Gray returned from his job to find that Lucy was out of town. By all accounts, she'd planned to stay for some reason, but a job had come up that she and Wendy desperately wanted to take, and she'd assumed it would be finished before he returned.

No one had any clue where Natsu was. That Lucy had even agreed to look after Natsu was news to them.

Panicked, Gray ran home to see if, after Lucy left, Natsu had returned there. Then it occurred to him that Natsu's house was nice and small and, for all its clutter, less distance for a Suraci's patient to traverse across. Also, it was Natsu's house, so if Natsu was going to go anywhere on his own, that was a good bet. Except Natsu wasn't in his own home either. Finally, Gray let himself into Lucy's through the window to see if there was any chance that Natsu stayed there and hadn't heard him banging on the door and yelling. Still no Natsu.

Natsu couldn't even get down the stairs from Lucy's apartment without help. There was no way he'd managed on his own. Gray's imagination ran wild with scenarios of what might have happened. Natsu being left to fend for himself, trying to get to the guild, and collapsing on the streets in a bad part of town. Natsu trying to run away, losing his balance, and falling to drown in a canal. What if an old enemy found him weak and unguarded and kidnapped him?

The distant sound of a train whistle jarred Gray into less grim possibilities. Lucy might have taken Natsu with her. After Natsu's last trip out on a job she should have known better, but maybe she thought it would be okay? The mission hadn't sounded like a dangerous one. From what Mira told him, there wasn't any fighting or strenuous activity. Even if Natsu followed, there wouldn't be too many opportunities to harm himself.

And with how uptight Gray knew he was known to be where Natsu was concerned, it made sense that Lucy might try and keep it a secret that she brought Natsu along with her. He made a mental note to tell her when she returned that there was nothing wrong with taking Natsu on such safe jobs. In fact, it was good. It let Natsu get out more, and surely he loved spending more time with Lucy. The two of them liked one another, so it was a good thing for them to run off alone, right?

…Right?

If Natsu was going to go to another town for some fun, low danger activity, Gray wanted to be there with him. For as much as he was around now, it felt wrong not to have Natsu with him constantly. He liked having Natsu around. In fact, it hurt something awful to go through two weeks of Natsu none too subtly telling him to go away for a few days. But then he already knew that the one Natsu liked was Lucy. Since his feelings already weren't requited, Gray shouldn't have been surprised that Natsu didn't even feel the same way about the two of them being in one another's company.

He'd already resolved to help Natsu and Lucy get together, so there would be no letting Natsu know that hurt. Bringing his own feelings into things when the two were already prepped to get together would only complicate things, and not get him what he wanted anyway. Better to keep it to himself, then to make everyone miserable with him.

Rather than sulk over that, Gray turned his focus to what to do with himself while he waited for Lucy to bring Natsu back. He hadn't trained half as much as he ought to, between looking after Natsu and trying not to remind Natsu of what he couldn't do. If he felt charitable, he might agree to whatever couple activity Juvia suggested—although encouraging her was never a good idea, and going to the easiest girl he could get after his real crush went for someone else was… rebound-ish. If he wanted training and social interaction, then he could look for someone to spar with… or maybe pick a real fight, if Sting showed his face in Magnolia again.

Then the possibility that Sting might really show up sank in. That idiot already somehow thought Gray was no good at looking after Natsu. What would he think if he came around looking for Natsu and found out Gray had no idea where exactly he was? Really, it was only an assumption that Lucy took Natsu with him.

The thought of having to deal with Sting, particularly when he'd again lost track of Natsu, pissed Gray off. It came as a great relief when two days passed and the blond didn't show up to give him grief. It then turned into a horrible day when, upon Lucy's return, Gray learned that if he wanted Natsu back, he would need to visit Sting himself.

"How could you let that asshole take him?" Gray yelled.

Lucy hadn't even had a chance to leave the train station before Gray showed up to grill her about Natsu's wellbeing. She winced at Gray's volume but, less than pleased with his behavior, held her ground.

"Natsu wanted to go. Isn't that reason enough?"

"Natsu also wanted to follow me and Erza on a demon hunting mission."

"And Sting swore he'd make sure not to let any harm come to Natsu. He's every bit as careful as you are. Maybe even more so. In fact…" A devious smirk split Lucy's face. "I think you might have some competition for who could take care of Natsu best."

Competition? Sting? As if! Storming past Lucy, Gray got onto the train himself. Natsu falling for Lucy he could tolerate. Natsu preferring to be in Sting's care was unacceptable.

-o-

It had been a busy week for Sting. Mostly it had been a busy week because Orga accidentally punched out a Councilor while trying to guard the man, and even though the whole thing was an innocent mistake, said Councilor turned it into a paperwork nightmare. Sting and Rogue both had spent most of their time at the guild that week scrambling to go through wizardry laws to argue that Orga should not be arrested. They'd even recruited Rufus to the task.

