Natsu's intention was to wait obediently for Gray. He couldn't see where he was going, nor could he get himself very far if he tried to leave on his own, so there was nothing he foresaw running off alone accomplishing. Besides, going somewhere after Gray told him to stay put the last time ended with him barely able to walk or see. He'd mean to stay put. Honest. It was just that a few minutes after Gray left, he started to hear the wait staff whisper about him. Where did his friend go? Was it okay to leave him like that? He'd paid, but he was making them wait to clean the table off for the next customer.

Natsu asked the person at the table behind him if there was a bench outside the diner, and when assured that there was, rose unsteadily to his feet and set out to find it.

Café patrons were polite enough to direct Natsu until he found his way to the door, but once outside, he was on his own. The bench, he'd been told, was across the street and down a block. With the waitress's complaints nagging at him, Natsu had completely forgotten what 'across the street' meant. As soon as he was outside, he could hear the trickle of the canal that ran through Magnolia. But if he'd been given directions to go across the street, then a bridge to get across must have been near.

He kept his footsteps small, almost shuffling his feet as he made is way slowly away from the restaurant. There was a raised row of stones along the water's edge, and if he could bump his toes against it then follow that rim, he'd reach the bridge eventually. Even if he didn't, that rim would be a decent place to sit.

His foot hit something, and he bent down to confirm he'd reached the street's edge. Which direction he needed to go from there to reach the bridge, left or right, Natsu couldn't tell. Either way, there would be a bridge eventually, but whichever he found might not be near a bridge.

It felt good, bending down. Took a lot of weight off his knees. Natsu almost wanted to stay right there on the ground, but the bench had to be nearby. The man in the café said it was within view of the window. He could make it that far. Maybe.

Probably not.

Gray wasn't there to guide him to it, and he needed to learn to manage without Gray anyway. At least as much as was possible. He couldn't possibly be so selfish as to want affection from Gray while imposing on him so thoroughly. It was bad enough that he'd guilted Gray into taking him in.

His legs trembled as he stood back up and turned left. He only made it ten steps before one knee buckled. Stumbling to the side, trying to recover, Natsu felt his foot hit the edge of the street. When he fell over the edge, his only thought was of how poor his swimming had been before the last attack.

"Whoa there!" Sting's voice accompanied the hand that grabbed roughly to Natsu's wrist.

Dangling from that arm, Natsu's side smacked hard against the ledge between the street and water, which the tips of his feet dipped into.

"Shit. Sorry. Hold on. Can you pull yourself back up?"

"I don't think he can."

"Fro doesn't think so either."

"Quiet," Sting snapped. "Natsu, are you alright?"

Raking in a shuddering breath, Natsu said, "No."

"Alright. We'll get you up. Just give me a sec."

Two more hands grabbed onto Natsu's arm and hoisted him up, a set of cat paws grabbing onto his back and holding him steady as the twin slayers pulled him back onto the street. They tried to get him steady on his feet, but Natsu's leg still didn't want to support his weight, and he ended up falling forward on Sting.

"You aren't contagious, right?" Sting asked.

Face buried in Sting's bare chest, Natsu shook his head. "No. Porlyusica said it's genetic."

There was a pause, followed by Rogue saying, "You realize he can't see you nod, right?"

"Oh!" Sting laughed, embarrassed. "Well, we're here. Is there anything we can do?"

"I was looking for a bench," Natsu said. "Gray left, so—"

"You can't stand or see and he left you?" Rogue asked. He sounded appalled, which, given that he didn't know Gray meant to be back shortly, was fair.

"That's rotten of him," Sting agreed. "Where were you planning to go?"

"We were looking for Happy. Then… I don't know… home, I guess. Maybe he wanted to look somewhere without bringing me?" He'd told Gray not to worry about the guild, because Happy was fine if he was there, but there was a distinct possibility that Gray decided to peek in and look.

"We'll let him," Sting said. "I can carry you home, if you don't mind."

"Gray told me to stay…"

"Gray left."

There was more to it than that, but rather than try and explain where he thought Gray was and why he wouldn't have gone along, Natsu said, "I think I should wait."

Sting snorted. "Why? Just because he said so? Have you tried standing up for yourself?"

Natsu wasn't sure if that was meant to be a joke or not, but Rogue thought it warranted smacking Sting's upside the head over.

"Ow. Okay. Fine. Sorry. But since when did you follow Gray's instructions to the letter? You didn't want to sit in that café anyway, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be out here. Rogue and I are here and willing to help. If there's anything you want—you, not Gray—just tell us."

He ought to wait for Gray… But he also needed to gather a few necessities from his house, and if he couldn't do that on his own, it would be nice to at least not burden Gray with every last need.

"Y-yeah. I'd like to go home. Actually… could you help me with something else too?"

-o-

"We both lost him," Happy lamented.

