Hello and welcome to The Times After That! This is a sequel to my Natray oneshot, The First Time. If you'd like, you can go check that out! I'll tell you all what I need to tell you at the end so for now, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. All rights go to Hiro Mashima.

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That Time in Front of the Guild

"No, Gray. I'm not letting you go alone with her," Natsu argued as he crossed his arms stubbornly. Gray rolled his eyes. Why was his lover such a stubborn fool sometimes?

"Relax Natsu. We're only going to be away for a week, maybe even less." Even so, the Dragon Slayer was not convinced.

"I'm not leaving you alone with Juvia. You know she's all over you." Gray breathed out an exasperated sigh.

"Yes Natsu, I know. But you were the one who wanted to keep it a secret from the guild, and if you tag along with us it might make them suspicious."

"Then don't go!"

"I already said yes! Besides, I have no reason to say no!"

"Tell her that something came up!" Gray spluttered indignantly.

"You want me to lie to Juvia?! Natsu, she's our friend!" Natsu huffed and angrily look away from Gray.

"Anyone who tries to take you away from me is no friend of mine," he muttered. Gray's eyes widened slowly in realization. No... it couldn't be. Could it?

"Natsu... are you by any chance... jealous?"

"…Well you never go on jobs alone with me…" A tinge of pink rivalling the colour of Natsu's own hair dusted the Dragon Slayer's cheeks. That gave Gray all the answer he needed. Laughing lightly, he pecked his lover on the cheek.

"I love you, Natsu. Not Juvia. Don't worry ok? Juvia won't do anything and I sure as hell won't. I'll be back before you know it." When Gray's voice was so gentle and loving, Natsu couldn't help but dismiss his worries and listen to his raven haired lover.

"Ok... But she better not do anything!"

"Natsu? Where's Gray?" Lucy asked as she walked into the guild hall the next morning. The pink haired Dragon Slayer was slumped over a table, arms on the table and looking rather moody. Happy was sitting on the table next to his friend, happily eating a fish.

"He went with Juvia on a mission," the rosette responded petulantly. At this, Lucy squealed girlishly and Natsu grumpily pressed his palm to his ear in an effort to muffle the noise.

"Finally! It's taken those two ages to go out together! Ooh I can't wait to tell everyone else!" Natsu groaned. How he wanted to tell Lucy that Gray wasn't on a date with Juvia and that he was the one that the raven was actually in love with! But no, that would reveal their secret relationship and Natsu didn't dare do that, especially with Gray not even here.

The steady sound of approaching footsteps brought Natsu out of his funk.

"What's going on? Did something happen?" Erza asked. The first thing she had seen when she had walked in the guild was Lucy seemingly bubbly with excitement. The blonde in question suddenly rushed forward.

"Erza! It's finally happened! Gray and Juvia finally went out together on a job! Alone!" Erza nodded in approval.

"It's about time those two got together." Natsu growled under his breath, wanting to just jump up and scream that Gray was his damnit! Not Juvia's! Happy, however, came to his rescue.

"You know Lucy, just because they went on a mission together doesn't mean they're dating," the Exceed pointed out. In response, Lucy pinched the cat's cheeks as Happy moaned and complained. Natsu, however, smiled happily into his arms. He could always count on Happy to help him out. Although he was pretty sure it wasn't intended to help him, since even Happy didn't know that the two rivals were dating.

"Well regardless, Gajeel won the bet!" Cana announced, waving a mug of beer around. The Iron Dragon Slayer grinned as many other guild members grumbled and started handing him Jewels. Natsu cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"What bet?" he asked. Cana smiled cheekily.

"The bet for when those two would finally go out on a job together!"

And just like that, Natsu's jealousy and possessiveness both reared their ugly heads once more.

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he marched out of the guild, leaving the rest of Fairy Tail wondering what had upset their Salamander so much.

Natsu kicked a rock down the street as he made his way through the marketplace. He knew that he shouldn't be feeling jealous of the water mage and that he should trust in Gray's words but even so, he couldn't help it. He'd be damned if he let Juvia take Gray away from him! Still, Juvia was beautiful and strong. Natsu was pretty powerful himself, but he didn't have the hips or the figure of a woman. Natsu knew that he was the first man that Gray had ever shown interest in. What if on the mission Gray decided that he didn't love Natsu anymore?

The rosette shook his head furiously and continued briskly towards his house. He didn't feel like being out in public anymore. As he moved, he continued his train of thought. He couldn't let himself doubt Gray. The ice mage had said that he loved Natsu and until the day he died, Natsu would damn well believe in him.

"We're back!" Gray announced as he and Juvia stepped through the doors of the guild. The two had just returned from their mission and needless to say, the guild was overjoyed to have them back.

