Chapter Text
Lucy absolutely hated the cold. The freeze on Mt. Hakobe was like a chill that seeped into her bones and refused to leave, even weeks after she returned to Magnolia. Initially, she hadn’t understood why she needed to accompany Gray and Natsu on the job to retrieve the special herb from the snowy mountain until she remembered how much the two wizards fought when left alone.
Either one of them could have handled the job by themselves. As a fire wizard, Natsu was more than capable of braving the cold and collecting the herb and with Gray’s abilities as an ice wizard he would have not only been able to keep up with the cold but keep the herb frozen until it was brought to their client.
It would be an easy job for the two of them if it hadn’t been for their compulsive need to fight. That was the exact reason Lucy was there playing mediator instead of Erza, who was off on a job with Happy, Wendy, and Carla.
The blonde shivered for what felt like the thousandth time in the course of the hour they had been on the summit as she looked in front of her at her pink haired teammate. Natsu hadn’t spoken much in the last twenty or so minutes, an unusual feature coming from the typically loud dragon slayer. A glance at Gray informed her that he had also noticed the change in their teammate. While it concerned her, she wasn’t sure if it was something she should bring up just yet.
“How close do you think we are to this herb? I’m starting to lose feeling in my fingers.” Lucy’s complaint was less to motivate the two guys into moving faster than it was to get a reaction out of her suspiciously quiet teammate. Still, Natsu said nothing as he continued walking. He didn’t even look back at her to check if she was still following him like he usually did. Lucy shared a look with Gray who mirrored her concern.
“Hey Flamebrain, what’s up with you?” Regardless of his concern for his teammate, Gray couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his tone. Lucy almost wanted to smack the ice wizard for what he was saying, yet noticed that Natsu hadn’t reacted like normal. Natsu hadn’t reacted at all.
“Natsu? Is everything okay? You haven’t said anything in almost half an hour.” Now Lucy was beginning to get extremely worried. This was nothing like the Natsu she knew and she had no idea how to handle him like this.
“Whatever. Let’s just finish the damn job and deal with the idiot later, Lucy.” Gray stated in annoyance once he realized that they weren’t going to get through to Natsu. The ice wizard continued on in front of the blonde with a huff, pushing past the pink haired wizard without a second thought. The reward for this job wasn’t worth spending so long out there that Lucy would get sick, so the best option would be for them to finish the job as soon as possible and get off the mountain. Then they could focus on what was wrong with Natsu.
Natsu couldn’t recall ever feeling so strange in his life. Or so cold. As a fire mage, he never had to worry about getting cold or even getting too hot. His magic always kept him at a temperature that suited him just perfectly. However, that morning when he woke up he felt...off. At first, he couldn’t put his finger on it. He thought it was the fact that he was going on a job without Happy, but he didn’t think that was right. He and Happy had gone on separate jobs before and he hadn’t felt like...this. This felt like he was on edge but at the same time, it was like his senses weren’t as sharp as they should have been. Natsu almost wanted to back out of the job, but that would be admitting that something was wrong and he refused to do that.
As soon as they stepped on Mt. Hakobe, he realized that something was terribly wrong. Natsu, fire dragon slayer, son of Igneel, was cold. He felt the chill on his skin all the time but he never really felt it like he did now. He could feel this chill in his muscles and it felt unsettling. Uncomfortable. This was a feeling he wasn’t used to and Natsu didn’t know how to handle it.
That’s why he wasn’t talking to Gray and Lucy. He knew they were worried and while he appreciated it, he was embarrassed to admit this to them. Gray was an ice wizard used to dealing with the cold. Lucy, while not as adept to the cold as Gray, had more experience with than Natsu. Not to mention how often the fire wizard had teased Lucy over her complaints of the weather on the mountain had been quite excessive whenever they took a job there.
Internally, Natsu was thankful that Gray had a good head on his shoulders. He knew that the job was more important than what was wrong with him. Natsu has never been sick, doubted that even with his newfound coldness he would get sick just from being on the snowy mountain, but Lucy has been known to get sick easier than either of them. Getting her off the mountain sooner took priority over him. For them to do that, they needed to finish the job.
Finding the herb took a bit more time than they had hoped, with Natsu not being as talkative as usual. He would point them in general directions but nothing more than that, claiming the snow was throwing off the scent of the herb. In truth, his sense of smell wasn’t as great as it normally was and he was struggling to keep up with the scent of the herb like he would, had his body been behaving as it should have.
As soon as they did track the herb down, and fought off a bunch of Vulcans to get to it, Gray surrounded it in ice so it wouldn’t wilt as they took it down the mountain. From there, the three moved quickly towards the bottom of the summit. The longer they walked, the worse Natsu started to feel. He knew he should have said something, Gray and Lucy were his friends and would have understood that he didn’t know what was going on with his body, but he also knew that they would probably make fun of him for it as well as take care of him.
