Jellal put down the book he was reading and yawned. It wasn't that the book was boring him - he'd finally felt up to the task of reading the treatise Freed had brought him, and it had already given him some new ideas. It was just that no matter how fascinating any particular book could be, he was getting bored of looking at the same four walls in the same poorly lit room that wasn't his own. He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been in the hospital at this point - all the days had kind of started to blend together - but he knew that he really, really wanted to be home.

Supposedly, he was nearly well enough to be released. It had taken him a long while to start eating properly again, which was obviously a necessity - he couldn't exactly go home with Erza if he was still getting half his nutrition from an IV. But now, he was keeping down at least three small meals a day, and his appetite was only improving. He was still weak, but he could walk around a little on his own now. The wheelchair was still nice if he was going to be on his feet for more than a couple minutes - as much as he hated to admit it - but he could at least make it in and out of a car, or to and from the bathroom. All important things if he was hoping to get home soon.

Jellal was debating whether he should call a nurse in and try to eat something small when there was a knock on the door. Not Erza, since she would never knock. Some other member of Fairy Tail then.

"Come in," he called.

To Jellal's surprise, instead of a member of Fairy Tail here to bring Jellal some well wishes, it was Doranbolt who entered. He was wearing his magic council uniform, and while Jellal could tell he was trying to keep his expression neutral, he was still looking quite serious.

Not a good sign.

"Was there something you needed?" Jellal whispered, slumping back down to the pillows and trying to hide his book as much as possible. He tried to look as frail, helpless, and non-threatening as possible, which wasn't exactly hard. He was still pale and sickly-looking, and he knew he had lost a lot of weight.

"I'm…sorry to interrupt," Doranbolt said. Now he was looking a little bit ashamed, and that was good, at least. "I just had…a couple of questions."

"About what?" Jellal asked. As if he didn't damn well know.

"Well…about Gray's resurrection," Doranbolt said. "We're just trying to piece together the full story, which I'm sure you understand. And it seems that you were…heavily involved."

Jellal had known this was coming. Honestly, he was a little surprised it had taken the magic council this long to corner him. He was impressed they'd had the decorum to wait until he was well enough to defend himself. Maybe they hadn't wanted to bother with an investigation if Gray hadn't actually come back.

Jellal coughed. "Could you get me a glass of water first?" he croaked.

Doranbolt looked alarmed, which was good. He hurried to fill up a glass of water for Jellal from the pitcher next to his bed.

Jellal made sure to put an extra shake into his fingers as he accepted the glass. "Th-thank you," he whispered. A few drops of water spilled from the glass onto his sheets, but that was fine. The weaker he appeared, the less likely that the magic council would actually bother prosecuting him.

At least, that's what he hoped would happen. In a worst case scenario, at least he could make them feel bad about it.

Still, Jellal thought he had a pretty good chance of getting out of this. The magic council didn't need to know that Gray wasn't exactly integral to stopping Magnus and saving Fiore, if not the entire world. All they really needed to think was that Jellal had had no choice, and hopefully they would look the other way regarding his massive disregard of the laws of magic.

It wasn't the best plan Jellal had ever made, but he couldn't exactly lie about the resurrection itself. Gray had been dead, and now he wasn't, and Jellal was clearly responsible.

Jellal took a small, shaky sip of water and cleared his throat as pathetically as he could. "What do you want to know?" he rasped.

"Um…maybe just take me through what happened." Doranbolt shuffled around a little, but didn't ask to sit down. Jellal thought (and hoped) that he felt too awkward to do so.

Jellal nodded. "It might…take me a while. I don't have much strength back yet. I hope…." He trailed off, taking a deep breath that he didn't need. "I hope it's not too inconvenient."

Doranbolt had the grace to blush. He waved his hands around a few times, looking more upset by the second. "No, no. Not at all. Take whatever time you need. Just…I suppose, how did this all happen?"

Jellal let himself sink back into the pillows a little bit more and wondered if he could pull off an elaborately staged attack of fainting if Doranbolt started acting too suspicious. "I assume you know of the threat that Magnus posed?"

Doranbolt nodded. "Yes. The council didn't have much data on him, but we know that he was brainwashing guilds across Fiore, and he was using them to form his own army."

"Letting him continue would have meant all our deaths," Jellal said bluntly. He wished that he could point out that the magic council apparently would have let this all happen without the slightest show of intervention, but he was trying to be on his best behavior. "He was extremely dangerous."

"Of course I understand the threat," Doranbolt said. "That's…not really what we're debating here. As I'm sure you are well aware, resurrection magic is nothing to play around with, and I want to…as much as we can, I'd like to stay focused on that aspect…."

