"How nice - to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive."

― Kurt Vonnegut

"Hey, over here!"

Natsu shouted as the guild played a game of volleyball by the swimming pool behind the main building. He jumped up and down, but taller players easily hit the ball. Just as Natsu thought the ball would come to him, Elfman pounded it back over to the other side.

"That was my hit!" the Dragon Slayer raged.

"Stealing hits is manly."

"It is not, you asshole! We're on the same team."

Gray sat to the side with Lucy, Levy, and Juvia.

"I can never play volleyball with everyone else," Levy sighed. "Gajeel, Laxus, Elfman: they're all too tall."

"Juvia can't play either," the rain woman lamented. "Everyone says Juvia makes the ball wet." She clung to Gray's arm. "But that means Juvia can stay with Gray-sama."

He rolled his eyes at her clingy attitude. "I'm only side-lined because I pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday."

"You overdid it again," Lucy scolded.

"How else am I going to get better?" he snapped. "I have to push myself. I need to get stronger. Being this weak is annoying, especially when everyone else is still having fun without me."

Juvia rubbed her cheek on his bare arm. "Gray-sama and Juvia can have fun together anytime!"

Gray tried to pull away from her with an annoyed grimace.

"Hey, I'm clear over here," Natsu shouted. "Erza, pass it to me! To me!"

Gray glared and grumbled, "That idiot. Isn't he rather short to be playing on Gajeel and Elfman's team?"

"Erza is holding her own well," Lucy admired.

"Maybe we should start our own game with Wendy, Romeo, Lisanna, and Kinana," Levy suggested. "The short-people league!"

"Freed, you bastard!" Natsu raged. "I was going to hit the ball."

"It was served by Laxus, which means it must have been meant for me," Freed said haughtily, "because anything from Laxus is meant for me."

"Weirdo!"

Erza shouted out, "Natsu, head's up. This one is all yours."

"Yosh!" he snickered. "All right, Erza. I'm gonna smack this ball out of the park, just you watch."

He eyed the oncoming ball, ran forward a little, and then leaped up to spike it over the net. As soon as he jumped into the air, something changed in Natsu's face. He looked stunned, then pained, and the ball soared right past him.

"Idiot," Gray muttered. "All that fuss for a miss."

Lucy sat up and put her sunglasses to the side. "No, something is wrong with him."

Erza raced forward and ran under the net. "Natsu? Natsu!"

The Dragon Slayer laid on the ground, his eyes massive, one hand pressed against his chest. His face was quickly turning pale.

"Wendy!" screamed Erza.

Gray leaped up, but people were trying to push the rest of the players back to make room for Wendy. For a moment, Natsu was completely encircled and Gray could not see what was happening.

"Did he just collapse?" Levy asked worriedly.

"He's been weak for a while now," Lucy whispered. "He won't tell me why, but I've noticed that Erza is really worried about him."

Erza shouted out again, "We need a stretcher."

Gray ran forward at that. "Ice-Make: Stretcher!" He brought the icy cot forward. That was his ticket to getting into the center of the crowd and seeing Natsu for himself.

Natsu laid on his side, weakly clutching the left side of his chest. His breathing was ragged, and his skin had sallowed even more, looking deathly pale. As Freed and Max lifted Natsu to place him on the icy stretcher, the Dragon Slayer did not even give one of his normal complaints about the cold.

"He needs a hospital," Erza said. "Jet, we need you to run. Who's the next fastest?"

"I can make wheels," Gray offered. "That way I can travel as fast as Jet can, if you don't mind pulling me along."

"It'd slow me down a little," Jet admitted, "but it's still the fastest way."

"Hurry then!"

"Ice-Make: Skateboard," Gray shouted, and he leaped up on the ice board. He took one side of the stretcher, Jet took the other, and then the racer bolted off, pulling along Natsu while Gray's skateboard flung off bits of ice with the magically rapid speed.

Laxus finally came forward and stared down hard at Erza. "All right, what the hell just happened? That idiot never collapses like that."

Erza glared up at him, but despite his gruff tone, she saw genuine worry in Laxus' scar-slashed eyes. Then she realized everyone else looked on in concern. They had seen enough: Natsu collapsing while grasping his chest. Something like that would worry anyone. She looked down to Happy.

"What does Natsu want to do about this leaking out?" she whispered to him.

Happy pouted fretfully. "He still doesn't want people to know."

She nodded, figuring it was for the best. If they told others, someone might let it slip to Gray, and neither one of them wanted Gray to feel guilty about how he got his leg better. "Then we respect those wishes."

"He's not dying, is he?" Lisanna asked in fear.

Erza looked over to her with sadness. "Hopefully not."

As Natsu began to regain consciousness, he thought maybe Igneel was licking his head, like he used to do when Natsu was sick as a child. However, the thing stroking through his hair was not wet, nor was there the comforting warmth of Igneel's breath. It was dry, cold, and threaded through the strands of hair. Was it a hand?

As the darkness faded, his hearing returned. It was still muffled, but slowly the words gained clarity.

"... really are ... leaping like ... collapse ... you really worry me sometimes."

Gray? Natsu still could not move. His could not feel his limbs, and his face felt disconnected from his brain. He could not yet open his eyes or mouth.

