This was supposed to be an easy job. Gray thought to himself as he washes his face in the bathroom of the hotel he and Juvia were staying in. But it ended up being more difficult than he thought, and even though they still got the job done, Juvia had gotten hurt protecting him.

It wasn't a bad injury. At least not as bad as it could have been. They were hired to go and attack a giant squid that had been attacking some fishing boats at some small beach town. They thought they'd be safe on the beach, but apparently this squid had gotten tired of attacking boats for fish and was now hungry for people instead. Unluckily for the squid, the only two people on the beach at the time were Gray and Juvia, but unluckily for them, this thing only had a few tentcales but they were really thick so it was hard to cut through them, and they could move fast so they had to pay attention. It wasn't much of a problem for Juvia since she could use her water body and escape the tentcales grip but Gray couldn't do that. And one was going to grab him that he didn't see and so Juvia took the hit for him, getting her leg caught in it's grip before she got lifted into the air. Gray immediately cut her down before the creature had a chance to fling her into the ocean but it still hurt her leg and she was limping during the rest of the fight and on their way back to the hotel after they took the thing down using their Unison Raid.

So Gray carried her bridal style back to their hotel room, much to her delight and one of the doctors in the town checked her out. She said that Juvia's leg was fine. Nothing was sprained or broken, the muscle was just strained, so she just needed to ice it and she'd be fine. But Gray couldn't help but feel guilty about what happened. That's why he's been hiding from her in the bathroom of their hotel room. He doesn't want to see her, and be reminded of his failure. But then he was reminded that he couldn't hide from her all night when she knocks softly on the door.

"Gray-sama? Are you okay in there it's been awhile?" Juvia asks softly.

Gray immediately goes to the door and opens it, staring at Juvia with a frown on his face.

"What are you doing standing up, you're supposed to be in bed resting your leg!" Gray scolds her.

"Juvia was resting but Gray-sama had been in the bathroom for so long that she got worried something happened and-oh!" She yelps as Gray scoops her up in his arms again and lays her back down on the bed.

"I'm not the one you should be worried about. You need to focus on resting to heal your leg." Gray says sternly.

"Juvia's leg will be fine. All she needs to do is ice it." Juvia reminds him.

"Then stay in bed and ice it! Stop worrying about me, doing that is what got you hurt in the first place!" Gray shouts at her and immediately regrets it when he sees her start to cry.

"Is Gray-sama mad at Juvia?" She asks and sniffles.

"What? No Juvia I'm not mad at you." Gray says and kneels down on the floor next to the bed. "I'm mad at myself."

"Why? You haven't done anything wrong?" Juvia asks.

"Yes I have." Gray says and looks at his hands on his knees, unable to meet her gaze, or look up and see the red marks on her leg that were bruising slightly.

For once in his life Gray wishes she would put on a pair of pants.

"You got hurt because I wasn't paying attention. I let myself be vulnerable to that attack, leaving you only a little time to protect me and the only way to do that resulted in you getting hurt. You got hurt because of me Juvia. I swore I would become a man who could protect you and I didn't. I failed you and I'm so sorry." Gray says and rests his head against the mattress.

"Gray-sama." Juvia says while running her hand over his hair, prompting him to lift his head up to look at her. "You did not fail Juvia today. You protected her from a more serious injury by cutting down the tentacle before Juvia got flung into the ocean. Because of you, Juvia is only slightly hurt instead of seriously injured. Thank you Gray-sama, you are and always will be Juvia's heroic ice prince who will protect her from danger."

Gray smiles at her.

"Thanks Juvia. I feel better now, and I'll try harder to protect you next time." He says then looks confused as Juvia swings her legs over the side of the bed. "Hey where are you going?"

"To get more ice. The stuff that the doctor gave Juvia melted so now she has to go get more." Juvia explains.

Gray bit his lip as he got an idea.

"Wait, lay back down." He instructs her.

"But Juvia needs to go get ice-oh goodness." She whispers when she sees Gray's hands start to glow with his magic.

"I don't want you using your leg unless you have to, and you've got an ice mage right here, so I'll just do it myself." Gray says and places his cold hands on Juvia's ankle where the red, bruising mark from the tentacle started and he began moving his hands up her calf.

Juvia's face was bright red and she was wondering why she never asked him to do this sooner, and multiple fantasies were filling her mind. Then she got brought back to reality as Gray's hand made it to her thigh, and was now starting to move along it, following the trail and she looks up to see that he was starting to get flustered too.

"Juvia, how high up did this thing grab you?" Gray asks and gulps as his hands made it up to her guild mark and he was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate on what he was doing.

"Keep going..." She answers softly.

Gray lets out a shaky breath and lets his fingers move even further along her leg, past her guild mark until his hand on the inner-part of her leg touches the spot where her thigh meets her-

"Juveen!" She squeals.

Gray immediately removes his hands and turns away from her so she can't see the nosebleed he has coming on.

Juvia was completely flustered but also excited at the same time.

"Gray-sama's hand was so close to touching Juvia's-"

"Youknowwhatwhydon'tIjustgrabtheiceinsteadthatwayIdon'thavetotouchyouinanyweirdplacesandyoudon'thavetomovebebacksoon!" Gray blurts out, interrupting her and running out of the door so fast he left his clothes behind.

"That's a good idea." Juvia says to herself while waving her hand in front of her face to cool herself down. "Because she's feeling hotter than ever after that wonderful experience!"