go shopping. That was the one stop on their trip he knew Natsu had been really desperate to do, too. Why exactly hadn't made sense to Gray at first. He'd have thought Natsu wanted to see Lucy. Whatever exactly was between them, he knew Natsu was in the habit of hanging around her house, and hadn't been able to in weeks. It wasn't until Gray made it back to his own home, after bringing Natsu back, making him tea, and then agreeing to cook and early dinner in order to keep Natsu off his feet, that it hit Gray. Buying groceries was such a basic, day to day task. Natsu had wanted to do something normal that anyone capable of taking care of themselves ought to be able to pull off. And Gray had told him that he wasn't able to do it.
No, Gray told him to wait until later to do it, and then told him they couldn't once later arrived. Because he'd let Natsu grow too worn out on other things.
In light of that, Gray made a point of showing up at Natsu's at the crack of dawn the next morning. After so many trips back and forth to Natsu's since they'd learned of his illness, Gray had ended up with a spare key, and let himself in while the slayer was still asleep. He had brought his own supplies with him, and set to work making breakfast for when Natsu woke up.
As soon as the bacon began to sizzle, he heard Natsu stir, followed by an alarming thump. Spinning around to make sure everything was okay, Gray saw Natsu on the floor, his hammock rocking back and forth.
"Did you fall out?"
"Mmf."
Gray bit his lip to resist telling Natsu then and there that he really needed a mattress. The last thing either of them needed was to start the day off with a battle over more changes Natsu needed to make for his health.
"Is that bacon?"
"Yes. I'm brewing tea for you, too."
"Oh." Natsu sounded less than enthused. "Do I have to have the tea."
"Yes. It helps with your condition. Remember? I thought you liked it."
"Maybe the first three-hundred times," Natsu said as he picked himself up off the floor. "You guys keep pushing it on me over and over… Where's Happy?"
Good question. Gray looked around, finally spotting the cat still asleep in the hammock. How did he manage that when Natsu rolled out of the thing?
"There. Natsu, whether you like it or not, you have to drink it. It helps you get through the day."
Natsu scowled.
"Tea, or me carrying you home before lunch because you ran out of energy?"
"Tea," Natsu grumbled. "But I could make it more than half a day."
"If you say so, but let's not test that." Gray pulled a mug from the cupboard—now that he was over at Natsu's so often, he tried to keep the dishes clean, if nothing else—and poured tea into it. "Drink up. The bacon will be ready in just a minute."
Natsu grudgingly took the mug and nursed it, watching Gray as he did. He'd taken stock of what all was in the fridge the day before, making plans for what to buy in anticipation of being able to buy his own food again. Bacon wasn't something he'd had on hand. Not that he minded bacon, but the awareness that Gray had brought his own food over bothered Natsu. He wasn't broke. In fact, he suspect Makarov was overpaying him to follow Mira around and lend a hand with her chores. Gray cooking for him already made him feel too dependent on others. Gray bringing him food strayed into handout territory.
Of course, bacon was bacon. He wasn't going to say no to bacon. He wasn't crazy. But he would buy his own bacon, and then ask Gray to cook that if he felt like letting himself in and cooking again.
When Gray grabbed a plate to dump the bacon into, Natsu lifted Happy from the hammock and brought him over to the couch. Gray, likewise, brought the bacon to the couch. Natsu lacking a dining table, they all ate there.
"We can't be out for long. Mira'll be upset with me if I miss too much work."
"I'll tell her I dragged you out," Gray said. It sounded dismissive, but it chilled Natsu's insides.
A month ago... no, two months ago now. He'd spent all that time pretending things were fine after his first attack. Two months ago that excuse would never have flown. They would have had to say they'd gotten into a fight. Now Gray could pretend he was forcing Natsu to go here and there. And he could force Natsu to go wherever he wanted. He'd forced Natsu to skip grocery shopping earlier, then had him go home.
He was at Gray's mercy. It wasn't that he doubted Gray's mercy, but…
"How much longer is it supposed to take for me to get better?" Natsu asked. "I thought Porlyusica said it would only be a few days. It's been a month."
Gray's hesitation made Natsu's already cold insides tie in a knot.
"Gray?"
"I was told you might not. I mean, not completely. Gramps made it sound like you could still improve. Just not to the point where you used to be."
