To Kill A Dragon

Outburst

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, Tiamat is loosely based on Tiamat from Forgotten Realms which Belongs to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The traits of the chromatic dragons have been altered to match the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail Universe.

Revised and edited June 27, 2019

Chapter 11: Outburst

Natsu sat at his usual table with the rest of his team. It was the first day he'd been allowed downstairs, and he'd promised to take it easy lest he be returned to the infirmary and Porlyusica's watchful eye. Natsu couldn't understand why the old hag had not yet returned to her tree house. He figured she was having too much fun torturing him.

Even though he'd spent more hours than he could possibly count in the guild hall over the years, Natsu suddenly felt anxious and restless for reasons he didn't understand. He looked at his friends but couldn't find any interest in their current topic of conversation. Something about a new shop that had opened recently.

He took a moment to steal a look at Gray, only to find him doing the same thing. Gray was looking at him, a question burning in his deep blue eyes, but instead of asking it, he looked at the girls and rolled his eyes at Natsu.

Natsu couldn't help but wonder what the ice mage wanted to know, but he found himself plastering a grin on his face in return.

"So, how are you feeling these days?" Gray asked him.

Natsu shrugged. "Well enough to resent being treated like an invalid. I want to go on jobs, but Gramps won't let me out of the building."

As soon as he said those words, Natsu began to feel antsy. He needed to move, to fight, anything to keep him from thinking. "Wanna spar? It feels like forever since I've done anything active."

That wasn't entirely true. Porlyusica had been forcing him to do all sorts of exercises to strengthen his healing bones, but none of those were fun.

Gray felt terrible for his friend, but there was no way that he would fight Natsu in his current condition. "Not really, I'm feeling kind of tired right now." He lied.

Natsu pouted but let it go for now. He didn't really know how that would have gone anyway. A part of him wanted to beat up the ice mage for all the pain his doppelganger had put him through. Then there was another part of him that could no longer deny that he wanted something more.

Every time he looked at Gray, he would remember how it felt to have those cold lips on his. When he saw Gray's hands, he could remember how they'd felt touching his body, how his fingers...

No, he couldn't allow his mind to go there. Everything to do with Gray right now was just so damn confusing. It made his soured his mood just thinking about it. Which is why he took it upon himself to piss off Gajeel when the Iron Dragon Slayer came over to see how he was doing.

"They finally let you come downstairs, huh?" Gajeel asked affably, "The old hag finally get sick of your whining?"

Natsu got up and punched Gajeel's jaw, hard. Gajeel gaped at him in surprise.

"What the hell was that for Salamander?"

"That was for forcing me to do something I didn't want to do," Natsu replied testily. "And this is for looking so damn pleased about it."

He followed the first punch with another to Gajeel's gut and turned to walk away. Gajeel doubled over for a second, not having been expecting the assault.

Everyone in the guild was staring at the two of them in shock, the air so still it almost seemed like everyone stopped breathing while they waited for Gajeel to respond.