Good Intentions

Free To Choose

"You talked to Lucy?", Gray asked.

"Not exactly. I mostly gave her the silent treatment."

Gray nodded in understanding thinking about how hard it had been to talk to Erza. He motioned for Natsu to continue.

"Anyway, he finally came to the inn. We talked for awhile and when he found out I was a Fire Dragon Slayer he had an interesting theory. It's only a theory though. I didn't want to get your hopes up. That's why I wanted to see Wendy and Gajeel first.", he said sadly.

"Just tell me, Flame Brain. I can take it."

"The body temperatures of fire mages are higher than a normal human so they are able to burn through poisons or potions. Fire Dragon Slayers burn even hotter. He thought that it might be possible that I would have needed more of the potion initially to have the same result as a normal human. So two drops might have been my regular dosage. If that were true, then the potion would not have been able to attach itself to my magic container and the emotion tampering effects would not be permanent on me. If there was nothing for you to respond to in me then your potion would lay dormant and we would be free from its effects."

"That's a lot of ifs.", Gray said

Natsu nodded. Gray sat down on Natsu's couch and motioned for him to join him.

'We'll wait for them together."

Happy finally returned with Wendy and Gajeel. When they had not been at the guild he had gone to Fairy Hills to get Wendy but neither of them had known where Gajeel lived. They had walked around Magnolia trying to isolate his scent but it had taken awhile to actually find him, then a bit longer to convince him to come back with them all the way to Natsu's house.

"Hello Natsu-san, Gray-san", Wendy said happily.

"Oi, Salamander. Why am I here?", Gajeel asked irritably.

"I want you guys to smell me."

"Seriously? What the hell? I came all the way here for that?", Gajeel grumbled.

Wendy began to sniff the air around them. She had a curious look on her face.

"Gray-san can you go outside for a moment please?"

Gray nodded and stepped outside.

Wendy focused on Natsu. She looked at Gajeel pointedly and he did the same. After a few seconds they both stared at each other. Natsu was trying very hard not to scream at them.

"Well?", he said as calmly as he could manage.

"The scent is still there, but yours is definitely back.", Wendy said and she looked to Gajeel for confirmation. Gajeel gave a slight nod.