An unknown amount of time later, Natsu was jolted awake by the sound of a scream.

Natsu shot upright in bed, reaching out for Gray and realizing in a confused jumble of blinks that his boyfriend was no longer there. The bed next to Natsu was empty, just wrinkled sheets and a crumpled up blanket.

Before Natsu could think through anything, he was on his feet and running out the door. As soon as he opened it, the scream from the far end of the hallway had subsided into words, still raised and angry.

"What do you think you're doing, scaring people like that? There are decent people in this hotel, you know! I could have had a heart attack!"

Natsu knew that there was no real reason to assume the owner of the voice was talking to Gray. Still, he was running towards that end of the hallway as soon as he made out the words. Scaring people, whether intentionally or unintentionally, did sound like Gray.

Natsu burst into the communal bathroom at the end of the hall to find Gray slumped miserably over a toilet. From the way his shoulders were shaking, he'd just finished throwing up, and he was probably going to start again at any second.

That wasn't exactly what Natsu had expected. Frankly, he'd assumed Gray had started a fight, or threatened to punch someone, or…bled on them, or something. But he was just sick, and not threatening at all.

Natsu shoved his way into the bathroom, so focused on Gray that he forgot to really pay attention to the red-faced, angry older man standing over Gray.

"Gray, baby, are you okay?" Natsu said, instantly moving to crouch beside him.

"Natsu-" Gray coughed, spitting weakly into the toilet. "Sorry, I-"

"Did you wake up feeling sick?" Natsu asked, moving a hand to Gray's spine. His skin was clammy and gross.

"Yeah, real sick. Head hurts. I-"

And then was when a hand planted itself on Natsu's shoulder. And yanked.

If Natsu had been less agile, or a little bit easier to manhandle, he probably would have been pulled straight over backwards. As it was, Natsu used the momentum and whirled upwards, coming face-to-face with the other man who had been in the bathroom.

"What do you think you're doing, talking to him like that?" the man demanded.

"What?" Natsu said, shoving the man off. Harder than he meant to, and the man stumbled a bit. "He's sick-"

"He's not sick, he's clearly some sort of monster."

"Don't touch me again," Natsu said sharply. "And don't say that about him."

Natsu figured that that conversation was over - he had absolutely no intention of entertaining random bigots while his boyfriend clearly needed him. He dropped back down next to Gray again, ignoring the man.

"I'm sorry, do you think you're done?" Natsu asked. "Can you go back to the room?"

"No…," Gray whimpered.

"If you're not going to listen to me, I'll find someone who will," the man said darkly. Natsu heard him start to leave, and he turned and growled at the man's back for good measure. Stupid guy. Yelling at Gray when he was clearly so sick, Natsu just wasn't sure what kind of person would do that.

The door slammed as the man left.

"Was he in here when you came in?" Natsu asked.

"Nah," Gray said weakly. Natsu saw he was panting for breath. "He came in to…brush his teeth or somethin'. And then he saw me and screamed like crazy."

"I'm sorry, Popsicle," Natsu said. Gray ducked his head against a wave of nausea, and Natsu started rubbing his back again. "Why didn't you wake me up when you started feeling this bad?"

Gray made an uncertain sort of gesture with a hand. "Wasn't thinkin' good. Head hurt. An' I thought…thought maybe I just needed some air…."

"And you threw up?" Natsu asked.

"Y-yeah," Gray mumbled, bending back over the toilet. "Still feel pretty-"

"I'll wait as long as you need," Natsu promised, swallowing delicately and looking away. He really wanted to give Gray his full attention, but as a Dragon Slayer, his stomach wasn't always the strongest. The last thing that Gray needed right now was for Natsu to throw up on him.

Behind him, Gray retched softly, and Natsu gulped and tried to ignore the sound. He stared at the door, focusing on the cracks in the wood. He'd pretty much lost himself in the peeling paint when it flew open. The angry man from earlier and another, official-looking sort of guy stormed in.

"Excuse me," the unfamiliar man snapped. "I'm the manager of this establishment, and I've received a complaint that-"

Natsu didn't let him get the words out. He let go of Gray's back as he felt his boyfriend turn towards the newcomers, but he was already on his feet.

"Yeah, I got a complaint for you too," Natsu snarled. "That guy back there is harassing your payin' customers. Why don't you tell him to mind his own business, huh?"

