A/N: I almost wanted to hold off on uploading this so it would seem like a holiday gift, but I really couldn't wait. Here we go!

Chapter Four

As Lucy's indignation spilled over, Natsu was subjected to a painful punch on the head from the celestial spirit mage's fist.

Certainly, Gray was now sleeping calmly again, but in no way was knocking him unconscious a treatment for someone who had been hospitalized.

Lucy was so outraged that Happy wisely opted to remain silent, although he couldn't help but mutter, "Lucy was hitting Gray too…" Luckily for the blue cat, Lucy didn't appear to hear him.

Her anger quelled for the time being, Lucy sat back in her chair with a sigh, ignoring Natsu's twitching body on the floor. She looked to the figure in the bed, her eyes softening as she did so, and pulled the loose blankets up slightly. "He's really… only sleeping this time, right?" Lucy asked quietly, glancing almost apprehensively in Erza's direction.

Erza nodded in affirmation. "I believe so, thanks to Natsu." A momentary glare was cast to the Dragon Slayer in question, who squeaked in fear. "I'm… very relieved," the scarlet-haired woman admitted suddenly in a murmur. Her unarmored hand moved tentatively, paused as though she had second thoughts, and then at last reached over to gently brush strands of black hair away from Gray's closed eyes. The ice mage was still somewhat pale, but his complexion was much better than it had been previously.

They could still remember the alarming scene from three days ago with vivid clarity.

"Gray! Gray!"

A distant rumbling could still be heard faintly as the collapse of the dark guild's underground hideout finally began to slow, but that was the very least of Lucy's worries now.

As she ran as quickly as she could to her friend who was still slumped, unmoving, over Natsu's back, Lucy was lost for words at the icy feeling when she laid a hand on Gray's limp arm.

She knew that as an ice mage, Gray's body temperature had always been lower than that of most people. But, as it was now, this was bypassing just chilly and plummeting headlong into dangerous, lethal levels. How was it even possible for someone to be this cold? Unless-

No.

Somehow appearing composed as always, Erza's concern was nonetheless apparent in tiny signs: a tightened look in the corner of her eyes, a small tremble running through the hand she had shed her gauntlet of, the way her lips were pressed together in a thin line. "We need to get him to the hospital," Erza said at once. "He could die if we leave him like this."

The celestial spirit mage gasped. "Die?" she echoed, reeling. Die? Die? Could Gray actually die, here and now? Out of all the stupid missions they had been on, out of all the dangerous situations their team had always managed to somehow scrape through-

"No! He's not gonna die!"

"N-Natsu?!"

Lucy watched, gripping Gray's cold, cold, much too cold hand, as Natsu lowered Gray to the ground more carefully than the blonde would have ever thought possible from the normally destructive Dragon Slayer. But that perception was rapidly shattered as Natsu seized Gray by the shoulders and began to shake him roughly.

"You're not allowed to die!" Natsu shouted frantically, a faint tremor audible in his voice. "Bastard, wake up! We didn't give you permission to die! You don't get to make us owe you by doing something stupid and saving us like that! We won't forgive you if you just give up like this! Wake up! Wake up!"

It was as if a roaring flame had been lit in Natsu's eyes, the way they glowed with a burning sort of desperation.

"Natsu!" Erza caught his arm solidly, shaking her head. "Stop. It's no use." She turned to Lucy then, pointing in the direction of the now caved-in base. "Lucy, I need you to go back and assess the situation. Capture anyone you see who might've escaped and report this incident to the authorities. Natsu and I will proceed to the hospital right now."

There was a brief moment where Lucy tried to process Erza's orders, the only awareness being the sharp iciness of Gray's hand in hers and his quiet, shallow breathing, before the words sank in and Lucy nodded immediately.

"…Understood!"

It was no time to stand around.

Steeling herself, Lucy let go of Gray's hand reluctantly, placed one hand on her beloved ring of keys attached to her hip in a holder, and pointed at the group.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. And in the meantime, this idiot is absolutely not allowed to die!"

"Yeah!"

Natsu's vehement, clipped response. With his steady voice echoing at her back, Lucy bolted.

Gray, please… don't go.

"He's sleeping now… isn't he."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes…"

Unconscious in the bed, Gray's face was as deathly pale as ever, though his breathing had eased considerably from the ragged spurts earlier. Dark fringes of smooth hair cast uneven shadows over Gray's closed eyes, giving Lucy the impression of a doll.