"I-" Playing sick was all fine and good, but if Jellal couldn't actually be sick enough for Doranbolt to leave him alone, this would have been easier if he was a little less sick. He was doing infinitely better than he had been when he'd first woken up, but he'd only recently gotten enough mental faculties back to start following the plot of a book, let alone try to get himself out of trouble for an incredibly illegal act that he had in fact committed.

There was another knock at the door. Jellal prayed that it was a nurse or something, coming to save him.

It wasn't. Instead, it was a pale, thin, shaky-looking Lyon.

Jellal blinked. This was perhaps one too many turns for his already-exhausted brain to keep up with.

"Hello," Doranbolt said. He sounded suspicious.

"Hello," Lyon said breathlessly. "I'm here visiting Gray. I heard that the magic council had sent someone to talk to Jellal, and I thought that I would stop by. Do you mind if I sit down? I'm still rather-"

Doranbolt's eyes widened. He rushed to get Lyon a chair, which he gratefully collapsed into. He really did look sickly, and Jellal was pretty sure it wasn't an act for him - Lyon was clearly trying very desperately to act as put together as he could. Jellal had heard that Natsu had needed to stab Lyon in order to subdue him. Honestly, Jellal was impressed that he was already back on his feet.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Lyon asked carefully.

"I'm glad to hear that you and the rest of Lamia Scale are alright," Doranbolt said delicately. "But I'm here to talk to Jellal. This really doesn't involve you."

"If only that were true," Lyon said breezily. "But any sort of mistreatment of the man who saved my guild certainly involves me."

"What? Gray was the one who saved your guild, not Jellal, and I'm not…I'm not mistreating him…."

"Gray wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Jellal," Lyon said. "Don't even try to argue against that - it's simple, and you won't be able to. And in regard to your treatment of him…does this man look like he's currently up for an interrogation?"

"Um…."

"That's what I thought," Lyon said, sniffing in a way that conveyed the utmost scorn. "This…nonsense… is deeply misplaced. Where was the magic council when Magnus was taking over Lamia Scale, hm? I don't seem to remember you helping much."

Jellal tried not to smile, and it kind of looked like Doranbolt might be trying not to cry.

"I, um-"

"Jellal, on the other hand." Lyon sailed onwards, and Doranbolt broke off into a kind of stunned silence. "He actually did something. When Gray - Fiore's one and only hope, I'm sure you know - was, well, brutally slaughtered, Jellal was willing to sacrifice his own life for the good of the nation."

"I didn't-"

"You didn't realize that?" Lyon waved a hand towards Jellal, waiting to continue until Doranbolt sheepishly turned towards him as well. "Look at him. Of course he was ready to sacrifice himself! He was in a coma! Which is exactly why he shouldn't be interrogated."

Jellal shuffled through a few potential responses and decided on just lying still and blinking as innocently as he could manage. Doranbolt looked vaguely ill.

"Well? What further harassment do you have for the national hero?" Lyon asked snidely. He crossed his arms over his chest, and somehow managed to look commanding even half-collapsed in a chair. Jellal was rather impressed.

"Well, after hearing the…testimony," Doranbolt muttered, now staring directly at his feet, "I don't see any evidence of wrongdoing."

"Thank you," Jellal croaked out as Lyon cleared his throat loudly.

"As it should be."

"I'll pass on my report to the council," Doranbolt told the floor. Without looking at either of them, he sidled towards the door, almost hitting his forehead on the jamb. He corrected and made it out the door, peeking back into the room right before he disappeared from view. "Um, thank you for your sacrifice."

He was gone so quickly that Jellal suspected he was using his teleportation magic, although he supposed Doranbolt could have just physically run away from Lyon. Either way, Jellal was relieved to see the back of him.

"Thank you," Jellal said, eyeing Lyon a little warily. He wasn't sure exactly what the Master of Lamia Scale was up to, and he wasn't quite ready to reveal the extent of his recovery.

"Oh, you can stop acting so ill," Lyon told him, waving a hand. "And no thanks are necessary. I'm…very glad that Gray is alive."

"Oh. Um…."

"Not to mention the rest of my guild. When I heard he was talking to you, this seemed like the least I could do. Please let me know if he ever bothers you again, alright? I doubt he will, but I'd be happy to testify for you or whatever else you need. And I doubt they'll talk to Wendy at this point, but I'm happy to do the same thing for her if that does end up coming up."

"Thank you, Lyon," Jellal said. If there was one thing he still felt woefully unequipped to navigate, it was the Fiore legal system. "Really, I mean it…."

