"For the life of the flesh is in the blood."

― Bible, Leviticus 17:11

Natsu sat in what was probably the most uncomfortable chair ever built in the history of Fiore, placed in what was likely the coldest room in all of Magnolia. However, comfort was the last thing on his mind. The ache of the hard chair and shivering chill of the icy hospital waiting room were lost on a sea of worries.

All around him, most of Fairy Tail had gathered. Juvia sat in a chair sobbing so hard, Mira and Lisanna were taking turns emptying entire buckets of her tears. Lyon had arrived not too long ago, and he did his best to comfort Juvia. Rather than be his normal flirtatious self around the rain woman, Lyon looked stricken with grief, and he only patted Juvia's shoulders, whispering gentle words to her once in a while. Erza paced the floor. She had already raged for hours, blaming herself for leaving the rest of their group to go after the leader. Now she silently simmered with an aura of impending doom. Lucy sobbed softly, and Loke was still around holding Lucy's face to his shoulders, looking decidedly uncomfortable with finally being able to hug Lucy, only to comfort her grief.

"He hasn't said a word."

People whispered that about Natsu, as if they thought he could not hear them. He did; he just did not care. He sat slouched, his hands held together, elbows on the knees, his mouth resting against the folded fingers as he hunched over. Someone had brought him a change of clothes so he could get out of the blood-soaked shirt, but his scarf still had dried brown stains of blood, including streaked fingerprints from when Gray grabbed him.

Gray's final words rang through his head. What the hell was the ice bastard trying to say to him? And the last bit: 'Don't forget, Natsu.' Forget what? What was he supposed to remember?

The door opened, and a doctor stepped in. All whispers ceased, and dozens of worried eyes lifted with hope.

"Mister Fullbuster is out of surgery," the doctor reported. "We managed to save his leg, although ... I'm not sure if it was really worth such effort."

"Of course it is!" Lyon yelled. "Why wouldn't it be?"

The doctor looked around at the large gathering. "Gray Fullbuster ... is not doing well. We've treated what we can, but his injuries are extensive and potentially fatal. He's in extremely critical condition. He hasn't regained consciousness. To be honest, I don't think he will. We're keeping him on life support for now, but ... I'm really sorry," he sighed. "We've tried our best, yet even with surgery and magical healers, the injuries are too extensive. His chances of survival are very slim. It's best if all of you prepare for the worst."

Juvia shrieked, and Mira quickly grabbed her to stifle the hysterical screams with her bosom.

"Are you saying there's no hope at all?" Makarov asked with his brow deeply wrinkled.

"I won't give up on him yet. He'll need another surgery to fix his intestinal track, a rather massive surgery, rerouting much of the intestines. Even on a healthy body, such an invasive procedure could cause shock and death, so in his condition ... it's not possible tonight. We'd only kill him. I've already sent word for three of the top magical healers in Fiore, but they won't reach Magnolia until tomorrow at the earliest. Your little healer here," he said, nodding to Wendy, "did a miracle job merely keeping him alive long enough to bring him here, but her magic was drained with just that. Our own healers are barely keeping him alive with both magic and machines. We'll keep monitoring his blood pressure, but to be honest..." The doctor gave a deep sigh and dropped his eyes. "I hate to bring bad news, especially seeing just how many friends Mister Fullbuster has, but I also don't like to give people a false sense of hope. There's a seventy percent chance he won't make it through the night. Even if he does, full recovery is likely impossible. He's lost entire nerves and muscles. He'll never walk on that leg. His lung may never fully heal. His days as a fighting wizard are, essentially, over."

Natsu's head dropped. Hearing that Gray would never fight again was perhaps more shocking than if he had been told Gray merely died.

"Does he have family?" the doctor asked.

Lyon stomped forward. "I'm his brother. Well, close enough as one. Adopted brother."

Makarov approached. "We're all his family."