"Welcome back Gray, Juvia! How was the mission?" Mirajane asked. The bluenette enthusiastically began talking to the platinum blonde bartender about the details of their latest mission. Gray on the other hand, chose to join the rest of Team Natsu at the table they were currently situated at.

"Hey guys! Miss me?" he teased. Lucy grinned as Gray took a seat next to Natsu. She leaned forward across the table, arms propping her chin up.

"So Gray," she drawled. "How was the mission? Did anything interesting happen?" Gray raised an eyebrow.

"Like what? The mission was only to find a rare magical item and retrieve it. There's not much that could happen on a mission like that," he said. Lucy rolled her eyes at her teammate's fake obliviousness. Erza raised an eyebrow in question.

"Gray, you know what she's talking about." At this, the ice mage shook his head, utterly confused while Natsu's eyebrow twitched. He had been happy that Gray had returned but now the girls were starting to grate his nerves again. If this kept up, he would go insane.

"No, I really don't. What are you guys talking about?" Lucy facepalmed and this time, Erza followed suit, after removing her gauntlet of course.

"Did you and Juvia hook up?!" Lucy shouted, exasperated. Gray's deep blue eyes widened in surprise. He glanced around the guild. Everyone's attention was on him and of course, needless to say, Juvia's attention was focused on him as well. Gray sweatdropped. Alright, so Natsu did have some grounds to be jealous.

Nevertheless, Gray cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Umm… no, we didn't." The entire guild groaned collectively, save for one Dragon Slayer. Macao came up to him and slammed his hands down on the table.

"Come on Gray! You spend a whole week alone with a beautiful girl and you don't hook up?! Are you kidding me?!" he demanded. Wakaba was quick to back up his partner.

"You shouldn't wait too long, Gray. Lyon might come and snatch her away from you." Somewhere in the background, Elfman was roaring,

"That's not man!" Gray shuffled down his bench as far away as he could from the two men, awkwardly torn between telling them the truth and keeping Natsu happy. Speaking of which, Gray looked over to his secret lover to see how he was handling all of this.

What he saw made him gulp.

Natsu was smiling. Or at least that's what it looked like. Anyone who really looked would be able to tell that the smile was incredibly forced and that his eyebrow would twitch every so often, revealing how he really felt about this whole situation. Gray began to sweat nervously. He was probably never going to hear the end of this when they got home.

Just when the whole guild was about to go out of control, Mirajane piped in with her piece.

"Oh my, this is getting fun. But maybe…Gray, do you already have a lover?" For a moment, the rambunctious guild went dead silent. A pin dropped in to the ground, and was actually heard. Then, all hell broke loose.

"What?! Is that true Gray?!" Lucy demanded. Gray abruptly stood and looked away from his blonde friend. He could not, however, hide from Cana, who was sitting on the table right next to him.

"Oh he's blushing! He definitely does!" she announced and raised her beer high into the air. Gray's blush deepened and he shouted at her indignantly. Cana however, was too drunk to care and slung her free arm around Gray's shoulder.

"Who is it, Gray? Is it someone from another guild? Is it a citizen of Magnolia? Or…" she paused dramatically as she grinned cheekily. "Is it someone from Fairy Tail?" Gray roughly removed himself from her grasp and Cana whooped. "It's someone here!" she cheered. Juvia turned to Gray, eyes teary as pools of water began to form at her feet.

"Gray-sama! Is it love rival?!" she demanded, pointing at Lucy. The celestial mage blushed and shook her head frantically.

"It's not me! Juvia don't flood the guild!" Gray backed away awkwardly from the two girls only to find himself face to face with Erza.

"So Gray," she started conversationally. Gray gulped and began to plan his escape.

"Y-Yes, Erza?" he asked, fearing what she might do to him.

"Who is it?" she all but demanded. "Is it Levy?" The petite bluenette blushed and shook her head as she shyly glanced over to Gajeel, who seemed to have gotten just the slightest bit grumpier.

"Is it Mira?" The bartender looked around innocently and pointed to herself. Then she laughed and shook her head, before continuing to watch the interrogation in front of her with interest.

It continued on and on, until every girl in Fairy Tail had denied being Gray's lover. Erza crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you lying to me, Gray?" Hellfire seemed to rise up from behind the redhead and everyone looked on in fear. Gray frantically shook his head. He wouldn't be caught dead lying to Erza Scarlet.

