"Juvia has a new love rival."

Gray hadn't showered in two days, with the previous day having been spent prepping for a job, getting his ass handed to him by demons, and then worrying over Natsu. He'd also barely slept, having pulled up a hard, wooden chair and tried to rest on that while keeping at the side of Natsu's infirmary bed. All in all, he started the day set up to be in a bad mood. The last thing he needed was Juvia finding someone new to be jealous over him interacting with.

Who even was it this time, he wondered as he failed to stifle a yawn. Mira? Mira was pretty much the only one Juvia could have seen him talk too that morning. Would Juvia get mad just from seeing him order breakfast for him and Natsu?

Shit. What if he needed to help feed Natsu now? How much could he still lift? Could he manage food he couldn't see?

"Gray? Gray? Juvia is worried. Please answer."

"Hm." Gray looked up at her. "Sorry. My mind was elsewhere."

"That's why Juvia is worried!" she cried.

"It's nothing. Just… worried about what help Natsu might need," Gray told her honestly. There. That was a perfectly good reason to be distracted, right?

Lucy, who also sat with him as they waited for breakfast, cringed. Two days ago she'd have rolled her eyes at a comment like that, thinking Gray overdid it worrying. Now Natsu was worse off, and the first failure on any of their parts was for her to slack off when Gray asked her to fill in for him. Gray might have felt smug about her finally realizing he was right to worry as much as he did, except that he felt just as guilty for his failure on the battlefield, and either way he'd prefer Natsu still be as fit as possible. Who wanted to be vindicated when vindication meant your friend getting sicker?

Juvia, who had little hand in looking after Natsu largely because Natsu had taken to avoiding her since falling sick, didn't look as stricken with grief for a condition she saw little of. Instead of looking concerned for Natsu's wellbeing, like most of the guild mates who'd shown up early, she said, "That's just it. Gray spends so much time now thinking of Natsu. There's no room left for Juvia in his heart."

"Don't be silly," Gray said. "I worry about Natsu because he's my friend. I'm not in love with him."

Despite that, the words love rival echoed in his head when their food came, and Gray carried it back into the infirmary.

Natsu pushed himself up as Gray walked in, and Gray paid close attention to the motion. The usual spring Natsu had when he rose out of bed was gone, but he could at least get himself upright without difficulty. As for how he knew Gray was there… well, given that he overheard the conversation about how to continue caring for him the night before, it was safe to say that his sense of sound was still fully functional. Gray hadn't noticed any tactile deficiencies either. As for scent and taste…

"Pancakes?" Natsu asked.

"Yup. Syrup or butter?"

"Syrup! No… wait…" Natsu bobbed his head, as if he'd forgotten his eyes were bandaged and he'd tried to glance down at his lap. "Butter. I make a mess with syrup even when I can see where all my food is."

"I can help you—"

"No," Natsu said with such firmness that Gray could feel the word. "I'll be dammed if I can't eat for myself."

He held a hand out and Gray hesitantly passed him a plate, then quickly set his down and tried to drop a pad of butter onto Natsu's food before he could notice. He made it just in time. A second after the butter landed, Natsu's hand ran over the surface of the plate, assessing where everything was, and then he grabbed the knife resting on the plate's edge and spread the not yet melted enough butter.

As Gray drizzled syrup on his food, he watched Natsu closely. Holding the plate in the air for only a few seconds made Natsu's hands shake, but one he rested the plat on his knee, Natsu could hold it steady with little difficulty. Since one hand went into holding the plate in place (and likely helping Natsu keep track of where the plate was), Natsu used the flat side of his fork to tear the pancakes into nice, bite size pieces. No shoveling it all down, but then there was no telling if that was because he couldn't lift too much food too fast, or because he was conscious of the fact that it would be easy to make a horrible mess when he couldn't see what he was eating.

