A/n- Alright, so this is my very first fairy tail fanfiction, and it's going to be a part of a series that focuses on each pair that I'll be using in it! take note that more pairings will be added later, most likely! this story will also be posted on my ao3 account, however it will probably be updated faster on there than it is here.

Gray leaned back against his chair, barely listening to the conversations around him at the guildhall. This was mostly due to the fact that he was trying to block out Juvia and her incessant praise that, of course, left him annoyed and uncomfortable. Mira watched the two and laughed a little as she walked over to them.

"Gray, I'm curious. You don't seem to show any interest in Juvia and I've never seen you with any girls at the guild. Do you already have a girlfriend or something?" She asks, ignoring the heartbroken pout that this statement gets out of Juvia. Gray shakes his head coolly.

"Nah, it's nothing like that. I'm just not attracted to any of the girls here in that way. I grew up with them, ya know. I pretty much consider them all to be like sisters" He shrugs. Juvia looks at Gray with a small smile.

"Me, too?" she asks a little quietly. Much different than her usual praise and adoration.

"Yeah, you too. You haven't been here for as long, but you're like family" Gray nods. This makes Juvia's smile grow. He may not love her in the way that she had wanted, but at least he cared.

"Well you're not interested in any girls here, so I'm guessing the same goes for the men in our guild, right?" Mira asks with a small laugh. Gray had been open with the guild when he realized his sexuality, and of course they accepted him. Especially considering he wasn't the only one.

"I never said that" Gray's eyes strayed and he stared at the ground while Mira and Juvia just gasped a little.

" So you still have a crush on someone in the guild?" Juvia asked, a spark of interest lighting her eyes.

"Oh, who is it?" Mira asks quickly.

"Not a chance, Mira. Remember when Levy came to you talking about Gajeel? You blabbed about the entire conversation to him!"

"Hey, they're in a happy relationship now thanks to me!" Mira retorts and laughs a little.

"Sorry, but I already know for a fact that he has not interest in me" Gray says. And before he had even finished the sentence he felt himself ripped from his seat.

"Ice princess, right now. I'm challenging you to a fight!" Natsu yells yells, this wasn't fueled by anger, they hadn't fought recently. But it seemed that Natsu was simply itching to brawl, which he would happily deliver. 'At least he isn't interested in me romantically, I should say' Gray chuckles at that thought.

"You're on, flame for brains" Gray springs out of his chair. And the two immediately begin, knowing that Erza would end their fight soon. Of course, before the requip wizard was able to intervene, Natsu and Gray had been able to dish out a ton of bruises. Erza pulled the two apart giving them each a glare, and gave most of her anger towards Natsu, knowing he started the fight.

Gray smirks as he was able to slip away, and out of the guild. He was walking back towards his apartment when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Gray, wait!" Juvia ran after gray.

"What is it?" he turned towards her, to see his shirt in her hand. Taking a look down he groaned, seeing that he had, in fact, stripped again.

"Sorry, Juvia" he grabbed his shirt and pulled it on. The two walked together for a while before Juvia broke the silence.

"I was wondering if your crush is Natsu." she says this simply and straightforward. Gray's face paled.

"How on earth were you able to catch that? Does anyone else think that?" Gray's heart beat a mile a minute. He'd never be able to face Natsu if someone leaked that to him. The humiliation from being rejected would be too much. The ice mage had gone through so much trouble to hide the specifics of who he was interested in over the years. How could she have-

"I watch you a lot, it was hard to see, but the way you look at him is different than the way you look at other people. I never thought it was a crush until you talked to Mirajane." Juvia rubs the back of her head slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I do. I've never really been interested in anyone else. Romantically at least. Just please don't tell anyone" Gray admits with a shrug. Juvia nods at this in understanding.

"Well, I can keep your secret" she smiles "and for the record, I think you were wrong"

"What?" Gray raises an eyebrow

"I think Natsu is interested in you. As more than just a rival at least." Juvia explains.

"Thanks, but I don't think that's true. He's never showed interest in men and he's been getting really close with Lucy lately. I think they're in a relationship" Gray sighs.

Juvia shakes her head "You didn't know? Lucy is in a relationship with Loke"

"Really? When did that happen?" Gray stops, brow furrowing.

"A couple weeks ago. They're discreet, but they don't hide it. I saw them kissing once when they thought no one was looking." Gray smiles a little.

"Well, if that's the case then at least I don't have a reason to feel jealous of Lucy"

"Natsu, you really should just-"

"No."

"But you're being childish-"

"No."

"Would you just listen to me? This is stupid!"

"Lucy, I said no!" Natsu huffs. Happy looks between the pair and sighs

"There's no getting through to him, he's crazy"

"Look, Natsu. You told me already that this wouldn't have happened if it weren't meant to be!" Lucy shakes her head with a huff. After the fight had gone down, Natsu got his ass handed to him by Erza, and Lucy dragged him to her apartment, Lucy confronted the dragonslayer about his complicated relationship with Gray.

"That's not true! Sure, dragonslayers mate for life and all, and they have a predestined mate, however that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't become infatuated with others before they meet their mate. Those relationships are doomed to fail." Natsu growls in annoyance.

"Man up, Natsu! There would be no better match for you than someone in this guild." Lucy retorted. The two had spent most of their time together speaking of the dragonslayer's knowledge of mates once he had admitted to her his feelings for Gray.

