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A pitiful groan escaped from Natsu's mouth as he slowly blinked the sleep from his tired, and so weary eyes. Oh, how he longed more rest - as his eyelids fell heavily against the weight of pure exhaustion itself - but something kept him wide, wide awake. Perhaps it was the blinding ache that bit at his left temple; his brain inside that cried out with even the smallest of movement that ceased his fragile frame; or his bones that felt extremely weak under the constant strain of nothing in particular. His fingers were shaking, he could feel them now - was he really in that bad of condition? His body felt rather too lethargic, really; completely drained of energy and wanting nothing more than a (much) longer, and well-needed sleep; the lingering ache that reminded him all too well of rides on the Magnolia train.
He would've blamed it entirely on his motion-sickness, for the headache that wasn't as sharp like a knife-inflicted wound but dull from a pounding hammer in his skull, or the nausea that wrenched in his stomach painfully; but as luck would have it, he hadn't a single memory of before. Instead, his thoughts rolled around his battered mind like a spinning top, dancing like a hedgehog pricking at his insides; and for now he knew it would be wise not to move at all so that any nausea that wrung his body completely of magical energy wouldn't be emptied onto the floor below, or at least the sick bucket he'd guessed that would be there instead. His arms then shifted against the soft of the white mattress he was laid on, the white sheets that were tucked closely to his chest - the guildhall's infirmary, he'd guessed - as he barely recognised the same cream patterns of the walls and the stone flooring itself through his torpid and rather blurry vision.
A small breath of relief escaped from his lips, or was it a sigh of pain? Blinking into proper coherence, he stared at the ceiling before him; the feeling that he was safe for now, but for who knew how long he'd be bedridden. He'd been there far too many times before but had yet to have the proper answer, for the extent of his magical abilities differed and could only handle so much.
Some would say that sleeping was no good to the post-concussed brain, and perhaps, he pondered to himself through clouded thoughts and memories when his body settled, as much as it could anyway, he sensed a fellow guildmate watching over him. In case he slipped into a coma, yes, for he knew that well enough, but it didn't help but bring a sudden wave of uneasiness and nausea to his tired body. He was only just now drubbed by grinding headaches and single memories the battle had brought to him, very faint and unlinked to one another; the moment before his first blackout and the awful sick that he'd felt to his stomach during that time; and all Natsu wanted to do was lean over and heave into the bucket sat on the floor beside his sick-bed. The pain of his neck and back told him otherwise; oh his back was so very sore; and he turned his head towards the right, where, as suspected, someone was sitting quietly beside him.
"Natsu, please rest," Erza put down the book she was reading, and her eyes met with his. Her voice was stern, like always, but had something so tender about it; or maybe it was the ringing of Natsu's ears that were playing upon him. A soft smile spread across her lips as she lifted a hand and gingerly placed it on his head, where bandages wrapped heavily around the front and on the bump that was only now receding and ruffled his salmon-coloured hair in a somewhat forbearing manner. "Good to see you well,"
Natsu blinked a few, his gaze blurred, and Erza let her hand fall back to her lap.
"How are you feeling?"
His throat burned against the cold of the room. How his mind was racing as memories didn't seem to connect so easily, he couldn't find the words for it. Perhaps it was the exertion of his magical abilities which led him to his bedridden state, for the typically energetic dragon slayer was never down to rest for so long. A battle that had lasted for so long; or a fire he just couldn't keep down. He could feel bile rising in his throat.
"I don't -" the boy coughed meekly. Usually he'd be healed by his own magic by now. He lifted a hand, painful at the joints, and touched at his temple where as guessed, thick gauze was wrapped snugly around. His fingers moved slowly against the cross-hatched fabric, triple or even more layered, and found the tender area where another gauze patch was hidden just above the left eye; hissing as his fingers brushed by. Blood was a possibility (again, should've been healed so quickly by his own damned magic), and he wondered how someone had even managed to deal such a blow in the first place - or something, he really was ignorant at times - and how he hadn't been quick enough to block it.
