A/N - I am a little behind on editing "shoulder the sky," so I am taking a three week hiatus from posting that to catch up (I promise it's not abandoned!). In the meantime, I'll be posting this soft little slash fic featuring concussed Gray. I originally wrote this for Pride month, but the posting got delayed!

TW for vomiting.

The title is from "Wild Blue Yonder" by The Amazing Devil.

It seemed like Gray got concussions all the time. Natsu had seen him have a bunch, so he knew what to do. Mostly. He'd seen all the symptoms before, and he didn't think this one was that bad. Probably.

Natsu and Gray were alone together on a job, trying to take down some weird monster from the forest that was terrorizing the citizens of a small town. They'd tracked the monster down, and Natsu had barbecued it, but not before it had backhanded Gray into a wall.

Hard.

Once the monster was down, Natsu had been expecting Gray to pop right back up, as he usually did, but that hadn't happened. Instead, he'd stayed crumpled at the base of the wall, and he hadn't reacted at all when Natsu had called his name. When Natsu had gone to him, and turned him over, he'd been acting sluggish and confused and sick. So, concussion. Not the worst one Natsu had ever seen, but he knew Gray needed medical attention, and sooner rather than later.

That was the first problem. The second problem was that Gray had been using Devil Slayer Magic to freeze the monster in place when he'd gotten hit. His arm and chest had been half-demon, his face marked with the jagged dark streak. That was all fine and normal - Natsu had seen Gray use the Devil Slayer magic a bunch of times over the past few months, and he was getting -sort of - used to it. But normally, the markings stayed only as long as Gray was doing magic.

But this time, when the monster had knocked Gray out, the markings had gotten kind of…stuck. When Natsu had asked Gray if he could put them away, the answer had been an unhappy and delirious no, so…that was that. Gray was stuck looking like a demon, presumably until he managed to become a little bit less concussed.

Which would have been fine in Magnolia, where everyone knew Gray, and at least sort of liked him. But was potentially much more of a problem out here in the middle of nowhere, where a lot of people didn't like or trust dark magic users so well. Especially not literal demons.

So Natsu was taking Gray to a doctor he'd found just outside of town, but he was a little nervous about the whole thing. And Gray, who could barely talk and certainly couldn't walk unassisted, wasn't really helping.

"Alright," Natsu said, stopping when they were hopefully just out of view of the doctor's office's front windows. Gray stumbled to a stop beside him, nearly going to the ground.

"Y-yeah?" Gray slurred. "What…what…what're we…?"

"We're goin' to the doctor, Snowflake," Natsu reminded Gray for what was probably the twentieth time. "You hit your head, remember?"

Gray nodded, then looked like he regretted it. "Ouch," he whispered.

Natsu tugged Gray a little bit closer, planting a kiss on the corner of his eyebrow. He knew it wouldn't help Gray any, but Natsu was kind of hoping it would help him.

Gray blinked, looked more confused, then gave Natsu a flicker of a smile. Natsu grinned back, then released his hold on Gray and leaned back a little to look him in the eyes.

This was easier said than done, since Gray's eyes didn't seem to want to focus on Natsu all that well. Finally, after bouncing lazily around their general surroundings, Gray looked in a direction that was at least kind of close to Natsu.

"Gray, your, uhh…." Natsu motioned to Gray's face and arm. He still wasn't entirely sure how he should refer to the strange, choppy markings that took over half Gray's body when he was using his father's magic. Mentioning anything related to demons seemed…rude, especially since Gray was still kind of sensitive about it.

"Your…pattern is still up," Natsu finally finished. "Can you try to, um, make it go away?"

The part of Gray's face that wasn't demonic flushed a dull, angry red. "I said no, Natsu. Can't, okay?" He crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at the ground and letting his hair fall across his eyes. "Leave me 'lone."

"Sorry, sorry," Natsu said quickly. He put his arm back around Gray's waist, stopping him from swaying gently. "Let's just get ya inside, huh?"