"I said there was no need to thank me," Lyon said. "Apparently you won't understand without it spelled out for you, but I'm doing this because I'm trying very, very hard to thank you."

Natsu frankly wasn't sure how long he and Gray had spent in the hospital altogether. Even with frequent heals from Wendy and Shellia, he knew they'd both been very badly injured, and he didn't really remember a fair chunk of time after the fight with Magnus. He'd forgotten to ask how much time had gone by since all that. It must have been at least a week. It could have been longer.

But the time didn't really seem to matter. He had Gray back. He had enough time now that he could play with it, waste it, let it go. Individual days didn't matter so much, because he had more of them again. As many as he wanted.

He and Gray had gotten discharged from the hospital at the exact same time. They'd both been stabbed, so they'd been on a pretty similar recovery timeline. Gray had been doing a little worse to start with, and Natsu had gotten stabbed a little worse, but it had evened out in the end. Also, no one had wanted to separate them.

They'd been home for five days. The first day, they'd spent mostly sleeping. The second day, they'd spent mostly watching movies, holding hands, and eating soup that Freed had brought them. The third day, they'd spent mostly trying to figure out how they could make out with each other without aggravating any of their various wounds. The fourth day, they'd spent a little time trying to re-integrate Gray's pile of things from the corner.

Today, the fifth day, they were finally supposed to make their grand appearance back at the Guild Hall.

"How's your finger feel?" Natsu asked Gray. Gray was curled on their bed, watching Natsu slowly try to ease clothes over his layers of bandages.

The pinky was new since yesterday. Porlyusica had made one of her very rare housecalls to reattach it for Gray. Natsu had gotten so used to how he looked with four fingers that it was almost strange to see him with five.

Gray flexed it experimentally - he was clearly still getting used to it too. "Um, fine. Like I said, it doesn't hurt or anything. It's maybe just a bit stiff."

"Well, that seems good," Natsu said. "It's not gonna fall off or nothin', is it?"

Gray looked vaguely unnerved. "Aww. I hope not. That'd be gross. Plus, I wanna wear my ring again, and I feel like if my finger fell off it might fall off too."

Natsu watched Gray pull his ring off the chain around his neck and put it back on his finger. He smiled, wide enough that it almost hurt.

"Better, Popsicle?"

"Yeah, Natsu," Gray said, rolling his eyes, but he was smiling too. "Obviously."

"Ooooh, fighting already?" Happy asked, lazily flying in and flopping down into Gray's lap. "That sure didn't last long!"

"Shut up, Happy," Gray said, flicking Natsu's cat in the ear with the lightest possible force.

"Owwwww! Natsu, Gray's bullying me!" Happy vaulted across the room into Natsu, who'd luckily just finished pulling on his shirt.

"I think you're bullying Gray," Natsu said, putting Happy on his shoulder. There was a small tug as Happy wound his paws into Natsu's hair to hold on.

Happy had accompanied them home from the hospital, and he hadn't left since, only giving Natsu and Gray privacy when they specifically requested it. He was ostensibly there to help out with the cooking, and the cleaning, but Natsu knew his cat was mostly just worried about losing him. It wasn't like Happy could really cook or clean.

Natsu understood. It was nice to have Happy there, even if his main form of entertainment was following them around and being mean to them.

"Aren't you ready yet?" Happy asked, looking down at Natsu. "Erza and Lucy are gonna be here soon."

Natsu and Gray were doing better, but Natsu wasn't actually positive that they could make it all the way to the Guild Hall on their own. It still kind of hurt if he walked too far, or too fast, or sometimes just for no reason at all. He was sure that Gray felt the same way, and he had the added complication of losing his breath every few minutes. The doctors had said that his lung would heal better in time, but right now, it still wasn't very strong. He couldn't make it very far without having to stop for a rest, and Natsu was still too weak to help him much.

"We're tryin'," Natsu told Happy. "But they'll be fine waitin' for us. Got a big hero over there."

"Naaatsu," Gray moaned, blushing a little. "Stop it."

"The big hero should probably wear clothes," Happy pointed out.

"Oh." Gray looked down at his bandages (and nothing else) and frowned. "I guess."

"Does he have to?"

"Ew, Natsu! Gross!" Happy tugged on his hair, and Natsu giggled.

Gray pushed himself a little bit more upright on the bed, then frowned at the distance to the dresser. It was, unfortunately, even further to the pile of Gray's stuff, where a lot of his clothes had ended up.

"Need help?"

Gray waved an impatient hand, concentrating slightly on the requip Erza had finally (strongly) suggested he learn. Natsu didn't say anything, but it was good to see that Gray's magic power was back, at least most of the way.