Natsu twitched, eyelids falling back in a short moment, and he could sense Erza straining to move as he let his hand drop back to the sheets of the infirmary bed. He longed to hold it back, however; to rub at where his headache throbbed or even unwrap the bandage from around his head, hoping that his magic in no time would heal the blasted wound and none had to worry any more, if they were at all, really. The injured and ill ridden boy sunk into the heavy pillows propping him slightly upright with a half-hearted whine, "Don' feel great," repeating what had been the sentence before.
"I can get ice for you," Erza spoke again, settling back into the chair beside. Her book had been wedged between the various other instruments and medicines on the nightstand next to them, some to be given to the pyromancer when he then awoke and some even prescribed by Porlyusica. Natsu went to shake his head though dizzy enough as he still was, a grimace still planted on his face as he let out a small whimper.
She reached for a small bottle perched at the edge of the tray, and a teaspoon to go along with it. "Well, then," she enounced, unscrewing and popping the lid off. "the best thing right now is to rest. You took a violent blow, and though we aren't at all happy with the outcomes of it, we're all still safe and now what we have to make sure of is that you recover properly from it." Erza smiled gently through the somewhat harsh of her words. She didn't at all mean to hurt him in any way, and not during his struggles of simply convalescing from a head injury. Bringing the rim of the spoon to the bottle opening, she motioned to tip the clear liquid onto the utensil before ceasing said movement to glance back at her patient, swearing yet another pained noise had left his mouth.
We? Natsu had almost forgotten, his teammate's names merely brushing past his mind. His head pounded painfully, a migraine thumping against the left of his skull; it almost hurt to think back to only so long ago. Swallowing the malaise at the back of his throat, his eyelids rested for the first moment of being awake for a few minutes, the relief of safety relaxing his tense body, yet sleep didn't come as easily for dreadful nausea continued to bubble in his sore stomach and eventually both hands came to tighten around his midsection.
"Oh," he murmured, and the bottle was lowered from Erza's hand.
Leaning from her position in the chair, her palm clasped gingerly against his upper arm - cold and unnerving as if the fire that was once so brightly lit inside the dragonslayer had been dampened and extinguished - and from under her fingertips the strain of his muscles clenched and tensed and she was at loss of what to do; was he in pain, or sulking for that matter? The back of her palm was brought to his cheek, burning at her skin the temperature no human should have to endure during their time plagued with sickness; most reluctant to bring herself to the injury sustained on his head.
There was already telling that a fever had developed, that somehow went unnoticed by the requip mage during the few hours she'd spent watching over him since the mission end. Deficient of any of his fiery power, Natsu hadn't the strength to heal himself, nor move against his will in the infirmary bed; and the heat from the fore of his head was not of his own magic but from possible illness in the young mage's body. He looked so pitiful and weak, as he clutched against nausea slowly wracking at his already frail and steadily healing body, but she had to say that he was somehow getting better (or at least was seemingly much better than when he was first found, limp and lifeless and face dripping of blood on the battleground).
This was not the underlying case as Natsu then pressed against the edge of the cot with hands shaking from ailing health, back lifting away from the pillows stacked behind as he doubled over and curled in on himself. She pulled back rather quickly, hands hovering for a second before reaching to the ground to retrieve the wastebasket sat under Natsu's bed; realising the telltale symptoms he usually suffered from on their long train rides out of Magnolia. He coughed with his palm slapped to his mouth, wheezing before heaving into the basket most of what he'd eaten for that morning's breakfast. He gripped at the outside of the bin, feeling the edges under his fingertips, clearly dazed and unfocused as nausea clawed at his throat. His head was throbbing, whining at the excruciating pain right behind his left eye; wanting only to tear away at his face until the headache was gone and the thumping of his head ended.
"Natsu.." A hand came to his back, the other on his arm, soothing where his shoulder blades strained and muscles contracted, as his body lurched forward a second time and hurled the rest of his stomach's contents into the wastebasket fixated in his lap. She continued to rub at his shoulders and tenderly stroking his arm until the dragonslayer's heaves and cries finally settled, then eased his back to the pillows once more.