"You're hiding something, bastard," Gray muttered. "You keep falling asleep, but you don't look tired. It's like you're passing out. You grabbed your chest on the beach, and now again. I swear, if you die young from a heart attack because of all that junk food you eat, I'll kill you."

The hand stroked slowly through his hair.

"I'm serious," Gray said sadly. "Don't you dare die! How am I supposed to get stronger if you're not there to push me? What would even be the point of getting my leg back if you're not around so I can kick your ass? And ... and..."

Natsu felt something fuzzy on his arm. Hair? Was Gray resting his head on Natsu's arm?

"You're messing me up, bastard," Gray growled softly. "Those dreams..."

Dreams? Was Gray dreaming about him? That was surprising!

"I don't get it. Why you? You're an idiot, and you're not cute at all."

Natsu wished he could punch Gray for that, but his body was still a tingling, indistinguishable, misty shape somewhere outside this prison of his mind.

"Still ... somehow..."

The fuzziness lifted, and the hand in his hair stroked down to Natsu's cheek. He could barely feel those cold fingers caressing his face, yet it was the sweetest sensation Natsu had ever known.

"I'll let you know right now, I refuse to have you, of all people, as my first love," Gray said sternly but quietly. "Hell no! Not as my first love. That's why ... I'm going to ask Juvia out. I don't mind if she's my first love. Maybe I really can fall in love this time, too. But not you, got it?"

Juvia? Love? No! No, Natsu didn't want to lose Gray to Juvia. No! He wanted his body to work. He want to shout at him, but his body was not moving at all.

"I'm just ... too confused," Gray said in anguish. "I don't understand what's going on anymore. Why is this happening? What did you do to me?"

To him? What was Gray even talking about? Natsu was confused, but he knew one thing: Gray was planning to ask out Juvia. He had to stop that! He needed to move, to shout, to confess everything right now. If not now, then Gray would be gone.

'Move! Move, body. Why can't I move?'

Natsu heard noises now, a door, shoes, and the rustling of clothes.

"Gray-sama?"

Juvia! He could smell her. Natsu wished he could grab Gray and claim him right in front of Juvia.

'No! Goddammit, move!'

"How is Natsu?"

"Not good. They had to put him into a medically induced coma."

Coma? Wait, was this what it was like to be in a coma? He heard stories that people in comas could hear everything going on around them. How does a person force themselves to wake up out of one?

"Do they know what's wrong?"

"The doctors aren't telling us much. His heart is weak, and he wasn't getting enough oxygen to the brain. Maybe that explains why he's such an idiot."

'Who are you calling an idiot, asshole?'

"Gray-sama, you look like you haven't slept."

"Sorry. I'm fine, really. Just tired. I stayed up all night watching over him."

'You ... were watching me? All night? How long have I been like this? How come I'm just now hearing things? Dammit, what happened to me?'

"I was really hoping he'd wake up."

'I am awake! I'm right here. Stupid body, move!'

"Gray-sama needs rest. Juvia will get something to eat and bring it here. We can share lunch together."

'Stay away from him. He's mine!'

"No," Gray said wearily. "They said he might be like this for a day or two. It's pointless just standing here."

'But I like listening to your voice!'

"How about ... we go out? We'll go somewhere together?"

'You bastard, don't you dare ask her out when I'm right here.'

"Go ... out?"

Gray's voice went low, far more suave than Natsu had ever heard him speak. "Yeah, you and me."

'Noooo! Gray! Dammit, I don't want to listen to this.'

"Juvia ... and ... and Gray-sama?"

"Yeah. I've learned a really important lesson through all this, first with me stuck in the hospital, and now this flame-brain. Life is short. You need to take action before you lose an opportunity that's standing right in front of you, and you, Juvia ... you've been by my side this whole time."

'So have I, you blind bastard! Who do you think saved your life?'

"How about it? Wanna go out with me?"

'You goddamn idiot! In front of your comatose teammate? You really are the worst. The worst! I hate you!'

"Y-yes!"

'Of course you'd say yes. You've been wanting to get into his disappearing pants for ages. If he asked you to marry him, I bet you already have a dress picked out. Go to hell, both of you.'

"Juvia is so happy!"

'Big deal. So you finally caught the guy you've been stalking obsessively for ages. Get out of here. Just go. Go be happy. Go fuck each other like rabbits. Like I even care anymore. I hate you, Gray. Dammit, you're a real shit head.'

"Let's get out of here and let Sleeping Beauty rest."

'Fuck you, ice princess.'

He heard their footsteps falling in sync with one another, like two lovers with their arms wrapped around one another's waists. The door creaked open, squealed on hinges, and then shut. The room around him was quiet except for the beeping of machines, probably life support to keep him breathing and monitoring his weakened heart.

'I'm like this because of you, you know. I was willing to sacrifice everything for you. I'm here, in a coma, can't move, with my heart ready to sputter out, because I wanted you to walk again. And this ... this is what I get in return? Damn you, Gray. I don't even care about you anymore. I don't care if your stupid leg falls off. Goddammit. Why ... why can't I even cry? How is it that I can't feel my body, but my heart hurts so damn much? Stupid stripper. I hate you. I ... hate ... No. Gray? Gray, come back. Please! I want you to talk to me. I want to listen to your voice. I don't even care if you insult me the whole time. I don't like being alone in here. Come back! Don't leave me. Please. Dammit, I just wanna cry!'