Natsu didn't do too bad, all things considered. Once he failed to properly stab his pancake and it fell of the fork halfway to his mouth. He wouldn't let Gray help him find the piece, insisting he would locate it when he was done eating. The bite lay exactly one inch to the side of the plate, and it caused Gray physical pain to not be able to point out what was, to someone with working eyes, so obvious. Several times Natsu misjudged the size of his bite, and smeared butter on his cheeks.

"Let me get that," Gray said, reaching out with his thumb to rub the butter off before Natsu could protest.

"I can still use a napkin," Natsu grumbled as Gray, triumphant, withdrew.

Gray hadn't brought napkins, and would have told Natsu so, but seeing the roset blush, he froze. Suddenly, he was hyper aware of the fact that he'd just brushed food off of Natsu's cheek. It wasn't as though he'd never done that before, but after hearing Juvia's fussing…

There were no napkins and Gray didn't want to smear butter all over his shirt to get his hands clean, even if the shirt would likely be gone by the time he left the room. Instead, he self-consciously licked his fingers clean. Maybe it was a mercy that Natsu couldn't see just then, because Gray could only imagine what kind of remarks that act might get him. If Natsu couldn't see him blush, Natsu couldn't call out his blushing.

Oblivious to Gray's distress, Natsu finished off the last of his pancakes and began to feel around for the piece he'd dropped. Upon finding it he popped it into his mouth and licked his fingers off as well, which, to Gray's annoyance, caused Natsu no embarrassment whatsoever. Not that it should.

"I'll bring napkins next time," Gray said, for lack of any idea what else to say. Natsu hadn't seen him lick his fingers, yet he still felt the need to defend the act.

"Yeah. You've got some weird hobbies. I should start keeping count on the number of times you do that," Natsu said.

"Do… what? Rub food off of you?"

Natsu nodded.

Had he done that before? Gray couldn't quite remember, but… it hadn't even been something he thought of until the deed was done just a moment ago. Could he have done that before without realizing? Did he have weird habits other than stripping?

No… No he couldn't have a regular habit of something like that. Cana would have teased him for it long ago if he did. Or rather, for as many times as Juvia deliberately got food on herself and urged him to lick it off, he would have excited her to dangerous levels if he was prone to doing such things. Yet here Natsu was claiming it wasn't the first time Gray had done that. Maybe Gray could excuse the butter, since Natsu wasn't able to see it, but since day one of the Suraci's diagnosis he hadn't thought Natsu so incapable that he couldn't rub his own face, so why would he have done that before? Or had he first done it before Natsu's sickness showed itself?

Standing abruptly, Gray said, "Here. Let me take your plate back."

"But I didn't get to lick it."

"You'll spill crumbs all over yourself, and you don't want Porlyusica assessing you while you're a mess. Give it back."

Natsu shoved the plate in Gray's general direction, hands trembling slightly when Gray took it from him. It wasn't even a matter of wanting to look like he could still manage his own hygene for Porlyusica. They could both imagine the tirade she'd go off on if she had to work with anyone who was dirty.

"Alright. See ya," Gray said, thinking less of the fact that he'd intended to keep Natsu company for the day and more of those two words of Juvia's reverberating in his skull.

"You're not going to be there when she assesses me?" Natsu asked. "I thought you might… I don't know… if I'm moving in with you, that you'd probably want to see."

Oh yeah. He'd agreed to that, hadn't he?

"I was… going to start moving your furniture today," Gray bullshitted, "but that's not a bad idea. I'll stay."

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Don't mention it."

Gray stacked the plates and stepped out of the room, and immediately all eyes in the guild turned to him.

Natsu would be able to overhear anyway, but out of courtesy, Gray shut the door before telling them, "He's feeling better today, but we still won't know the full situation until Porlyusica comes."

That was enough for most everyone, and the guild resumed what it had been doing moments before. Everyone but Juvia, who continued to watch Gray with a mix of the adoration and anxiety her eyes always held when Gray gave someone else too much attention.

The words love rival still nagging at Gray, he bit his lip and hurried to the kitchen.

