Damn, I love the feel of this man under my hands, Lucy thought to herself. Wait! Not like that! Well maybe a little, but really what I mean is, she took a deep breath to steady herself, I love the way I can feel the pain and tension dissolve as I move my hands over his skin. She smiled to herself. That doesn't sound any better, she admitted, but it's true.

"What's wrong with you Ice Princess?" Natsu greeted Gray at the guild hall.

"Nothing, Flame Brain," Gray answered as he came into the room.

"Well, something seems wrong," Lucy said a little concerned. "You look like you're in pain and you keep rubbing your head."

"Did our fight last night finally knock some sense into you?" Natsu smirked at the ice mage.

"As if I'm the one that needs some common sense," Gray growled to the pink haired man. "It's nothing Lucy," he said with a bit of a one sided shrug. "I guess I slept wrong or something. I've got a crick in my neck this morning."

"Poor baby Gray can't even sleep right," Natsu snickered.

"Shut it fire boy," Gray said with a scowl.

"Natsu, be nice," Lucy said. "Gray sit here," she said getting up from her chair, "I'll fix you right up."

"It's not a big deal Lucy," Gray said.

"Then it won't be a big deal for me to set you straight," Lucy said with a smile pointing to the chair she was standing behind. "Sit," she said.

"Better do it," Natsu said a gave a toothy grin. "Lucy gets scary when you don't let her help."

"Yeah," agreed Happy. "It's safer for the rest of us if you just do what she says."

Lucy gave a little pout. "What? I'm not scary," she proclaimed. "Just for that Happy, no tuna from me today."

"See?" Happy moaned. "Don't upset Lucy, Gray!"

Gray chuckled and sat in the chair. "I'll do as you ask Happy. Don't want to upset Team Natsu's delicate balance."

Soon Lucy was making little circles up and down the nape of Gray's neck. When she started lightly flicking the sides of her hands along his shoulder and neck he couldn't help but say, "You have magic fingers Lucy."

There was a brief stutter in the rhythm then Lucy said, "Thank you." She was glad to be behind Gray so he couldn't see her blush at the compliment.

After a few more minutes she did light strokes from his head to his shoulder and then asked, "How does that feel?"

Gray twisted his head from side to side and then shrugged his shoulders. "That feels amazing! Thanks Lucy."

"Great!" Lucy said and started to massage the other side of Gray's neck.

"What are you doing? That side wasn't even hurting." Gray asked, but sat still to let Lucy work her magic.

"In this type of massage you need to do both sides of the body to keep them in balance," Lucy explained. "My instructor was very clear about that and made sure I would remember it."

"How did they do that?" Gray asked interested.

Lucy giggled. "Well I kept forgetting to do both sides, you know mixing them up? I'd remember the right arm and then did the left leg but forgot the other poor limbs. So, to teach me a lesson, she did a massage on just the right side of my body. And I was so relaxed on that side I could hardly walk in a straight line. I kept walking in a circle. It was funny, but then she had me lie down again and did the left side. When I got up after that I was amazed at the difference. The lesson kind of stuck with me after that."

"So does that mean you know other forms of massage?" Gray asked.

"Oh yeah, I know a few others, but this type is the most relaxing to me."

"Why is that?"

"Well, it's the first one I learned, for starters. It reminds me of my mom, too."

Gray was silent for a moment, Lucy didn't talk about her family much and he wasn't sure if she'd be upset if he asked. He didn't want to interrupt the best shoulder massage he'd ever received just because he was fool enough to press her about her past.

"Do you want to explain that last bit?" he asked so that only she would hear. "It's ok to say no," he quickly added.

Lucy smiled. "It's okay. Those are happy memories," she answered. "Whenever we went someplace my mother would take me to the local spa and ask for the area's traditional massage." She laughed at the memory. "Some of them were very...I guess I'll go with, personal, if you get my meaning?"

Gray chuckled. "I get what you're saying."

