A Different Outcome (HIATUS, BEING REWRITTEN)

Chapter 15: 'Too Far'

It has now been a week and a half since their job at that village. Cobra and Natsu hadn't been acting as they usually do around each other. The ride back to Magnolia from the village was silent. Though Natsu's motion sickness was nullified, he only sat and stared out the window the entire time. Cobra how ever took things to the extreme and resided on top of the Magic Four-Wheeler. They tried getting him down but, his exact words to them were 'If I can ride a snake that flies, Then I can ride a vehicle while sitting here on the top. They eventually gave up and left him.

Team Natsu, besides Natsu and Cobra were now sitting at a table in the Guild. The two were nowhere to be seen today. "Its already 3 o clock.. I'm getting worried about those two." Lucy said as she took another look at her watch. Erza agreed as she looked towards the double doors. "Natsu doesn't usually not come to the guild for an entire day.." Gray had a blank look on his face. "They must be still avoiding each other by staying away from the guild.. Maybe we should go look for Natsu." The two girls glanced at Gray before agreeing. "He's right.. Let's go look for them." As if on cue, Happy burst threw the doors and flew towards them. "Erza! Lucy! Gray! Please come and help!" Lucy caught the crying exceed and held him to her chest to comfort him. "Shhh Happy, calm down. What happened?" He calmed down as soon as possible and spoke. "Natsu and Cobra are fighting! And they're gonna burn and poison all of my fish!" The three were silent. "... Is that all you're concerned about?" "Forget that. We have to stop them. Natsu doesn't know the meaning of holding back and I doubt Cobra does either! Let's go!"

They ran as fast as they could to Natsu's house, that was just on the outskirts of town. As they neared there, a fiery explosion was heard and seen. "He really isn't going easy over there!" Lucy said as she ran, making the other two speed up.

Erza and Gray were the first to arrive at his house and saw, the inside was in shambles. Everything was thrown about or broken. Anyone could tell there was a serious fight in here. "Where did they go already?" Before Erza could even think of where they went, another explosion resounded nearby. "There!" Gray pointed towards where the blast came from and they began running again. Lucy caught up eventually and they finally found Natsu and Cobra in the forest. The two were beaten up, a few streaks of blood on both. "What are you two doing!?" Lucy panicked, but got ignored as they continues their clash. "You guys.. Give it a rest!!" Erza got in between them, making them stop. "Don't get in my Erza!" Cobra hissed, venom laced in his already angry voice. He definitely wasn't gonna let her interfere. "Erza?! What are you doing here?" Natsu asked, but never got an answer. Cobra shoved Erza out of the way and the two Dragon Slayers began fighting again. Everyone was now terrified. "How... Dare... YOU!!" Erza got up, furious and was about to jump and 'Murder Them' as she thought, but Lucy stopped her. "Erza! Calm down.. I'm sure there's a good explanation for this!" She struggled to keep a hold on her, but succeeded somehow. "Gray!" Gray nodded and went in to stop the fight. "That's enough you two!" He separated them and had a firm hold on Natsu. Cobra was grabbed and held by Loke, who was summoned by Lucy. "Now now. Fighting like this and making Lucy sad-" "Loke don't even start now!" She interrupted, now letting Erza go since she calmed down.

"Now.. What is wrong with you two? Why are you fighting?" Lucy asked calmly, hoping to get a calm answer. "You know fighting is the only thing that circulates through his dam brain." Natsu began struggling to get free. "You're the one who started it! Poison bastard!" "ENOUGH!" Erza punched them both on their heads, getting them to be quiet. "Now. I want an explanation. And a good one!" Natsu pouted and looked away.

"Well..." Cobra started, gaining all of their attention. "Its obvious he's been avoiding me for whatever reason.. So I actually tried talking to him about it.. And as you see, it resulted in this shit."

