Another update, thankfully not as long as last time. Still, I do realize I have yet to update Dirty or Twelve Months. Trust me, I haven't forgotten. This was just the story that was demanding attention. lol Also I have started the next chapter of Dirty, so hopefully that will be up soon.

Thanks for sticking around for the slower updates. I love you all for your dedication and support!

Lastly, big shoutout to my sweet friend, Dragon's Host for looking over and tweaking this to perfection...well, as close to perfection as I can manage to get. lol

As always, Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

CHAPTER 41: MAKE IT RIGHT

ROGUE'S POV

Something was wrong. I knew it in my bones, and if there had been any sort of uncertainty, Lucy's behavior would have cleared things up. She'd been more and more distant since I'd told her about Mara the day before, and I couldn't help but wonder what had happened since then. She'd seemed fine at the time. Well, she'd obviously been upset about what I'd told her, but she hadn't appeared to hold any of it against me…and yet, now she couldn't seem to stay far enough away from me.

I'd woken this morning to find her curled up on the bed next to mine – well, the bed that had originally been hers – and I'd sat there for a good ten minutes trying to figure out if I was still dreaming. I couldn't fathom why she'd moved or how she'd been able to do so without my knowledge. I'd nearly woken her up to ask, but she'd looked so exhausted that I hadn't been able to bring myself to do so.

Now though, after an entire morning and afternoon of avoidance, I wished I had. Maybe then I'd have some clue what had changed within the handful of hours we'd slept. I'd have been convinced that my story had affected her view of me, caused her to doubt me again, but there had been no sign of disgust the few times our eyes had met. There was just a distinct lack of…anything else. All the warmth that had been there between us was gone.

Further complicating things were the times I'd catch her looking at me. She'd be staring, her expression sad, and her brown eyes bright with emotion. She looked…wistful for some reason, as if she missed me. And then she'd realize I was watching her in return, and she'd turn away. It was strange for sure, but more than that, it was lonely. It bothered me that she had barely spoken to me all day, and every time I'd tried to ask why, she brushed me off as if everything was fine. But things were about as far from fine as they could get.

And as if adding insult to injury, she seemed to have no trouble speaking to anyone else. In fact, she'd talked freely to people she'd been nervous around while still in the hospital. Even Natsu had gotten a warmer welcome – a wave and the barest hint of a smile.

It was beginning to weigh heavily on my mind to the point that I could think of nothing else. Had I done something? Had I said something wrong or made her feel like she couldn't depend on me in some way? But if I had, why did she seem so sad to be apart?

It just made no sense! Why wouldn't she tell me the truth? If I had done something to upset her, why would she not tell me so that I could fix it?

In all my years, I'd never felt more confused than I did now. She simply confounded me. Was this even more evidence to support the idea that Fairies were incomprehensible?

I had managed to get an explanation about her moving to the other bed; though I wasn't at all sure what she'd offered could even remotely be considered truthful. She'd said that she was feeling cramped on the narrow mattress, which could have been true except for the fact that we'd lain in a smaller bed together at the hospital and she'd had no problem then. Maybe she felt uncomfortable being that close after I'd told her about Mara.

But that couldn't be it either, because she'd fallen asleep in my arms right after that. I just couldn't understand what was wrong. I wanted to fix things, but how could I if she wouldn't tell me what I'd done?

Thankfully, there were a scant few that had noticed her unusual behavior. Mira, for one, had found it strange, though it was obvious from her reaction that she'd come to a different conclusion than I had. The silver-haired woman had come in this morning and offered to stay with Lucy while I went downstairs for breakfast, and just like I'd done since we'd come to stay at Fairy Tail, I'd been about to deny her when Lucy had all but pushed me out the door. I could do nothing but gape at her for a moment, wondering why she'd told me to go. She'd smiled, trying, I supposed, to play it off as if she was just trying to be generous, but I knew better.

Mira had stared at the blonde for a moment, her eyes blinking fast, and then she'd returned her smile. It was obvious the older woman had bought the whole thing, not once even seeming to question Lucy's motives. Still, I could tell there was more to it than her wanting me to be free to come and go as I wanted. Then, lunch had come, and though no one had been in the room with us, she'd still urged me to join the others downstairs so I wasn't stuck up there with her.