"I c'n walk by myself," Gray growled, shoving Natsu's arm away with unexpected violence. He took one shaky, stumbling step forward, staggering hard to the side.

Natsu stepped to meet him, catching his boyfriend as Gray pitched sideways. He pulled Gray close once again, ignoring Gray's half-hearted struggles.

"Nice try, Popsicle. I gotcha."

"I wanna-"

"Tough nuts," Natsu said gently, and walked into the doctor's office, towing Gray with him.

The waiting room was small, with a few townspeople scattered throughout the various chairs. Natsu steered Gray towards a row by the door and let the ice wizard slither from his grasp and collapse into a chair. Immediately, Gray ducked his head, covering his eyes with his demon arm and cringing away from the light.

"Stay there, okay?" Natsu said, mostly just to talk to him. There was no way Gray was making it anywhere by himself.

Natsu walked up to the receptionist. "Hi," he said. He smiled real big, which often made people like him. "My name is Natsu. I'm here in town to take care of a monster for you guys. I'm trying to bring my…that's Gray over there, in the chair. He hit his head real hard, and I think he has a concussion. He gets concussions a lot, so they're extra bad for him. He needs to see a doctor."

"What's your relation to him?" the woman asked, peering around Natsu so she could get a look at Gray.

Natsu winced. Some people in Fiore were nice about the fact that he had a boyfriend. A lot of people were very decidedly not. He had hoped he could get around bringing that up entirely, just in case this town was full of the sort of people who were not-so-nice. But apparently no such luck.

"He's my…uh…he's my boyfriend," Natsu finally said. He knew this wasn't the sort of thing he should feel bad about, but he looked down while he said it anyway.

"You're talking about him?" the receptionist said. There was an edge to her voice that Natsu couldn't place.

Natsu looked around. Gray was slumped down in the chair, head back against the wall. His eyes were half-lidded. He was swallowing in a way that made it kind of look like he was going to puke, so maybe that's why the receptionist was so concerned. Natsu thought about reassuring her that Gray wasn't going to throw up on her floor, but then decided he probably shouldn't make promises he wasn't sure he would be able to keep.

It occurred to Natsu that she possibly thought he was lying about the concussion, and thought that Gray was actually drunk. This, Natsu could actually reassure her about.

"He's not drunk," Natsu promised. "He always gets like this when he hits his head. He wasn't doing anything bad or nothin', he's just concussed. He wasn't drinking."

"I never said he was," the receptionist said coldly. "There's a long wait. I'm not sure how soon we'll be able to see him."

"But-"

"Fill this out," she said, shoving a clipboard at Natsu.

"He hit his head really hard," Natsu said. "And like I said, he's had a ton of concussions so sometimes they're worse for him. I kinda wanna make sure he doesn't have brain damage or nothin', and I'd like to do it on the sooner side…."

"There's a wait," she repeated. "You can bring that back when you've filled it out."

Natsu was pretty sure he wouldn't get anywhere by continuing to talk to the receptionist. He made his way back to Gray.

"Hey," Natsu said softly, sitting in the chair beside him. He didn't want to be too loud, in case Gray's head hurt badly enough that sound would make him throw up.

"Hey Nassu," Gray slurred, lolling his head over sideways so it was angled vaguely towards Natsu. "Wha's….wha's up?"

"I gotta fill out some stuff, and then they're gonna see ya."

Natsu glanced down at the clipboard in his lap, which was filled with information that he probably should have known but wasn't completely sure of. He stared for a while at the "past medical history" section, wondering how many concussions Gray had actually had. Gray had told him a few times, but depending on his mood the answer could range from anything from five to fifteen, so Natsu wasn't entirely sure what to trust.

Gray looked over at him again, blinking painfully at the pen Natsu held. "What is that, Natsu?"

"It's stuff about you," Natsu told him, pushing a lock of hair away from where it had fallen across Gray's eye. It was the eye surrounded by his demon markings, and that much blackness around his already dark eyes made it kind of difficult to tell where Gray was looking. Natsu was pretty sure Gray was mostly focused on his face for once, which was a nice surprise. "Actually, I think you're supposed to be filling this out, not me."