The doctor looked a little weary. "Blood relatives, I mean. He'll need a second surgery if we're to have any hopes of repairing his lungs and intestinal track; however, just to stabilize him, he needed so much blood transfused that we ran out of his blood type. If we want any chance of saving him, we need a few donors."

Natsu stood up immediately. "I have O-negative. You can take mine."

"Thank you. Nurse Aoi, please get him hooked up. Mister Fullbuster is unconscious, but I can allow two visitors at a time."

Natsu saw that Makarov and Lyon were the first two to follow the doctor. That was appropriate. They were the closest things to family. Meanwhile, he followed the nurse and already began rolling up his sleeve, knowing that time was important, considering how urgently the middle-aged nurse walked down the hall.

Natsu entered a room that was kept warm, just how he liked it. The nurse showed him to a reclining couch. Natsu was already pumping his fist in preparation while the nurse pulled out a thick needle and all the equipment she needed.

"We'll take half a liter of blood," she said, somehow keeping a chirpy voice despite the focus in her brow. "You might be dizzy afterwards."

"How much blood can a human lose and still live?" asked Natsu.

"Forty percent of the human blood volume. That's usually around two and a quarter liters."

"I see," he mumbled. He flinched when she inserted the needle, then watched as purplish-red blood flowed through a tube. "Take two liters."

She jolted up fast. "Sir, I can't—"

"Take two liters, dammit!" he said firmly, yet kept his voice down since it was still a hospital. "I'll sign a waiver, whatever, just take it. Gray needs it more than me."

"I'll have to clear this with the doctor," she said, only to be polite. Truly, this hot-head had no idea what he was talking about. From the cuts and bruises, she could tell that he must have also lost some blood already.

Natsu leaned back as his blood flowed out. "You owe me one, stripper!"

Purely because they really were desperate, and because Natsu was insistent to the point of belligerency, the doctor allowed one and a half liters to be taken, but he insisted he could not take more without risking Natsu's life. The Dragon Slayer decided not to argue. At least it was three times more than normal, so he was glad to help. Donating that much left him so wobbly, Happy had to fly behind him, holding onto Natsu to help him to walk.

"You should go home," the nurse urged. "Drink a lot, and eat meat."

"That actually sounds good, but first I wanna see the stripper."

"Um ... stripper?" She blushed at the word.

"Gray. I wanna see him."

The nurse called the doctor, who led Natsu down a hallway. Everyone else had left, visiting hours were long over, but "for the man who'd go this far to save his friend" the doctor could at least let Natsu into the room for a few minutes.

"I'll warn you, he doesn't look well," the doctor cautioned. "It shocked many of your friends. One cried so hard, we had to get the janitor to mop the floor from here to the hospital exit. He's unconscious, and he's still unstable, so don't grab him. The equipment is fragile, and tampering with it could result in death. I was also told you manipulate fire. Absolutely refrain from doing so! We use oxygen on this level, which is highly flammable. Also, keep your voice low for the other patients. It's long past visiting hours."

"Has there been any improvement?" asked Natsu as he stared angrily down the plain white hall.

"If by improvement you mean the fact that he's no longer hemorrhaging, then I guess you could call it that. He's barely clinging on to life. If it weren't for that little healer girl, plus the surgical team, our own magic healers, and now the life support equipment, he would have died mere minutes after arriving. To be frank, he still might go at any time."

"He won't die," Natsu said in a low growl. "Gray wouldn't die before me. He's too damn stubborn."

The doctor sighed, weary from such a long day. "I sincerely hope you're right. I wish I could be just as confident, but I've seen patients like this before. They don't last the night. If you have any final things to say to him, now is the time."

Then the doctor paused by a room and opened the door. The recovery room was dark except for a dim lamp near the bed. Shadows threatened to encroach on the lonely bed, like fingers of Death already reaching for a new victim. The doctor flipped a switch to turn on the lights, and harsh whiteness shined from overhead to chase away those spectrally foreboding clutches.

