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That day had started as any other day in Fiore's most famous guild and when Erza left to fulfill a solo SS-class quest, Natsu wasted no time in provoking Gray until they were both tumbling across the tables fighting. Between curses, punches and pushes, some tables ended up destroyed, some beer mugs were in pieces on the floor and some wizards ended up being dragged into the chaos.
The situation lasted until Mirajane finally got tired of the mess and yell so loudly that made everyone stop immediately. Despite her sweet appearance, Mira was anything but soft and after threatening to tell Erza what the two slayers had done, the demon mage ended up suggesting that they spend the accumulated energy by running to the peak of Mount Hakobe.
Agreeing that it would be a good idea, the two of them left the guild arguing who would win the race. After the early morning commotion, the day went on more peacefully in the guild until closer to the end of the day when the entrance doors slammed loudly against the side walls.
“Call the old hag NOW!!” Natsu yells as he enters through the open doors and all the guild members stop what they’re doing when they see the fire dragon slayer almost fall down the steps to the landing. In the deafening silence where all that could be heard was the pinkette’s labored breathing, Lucy held her breath in distress and Juvia screamed in sheer terror as she suddenly stood up from her chair.
Seemingly waking up from a stupor, Laxus gets up from the chair where he was sitting next to Makarov and approaches the entrance, accompanied by Freed to help. Natsu, upon seeing the blond approaching, finally weakens and falls to his knees. He was panting and all sweaty from the run there and Gray's body almost falls from his trembling arms.
The devil slayer was unconscious in his arms, blood dripping down Natsu's scaled scarf that was wrapped tightly around his abdomen and the pinkette's robes were also dripping with blood that wasn't his.
Without even thinking twice, Laxus picked up the cold body while Freed and Lucy helped the pink haired mage get up as well. As they prepared to head towards the infirmary, Jet enters the guild doors breathlessly, bringing Poluscka with him to help.
“To the infirmary now!” The medical mage orders when she sees the condition that Gray is in, she’s almost running in front of the group, and they follow her closely. Juvia had joined them and was whining trying to get to Gray at all costs.
When he sees the stretcher ready for the ice wizard, Laxus doesn't take long to put the young man on the bed and the doctor immediately begins to work her magic on his body in order to completely stop the bleeding. “What happened Natsu? Weren’t you guys just going to climb Mount Hakobe?” Laxus asks confused.
“Vulcans…” The pinkette whispers the explanation without taking his eyes off the abnormally pale, almost translucent tone on the ice mage’s face. “We were going up that steep area where you have very little room to walk and it was very windy and snowing a lot, but we decided to continue anyway. From one of the safe areas higher up, three Vulcans launched themselves to attack us. One of them fell on top of Gray and hit him in the head with his fist, he lost consciousness and fell down the ravine.” Natsu explained shakily and finally sat down on the chair next to the bed without the strength to stand any longer.
Although the bond no longer trembled as the other's life was no longer in immediate danger, there was still a certain emptiness caused by the devil slayer's lack of conscience. “I jumped in right after him to help, but by the time I got to the bottom of the hill the damage was already done, and the Vulcan was on its way to attack him. When I killed the Vulcan, I went straight to try to help, but Gray was still passed out and impaled on one of the many wooden stakes that these monsters spread across the mountains.” He finished explaining, leaving out some details that he wouldn't be able to tell at that moment without bursting into tears.
“Stop it girl and step back I’m trying to work!” Their attention was drawn from the report Natsu was giving to Poluscka when she finally lost her patience with Juvia.
The water mage was kneeling on the other side of the bed, almost pushing the doctor away just to try and hug the devil slayer's icy body by the chest. Lucy was trying to help push her away without much success.
Seeing that the blue haired girl was partly preventing Gray from being helped as quickly, Natsu feels like he has finally reached his limit and just gets up in a violent movement. The chair he was sitting on fell backwards and unable to control his ferocious growl, he moves towards the water mage like a predator and push her away by her clothes.
“Get your hands off him!” The dragon slayer spoke while growling protectively. “Didn’t you hear what the old witch said?” The pinkette was glared at her fiercely from above and Juvia just broke down crying uncontrollably again yet again.
"But! Gray-sama needs to feel the love of his Juvia to get better!"