The manager completely ignored him. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

This, twice in as many days, was too much for Natsu. "I ain't leavin'," he shouted. Dimly, he was aware that this was probably not a good way to get anything he wanted, but he was too angry to stop himself.

"I wasn't asking," the manager said darkly.

"Oh yeah? What the hell for, huh? 'Cause someone's upset that we're usin' the bathroom? I got a sick guy here! What's he supposed to do, throw up in the hotel room?"

Beside him, he could feel Gray practically melting into his side, as if he was trying to escape. Natsu's hand found his and gripped it tight, past caring about how they were perceived.

"We don't cater to his…kind." The manager looked at Gray like he was something unpleasant in the street, with a thin layer of fear on top of the disgust. "You need to leave. Now, or I'll have you escorted out."

"Leave him out of it," Natsu snapped. "Besides, I rented a room last night. I paid an' everything. I'm supposed to have it for…at least a few more hours!"

"If we knew what he was, we never would have rented you a room," the manager said flatly. "We don't want monsters here."

From behind Natsu, Gray whimpered. As furious as Natsu was, that cut through the anger in an instant, and he turned back to his boyfriend.

"Gray- Oh, no…."

Gray was crying. Just a little, but it was obvious to Natsu, and it would certainly be obvious to everyone else in the room too. He sniffled, wiping frantically at his eyes with the back of his hands. To Natsu, he looked like the furthest thing imaginable from a monster, even with the black pattern still slashed across his face. He just looked miserable and sick.

As hard as it was to admit, Natsu knew that at this point, there was no purpose to fighting. He had learned from the doctor yesterday that in this town, when people wanted them out, there wasn't really anything that could be done. Natsu wanted to punch this guy down the stairs, but that would get them no closer to being allowed to stay. It would be really, really satisfying, but…violence didn't make anyone here more likely to help them. He couldn't beat or threaten the hotel manager into not being so scared of Gray.

And anyways, Natsu mostly just wanted to get Gray somewhere else at this point. He was crying, and he was sick. Natsu didn't want to make him watch while he yelled at the manager. He just wanted to take care of him.

"Whatever," Natsu said. "We'll…we'll leave, fine. Just…can we at least grab our stuff?"

"It would be better if you didn't."

It looked like Gray had almost gotten himself back under control, but that made him start to cry in earnest again. Natsu had seen Gray cry maybe ten times in his whole life, and rarely ever this much. But he had clearly reached his limit.

Natsu didn't need their stuff. He just needed to get Gray out of here. Everything else…everything else, they could deal with later.

"Come on, Gray, up you go. Can you stand?"

"N-no," Gray whispered.

"Awwww, Gray. We need to go. Let me help you, alright?"

Gray still looked reluctant, and he was still crying, but he allowed Natsu to grab him under the armpits and hoist him to his feet. He stood there unsteadily, nearly reeling into Natsu. Natsu suddenly remembered how nauseous he had been, and there was a horrifying moment where Natsu was sure he was about to be thrown up on. But Gray seemed too sad to be feeling very sick now, and even if he was swaying hard, at least he was vertical.

"I got you, okay?" Natsu said softly, tipping his forehead against Gray's. He didn't look at the manager. Maybe if he pretended the man wasn't there at all, Gray would forget about him too.

Gray sniffled in what Natsu hoped was response, and Natsu wrapped his arm around his boyfriend's waist. Moving as quickly as he thought Gray could manage, he started past the two men that were still half-blocking the bathroom door. They moved back suddenly, like he had the plague, and Natsu resisted the urge to snarl at them. He didn't want to make Gray more upset.

"Let's get outta this stupid place, huh?" Natsu didn't really think Gray was going to respond, but anything was better than listening to Gray cry.

He half-hoped that if he threw enough words in Gray's direction, Gray would get confused enough to forget why he was crying, and then he would stop, and maybe he wouldn't look quite so miserable. Every time Natsu looked at him, he kind of felt like crying himself.

It took longer than Natsu would have liked, but eventually, they made it outside. Gray squinted at the sudden brightness, then closed his eyes with a soft whimper.

At least that seemed to make him stop crying. Natsu rubbed Gray's back a little, staring back at the hotel as the situation they were in slowly began to sink in.

