Natsu fell asleep on Gray's back on the walk back to the apartment, which Gray wasn't about to complain about. Importance of being well rested aside, Natsu was cute when he slept. Gray was almost willing to let go of the wasabi incident, which he would be sure to give Natsu no chances to dodge come morning.
He fumbled with the keys when he reached the apartment, out of practice with unlocking the door while carrying Natsu. For one shameful moment, Gray almost absentmindedly dropped Natsu when he and his beaten down pride suspected that everything else that night couldn't have possibly happened. Even with Natsu's weight on his back, some part of Gray still suspected he was dreaming.
It wasn't until Gray managed to get the both of them into his apartment that he realized Natsu's things were all still at Lucy's. He'd rushed to the hill in order to drop in on Natsu the second Lucy and Loke bailed, and he didn't know for certain that Natsu wanted to move back in with him, so he hadn't stopped to grab that hammock Natsu made such a fuss over wanting to sleep in.
Glancing back at Natsu to confirm he was still sound asleep, Gray crept into his bedroom and set Natsu down gently on the mattress. He sucked in his breath when Natsu murmured and rolled over, but the boy remained asleep, and Gray let his breath go.
Recalling how flustered Natsu had been with the idea of them sharing a bed in the past, Gray almost went to sleep on the couch, but a thought stopped him. Natsu and Lucy sharing a bed was a-okay because they were just friends. Him and Natsu sharing a bed had been the end of the world because Natsu liked him and thought Gray saw the two of them as only friends. Now that they both knew they liked one another, it was probably okay. If nothing else, there was enough of an argument as to its okayness that he could justify his actions come morning, should it turn out that Natsu still found the idea to embarrassing. To add to his defense, Gray placed himself on the outer end. It gave him the excuse to claim he was making sure Natsu didn't roll out.
-o-
Nobody rolled out of bed in their sleep, but Gray's morning did begin with a rude awakening courtesy of Natsu shoving him off the mattress. He woke with a start, scrambling to his feet and orienting himself before he noticed Natsu's outstretched hands.
"Too soon?" Gray asked.
"What?" Natsu blinked, cheeks scarlet, and looked down at his hands in surprise. As if he hadn't noticed himself pushing Gray.
Gray almost would have bought the act, if Natsu were in better health. Shoving him like that should have taken all of Natsu's strength, and would likely leave him sapped for the rest of the day. And he was already off to a bad start after having stayed up so late.
"Do you think it's too early for us to sleep in the same bed?" Gray asked, leaving no room for feigned misunderstandings. "It's okay. I haven't picked up your hammock yet from Lucy's. That's all."
"No. It's fine." Natsu tried to push himself upright, and managed to get himself sitting on the second attempt. "It took me by surprise. That's all. If we're getting my hammock back, can we hang it over your bed?"
"So you can wake me up each morning by falling on me?"
"Not most mornings. Besides, doesn't that sound like fun?"
"I think we have different ideas of fun. You get dressed. I'm going to make breakfast."
Gray hovered in the doorway a moment to make sure that Natsu could stand and balance himself properly before looking to see if he even had supplies to make breakfast with. He couldn't remember eating breakfast since Natsu left and, now that he thought of it, wasn't sure he'd ever bought groceries either. He was unsurprised to find a thin layer of mold growing in a container of unappealingly colored leftovers in his fridge.
There weren't enough eggs to properly split between the two of them, but he had bread, and honey was kind of like syrup, so Gray set to work making French toast. To Gray's relief and embarrassment, the only item he was really prepared to make was Natsu's tea, which he started alongside the toast without even thinking about it.
While he cooked, Gray ran through plans for the day. Making sure Natsu was okay, as always, was the number one priority. Especially after a late night and that abnormal awakening. After that, there were a number of things Gray would like to do. Kissing Natsu couldn't take too much energy. Nor would something as quaint and normal as watching a movie with Natsu. If Natsu was up for it, they could eat out, or go for a walk, or do any of the other dozens of things that they'd done plenty before, but could seem special now that they both knew they liked one another.
Natsu got himself into a chair by the time Gray had toast ready, and politely didn't comment on Gray drizzling honey onto his food instead of syrup. He still scarfed the food down, letting out a small moan and something that might have been a comment about Gray's cooking, although it was hard to make out exactly what Natsu said while his mouth was stuffed.
Once Natsu's plate was cleared, Gray intended to propose an activity that would be low energy while solidifying the fact that they were together. They seemed to be together, at least. Maybe verifying that Natsu thought they were a couple wouldn't hurt.