" 'm sorry," he breathed, a sharp inhale from his sore, dry throat. His eyelids dropped wearily against bagged eyes, for he was so exhausted, sluggish, and so very sore, lucky enough that any nausea still scratching at his throat had long gone by now.
Erza's heart broke. "No need to be," she hummed calmly, moving her hand from the muscles of his back to the bandages on his head, avoiding where what hurt the most for him and touching only at the top of his forehead, like a prayer for the young mage. His fever flared under her skin. "Your stomach was upset, that's all. Must've been mixed signals from the brain."
Natsu moaned. He shifted painfully in his sick-bed, whimpering against the sharp throbbing of his head that never ceased. He felt so ill ridden, so pained and sore; shivering uncontrollably against the cold the pyromancer never usually felt so much as now. He wasn't fine, and Erza very well knew that; and she cursed herself for not asking the proper questions beforehand. She swore she could see a difference in the size of his pupils, something not to be brushed off as his head injury could be more severe than she had first thought. "What do you remember, Natsu?" she asked gently, motioning for the opened bottle again that had been abandoned in his sick state. He watched out with caution as she tipped the liquid onto the spoon and hovered it near his mouth.
"I-" the boy started with a soft hum, blinking the dizziness from his eyes. The spoon was pressed to his lips before he could mouth another word, taken slightly aback as he was forced to swallow the medicine with a grimace. He coughed sickly into his elbow, and Erza was weary that he might vomit again. "Can't remem... w's there a... a..." he gulped, the horrid taste still in his mouth. His mind searched for the words, the town they'd all searched, the worst of a gang of mages he'd barely even recalled fighting. "Gray hit 'em and..."
She smiled sadly. "Yes," she gently rubbed the hand held in her own. "Gray was there."
"An' Luce,"
Erza nodded softly.
Natsu's vision started to blur. Shutting his eyes as the light coming from the open windows just suddenly seemed too bright for him to readjust, he shook his, feeling his brain bump and rattle around in his sore head. His vision had gone out completely before he'd realised what had hit him during their fight; and he would admit it now - although he'd still recalled faint moments of being prodded as he'd collapsed; swept up over someone's shoulder; and pressure against his temple and eye as the injury was covered and wrapped securely - he'd been asleep for most of the time. He could only whine at his unfortunate memory.
"Uh.." he moaned, and his hand absently moved to touch at the sore. He could feel a migraine coming along rather too quickly. From under the soft gauze where his shaking fingers traced over, dull pressure felt as if even Erza held him tight in a headlock or simply if hands were clamped around him; as if his skull was about to crack and the rest of the world was slowly became detached from him. Since he'd awoken, it was the same, crushing pain that would come and go in a pattern; the pain rooted deep within his head and the monotonous throb he just couldn't ignore. He willed it would soon go away, willed the bump and stress of his eye wouldn't hurt as much as it already did, and willed that he could just fall asleep. Erza was talking from beside him, but he couldn't hear her. His ears were ringing and his brain was too groggy, and he slumped heavily against the infirmary pillows fixed behind him.
A hand came to his shoulder, and Natsu blinked once, twice.
His eye began to water.
"Natsu," Erza repeated, leaning from her chair. His eyelids dropped again for a single moment of rest; and though lethargic as he was, he shifted his aching towards her again. He seemed quite out of it at that point, and Erza could certainly tell by now. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"
Natsu swallowed back the bile at the back of his throat. He wanted to nod and grin a toothy laugh and tell her that he was fine, yet it was all but that. His hand was still gingerly cupped at the bump on his forehead, staying put for as long as possible to somehow relieve any pain he'd been currently feeling; as he rubbed at the tender area with a small hiss before sluggishly dropping over his left eye. "Hurts," he mumbled and wiped away any stray tears.