Despite himself, Natsu gasped. Although he had seen Gray with the ashen pallor of death and carried his cold, corpse-like body to the hospital, it was still shocking to behold the Ice-Make wizard lying in a sterile bed, hooked to monitors. Two thick, blue hoses attached to a tube in his mouth with tape over his face to hold the hoses motionless. Air tubes came out his nose, and wires were patched to places all over his body. He also saw a bag of blood and another of saline dripping into an intravenous line.

Gray's black hair was slicked back to keep it out of the way of the tubes. His face still looked white like death, and the doctors had taped his eyelids shut to keep the eyes from drying out. A pump to the side timed breathing for him, and a beeping monitor let Natsu see for himself that Gray's heart was working, although slowly.

"Gray," Natsu whispered, pained worse than he had felt in a long, long time. His childhood rival and teammate, the man Natsu considered as an equal, looked so tiny, lost amidst all the wires and machines, diminished to this pale, fragile, moribund body. Despite all the muscles in Gray's arms, chest, and abs, physical strength was useless against the sinister approach of Death.

"He's unconscious," the doctor warned.

Natsu began to feel panicked. "What's all this equipment? Why does he have something shoved in his mouth? What are you doing to Gray?"

"This is the life support machine. That's an endotracheal tube in his mouth. The tube is hooked up to a ventilator, which forces air into his lungs so he can breathe. He's receiving blood and saline solution until his blood pressure stabilizes. We also have a TPN—total parenteral nutrition—or to put it simply, feeding him intravenously since his intestines are in no shape to digest food. That's the electrocardiograph monitor to check heart activity," the doctor pointed out, "and this monitor shows us his breaths. Together, all of these machines can keep Mister Fullbuster alive for a while, so long as his heart keeps functioning."

"He's only alive ... because of these?" Natsu asked with a shiver of horror. He was just now beginning to understand the delicacy of Gray's thread of life. That thread was a blue hose shoved down the ice wizard's trachea. "Can he hear me?"

"Some believe patients in comas can hear us."

"Good," he said numbly. Natsu waved for Happy to stay back. "I have some things to tell him in private," he explained.

The Exceed nodded in understanding, and the doctor also left, shutting the door firmly. Natsu walked forward slowly until he stood by the side of the bed.

"Hey, droopy-eyes," he said quietly.

Natsu looked at the bare chest with patches of medical probes and wires hooked up. A massive bandage patched his right chest and wrapped around the entirety of his middle stomach, covering the holes. Natsu wondered if the hole he had cauterized was still there, or if the doctors somehow managed to close it. If Gray survived, would he have a hole in his body? Part of Natsu thought that would be awesome. He could annoy the stripper by tossing small balls and spit wads through a hole in his stomach. However, Natsu wanted all of it healed up. He wanted Gray to be back to normal.

'He's barely clinging on to life.'

Natsu shook his head at the memory of the doctor's words. "You're still alive somehow. You can thank me later. First I saved your ass from that old guy, then I carried your ass all the way here, and now I've saved you once again. They really sucked me dry," he laughed, feeling dizzy from the severe anemia. "Hey, I've been trying to figure out what you wanted to tell me. Cay fuh oou? Careful?"

Beep-bop! Beep-bop!

Natsu looked up at the heart monitor. Curious, he felt his neck, checking his pulse against Gray's. For every one of Gray's slow heartbeats, Natsu's heart pounded twice. Natsu did not know much about health and medicine, but he did know that a slow heartbeat was a bad sign.

'There's a seventy percent chance he won't make it.'

Natsu never liked it when people told him the odds of success or failure. Odds never meant much of anything to him. If anyone could beat the odds, it'd be a wizard of Fairy Tail! And that meant there was a thirty percent chance that Gray would be just fine ... right?

'Even if he does, full recovery is likely impossible.'

Natsu completely refused to believe that. They would find a way. They would go to every healer in Fiore until Gray was back on his feet, fighting side by side with him, Happy, Erza, and Lucy.