Before Gray had the chance, Natsu asked, "So when do we go to the guild?"
"You want to go today?" Gray asked, hurrying the dirty dishes to the sink so Natsu couldn't see his disappointment.
"We need to clear your name, right? And I wanna tell Gramps I'll fight him if he makes me stay with Laxus again. And I was thinking of asking Mira if I could help in the kitchen again. Not running plates to tables or anything hard like that. But I can cut up the stuff she puts into salads or something. It's better than doing nothing at all. Oh! I bet Mira will forgive you if you let her be the one to tell everyone we're a couple. We are a couple, right? I'll fight you if you kissed me just to mess with me."
"You're not fighting anyone. And of course we're a couple. How could you even question that?" Gray asked. As long as he kept calm while he said it, Natsu never had to know that doubt had existed. "I need to buy groceries anyway, so we can swing by the guild. I'll let you fill Mira in on whatever she wants while I stock up for dinner."
"Can we do soufflés?" Natsu asked.
"No. You tricked me into eating a fist-sized ball of wasbi."
"You only took a bite of it, and it's not my fault if you ate food I made for Lucy," Natsu argued. "Do we have enough ingredients for soufflés?"
"If I make you soufflés, I'd better get a kiss out of it."
"I was going to give you one anyway, but if that's how it is, no kisses until I get my soufflé."
Chuckling, Gray yanked the fridge open and told Natsu, "Get ready to head to the guild. I've gotta take stock of what I'm missing." Also what needed to be replaced. It looked like his cheddar cheese decided it would rather be blue cheese. "Oh, and you've been taking those pills while we were apart, right? I'm sure your tired from last night, but we should start tracking your progress again."
"Got it!"
Gray pulled the cheese out and tossed it in the trash, alongside a few vegetables that had gone limp or brown, and scribbled down a list of ingredient he would need for soufflés, breakfast for the week, and other general meals that he intended to keep simple and not let Natsu badger him into going well out of his way to make. Only after he'd completed this did he look up to tell Natsu he could lend a hand with getting ready to go, at which point he saw that neither Natsu nor Happy were still in the kitchen.
Hesitantly, Gray pocketed his list and peered into the bedroom, where he saw no Natsu. Gray still didn't panic until he checked the guest room and found it completely empty as well.
Not daring to throw open his front door when Natsu couldn't have gotten much past it—it wouldn't do to hit Natsu with the door and send him tumbling down the stairs—Gray hurried out the apartment as fast as he could. Natsu wasn't anywhere on the small balcony outside the front door, nor was he on the stairs. Instead, Gray spotted Natsu on a bench across the street, Happy snuggled up in his lap.
Natsu wasn't wearing a jacket, and Gray could see that his fingers were pale, so he ran to grab one before rushing down the stairs to Natsu's side. Natsu gave him a toothy grin when handed the jacket, but Gray couldn't figure out why until Happy asked, "You couldn't get one for yourself while you were at it?"
Gray glanced down and saw that he was not only jacket-free but shirtless as well. That was something he might need to rectify, but Natsu had already made it across the street when Gray wasn't looking, and Gray didn't want to lose sight of him again.
"It's okay." Natsu pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. "I don't mind."
It had been a long time since the lack of a shirt alone bothered Gray. It was more losing his pants that he worried about, especially since his boxers were at risk of being next once the pants were gone. Seeing Natsu not realize how high up Gray's eyes were—and realizing that all those other times Natsu had failed to look high enough hadn't all been necessarily been due to disappointment or embarrassment, even if Natsu was often blushing at the time—made Gray extremely self-conscious.
"H-Happy, don't help him any further, okay? I'm gonna get a shirt"
"I didn't help him yet," Happy said.
That gave Gray a pause, and he looked back at the apartment door, up on the second floor, then down to Natsu, who was calmly pulling his jacket on.
"How are you feeling?" Gray dared ask.
"Like my legs are made of lead. The usual." Natsu made no attempt to mask the bitter note in his voice. "I couldn't make it that far at all. But maybe once we're close I could try walking a little more? Please? My legs are already getting ridiculously scrawny from being carried all the time."
Natsu stuck his leg out so Gray could see how baggy his pants hung on him, but Gray's attention was still on the stairs. Those would have wiped Natsu out before. The poor boy could only make it halfway up, and would have needed to sit and rest on the bottom step if he went all the way down in one go. Natsu still got himself across the road after that.
