Summary: Inspired by A Big Bang Theory episode. When Juvia gets sick, Gray ends up taking care of her…

Pairings: Gray/Juvia, Gray/Erza friendship, Gray/Lucy friendship, Erza/Juvia friendship, Juvia/Lucy friendship, implied Natsu/Lucy, Lucy/Wendy friendship, Juvia/Wendy friendship, implied Gajeel/Juvia friendship, and lots of other implied friendship feels.

YouTube Prompt: A tribute to Fairy Tail, their fights, and the damage they cause to 'Burn It to the Ground' by Nickleback.

"Where's Juvia?"

It was a quiet day at the guild, too quiet, as Gray had been sitting close to Lucy while they discussed their next mission and there had yet to be a tantrum that flooded the building. This noticeable absence had caused Gray to look up and search out the blue-haired girl only to come up empty handed and now he was beginning to get worried.

"Ah, Juvia," Erza said sorrowfully, "she had come down with the flu and I have enforced some bed rest on her. It is unfortunate that Wendy is still away that Lamia Scale girl or she could have healed Juvia instantly. I did try to take care of her but my efforts had all be in vain."

Gray winced in sympathy. No matter how hard she tried, Erza was a terrible nurse, and he could all too easily imagine the torture Juvia must have suffered under Erza's not so tender care.

"That's odd," Lucy frowned, "I thought Juvia was immune to colds and flus, wasn't that what she said when she insisted on taking care of Gray last week?"

"She probably just said that so only she could take care of Gray," Happy pointed out flatly, "you're really stupid sometimes, aren't you Lucy?" Lucy decided the best response to that was merely to reach other and pull Happy's tail….hard. "EEK!" Happy squealed. "NATSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! LUCY IS BEING MEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" He then flew off sobbing.

Erza frowned at Lucy but her glare suddenly deepened as her eyes fell onto Gray. He stiffened and tried to not sweat under the terrifying gaze of a true monster. "So Juvia is ill because of you," Erza said quietly, "and instead of returning the favour and taking care of her, you are sitting here planning to leave her."

"Don't say it like that!" Gray yelped. "You make us sound like we're married or something!"

"Erza has a point though, Gray," Lucy said, "Juvia sacrificed a lot of her time and health to take care of you. She wouldn't let anyone else take over so she could rest. In fact she wouldn't let anyone in, not even Mirajane when she made her chicken soup."

Gray sighed mournfully for the loss of what was probably the best chicken soup in the world. It was always worth being sick just to have that soup and he missed out on it this time. "That's because she's a jealous, possessive, and crazy person," he said bluntly, "not because she was sparing anyone the chance of falling ill."

"Nonetheless," Lucy glowered at him, "she took care of you."

"I wouldn't call it care."

Juvia had spent a lot of time dressed as a nurse, fluttering her eyelashes at him, and sending his head spinning with all sort of thoughts. She made it worse by cleaning his room and bending over in front of him, so all he could see was her small, firm, bottom against the tight cloth of her dress, and then there was the chest cream! Porlyusica had made this special, smelly, medicinal cream to be applied to the chest that made breathing easier when someone had a cold or the flu. Juvia applied it one time too often blatantly relishing each touch of his chest!

Era smacked him hard over the head. "Don't be ungrateful!" she barked. "Juvia took care of you and because of that she's sick! It's only fair if you took care of her now."

"But I don't want to!" Gray whined childishly. "I hate sick people and magical sick people are the worst." He turned his eyes pleadingly to Lucy who was the most understanding of the two. "Imagine taking care of someone whose slightest moods affect their magic. It'll be a complete nightmare, she'd accidentally kill me within the hour. You wouldn't do it, would you?"

"Actually I have," Lucy held up her arms so they could see the week old burns that splattered their arms, "Natsu kept sneezing fire all week, and then when his fever was too high he was convinced he was fighting multiple bad guys and kept accidentally hitting me with his attacks. It was a nightmare," she moaned, "but," she added with a pointed look at Gray, "I was ill too, and Natsu took care of me. Because that's what friends do."

