Sting and Natsu walked towards the spa house towels and items in hand, and Stings neck was exposed as he opted to leave the scarf at the hotel. They both gasped quietly at the sight.

Not only was it gorgeous and designed beautifully... but It was huge compared to the spa houses and baths back in Magnolia.

Eight unnaturally tall and lush cherry blossom trees stood on either side of the short garden path that led to the front doors of the establishment. Of course they weren't the biggest... but that's to be seen later.

Elegant and beautiful purple Suiren(Lotus), Amaririsu(Amaryllis), and Sakurasou(Primula Sieboldii) flowers lined the path as well, and fields of flowers stretched beyond that in other shades.

"They must have a really good plant mage working here," Natsu said quietly, still looking around the grounds.

Sting nodded, "Yeah... better than Droy on this front...". While that might seem a tad bit rude, it truly wasn't.

Plant mages come in all shapes and sizes. Some focusing on landscape work, such as that of large residents or gardens, simple farming, or that of more battle focused magic. Droy is the last variety. So while saying he was worse then whoever might be responsible for this, they aren't insulting his talents on his more practiced front.

The two continued walking while admiring the lush gardens. They both stared with fascination at the statue of a dragon with four wings.

They both thought it looked pretty cool, and Sting found it menacing with all those teeth and stone scales. He was a tad bit envious, he was just a cloud!

Natsu noticed the slight look of jealousy in Stings stare and tapped his shoulder. "Stop that, you look fine as a cotton ball." He said playfully with a grin.

Sting chuckled quietly, before asking more seriously "Do I?".

Natsu nodded, "Of course,". After a second he added mischievously, "But if you didn't it'd be your fault for putting any thought into it,".

Sting grunted in annoyance. Natsu had explained after the little... mishap that putting to much thought into their transformation puts them at jeoroudly. It takes their most forward desires and twists them a little bit, just to be a pain in the ass.

It's a real nightmare when two of them clashed or one opposed another.

Sting had hoped that he would look a little... cute in a sense. But also a little terrifying. And it, the transformation, always tried to satisfy the user.

The transformation response to his clashing hopes? Well, we already know that silly! Turning him into a fluffy baby... because what's more terrifying than a baby? He managed to drop that 'hope'/'desire'. But... ever since that incident he couldn't drop the cute bit. Maybe because of Natsu's little... praises? Comments?

Sting didn't think Natsu realized he wanted to be scary... but being called cute really was something that stuck somewhere in his mind.

Maybe he would talk to him about it someday, but it wasn't a priority. Honestly, he sorta liked the idea of Natsu thinking of him, and saying it publically, that he was something he found cute.

The two approached the front desk and Sting awkwardly asked for a single private room. Natsu who was standing just behind him felt a pressure lift off his shoulders that had sat there since he escaped into his room after asking and stressing about... things... as he grabbed some of the belongings he would need.

They were given a circular flying lacrima to show them around. They walked through a few corridors and halls before It buzzed loudly and turned a bright red in front of a solid wood door.

Natsu who had not paid any attention to what the front desk personnel had said jumped in surprise. Sting smiled slightly at his reaction before he reached for the door handle.

"This is our room Natsu, see," Sting said teasingly as he opened the door. "And this is our guide," He gestured to the orb.

Natsu tilted his head in confusion.

"It's what's supposed to show us around..." Sting explained further. A sweat drop forming on his forehead because of Natsu's density.

"Ohh! So like a floating clap!" Natsu exclaimed, with some understanding, after a second.

"...Map...?" Sting corrected before he shrugged, "And sure, why not...". He turned and walked into the pitch black room and the orb zoomed ahead. Natsu followed behind quickly to catch up.

They couldn't see anything inside the room, and wondered if maybe something was broken. They walked for around twenty seconds before

their guide started blinking red again, signifying for them to stop. Suddenly It zoomed away, and vanished from view.

"So much for being a guide!" Sting called out in surprise, throwing his right fist up. He took a step forward and gasped at a sudden... change.

Before Natsu could say anything they heard a quiet click and then the entire room lit up. Natsu looked around quickly before Sting took back his attention.

"Shit!" The white dragon roared moments before splashing into the large pool of hot water. Throwing his towel and other items into the air behind him, which landed at random on the ground.

As it had turned out, the orb, which was now locked in place on the nose of a statue that resembled a dolphin in the center of the room, stopped them within one foot of the edge of the basin. Sting resurfaced, spitting out a bit of water that had found its way in his mouth, "H-hot!" he exclaimed at the searing feeling, that was ever so slowly fading.

Natsu was laughing at the sight, "Good job, puff ball!".

Sting continued to quietly curse. While the pain was slowly subsiding, it still stung.

After a minute he felt himself relaxing a little as he had adjusted to the heat. Natsu was looking around the room and took in as many of the details as possible, Sting followed his example after he was able to focus.

The ceiling was that of what could only be described as that of the underside of a giant cherry blossom tree. It's intertwining branches let off a strange, possibly, bioluminescent light too. But, it was just pitch black so maybe it was just a type of magic.