"But whenever we were at home," Lucy continued her story, "we had standing appointments at the Spa Corazon Felices and our masseuse was this sweet little lady, Maria. She's the one that taught me this style of massage. I think she'd be proud of the job I did here." Lucy said gently gliding off the shoulder. "How's that?"

Gray stood up. He rolled his shoulders back and turned his head in a circle. "It's great! Thanks Lucy!" He gave her a one armed hug. "I owe you one."

"Hey ash for brains, what do you think you're doing?" And with that the morning's fight began in earnest as Gray joined in the fray.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "All my work gone up in smoke!"

After that Lucy would find herself unconsciously cupping the nape of Gray's neck and gently squeezing then releasing her hand if he sat near her. She did it while reading her books or talking with her friends. It never lasted long as Natsu would inevitably start fighting with Gray soon after she started, but it was comforting.

"It doesn't look good," Wendy said a serious look on her face. "If only I had been there! I could have fixed this right away." She was looking at a pale faced Gray and an anxious Lucy. "Gray, your leg was broken which you know, but it's not a clean break, and since it took you guys so long to get back home it's started to heal wrong."

"I knew that doctor was no good!" Lucy exclaimed.

"It's not the doctor's fault," Wendy said, "if he wasn't a healer he wouldn't have been able to tell. He did set it as well as he could, but," she looked up at Gray, "This is going to take a lot longer to heal. I'm going to have to go back in and re-break it then put it back together. I'm so sorry."

"Okay Wendy, do what you have to do," Gray said. "I just want it to stop hurting."

"That's why I'm so sorry Gray," Wendy twisted a lock of hair in her fingers, "This will take more than a few times, there are a lot of little pieces and I have to make sure I get them all put back in place so you can walk again." She looked like she was about to cry. "I'm good but I can't do all of this in one go."

Lucy put her arm around the girl's shoulders. "I believe in you Wendy. You will do what's best for Gray and he will be the better for it." Wendy looked up at her with tears threatening to fall. "You just do what you can and we'll figure out how to handle what's left over. Okay?" She gave her a gentle hug and then moved to be by Gray's head.

Gray nodded. "I'll do whatever you say Wendy. Even stop fighting with Natsu."

They both looked at him with astonishment. Seeing their surprise he chuckled.

"Well for a little while," he amended. "But once I'm better I'm kicking his flaming butt for every fight I have to miss between now and then."

There were smiles all around.

"Okay," Wendy said. "I'm going to go get you some more pain medicine before I start. I'll try to keep away as much of the hurt as I can," she gently assured both mages. Then left the room.

"I feel so helpless," she told Gray. "I wish we had gotten you back sooner!"

"Lucy, we can't change what happened in the past."

"I know," she looked at her friend. "I wish it was me instead."

"No way!" Gray said vehemently. "I'd never want this for you, or for anybody," he paused to think, "well maybe Natsu," he admitted.

Lucy let out a shaky laugh. "I still feel useless," she said.

"There's one thing you could do for me," he said a little sheepishly, "but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"What? Tell me. I'll do it," she said eagerly.

"Could you, would you hold my hand while she does it?" he asked looking down. He didn't want to see her disapproval of a grown man needing his hand held like a scared child.

She reached out and took the hand nearest to her.

"I'll start right now," she said.

Lucy held his hand each time Wendy had to break and mend the bone of his leg. In the days inbetween treatments, she'd sit by Gray's side and massage his hand and arm. First one side and then the other. The feel of his skin gliding beneath hers was the only comfort she could give as he was usually asleep, trying to heal from the trauma caused by his treatments. With each sweep of his arm she would try to send him healing thoughts, it might help she hoped. When Wendy or Charla would come in to send Lucy home for the night, Gray would offer a weak, "Thank you, Lucy." To which she would only reply, "See you in the morning."

"Good to see you up and around again," Levy greeted Gray on the morning of his return to the guild hall.

"Good to be up and around again," he replied with a grin.

"We've missed having you around, you know," the bluenette said.

"I'm sure it was quieter," he said.

"Actually I think it was louder with you away," Levy said thoughtfully. "Natsu seemed to be trying to make up for your loss." She grinned. "And he was missing Lucy, too."