It wasn't a miracle, but it was a start.
"Climb aboard," Gray said, dropping to his knees so Natsu could easily get onto his back. "But by this time next year, let's see if we can get you walking the full distance on your own."
Natsu's soft scoff told Gray that he had abandon hoping for that, but Gray saw it as a real possibility. After all, Natsu had to have doubled his stamina in the month or so that they'd been apart.
Despite his pessimism with his condition, Natsu still kept in high spirits as they made their way to the guild. He talked about his plans to do some sort of work again, and how soon he was going to actually earn his keep, so Gray wouldn't need the guild's charity to support the two of them. Gray nodded along, refraining from pointing out that the bare minimum help Natsu was able to do at the time wasn't worth as much as the charity money supplied. Who knew. Maybe, in time, Natsu would be back to all the old guild work he'd helped out with in the past.
He didn't say as much, not wanting to kill Natsu's mood. After so many false hopes in the past, Gray didn't blame Natsu for not taking ideas of how much he might improve seriously. He might mention later how well Natsu did with the stairs, but just then Natsu had made a game of kissing Gray's temple whenever no one else on the streets was looking their way, and if Gray struck up a conversation, then Natsu would stop what he was doing to talk.
It wasn't perfect, but for the first time since Natsu fell ill, Gray thought everything was looking up.
-x-
STA: Because an "everything is all totally back to normal and Natsu's health was restored" ending would have been a lot happier, but it also woulda been a total cop out.
Ha... I feel sad ending this. I might have delayed posting this chapter a few days because I didn't want to see it come. I looked for ways to extend the plot without the story really suffering for it, but nothing really worked out. It was fun though, and you guys were all super supportive. It's been a long time since something I wrote got this much attention! (Probably doesn't help that I spent a few years writing mpreg about minor characters or dabbling in small fandoms, but that's just a detail.) I honestly didn't expect this story to get as popular as it did, though. People even started to recommend me as a Gratsu author, which is a little terrifying, because I never wrote Gratsu before this and hardly ever started reading a fic about them, much less finished one.
But I'm kinda glad I did. I never admitted as much before, but the reason I switched this premise from using Sting and Rogue to Natsu and Lucy (and then Natsu and Gray when I was about three or four chapters into writing it) was just because I was curious about whether or not it would attract a larger audience if I used more popular characters, and I wasn't too invested in Natsu or Gray. But they really grew on me. Like, a lot. A lot, a lot. I can't proudly declare that I don't like Gray with anyone anymore when people claim that the only reason I hate on Gruvia is because it gets in the way of some other ship I like, even if my newfound love of Gratsu still isn't why I take issue with Gruvia. But I'm getting a little off topic. School's keeping me pretty busy this spring, so I can't double up on projects and I already started another story with Sting and Rogue, but I definitely want to do more with Gratsu in the future. Maybe come summer, hopefully.
(Side note: Does anyone remember that movie about Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter? Apparently the guy who wrote the book that movie was adapted from decided to write it because the two best selling subjects at the time were Lincoln and vampires, and he figured some combo of the two would probably do well.)
In the meantime, I DO have a little left to give for this fic-verse. There's gonna be a three part epilogue, which is pretty much pure fluff, but after all the angsty shit you guys put up with from me, I think you're owed some light-hearted moments. Some of it's stuff I kind of wanted to include in earlier chapters, but didn't feel like it was an appropriate time for with where Natsu was emotionally. Some of it's just wanting you guys to see him improve more with time. Look forward to it.
Oh! And as a shameless plug, feel free to check out my new story as well, since I think it's safe to assume y'all like angst. The basic premise is that Ultear was unable to turn back time during the Eclipse incident, so no one was saved, and Rogue is forced to deal with the repercussions of his future self's actions as a result of everyone treating the incident with much more weight than they did in canon.
Ryuu91: Yay! Gray has stellar timing and I didn't botch the delivery~
ChasingThunder: I am always up for people complimenting my writing style. As for Stingue... um... I guess I never did specify why exactly Rogue had those handcuffs, but suffice to say he often gets permission from his guildmaster to use them on Sting. (Just because I don't write a lot of smut doesn't mean my imagination is pure.)
Guest: Kinda answered this one with the super long author's note, but there's a three part "epilogue", which is more like two bonus fluff chapters about the boys together, and then one actual epilogue about them down the line.
HannaDelaware1233221: Eee! It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside hearing my story made others feel that way. There's a little more to come, so please look forward to it!