"That's stupid. You can always improve."
"Healthy people can always improve," Gray said before he could think better of it. Natsu blanched, but now that he'd gone there, he might as well drive the point home. "Natsu, something is physically wrong with you. I know you want to go back on jobs with everyone, but do. Not. Push. Your. Self. The last thing any of us want is for you to overestimate what you can do, have another attack, and end up capable of even less."
"I'm not incapable," Natsu snapped.
"I didn't say you were."
"You said I could end up capable of even less. So you think there are things I'm not capable of now."
"I think you can't make a whole day without overtaxing yourself," Gray told him. "I think you can't run without collapsing. I think you couldn't make it out of bed this morning without falling. In fact, I don't think you should even have a hammock. Or at least not one hung so high off the ground."
Happy raised a hand in protest, but whatever he'd meant to say to break the two up, it was lost underneath Natsu's snarl.
"You already get to control everything I do while I'm awake. Mind your own business with where I sleep."
"It's not safe."
"It's comfortable. And with all your stupid restrictions and everyone going off on adventures without me, it's just about the only comfort I have."
This time, Happy spoke loudly enough to be heard. "Natsu, that's horrible!"
Natsu flinched, and looked down to his little buddy. His little buddy who had stayed behind with him, helping him manage around the house without telling him what he could or couldn't do, and offering support and encouragement while he worked on his exercises or talked about all the things he planned on doing. One day. When he was able to again.
Happy looked more wounded than he'd felt, hearing Gray say he couldn't even get out of bed right.
An apology jammed itself in Natsu's throat. So surprised was he to realize that he'd said something to hurt Happy, and when some selfish part of his still felt like he ought to be recognized as the hurt one, that he couldn't quite recall how to say he hadn't meant that all of Happy's support and companionship meant nothing.
Seeing Natsu hesitate to correct himself, Happy took off, flying out the window and out of view.
"Natsu? If you want to wait for—"
"I'm going to the guild," Natsu said, pushing himself up. "I don't need you to walk with me."
"Didn't you want to buy groceries?"
"Maybe later. Bye."
If he wasn't helping Natsu buy food, then the guild was Gray's next destination too. Now, however, he needed to add a detour. He imagined Natsu wouldn't believe him if he insisted that they both happened to be headed the same way, no matter how much sense that made. To pass the time while he waited for Natsu to get to the guild on his own, he decided to search for Happy.
Before stepping out, he adjusted Natsu's hammock, lowering it just an inch. It wasn't much, but enough gradual changes and maybe Natsu could adjust to it at a safer height. He wouldn't push the issue again just yet, and maybe raise it with Porlyusica first, but Natsu really ought not to be sleeping in it at all.
Happy had flown through a window leading into the woods, so Gray started his search by heading out that way. He didn't expect his efforts to produce any results, wandering through the forest at a leisurely pace and glancing around for any spots of bright blue. It was more something to do while he gave Natsu a head start, so he was surprised when, ten minutes into his half-assed search, he tripped right over the cat he was searching for.
Happy squeaked when Gray fell over him and nearly took off again, wings out and stretched for takeoff. Upon seeing who had quite literally stumbled upon him, he paused.
"Natsu couldn't have come after me if he wanted to, could he?"
The woods were full of tripping hazards, and soft and uneven ground. To the best of Gray's knowledge, Natsu's cooperation thus far with his recovery meant he hadn't tried wandering the woods without an escort. He didn't know how well Natsu could handle walking any terrain rougher than a road, and shook his head. If Natsu was capable of going out into the woods, it was still a bad idea for him to do so without Gray with him.
"What did he say after I left?"
"Not much. I think he was frustrated with himself."
"He's frustrated all the time now."
"I'd believe it. Want a lift?" Gray asked, holding and arm out.
Happy considered it, then took Gray's hand and allowed the ice make wizard to pick him up.
"Gray, will Natsu really never get better? He hardly ever smiles anymore, and I bet he would if he could go back to how things were."
"All I know is what Gramps told me," Gray said, setting off towards the guild. "They don't think he'll ever fully recover, and either way he needs to be careful not to make things worse."
"He hates being careful."
"He'd hate being bedbound more."