Natsu was never one to get sick. It was always the trains that made him feel the least bit queasy, or when he was stupid enough to eat one's magic in a dire situation. She'd seen what had happened when he'd engulfed Laxus' lightning, and even when he'd swallowed Etherion for her pitiful sake, but never truly had he strayed from the guildhall to recover from mild flu. It was only when he was suffering a shortfall in his fiery, quick healing magic had he'd needed to properly recover; where sickness was unfortunately at bay, but Erza could only guess his nausea came from the confusion and disorientation of his post-concussed and tired body. It seemed he was only now adjusting to the pain of the situation, and she could only pity the dragonslayer.
Her gaze eventually shifted from her patient to the closed door, almost hoping that Porlyusica would return to care for him where she didn't have the proper medical practice as she had. She'd left in a rush, rather, stating she'd patients of dire need elsewhere, and that poor Natsu would only recover with time. He really did need the mage-doctor's help at this time, yet she carefully considered it her own job in the meantime. Humming in small consideration to herself, Erza gave his hand resting atop the covers a loving pat.
"I know," she hushed, not really knowing what to say in this situation; she perhaps still in shock of the whole ordeal in the first place. Never had she known the boy to suffer from such a severe head injury, and he sure would be down for the count for at least a while. He really should've been asleep by now, she considered. "It will really hurt for a while. Besides, it only happened so long ago."
Opening his mouth to speak, not a word was uttered. Instead, his eyelids dropped for another second, debility tugging at his mind and aching at his neck as his head fell for a short moment; and immediately his hand came to rest at his temple again. He swallowed the thick lump scratching at the back of his throat, letting out a soft whimper at the coming of yet another wave of nausea and dreadful headaches. He could sense the hand resting on his own move to hover the wastebasket again, but feeling he wouldn't be emptying out his stomach any time soon, Natsu reluctantly let his head fall back to the pillow one last time. His arm went limp from beside him and his eyes drifted to a gentle close before sleep eventually weighed him down.
"That's it," the mage beside him soothed, his head soon lulled against her hand coaxed yet again against his bandaged forehead. "Please rest."
Happy, she smiled and reached for her book again. With one final glance of her patient, she relaxed in her chair yet again, for it was only so long before he would wake again for his medicine or from dreadful migraines itself. It seemed he was doing fine for now, knowing very well that he may awake many times during his recovery in the guildhall infirmary due to sleep disturbances. It was a problem she herself had suffered from in her time once with a mild pound to the head; but pressing her lips together in thought, he'd certainly had a worse beating than she ever had. He'd symptoms of distress and incoherency, irritability and nausea - all quite severe at that point - and she considered yet again the presence of the renowned mage doctor to help care for him. It kept dragging her away from her book. A rest for herself, she would more like, but the feeling none would properly take care of or watch over him was still nagging at the back of her mind. She was the best option in this case.
Out of the corner of her eye, Erza was suddenly startled by the creaking of the door just ahead of her. She almost dropped her book in surprise; had it been resting on her lap as she too had decided to rest her eyes; as she straightened herself out for the sudden visitors.
Porlyusica, she wished, and Lucy and Gray stood from the infirmary door.
She'd almost forgotten about them all. The entire guildhall outside the room. In the girl's arms tucked a weeping cat, wrestling against her hold to leap at his best friend. His fuzzy cheeks were tear-stained, the poor thing; crying from hours before. His face only fell once he saw the pyromancer.
"Natsu," the little cat cried softly, pawing at Lucy's arm until she reluctantly let go. He leapt from her grasp with a sparkle of white wings, wheeling and flittering to land near the end of the bed and by the latter's feet. Erza relaxed, then smiled sadly, guessing in his recovering state he would much rather see visiting friends than the old woman. They'd all seen the accident take place, and as they were pushed from the infirmary door with a growl of the doctor as he was first being checked over, they all knew it would be quite severe; only wishing to join Erza in helping as to comfort the poor boy. He'd been asleep for only four or so hours (a lifetime for his friends impatiently waiting outside), but he still wouldn't remember. The opposing group were tough, a little too tough; bandits of a rough guild far along the edges of Magnolia. He was attacked by one of the leaders.