I tried not to take it personally. I really did, but I could no longer brush it off. She was actively trying to avoid me, and I wanted to know why.

As much as I'd have liked to deny it, it hurt that she seemed to want nothing to do with me. It was just as I'd feared, and yet it wasn't. I still could find no anger in her gaze when she looked at me, no revulsion. It was just…confusing, and I wanted it to end. I wanted things back the way they were.

I wanted answers, but with the way things were going, that seemed unlikely. She kept protesting my suspicions, saying there wasn't a problem, but I knew there was. I was no fool, and if she honestly thought that I'd believe her, then she had quite frankly lost her mind. That fake smile didn't suffice, and I would be damned if I let this go on any longer. She was going to tell me what was going on, because I couldn't do this anymore.

She sat on her bed, her eyes studiously fixed on a book in her lap, and I moved toward her, intent upon making her talk when the door opened and Gray walked in. Once more, I was blocked from getting to the bottom of this insanity, and it sent annoyance flaring inside me. Still, I couldn't be angry with the man. He had no idea anything was going on. The last time he'd been here, everything actually was fine.

Now that I thought about it, it was probably a good thing he was here. If anyone could get Lucy talking, it would be him. He was closer to her than anyone else, so maybe he could find out what was going on with her…and maybe he would clue me in too.

GRAY'S POV

I came through the door in time to see Rogue watching Lucy from across the room, and I had to smile. He might say he didn't love her, might even believe it, but I didn't buy that for a second. His feelings for her were there in everything he did - in the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her and held her. I would admit, in the beginning, I wouldn't have welcomed his interest. In fact, I'd have probably beat his ass for it. Now though, he was just about the only man I thought I could tolerate being with her.

But he'd earned that. He'd stuck with her through everything. Hell, he'd saved her more than once already, and in my book that meant everything. His dedication to her showed, and it had made it easier to trust him with her.

I hadn't forgotten that he'd left with Sting, but I'd also heard from Natsu what Rogue had done when he'd found Lucy about to take a fistful of pills. It had been a difficult conversation between the two of us, but Natsu had wanted me to know it all. And from what he'd said, the shadow dragon slayer had been devastated. Added to that his subsequent fight with Sting over the whole thing, and it was more than enough to convince me that he was the man Lucy needed in her life.

Tossing a nod of greeting in Rogue's direction, I headed for Lucy. "How's my favorite girl today?"

Eyes rolling, the blonde smiled. "Well, I don't know about Cana, but I'm doing just fine."

"Hey! Who said anything about Cana?" I raised a brow at that, trying to figure out just what she was implying. "I was talking about you."

"Well, we both know I'm not your favorite girl, so no need to pretend," she said, a knowing look on her face.

Shaking my head, I plopped down on the bed in front of her. "You're such a pain."

"It's my job," she replied lightly, answering the way she'd always done in the past when I'd said that.

"And you do it well."

She shrugged blithely before leaning back against the wall behind her, and I laughed, enjoying the brief moment of nostalgia. "So what have you been up to today?"

At my question, she threw a furtive glance across the room at Rogue. Their eyes met, neither looking away for a short time until he sighed and started heading toward the door. In seconds, he was gone, and Lucy was watching the space he'd just vacated as if she was in pain.

"What was all that?" In all the time since Lucy's attack, I'd never seen them behave in such a way. There'd always been this connection between the two of them, this ease I'd been so jealous of until I'd understood it. Now, it was like all that barely existed. What in the world had happened?

She raised her head, and it took her several tries before she managed to ask, "What?"

"You just did the chick thing…where you kick the guy out without saying you're kicking him out. What gives?"

She stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I didn't kick him out. I didn't say anything to him."

"Which is also weird, but that's my point. You girls have that look," I said, waving my hand at her face in light of my poor explanation. "The one that says 'Go away'. Cana uses it on me all the time."