Orga, in the meantime, was punished for causing so much trouble by being assigned the duty of keeping Natsu satisfied while at the guild. Sting had been mildly concerned as to what Natsu might think of being used as a punishment, but to his relief, Orga was the only person upset by it. Natsu, thoroughly used to the idea that he needed help accomplishing things, was more than happy to have someone required to follow his every order, no matter how absurd it might be. On the first day, Sting looked up regularly to make sure Orga was doing whatever was needed, from bringing Natsu food to helping him reach the bathroom, and discovered that Natsu had convinced the man that 'keeping Natsu satisfied' included wrapping a towel around his waist like a skirt and dancing.

When Sting wrapped up work for the day and went home, he was still busy. Natsu was disturbingly adjusted to his declined health, and when asked, admitted that reading stories was now a common way he passed his time. Most of them, Sting gathered, were stories Lucy wrote about the missions Natsu had been left out of, which seemed cruel, but Natsu liked them. If Sting really wanted, he could have tossed Natsu any of the several hundred books he owned and gone off to relax on his own, but that didn't feel right. He'd offered to look after Natsu while Gray was gone, so Natsu got his full attention. Sting dragged Rogue home with him each night and planned something to fill every evening. He didn't have much in the way of board games, but Frosch did, and everyone but Frosch knew plenty to do with cards.

The problem with Orga resolved itself when, despite Rogue and Sting providing more than enough evidence to defend him, the Council dragged him off anyway. This might have been more upsetting had one of the Rune Knights involved assured Sting that another Councilor would see their paperwork within a day or two and have Orga released.

This would have meant Sting's schedule was now completely free (save for the general duties of a guild master he was technically supposed to perform). According to the plans he'd made with Natsu and Lucy, Gray was also supposed to come and take Natsu home that day. Sting used Natsu as an excuse to dump his work on Rogue and kept Natsu company for the day, and then the evening, and by morning he accepted that Gray hadn't come like he was supposed to.

"Well, he did a lousy job of looking after you anyway," Sting decided.

"Usually Gray is better about being there when he's supposed to be," Natsu said. "Usually he's around constantly even if I beg him to leave me alone. Do you think he was hurt on the job?"

"Lucy would have contacted us. The guy he's escorting was pretty old, right? I bet it's taking longer to get him safely to Pengrande than they thought it would."

Gray and his client were supposed to take a two day ride on an overnight train, and then Gray had a trip back paid for by the ambassador. As far as Natsu knew, an older person on a train moved across the country as fast as a young person, but then he'd never felt well enough on a train to be able to observe this in action. If Sting was like Gajeel and hadn't developed motion sickness until he was older, then he'd know better.

Thinking that Gray's job simply went longer than expected was easier than thinking something awful happened to him. Easier than considering that Gray might have gotten home on time, too.

"Maybe he realized he did need a break," Natsu thought aloud. "I've taken up so much of his time lately. I bet it's nice to have his schedule free again."

"Could be the case," Sting acknowledged. He'd certainly enjoyed his time with Natsu, and most of what dragged his week down was the case with Orga, but he hadn't fully realized how involved caring for Natsu was.

On a certain level it was simple. Natsu could still get up and walk short distances, at least during the morning. Any tasks that required prolonged standing were beyond his abilities, but he could get himself up and dressed and onto Sting's couch with a book to keep entertained while breakfast cooked. Cooking breakfast and brewing tea were the only things Natsu struggled to do on his own. Getting to the guild was the main thing. Natsu couldn't walk that far, but Sting had expected to do about that amount of carrying Natsu around.

It was seeing Natsu more or less crash after few hours after lunch that took Sting by surprise. By evening, Natsu needed to be carried everywhere around the house. Bed. Bathroom. Everywhere. Entertaining Natsu was also quite the task. Sting liked to think himself a good entertainer, but he didn't have much practice with people who were so severely limited in what they could do. Sooner or later, they would all get sick of board games.

"Do you think he'd really do that? What if he was so mad when he heard I went to stay with you that he decided to hold off on picking me up?"

"I think we'd hear from Lucy if that happened. I can contact Fairy Tail first thing where we get to the guild tomorrow and see what's up, if you want."

Natsu shook his head. "It's… probably just that his job took longer than expected. Besides, if he's mad, I'd like to have more time to figure out how to tell him he has no right."

"Make sure to do that while I'm there. If it turns out he's holding off on picking you up, I'd love to tear him a new one for leaving you with someone he doesn't trust."

"You almost don't even need to fake the love rival act," Natsu said with a laugh. "Aside from the part where you aren't in love with me."

"How do you know I'm not?"

Natsu froze.

Seeing the mortified look on Natsu's face, Sting burst out in laughter. "You believed that? Really! Aw man. And here I was thinking I couldn't do a convincing job of this. I'm going to mess with Gray so hard."

As the day wore one, Sting's eagerness to play Gray's love rival died down. There was still no sign of Gray himself, and the longer they went without hearing from him, the most agitated Natsu grew.

After two nights had passed, Sting dragged Natsu into Sabertooth's office. Technically, there was an office for the guild master, although Sting mostly used it as a large storage closet. Holing yourself up in an office was for anti-social losers, so Sting only went inside for special occasions. Contacting another guild quickly, for example. As the guild's office/storage closet, it was where Sabertooth's communication lacryma was stored.