-o-

The assessment didn't go well.

It wasn't as bad as Gray had feared, which wasn't saying a whole lot. Natsu could still walk. In fact, he did a whole lap around the inside of the guild hall. Then he had to sit down and rest. Going up and down stairs was an ordeal that Natsu barely made it out of without a complete meltdown. He could still lift lighter objects. At least, for a little while. The highlight was that he stayed awake the entire day, albeit with the help of his tea.

Natsu, understandably, was not thrilled with the results.

"We'll see what therapy can do for you," Gray said that evening. "You improved a little after the last attack."

"A little."

"Well… yeah. A little. But that's something."

"Gray?"

"Yeah?"

"That's not enough."

Gray's steps faltered, something that didn't go unnoticed by Natsu. After all, Gray was carrying Natsu at the time.

"My house is further from the guild than yours," Gray said, trying to downplay the situation. "Once you're done with therapy, we'll see how well you can walk from your own place. If you can manage it but still need more help around the house, then maybe I can move in with you instead."

Gray sure as hell hoped not. His apartment was small, but Natsu's was even smaller. Add to that all the knick-knacks that Natsu accumulated, and it was amazing his house could fit one man and cat. But hopefully Natsu wouldn't pick up on that reluctance.

He didn't. "My house it outside of town."

"And the guild is on one side of town and my place is on the other. And you live outside of town on the guild's side," Gray stressed. "It's a longer walk, and the walk from your house was already a lot for you. And with all the walking you did the other day…"

"Stop."

Gray stopped in place.

"No. Keep walking. The sooner you get home, the sooner we get dinner. Stop talking."

"Oh."

Gray set forward again, not looking forward to making the rest of the trip in silence. Fortunately for him, Natsu too found the silence more straining than awkward conversation, and began talking again.

"What happens to the food in my fridge?"

"I can pick it up tomorrow. I'll need to bring stuff over to help you feel more at home, so I can grab your food while I'm at it. We might be together for a while, so we share food now."

Seemed fair to Gray, but Natsu found the hole in that claim fast enough.

"I have enough to buy a few weeks' worth of food, but that's it, and I can't work like this. I can't carry plates or even file records."

"Gramps will work something out with you."

Natsu let his head drop, burying his face in the back of Gray's neck. It made his words come out muddled. "After the last time, people said I should look into some other trade, or find another skill to market. I didn't know what else I could do then. What else could I do now?"

"I don't know."

"You're not gonna make something up to try and make me feel better?"

"You told me to stop that."

Natsu grunted in response.

"What can I say to help?" Gray asked. "I can point out ways it could have gone worse, if you want. At least you can still sit up without help, right?"

"Don't," Natsu moaned. "You're going to jinx it."

"Don't push yourself way past your limit again, and you won't have another attack."

Another grunt. This one followed by a lengthy silence.

"Sorry," Gray said when the quiet stretch on too long. "I… I should have been able to handle those things without your help. Because I let myself get distracted…"

"I shouldn't have been there."

He really shouldn't have, but Gray was willing to leave it at that. Natsu's eyes were bandaged shut and he couldn't walk half as much as he could a week ago. That was more than punishment enough. He didn't need another scolding on top of that.

Gray chewed on his lip as he searched for something else to say, and Natsu beat him to a conversation topic.

"If you wanna talk about how things could've been worse, then how about this: There could've been way more people hanging around the guild and talking about what happened. I think it was the same five I heard asking you about me all day."

"A chunk of the guild is gone," Gray told him. "Makarov sent a team out on an overseas mission, and there's always a few people out on jobs."

He might have also asked Makarov to please moderate the number of people who came in looking for news on Natsu, making a deal where they could all be brought up to speed the day after the assessment, during which time Gray intended to keep Natsu at home and help him adjust to the change.

"What mission?"

Natsu told him to stop when he'd tried to comfort the roset with promises he couldn't actually make, so the lie rolled easily off Gray's tongue. "Don't know. It's top secret."

