4. Lull
"Actually, if you think about it, it was the perfect time to get a heatstroke!" mused Happy from where he sat beside Gray's head on the bed.
"Happy!" Lucy snapped. "That was completely inappropriate." She removed the towel from the ice mage's forehead and dunked it into the bucket of cold water beside her. Pulling the dripping wet towel out, she wringed it vigorously, removing excess water to leave it sufficiently damp. Then she folded it neatly into a rectangle and gently put it back on the dark-haired boy's forehead.
Erza hovered in the background, glancing occasionally at the sleeping Gray and cracking her knuckles ominously. Nearly an hour passed before she finally stopped pacing and glared at the occupants of the room. "When that idiot wakes up, tell me. Immediately." Without even waiting for a reply, the redhead turned and stalked out of the room.
Lucy laughed a little nervously as she watched Erza exit the room. Perhaps it was for the best and Gray's good health that he remained asleep for the time being. She did not want to imagine what the other girl intended to do to Gray once he awakened. She turned her attention back to the boy resting on the bed, noting with relief that he looked much better than when Natsu had first brought him back to Fairy Tail.
The aforementioned dragon slayer was sulking outside the room at the moment. Master Makarov had forbidden him from entering Gray's room due to his higher body temperature and unfortunate tendency to emit flames whenever he got worked up. His close presence would only aggravate the ice mage's condition.
What Gray needed now was to recuperate in a cool environment.
At first, after seeing Gray in such a state, the rain-woman Juvia had brought her own body temperature down to nearly zero degrees celsius and attempted to envelope him with her body by transforming into water herself. The master had stopped her at once. Levy then explained that doing so would cause a sudden drop in Gray's body temperature and result in vasoconstriction - which would be counter-productive in lowering the ice mage's body temperature.
All Juvia could do was mope around and wait anxiously for Gray to awaken. Subsequently, after much dubious contemplation on Lucy's nursing of the ice mage, she started to aid her by replacing and cooling down the bucketful of water when necessary. Right now, the blue-haired girl was asleep on a chair beside Gray, her head pillowed on her crossed arms on the bedsheets.
"Lucy..." came a mournful voice from the doorway.
The blonde girl instantly turned to glare in that direction. "No, Natsu! The master said no."
"But he should be fine by now. Besides, I haven't seen him since they put him here." The fire mage was almost whining. "Just once—"
"Natsu!" Lucy said sharply.
Natsu fell into a dejected silence. Feeling bad, she relented. The other boy was worried about his friend, that's all. Not to mention that Natsu being Natsu, was probably feeling extremely guilty at the moment. Especially now that he was witnessing how the ice mage had to be confined to the bed as he needed plenty of rest.
"He's fine, Natsu." The blonde girl said, leaning forwards to adjust the wet towel into a position more to her liking. She sat back in her chair with a weary sigh. At some point of time, Happy had curled up beside Gray's pillow and dozed off. Juvia murmured a little and shifted in her sleep. She smiled fondly at the sight of the three slumbering friends.
"...I feel guilty." Natsu spoke up from where he was sitting, his back leaning against the door frame. His normally lively eyes were shadowed. "Ugh. I hate feeling this guilty - but then I almost killed Gray."
"Don't be silly," replied Lucy, frowning over at him. "Nobody expected Gray to be so wounded even after Wendy healed him."
"Mhm." The dragon slayer tilted his head back and rested it against the wall. "Not to mention Wendy had to heal me and Erza before she tended to Gray. The poor girl must have already been at her limits."
"Well, she certainly put in her all in healing Gray this time." Lucy yawned and stretched. She glanced out the window opposite her at a reddening sky. It was already past six thirty in the evening. Her stomach was growling. "So don't be such a worry-wart. Even Juvia has calmed down." She got up and walked out the room, stepping over his stretched out legs. "I'll be going now for dinner and—" She turned on her heels and gave the fire mage a warning look. "—don't even think of going near Gray. You know what master Makarov would do."
Natsu huffed and looked away pointedly. Gramps had threatened to get Freed Justine to write runes preventing solely him from entering the room at all if he were to stray within a ten-foot radius of the ice mage. No doubt Gramps had already gotten Freed to write a rune that would set off an alarm if Natsu got too close to Gray. He was not sure if he wanted to test how close 'too close' was.