"Well, I didn't see that outside!" Sting said in surprise, he had yet to make a move to exit the warm, chest high water.

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed.

Continuing to look around, there were more plants and natural looking details and furnishings to the room.

On the furthest wall from the door, which the pool ran along completely, was a lush flower garden growing on rock formations that were crawling up the wall with vines hanging down meeting it halfway-ish.

To the left of the door were all of the necessities for hygiene and cleanliness. Toilets, showers, lockers, and even a pad descender for females.

To the right was what looked like a sauna, judging by the signs, but same with the furthest wall, covered by rock faces, vines, flowers and all sorts of other plants.

One of the more noteworthy features were the two rivers that flowed freely through the air, similar to that of which Natsu saw in Edolas.

They began on the opposite side of the pool relative to the other and met in the middle, against the far wall and ran along its face before ending up back in the pool.

There were even a few plants floating up on them too and a few hanging from the 'ceiling' of twisting and glowing branches.

"Wow..." Natsu breathed out in a amazed sigh, "This looks so cool,". He continued to look around in fascination.

Sting looked up at him and nodded, "Yeah... it really is wonderful," he said in agreement.

But, Sting of course, wasn't only referring to the surrounding scenery. Natsu's face also looked 'wonderful', with interest and joy shining in his eyes and his lips that were tugged up in a wide smile. He liked seeing him happy.

It was moments and places like this that really showed them how lucky they were to have magic in their lives.

While the rocks and maybe the vines could have been done without it, the rest would've been impossible. The tree alone would've taken hundreds of years to grow that large, water obviously can't fly, and definitely not have Lily pads and other plants floating on it while doing so. The flowers would be either out of bloom half the year or die from the heat, too.

Natsu looked down and met Sting's eyes, and, hopefully, asked in a teasing voice, "You gonna stay in there with your clothes, or you gonna strip?". He internally cheered himself for managing to say that normally, but now the only issue was to hold himself from breaking out into a happy dance. That really wasn't difficult though.

Sting blinked in surprise, before looking down and realizing he was still fully clothed. "Oh! Yeah, f-forgot," He walked/swam to the edge and began to pull himself out. He stood up, dripping wet and sighed, it was a bad idea to wear such heavy clothing that would take ages to dry.

But, an idea popped into his head, a literal campfire was with him! "Hey Natsu, Your dryin-" He looked to the 'campfire' who had already begun to strip and quickly snapped his head away. 'HES NAKED! AGAIN!!' He screamed in panic, luckily containing it to only inside his head

Natsu finished pulling off his pants, now only in his boxers, and turned and looked to Sting. "I'm... dyin?" He asked, confused by the statement.

Sting awkwardly focused on the edge of his puddle, to avoid eye contact with Natsu, "Yo-your drying... my clothes, later...".

"Ohh," Natsu nodded, "Yeah, of course!". He smiled when he got a evil idea, but he could play it off as innocent. 'Might as well!', He walked over and tugged Sting's shirt up and his stomach suddenly became exposed.

Sting snapped out of his trance. "The hell!?" He yelped in surprise.

Natsu smiled innocently as he looked him in the eyes, momentarily stopping his 'work'. "Can't exactly dry it if you're wearing it," he reasoned simply.

Sting pulled away but Natsu yanked up again. Now the entirety of his chest was exposed.

"Hey!" Sting shouted in surprise as his shirt went over his head. 'What the hell is he doing!' He thought panically. He tried to push himself back farther but the shirt didn't budge, instead now tightening around and paining his neck.

"Stop moving! Sheesh, it's hard enough it being wet and all," Natsu said as he tugged on the fabric harder. Sting's protests were muffled as the clothing was covering his mouth now.

After a few more seconds of tugging and pulling, some resisting too, it finally slipped off Stings head, messing up his wet hair further. "Natsu!" He barked out in angry embarrassment as he stepped back away from the fire dragon slayer.

Natsu lit his hand ablaze and held it next to the wet shirt, cringing in discomfort from a hot prickly sensation. Damn scented shampoos. "Hmm?" He hummed in question trying to keep his face normal as he tried to keep his cool. He did just strip Sting after all. The pain helped a little.

Sting was gonna answer but blushed and looked away in nervous frustration, 'He just stripped me of my shirt, what am I supposed to say!?'.

Natsu waited for an answer before he took the lack of one as one for simply 'nothing' and continued to dry the shirt.

They stood in silence for a minute, Sting continued to face the floor. He tried to say something but before he could Natsu was finally satisfied with his drying. "You'll need to... umm... to strip, more," He shook his hand and the flame went out. "Here," He tossed the shirt at Sting, now with it being completely dry.

Sting barely caught the item, "Ye-yeah... but you don't need to dry them right now, yaknow...".

"Ohh...", Natsu rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and shrugged, he grinned softly, "Oops... Ill just... I'm gonna... gonna go test, uhh, the water...". He turned around and approached the water, still wearing only his boxers.

Sting watched his retreat before hastily removed the last of his clothing down to his undergarments. He wasn't gonna be the first one to go fully nude, that was a bit...a lot... awkward.