Their stuff was gone. All of it, including the lacrima that Natsu had used to call Erza. She knew where to go, but Natsu didn't think that the manager would be very happy if they just planted themselves on the front porch of the hotel until she got there. And they'd lost Gray's cloak, too, so now the demon markings were even more obvious. If they stayed in this town, things would probably only get worse.

Natsu didn't know what to do, other than to start walking down the road Erza would be coming from. She probably wasn't due for another couple hours, but he didn't have any way to tell her to hurry.

Absent-mindedly, Natsu reached up to rearrange his scarf His hand closed on empty air. Right. He'd taken his scarf off to sleep, and now it was locked in their hotel room, and he couldn't get to it.

"Natsu?" Gray mumbled. "What…you okay?"

Gray wasn't crying anymore, but he still looked miserable, and Natsu could hear in his voice that pretty much anything would set him off at this point. The scarf wasn't Gray's fault, at all, but he'd feel terrible, and Natsu didn't think that he could handle Gray crying right now. Besides, Erza would get it for him, wouldn't she? Everything would work out okay, when Erza got here, and when Gray wasn't standing out in the sun, and when Natsu didn't have to think of everything all by himself.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just pissed at those dumb guys."

At this, Gray's eyes got big and glassy again. Natsu quickly back-pedaled.

"They were just stupid, Gray, don't worry about them. And now we're out of there anyways. Do you think you can walk?"

"Where?"

"Well…Erza's coming for us today. I was thinking we could walk down the road and meet her."

Assuming she was still arriving today, and nothing had delayed her. Assuming that that was the road she was taking. Assuming Gray could even walk.

Gray looked dismayed. "I dunno, Natsu."

"You don't know what, Gray?"

"Can't we just sit here? I still feel pretty sick."

Natsu had a horrible image of townsfolk with pitchforks coming at them and chasing Gray off. Natsu really didn't want to make Gray upset again, but also he just didn't think they could stay.

"Let's see if we can just walk a little, okay?"

Gray didn't look thrilled, but he allowed Natsu to guide him away from the hotel. He was a little steadier than Natsu had expected, actually, not that that was saying much. His eyes were half-lidded, head bowed against the ambient light like even that was too much. His legs looked shaky, and he was clearly having to focus hard on keeping his balance as he put one foot in front of the other. He was still pale as a ghost and swallowing uncomfortably.

"Do you want to rinse your mouth out?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah," Gray said miserably.

"Okay, here, I have some…well. I don't have any water. It's…it's back in the room. Sorry, Gray."

Gray nodded unhappily, and didn't say anything else. Natsu felt terrible. He felt terrible that Gray had to move, and that he couldn't have water, and that Natsu had actually offered water and then had to retract it. He hoped Erza came soon. He wished none of this were happening.

Before long, Gray was swaying against Natsu again. They were at least out of the town center by now, although there were still a few houses scattered around the outskirts. It seemed quiet, not like anyone was going to come out of their house and yell at them to get lost, but Natsu still didn't feel comfortable stopping.

"Can you keep going, Gray?" Natsu tugged on his arm gently as Gray shuffled to a stop.

"Nnn…." Gray looked up, and he must have seen something in Natsu's face, because he cut himself off and nodded instead. "Yep."

Gray kept stumbling forward, and Natsu kept him upright and tried not to think about anything in particular.

They didn't make it very far before Gray stopped again, this time so suddenly that Natsu almost pulled him off his feet.

"Gray-"

"Gonna throw up," Gray mumbled, pushing at Natsu to let him go. He stumbled towards the side of the road, going to his knees before Natsu had a chance to catch him.

"Aww, Gray, that can't be good-"

Natsu broke off as Gray started to retch into the roadside dirt. Matching nausea swelled up inside him, and he looked away.

After a minute or two, the sounds of retching and coughing stopped, and Natsu cautiously looked back. Gray was sitting back on his heels, wiping off his mouth. He'd gone somehow paler, offsetting the black markings on his face even further, and his eyes looked glassy and ill.

"How you doin', Gray?" Natsu asked, offering a hand to pull Gray to his feet.

Gray took it, eyes narrowing in a familiar look of concentration. "Hey, Natsu, something's…wrong."

"Yeah, Gray, you just threw up, remember?"