The harsh contrast between black hair, ashen features, and white sheets was startling.

"…There was nearly no physical injury," Erza stated flatly. "But due to exhaustion from rapid magic depletion, apparently it's something like a state of suspended animation. Or perhaps, it would be better said as almost a coma."

"A coma…" Lucy repeated faintly. She squeezed Happy, who was sitting in her lap, tightly, and it was telling that the blue cat did not protest.

"That is to say," Erza continued, clenching her fist so deeply that her knuckles turned white. "Tonight is the deciding factor." She closed her eyes, and her expression finally crumpled. "…We don't know when Gray will wake up."

The simple words that rang out weighed them all down, the implications crushing them with its staggering strength.

So, those were the facts.

With a solid thud that shook the room, the side of Natsu's fist struck the wall, leaving an indent. A raging flame briefly outpoured from his body, extinguished almost as quickly as it had flared up.

"Tell me, Erza. What the hell did this guy do."

For a long moment, Erza was silent as she contemplated the occurrences on the mission. "…Do you remember," she said finally, "that there were a few large pillars in the center of the room we were in?"

They had heard now, from the dark guild master, that those pillars had been the keystone of their underground base.

"Hold on a sec, those huge things? You don't mean-"

The frozen pillars and the ceiling. As well as what had appeared to be random bits of ice all over the place.

More than the traces used in a battle.

The uneasy sensation from before; Natsu had thought it was strange that there was so much ice concentrated in one area. Gray's ice never lingered for that long without good reason. The ice hadn't just been left over from Gray fighting the dark guild master. It had been holding up the entire base all that time. And the sporadic bursts of ice outside the room: reinforcing important structural points.

How could they not have noticed?

"That's right," Erza confirmed, clearly trying to squeeze the words out. "All that time, Gray was supporting that vast underground maze alone. All that time, when we woke up, when we were searching for the dark guild remnants, and until when we finally reached the surface. On top of that, having to fight through at least half the members… It's no wonder that Gray passed out. That sort of strain is almost unbelievable. He must have not allowed himself to faint in fear of having the hideout collapse on all of us."

Silence filled the air.

"I heard from the local authorities who were investigating later," the scarlet-haired woman suddenly continued. "The cause of those pillars collapsing was the removal of that rune barrier we were trapped in."

In other words.

"That Gray was cornered to do such a thing for us… We couldn't do anything then. And… we can't do anything now. It's our… Our…"

Glancing down, Lucy spotted the way Erza's fist trembled violently, and felt her own eyes begin to water as she realized the reason Erza was so shaken. The feeling of guilt, that as the leader she had failed a member of her team, must have been crushing.

"All I ask… is that he wakes up…"

"Erza…"

"…Don't be an idiot. We're not gonna just mope around."

Breaking the heavy silence suddenly was Natsu's voice, burning with anger. He glared into Lucy and Erza's visibly glistening eyes.

"Ice head here isn't dying on us from something like this! And y'know what? We know what we're supposed to do from here on, don't we? We know what we have to do."

He took a deep breath.

"So to make sure that stupid Gray doesn't pull something like this again, to make sure none of us ever pull something like this again, the only thing we can do is get stronger!"

The earnest words rang through the small room, echoing off the walls and sounding louder than they should have.

At Natsu's fervent declaration, Lucy and Erza's eyes widened.

It was as if something in them had been shocked awake.

"…Yes, that's right," Erza murmured slowly, after a moment of anticipatory silence.

Gray, was certainly not going to die.

And, as Natsu said, if the situation ever called for it, of course from now on they would protect him in another crisis, the same way they would do for each other. But more than that, they would strive to protect each other from another such crisis in the first place.

As one of their own, it was all about the team. They weren't Fairy Tail's strongest team for nothing.

"…Natsu."

"Hm?"

"Forgive me. You're absolutely right. It's just as you say."

"…Yeah."

And once and for all, they did not waver.

The repetitive beeping sound grated on Lucy's nerves, but she knew that she much preferred it to the alternative of silence.

Sitting in a chair by Gray's bed, a book was open on her lap. As Lucy read the same page five times over, she couldn't help but continually glance up, hoping for some sort of change. There had been none over the course of six hours so far, but it didn't hurt to check, however futile it was.