"Is that why you don't let him do anything? Because you're afraid he'll end up unable to get out of bed?"
"I don't keep him from doing anything."
"But you tell him not to do things when you aren't around, and when you are, you tell him to stop doing things, even when he isn't tired." Happy flopped over against Gray's chest. "It's really tiring. He gets upset when he's told he can't do something anymore, and we get home and he tries to go about the day like everything's normal, but then he finds something that he isn't able to do and he gets upset. I tried doing things for him so he wouldn't be able to find out he didn't have the energy to handle it himself, but he noticed, and now he gets upset whenever I try to help."
That contributed tremendously to Gray's guilt over not letting Natsu buy groceries. But still…
"Can we join you on missions again soon?" Happy asked. "I can help Natsu get away if anything goes wrong. I know he can't fight, but he'd feel better if he could be there."
No. Just thinking about it made Gray nauseas. "That's for Porlyusica to decide. If she gives the go ahead, then we can take lighter jobs from time to time that he can tag along on."
"I hope she will."
Gray hoped she wouldn't.
-o-
When he stepped into the guild hall, Natsu couldn't quite bring himself to return the smile Mira flashed him. Not when Gray said he was never going to be better and Happy hated him for being such a burden and not showing any appreciation. Not when he still couldn't buy his own freaking groceries or sleep in a hammock without someone telling him it wasn't safe.
But he tried. He forced the corners of his mouth up in what, to someone who didn't know him, might have passed as a smile, and walked right by her into the kitchen.
"Did something go wrong?"
"Kind of."
"What happened?"
"I collapsed on a job and woke up to the news that I have some weird disease."
Deciding against asking what specifically had him upset, Mira said, "Porlyusica stopped by yesterday to reassess you. She wasn't sure if she should be annoyed or not when she heard you took the day off to see the town with Gray. Do you want me to go get her now? She thought it was a good sign that you were able to be out and about again. Nothing went wrong yesterday, right?"
He'd fallen, and had to resort to letting Gray carry him home. He hadn't been able to buy his own bacon. He still didn't have his own bacon, and Gray was bringing his own over because he didn't think Natsu could get bacon by himself in his condition. If he'd just walked alongside Gray like he was supposed to, if he hadn't run, then he wouldn't have fallen and he'd have his own bacon and Gray wouldn't have come over to cook for him before going shopping and then no one would have said he couldn't sleep in his hammock anymore. Why had he taken off running anyway? Because he didn't like that Juvia was getting attention? How stupid.
"It went fine."
"Really? Or are you just saying 'fine' again?"
Natsu didn't answer.
"I can handle breakfast today," Mira told him. "Go ask Master about records, and find the papers he needs. "I'll bring Porlyusica over during the break between meals."
Natsu had already grabbed a spatula and was poised to begin scrambling eggs for whoever ordered them—someone always ordered eggs. For one horrible moment, he thought maybe Mira didn't think he was capable of that either. Then he realized she was offering him a task that would give him time alone. More than that, offering him that chance to do something by himself. He would be completely unsupervised in the records room, assuming Makarov didn't feel the need to watch him. How long had it been since he did anything without someone watching to make sure he didn't suddenly break down?
"Let me know when she's here," he said, dropping the spatula and making a b-line for the door.
Makarov raised an eyebrow when Natsu went up to him and asked about records, but didn't tell him not to handle it on his own. Happy was still mad at him, and Gray still thought he couldn't use a hammock, but he could sort through papers without anyone worrying about him, and Natsu found himself grinning as he let himself into Makarov's office and opened the first filing cabinet. He was so excited to do something completely by himself that the task almost wasn't boring.
His excitement didn't keep it from being an almost not boring task long. Natsu found himself yawning, eyes drifting to the window often, as he continued to sort through papers. Erza was in trouble with the council, and he had to find letters of commendation to try and guilt them into giving her a more lenient sentence. Some bank wanted the payment for a loan, and he had to find the contract because Makarov was sure they were demanding too much. Lots of tedious flipping through files, skimming them to see if they mattered, then going back to flipping. By the time Porlyusica arrived, he found himself wishing he'd stuck to supervised tasks with Mira.
Not that carrying orders and helping her move books around was much more interesting. This would be his life, if Porlyusica backed Gray up.