"No. That's not what I mean." Gray's look of concentration increased, and he stared at Natsu for a minute. "Hey, where's your scarf?"

"My….scarf."

"You're not wearin' it," Gray said, starting to sound agitated. "We gotta…gotta go back. Look for it. I, uhh…I dunno where you lost it. Do you?"

"Oh, Gray-"

And just like that, everything was too overwhelming for Natsu. He sank to the ground next to Gray, and tugged Gray's head gently into his chest. Gray was confused, exhausted, in enough pain that he was vomiting onto the side of the road. But he had still noticed that Natsu's scarf was missing, and he had still tried to figure out where it had gone.

Gray could be thoughtless, and he sometimes forgot to be nice. But how could anyone think that he was evil? The markings…they didn't mean anything, not really. They marked Gray as a Devil Slayer, the same way Natsu's motion sickness marked him as a Dragon Slayer, but that was all they did. That was all they meant. The townspeople were absolute idiots for not being able to see that. Gray wasn't a threat to them - he never had been, and never would be. He was just a guy, and a good guy at that.

Natsu ran his fingers carefully through Gray's hair, careful to avoid the blood-crusted wound at the back of his head. Natsu realized he was crying. That was dumb, and not very helpful, but the fact that he found he couldn't help himself just made him cry harder.

"Natsu," Gray slurred, "what's wrong? Is it…is it your scarf? I said…yeah, we can go back and try to find it…."

Natsu felt a shaky hand paw at his chest, and then reach around to begin clumsily rubbing up and down his back.

"No, it's alright. It's not my scarf, that's…I'm sure we can find that later…"

"We will," Gray said, very seriously. "We'll find it later."

"Don't worry about it-"

"Why…why are you crying?" Gray asked miserably, wrapping his arms a little more tightly around Natsu. Natsu looked down, and realized with horror that Gray's eyes were going glassy again, and he probably wasn't very far from starting to cry again himself.

"I said I'm alright, I promise," Natsu sniffled. "You're just…very sweet to me, Gray…."

The world still felt horribly unfair, and Gray still seemed very sick, and Natsu frankly couldn't imagine ever wanting to stand up and keep walking again. The thought that now Gray would be stranded indefinitely by the side of the road made Natsu want to yell, even though he knew that that would be the last thing to help the situation.

Natsu missed the sound of the car pulling up and stopping, but he didn't miss the sound of a familiar voice behind him.

"Natsu?" Erza said. "What's wrong?"

Natsu sniffled and tried to pull himself together, but then his head was being pressed up against Erza's spiky armor, and all of a sudden he was crying harder.

"Gray is super concussed and this town sucks and I lost my scarf and Gray can't stop throwin' up," Natsu told her all in a rush that was barely intelligible, even to him. "I just…I just wanna go home."

"It's okay, Natsu," Erza told him, crushing his face against her armor a little tighter. Natsu grimaced as the metal pressed into his cheek, but it was still kind of nice. "We can go home now. Gray, let me take a look at you."

Natsu sat up dizzily as she released him and took Gray's face in one surprisingly gentle hand. Gray made a face, but didn't try to pull away. His eyes were wet with tears again, but he wasn't actually crying, which Natsu supposed was a good thing. Natsu tried to wipe the tears out of his own eyes, just so Gray wouldn't get emotional again if he looked over.

"I think Gray will be alright," Erza said eventually, taking her hand away from Gray's face and patting him on the shoulder. She wasn't a doctor, and she knew less about the situation even than Natsu did, but it made him feel better all the same. Erza wouldn't lie to him, and she was almost never wrong.

"O-okay," Natsu said shakily. He reached out for Gray's hand and grabbed it. Even though they were still a long way from Magnolia, it felt nice to be able to touch Gray without worrying who was watching.

"Let's go home," Erza said, getting to her feet. She pulled Gray up with her, supporting him while offering a hand to Natsu. He took it, pulling himself to his feet as she turned back towards the car she'd brought.

"Oh." Natsu hadn't really considered the fact that they'd be going in a car, and that he was about to be extremely motion sick. It hadn't been at the top of his list of things to worry about. "Um, Erza, can you…watch out for Gray? He's been super nauseous, and I won't be able to look at him or nothin', 'cause I'll be throwing up too."