Natsu was sticking the tip of his foot to test the water, to see how hot it actually was. Hardly warm at all to him. "Damn... it's colde-" He began to complain as he turned back to Sting only to choke on his words as he saw his, mostly, naked body standing a mere four feet away.

Sting rubbed his arm that hung loosely at his side nervously. He faced the ledge instead of focusing on the fire dragon slayer, ignoring his eyes that traveled all over the entirety of his body. He coughed and cleared his voice without looking up, "Umm... Ma-maybe we should get in?" He suggested.

Natsu who was staring at every, every, inch of Sting's body snapped out of his daze. He had been taking in all the eye candy he could... again.

He slowly nodded to signify his agreement but made no move to speak. He knew he would probably, most definitely, mumble some incoherent nonsense if he did. He stepped back and slipped on a random bottle that Sting had thrown when he took his dive into the pool.

"Damit!" He roared as he stumbled back and into the pool same as Sting had earlier, except of course, backwards. He was fully submerged and felt his back hit the bottom.

He gasped at the sudden change in temperature from the cool air to the not so cold water and his contact with the bottom. Even if it wasn't exactly that hot to him the change was very noticeable, and very shocking.

Of course, as he gasped while he was underwater it wasn't air rushing into his lungs, it was water.

His eyes grew wide for a moment before he shot up towards the surface.

He broke out into the air and began to struggle to cough up the water that was now suffocating him. Sting who was laughing at the show quickly grew confused to the sputtering and coughing.

He watched him for a moment before he realized, 'Wait is he... is he drowning?!'. His heart picked up speed out of alarm and he sprung into action.

Sting ran and flung himself into the pool, not caring if he was still wearing boxers. "Natsu!" He yelled in panic as he swam/ran up to him.

Natsu grasped at his throat and pounded his chest. He couldn't even say what was the problem, but Sting luckily already knew. There was water in his lungs, and by the way it looked he couldn't get it out on his own.

He struggled to think of what to do but eventually grabbed him from behind and pulled his chest in hard, trying to make the water come out by force. Right now was a good time to wish he had taken CPR lessons when they were offered. 'Cmon, you idiot. Cough it up, come on! Just cough it up!' He repeated to himself silently. His heart was thumping hard, at a faster rate then normal, out of fear. A shit ton of fear.

Any anger towards Natsu that Sting had, pretty much none he really didn't mind, for forcibly stripping him had completely vanished in the face of danger. It was mostly embarrassment, anyway.

After a few more 'compressions' Natsu coughed up the last of the water violently as Sting held him up from behind. He had his head pressed into Natsu's neck, and held onto him tightly when he fell back into Sting limply, a little exhausted, attempting to catch his breath as he panted heavily.

He groaned in pain while Sting sighed quietly in relief. "That sucked..." Natsu grumbled quietly, drowning was defiantly not something he wanted to do again. His breathing was slowly returning to normal.

Sting chuckled and held him a bit tighter causing Natsu to inhale out of surprise. With the amount of adrenaline running through his body he really didn't care what he did that was out of character. 'He's safe... he's safe... he's okay. He's fine, of course he is, he's always fine. Always...' He repeated with his eyes screwed shut tightly in the crook of Natsus neck, while also taking in his scent in an attempt to calm his own racing heartbeat.

He could only imagine how scared Natsu might've been.

Both got some comfort out of it, the embrace, but Natsu grew worried."Sting?" He asked wearily after the pressure continued to not let up. He turned his head slightly and saw Sting pressing his face into his neck out of the corner of his eye. "You okay?" He asked.

It was, in a twisted way, funny that the drowning victim was asking someone else if they were okay. "Ye-yeah... just, please don't ever do that again...you scared me..." Sting said with a shake in his voice. He pushed his head in more without registering he was going to do so and took in another shaky breath.

Natsu stared, awkwardly as hell considering it was out of the corner of his eye, at the blond. He raised his hand and gently patted his head, "Yeah... I wasn't planning on it..." he said, a bit of confusion evident in his voice, but he didn't ask any questions... he wouldn't until he calmed down a bit.

They stood in silence for a while. Natsu had relaxed and his breathing had steadied, he was still questioning Stings reaction though. Do people usually react like this when they see/save someone from drowning?

Anyway... speaking of the blond, he was still holding onto Natsu tightly. But he had relaxed on the sniffing part; he still felt his heart racing and the adrenaline had yet to completely subside.

Natsu decided to bring his own hands down to Stings, which were interlocked Infront of his stomach, and give them a gentle squeeze, figuring it might help with... whatever was going on with him.

And it did, Stings grip relaxed and his arms grew slack. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times before quickly pulling away when he realized what he was doing fully.

"I- Umm... s-s-s-..." Sting stuttered over his words. "I didn't... Umm... mean.... uhhhhh..."

Natsu grinned, guessing he knew what he was gonna say, "No. Thanks, Sting. I owe you and... I'm sorry for scaring you...". Silently he added, 'even if I don't know why you got that scared,'.