"Did he watch you sleep?"
"No."
"Did he insist on doing everything with you?"
"Well… I kind of needed him with me to get anywhere, but he left me alone whenever I wanted, and he was really busy with guild stuff for a while, so some of the other members kept me company while that was going on. I think one of their members went to jail and he was trying to lighten the sentence."
"He didn't demand you stay with him while he handled that?"
"No. We got into an argument over who hated paperwork more until Yukino offered to bake us cookies if we stopped talking."
"Did he feed you cookies?"
"Y-yes? He brought them over for me."
"Okay, but I mean more like picking a cookie up and placing it your mouth."
"Oh. No. I did that for him. Because his hands were… full with… papers… Um… Gray? Are you okay?"
Gray blinked, realized the dark expression he wore, and forced a smile. "Yeah. Fine."
"You're asking a lot of weird questions?" Natsu said. "Is this because Sting thinks you're his love rival? Because I know he was just being silly. We're just friends."
They both felt a stab in the gut when Natsu said that, but only Gray turned away.
"No," Gray said. "I don't care about that. I got male-Juvia vibes from him is all. Makes me even less comfortable leaving him with you."
Since Gray still had his gaze elsewhere, he didn't see Natsu's expression fall. As far as Natsu was concerned, Gray had no right to police who he saw. He especially had no right to say someone couldn't be trusted after taking his sweet time coming to pick Natsu up from that someone's guild. That Gray had yet to explain why he'd decided to wait a few days or apologize for taking so long didn't help.
But after all the goading Sting had done earlier in the day, Natsu didn't care bring it back up. He wanted answers, and some part of him that wanted to believe the way Lucy did also wanted to make Gray jealous. What he didn't want was to make Gray mad. Since pushing for answers would betray that he hadn't been as happy to be with Sting instead as Gray thought, and since it might set Gray off, Natsu sacrificed that first want.
"Sting took good care of me. He wasn't weird or obsessive about it at all."
"He really didn't try to push you into anything?"
"I mean, he threatened to force feed me my medicine one time."
Gray looked back at Natsu, alarmed. Sadly, Natsu knew that alarm was over the fact that a situation arose in which the threat was made, rather than over the threat itself.
"The taste of the tea didn't mix well with lunch. I'm always tired after lunch anyway, so I don't see what good it does to drink that stuff constantly."
Gray had no good response for that. Unable to think of anything to fill the silence, he stood and turned, getting to work on dinner.
Natsu wasn't wrong. The last attack had damaged him badly enough that even with the treatment that kept him going before, he was rarely up for anything by evening. Happy's account that Sting had somehow motivated Natsu to do something as low energy as a board game when the guild closed down from the day took Gray by surprise. In part because that was more effort than he expected Sting to be capable of, but mostly because that took more energy than he expected Natsu to have.
Even that new medicine, which was supposed to reverse damage, had yet to make a noticeable impact. Supposedly Alvarez was working against all good financial sense on making the pill more efficient, for all the good that did. Until they got the formula down, Gray could only hope that Natsu wouldn't let slow progress on his recovery get him down.
Glancing back, he saw Natsu face down on the table. Maybe he was setting his hopes a little too high.
"Hey… Natsu?" Gray asked. "If there's anything that might cheer you up… Anywhere you want to go… I could try and take you."
Without lifting his head off the kitchen table, Natsu said, "I want to go on a job again."
"Well… maybe. A light one. Someday. I was thinking more like… the beach. Or a camping trip."
Lucy's star gazing suggestion crossed Natsu's mind. That would certainly be a nice, low energy, thing to do with Gray. He could make a picnic dinner like they'd planned as an apology for sneaking off with Sting and everything. Except that now Natsu wasn't in much of a mood for apologizing. Now he wanted to know why Gray put off going to get him for days when the ice make wizard made it no secret that he didn't trust Sting at all. He wasn't the one who needed to apologize anymore, in his mind.
So in light of that…
"I want to visit Sting again."
"Something realistic, Natsu."
"You know, getting sick is the worst thing that ever happened to me," Natsu said, "and it's not because I can't walk across the street without falling over. It's because you let yourself get so obsessed with making sure I didn't collapse that you somehow convinced yourself you get to control every facet of my life. You know what? I take what I just said back. Getting sick on it's own wouldn't cause that. Gray, you're the worst thing that's ever happened to me."