Just in time to, because it was then that there was a knock on the door.

"Coming!" Natsu yelled, since yelling was definitely beyond Gray and someone needed to.

Natsu opened the door to Erza and Lucy, who both looked awfully excited for two people who were about to need to set foot in Natsu and Gray's disaster of a house.

"Hi!" Lucy said. "How are you guys feeling?"

"Loads better, thanks," Natsu said. "I don't even need the fancy pain medication they gave me anymore."

"And what about Gray?" Erza asked, peering around Natsu to get a look at him.

"I'm alright," Gray said, emerging cautiously from the bedroom. "It's nice to see you guys. Can we, uh, get you anything? We don't really have a lot, but, uh…."

Erza and Lucy exchanged a glance, and then started laughing way harder than Natsu thought the comment merited. He briefly questioned if they were making fun of Gray, but then decided that they seemed to be in way too good of a mood for something like that.

"No, that's alright," Lucy said. "Let's just get to the Guild Hall, alright? Everyone's waiting for you! You wouldn't want to keep them waiting too long, would you?"

"Ummm…no? I guess not," Natsu said. Privately, he thought that since they'd been waiting a few weeks to see Natsu and Gray in public again, it should be no problem for the rest of Fairy Tail to wait a little longer.

"I'm ready," Gray said. "Just can't walk that fast."

Getting to the Guild Hall was exhausting, but they'd expected that. Honestly, in most ways, the journey was smoother than Natsu could have guessed. Gray's breathing started getting ragged after about ten minutes, but they stopped to sit down for a while, and it evened back out much better than it had when they'd first gotten out of the hospital. Natsu's stab wound was achy and sore, and worse after walking, so he was sure Gray's matching one was the same. But aside from that, it actually felt really, really good to be up and moving around. Natsu had never liked sitting around too much, and his cramped muscles were thanking him for the exercise. Lucy and Erza didn't try to hurry them along or anything, which was nice. They just let them take as many breaks as they needed to.

"You guys still feel okay, right?" Lucy asked as they approached the Guild Hall.

"Actually, yeah!" Gray said, with more enthusiasm than Natsu had expected. He must be happy to be up and walking around too.

"Good," Lucy said, and exchanged another glance with Erza. "We're almost there."

"Yeah," Gray grumbled. "I can see it. I'm not blind, Lucy."

"Enough of your mouth," Erza said fondly. "Come along, boys."

She was walking a little fast for Natsu to keep up, but that was just Erza for you. He trailed along after her, grabbing Gray's hand as he did so. It was his left hand, so Natsu was a little extra careful, but Gray didn't seem to be in any pain. Natsu smiled to himself, relieved to be able to hold Gray's hand again without thinking about it.

"Here we are!" Erza stopped at the doors to the Guild Hall, beginning to sound vaguely impatient. "Everyone is waiting."

"Okay, we're here," Gray said, stopping at the top of the stairs and slumping over slightly as he tried to catch his breath. Natsu stood with him, rubbing his back and waiting for him to recover.

"Better?" Lucy asked sympathetically as Gray straightened up. He nodded, and she smiled.

"In we go," Erza announced, and she and Lucy each pushed one of the doors open. They stood to the side, holding them wide for Natsu and Gray. Happy flew ahead of them, and they walked into the Guild Hall for the first time in weeks.

It looked…different. All of the tables had been rearranged, pulled towards the sides to widen the central aisle that led up to the stage where Mira sometimes performed. That looked different too - the curtains had been parted, and the whole thing was decorated with flowers, garlands, and streamers. The lights in the room were lower than usual, but the space was filled with the warm glow of candlelight from each of the tables.

Natsu's first thought was that they'd happened to come back on the same day a concert was planned, which would be pretty cool as long as it wasn't Gajeel. But as he looked around the Guild Hall, that didn't seem like it was quite right.

The Hall was packed, fuller than Natsu could remember ever seeing it. When Erza had said "everyone," she must have really meant everyone. Natsu swore that every single member of Fairy Tail was crammed into the room, and as he was looking, he could see more than just his own Guild. Shellia was there, next to Wendy, and he could see a few more members of Lamia Scale as well.

From a table near the middle of the room, Lyon waved to him. Natsu waved back automatically, before he had time to wonder exactly what Lyon was doing there.

And that wasn't all. Natsu saw the rest of the members of Fairy Tail that had been off fighting Lamia Scale - Gajeel, Juvia, Cana…. Most of those people, Natsu hadn't actually seen since he'd been awake, since the number of visitors in his hospital room had been strictly limited. And that still wasn't it. Sting and Rogue and the rest of Sabertooth were off to one side, and he swore that looked like Blue Pegasus, and….

