Good Intentions

Surrender

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters belong to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 7: Surrender

The return trip was uneventful. Erza was thrilled on how well her plan seemed to be working. Lucy was excited to be returning to Magnolia with enough jewel to pay her rent for the month. Natsu and Gray seemed a bit tense but Gray quietly handed Natsu another ice pack for the ride home. They both dozed off and awoke when the train conductor announced their arrival at Magnolia Station. When Gray opened his eyes he encountered the amused expressions of his two female teammates. He looked at them confusedly until he felt the unexpected weight on his lap. Somehow during the train ride Natsu's head had ended up on his lap and Gray's hand was on his forehead. He startled and Natsu opened his olive eyes slowly and looked straight up at him. Natsu jolted up and quickly exited the train. He could hear the girls teasing the ice mage behind him.

Natsu took off in the direction of the guild. That seemed like the safest place to go to avoid any serious conversation. At least for awhile longer. After what happened the previous night he knew what he had to do but he just wanted to pretend everything was normal for a bit longer. He stopped at the guild's front doors and took a deep breath to settle himself. He plastered a grin on his face and kicked the door in.

"I'm back!", Natsu mustered a somewhat cheerful yell as he walked in to the place he considered his home. His nakama gave him happy greetings in return. To no one's surprise he headed straight to the counter to order himself some lunch. The rest of his team arrived shortly after his food. They sat at their usual table, Natsu stayed at the counter to finish his meal.

Gray had been expecting the fire dragon slayer to join them when they sat down at their table but then again Natsu had been acting strangely since the end of their mission. He had not said more that five words when they had returned to their room the previous night and he had gone straight to bed. The morning had not gone much better. Natsu would respond when talked to but otherwise seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, occasionally Gray would catch the dragon slayer looking at him thoughtfully before glancing away without a word.

They all spent the rest of the day at the guild. Natsu went around catching up with people he had somewhat drifted away from since Team Natsu came to be: Cana, Macao, Lisana, Mira, Elfman. He finally settled down at a table with the other Dragon Slayers and Levy. Wendy caught him up on Happy's adventures while he was gone and he smiled at her and ruffled her hair gently.

"Natsu-san, are you ok?", Wendy asked him quietly.

He looked at her in surprise and said "Of course I am Wendy, why do you ask?"

"I don't know, you seem sad and you smell different.", Wendy looked at him with big eyes.

Gajeel looked at her and started sniffing the fire dragon slayer.

"She's right Salamander, you do smell different.", Gajeel straightened up and considered the Salamander.

"What do you mean, different how?", Natsu asked without much interest.

"I don't know man. You still smell mostly like you but there is also something different.", Gajeel shrugged, "It's probably nothing."

"Hey Iron Breath, gone on any interesting missions lately?", Natsu asked him.

Gajeel looked surprised by the fire dragon slayer's attention but regaled him with some of his more recent exploits. Natsu was soon laughing at some of the more outlandish claims and scoffing at what had to be flat out exaggerations. Gajeel was a pretty good story teller for someone who was usually so quiet. Levy had leaned in closer to the Iron Dragon Slayer as he talked and looked at him adoringly. Wendy smiled, content to see her two older "brothers" getting along for once. Eventually, the stories ended and Natsu finally felt ready to join his teammates at their table for his last night as an active member of Team Natsu.