Flashback ~

It was now morning and Cobra had gotten up later than usual. He was surprised to see that Natsu was still home, asleep. For the past days he's been getting up early, leaving him alone then coming in and going straight to sleep. He had the feeling that he was avoiding him for whatever reason and decided to finally talk it out, though he'd rather not too. The clock in the room now read 11am so Cobra decided to wake Natsu up. "Hey, Natsu. Wake up." He shook him for a while until he finally woke up. Mumbling out a morning, Natsu got up and went straight for the shower. When he came out fully dressed and ready to leave, Cobra stopped him. "I think its time we talked.. Ever since that little incident at that village, you barely said a word to me.. Its as if you're ignoring me; Fuck did I do?" He blurted out, surprising Natsu. Cobra hadn't even realized that he had cursed, it bothered him so much that he did so without meaning to. "Spit it out! I wanna know what the hell is wrong! I didn't do anything wrong, so why...?" He walked in front of him, and Natsu looked at him with a straight face. "Nothing is wrong. I'm being my usual self poison breath. I spend my day at the guild then hit the sack." "Natsu you're lying.. Did me telling you about your recklessness really bother you that much!? Its fucking advice for crying out loud!" And there's Natsu's angry trigger. "Will you shut up!? You always act as if you're better than other people! Just because you can 'hear' shit before it happens doesn't make you an expert in fighting! I could have handled myself, I didn't need your dam help!" He was left speechless. "... Is that it? Is that why you've been avoiding me? Because you're angry? Pathetic." Cobra turned off and walked into the backroom. Natsu followed him, shouting. "And what does that fucking mean!?" "Just what I said.. That's pathetic. Getting angry because I helped you? Because I saved your fucking life? Maybe I should have left you too die." Cobra turned around, wearing on of his most emotionless expressions. "I know I'm no expert in battle, but I'm not far from it. And I plan how I'm going to fight. I don't just rush in recklessly. That's a fools way of fighting." "I'll show you a fool!" Natsu lunged towards Cobra and punched him in the jaw, Cobra retaliated by punching back in the stomach. "You wanna go!? Fine! It'll be just like last time Natsu!" "We'll see about that Cobra!"

End of Flashback ~

They stood there silent, not exactly sure what to say. "And that's why we were fighting. That stupid cat just had to get in the way." Natsu looked to him angrily. "You could can say what you want, but don't call happy a stupid cat! Thanks to him your ass didn't get beaten down!" Cobra scoffed. "You're lucky they showed up when they did, or you'd be extinct just like your dragons!" He hot a sore spot, which made Natsu thrash about again. "They are not extinct! Take that back!" "I guess you're right. Since Acnologia showed up years ago, but then again... Must have sucked being abandoned by your parent." Cobra started playing some serious hard ball. "Cobra! That wasn't--"  Natsu looked at him dead in the eye. "It must have sucked being a slave most of your life! Only to turn out being a dam hated criminal!" "Natsu! That's enough!" Erza shouted at him and threw a sword that was only a centimetre away from his feet. Cobra was silent, and honestly a little surprised. He expected some kind of comeback, just not that one.

"I guess you're right. After your dragon left you you joined Fairy Tail.. And life has been just fine for you. On the other hand I've been a slave for most of my child life and part of a dark guild. My life has been anything but great... I doubt it even has meaning now." Natsu looked surprised at him, he then realized what he said. True, his dragon did abandon him but he still had a great childhood and life at Fairy Tail, while Cobra suffered.

"You got your reason. I'm just about done here. Let me go." Loke had let him go, Cobra began walking away. '... What did I just do.." He thought as he watched Cobra walk away, he heard it, but had nothing to say. In no time he was out of sight. The other three stood there, Lucy was going to go and try to cheer him up, but Erza stopped her saying that he needs to be alone. Natsu was quiet, Gray carried him back in his house and Lucy and Erza left.

Cobra was now walking through the town. He decided to go somewhere else for the time-being and cool off. He had a few bruises and his arm was bleeding, but not too serious. He earned a few stares but ignored them as usual, but then. A little boy came up to him. He looked around 6 or 7, had brown spiky hair and medium sized dark brown eyes. "Hey mister are you okay? You're hurt." The boy pointed to the cut on his arm that was bleeding just a bit but cover it with his hand. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it." The boy looked at him before asking a question. "Can I give you a hug?" "W--What?! Why?" "Mommy always gave me hugs when I was hurt and it helped me feel better. So maybe I could give you one..?" Cobra didn't know what to do.. There were people watching and he didn't want to cause a scene, and the boy seemed harmless. "Alright then.." Cobra kneeled down and hugged the boy. He hugged him back and smiled. "How does it feel now?" "Better.. It doesn't hurt anymore." He wore a small smile which made the boy smile widely. "Yay! I'm going back to mommy now. What's your name?" "Erik." He replied and the boy told him he was named Saito before running off. Cobra waved at him until he was now out of sight. "I can't help but notice... My arm has really stopped hurting me..." He watched the little boys retreating figure and thought 'Cute Kid.'

Gloom gloom gloom and fighting. God this chapter pained me to write. ;-; but I got it down! And I made a little boy because, why not? Lol. Hope you enjoyed it. :D