Good Intentions

Surrender

Natsu stopped for a drink and made his way over to his team's table. He sat next to Lucy and listened to their conversation for a bit. Wendy and Levy had also joined their group and the conversation became even livelier. There was much laughter and Natsu joined in but Wendy, Gray and Lucy noticed that none of it reached his eyes. Something was definitely up with their dragon slayer. When Natsu got up to leave Gray made to follow him. As Gray walked past Wendy she started and looked at him thoughtfully.

The dragon slayer shook his head at him and said with finality, "Good night, Ice Princess. I will see you tomorrow morning at training. Same place as last time."

Gray considered this and let him go. Tomorrow would be soon enough.

When Gray arrived at their meeting place the following morning Natsu was already there waiting.

"Good morning Frosty, you ready for this?", Natsu greeted Gray.

"Yeah, I'm all fired up!", Gray grinned at his friend.

"Hey, that's my line!', Natsu grinned back, "Alright, let's get started. We're doing five miles today."

They started stretching and doing warm up exercises to prepare their bodies for the upcoming exertions. Gray looked at Natsu's face but could not get a good read on what was going through his mind. They started their run keeping a nice relaxed pace, speed was not their goal. They kept on in uncomfortable silence for what felt like hours to Gray but was probably less than one. Finally, Natsu slowed down to a walk and led them to the riverbank. He sat down and Gray sat close to him. They sat quietly for a few minutes just looking around and catching their breath. The fact that Natsu had chosen this place to talk filled Gray with dread. In all their years of uneasy friendship this was the only place they ever allowed themselves to be vulnerable to the other.

Finally, Natsu took a deep breath before he looked at Gray and announced quietly, "I'm leaving the team. That mission was my last job."

"WHAT! You can't leave the team, it's got your name in it for Mavis' sake.", Gray spluttered out in disbelief. His breath caught in his throat as he finally understood what was going through the dimwit's mind.

"It's just a name. We both know Erza is the real leader anyway.", Natsu answered matter of factly.

"But why? Baka we were trying to stay on the team together, remember?", Gray tried to reason with him. He really did not like the idea of the fire breather leaving, something inside of him grew restless.

"How can you ask me that? I almost got you killed on our last job. It's not safe to play with this.", Natsu said sadly, "If Loke hadn't been there..."

"But he was, and I wouldn't have died anyway. It could just as easily have been me who messed you up.", Gray tried to assure him.

"But it wasn't. It was my fault, I wasn't careful enough and I left you defenseless. We were just lucky that those guys were not mages. Next time, they could be. I'm too reckless! You can't count on me to remember boundaries when I'm fighting. And the way things are now I can't even protect you if something goes wrong.", Natsu yelled angrily.

"I don't need you to protect me, Pinkie", Gray replied just as angrily, reverting to a name he had not used since their childhood.

"I just need you to be around.", he continued quietly.

Natsu startled at Gray's use of that old nickname. He didn't realize this would make Gray so upset.

"So we can't fight anymore. So what? I'll still be around, Snowflake.", he said softly, "Just as I always have. We can find a new 'our thing'. We'll hang out at the guild and have insult wars. We'll play pranks like we used to and I'll tease you about Juvia's stalking. When you come back from missions you'll tell me all about them and you will keep Erza, Lucy and Wendy safe for me."