"He can't have gone far," Gray insisted, scanning the street outside the café. "He can hardly walk to the next street. If he isn't on this one, he won't be more than a few feet down whichever he turned on to."

So he said, but when they checked all the adjacent streets, there was still no sign of him. Wendy had stayed behind to help with Natsu in emergencies, but she wasn't at the guild earlier, and Gajeel was oversees. Gray couldn't go to either of them quickly and get them to trace Natsu's scent. At a loss for what else to do, he returned to the café and asked there, but none of the wait staff had any idea where he'd gone.

Dejected, Gray was about to return to searching the streets when a man seated near the door said, "You're looking for Natsu?"

"Yeah. Did you see which way he went?"

"Down that way, I guess," the man said, gesturing vaguely in one direction the street ran. "Poor guy nearly fell in the river, but those two Saber Tooth mages caught him. Didn't see where they went after that."

So Natsu wasn't alone. Gray felt tension leave his frame at that. He didn't know how well Sting and Rogue could look after Natsu, but they beat nothing. Aside from Lucy, who was on par with nothing, just about anyone beat nothing.

"Thank you."

'Down that way' encompassed roughly half the town, and that was before considering the possibility that Sting and Rogue took Natsu a few blocks in that direction before doubling back on another street. As far as pointers for where to go went, it was a lousy one, but Gray set off in that direction, and had only gone ten feet when Happy spoke.

"Did you two check to see if I was home before?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just thought… Natsu wouldn't go into the woods in his condition. The only other reason we'd normally go this way is to go home."

Gray ran through a mental map of the town, and realized Happy was right. It made sense for Sting and Rogue to take Natsu home too, if they found him struggling on his own. Unless Natsu explicitly mentioned to them that he was living with Gray indefinitely…

How long would they live together, anyway? Gray didn't mind having Natsu over. Preferred it, really. It was so much easier to watch over him, and that was all the more important after the last attack. Still, for as well aware as he was of the idea that a full recovery was near impossible, some part of Gray hadn't yet wrapped its mind around the idea that Natsu might never be able to manage on his own again.

Surely, even if his vision remained all but useless and he was forever unable to walk more than a short distance, he'd at least be able to get by with Happy, right? His house wasn't that large. If the removed all the clutter, it could work. Removing all the clutter would likely also give Natsu fits, since he valued most of the garbage lying around his house, but that would be a hurdle to face later. Assuming Natsu even could move home eventually.

Lacking a slayer's hearing, Gray was almost to Natsu's front door before he heard voices from inside. Sting's first, then Rogue's, and finally, to his immense relief, Natsu's.

"That sucks though. She really said you'll be sick that long?"

"You don't need to rub it in."

"No. He's right. It sucks. But it's okay… I guess. Gray helps me out a lot."

Sting snorted. "Yeah. Sure. And then leaves you on your own in the middle of town."

Gray clenched his teeth, ready to kick in the door in and fight Sting. He left Natsu somewhere safe to spare him from facing the guild before he was ready, and he was only gone ten minutes.

"He would have come back." Gray put his foot back down when he heard Natsu.

"But still, leaving you on the street."

"H-he left me in a café. I just… I left on my own."

"They didn't kick you out, did they?" Rogue asked. "I can't imagine you caused them much trouble… In your current condition, I mean. If you told them you were in poor health, they ought to have let you stay inside."

"No. A few of the waitresses complained that I wouldn't leave, but no one told me I had to go."

"You should have told the waitresses to go fu—"

"Focus on the rest of their customers," Rogue finished loudly for Sting. "Is this everything?"

"I think so? Hold it out for me."

This was followed by silence, and Gray took it as a sign to open the door and let himself in.

Inside, Rogue held a box of Natsu's things. A reasonably sized box, Gray was happy to see. He would have to put his foot down if Natsu tried to move his entire collection of memorabilia. As it was, it seemed Rogue's box held mostly clothes. Gray didn't see the hammock tucked in there, but he also no longer saw the hammock hanging in the corner, so he imagined it had been packed as well.

His eyes went up from the box to Rogue, who offered a friendly smile, then to Sting, who was… not smiling.

" 'Bout time you showed up."

"Sorry," Gray said. "No one left a note, so I've kind of spent the last half hour running around panicked looking for him."

A mild exaggeration, and the only person who winced because of it was Natsu, but Gray wasn't about to correct himself and give Sting and ground.

Why exactly he felt the need to pick a fight with Sting, he couldn't say. That someone found Natsu struggling on his own outside and came to his aid was wonderful. In fact, it was even great that the twin slayers had chosen to help Natsu pack up the essentials he wanted with him while they lived together. Gray could even allow that, given Sting's misunderstanding of the situation, it was a good thing that was glaring him down. If he'd thought someone left Natsu, still weak from his latest attack and unable to see, in the middle of the street with no intentions of coming back soon, he'd likely have pounded them unconscious by this point. Sting acting protective of Natsu was a good thing.