The blue cat nudged at the dragonslayer's foot from the top of the covers. "Natsu," he whined again, and the boy jolted almost to full consciousness again.
He awoke with an unsteady breath, gasping shortly for air as he was suddenly tugged from his peaceful rest, mind cracking against his skull in an excruciatingly painful throb. "Ah.." he raised his hand to his face with a groan, rubbing at one eye to then cup the sore on his head as if to support from the throbbing. He eyed the newcomers with some thought, then rested his gaze upon the little blue cat that had awoken him from his much-desired slumber. "Happy," he mumbled.
Lucy and Gray's faces lit up, though Erza bit her lip in reasoning.
"Natsu!" the cat cried out, and dove into his friend's chest with wild eyes. Natsu gagged while his ribs shook, and his headache only painfully returned. He almost looked startled. A small smile stiffened over his face, one that even Erza hadn't seen for a while (though pained as it was), and a hand withdrew to rest on the little head embedded in the crook of his neck. The cat sniffled once, twice, whispered in a whine of how much he'd missed him and that he'd been out for far too long. "It felt like days, Natsu," he dug his claws into the depths of his skin. "We all thought you were gone."
Natsu's grip tightened. He could almost feel his eyes watering again.
"m' sorry, Happy - "
The celestial mage from the foot of his bed then came to his side, wanting only to reassure both but sat with her elbows propped against the bed instead with a chair that had been slipped closer. "Natsu," she ached with a cheery twinkle in her eyes. "We're so pleased that you're okay. How's your head? You-you were out for quite some time,"
Had she been crying? The question rolled around in Natsu's tormented brain, as he released the cat from an admittedly weakened hold and settled in his lap with a flick of a tail. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath and gave a small nod.
God, he was tired.
His friends talked by his bedside politely, knowing of his situation and not wanting to tire him out so easily (which already had), and it came to a point when the awkward angle of his head resting against the pillows choked him of his breath, and he sat up to gag and spit into the wastebasket Erza had so quickly hovered near him. He wasn't so nauseous to spew his morning's breakfast anymore - most likely because it was all gone - and incidentally Lucy gestured for Gray to come by his bedside with a small tray of dry foods which they'd forgotten of before. It was placed next to the tray of medicines and first aid, and Natsu eyed it. Swallowing stiffly, he still smiled small, with a "Thanks,"
"You should eat soon enough," the ice mage awkwardly put a hand to his face. "Its weird not seeing you so lively."
The dragonslayer's sight drifted. "Mm,"
He was so tired. His head hurt.
His eyes would only do so much; they were glazed, a disoriented and uneven look to them, as he moved his head with a crease of pain in his brows. Getting up - or anything too strenuous for that matter - would do him no good for at least a few weeks. His tired glance rested at Lucy beside him. It pained her to see him in such a condition. "You're okay," she murmured, and interlocked her fingers with his. Happy, resting in his lap, burrowed into the blankets and curled into a sleep; and as Natsu fell back to the feather pillows he gave the cat a little scratch behind the ears.
The guildhall was strangely quiet that day. Natsu suspected many had found out of his little problem, and knowing of his heightened senses, decided it was best to keep it low before he next emerged from his rest. At that time, sleep was only just starting to pull at his eyes. Had he not been awoken by his guild mates, he'd be fast asleep for at least another few hours; precious slumber that he needed so desperately and if only his friends would mind that he was nodding off again.
It was at a time when the brush of his hand told him that Lucy had let go and that with the soft closing of the door her, Gray and Happy had left not long later. Erza must've still been with him, and he was silently grateful for that. Strings of intermittent waves of nausea pulled him from his doze at times, and like before, she was there to place the wastebasket in his lap. She'd urged him to eat eventually, and he'd rest his eyes for a second afterwards, only to find the door opening once again merely two or so hours later.
Natsu could only frown at the old woman, yet Erza marveled at the sight and brought her hands together. "Porlyusica," she stood from her chair to greet the doctor. "It's good to finally see you."