"Ummm, I don't get it," Natsu said, turning to Lucy. "What's going on?"

Lucy was beaming. "It's your wedding, silly. Your wedding to Gray."

"It's my…what?" Natsu was still really confused, but all of a sudden he found that his hand was in Gray's again, and that made everything instantly feel a lot more solid.

"Your wedding!" Erza said. Sometime in the last five seconds, she had requipped into a silky-looking purple dress, and her hair was in a fancy pile at the back of her head. "And afterwards, we will have a party in your honor to celebrate this joyous occasion."

"Erza," Gray said slowly, "Natsu and I have mostly been asleep. We didn't plan any sort of wedding."

"And you shouldn't have to! This wedding has been planned, paid for, and executed by Fairy Tail, with some assistance from your friends in other guilds of course. Don't worry about a thing. We've planned everything down to the very last detail. We have tuxedos waiting for you in the back, and all your favorite food and drinks have been provided. I even spoke to your doctors, and you're both allowed a few glasses of champagne. Although she did mention specifically that you were not allowed to overdo it."

"I wouldn't," Natsu said. He was still so overwhelmed that he wasn't even sure he sounded properly excited, but he hoped they understood. Natsu wouldn't be drinking too much champagne - he wanted to remember every detail of this night for the rest of his life.

Natsu turned back to Lucy, and realized that she had also changed - she was now wearing her Leo Star Dress. Loke had also appeared, wearing a full tuxedo. Natsu realized with a pang of guilt that he was still looking a little bit pale and thin, but he was grinning.

"Surprise!" Loke said. "This was Lucy's idea."

"Erza took over most of the planning, though," Lucy said mildly.

"We weren't sure if the original marriage was still legally binding," Loke said, "because of…you know, the situation afterwards. And even if it was, the rest of us still wanted to see it! You guys have been together for forever. No way you were making the whole Guild miss seeing you finally tie the knot."

"I-" Natsu broke off, swallowing past the lump in his throat. He looked sideways, towards Gray.

"It wasn't the same without ya," Gray answered, smiling wider than Natsu had seen in months. "Should have known you would have butted in."

"What are friends for?" Loke smiled back, putting a careful hand on Gray's shoulder. "Just so you know, your wedding present is-"

"Saving our lives," Natsu finished. "Yeah, we figured."

"What? No. I was going to say, I got Aquarius to help make all those ice statues of you and Gray on the tables. I asked Lyon, but he said it was tasteless."

Natsu peered towards the tables in the back, which did indeed appear to have scattered ice sculptures of him and Gray. He was fairly sure that one of them showed the two of them fighting Magnus, and even more sure that another of them would have been sexually explicit if it had been done better. It was perfect for Gray.

"Th-thanks," Natsu managed, suddenly afraid he was about to cry again.

"Are you going to be officiating again?" Gray asked Erza.

"Actually, that honor will go to Master Makarov this time," she said. "He wanted-"

"Stop moping and get married already!" That was Laxus, standing up to scream from halfway down the Guild Hall. Freed was next to him, yanking his arm and trying to get him to sit back down. "What's the hold up?!"

Natsu giggled shakily as Gray glared in Laxus's general direction. Everything was happening fast, but he couldn't think of a single thing he'd change. Except….

"Where's Jellal?" Natsu asked, turning towards Erza. "We can't do this without him. We wouldn't even be alive. Shouldn't we wait?"

"He says to get a move on too!" With that, Laxus let himself be yanked down by Freed.

As he sat back down, Natsu saw Jellal sitting with the two of them. He was still in a wheelchair, like he had been the last few times Natsu had seen him, and he seemed to be wearing pajamas with a bowtie around his neck. But Natsu could see that he was smiling even from here. He pulled on Laxus's arm, and the Dragon Slayer leaned over slightly to hear him.

"He says he put a bow tie on for this, so you guys better make it good! He's expecting tears!" Laxus bellowed.

Beside Natsu, Erza colored and shook her head. "Ever since he's started feeling better, he's been impossible. I'm sorry, Natsu. He's been released from the hospital, and now he's starting to get bored, and I really don't think we should have seated him next to Laxus."

Natsu didn't care. He was pretty sure that Jellal's wish would be granted, and that there would be plenty of tears. He already felt like crying himself, even though it was in a good way. He'd always thought he'd cry on his wedding day.

Natsu tugged on Gray's hand, and his fiance - soon to be husband - turned towards him.

"Hey," Natsu said. "Do you wanna get married?"

Gray's face lit up, and the lingering exhaustion and pain melted away with the force of his smile. "Let's do it. Let's get married."