Unable to find the right argument against this (because Damnit! He had been banking on Lucy agreeing with him and backing him up against Erza), Gray tried his next tactic…..which was to run away.

This failed abysmally as Natsu tripped him up near the door and Erza swooped down with her sword. Within twenty minutes Gray was at Juvia's bedroom door, slightly bruised, and carrying medical supplies.

"Gray-sama?"

Juvia's voice was thick with cold and wonder as she stared up at him innocently. Her hair was rumpled, she wore a pale blue, ruffled, nightie, and looked utterly adorable (tell anyone and he will freeze you to death!).

"Err, hey, Juvia," he said casually, "I heard you got sick."

"It's nothing," Juvia lied. She then sneezed and a gush of sickly water hit Gray in the face. "Juvia is sorry. Juvia will go and kill herself now so Gray-sama would never have to endure that again."

She then turned to leave, Gray would have gladly left the medical supplies and run for it but Erza poked him with her sword….hard. "Ouch! I mean, oi!" he shouted. "You're sick because you took care of me, therefore I must look after you."

Juvia turned and looked at him in wonder. "Gray-sama wants to take care of Juvia?" she asked.

"No – ouch!" Erza poked him hard with her sword again. "I mean, of course, I do. Now why don't you go back to bed so I can run you a nice bath and then we'll rub some of this icky cream on your chest."

"Gray-sama wants to rub Juvia's chest?"

Gray had to quickly slam the door before Erza chopped something off for being such a pervert. "Gray – I mean, I," he corrected himself hastily, "want to rub the medicinal cream on your chest."

"Gray-sama wants to rub Juvia's chest!"

Gray sighed in a suffering manner…..this was going to be a very long few days….

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

The last few days had been the best of Juvia's life.

Gray-sama had dedicated himself into taking care of Juvia as he had made her baths, helped Juvia undress and get into them, helped her out and rubbed her dry with a towel before dressing her, and carried her to bed. He had made cooling towels filled with his ice magic to cool her fever, fed her soup, made her cups of tea, and did everything to entertain her from making her ice sculpture to even reading to her! "….And then, Juvia and Gray-sama lived happily together forever after," Gray grimaced. "Where on earth did you get this story?!" he asked alarmed.

"Love Rival wrote it for Juvia for Juvia's birthday," Juvia explained half asleep, "though Juvia suspects its lure Juvia into a false sense of security before Love Rival steals Gray-sama away for herself."

"No one is going to steal me away!" Gray-sama yelped. "What is it with you girls and your imaginations?"

Juvia couldn't answer him as stars entered her eyes at the thought of Gray-sama being hers forever and ever and ever. He had just said he was never going to let another woman get between them, that they belonged to one another, and that Love Rival had no hope at-

There was a knock on the door.

"I'll get that!"

The door opened and Juvia could easily make out the pretty blonde at the door. She glowered maliciously at the girl, Love Rival! Juvia growled silently. "Hi!" Lucy smiled cheerfully. "How is the poor thing?"

"Oh," Gray-sama sighed, "I'm hanging in there."

"I meant Juvia, you arsehole" Lucy growled.

"Ah," Gray-sama said sheepishly, "Juvia is doing as well as possible. I'm going to run her another bath, her temperature keeps fluctuating like mad."

"Well, it's a good thing that I brought – tada!" Lucy stepped aside to reveal Wendy flushing brightly and Charle hovering behind her, unimpressed as ever. "Now Juvia can definitely get better!"

"Fantastic!" Gray-sama enthused. "I'll run her one last bath while you work your magic. Good to see you again."

Juvia silently wept as Gray-sama left her in the company of Love Rival, Wendy, and Charle. Love Rival said some pleasantries while Wendy rambled and Charle was silent. Desperate, terrified, and burning with the need for it to go back to just being Gray-sama and Juvia, Juvia snatched Wendy's wrist. "Listen!" she hissed hurriedly. "Juvia is no longer sick. She doesn't need your magic."