They had agreed to keep watch in shifts, with Lucy taking the first one while Natsu, Happy, and Erza returned to the village lodgings. In the back of her mind however, Lucy thought that she wouldn't be surprised at all if they ignored the schedule and simply sat together for the entire time.

The blonde flipped a page, squinted at the tiny lines, and gave up, shutting the cover. Even reading couldn't distract her now.

Lucy sat in silence for the time being, fiddling with her hands.

"Gray."

Her own voice startled her, and Lucy jumped. It had come out louder than she expected. "Gray," she repeated, more quietly.

There was no response.

"I wonder… if you can hear me? I read in a book once that people in comatose states are occasionally aware what's going on around them." Lucy moved her chair closer, resting her elbows on the edge of the bed with a sigh. "You know, you're going to have some very angry people to deal with when you wake up. Me included, of course. You're an idiot."

She almost reached out to Gray's hand again, but stopped herself. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know if his hand was still so icy.

"Maybe this'll be the longest time you've spent without stripping." Despite herself, Lucy smiled slightly. "It might… be nice not having to run after you while waving your shirt around."

"…Oh, who am I kidding. I want everything to go back to normal soon. I'll cut you some slack this time, but don't ever think of scaring us like this again."

"I don't know about you, but I think I'd be super bored in bed doing nothing. How about I read this book to you? You're always trying to sneak a peek at my novel, which you're still not allowed to do by the way, but this book is pretty interesting…"

"My apologies for arriving early, but I- Lucy?"

As Erza slid the door to the room open, her eyes fell onto Lucy's sleeping form in a chair by the bed. A book was open under her head; the girl had presumably fallen asleep while reading it.

With a fond smile, Erza set the gigantic bag of luggage she had brought in the corner of the room, pulling out a blanket. She tossed it over the younger girl's shoulders, then gently tugged the book from Lucy's unresponsive grasp and closed it, setting it aside.

Happy had told her that she was going to wear out a trail in the floor of their rooms if she kept pacing. Taking it as a sign, Erza had decided to return to the hospital in order to abate her anxiety, but she found herself doing the same thing once again, walking back and forth in a straight line with her arms crossed.

The only sounds in the room were the clicking of her footsteps and the steady beeps from the white machine that monitored Gray's vital signs.

In the relative silence, Erza was left to her own thoughts. Something in her chest clenched every time she replayed the moment Gray had fallen outside the hideout. She should have been more attentive. She should have realized it was strange that the pillars had been frozen so thoroughly. She should have taken into account Gray's uncharacteristic silence afterward.

All the things she should have realized came crashing down on her, and Erza squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. What kind of team leader was she, to not notice the condition of one of her closest friends? Gray had always been there, a foundation of stability like the ice he molded, and to think today he had been so close to being gone, just like that-

But these were the exact thoughts Natsu had reprimanded her for having. It was no use to think about what she should have realized. All that mattered was making sure everything would be okay, and that everyone would go home together.

With a sharp glance in the direction of the figure in the bed, Erza spoke.

"You and I will have words when you're awake."

Natsu and Happy arrived next, with the Dragon Slayer claiming it was boring being by himself and his Exceed when they knew where everyone else was.

(Of course, he would never admit to actually being worried.)

By that time, Lucy had awakened, mumbling an embarrassed apology for falling asleep. She and Erza left briefly then for some space and for what Happy termed as their "secret girl stuff time". He was promptly punched into the wall for his trouble.

"Natsu?" Happy called, after he had recovered somewhat. "Gray's going to wake up, right?"

"'Course he is," Natsu answered without hesitation. "Nothing keeps him down for long. And if Gray doesn't open those droopy eyes of his by the end of three days, max, I'll slap him awake."

"…Such harsh friendship…"

"Hell no it's not! D'you know how hard it is to find a good rival, Happy? I won't have anyone to beat up if Gray keeps napping like this."

"If you say so, Natsu," Happy said doubtfully. He wrapped his tail around Natsu's arm and perched precariously on the pink-haired Dragon Slayer's shoulder, enjoying the constant warmth that his friend always radiated.

Leaning against the wall, Natsu stared down at the bed. Had it been anyone else but Happy, who had been raised by and eaten with and slept with and lived with Natsu for six years, they would have missed just the slightest hint of concern shimmering in his dark eyes.