The dragon slayer gazed thoughtfully at the silhouette of his friend from where he lurked obediently just outside the room. He was still a little shell-shocked from the scare earlier. Gray was usually able to tolerate – and even overcome – the heat of his flames. He had always thought the ice mage had great endurance and magical power, so he was not expecting the other to faint just from the heat given off from one fiery attack. But his body had been substantially weakened by his fight with Lyon and he had not fully recovered yet then. Plus, the element ice was especially vulnerable against fire. Being an ice mage meant Gray was more susceptible to fire. High heat wore him out.
He almost chuckled as he recalled how he had made his entrance into his guild. He had thundered past everyone, yelling his head off for Wendy while trying to his best to restrain his body heat from increasing any further. His agitation had not made it easy. Almost all who were present had been thrown into a panic at his hysterics. The carpets in the guild's main hall were still blackened from when he had blazed into the building.
When master Makarov arrived at the scene with Wendy, his suspicions were confirmed. Gray was suffering from heatstroke – and all thanks to him. After he had finished explaining what had happened to land the ice mage in such a state, he had to dive for cover as an enraged Juvia attacked him. He winced as he remembered some of the blows that had landed. As ice was not very effective against fire, so was fire against water. The rain-woman could really pack a punch when it was for her obsession.
"Juvia will skin you alive for hurting Gray-sama!"
Then, after Juvia was restrained, he told Makarov and those present what Gray intended to do. The reactions his words evoked were similar, mostly along the lines of: "Why does he have to go to such lengths to defeat Lyon? All he needs is us! Also, it's understandable that as an S-Class mage, he would want to become stronger and live up to his rank – but his plan is impractical!"
Natsu could not say he did not disagree with that. However, as he knew Gray better than most people, he had to take his friend's feelings and ideals into consideration. As it was inevitable that people would get hurt if Fairy Tail helped out in this particular fight, he suspected that Gray would suffer from guilt and self-loathing for an undefined period of time – and knowing the ice mage, he would choose to suffer silently.
Sometimes he wanted to beat some sense into his friend.
Movement at the far corner of the room caught his eye and he turned his head to look. Juvia had awakened and was currently leaning over the bed, her fingers fluttering over smooth skin. A strange emotion twisted his heart, eliciting a deliberate cough into his hand. The rain-woman immediately straightened and turned. He watched as she made her way to the door and paused, looking down at him.
"Good evening," said the blue-haired woman.
He smiled and waved.
They stared at each other for a while more before Juvia walked past him and down the corridor.
Shifting his gaze to the darkening sky, he wondered how he could convince Gray that he need not fight Lyon alone. It would be madness to take on the ice dragon slayer unaided. He had felt a significant difference in Lyon's strength when they had last engaged in battle. The white-haired man had grown much more powerful. It had been a tough fight despite him being the fire dragon slayer – what more for an ice mage? An element was theoretically ineffective against the same element. Both Lyon and Gray used ice magic. There was no question as to who would lose.
Then Natsu had an epiphany.
He shot to his feet, eyes glowing. Why wait like terrified mice in the rhetorical mouse-hole that was their guild for the ice dragon slayer to arrive and rain destruction upon them? Why hold back? This was Fairy Tail, for god's sake! Instead of lying around waiting for potential assaults, Fairy Tail would bring the fight to them!
Pacing, he thought hard. If Fairy Tail mages were deployed to create a commotion at where Lyon and the dark guilds were at, then those bastards would be preoccupied with defending themselves to bother with anything else. That way, Fairy Tail could spare the guild itself from being attacked directly. Erza and himself would then be able to deal freely with Lyon as they would not be tied down to the guild. There would be a certain amount of risk involved, definitely, but it would be much better than be sitting ducks for death. If it worked out, everyone would get their own satisfying conclusion to this issue.
Unable to contain his elation at his craftiness, he did a little jig there and then that brought him twirling into the door. Just then, he heard a small noise that sounded suspiciously like a muffled snicker. It was also suspiciously familiar. Instantly, he stopped short and peered around. Who—? Over on the bed his answer sat up.
"Hey, slanty-eyes," said Gray, a smirk playing on the edges of his lips.
There's not much plot development here and it's also a chapter that is somewhat shorter than usual. My apologies! However, the next chapter should be more interesting. Do review! It's what keeps us writers writing and new chapters rolling in xP