Along with feeling the chill in his muscles, he began to feel hot, and achy. Almost like he had just finished an intense workout or training. Yet the job wasn’t that difficult and, in fact, he hadn’t done much of the work. There wasn’t any reason he could think of that he should feel like this. Natsu paused and looked up at Gray and Lucy’s retreating backs. The two had been talking quietly since they found the herb and he wasn’t sure they were going to hear him.
“Hey, guys-” Natsu’s words were cut off by his world going black.
A sudden thud brought Lucy and Gray’s attention from their current conversation to the quiet mage that had been walking behind them. Only now he was no longer following them and was lying face flat on the ground.
“Natsu!” Lucy called out his name as she rushed to his side. Gray followed her closely behind after he made sure that the herb was safely tucked away in his bag. Lucy was trying to wake the unconscious dragon slayer to no avail.
“He’s completely out of it,” Gray stated once he got a good look at Natsu. His concern for the fire mage grew to new heights as he tried to figure out just what was wrong. “We need to take him to Wendy.”
Gray handed Lucy his bag to carry before he pulled Natsu onto his back. The train station was closer than their client’s house so he told Lucy to finish the job for them then meet him at the station. Gray would be able to get them tickets, having taken his wallet from his bag before giving it to Lucy, and look after Natsu until Lucy arrived so they could return home. Hopefully, by the time they returned, Wendy and Erza would have returned from their job as well.
Lucy hurried to their client’s house to turn in the herb and collect the reward. Thankfully for her, the client understood when she told him that the team was in a hurry to return to Fairy Tail and she needed to catch the train. When Lucy arrived at the train station, she found Gray easily enough sitting on one of the benches with Natsu laying next to him.
“Have you purchased tickets yet?” She asked when she approached him and the sleeping dragon slayer.
“Next train headed to Magnolia leaves in twenty minutes.” He replied with a slight nod. He would feel much better when they were on their way back to Magnolia rather than just sitting in the train station waiting, but he knew that there wasn’t much they could do there until the train was ready to depart. “Let’s get him boarded.”
It took a lot less effort to get Natsu on the train and situated than it should have, but after years of dealing with Natsu’s motion sickness both Lucy and Gray were quite used to handling the dragon slayer.
The train ride was quiet. Lucy and Gray had less to talk about than they did on the mountain, and talk of their worry for Natsu only seemed to make both more worried. Both mages were anxious to get back to Magnolia and get their friend looked at. Without the blue exceed around to make comments, the ride was even quieter than normal too, with made Lucy almost miss Happy’s constant poking at her.
“He’ll be okay, right Gray?” She asked quietly, looking down at where Natsu’s head was resting on her thigh.
“Of course he will. He’s Natsu. He’s too stubborn to let whatever this is take him down.” Gray had to believe that. Natsu wouldn’t let just anything bring him down. Still, his lips tugged down in a frown as he stared at his longtime rival with concern.
As soon as the train pulled into Magnolia station, Gray was up and pulling Natsu onto his back once more. Lucy immediately collected their belongings and followed the ice wizard off the train. Thankfully for them, the walk from the station to the guild hall was a short one, and when she opened the large doors for Gray to walk through them she was unable to keep from letting out a small sigh of relief when she saw Erza and Wendy at their usual table. Lucy immediately made her way to the two mages while Gray took Natsu to the infirmary, both of them ignoring the alarmed looks their nakama were giving them.
“Wendy, we need you to look at Natsu! Something’s wrong with him!” Lucy couldn’t keep the urgency out of her voice as she stopped in front of the small dragon slayer. Wendy was already standing and preparing to head up to the infirmary by the time Lucy had finished her sentence. With a soft smile, the small blue haired mage nodded before her expression turned to one of pure determination. Wendy moved past Lucy and made a beeline for the stairs leading to the infirmary to check on the fire dragon slayer.
“Lucy,” Erza called as she placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder to keep her from following after the younger dragon slayer. The redhead waited until she had the celestial mage’s attention before continuing. “What happened? I thought it was an easy job.”
“The job was easy. We completed it rather quickly but...Natsu was acting strange the entire time and when we let Hakobe he completely collapsed. And he hasn’t woken up since.” Lucy spoke quietly as she kept her gaze pointed away from everyone. “And when we were on the train...his skin was cold. It was as if his magic wasn’t working properly.”
Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes as the worry and concern Lucy had been holding in was finally released. Arms wrapped around her shoulders and she was pulled into an armor-clad chest as Erza held her in a tight hug. Through the tears that fell freely, a smile formed on her lips and the blonde mage clung to her friend’s arms like a lifeline.
No one noticed as Gajeel, the only other dragon slayer in the guild that afternoon, slipped away from the commotion and up into the infirmary.
Gray was still sitting with Natsu as Wendy rushed in. Immediately he backed away from the bed he had placed the fire mage in, though a part of him wanted to stay by his side. He frowned as the thought crossed his mind and he shook it off as nothing more than concern for his normally obnoxious teammate. Internally he knew, regardless of how much he wanted to remain by Natsu’s side Gray had to let Wendy work her magic on the pink haired mage. Otherwise, Natsu would never get better.