"Yeah, I guess I did kind of have her all to myself," he said without thinking.

Levy cackled. "I have to tell Mira you said that! She's been shipping you two so much since you came back injured."

"What?" he exclaimed. "It's not like that."

"What is it like?" Levy asked expectantly.

"Look, Lucy just feels bad that it took us so long to get back. She thinks she's to blame for the doctor setting my leg wrong and that it's her fault I had to go through all that."

Levy looked crestfallen.

"It doesn't matter that I tell her it isn't true, either," he said dejectedly. "She just doesn't believe me."

"Well," said Levy with a smile, "at least you're better now."

They both looked around as the door banged open.

"Hey Frosty! I hear you're finally not playing sick any more," Natsu said by way of greeting. "Did ya get all soft and weak laying there in your nice comfy bed?"

"Fight me boy-blunder and find out," Gray replied. Already losing his shirt and preparing to give the fire mage a beat down. "I've been waiting six weeks to do this."

"Ahhhhhh!" was the only reply as Natsu's fireball was suddenly extinguished with a giant snowball.

Later Gray would sit next to Lucy and ask if she could massage his knee. He knew it was fine and it didn't really hurt, but it felt different. Soon it was a new routine between the two of them. Gray would ask her if it was okay to rest his leg on her lap, which she would agree to. Then she would massage the knee, calf, ankle and foot as she watched the comings and goings of the guild, not paying much mind to what her hands were doing, then Gray would turn and sit forward so that Lucy could gently glide along the planes of his back and shoulders, usually it would end with her massaging first one hand and then the other "for balance" she would always say. Often Mira and Levy would exchange a glance and then Cana would change the odds on the bets she had been taking, but otherwise no one said anything.

Which was what led to this moment so many months later. They had all been on a mission together and were recuperating in Lucy's apartment. Erza had used all the hot water for her bath, which was no problem for Natsu as he just heated the water for himself and Happy though he refused to share a bath with Gray because he said the ice mage made the water too cold to heat properly. Fortunately for Lucy, she'd had the first bath so she was fine, too. Gray took a cold bath claiming that the cold didn't really bother him which was fine for getting cleaned up, but still not very restful to his sore muscles. When he emerged from the bath Erza, Natsu, and Happy were asleep on the bed and Lucy was writing something at her desk.

"Oh, you're done," Lucy said.

"Yeah, sorry I took so long."

"It's not a problem," she replied and smiled. "I'm afraid you drew the short straw on sleeping arrangements as well." She gestured toward the bed. "I tried to keep them off, but you can see the result."

He nodded. He'd been expecting it. "But we have our bedrolls so that's not a problem." He looked at her face. "What's happened?"

"Natsu," Lucy began and stopped when Gray held up a hand.

"That's all the explanation I need," Gray said and sighed.

Lucy giggled. "Don't you just know it?"

Gray smiled at the heavenly mage.

"I have some extra blankets and pillows, they won't be as comfy as the bed rolls, but they should work for the night," she stood up and went to the closet where she kept her spare bedding. "We have," she said pulling items out, "three pillows and one, two blankets." She looked at the ice mage. "I'm so sorry."

Gray smiled. "We can make this work." He looked at Lucy. "It was a really hot day and it's still pretty warm, do you need a blanket on top to keep you comfortable?"

"No," Lucy said.

"Neither do I. So we can fold up the blankets and sleep on top of them."

"I usually only use one pillow," Lucy commented.

"Me, too, but I might need the other one under my leg tonight," he looked glum. "Sometimes I still need the support under my knees at night or it hurts."

Lucy placed a hand on his shoulder. "That sounds like a good plan. Let's put it into action."

Soon the beds were made. As they were lying down Gray couldn't help a groan escaping his lips.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"Just some knots and sore spots from today. It's nothing to worry about."

"Gray-" Lucy said softly.

"You're sore and tired from the day, too."

"Gray-"

"I'm not going to ask you."

"Please, Gray?"

He sighed.

"Okay."

Damn, I love the feel of this man under my hands.