"That's lame. Do you know where they went?"

"Alvarez, I think." Gray shrugged, a gesture that he had no doubt Natsu would notice while he carried the boy piggy-back. "We'll have to hear about it when they get back. In the meantime, we're here."

Natsu waited patiently while Gray unlocked the house and let him in, and made no protest when he was deposited on Gray's couch.

Gray's apartment consisted of four rooms, not counting the bathroom. Aside from that, there was a kitchen and dining area, a small living room, and the bedroom. Natsu could vaguely recall the layout from having once broken in as a child, but after the fight that sparked between him and Gray, Makarov had punished him strictly enough that he didn't try again. Having never been invited over even after he and Gray came to get along, perhaps because of all the destruction he'd caused to spark that fight, Natsu hadn't seen the place in years.

He would need to feel his way around and relearn the layout of the apartment. Next morning, of course. After Porlyusica's assessment earlier in the day, Natsu was too tired for wandering about.

Staying on the couch until bed time sounded ideal to Natsu, but Gray dragged him over to the dining table and made him eat there, insisting that Natsu not blindly drop food on any furniture not meant to have food on it. Natsu obliged, and even tolerated Gray wiping food off his face again when they were done eating—albeit with a wet cloth this time.

"I can do this myself, you know," Natsu reminded him.

"Oh… Right. Of course."

"Is this going to be your new, weird habit? Is it replacing stripping, or are you adding to it?" Natsu paused, mouth opening slightly in horror. "Gray, did you strip?"

"No." Gray looked down at himself and saw that, actually, he had. When did that happen? After they got home, surely. Losing his shirt while carrying someone on his back had to be impossible even for him.

"I assure you, I'm fully clothed."

Natsu stuck his hand out. "Let me feel your shirt."

"Okay, time for bed."

"You're naked! You're naked, aren't you? Happy?" Natsu turned his head from side to side, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't look one way or the other for his buddy. "Happy? Where are you? You have to tell me he's naked."

"I still have pants!"

"Pants, or pants and boxers?"

"How would I lose my boxers and still have my pants on?"

"I don't know! I wasn't able to see you do it!"

"I still have boxers on too, flame brain!" Gray yelled. "That does it!"

"H-hey! What are you-! Gray! Put me down!"

"Bed time," Gray declared, hoisting Natsu over his shoulder. "Come on. You wanna be well rested for tomorrow."

"Your back's all sweaty! Put a shirt on first!"

Gray didn't know where his shirt was, and it would take less time to carry Natsu to bed than it would to find his clothes.

Natsu, not willing to cooperate with a man who was not fully dressed, pounded his fits as hard as he could against Gray's back the whole twenty feet from the kitchen table to the bed. To Gray, it felt like a light pat, but he could imagine what Natsu was trying to do, and when he dropped the roset on the bed, said, "Don't forget to take it easy. The first few days are the most important for recovery, remember?"

Natsu didn't respond.

"Remember?"

Nothing.

"Natsu?"

Natsu, who had gone perfectly still after being dumped on the bed, said, "Gray? This is a mattress."

"Is it? Really? I wasn't sure."

"You didn't get rid of my hammock, did you?" Natsu asked. "I can still… I could probably still climb into it."

After Natsu consented to letting Gray lower the hammock, Gray had forgotten all about the fight they had over it. It never occurred to him that the altercation might have left an impression on Natsu.

"I didn't have time to grab any of your things," Gray said. "I'll get your hammock set up tomorrow. I promise. For tonight, just sleep in the bed."

"This is stupid," Natsu said, but rolled over and pulled the sheets over himself anyway.

"You tolerated the infirmary bed fine."

"But that was in the guild. It's a big building. Your place is too small for a guest bed."

"Guest bed? That's my bed."

Face turning scarlet, Natsu vaulted up. "Wh-what?"

"You couldn't tell? I thought it'd smell like me or something."

"This is your house! Everything smells like you! I'm not taking your bed! I… I can sleep on the couch!"