A split second flashback of the events on Galuna Island.

"Besides," he added suddenly, checking around to make sure the girls hadn't come back, and continued in a more subdued tone. "He made Lucy and Erza almost cry. I gotta kick his ass for that."

"Aye…"

For a long moment, silence reigned, punctuated only with shrill, constant beeping. To Natsu's sharp ears, the sounds were amplified to an irritating level.

"…Happy, you hungry?"

"Not really."

"You sure? I smelled some fish coming from the kitchen. I'd say it's worth checking out. And I bet you'd feel a lot better with your stomach full."

"…Natsu?"

"Huh? What?"

"Nothing. Do you want me to bring you back something too?"

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks though. Go ahead."

"Aye."

The door opened and slid shut quietly.

"…Hurry and wake up, stupid ice bastard."

And like that, three days painstakingly went by.

"You know, the three days were a really long time for us. But from how they made it sound, you could say that it only took three days for this guy to wake up. He's already moving around and everything."

Staring gently at Gray's mildly relaxed expression, Lucy frowned.

"Ah, I see what you mean." Erza nodded in agreement. "Still, I believe the orders were two weeks for a complete recovery."

The thing was, if it were left up to Gray, he would want to be discharged immediately having regained just a little magic.

"No way! I totally knocked him out just now. He's definitely not getting up for a while."

"Aye! That's the type of guy Gray is though."

"…Both of you say that like it's a good thing in this case," the celestial spirit mage sighed exasperatedly. "I don't think that means much right now."

But perhaps, that was the right idea, albeit with unnecessarily violent methods.

"Well, in any case, two weeks! Please be prepared!" Lucy pointed in Gray's direction, eyes burning with determination.

With waking up, it appeared that he had already recovered somewhat, but they would absolutely force him to another two weeks of bed rest, whether he liked it or not. This was how the team would take care of their own.

"Two peaceful weeks and not one day sooner, no matter how much he begs!" Lucy continued cheerfully. "We'll make Gray feel like he's drowning in our love!"

"…Lucy, you're saying weird things again."

"Lucy, that's gross."

"Shut up, cat! And I'm trying to be motivating here, Natsu!"

As it turned out, the entire two weeks were the farthest from peaceful one could get.

That was what Gray thought.

With nothing to do but be confined in the hospital room the entire time, his friends took turns being in constant attendance. But more often than not, all five of them could be found squeezed in the tiny room together. Anyone who knew of the team's infamous reputation for wide-scale destruction would have been horrified at the fact. Although in Gray's opinion, this grew irritating very quickly.

That being said, Gray regretted ever allowing his friends to force their ideas of "care" onto him.

It was very painful. In many ways.

Upon awakening after Natsu's courteous method of putting him to sleep, Gray attempted to argue he was perfectly fine and ready to return to the guild that very moment. Sadly, his claims were rejected unanimously by everyone else, citing the absolute orders of the doctors. When Gray began to complain further, Natsu unceremoniously assaulted him with another hand chop.

It was completely humiliating for the ice mage. In addition, it only served to prove that his reactions were not quite back up to standard conditions yet.

As a result, Gray gave up and decided to spend the two weeks quietly without further objections. Incidentally, before conceding, it took Gray a total of three painful hand chops from Natsu over the two weeks in order to formulate this mindset.

Lucy marveled that he never seemed to learn.

Bitterly resigned to the chaotic situation, the ice mage resentfully swore to pay them all back – especially Natsu – twice over once he was discharged from the hospital.

That was what Gray thought.

Finally, after far too long, the blissful day came when Gray was released from the hospital and they began to make their way back to the guild.

To the Dragon Slayer walking in front, Gray called his name.

"Natsu."

"Huh?"

The moment that Natsu turned around-

"Ice Cannon!"

Gray mercilessly bombarded Natsu with the blast, right on the mark. Natsu yelped loudly in surprise, rolling head over heels across the road, and finally came to a stop while spitting dirt out of his mouth.

The ice mage smirked from ear to ear. "That was for the four times you hit me in the hospital, squinty-eyes!" Gray declared. "I'm paying you exactly twice back."

"Stupid droopy-eyes!" Natsu snarled, several veins popping on his forehead. Unsurprisingly, the thirst for vengeance was not far behind.

