Ice-Cold (Gruvia Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 18: A Hidden Darkness

I'm almost at twenty whole chapters!! This is craaazyyyy!! Chapter 18, everyone! Please enjoy! I'm trying to make time to write stuff in between classes, during classes, lunch... yeah I'm practically obsessed.

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. He owns all these characters, I only own a few and the plot.

No one spoke a word. They all just stared with wide-eyes in terror. Gray looked back with shaking eyes.

He was an ice wizard. If there was one thing he could take, it was the cold. But this time, his body went frozen. He felt unfamiliar chills run within him. He could barely sit still, he was slightly shaking.

Trying to keep calm, he clutched his necklace and squeezed it firmly. He held it in his hand and looked at it in fear. It was the sword necklace he had received from his Master Ur. He almost always wore it. It was just as important to him as Natsu's scarf he'd received from Igneel.

He grit his teeth and his eyes fell in his hair's shadow. "What does this mean?" he asked, so quietly, they barely heard him. Either way, they didn't know what to answer. Lucy looked down and bit her lip. Erza's mouth was a thin line, and a bead of sweat dripped down her face. Wendy had her hands covering her mouth in shock. Her pupils constricted greatly as her brown irises lightened. Happy's eyes were wobbling slightly, showing his fearful expression.

Natsu... looked as bloated as ever.

But this new discovery gave him a tiny bit of strength to sit up slightly. "It..won't be...true..." he panted. His friends all looked at him in surprise. They watched in awe as the struggling man slowly rolled off the passenger seat and landed with a thud on the floor. He was sweating so much, and his face was turning green. But even then, the fiery-hearted boy didn't give up.

Lifting himself sluggishly with his fingertips, he inched his way on the floor. The salmon-haired dragon slayer received strange looks, annoyed expression, face palms, and faces of confusion from other passengers. But from his comrades, he received nothing short of the proudest expressions. Erza looked down at the boy squirming his way to his nemesis. She smiled.

He kept pushing forward. Every move required tremendous effort on his part, and his stomach contents were coming up aggressively, but he continued. He groaned in discomfort, but at the same time determination. Inch by inch, he lay at Gray's foot.

Natsu lay panting in front of Gray's shoes. He was ready to pass out. Or throw up. Or both. The rosy-haired wizard held up his index finger as if to say 'One moment, please,' with his cheek still planted on the ground from strain and struggle.

With a moment of rest, Natsu raised his arm and put his hand on the bewildered stripper's knee. He then took his other and shakily placed it on his other knee. His hands in place, he hoisted himself onto the ice mage's lap, his head lying on him as he panted in exhaustion.

Gray, momentarily forgetting his fears, blinked as he stared at the boy on his lap. Their position at the moment looked very disturbing, and the passengers were now gasping. A lady even covered her child's eyes. But the group payed no heed. They watched with pride as they witnessed their friend fight for his life.

Through major willpower and drive, and a war with his stomach, Natsu was able to look up at his childhood enemy and give him a bloated face of seriousness. Gray looked back into his now purplish face and bloated cheeks.

Natsu landed his palms on Gray's rigid shoulders. He looked straight in his eye, and gave him his famous words of reassurance.

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