"I'll look after him. I promise. Perhaps the two of you could hang out the windows, so as not to incur too much of a cleaning fee."

"I was gonna do that anyways," Natsu told her. "Uhh, can ya just make sure Gray doesn't fall out?"

"I'll make sure he doesn't fall out," Erza promised.

"Not gonna fall out," Gray mumbled in agreement.

So Erza piled them both in the car, and Natsu was a little bit embarrassed by how quickly he had surrendered control of the situation. But the past day had been exhausting, and Natsu felt that he hadn't done a very good job, and he was completely tired of trying to figure everything out.

The car ride, as expected, was completely, horribly, miserable. Normally, as soon as Natsu got in a moving vehicle, he would just kind of drift on a wave of nausea and pain until the stupid movement finally ended. But Natsu was still worried enough about Gray that he didn't want to surrender all awareness, in case Gray got even worse without Natsu knowing. So he tried to keep his head up as much as he possibly could, and pay attention to Gray, and offer words of comfort if he thought he could possibly manage it. Honestly Gray, who was nauseous but not motion sick, seemed to be doing a little bit better than Natsu.

Eventually, the car came to a stop, and Natsu heard the vague sound of a car door opening and closing. Natsu spent a moment trying to collect himself, still so sick he was nearly hyperventilating, and then turned around to check on Gray again. He adjusted Gray's headband, tugged his jacket a little tighter around him, and then moved to bundle them both out of the car.

But to Natsu's surprise and dismay, they weren't back at Fairy Tail as he had expected. Instead, they seemed to have returned to the hotel that Natsu had left with Gray early that morning.

Erza was nowhere to be seen.

"Um, Gray?" Natsu said, voice a little hoarse. "Do you know why we're here?"

Gray looked confused, but Natsu had no idea whether that was also a lack of information or if it was still just the concussion at this point. "No," Gray said vaguely.

"Do you know where Erza is?"

"Uhhhhh…."

"She was driving the car, remember? Did you see her leave?"

"I know that, Natsu. 'M not stupid. I remember, I just…don' know where she is."

Natsu was debating whether he should get out of the car and look for her, risking leaving Gray alone, or just wait until she came back, when the doors to the hotel opened. Erza marched out, carrying Natsu and Gray's bags in one hand. Her other hand held a sword, not in an overly threatening way, at least for Erza, but it was definitely pointy end up. Behind her, Natsu could see the hotel manager cringing and trying to hide behind a potted plant.

If he didn't feel so sick still, Natsu could have cheered.

"Hello, Natsu," Erza said nonchalantly, waving her hand and letting the sword vanish. She opened the door of the car and loaded the bags in. "Please forgive me for lengthening the car ride. I thought it would be worth it in order to get back your things. And that manager needed a… talking to. He didn't react to the situation with Gray appropriately. And that is not a mistake he will be making again."

Natsu didn't bother fighting back the grin that came at the thought of an Erza Scarlet "talking to." He even felt a little less sick, at least enough to sit up in the car rather than lie across the seat.

"Thanks, Erza! Um, did you-"

"Of course," Erza responded, handing him his scarf. "Here you go."

Natsu took it with suddenly shaky hands, telling himself that he didn't need to cry again. He just…hadn't really thought that he was going to get it back.

"Thanks," Natsu whispered. He wasn't sure what more he could say, but Erza didn't seem to need it.

"Are you ready to drive back to Fairy Tail?"

At that, Gray stirred and blinked. "Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah, we're not back yet," Natsu told him. He was pretty sure they'd already had this conversation, but he figured that he would be having pretty much every conversation more than once for the next few days.

Gray blinked again, then brightened and pointed at the scarf clutched in Natsu's hands. "Hey, your scarf!"

"Erza got it back for me," Natsu said. Then, on impulse, he reached out and wrapped it around Gray's neck.

"Natsu, this isn't mine," Gray told him. Looking confused, he pulled on it a few times, but couldn't seem to figure out how to actually take it off. "Don'...don' you want it?"

"Keep it safe for me, okay? I'm about to puke my guts out, and I don't want to get it dirty. You wanna watch it for me?"

At that, Gray's face broke out in the first real smile Natsu had seen since his concussion. "Yeah. Yeah, Natsu, I can do that."