Wouldn't let him stay with Sting. Couldn't bother to come and pick him up from Sting's. Just then, Natsu was absolutely done with Gray.
"I want to move back to my own house."
-o-
It wasn't the most mature reaction, but Gray ran away when Natsu said that. He'd only made it two blocks before realizing what a horrible mistake he'd made, but then Gray couldn't turn back. He ran out without saying a word. How embarrassing would it be to go home and try and explain that one?
What Gray really needed to do was go back and apologize to Natsu for trying to keep him and Sting apart. It wasn't that he thought he got to control Natsu's life. If Natsu wanted to see literally anyone else in the world, even Zeref, Gray would put his own life on hold to make that happen. (Okay, maybe not Zeref. That would be stupidly dangerous even when Natsu was healthy.) He didn't like Sting. He didn't trust Sting. He didn't want Natsu near Sting. Maybe it was wrong of him to take advantage of Natsu's dependency on him to try and keep Sting away, but…
But nothing. Gray had no good excuse for that. It was wrong of him. He was jealous, and he let his jealousy get the better of him. Natsu pushed him into taking a job and going away for a week, then snuck off to see someone else. Someone he knew Gray didn't want him around. And Gray came back to find that Natsu spent over a week living with love rival Sting and feeding him cookies!
He needed to turn back. He needed to apologize and tell Natsu that there was no need to sneak behind his back to visit Sting. And then he maybe needed to not so subtly push the idea that Natsu and Lucy made a better couple. Lucy he could stand losing Natsu to. Sting… Sting was an asshole. An asshole who cared about Natsu's wellbeing, looked after him for over a week, and did his best to keep Natsu happy, sure, but Gray knew that somehow, something was wrong with Sting. Having Sting declare them love rivals only made him more confident of that.
If only there was a way to convince Natsu of that. How serious a love rival was Sting anyway? If Natsu pushed Gray away to see Sting, how much a chance was there for him to…
No! He'd already decided that Natsu and Lucy needed to be together. They were so close, and Sting was coming between them! He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let himself get too caught up on the idea of him and Natsu either. It wasn't going to happen. Natsu didn't like him. Natsu liked Lucy, and maybe Sting, and all Gray was in Natsu's life was a friend and controlling caretaker.
Well, not so much of a friend anymore. The whole caretaker thing kind of ruined that, and now Natsu even wanted to try living on his own again, Gray let himself become so intolerable.
He really needed to go back and apologize. Explain himself. Explain… Explain that he liked Natsu and acted out of petty jealousy and basically turned into the male version of Juvia back there.
For as much as Gray knew he needed to turn back, he found himself walking further and further from his home, and before long, turning back was hardly an option.
"Gra-ay."
He flinched when he heard that voice. The absolute last thing he needed after Sting declared him a love rival and he let it get to him was for Juvia to find him. Well, second to last after running into Sting again, but still. He was not in the mood to take her fawning in good humor.
"Gray, Juvia hardly had a chance to talk to you recently," she whined, immediately gluing herself to his arm. "Juvia was so worried that Gray might by avoiding her."
"I needed to take a job."
"And you went without waiting for Juvia to come along…"
"The client only wanted one person on the job, and the pay was too good to pass up."
Really, the pay had been generous, but Gray took the job because Lucy and Natsu insisted he leave town for more than one night, and it was the only one that gave him a set number of days he'd be gone. He'd considered that the job didn't let him take any teammates to be a downside, since it meant no working with Wendy or Erza (or Lucy, since she'd apparently never intended to look after Natsu while he was gone), but now it seemed like a blessing. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend any time with Juvia. She was a guild mate and friend, after all. Whatever she thought of their relationship. It was just that a week in a train cabin—with no one else but her for half that time, was a little too much Juvia time.
She still pouted about it, but took the excuse as sufficient reason for Gray leaving her behind. Sooner or later he needed to outright tell her that he didn't feel the same way as she did. Again. Since telling her after the Games ended hadn't convinced her. Admitting that he'd fallen for someone else might hammer home that he wasn't looking for a relationship with her, but then it might also activate her crazy jealous mode and sent her on a mad hunt for her love rival.