Except acting protective of Natsu was Gray's job. Ever since Makarov picked him out to see how Natsu managed the walk home, he'd been the one to look after him. He was the one who carried Natsu when the roset's legs could no longer hold up, and for as often as he'd wished he didn't have to do that, seeing Natsu on Sting's back, with Sting daring to glare at him no less, lit something in Gray on fire.

"Sorry," Natsu said. "The waitresses… I didn't want to have to sit and listen to them. I thought there was a bench nearby, but—"

"Don't worry about it. You're fine," Gray assured him. "You're not the one who failed to leave a note."

Missing the tactful omission that he, being temporarily blind, could not write, Natsu relaxed. Now it was Rogue who looked guilty, despite Gray directing every dagger he could glare at Sting.

"If you'd stayed with him," Sting said, "you wouldn't have needed a note. Some friend you are."

Losing his patients, Gray said, "I can carry Natsu from here. Thanks for dropping by."

"How can I trust you not to drop him?"

Over Natsu's cheerful assurance that Gray didn't do that and Rogue's awkward muttering about how he'd just go and drop the box off at Gray's on his own before heading home, Gray snapped, "For all the time's you've stuck your foot in your mouth today, why should I trust you?"

"Easy. I didn't ditch him in a dive that he felt he needed to run away from."

"I did not ditch him!" Gray roared, nearly startling Rogue into dropping the box as he hurried by.

"Then where the hell were you? He was on his own and he nearly fell in the river, dammit!"

After the second attack, Natsu hadn't been able to swim as far as he could run, and that was in calm water on a warm summer day. The thought of Natsu struggling to keep above water now, when it was cold enough that Natsu, Natsu, had donned a jacket, and when he could hardly walk anymore…

Gray didn't dare give Sting and inch, but he had no idea what to say to that.

"Sting, it was my fault," Natsu insisted. "Gray told me to stay in the café, and he had no reason to think the waitresses would say what they did. If I'd waited where he told me to, I would have been fine."

"You don't have to defend him."

"I want to. Gray's done a lot for me." Natsu paused. "Well, he also doesn't let me do a lot, but…"

Sting scoffed. "Fine. But you call me first thing next time he bails on you. And even if you insist on going back to his place, I insist on carrying you."

Gray had never before in his life wanted so badly to strangle someone. Sting was lucky he had Natsu on his back, because fear of hurting his friend was the only thing that kept him from lashing out at… well… at the man who was reacting to Natsu's illness almost identically to how Gray had.

Was that why Sting pissed him off so much? Because he was getting a taste of his own medicine? It felt surprisingly rotten being talked to the same way he had Lucy. Enough so to make Gray feel guilty for being so harsh with her—and to wonder what even drove him to be so uptight about anyone else making an honest mistake where Natsu was concerned.

Why did he react the way he did? Everyone else in the guild cared for Natsu as a friend too… right? Being uptight was usually Erza's job, and Lucy, for as much as it bothered Gray, was the one closest to Natsu. The two of them out to outdo him by a country mile when it came to… to…

For as much as it bothered Gray?

Swallowing nervously, Gray stepped out of the blond's way without even thinking to sneer at him. His reason for worrying so deeply for Natsu couldn't be…

Could it?

N-no. That was ridiculous. But then… what if that was why Sting also…

"Don't be stupid," Gray muttered to himself. "That's how Juvia would think."

-x-

STA: I like Sting.

To be honest, I don't read a whole lot of Gratsu. Stingue is the only shounen-ai ship I really adore, but since I ended up writing a Gratsu anyway, I thought I ought to check out some other stuff and get a feel for what kind of fanon people had going for this ship. I tried Rhov's stuff, but she usually gets really filthy and that kind of content doesn't interest me, so even though the story wasn't bad, I ended up backing out before the relationship really got under way over some scenes I didn't like. (I assume she writes some quality filth, because her stuff is popular, but not being a connoisseur of written porn, I couldn't say for sure.) I tried a few less racier fics, but I got disheartened when the one with the most interesting premise had the characters falling in love instantly. Maybe I could have tried to look for more stories, because I only looked at four or five and I know there's bound to be plenty of good ones, but I kinda gave up after that.

Anyway, I really, really, really don't like insta-love, so I tried to make things go gradually in this fic. Given that it's framed around someone's whole life pretty much falling apart, I also didn't want to completely disregard any coping or adjusting Natsu has to do in favor of lovey-dovey fluff. Still, We're on chapter 21 and Gray is still dancing around whether or not he has feelings for Natsu. No confessions. Natsu isn't even sure he has the right to Gray's affection, much less the will to admit to his. Chapter 21. I wonder if I overcompensated?

Ryuu91: Well the idea with cliffhangers is that they either get the reader to hurry on to the next chapter or keep them eager for when I post. Besides, you like them too. Admit it.

Gembomz: Here you go, sweetie.