Lucy laughed shortly. "I think you're imagining things."

Still, I wasn't convinced. There was something in her eyes that spoke of sadness, and while there was plenty of shit for her to be sad about, she'd never looked like that while talking about Rogue. Maybe they'd had an argument. It seemed a long shot, considering where the two of them were at the moment, but it was possible. After all, eventually everyone had a disagreement. "You two have a fight or something?"

Her eyes blinked quickly before she turned to look at the far window. "No."

Just that one, quiet word was enough to tell me I was on the right track. Something had happened between them. "It's okay to argue, Lucy. We do it all the time. Right? I'm sure it'll blow over soon."

Facing me once more, she gave me a slight smile and shook her head. "Everything's fine, Gray. Don't worry."

Like that was going to happen. She was my sister in every sense of the word, and telling me not to worry over her was like telling Natsu not to burn shit. "Lucy…you can talk to me…about whatever it is. You know that."

Her smile brightening, she waved me off and changed the subject. "I'd rather talk about Cana."

"Cana? What about her? Did you want to see her? She's downstairs right now if you want me to go get her."

I rose to do just that when she put her hand on my arm and laughed. "No, I wanted to talk to you about you and her."

She couldn't be talking about what I thought she was talking about. "What are you getting at?"

She gave me that knowing look that always had me squirming in my seat. Even though I'd done nothing wrong and kept no secret from her, I still squirmed - and she knew it and fully intended to use it against me. "Come on, Gray. You can't tell me there's nothing there."

"O-Of course there's something there. We're friends."

"Friends?" she asked, her eyes alight with interest. "You sure that's all?"

Oh, there was no way we were going there. Nope, not a chance in hell. I'd come here to see how she was doing, not get interrogated about my feelings for Cana. "I thought we were talking about you."

Lucy's grin grew wider, looking for all the world like a hound closing in on its target. "No, we were talking about you liking Cana."

If she only knew. I shook my head, remembering what had started all this, and pointed out, "No, we were talking about you and Rogue. What about that?"

"There's nothing to talk about," she muttered instantly, her face closing down.

It was interesting how quickly that shut her up. Maybe that was why she was coming after me so hard about Cana. She was trying to throw me off the subject of her and Rogue. "Uh-uh…" I laughed, feeling like I was finally getting somewhere. "You're not getting away that easy. You were just digging into my relationship with a damn shovel. Don't you think I should repay the favor?"

"No…Gray, there's nothing-"

"Oh who do you think you're kidding, Lucy?" I teased, clasping my hands together over my heart like Mira did when she was having one of her shipping fits. "I've seen the way you two look at each other."

Abruptly, her head dropped, and she sniffled. "It-it's not like that."

I paused at her reaction, and alarmed, reached out to grab her hand. "Hey, Lucy…I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"He doesn't…" She looked up, her eyes awash with tears even as she tried to laugh it off. "He doesn't care about me like that."

Drawing back, I stared in stunned silence. What on Earthland was she talking about? "Why would you say that?"

How could she have come to that conclusion? The man had agonized over keeping her safe, had spent every second with her for days and days on end. He had been there for her every step of the way. What part of that resembled a man who didn't care?

"It's the truth, Gray."

I shook my head. "Lucy, that's-"

The sound of the door opening cut me off, and I turned, hoping to find Rogue returning. It seemed as if he needed to talk to her, because she had it all mixed up. But it wasn't him. Instead, it was Warren, come to bring Lucy her evening meal.

"Sorry to just barge in, guys. Mira got busy down there and asked me to bring this up," he said, tossing a smile in Lucy's direction until he saw the look on her face.

I stood from my spot and pointed him in the direction of the far counter. I followed him over there, moving things around until he could set the tray down. But he couldn't seem to stop looking over Lucy long enough to actually do anything. At first, I thought he was just checking her over, making sure she was doing alright until I saw the expression on his face. His brow creasing, he turned back and set the tray down, some emotion I couldn't name touching his face.

I glanced between him and Lucy, finding her studying her hands as if they were the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen, and then caught his eyes. "What's wrong?" I whispered, wondering what he'd seen that bothered him so much.