Juvia was tenacious when properly motivated. The last thing Gray wanted was for Natsu to find out about his feelings by way of Juvia bursting in and demanding he make Gray stop loving him.
"Is Natsu with Lucy today?" Juvia asked.
"No."
"You already brought him to the guild?"
"No."
"Then you have Erza looking after him," Juvia assumed, since the idea that Gray might leave Natsu unattended for more than a few minutes was unthinkable. (And since she would want more than a few minutes with him, so the situation had to be one that made him available.) "Now might be a good time to get dinner."
"I ate on the train," Gray said.
Come to think of it, Natsu had been too sick, even for a little while after they got home. He'd eaten such an early dinner too. Even if it was late and Natsu surely wanted to be in bed, Gray ought to have offered to at least heat up leftovers for him.
Instead, like an idiot, he'd chosen to grill Natsu over his and Sting's interactions, and look where that got him? Hopefully Natsu would change his mind about moving out once well rested, but Gray needed to come up with something that worked as a decent apology.
"Perhaps a pastry shop," Juvia suggested. "There's no such thing as too much desert with you're beloved—"
"Sorry." Gray pulled his arm out of hers. "I'm… running an errand is all. I can't leave Natsu alone too long."
Natsu had Happy, sure, but Gray still preferred a human sized assistant be present.
Seeing Juvia completely deflate, Gray bit his lip. Turning her down wouldn't be so damn hard if she didn't always make him feel bad for trying.
"Where is that pastry shop?" he asked. "Maybe some other time, we could—"
"Juvia can show you right now!"
-o-
In the end, he let her drag him there, although for the sake of drawing the line somewhere, he let her know that none of the sweets he ended up buying weren't for her.
"Natsu's not feeling his best right now, so these should cheer him up."
"Natsu, Natsu, Natsu," Juvia muttered, pouting. "If Juvia didn't know any better, Natsu could be mistaken for a love rival."
Gray had always assumed it would be the most annoying thing in the world if the one person Juvia didn't see as a bona fide love rival was someone he actually fell for. Now that this had happened—even if she still recognize Natsu as a rival for Gray's attention—he realized this was a blessing. Sure, it was annoying if everyone else was still a love rival, but he didn't have to worry about Natsu receiving too much ire, or Juvia trying too hard to steal Gray's affection away. In fact, since the last attack, she didn't even make more than the occasional half-hearted effort to grab Gray's attention away whenever Natsu was in need.
For Juvia specifically, Gray might have overplayed the amount of help Natsu needed. Just a little. Poor guy really did need a lot of help.
Box of cupcakes in hand, Gray bid Juvia goodnight and headed home. He'd brush off his running away however many times it took to convince Natsu that it simply was not up for discussion, offer the cupcakes, apologize and say that maybe seeing Sting wasn't off limits after all, and then ask Natsu how he felt in terms of capabilities. That was the important one. No telling Natsu flat out that in his current condition, moving back to his old place might be too difficult. He would phrase it as a question that forced that confession from Natsu instead. Or get Happy to point it out in the morning, if Natsu felt stubborn and pretended those pills were working faster than they were.
Gray let himself back in the house with a whole speech planned out, and found it dark. The lights were out, and when he searched the place, he found Natsu had gone to bed in his day clothes.
Anyone else Gray might have woken up to say what he felt needed to be said. Sure, they'd be annoyed, but Gray hated waiting when it came to saying something important. Natsu, on the other hand, needed sleep. His condition sapped his energy, and Porlyusica had been very clear on the importance of a regular sleeping schedule. Disrupting Natsu's rest could throw him off for days.
Hopefully apologizing could wait until morning.
-x-
STA: Gray seems to have forgotten something.
Anywho... Um... I actually don't have much to comment on with this chapter. Ciao!
RyuuChaos: I almost missed your review because there were three Ryuus. I thought your comment must have been from chapter 24 (Are you all the same person?) Don't say stuff like that. You're making me blush.
Ryuu91: I'm glad to hear it met expectations! It always makes me anxious when people get excited about something I haven't showed them yet.
justanotheranimefanx: Meh. They've had Sting as a guildmaster for a little while now. Sooner or later they have to get used to it.
Guest: Special for you, the update was delayed (:
Ryuu Ohara: Haa... You saw me venting about how I wasn't going to hold off on posting over the other review, didn't you? OTL