The steady rise and fall of the chest brought a sense of hope, until Natsu realized it was a machine breathing for Gray. The machines were vital to Gray's survival. If that machine stopped, Gray would be dead in minutes. It was such a fragile existence, this decrepit shell of a body, broken, patched together, yet unable to hold onto life by himself.

'All of these machines can keep Mister Fullbuster alive for a while.'

Natsu picked up Gray's hand. He jolted, stunned by how cold it felt. Had Gray always been this icy, or was this something worse? He rarely bothered to touch this rival, so Natsu really did not know how cold he felt normally.

"And ... and what shouldn't I forget, huh?" he asked the comatose body. "You got me curious. So you know," he whispered, squeezing the chilly fingers, "you can't die. You have to tell me what the hell you meant. You can't die, Gray."

'To be frank, he still might go at any time.'

Natsu saw water drip onto the pasty white hand, and he stared at the drops in surprise. He had not even realized that tears were flowing down his face.

"I can't imagine losing you," he whispered, gritting his teeth as he tried to hold back the tears. "I can't ... can't imagine it. You're so damn annoying, always making me feel freezing, always stripping off your clothes, but ... but Fairy Tail ... it wouldn't be the same without you," he insisted, and Natsu wiped his snotty nose on his sleeve.

'It's best if all of you prepare for the worst.'

Natsu shuddered out a sob. The worst! Natsu could not even fathom the worst. Yes, they all knew that any one of them could fall during a mission. He and Gray had been on the verge of death plenty of times. Still, seeing Gray now, looking at the pale skin, the tubes, the wires, listening to the machine that pumped air into Gray's lungs, the beep that said his heart was working, and the horrible smells all around him, Natsu refused to believe Gray's life could end on such an anticlimactic note.

"You have to wake up. You have to get better. You never made it to S-class yet, bastard. So you have to get better. We have to fight for S-class. I have to beat you, and then I have to smear it in your face. It wouldn't be fun otherwise. And ... and we can do better missions once we're both S-class. And we'll make sure Lucy becomes S-class, too. All of us. We'll be the most kick-ass team in all of Fiore. So you have to get better. You hear that, ice princess?"

'I've seen patients like this before. They don't last the night.'

"You have to heal up. You have to keep pushing me, bastard. I wouldn't be this strong if it wasn't for you clashing with me all the time. And ... and we have to have our duel. Remember? We couldn't before meeting up with Erza, so we need to go for it when you're ... back on your feet."

'He'll never walk on that leg. His lung may never fully heal. His days as a fighting wizard are, essentially, over.'

"They said it's impossible, but I know you. You'll fight it. Hell, Gildarts lost his leg and his arm, and he can still kick my butt with one finger, so you'll be fine. And who knows! You might walk on that leg again. No ... you will walk. You'll run, and you'll kick, and you'll be as good as new. We'll fight together. So ... so you ... you can't die, dammit!"

'His chances of survival are very slim.'

Natsu threw himself down across the bed, hugging the icy body and sobbing heavily. "Come back to us, Gray. You've gotta wake up!" He laid there, feeling the chilly skin on his cheek. He never realized how much a part of his life Gray was until now that his life was almost at its end. Desperately, he whispered, "Don't leave me behind."

Suddenly, the slow beep-bop beep-bop gave a startling alarm. Natsu jolted up and looked at the monitor. Instead of a bouncing green line, it was flat with only slight twitches. A horrific chill shuddered through Natsu's body. Somewhere behind him, an alarm rang out at the nurse's station, and the door burst open.

"I didn't do anything!" Natsu shouted defensively.

The doctor rushed in. "Dammit, he's in cardiac arrest. Nurses! Vasopressin, STAT! Bring the defib!"

Natsu looked down at the sallow face. "Gray ... no. Didn't you listen to a word I've been saying? You deaf bastard, you can't die. Gray!"

