To Kill A Dragon

Mates

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.

Chapter 12: Mates

Edited and revised July 02, 2019. I broke up Natsu's narrative and added more reactions which I think improved the chapter overall. It feels less flat to me now. I hope you enjoy the changes.

Gray and Natsu were currently locked in Master Makarov's office. They'd gone up there with Gajeel, but once Makarov realized what role Gajeel had played, he'd let him return downstairs. He'd then told the two mages in no uncertain terms that they were not to leave his office until they had hashed out their issues.

Gray once again presented his hands, and Natsu slapped them away absently. "Stop that."

"What then? I don't know what the hell else to do anymore. I've tried keeping my distance, I've tried saying I'm sorry. Nothing I do gets through to you." He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

"Just give me a minute, I'm not good with words."

Gray snorted. That was one hell of an understatement.

Natsu looked at him with annoyance. "Did it ever occur to you that I wanted to get hit by Gajeel? I was the one who started that fight."

"But why? I thought the two of you were getting along a lot better these days."

"We are. Look, I was mad at myself for the thoughts I was having," Natsu tapped his fingers nervously on his thigh as he tried to avoid Gray's confused gaze.

"I just..." Natsu sighed as he realized he would have to be honest. It was the only way he could hope to fix the hole he'd dug for himself.

"I wanted to feel like I was in control of something that was happening to me. That's something I haven't felt since I was captured. When you got in the way of that, it seemed like you thought I couldn't hold my own anymore. Like...like you thought I was weak."

Gray opened his mouth to protest, but Natsu shook his head, indicating he wasn't done.

"That really hurt, and it brought back some memories I didn't want to deal with. I just wanted to make you mad Ice Block, I didn't want you to act like this."

Natsu peered at Gray, trying to weigh his reaction, and although he still looked ready to protest, his eyes remained as guarded as always. All Natsu could do was wait for his reply.

"That's not why I stopped him, you idiot. I don't think you're weak at all, I've never thought that, regardless of what I might say when we trash talk." Gray looked uncomfortable and given their usual dynamic Natsu wasn't surprised. "You may not see this right now, but you're one of the strongest people I know."

Natsu looked down at his feet, while it was nice to hear the words he couldn't relate to them, not with everything that had happened.

"I don't know many people that would've been able to survive what happened to you." Gray stopped talking, and the silence caused Natsu to look up to see what was happening, only to be assaulted by the fierce determination in Gray's eyes.

He was even more surprised by the gentle tone of Gray's next words, "Look, I know it won't be easy but maybe if you tell me what really happened with the other me...maybe we can get past this. I know you left stuff out, I'm not stupid."

Natsu laughed, his bitterness palpable. "I don't really think that will help."

"It can't possibly make it worse," Gray argued, "I might never have come out and said this before, but you're my best friend, I don't want to lose that just because some bitch wanted to take your magic. Stop trying to protect me."