"And if I'm wrong I lose him as a friend and as a rival. I complicate our relationship."

"If you're right you sacrifice giving affection to someone you're bound to care deeply for"

"What if I'm willing to?"

"What if Gray doesn't want to be alone?" Lucy's voice becomes more serious at this point. "Look, as you told me. The first time you and your true mate sleep together, you'll know for sure. Right?"

"Igneel didn't go very far into detail, but he said there would be no denying it" Natsu sighs.

"Ugh. Dragonslayers are so complicated! Why couldn't it just be a kiss! That's much more innocent and could easily be forgotten had it not been your real mate" Lucy groans.

"Well i still care deeply for gray, I refuse to lose him just because I was wrong" Natsu sighs.

"I wonder if there's any more to this than Igneel told you."

Natsu shrugs. He had confronted Gajeel about it, but apparently he was never even informed about dragonslayer mating until it had happened to him, so he had no reason not to date Levy. Of course, Lucy had initially believed that this seemed just like how normal people would date, but Natsu quickly explained that if he knew that someone wasn't his mate directly after sleeping with them, then he would have no reason to stay with them.

"Well, maybe Wendy knows something" Lucy shrugs and Natsu bursts into laughter.

"If ironhead didn't know a thing I'm sure Wendy wouldn't!" he laughs. Lucy rolls her eyes.

"Well, we should do something today. To get our minds off of this" the celestial mage suggests. Natsu nods in agreement.

"Let's take a job. I know you're behind on jewel for rent anyways" Lucy laughs nervously at this but the two walk back to the guild together.

When the two wizards arrived at the guildhall they picked a job that would take them a couple days and pay well.

"Well, we don't leave until tomorrow morning, so why don't we just take it easy until then" Natsu shrugs, Lucy nods. This job was just to simply to act as security guards for a party that a very wealthy family was throwing.

"You know, we could get the rest of our team to go along" Lucy suggests with a smile.

"That's counter productive!" Natsu frowns.

"Are you guys talking about a job? Can I come?" Wendy's voice rings out from behind them and Lucy looks to Natsu who shrugs.

"It'll just be us three, Carla, and Happy then" Lucy says

"We have to meet at the train station early tomorrow, so don't be late" Lucy smiles and skips off.

The next morning, Natsu sluggishly wakes to leave for the train station. With Happy following behind him, he approaches the station to see Wendy had already arrived.

"Where's Lucy?" Natsu asks, looking around.

"She's not here yet. But I'm betting she'll arrive within the next couple minutes"

"Lucy won't be coming on this job" both Wendy and Natsu look over their shoulders to see none other than Gray striding towards them.

"What, why not?" Wendy asks with a hint of concern.

"She just told me she was feeling sick. She asked me to come in her place" Gray shrugs.

'Smart Lucy, but Wendy is still-'

"Maybe I should stay behind with her, my magic might be able to help her" Wendy says quickly. Natsu's eyes widen.

"N-no! I'm sure Lucy will be fine, you should just let her rest. We could really use you" Natsu blurts out quickly. Lucy had to have planned this! But he wouldn't let her get her way.

"Really?" Wendy's face lights up. "Well, maybe I'll check on her when we get back then"

"Don't bother. She didn't even seem sick when I had spoken to her, my guess is she just wanted to get out of it" Gray rolls his eyes. Wendy laughs and looks at Natsu with an expression that told him she understood his hesitation to let her leave.

Natsu lets out a sigh of relief, he had just avoided an extremely awkward situation.

The group boarded the train and as usual, Natsu's motion sickness got the best of him. He sat miserably leaning out the window. Happy sat next to the fire mage and patted his back.

"Don't worry, Natsu. This train ride isn't too long" he laughs.

Natsu groans in response.

"So, did Lucy fill you in on what we'll be doing?" Wendy asks, turning to Gray.

"Not really, she only claimed to be sick and asked if I could take her place. I figured you guys could fill me in"

"Well, it's simple. We just have to act as security guards at a party and prevent any suspicious activity" Carla speaks up.

"Sounds easy enough, but I don't see why I was necessary for this"

"Looks like Lucy was trying to force you and Natsu to spend time with each other" Wendy snickers.

"Why the hell would she do that?" Gray questions

"Maybe you should ask Natsu" Wendy shrugs nonchalantly.

The ice mage turns to his mentioned teammate, who hadn't been paying attention to their conversation, and turned back.

"Something tells me that he won't be useful for questioning" Gray rolls his eyes.

The team makes it to the hotel they would be staying in during the one night wait before the party, finding that there were two rooms, one for Wendy and Carla, and the other for Gray, Natsu, and Happy.

Given that each room had two beds, happy and Natsu had quickly opted to share a bed while the ice mage had his own.

That night while everyone had been asleep, Natsu had been kept up by his anxious feelings. He could only hope that this issue would blow over, of course, Lucy would most likely force him to spend time with Gray the moment she found out her plan failed. Natsu groans at that thought and rolls onto his side. It looked like he wasn't getting out of this situation, whether that was good or bad for him he couldn't tell so soon.

'Damn it, Lucy, I hope you know what you're doing' he sighs and closes his eyes. All he could hope is that he wouldn't mess things up between himself and Gray.