“Gray doesn’t belong to you… He’s not an object to belong to anyone!” Natsu growled again, very close to losing control. He was already fed up with the water mage's uncomfortable advances on his mate and this was not the ideal time for her to put his protective instinct to the test, even though she didn't know they were together. “What the idiot needs right now is medical attention…”
“And a blood transfusion. He lost a lot of blood, and his heart is almost pumping only air.” Poluscka explains as she continues to use her magic to finally close the wound. Luckily the stakes were not very wide and the wound, despite going through the body, did not have a very large diameter. “I just hope he can handle me going to the hospital to get blood that matches his.”
“You can use mine… I’m compatible with it.”
"Did I by any chance spoke Chinese you brainless dragon? Since when are you compatible? Unfortunately, no one in the guild is!" The medical mage scolded impatiently because of the apparently stupid answer but ended up raising an eyebrow when she saw the dragon slayer's serious and strange expression. This indicated that he was serious and there would only be one reason for such a thing. Happy, who was quiet and still sitting at the foot of the ice make wizard’s bed, just looked at his human companion in an almost indecipherable way, something that was strange from both of them.
Natsu knew that there was no time to waste and deciding that the devil slayer's life was far more important than their secret, he simply chose to take off the bloody shirt he was still wearing, leaving a distinct mating bite visible at the junction of his shoulder and neck.
“We are a mated couple… We share a mating bond and when we marked each other our blood joined. Right now, there’s no one in the world more compatible with him than me.” The dragon slayer finally explained without looking at anyone. The smell of surprise and a certain disbelief hangs in the air around him, and the momentary silence almost foreshadows a storm. Suddenly the unpleasant odor of jealousy and envy invades his nose, and he looks crookedly at Juvia who stares at him strangely until she stands up abruptly.
“That’s a lie! Gray-sama belongs to Juvia! Only Juvia loves Gray-sama as he deserves.” She screams wildly, approaching Natsu and started punching his chest without much force while crying loudly. All her shouting caught Gajeel's attention, and he quickly entered the infirmary followed by Levy and Lily.
Natsu just took a deep breath feeling shaky with emotions. He didn't want to do what he was going to because he adored Juvia, just as much as Gray adored her too. They knew that telling her they were together would create an awkward situation and for that very reason the two slayers had chosen not to tell anyone, at least so soon.
Suddenly his body seems to pulse and dark red scales appear on the sides of his face, arms and torso, as well as black markings. His hair lengthens slightly and gains a reddish tone mixed with the salmon pink and becomes slightly darker. The fangs in his mouth also become noticeably larger and his normally dark green eyes seem to lighten and take on a slightly amber hue, making them almost exotic.
“That’s enough Juvia.” He mutters in a warning growl as his protective instincts were at their peak from having been so close to losing his mate. Natsu was controlling himself with all his willpower to not attack the girl in front of him.
“IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR GRAY-SAMA TO BE TOGETHER WITH YOU NATSU-SAN!” Juvia screams trying to go around him to get to the dark-haired wizard resting on the bed. "YOU ARE THE END AFTER ALL! HE WOULD NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU, YOU MONSTER!"
Feeling almost rejected by Juvia's cruel words Natsu, unable to contain himself any longer began to growl at her in a territorial and aggressive manner, grabbing the blue-haired girl by the arm to not let her get any closer to Gray while staring furiously at the hatred in her eyes.
“You will not get closer to him Juvia… EVER!” His voice sounds strange and deprived of any emotion other than pure rage and the other two dragon slayers decide they need to intervene if not the fire dragon might kill her.
“Juvia! Stop it!” Gajeel didn't take long to grab Juvia, pulling her away from Natsu when he saw her get into an attack position in front of the fire dragon slayer who just stared at her with an arched eyebrow and letting out warning growls.
He wasn't going to tolerate it any longer and from his defensive body language the other two already knew that Natsu was entering a state where he would actually kill the young woman just for her breathing near where his mate was fighting for his life.
"I didn't catch this from the beginning, but they've been together for a few weeks now. There's nothing you can say or do that will change that. Let's go." The iron dragon slayer decides while looking at the other dragon slayer in front of him and gives him a half smile when he sees his curious look.
“Now that the drama is over… Gray needs blood.” Poluscka grumbles in annoyance with the blood transfusion material ready to use and approaches the pink-haired slayer who just sighs and stares at the current guild master. The blonde let out a disgruntled groan as he scratched the back of his neck as he knew he had to go make sure Juvia didn't do anything stupid.
Natsu lifted the chair off the floor and sat back down next to the bed so the doctor could start the blood transfusion. His eyes studied his mate's pale face intently, his breathing was still weak and slow, and his lips still had a purplish hue to them.