No. No it absolutely wouldn't be. He'd improved. He made it to the guild and did work on his own for half the morning, and come evening he was going home on his own whether Gray approved or not. He was getting better, and sooner or later he was going to go back on active duty.
With that in mind, he happily dropped the stack of papers he'd been sorting through upon Porlyusica's arrival, and followed her into the infirmary without protest.
Shutting the door once Natsu was inside, Porlyusica asked, "How are you feeling? You haven't done too much yet today, have you?"
"I walked here and looked at a bunch of papers."
"I take it that means no?"
Because a short walk could count as overexerting himself. "I'm fine."
"I've been informed never to believe you when you use that word."
"I'm not tired," Natsu insisted.
"I heard you spent all of yesterday walking around town. How did it go?"
"Fine."
"Natsu."
She needed to know how he was doing. Her job was to make sure he was on track, and if he lied about his progress, he would never know for sure if her saying he was getting better really held true.
"It went well at first. We went to the park and I sat for a bit while Juvia and Gray fooled around in the bushes—"
"I don't need those details. Were you tired, or did you want to enjoy the park?"
Neither. "I wasn't tired. Gray was on my case the other day about pacing myself, so I stopped for a while. We went to Lucy's after and stayed for lunch."
"Lucy lives on the second floor, doesn't she. How well did you handle the stairs?"
"I… don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Gray carried me up them."
"Why?"
Why indeed. "Because… I asked him to," Natsu said lamely. It didn't really help, but he pulled his scarf over his nose in the hopes that it might cover that he was blushing. Not just because he had done something so pathetic. Recalling being in Gray's arms… How frustrating. Why would he feel like that when Gray had upset him so badly that morning?
"That's not the question I was asking, Natsu."
"I wasn't tired. Really. Juvia wouldn't have let him into Lucy's place without an excuse, so he carried me up the stairs."
"And if I ask Gray later, he'll tell me the same."
"Yes." He'd also tell her that he didn't think Natsu was fit to sleep in a hammock, or how fast his legs gave out when he tried to run, and that he didn't think Natsu was ever going to be well enough to take jobs again. "You don't trust me."
"I spoke with several people around the guild yesterday. Makarov. Mira. Nab. People who are always around to see you at work. They all agreed that you like to downplay your difficulties." She paused. "Sit."
Fists clenched, Natsu stomped over to the infirmary bed and sat for Porlyusica.
"Now stand."
He obeyed.
"Hm. Good. You had to grab something for support whenever you stood the last time. Lie down."
Natsu blinked, realizing that he was being tested, not made to take it easy, and did as he was told.
"Good. Now sit back up. Mira tells me you also went to buy groceries. Did you have any trouble carrying the bags?"
"No." Natsu had never been so conscious before of how he used his arms to push himself off his back. Was that the normal amount of effort it took, or was he trying too hard? He was losing the ability to tell, and that was more terrifying than the idea that he might have trouble sitting up. "Gray thought we should do that last, so we didn't have to carry the food everywhere, but then he said we had to go home without even looking at what was for sale."
"I assume there was a reason for that."
"I felt funny."
"Funny? You mean that sensation from before your attacks?"
Natsu nodded. "I feel weird. Like something's wrong, but I can never figure out what. It just feels… I don't know… wrong. And it feels more and more like that until it has me worked into a panic, and when it's at its worst, my head starts to hurt. But it wasn't that bad. It was only bugging me a little, and Gray decided to call it a day."
"Good. The second you feel that way, you should stop and rest. Don't push yourself. Never push yourself. Nothing good can come from pushing yourself when you have Suraci's. How much weight can you lift?"
Natsu thought of the weights lying in his room. They weren't that heavy. At least, not compared to what he'd managed before he was sick. He couldn't lift them that many times before his grip failed him. "I don't know."
"Could you get down and give me a push up? Just one."
He could not. Natsu got himself into position for one, bent down, and couldn't push back up. After a moment of fighting it, his arms gave out, and he fell the last inch to the floor.
Mercifully, Porlyusica said nothing about this, instead telling Natsu, "Come with me. We'll test how well you can take stairs."
He had been up and down the stairs leading into the basement plenty of times in the past month, but he followed without complaint. Stairs were something he could do. He wanted Porlyusica to see that he could still do things.