"I-I-I don't understand," Wendy stammered, "You're not sick? But everyone said…"

"Juvia has been faking it!" Juvia confessed. "See, this snot," she pulled the gunk out of her nose, "some rubber snot from a joke shop. Gajeel-kun got it for Juvia."

"Juvia!" Lucy cried out, horrified. "Have you been faking it all along?!"

"No! No!" Juvia protested as she shook her head hard. "Juvia really was sick at first but then Gray-sama has been so nice and Juvia has really enjoyed being looked after and didn't want it to end. So if Wendy-san can pretend that her magic didn't work and let Juvia have some more time-"

"I don't mean to sound judgemental," Lucy sweat-dropped, "but that's sounds like something crazy people do."

"What do you mean sounds like?!" Charle huffed. "It is something crazy people do."

Juvia narrowed her eyes at them. "Love Rivals!" she growled. "You are trying to make Juvia all better so Gray-sama will not love her anymore! Well Juvia won't let it work! Juvia will run round with her hair wet if it means Gray-sama will be hers forever!"

"See!" Charle said triumphantly as both Lucy and Wendy sweat-dropped. "Utterly insane."

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

"Gray-sama," Juvia croaked one afternoon, "Thank God you came back," he had left because…..well there was still a no boys policy in place and Erza always enforced it, without fail, at night, and then he had some errands to run and couldn't check on Juvia until later the next day. "Juvia has taken a turn for a worse. Juvia thinks this is the end!"

"Really?" Gray raised an eyebrow.

Juvia nodded eagerly. "Yes!" she cried out, and then coughed, "Juvia can feel more symptoms coming on. Juvia thinks she will need more cream on her chest and definitely another bath."

"I see," Gray stepped closer, "and is one of those symptoms a strange burning sensation in the lower regions?"

"G-G-Gray-sama?" Juvia flushed.

"Also known as liar, liar, pants on fire," Gray accused as he pointed at Juvia dramatically. "You can quit the crap, Juvia, I know everything."

"How?!" Juvia wailed as she hurriedly pulled out her fake snot and yanked off the blankets that were obviously suffocating her. "Juvia was so careful!"

"Wendy told me," Gray shrugged, "I only had to ask some questions and she totally cracked." Juvia moaned quietly to herself as Gray fixed her with a cool glare. "I cannot believe you used me like that!"

"Juvia is sorry!" Juvia cried out tearfully. "Juvia really was sick at first but it was so nice having Gray-sama take care of Juvia that…that…" Juvia tailed off into a sob.

Gray's glare softened as he sat down on the bed beside her. "It hurts that you can lie to me like this," he admitted, "I thought our rela-friendship was based on a mutual trust and admiration that admittedly skews in my favour."

"Juvia feels terrible!"

"Well it pains me to say it," Gray said solemnly, "but I think some sort of penalty is needed in order to discourage this sort of behaviour."

"Juvia supposes that is fair," Juvia said dejectedly, "what does Gray-sama suggest?"

"I….erm…..ah…..err…"

Gray was completely at a loss of what sort of punishment he could enforce without having all the other girls descend upon him like avenging angels as they accuse him of perverted behaviour….again.

Juvia leaned in and fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously. "How about Gray-sama spanks Juvia?!" she suggested excitedly. "Juvia can bend over for Gray-sama now if he wishes!"

"HELL NO!"

In the end Gray decided the best punishment was to confiscate all of Juvia's Gray-sama memorabilia which took hours to do as there was so much of it….and every time he walked out with arms full of dolls and phots Juvia clutched his leg as she sobbed insanely.

All in all he found the perfect, non-perverted, punishment.

(Later on Gray found himself unable to sleep as every doll, painting, and photo of him all seemed to be staring at him with lifeless eyes. Damnit! Who was being punished here, him or Juvia?)