The Dragon's Vessel

Frantic knocking can be heard from the front door of a vet clinic, Gajeel looked around quickly as a silhouette appeared and flicked on the foyer light.

“Gajeel?” A woman’s voice can be heard as she approached the door, her brown hair was tied up in a bun with a loose strand of hair framing her face. Her emerald green eyes assessed Gajeel before turning her attention to a weird-looking guy that he had propped up in one arm and a short female in his other arm. “What’s going on?” She asked, noticing the slumped guy had wings and weird hands but the blood was what she noticed the most. “What the fuck, this isn’t a hospital, or is this some weird cosplay thing?” She asked but the look of urgency halted anymore questions as she opened the door, allowing Gajeel to barge inside.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Gajeel dropped Natsu in a heap, in his dragonic shift he was a lot heavier and the walk to the clinic alone had been a struggle. “I’ll explain everything soon but first I need your help.” He stated, turning to look at Jinxx with pleading eyes. He still had Kimi in his arm and he moved over to the closest seat and carefully sat her down, watching her slump forward as he placed a hand against her open wound.

“What’s happening with this… this guy?” Jinxx asked bringing Gajeel out of his worried thoughts as he moved his blood-covered hand away from Kimi and got up, only to crouch and check on Natsu.

“He’s hurt bad,” Gajeel muttered, unsure of what could be done.

“Alright big man, put him on the table, and you’ll need to hold down those things. I don’t want to get knocked out.” Jinxx instructed, glancing between all of them as Gajeel picked Natsu up with a grunt and slumped him onto the closest table.

“Now what?” Gajeel asked gruffly. Jinxx studied his tense facial expression, she’d never seen him so unsure before and she begun to feel the importance of this situation.

“Now we save lives.” She declared, moving to Natsu as Gajeel scooped Kimi up and followed after her. “How badly is she injured?” Jinxx asked, trying to figure out who’s life was more in danger.

“Don’t worry about her, I can heal her, it’s him I can’t heal,” Gajeel stated, placing Kimi down but closer to Natsu.

Jinxx looked at him for a moment, "I have no idea what that even means but alright, you handle her." Jinxx then anaesthetised Natsu before she moved on to staunch the bleeding. Next, she felt for any broken bones and reset any that needed to be reset. Once the bleeding had stopped she stitched him up and rechecked his vitals.

Gajeel waited a moment for Jinxx to be preoccupied with tending to Natsu. He swallowed the lump in his throat before he moved to lay Kimi down. Hesitating for only a second, he picked her wrist up and quickly bit down on her forearm. He stayed like that for a moment while reaching down and lifting her shirt up slightly to check on her wounds, he felt relieved when he saw the bleeding stop and her wound start to close as it repaired itself.

"Goddess above, Gajeel, how are you doing that?" Jinxx by now was hovering over him and Gajeel flinched, dropping Kimi’s arm. With the wound healed Gajeel craned his neck to exam Jinxx’s reaction.

“I, um, it’s just this stupid bonding thing I can do with her. Nothing special.” Gajeel muttered, struggling to explain something deemed ‘intimate’ between a dragon and their vessel. “Anyway, how’s the pink-haired dummy.” Gajeel stood up and turned to look at Natsu who had by now transformed back into his normal ‘human’ form. “Looks like he’s gonna be okay,” Gajeel breathed in relief.

Jinxx stretched out her back, "lucky for you I specialise in 'Exotic’ animals and he definitely counts." she stated as she crossed her arms and leant her hip against the operating table, "you owe me an explanation Gajeel and an honest one."

Gajeel remained silent for a moment, contemplating the right words to use. “Ah fuck it, I’m a Dragon, and not the shitty ones in those shitty cartoons or whatever. A long time ago my kind took on human forms, then shit went down and we lost our powers. Certain humans were picked and turned into these vessels that contain our power, in order to access our power we have an ‘augmentation’. It’s an ability that differs with each dragon, in order to ‘feed’ from our vessels our ‘augmentations’ need to be used to access it.” Gajeel tried to explain as best as he could but realistically wasn’t going to be surprised if Jinxx threw them out because she thought he was making this shit up.

Jinxx tapped her chin. "So this girl is your 'vessel' and your friend has 'augmented' into his dragon form?"

“Seems so, I meet her and the others a week ago and that form is called Draconic shift, the next form is turning into an actual Dragon.” Gajeel ran a hand through his hair. “Our kind, we’re hunted down by these people. Poachers I guess, they like to sell our body parts on the blackmarket.” Gajeel frowned, his shoulders slumped slightly.

Jinxx's face instantly fell, "as a vet, there’s nothing I hate more than poachers. If I can ever help, let me know okay?"

Gajeel’s facial expression softened and before he can register his own movement he goes over to Jinxx and wraps his arms around her in an embrace. “Thanks.” He muttered.

Jinxx is shocked by the affection from this gruff man but after a moment she wraps her arms around his torso and gently strokes his back, "I'm here if you need me Gajeel." She informed.

“Let me at ‘em!” Natsu sprung up from the table, literally spewing fire from his mouth but it quickly vanished and he sunk to his knees looking ill but glanced up and looking between Gajeel and Jinxx’s embrace.

Gajeel’s face went bright red as he pulled away from Jinxx. “What are you doing you idiot! You need to rest,” Gajeel yelled at Natsu.

“Why are you yelling at me! I’m the one that’s injured here!” Natsu yelled back.

Jinxx sighed and looked between the two bickering boys, "so who’s paying the bill?" She asked them.