"I'm not putting a sick guest on the couch."

"I can't take your bed!"

"Why not?" Gray demanded.

"B-because…"

Were Natsu's cheeks turning red? Gray had never known him to have trouble stealing Lucy's bed. Maybe it was something he thought was reserved special for her? For some reason, that didn't sit right with Gray.

"I'm fine on the couch. Really. It's just for one night anyway."

"But I can't force you out of your own bed," Natsu insisted. "I won't be able to fall asleep knowing I did that."

"Fine!" Gray shucked his pants off and climbed onto the mattress. "We can share the damn bed for one night."

He said that, but as he pulled the sheets up to crawl under them beside Natsu, the words love rival flitted through his mind. He could feel Juvia's gaze drilling a hole into his back, and whipped around, expecting to see her watching jealously from the window. To his immense relief, she wasn't there, but it still gave him chills to think about. He could only imagine what she would think knowing he'd even considered sharing a bed with someone else. No matter how much Gray insisted it was platonic, she would no doubt give Natsu grief. She'd probably be upset even to hear that someone else had been given the privilege of lying in Gray's sheets.

Which was silly. He gave Natsu the bed because Natsu was sick. And lying with Natsu was in no way romantic. Sure, plenty of people who had feeling for one another slept in the same bed. His parents certainly did. Juvia's mind would jump to that no matter what, Gray knew, but…

But…

But so was his, now that fear of Juvia's reaction put the idea in his mind. With Natsu's cheeks still tinged red, and the idea of how the two of them might look sharing his small bed in mind, Gray found himself blushing too.

"N-nevermind." He said, shoving himself back onto his feet. "There isn't enough room. I'll take the couch."

"I can sleep on the couch," Natsu said, trying to sit up.

"No, dammit! You stay there until mourning or I'm not getting your hammock."

Natsu tensed, and for one horrible moment, Gray thought the agreement might escalate to the point of Natsu risking his health again.

Then Natsu spoke, and Gray relaxed.

"I have to pee."

"You can leave the bed for that. In fact, please leave my bed before doing that. Just get back into the bed when you're done."

He turned towards the door, and was halfway out of the room when Natsu spoke up again.

"Gray? I don't know how to get to your bathroom."

"I can walk you there."

Natsu nodded and sat up, swinging his legs out of bed and standing slowly. He took two steps, stumbled, and fell.

"Whoa!" Gray cried, springing forward to catch Natsu before he hit the ground. "What happened?"

"My legs… I'm tired."

"F-fine," Gray said. It was no consolation to know that this was going to be more embarrassing for Natsu than it was him. "I'll help you onto the toilet."

-x-

STA: Helping people onto the toilet is one of the most common things for me to do at work, alongside getting people dressed for the day. (In fact, since most of the people I help dress also need help getting onto the toilet, I usually get them dressed while they're on the toilet. They typically sit upright better there than they do in bed anyway.) I imagine it's probably insanely embarrassing the first time you aren't able to do that for yourself, but I've helped people with it enough now that it's stopped being something I really give much thought to. Maybe if they're particularly heavy, I'll hate having to be their caregiver for the day, but as far as the general act of pulling someone's pants down for them and setting them on a toilet goes, it's kinda as normal as tying your shoes now.

'Cept I usually don't bother with tying my shoes and just slip them on.

Incidentally, if you ever hear someone say that their weight is their own business and doesn't hurt anyone other than them, that's a fucking lie. Their weight is a work hazard for any healthcare worker who might have to physically assist them. We've had to move people out of the facility where I work because they can't support their own weight and weigh too much for us to lift without injuring our backs.

Supernova888: Hope I didn't make you wait too long. Glad to see you get so into the last chapter :)

Ryuu: Thanks! It means a lot to me that you think that.

Animelover9696: Ah. W-well, I'd hate to make you wait too long if you cried.

Gembomz: Don't worry! The story ending is a happy(ish) one (kinda)!