Now that the infirmary was silent and without that heavy atmosphere, Happy went to the head of the bed and lay down leaning against the devil slayer's dark hair, making Natsu smile slightly.
When the pink-haired doctor finished getting everything ready and walked away from him, Lucy took the opportunity to approach Natsu and sit in the other chair next to him. “I thought I had eliminated all demonic traces from the book.” She murmured, staring at the exotic eyes that just stared back at her now calmly and clearly tired.
“In fact, you only eliminated the life connection between me and Zeref, as well as the influence that the demoniac seed had on me.” He explained after a few seconds of silence and finally looking worried at his mate again. “When the two of us went to Alvarez after the war, it was to understand my past and try to find a way to recover my childhood memories. It turns out that I still lived a few years as END with my brother before having my memories erased and being sent to the future, in the hopes of defeating Acnologia.”
“I understand, but later you have to explain it to me better Natsu because I'm curious…” She responds with a small and somewhat sad smile. Hearing another scream from Juvia, the two jump back startled in annoyance and sigh together, until they start laughing.
“That’s ridiculous. That’s why we haven’t told anyone yet.” The pink haired one grumbles.
“Let’s take care of your wounds, there’s no point in donating blood when you’re hurt too.” Poluscka speaks showing the disinfectant and after cleaning some cuts that Natsu has on his face and hands, she returns to the ice make wizard to bandage the cuts he had on his left arm.
The minutes pass mostly in silence as they wait for the transfusion bag to fill up a little more. “Okay, that’s good for now. Someone will bring you a meal with plenty of meat and in a few hours we’ll see if you’re fit for another transfusion. He's out of immediate danger now, but I'll stick around at the guild in case anything urgent happens.” The medical wizard finally left the infirmary without saying anything else and Lucy ended up getting up as well, suddenly feeling like she didn't belong there.
“Well... I will try and take Juvia for a walk with me to see if she calms down a bit. Try to get some rest okay?” She hugs the pink haired boy feeling a little strange and then carefully picks up Happy, taking him with her. Natsu was finally alone with his mate and a sigh leaves his lips as he squeezes his hands together really hard and the tears don't take too long to come.
“Fuck… You idiot! I almost lost you today over a stupid dare.” The dragon slayer sobs amidst his tears and finally allows himself to kneel on the floor next to the bed and rests his forehead on the cold hand, giving it a gentle caress with his lips. He let himself stay like that for a while, but when his legs went numb, he sat back in the chair and leaned on the bed, laying his head close to the other wizard to feel his scent.
A few hours later Lucy, Laxus and Wendy entered the infirmary accompanied by Poluscka only to find the pink haired dragon still sitting in that chair, leaning clearly in an uncomfortable way over the bed and with the other's arm protectively around him. Even though he was unconscious, Gray had felt that Natsu was next to him and had put his arm around him.
“Natsu… Wake up.” The blonde called softly, lightly shaking her best friend's shoulder. He woke up startled and raised his head looking around confused.
“Oh! Okay! It’s you guys.” Natsu mumbles with his voice a little rough from waking up as he rubs his eyes with one hand and straightens up in his chair. Happy jumped from the blonde's lap onto the bed and sat down again next to the devil slayer's head.
“How is he doing?” The pink haired doctor asked as she approached to take the injured wizard's temperature, as well as to check his pulse and wounds.
“It doesn't seem likely for him to wake up anytime soon, but his heart is no longer struggling. His breathing has finally stabilized, and his body temperature has risen enough that he doesn't feel like a block of ice.” Natsu replied immediately and the doctor upon confirming this, ends up nodding her head in approval.
“What about you? How do you feel? Can you give some more blood?”
“I’m fine, you can take care of it right away.” With the dragon's confirmation, Poluscka began a new blood transfusion and while they waited in silence a knock was heard on the door and Gajeel entered in the infirmary with Levy.
“Juvia is a little quieter now, but she’ll need a few days away from here. Let’s go out with her on a quest.” The iron dragon slayer shows the request paper to Laxus who sighs in relief and confirms letting them go. “And how’s your mate?” He asks the shorter dragon slayer who just looks at his blood flowing towards the transfusion bag before it went slowly to the ice mage's body.
“He’s better, at least he’s not dying anymore.” Natsu says looking at the still pale face. Gajeel approaches him and shyly pats his shoulder twice and squeezes lightly showing his support. All of them, apart from Wendy who was still young, had mates and the thought of their mates being as close to death as Gray had been, was terrifying to say the least.