Gray blinked again. "I'm…not gonna."

"I know, Snowflake," Natsu said, giggling despite himself. He looked back down at the clipboard. "You're not pregnant, are ya?"

"Whaaaa?"

"Pregnant."

"I dunno, Natsu." Gray frowned, looking down at his knees. "Stop askin' me these hard questions. My brain hurts."

"It was a joke - never mind," Natsu mumbled. He reached out, rubbing one hand across Gray's lower thigh. "It's okay."

"Mnn," Gray moaned, but he looked maybe a bit happier. Natsu supposed he would have to be okay with that, at least until the doctor saw them.

Now, Natsu wasn't so sure when that was going to be. They were still sitting in the same two chairs at least an hour after Natsu had brought the finished paperwork back up to the receptionist, and she hadn't even acknowledged them. Natsu was pretty sure that he'd even seen some people who'd come in after the two of them get called to see the doctor. It was kind of starting to feel like Natsu was never ever going to be able to get Gray help.

Gray groaned. "Mmm, Natsu. I don' feel so good."

"I know, Gray." Natsu had stopped worrying about hiding the fact that he and Gray were dating a long time ago. He wrapped an arm around Gray, and Gray immediately collapsed into his side. "Is it mostly just your head still, or is anything else wrong?"

Gray thought about this. It took him a while. "Uhhh, mos'ly my head," he finally managed.

"Do you feel sick to your stomach?" Natsu asked.

"Uhhhh, yeah."

Natsu had figured he was, but it still wasn't great to hear. "But you're not gonna throw up, right?"

"I'm just sick, Natsu," Gray said, which wasn't really answering the question. "And I don' wanna be here anymore."

"I know, I'm sorry. I don't wanna be here anymore either. Do you wanna…play a game or something?"

"Natsu, I don' know any games."

"Sure you do, Popsicle. You know I Spy, don't ya?" Natsu was pretty well-versed in I Spy - Happy had loved to play it when he was small. It was the first game Natsu had been able to think of on short notice.

"Yeah, I guess I know I Spy," Gray said. "Am I…?"

"I'll pick something, and you gotta guess it." Natsu looked around the waiting room. There wasn't very much to pick from. There were three women in the corner, who kept shooting angry glances at Gray, a family with two small children, and the desk with the receptionist behind it. Finally, Natsu settled on a little stack of paper cups next to a small water fountain.

"Okay, Gray. You ready? If you can't do this it's okay, but I think it'll distract ya…."

"I guess 'm ready," Gray sighed.

"Alright. I spy with my little eye…something white."

"Is it…the floor?"

"Nah, Gray, not the floor. The floor's…not even really white…."

"Is it…me?"

Natsu laughed. "No, Gray, it's not you. You're kinda more tan."

Gray looked at his own arm in confusion, one eye screwed shut. "Mmm, kind of…."

"Yeah, Gray. More tan."

"This part's black," Gray said sadly. He was looking at his other arm now, the one covered in his demon markings. After blinking at it a few times, he closed his eyes and let his arm fall, clearly upset.

"Yeah," Natsu said, rubbing his partner's back and trying not to sound sad himself. "Still not white, though. Do ya wanna keep guessing?"

Gray opened his eyes and stared vaguely at something that may or may not have been intended to be Natsu. "Guessin'?"

"We're playing I Spy," Natsu prompted. "Remember?"

"Ummm," Gray mumbled. Natsu waited for him to follow up with an answer, but he trailed off, staring off into space. He gave Gray a few seconds to see if he would keep talking, but he just sat there.

"Gray?" Natsu poked him, working even harder this time to keep the fear out of his voice. "What were ya sayin'?"

"What?" Gray turned back towards Natsu, frozen pupils wide. "What…whatcha mean?"

"Never mind," Natsu told him, beginning to rub his back again. "It's okay."

Gray sighed. "Did I forget somethin' again? Sorry…."