"Step back, please," the doctor shouted, shoving Natsu away from the bed. Just then, a team of nurses swarmed in, pushing him further and further back. Natsu stumbled, still dizzy after donating blood. He grabbed hold of the door jamb and watched helplessly.

The nurse jabbed in a needle. The heart monitor suddenly became chaotic.

"V-fib. Get the paddles ready. Remove all electrodes. Shut down the ventilator. Make sure the oxygen is not near the chest. Ready paddles." The doctor placed paddles on Gray's chest. "Stay clear. Clear!"

Gray's body leaped up off the bed.

"Doctor, his wounds!"

"We'll stitch them up again. Another. Clear!" Jolt!

"Still in v-fib."

A large male nurse came up behind Natsu. "Sir, I need to insist that you leave."

The Dragon Slayer jolted, not realizing he had been biting his knuckles in worry. "No! I have to make sure he's okay."

"The doctor needs room..."

"What are they doing?" Natsu shouted, pointing as the paddles zapped again, and Gray's body tensed up. "His heart is moving, right? The monitor shows it's moving really fast."

"Those aren't pulses. It's called ventricular fibrillation. It basically means his heart is quivering, not pulsing."

"Quivering?" Natsu whispered. He could hardly help but think of an animal shaking in its death throes.

One of the nurses shouted, "Doctor, he's torn open in the abdomen. Another jolt..."

"Dammit. We'd kill him either way."

Natsu looked at the fluttering line. "A jolt," he muttered. Could he do it? No flame could be lit in this room because of the oxygen, so could he channel the lightning ability he got from Laxus? Could he use just that element and not flame?

"Anything on the ECG?"

"Nothing, doctor."

"Damn. If I do anything more aggressive, it'd rip his stomach completely open. Once more!"

"But doctor..."

"Once more, dammit! Stay clear. Clear!" The pale body jolted again, and blood spurted out onto the doctor's face. "Anything at all?"

Natsu also looked at the monitor in hope. Flatline.

"ECG is asystolic. Pupils are dilated. We've lost him."

"Damn," the doctor growled wearily. "Let's call it. Time of death..."

Death?

"No!" Natsu shrieked, and he stomped over, shoving a nurse aside. "Goddammit, Gray, I won't let you!"

Natsu's hand slammed into Gray's chest. Yellow lightning sparked and arced down his arm, flowing to his hand, sending Gray's whole body jolting.

"Someone stop him! The wound has opened."

"No, wait," the doctor said, motioning for the huge nurse to stay back.

Natsu grabbed his upper arm to stabilize the magic flow. The level of control to keep his flames back was something Natsu had never attempted before. He forced pure lightning down, and his hard eyes shined yellow in the light of the electricity. He gritted his sharp teeth in pain as dizziness threatened to consume his consciousness. At last, he heard it.

Beep-bop, beep-bop, beep-bop...

Natsu released his hand and stumbled back. Happy flew forward and grabbed him before Natsu collapsed. The nurses immediately restarted the ventilator and began to tend to a bleeding tear in the stomach already saturating the sheets with blood. The doctor came over and patted Natsu's shoulder.

"Your friend owes you again, sir."

"He sure does!" Natsu laughed weakly.

"We need to attend to Mister Fullbuster's wounds now, and you need some serious rest," the doctor said gently.

"Is he gonna be okay?" asked Natsu.

"I still can't guarantee anything. It'll be touch-and-go all night long, and probably tomorrow morning, as well."

"I can stay with him in case his heart stops again," Natsu offered without hesitating.

"I'm afraid I really can't allow that."

Happy pulled Natsu along. "We can come back tomorrow, Natsu. They need us to leave now."

He grumbled but did not complain. He had barely managed to save Gray's life. The rest was a personal battle for Gray.

Hopefully, he would wake up again.

———

Notes:

According to the Fairy Tail wiki, Natsu has Type-O blood. O-negative is known as the "universal donor" since they can donate to any of the other blood types. The wiki does not say what Gray's blood type is, but I read somewhere non-official that he is also Type-O. Perfect!