He shook his head, tossing a glance in Lucy's direction before doing the same to the door that lead downstairs. Then, pasting on a smile for the blonde sitting across the room, he turned and made his way back to the exit. "Call for me when you're done eating, and I'll come back and get the tray."

"Okay, thanks Warren."

I fought to keep the worry from my voice as I called out to Lucy. "You feel like eating? Looks like Mira made your favorite."

"Yeah, I think I can eat a little," she said tiredly. "Then I think I might lie down for a little while."

I brought the tray to her, setting it neatly in her lap and giving her forehead a kiss. "Okay, I'm gonna run downstairs and grab something for myself. I'll be back in a few minutes, but I'll send someone back up to sit with you until then."

"Alright."

In only a matter of moments, I was downstairs, and Rogue, seeing me exit the room, immediately headed back up. I sighed, wishing Lucy could see what I saw. It was clear to anyone with eyes that she meant a great deal to him.

"Gray…"

Turning, I found Warren right in front of me, an aura of seriousness about him. "Warren, what's going on?"

He shook his head. "I'm not completely sure, and I know I shouldn't have been listening in on her thoughts. I didn't mean to, but she was just thinking so loud. And…well, I just thought you needed to know…" He trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing. "She's got it in her head that Rogue doesn't actually care about her-"

"Yeah, she told me that."

"But that's not all. She thinks he's doing all this because of some girl named Mara. I don't know who she is, but from the way Lucy was thinking about her, I think something happened to her."

I frowned. "But what does that have to do with her thinking Rogue doesn't care about her?"

It just made no sense. Who was this Mara, and what was she to Rogue?

"I don't know. All I can tell you is Lucy thinks he's helping her because he's trying to make it up to this Mara person."

"Thanks Warren," I said distractedly.

I had to talk to Rogue. I didn't know what was going on with him, but I intended to find out. I knew Rogue cared about Lucy. I wouldn't let him within 100 yards of her if he didn't. But I wanted Lucy to know it too. She needed to know that because he'd been the one to convince her to keep going, to keep fighting, and she needed him back where he belonged – by her side.

Glancing up at the second floor, I moved over to Cana and pulled her aside. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

Seeing my expression, hers went grave. "What's the matter?"

"I'm not sure, but something's got Lucy thinking that Rogue is helping her out of guilt or something." I shook my head and sighed. "I need to talk to him. Do you think you can go up there and send him down without letting Lucy know something's going on? I just...don't want her to worry."

Cana immediately nodded, placing her hand on my arm briefly before heading upstairs. I watched her go, thinking back to what Lucy had asked me, and snorted. I didn't like Cana. That was far too basic a description of what I felt for her. Through everything that had happened, I'd come to realize that I depended on her, and at first, I thought it was just friendship. We'd always been close, but after Lucy got hurt, something changed. It began feeling like more. Then, after Cana's attack, everything became clear. There was no longer any doubt in my mind. I loved her.

It was a strange thing loving someone like this, loving a woman I'd grown up with, but I knew it was true. In fact, I couldn't believe it had taken me so long to figure out. Now that I'd realized my feelings for her, I couldn't understand how I hadn't seen it before. I guess maybe Rogue and I were more alike than either of us thought.

Speak of the devil...

As if called by my thoughts, Rogue appeared in front of me, his mouth springing to life before he'd come to a complete stop. "You spoke with Lucy."

It wasn't even a question. It was a statement of fact with an expectation of further explanation. From that one sentence, I could tell that Rogue knew something was wrong. He was a perceptive man, so it was no surprise he'd figured it out. But that was something I couldn't help him with. I hadn't gotten a damn thing from Lucy. For once, she was locked up tighter than a safe.

"Yes, but this isn't about that."

Rogue pursed his lips and sighed, a look of frustration crossing his features. "Then what is it about?" There was no mistaking his agitation. The man clearly wanted to know what was going on with the blonde upstairs. Unfortunately, he was the only one that had any hope of getting the whole story from her.