"It's okay, baby." Natsu had to resist the urge to pull Gray all the way off his chair and into his arms. "It's alright."

"Jus' don't feel very good," Gray mumbled. "My head hurts. Thinkin'…."

He trailed off again, but Natsu could guess what he was going to say. He left one protective arm around Gray and craned around, looking for any sign of the doctor. Gray really needed to get some help, and as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, "as soon as possible" turned into another few hours of sitting on the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. Gray had stopped talking maybe twenty minutes previously, hanging his head over his knees and panting softly. Natsu, better than pretty much anyone, recognized the signs of mounting nausea.

Enough was enough. Natsu understood that the receptionist was probably just trying to do her job, and was supposedly really busy doing something else, but he didn't care. She wasn't at her desk, and hadn't been for a while, but that wasn't going to stop Natsu. They probably wouldn't kick him and Gray out just because he asked politely to be seen, right? He could just duck into the back and look around, maybe ask the doctor personally if he would look at Gray. In Natsu's experience, not many people told him no.

"I know you're not feeling so good," Natsu said. Gray shrugged his shoulders in a way that at least seemed to indicate that he had heard. "I'm gonna go try to find a doctor for ya. Stay here. And, uh, yell out if you need something."

As if Gray could move. And honestly, Natsu kind of doubted that he could manage yelling. But….

Natsu walked up to the receptionist. He smiled again. He didn't want to look threatening, but also, he knew that when he smiled it showed off his pointy teeth.

"I gotta talk to a doctor now," Natsu said firmly. "We've been waiting for hours, and that's too long."

"I'm sorry, but we're very busy…."

"No! I've seen a bunch of other people who came in after us already get called back. I filled out all my paperwork, and we've been waiting here all day. Let me talk to a doctor! I'm not sittin' back down until I do."

The receptionist looked at Natsu with an expression of cold fury that he absolutely did not feel he had done anything to deserve. But he watched as she stood and made her way towards the back. Natsu just stood there, not sure how long this would take and if he should go back to Gray.

Finally, a man wearing glasses came out to the waiting room. He had a clipboard, which Natsu felt was a very doctor-y thing to hold.

"Hi," Natsu said, hoping that he sounded professional and confident instead of exhausted and stressed. "My name is Natsu. That guy over there is my boyfriend Gray. He hit his head really hard, and I need to get him seen. He gets concussions a lot, and so they're worse for him. I want to make sure nothin' serious happened and he doesn't have brain damage. We've been waiting for hours, but no one has talked to us. I don't want to wait that much more. I want you to help Gray."

Natsu realized that when the doctor had come out, he'd automatically taken a few steps back, and now he was standing pretty much right in front of Gray. He reached down and took Gray's hand. Gray, for some reason, seemed to think this meant it was time for him to stand up. So he stumbled to his feet and immediately reeled into Natsu, all without saying anything.

"See! He can't even walk hardly! He needs your help!"

"I'm sorry," the doctor said, "for any miscommunication. But I cannot allow this man to remain in the waiting room."

"That's what I've been saying-"

"He's scaring my other patients. I am afraid we will not be able to offer him treatment here. The two of you need to leave."

"He's…what?" Natsu was so surprised that for a moment, it overtook the inevitable anger. "Whaddya mean-"

He looked around the waiting room, once again noticing the three women in the corner. The opposite corner from the two of them, despite the entire rest of the waiting room being vacant. The family that had been in the waiting room earlier was gone now, even though Natsu hadn't seen them get called back. And all of the remaining patients were staring at Gray. Or, more specifically, at Gray's markings.

Gray made a low, unhappy sound in the back of his throat and ducked his head. Natsu watched as Gray hunched over, crossing his normal arm over the demon one, and now he felt the anger grow. The human half of Gray's face was covered in a slow, creeping blush, and Natsu recognized the look of shame in his boyfriend's eyes.

All Natsu wanted to do was burst into flames and teach the doctor a swift, painful lesson about the dangers of prejudice. But as much as he wanted to burn the building down around this idiot's ears, he didn't think there was another doctor in town, and Gray really needed help. If Natsu got them kicked out of this place, there wasn't anywhere else that he could go to get what Gray needed.