She sent him up the stairs to the second floor, then had him come back down, ordering him to go quickly at first, and then demanding he take them slow when he missed a slip and nearly tumbled the rest of the way down. His guild mates pretended not to watch, but he heard one hiss in disappointment when she ordered him back into the infirmary. Unable to help himself, Natsu glanced in the direction of that noise—which he identified as coming from Cana—and when he did, noticed Gray at the door.
Porlyusica was going to speak to him next, and get the opinion of someone who watched Natsu all the time, and Gray was going to say he couldn't do anything.
Swallowing back a lump in his throat, Natsu sat down on the infirmary bed again without instruction while Porlyusica shut the door.
"I should have asked. Did you do anything after visiting Lucy, or was that where you tired yourself out? What did you do while you were there?"
"I read. And I would have been fine to go grocery shopping after."
"Would you have?"
"Yeah. I just… Gray made me mad," Natsu said, rather than admit that it hadn't been anger, nor that it hadn't necessarily been Gray who evoked the emotion, whatever involvement Gray had in him feeling that way. "I ran away, and that wore me out."
"How far did you run?"
Only a few blocks. No more than he'd been able to run his first day working around the guild. "A little ways."
"You don't know the exact distance?"
"No."
Gray was going to tell her. Gray knew he'd collapsed after running the same distance both times, and he'd tell her that there'd been no improvement.
"How often do you wear yourself out without running."
Gray was going to tell her. He walked Natsu home every night, and he knew the truth.
"By evening, I'm always worn out."
-o-
It worried Gray when Porlyusica came out of the infirmary without Natsu, but she brushed it off.
"He wanted a moment to himself before returning to work. I have some questions for you. Come with me. I'm told you're the one who worked with him the most."
She took him into Makarov's office. The desk, and portions of the floor, were covered in papers, and Gray felt his stomach lurch when he realized that Natsu had been sorting through them. The task looked painfully boring to him, and to Natsu it could only be worse.
But around the guild he was safe. There were fewer temptations for him to overexert himself, and nothing to try and attack him when he wasn't able to fight back. As distressing as it was to see what the disease had reduced Natsu to, it still didn't match the horror Gray felt seeing Natsu at that dark guild's mercy.
"I'll be to the point with you. Tell me what you've seen with him. Where has he improved? What can he do? What can't he?"
"He can't run," Gray said first, which made Porlyusica raise an eyebrow. Had Natsu pretended otherwise? Gray was almost tempted to exaggerate Natsu's deficits, if only to counter any exaggerating Natsu might have done of his capabilities. "Every time I've seen him run, he's fallen after going only a short distance. I've had to carry him after, because he's worried about an attack."
"When all have you seen him run? Has it improved over time."
"I don't think so," Gray said honestly.
"How much improvement have you seen? He can manage the walk to and from the guild on his own now?"
"To the guild, sure. But I was mostly with him as a precaution in the first place. I don't think I could tell you how much improvement I've seen is actually improvement, and how much of it is Mira learning to work within his limits. He manages around the guild, but when it's the two of us, he does stupid crap like running for the sake of running, and wears himself out in no time at all."
"I'll speak with Mira about how well he manages work, then. Since I have you here now, tell me anything you can think of. How capable is Natsu around the home. What went wrong, or right, on your outing the other day?"
Gray tried to answer, but too many ideas clashed at once, and what came out of his mouth was an unholy and utterly incomprehensible hybrid of three different sentences. After an awkward pause, he cleared his throat and said, "I'll write you a list."
-o-
It wasn't like Natsu didn't want to sit in Makarov's office and bore himself to tears looking at papers, but at the same time he was pleased to see Porlyusica rope that area off to ask people how he was doing. Gray went first, naturally, and Natsu made a point of sitting by the jobs board and pretending not to notice when the ice mage stepped out. He had no doubt that Gray told Porlyusica some alarmist version of only his bad moments.
Mira was interviewed next, then Makarov. They might both offset whatever Gray said. They haven't spent the past month hovering over him and acting paranoid about his condition.
Well, that wasn't completely true. Natsu couldn't name a single guild mate who hadn't at least tried to covertly watch when he struggled with something simple—carrying multiple plates at once, most often. Too many guild members also asked him how he was doing, or if he needed a break. Mira had mandated breaks, at times. Makarov scolded him when he spent too long staring at the request board.