Wendy seemed to take her time looking over Natsu before trying a variety of different spells. As she worked, Gajeel slipped in and took a seat next to Gray silently. As curious as he was for the iron dragon slayer’s presence, he was more concerned about how quiet the smallest dragon slayer was being as she looked over their friend.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him…” Wendy said after a few more minutes of silence. She turned around and looked over at the two older mages with a sorrowful look. Gray knew not having the answers must have been hard on her as a healer.
“It’s alright, munchkin.” Gajeel’s tone was one that Gray had never heard from him before. It still had the roughness it usually held but was still soft in a way the ice mage was unaware Gajeel was capable of. “This is something that I doubt your dragon taught you how to heal because it can’t be healed.”
Gajeel stood up and walked over to the unconscious mage. Gray was tense as he prepared for the iron mage to potentially harm his friend. Instead, Gajeel laid a hand on Natsu’s forehead for a moment then nodded to himself.
“Gray, you and Lucy, and only you two, should take the fire idiot home and stay with him until he wakes up. Wendy, you should take Happy home with you and Carla.”
Whatever questions the two had, Gajeel had no plans of hearing them as he walked past the two of them and walked out of the room. The iron mage didn’t stop walking until he was outside the guild and away from the questioning gazes of his guildmates. As much as he appreciated them and cared for them, the last thing he needed was any of them knowing that he knew more about dragon nature than either Natsu or Wendy. As much as Metalicana may have taunted and angered Gajeel, he still taught the young man a lot about who he was to become. If only he or the other dragons had left them with more information, this whole thing would have been easier. Maybe, just maybe, the fact that Gajeel had already gone through finding his mate would be enough to help the flame idiot through this.
A small smile ghosted over Gajeel’s lips as he thought about his own mating. Levy had been a lot more receptive to him than he expected and he couldn’t have been any more thankful to her for that. When he first realized that she was his mate, he was nervous about telling her. Someone as intelligent and enthusiastic as Levy didn’t deserve someone who resided in the shadows like him. Yet she accepted him for who he was and took him as her mate even with his faults.
When Gajeel’s inner dragon had decided the slayer needed his mate his magic had stopped working properly and if it hadn’t been for Lily and Levy, Gajeel probably would have died on the job he had taken. Now, it was Natsu’s time to take his mate but Gajeel couldn’t be sure if it was Gray or Lucy who was making his body react like it was. That was something that if the fire dragon slayer didn’t know already, he would have to figure out on his own. Any sort of interference by the rest of their team would only hinder his recovery. Erza better understand that if she truly wants the best for Natsu.
“Gajeel said that?” Lucy asked the younger dragon slayer, surprise written all over her expression. Wendy had returned downstairs and informed the celestial mage of what the iron slayer had told them earlier before he left the guild.
“He was very specific that it be you and Gray who took Natsu home. And that you stayed with him...” Wendy trailed off as if she were thinking over what the older dragon slayer said.
“I would feel more comfortable if I accompanied them. Someone needs to watch out for them.” Erza injected as she stood from her seat. Natsu was like a brother to her just as much as Gray, and just as much as Lucy had become a sister to her. She refused to sit idly by while the three of them handled this without her.
“Apparently this has to do with his dragon slayer traits. I doubt Gajeel will tell us any more about it but he definitely wanted only the two of them there. I think it best we trust his judgment on the situation. From what I understand, Metalicana taught him more about dragon nature and culture than our dragons taught us.” Wendy trusted Gajeel’s knowledge when it came to the dragons, so if he said that whatever was plaguing Natsu was dragon related she believed him. “Let Lucy and Gray handle this as Gajeel believes they can. The last thing we need is anyone interfering in something barely any of us understand anything about.”
Gray, having caught the last bit of Wendy’s speech, was surprised by how quick Erza was to step down. Maybe it was because she wasn’t used to Wendy standing up to her like she was doing. Either way, it didn’t seem like Erza was going to be a problem for them.
The ice mage was careful to bring Natsu down the stairs, knowing that surely by this time everyone in the guild knew what Gajeel had asked of him and Lucy. It wasn’t that strange in reality to watch over Natsu, but Gray realized he had never spent much time at the fire mage’s home. Typically, they were always at Lucy’s.
Lucy held the door open for Gray as the ice wizard walked out of the guild and paused. However, his confusion on where to go didn’t last long as Lucy took the lead and began leading him towards Natsu’s home.
“If he wakes up and tries destroying anything it’s better to be away from the city. Plus I think he’d like it if he was in his own home rather than one of ours when he wakes up, don’t you think?” She explained when he asked why they didn’t go to one of their homes. Gray couldn’t deny that logic. Natsu could be quite destructive when he wanted to be, and even more so when he didn’t mean to be.
When they arrived at his house they could both tell just how little Natsu stayed there. The house was in serious need of some cleaning. Lucy sighed when she looked around before turning to Gray.
“If you put him in bed I’ll start on the cleaning. We should probably check to see if there is edible food in the kitchen too.” With a nod, the two split up and Lucy called Virgo out to help her clean the disaster Natsu called a home.