Suddenly, a loud bang resounded in the guild. They all turned to the source of it, which was none other than Natsu slamming his hands down on the table, his pink bangs covering his eyes. Without saying a word, he marched over to where Gray and Erza stood. The rest of the guild watched in silence. No way…

"Natsu, what are you—mphf!" Gray started as he was pulled into a kiss. The guild's jaws dropped. Gray encircled his arms around Natsu's neck and Natsu buried his hands into Gray's soft raven locks as he pulled him closer. Gray hummed a content noise in his throat as Natsu continued the kiss possessively. At the display, more than a couple of people blushed and looked away. Cana however, cheered and downed more beer. Natsu didn't care though. He was through with this guessing game and he would show the whole guild exactly who Gray's mysterious lover was.

It seemed like the two were kissing for years when they finally separated. The couple took a look around them. A good portion of the guild seemed like they were frozen in shock. However, that wasn't enough for Natsu. He pulled Gray closer to him and placed his arms around his lover's waist.

"Gray is mine," he declared possessively. At the Dragon Slayer's announcement, the guild slowly came out of their shock.

"Wow… Congratulations guys!" Lucy offered, not knowing what else to say. Never in a million years would she have guessed that Natsu and Gray, two childhood rivals, would become lovers. But she supposed that it did explain Natsu's sullen mood the past week when Gray wasn't here.

Erza was next to step up.

"Does that mean you boys will be getting along better now?" she asked. The two still didn't dare cross the redhead so they nodded nervously. Erza smiled gently. "Then I wish you all the best. Congratulations boys." After that, the whole guild seemed to snap itself out of its trance as they began to cheer and congratulate the two. Makarov, who had up until now only been watching, jumped up and declared a party. Beer was drunken, merriment made and all was right with the world for Natsu and Gray.

It was sometime later during the party that Juvia walked up to the newly announced couple. For the second time that day, the entire guild seemed to lose their voices. They could only watch as the water mage anxiously walked up to the two. Natsu growled and pulled Gray closer to him only for the raven to slap the Dragon Slayer's hands away. Gray stepped up to meet Juvia halfway and saw that there were tears in her eyes.

"Hey Juvia…" he said softly. Juvia however, cut straight to the chase.

"Does Gray-sama really love Natsu-san?" Gray blinked and looked over to his rosette. Natsu was watching the exchange between him and Juvia carefully, as if watching for any sign that Juvia might try to kiss him or something. The thought warmed Gray's heart.

"Yeah, I do," he said. Juvia turned her head to look at Natsu.

"And does Natsu-san really love Gray-sama?" Without missing a beat, Natsu replied,

"I do." Juvia let a breath out. Gray was immediately concerned with how she would take the news but his worries were waved away when she smiled brightly at the two of them, despite the tears in her eyes.

"Then Juvia wishes you both happiness, Gray-sama." Gray smiled gently and brought Juvia into a hug.

"Thank you so much, Juvia."

When the party finally ended, Natsu and Gray were the last ones to leave. Natsu had sent Happy along ahead of them, since it was getting late and the Exceed had wanted to sleep. Oddly enough, Happy hadn't found their relationship unexpected at all.

"With the way you two argue, it was meant to be!" Happy had said when the two had asked him about his reaction. Natsu hadn't understood what Happy had meant by that and neither had Gray, but it seemed like everyone else in the guild did. They had all shared a good laugh at the couple's expense and the party had continued on.

Natsu and Gray fell in step beside each other as they walked towards Gray's house.

"Natsu, what was that all about?" Gray asked, killing the silence. Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"They wanted to know, so I showed them," he answered simply. Gray groaned.

"You were the one who wanted to keep it a secret! What made you suddenly change your mind?"

"Wasn't it obvious? I couldn't stand how they were pairing you up with literally every girl in Fairy Tail! Juvia is one thing, but every single girl?!"

"Why didn't you just tell them normally?!" Gray demanded.

"Do you think they would've believed me?!" Natsu shot back. Gray stopped. Natsu was right. The guild probably wouldn't have believed him if he had just said that he was Gray's lover. Gray sighed in defeat.

"You could've at least said something before you did it," he grumbled. Natsu shot him a coy smirk.

"Oh? But I know you liked it." Gray's cheeks darkened as he slapped Natsu upside the head while the Dragon Slayer grinned childishly at him.

"Shut up, Natsu!"

And done! How was it? Drop me a review if you can ;)

Announcement time!

This story is based on requests! This first one is my own prompt because I had this in mind to open up their relationship to the guild, before I actually started writing prompts that you guys give me. I'm willing to accept 9 requests, and I've already gotten one! So 8 more! Feel free to leave a review here with your request of PM me! Either one works! I'll be looking forward to it!

Next item on the agenda: updates!

Unlike Heavenly Vengeance, if anyone reads both that and this, this fic will not have set update dates. I'll post up the chapters whenever they're done, I promise you that much!

That's all from me! I hope you guys have enjoyed this and I'll see you next time!