And yet at the same time, there was overwhelming relief at seeing Gray completely recovered.

"Take this, ice bastard! Fire Dragon's Roar!"

But it was obviously not in Natsu's nature to act sweet. Of course he would immediately fight back without hesitation with Gray's provoked attack, as he always had, and as he always would.

"Ice Make: Shield!"

In the middle of the road, the opposing red and blue magic crashed against each other thunderously.

.

.

.

"…Those guys never learn."

Looking behind over her shoulder at the rapidly escalating brawl, Lucy slumped in displeasure.

"Aye. It's 'cause they haven't fought in so long and they want to get it out of their system," was Happy's response, as he let out a sigh.

"If it goes too far, I will stop them myself." Erza's dismissive comment.

…Although Erza's statement was oddly nonchalant, one could only wonder just how long her thread of patience would hold out this time until it snapped.

A dry smile involuntarily spread across her lips, and Lucy glanced at Gray again.

Clashing enthusiastically against Natsu with the blue glow of his molding magic lighting up his face, it was as if he had a whole new lease on life. The shadow of death that had hovered over Gray as recently as two weeks ago was nowhere in sight.

"Heeey, you two! Stop rampaging around the place! We're the ones who'll have to pay for it, you know!"

Together, gathered under the umbrella of a wide blue sky were the five members of Fairy Tail's strongest team, drenched in sunshine as violent explosions and bright laughter resounded into the wind.

fin.

Drowning The Hero In Love.

A/N: It's over! It's actually over! To everyone over the course of these four chapters who reviewed, faved, followed, or even just read this, thank you all so much.

And as I've said, since the original story is actually not mine, just something that I've translated and expanded on from the Japanese author Hagino, I feel it's only fair I put her own author's note as well. I've written out a condensed version below with the relevant details.

This was a requested story: "The strongest team gets a mission, but Gray has a cold and collapses in the middle of it. Everyone else gets to take care of him."

…Not too far along while writing, I couldn't think of an excuse for it.

"A half-naked man all year round… Getting a cold?!"

"I'll have him collapse from lack of magic instead. ^^"

My thoughts were roughly something like this. Please note that there is no romance intended in the story. And in addition, the reason that this was so long…

"I have many stories about rescuing Gray who got caught, this one will be where Gray gets to help everyone else who got caught instead."

"Maybe Gray will get to look super cool and be the hero this time, yeah!"

"Okay, let's do this!"

…So this story is the result of me trying to cram in all my silly desires, where Gray gets the most active parts. However, I do not regret it at all. (straight face)

This may not be a hundred percent accurate, as I am by no means a fluent Japanese speaker, but I think the basic meaning is understandable. It's a little amusing, isn't it?

For now, my next focus will be on finishing beta-reading the next chapter of Once Again, Live by Indh13. To those who don't know, it's a Gray-centric multi-chaptered story and I'm sure the author would appreciate it if you showed her support.

I don't want to make this author's note longer than it already is (and it really is longer than it needs to be…), but I was wondering what main project people might be interested in me writing next. I have a list of ideas:

- The Dream of Sleeping Beauty – This would be another translated story by Hagino. Despite the girly sounding title (in my opinion, haha…), this is Gray-centric again and honestly one of the most emotional stories I've ever read. It's not a happy one. It's ten very short chapters and I could probably update quickly.

- A long, multi-chaptered story with no title yet and an actual plot! To no one's surprise, Gray plays a heavy role in it, but it's overall another team friendship story. A working summary of it is that a month away for training turns into a year-long disappearance for Gray. Searching for him, Team Natsu comes across a legend about ice mages, an ice dragon, and something about the weather. Meanwhile, a group of villains surfaces, capturing ice mages across the country, and it's a race against time to find Gray before they do. (…I am very sorry about this pathetic summary. I can't be dramatic to save my life.) This would not be up for a very long time, and if my writing speed is any indication, with very slow updates.

…Overly obsessed with Gray? M-Maybe a little? But again, these are ideas I have rolling around and although there's a chance I might ignore it all and write whatever I want, it'd be nice to see what other people are interested in. Between all of these, it's likely I'll write a variety of oneshots too (I am not ashamed to say a good number of them are Gray-centric).

So to finally sum it all up after much too long, thank you again to everyone who read this story. Until next time!