But no one was as bad as Gray! And if they gave Porlyusica reports that showed Gray was exaggerating, then she'd know not to take him seriously. No one should take Gray seriously, Natsu thought. Telling him he couldn't even sleep in a hammock! Really!
Okay. Maybe the hammock was a little hard to climb in and out of at times… but he'd always slept in a hammock. Gray didn't get to tell him how he could and couldn't sleep.
Since Makarov was held up with Porlyusica and couldn't get on his case for it, Natsu let his attention shift towards the job board. There was a mission to catch a gang of thieves in a port town that looked like it would be a blast. There was no way he'd be allowed to go on it before someone completed the job. Makarov would stop him. Or Mira. And if he snuck past them, Happy would probably beg him to stop. Assuming Happy was ever on speaking terms with him again. Natsu saw his buddy sitting with Gray and Erza, and wanted to go and apologize…
Then he saw that Gray was watching him, and Natsu huffed and turned back to the board.
There was a job to catch a three man band of rogue mages only two towns over. None of them sounded all that powerful, but it was still a job involving some action. If he could persuade his team to take that job, if Porlyusica said he was in good enough shape, then maybe he could tag along. Maybe he could actually be a part of his team again.
It didn't look like an exciting job, but it looked the most promising of all the jobs he let himself get his hopes up for. Natsu was fighting back the urge when Makarov and Porlyusica finally stepped out.
"Natsu!" Makarov called out. "What are you doing over there?"
"Reading."
"Just reading, huh? Never mind. Get in here." He gestured not to his office, but to the infirmary.
Rolling his eyes, Natsu stood and walked back into the room and sat down on the bed without further prompting. At this rate, he expected Porlyusica to take until dinner time to finish her assessment.
To his horror, when the two followed him into the infirmary, Porlyusica stopped in the door and said, "Gray. Happy. You too."
No one disobeyed Porlyusica, and seconds later the two of them were scrambling through the door.
Natsu tried to turn and look away from Gray, but a soft paw on his arm made him look back. Happy stood at his side, looking up at him in anticipation. He gave the cat a hesitant smile, and ruffled the fur on the top of his head. Happy, in return, beamed, and Natsu knew that all was forgiven. Except he hadn't said he was sorry, so there shouldn't have been any forgiveness yet.
"So?" Gray asked the second the door was shut.
"Natsu seems to be doing better," Porlyusica said. "By Mira's judgment, his stamina has improved, and in the long run, I don't think that he'll be unable to perform any normal tasks in his day to day life."
She ended on a note that said there was a 'but' to follow that, and everyone waited silently for her to get to it.
"That being said, the extent of his recovery isn't promising. The bulk of a patient's progress is made in the days immediate following an attack. Natsu may continue to see gradual improvement, but I would expect certain damages to be permanent. I would expect that he won't be lifting much weight in the future, and that he certainly won't run. I've no interest in personally assessing the strength of his attacks, but if Gray would be willing to assist me, we can test it tomorrow. I would like to check first thing, before Natsu has even expended energy coming to the guild. Although given his performance today and what I've been told from everyone he's worked with, my expectations aren't high.
"There's no record of a Suraci's patient with magic, so it will be interesting to see what improvement he has or hasn't experienced there. I'm told he's hardly cast any spells in the past few weeks, but it's still worth looking into. That being said…" She paused, glancing to Natsu, then focusing so on Makarov with such ferocity that she was clearly trying to pretend the two of them were alone in the room. "Given his limitations in mobility alone, I don't expect Natsu can ever safely return to active duty."
-x-
STA: That isn't really news so much as "that thing I said would almost certainly be the case definitely is" but since Natsu was kind of banking on it not being the case to the point where he pretty much disregarded the most likely outcome, and because no one knew to what extent the damage would stick, I feel it still gets to count as a horrible shock. At least to him. Anyone who read the story summary saw this coming before the first time he collapsed.
Daygon Yuuki: Wait no longer. Except for the part where you have to wait for the next chapter now.
Supernova888: Haha. Part of me does wonder if the shipping elements get dragged out too much, but I'm glad to hear you like it.