Sting sat Natsu down in a chair half hidden by a stack of papers he was putting off filing, then sent a signal out. A few seconds later, Mira's face appeared in the crystal.

"Hello, Sting. Is there something you need to speak to the master for?"

"Nah. You'll do. Gray took an escort job, right? Do you know if it's running longer than it was supposed to?"

Smiling, Mira shook her head. "The mission ran right on time. Gray came home a few days ago."

"I see. Thank you."

"Is there anything else?"

"No. That's all." Sting raised a hand to end the spell connecting their crystals before remembering to add one last thing. "Actually, pass a message on for me."

"Yes?"

"Tell him that if he ever comes around here, I'm going to kick his ass so hard he'll taste my boot."

-o-

Gray showed up at the front doors of Sabertooth ready to kick Sting's ass. The train ride over gave him plenty of time to realize that Natsu's begging him to take another job coincided not with acquiring new medicine, but with Sting's offer to look after him as needed. That Natsu, his Natsu, had responded to this by sending Gray away and going to see Sting in secret was unacceptable.

He threw the doors open and looked around, ignoring the startled stares of the other guild members. He spotted Sting towards the back of the room, sitting at a table with Natsu and pretending not to have heard the doors bang against the guild walls.

"Hey!" Gray snapped.

Natsu glanced up and gave him an unsure smile, but looked away when Sting said something.

"What are you doing?" Gray demanded, storming over to the two. "Who said this was okay?"

"I'm pretty sure it's alright for him to sit and talk," Sting said, still not looking up at Gray.

"I mean—" Gray slammed his hands down on the table, leaning over into Sting's line of sight. "—Who said it was okay for you to take him?"

"I did," Sting replied. "And so did Lucy, and most importantly, Natsu. It's a good thing we all agreed, considering someone who's supposed to be taking care of him decided to hold off on picking him up. It must be so tiring to have to deal with him all the time, huh? What makes you think you get to decide everything for him, anyway? You can't even look after him when you're supposed to. You think you have the right to tell other people they can't?"

Natsu's kick was so soft, despite his best efforts to really hit the blond's shin and leave a mark, that Sting didn't even budge when it happened. Gray, thus, did not notice it happened at all, but Sting recognized the request that he not come on so strong. In fact, now that he really thought of it, there was something else he needed to give Gray grief for.

"Looking after Natsu is my job," Gray said. "I don't trust you with him."

"Which explains beautifully why it took you days to pick him up."

Unable to admit that he hadn't known where Natsu was—even if that was in part Sting's fault, Gray growled and said, "Natsu, you're coming with me."

Natsu pushed himself up from the table halfway before Sting grabbed his scarf and said, "Hold on. Why should I let him go back with my love rival?"

Rogue, who was sitting at the other end of the table and had been informed of this plan, had to merge into the shadows to keep Gray from seeing him try not to laugh. The rest of the guild, who had not been let in on the plan, fell silent upon hearing the declaration. Even Natsu, who'd been there from the start, froze when Sting said it, and needed a moment to remember what Lucy had put Sting up to.

"Wh-what?" Gray took a step back, horrified. He'd told no one, so how could Sting know his secret?

"You heard me." Sting leaned way over the table to wrap his arms around Natsu, who had slowly reseated himself. "You're my rival. Why should I give Natsu to you? It's not just that I'm worried about what he needs that you aren't doing for him. I have to worry about the thing that my love rival will try and do with him."

"Are you kidding me?" Gray grabbed Sting's nearer arm and yanked it off of Natsu. "For one… For one… I don't even know where to start!"

"Then don't start. You can leave now."

Sting didn't have to act the cold grin he gave Gray, even with Natsu subtly pinching his arm to insist that he tone it down. Gray's glower was similarly sincere.

"Actually, I think I'll just skip to the end," Gray said. "Natsu, we're leaving."

Fearing that Sting, in his mix of acted and genuine indignation, might push Gray too far, Natsu wiggled free and stood up. He took three firm steps into Gray's arm instead, then to make sure Gray knew that he wasn't the complete dictator of everything in his life, told Sting, "I'll see if we can arrange something like this again."

Sting smiled at him, then turned a smug grin Gray's way and said, "Did you hear that, love rival? Natsu comes back to you when you throw a fit, but it's me he wants to see."

Gray's hearing wasn't as sharp as a dragon slayer's. Even a weakened one like Natsu. As he huffed and led the way out of Sabertooth, he remained oblivious to Rogue's increasingly weakening attempts not to burst out in laughter.

-x-

STA: Minor glitch where I accidentally uploaded the last chapter to fanfiction's doc manager twice under different names and thought I'd accidentally saved over the real chapter 25, but as you can see, I managed to relocate it. (Thank God for that. Having to rewrite a chapter is horrible enough when you don't have to railroad it to lead into events for the next X many chapters you have written to follow after it.)

Ryuu91: 100% understand. I hope this was to your liking.