So Natsu swallowed back all of the vitriolic things he wanted to say. It hurt, like the anger might physically choke him, but he could feel Gray's bony demon elbow pressed against the small of his back as he tried to physically hide behind Natsu. For Gray, Natsu was willing to ignore his pride.

"P-please," Natsu choked out. Natsu didn't think he'd ever begged before, and that's what this felt like. He might as well be on his knees, licking this asshole's stupid shiny doctor shoes, and it felt horrible and dirty and wrong. But if the doctor asked him to do that in return for seeing Gray, Natsu guessed he probably would. He would do pretty much anything.

"I'm sorry, but I said-"

"We have money," Natsu blurted out, all in a rush. He dug through his pocket for his wallet, rifling through it for every last jewel he had. He held it out to the doctor, wishing the stack was bigger. "I know it don't look like much, but we just finished a job. It made good money, an' if you just let me go get it, I don't care how much you want, I'll give you-"

"As I said, we'll be unable to provide treatment. Put…put the money away."

Natsu fell silent, clutching his wad of cash in an increasingly sweaty hand. He just blinked at the doctor for a few seconds, trying desperately to think of a way to salvage this situation.

"Natsu-" Gray whispered.

"One second, Gray, I'm trying to-"

Gray's hand tightened on Natsu's. That was all the warning Natsu had before Gray folded forward and started gagging. A split second later, he was vomiting up his breakfast all over the floor of the office and the doctor's feet. The doctor tried to step out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough.

"He's sorry, he's sorry," Natsu squeaked, switching his grip on Gray so he could rub his partner's back. "Awww, Gray, you shoulda said you felt so sick…."

"Get. Out."

"I can't move him, look, he's still sick-"

This was very clearly true. Gray was still bent over, shaking, back heaving as he retched. Obviously this doctor guy was going to be pissed - it was no fun to be thrown up on - but couldn't he see that the situation was entirely out of their control at this point? Gray didn't want to be throwing up on the ground. Natsu didn't want him to be throwing up on the ground either. What were they meant to do?

"Get out," the doctor repeated. "Now. Or I am going to call someone who can escort you out."

Natsu still wanted to flame-broil everyone in sight, but for Gray's sake, he thought it was probably better if they didn't make a scene. Or at least, if they didn't make any more of a scene than they already had. The absolute last thing Gray needed was to actually get in some sort of trouble with the law.

"Come on," Natsu said, tugging lightly on Gray's shoulder. "We gotta get outta here. We'll find…," Natsu didn't know what they would find, "uhhhh…something. We'll find something, Gray, come on. We just gotta go."

"I can't." Gray's voice was hoarse from vomiting, and he was still folded over. "I'm sick. I thin' I really need to see a doctor, Natsu. Wait…I didn't alrea'y see one, right?"

"No," Natsu sighed. "You didn't. But come on, we'll figure that out later, okay. This guy can't see us, but we'll find someone else."

Gray made a small, unhappy sound as Natsu tugged him upright. "Is that 'cause I threw up on him? Sorry, I'm just sick…."

Natsu winced, caught halfway between rage and misery. "No, baby. Not that."

"Oh right," Gray whispered, so quietly Natsu could barely hear him. He chose that moment to pull his head upright, and the shame and defeat on his face made Natsu wish he hadn't. "It's 'cause I'm a demon."

Natsu couldn't take it anymore. Gray could barely form words, let alone stand, and he'd retained just enough ability to process his surroundings to be upset and embarrassed. Natsu had been trying to handle the situation with something at least approaching dignity, for Gray's sake, but dignity be damned. Natsu put one arm around Gray's shoulders, his other arm behind Gray's knees, and scooped his boyfriend into his arms. He pulled him close, away from the doctor, and skewered the guy with his best Erza glare.

"We're leaving," Natsu said, then held his head as high as he could and marched for the door.