I considered my words carefully, wondering how to go about this conversation. Warren had said he thought something had happened to this woman Mara, and if she was someone close to Rogue, it could prove to be a sore subject. But I couldn't see any other way around it, so I sucked it up and dropped the bomb. "Who's Mara?"

All at once his face closed up, his usual bland expression fighting to make an immediate comeback. But the damage was done. It had only been a second, but that one slice of time was all I'd needed to see both shock and sadness hit. "W-Where did you hear that name?"

I stared dumbly at him, stunned by his reaction to my question. I suddenly felt like I shouldn't have asked. It was obvious this Mara was someone dear to him, and if something had happened to her as Warren suspected, I'd been downright callous in the way I'd asked about her. "I…I'm sorry…"

I didn't even know what to say now. Everything I'd planned in my head now sounded harsh and insensitive, and while I wasn't the best at being tactful, I wasn't usually quite so dense.

My apology did nothing to settle him though, and with a flash of his red eyes, he drew in close. "How do you know that name?" he asked again, more forcefully than the last time.

"Look Rogue, I...I didn't know it would bother you like this or I wouldn't have brought it up. I just…Warren heard Lucy thinking something about her."

He stilled at that. "She didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't, but…" But now I was really wondering just who the hell she was and why the idea of Lucy telling me about her bothered him so much. But I couldn't say that. Even I wasn't that big of an ass. Still, somehow I had to tell him that Lucy thought he was there with her out of guilt. I had no idea how he was going to take it, if he'd be angry or hurt. If it was me, I imagine it would hurt like hell.

"But?" he nudged impatiently, his gaze drifting back up the stairs.

I drew in a deep breath and just said the hell with diplomacy. I was failing miserably in that department as it was, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to get any better, no matter how gentle I tried to be. "Lucy thinks you're here to make it up to Mara...whoever she is."

Rogue's eyes widened, and he froze. "She…she what?"

"She thinks you're helping her out of guilt, I guess. I don't know. She was acting weird before, and I was teasing her about you." He gave me a weird look, but I ignored it and went on. He would probably question me about it later, but that was for another time. "And she said…" I paused again, hating to add insult to injury. Already the man looked tense, his jaw ticking violently.

The other man growled low in his throat at my hesitation. "She said what?"

Before I could think too hard on how to phrase it, I blurted, "She thinks you don't care about her." While it probably wasn't the best way to lay it all out there, Rogue was right. I was wasting valuable time trying to soften the blow when I was no good at it in the first place.

Rogue all but stepped back as if the force of my words had literally knocked him for a loop. That impenetrable shield of his seemed to falter, and I watched as a flash of hurt danced across his face. "Why...why would she believe that?"

It didn't take a genius to see it bothered him, but on top of that was this wild sense of confusion. I could certainly relate because it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world that Rogue cared about Lucy. How she couldn't see it, I didn't know. Maybe we all had blinders on when it came to how we felt.

No more than a second later, he shook his head and spun on his heels, a look of determination etched across his face. "I'm going to talk to her."

He took the stairs two at a time, and I watched as Cana came down in his place, an eyebrow raised in question. "Did you find out what's going on?"

"Not really, but he'll take care of it."

She eyed me with a slight grin, and I couldn't help but ask, "What?"

"It's just kind of funny how much your opinion of him has changed. If this had happened with anyone else, you wouldn't have stopped until you knew exactly what was happening with Lucy."

She was right of course. Even when Lucy was dating Natsu, I wouldn't have let it go. I'd have hounded them both until I knew just what was wrong and just how Natsu intended to fix it. Now though, I didn't feel the need to know every little detail. I didn't understand exactly why, but I trusted Rogue to do what was right.

I shrugged helplessly, offering a smile in return and the only answer I had. "I trust him." It was that simple, and in my world it was all that mattered. I trusted him with one of the most important people in my life, and that's why I knew he was right for her. Trust didn't come easily for me, and for good reason, but he had earned it by putting her first over and over again. He'd proven himself to be true, and I had no doubt he would do it again.

To me, there was nothing complicated about it. He loved her, and so…he would take care of it.