“The idiot is tough, like his mate… Everything will be fine. When we get back, you’ll be fighting downstairs like always.” Gajeel speaks abnormally understanding and calmly before finally walking away as he waves goodbye and guides his mate out of the infirmary.
“I’m going home, now that everything is under control. Do you want to come with me today Happy? When I left earlier with Juvia, I went to buy a huge fish at the market just for you.” Lucy suggests smiling and the exceed gets up excited by the proposal and after receiving the positive nod from the fire dragon slayer, he didn't take long to jump into the blonde's arms.
“Thanks Luce.” Natsu speaks to her softly and with a grateful smile and she smiles back at him.
“See you tomorrow Natsu.” With that the blonde finally left, leaving only the medical mage and the blonde dragon slayer in the room with the two of them.
“Well, that will do. He should be waking up in a few hours, so call me if you need. I’ll head back to my office.” Poluscka removes the catheter from the pink haired boy's arm and let the transfusion finish on its own and after some final recommendations she simply leaves.
“I swear I don’t understand how you guys let this happen?” Laxus questions, the look of confusion never leaving his face. Both Natsu and Gray were extremely powerful wizards and one of them literally almost dying over a stupid thing was worrying to say the least.
“We have to investigate the mountain thoroughly… Those weren’t normal Vulcans and unfortunately, we were distracted.”
“Okay, Bickslow and Ever will go see what's going on but when Gray gets better, I want a proper and detailed report of what happened.” Without saying anything else, the new guild master left the infirmary and the pink-haired teen just grumbled angrily, returning to lay his head on the bed next to the devil slayer’s arm. Natsu went back to sleep after some time and just like that the night passed quickly. When the dragon slayer woke up, it was to the feeling of the gentle touch made by the familiar cold fingers through his unruly hair.
“Good morning snowflake.” Natsu greets in a pained and sleepy whisper, rubbing his face lazily against the sheets and receives a smile in response after the brunette yawns.
“What happened? I just remember us being attacked all of a sudden.” Gray asks hoarsely, his throat scratchy and dry from dehydration. Natsu sighed and gave him a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. Gray raises an eyebrow in concern, both because Natsu was in his normal form and not hiding his dragon characteristics, and because he feels the sudden terror and panic leaking from the bond they shared. He became even more distressed when he felt the avalanche of negative feelings that the pink-haired man was feeling, especially when he saw and smelled the tears that were forming uncontrollably in the older demon's eyes.
“You almost died in my arms, I…” When his voice breaks down from sobs he stops talking, overcome with emotion at finally having those dark blue eyes fixed on him. He takes a deep breath, staring at him as the devil slayer's hands hold his face tenderly. Gray had sat up slowly, tormented by the state Natsu was in, even though his abdomen felt extremely tender.
“Was it that bad?” He speaks in a low voice, placing his hand over the bandage where he felt some pain. Feeling the full intensity of what Natsu was feeling left him alarmed and he didn't know how to help him.
“When the Vulcan hit you, you fell down the ravine already out. The snow and trees broke your fall for a bit, but when you landed you got impaled on one of those stupid stakes. Before I could help you, I had to kill the Vulcans, and only then was I able to release you. Your heart stopped suddenly, and I had to do compressions for a while until I revived you before I could bring you back to the guild.”
"Fuck..." The devil slayer growls, upset with himself for having let such thing happen, but his serious look softens a little when he notices Natsu's watery eyes staring at their joined hands. Without wasting time and calmly Gray adjusts himself on the bed to be able to better reach the pink haired one and carefully holds his chin, making him to look in his eyes.
Natsu raised his gaze to the brunette and his eyes, so tired, lived-in and at the same time so innocent, made the devil slayer fall in love with him all over again. Gray calmly approached the other to kiss him on the lips while tangling his fingers in the unruly strands, as he knew Natsu liked.
“It’s okay now, we’re both here and you managed to save me yet again. Arigatou Natsu.” Gray whispers out of breath against his lips when they finally pull away a little so that they could breathe. The dragon slayer blushes a little and ends up giving a relieved smile to his partner, hugging him carefully and placing his ear against his strong chest in order to listen closely to the beating of his heart.
“Love you Snowflake…” Natsu whispers as he purrs, finally feeling calmer after everything that happened the day before.
“Love you too Sunshine.” Gray murmurs back in an equally relaxed purr as he pulls the other closer to him in a hug.