Lucy expected to be met with utter chaos when she returned from her job. The second to last job she'd taken longer than she'd expected, and she ended up not making it home in time to direct Gray to Sting's house. Gray's fury then was directed more at the fact that Natsu was at Sting's than with Lucy for not notifying anyone, but she knew that sooner or later Gray would turn on her over the whole ordeal, and that he would justified in doing so. He was Natsu's main caretaker. He needed to be informed on where Natsu was.

Knowing Gray, she figured it would take him just long enough to fetch Natsu and get the roset settled back in at home before he chased her down and tore into her. Not looking forward to what she knew was a well-deserved scolding (how hard would it have been to tell Makarov where Natsu was before leaving town?) Lucy decided to quickly grab another job and make a run for it.

As the train pulled back into Magnolia after her latest job, Lucy watched from the window for any signs of Gray waiting for her at the station. She took it as a good sign, no, a wonderful sign that he wasn't there. If he wasn't angry enough to wait for her arrival, he'd had time enough to calm down, and there wouldn't be too big a fallout to deal with. At least, that's what she thought.

Everything seemed so calm and normal, so it came as a total shock to Lucy when, after seating herself in the guild and Cana came up to her to ask, "Planning to do anything naughty with Natsu now that he's all yours? I've heard about him sneaking into your bed before. He can still show you a good time, can't he? Or is his disease too serious for anything that physical? I'm sure if you two shot for some time in the morning, he'd still have the energy for it."

It took Lucy a second to process what Cana was talking about, and once she got it, her face turned scarlet.

"I-I-I'd never…! Natsu and I are just…! C-Cana!"

"Like you never thought of it. So, how good is he? Probably not too freaky, right?"

"I-I wouldn't know," Lucy said. "If you insist, you're probably right about him having to do… th-th-that… in the morning, but you've seriously misunderstood our relationship. Natsu and I are friends. Nothing more."

"Oh? Are you sure about that? He may have feelings for you, you know. You're both so bad at expressing your—"

"He confided in me that he likes someone else, and I have been trying to help him get their attention," Lucy said.

This gave Cana only a moment's pause. "Really? Not Gray? Seems like he'd be a better one to go to, with his weird fetish for helping Natsu."

Lucy wished Cana hadn't phrased it that way, but it was too late to unhear what had been said. "Well, Gray wasn't really an option. Besides, how good could Gray be at offering advice with opening up to someone you like?"

As soon as she said it, Lucy regretted her words. She should have skipped that whole first part, which made it so obvious to her that she was talking about how Gray was the one that Natsu liked.

To her relief, Cana's only visible reaction was to laugh and say, "True. He's not the most emotionally expressive guy, is he? I bet he'd have turned into some sort of overprotective dad towards whoever Natsu likes anyway. Hey, y'know, maybe that's why he got to be so weird about Natsu going to stay with Sting."

Lucy hadn't mentioned Natsu and Sting's agreement to anyone, but she smiled and nodded as if she perfectly understood what was going on. If nothing else, she knew about the reaction Cana referred to. As for how Cana knew about it…

"Well, it's probably for the best that Natsu went to you about Sting instead. He'd be pretty lost right now otherwise, but he still has you to get support from." Can gave Lucy's arm a light punch. "Take care of him, kay?"

"Y-yeah." Whatever that all meant. "Do you know where Natsu is right now?"

"Probably at Laxus's," Cana said. "Sometimes Laxus drops by for a few minutes to report on how he's doing, but neither of them have left much since the Gramps rearranged Natsu's housing. Natsu's sulking. Laxus doesn't want to leave him alone. I think they've got Fried running around doing all of Laxus's errands until Natsu finally asks to come here again."

And suddenly Cana's last comment made sense. "The master separated Natsu and Gray?"

"You didn't hear?"

"I just got back…"

Cana shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She hadn't wanted to be the one to give a serious explanation. "I guess Natsu complained to Mira about some things Gray did wrong—really wrong—earlier in the week. Day after you left, in fact. Gramps decided that he'd heard enough of people taking issue with how Gray did things. Neither of them's really come around since. Gray dropped by to try and change the old man's mind, but it didn't work and no one's really seen him since.

"Natsu… Not sure what Natsu's issue was. He wasn't happy to be separated from Gray, but everyone who had the whole story thought it was for his own good. I'm not a part of that everyone, but wave Mira down when you see her and she'll have the whole scoop. They were hoping you could take Natsu indefinitely when you get back, although they'll need to work out something more final so you can still pay your rent. Anyway, Natsu's been sulking up in Laxus's guest room. At least according to Laxus. No one's really sure if it's because he wants to stay with Gray, or because he didn't want to live with Laxus."

"Or because he made a choice about where to stay and was told that his opinion on the matter was irrelevant," Lucy added.

"Huh. Didn't even think of that one."

"Gray and Natsu's fight over Sting," Lucy said, "mostly came down to Gray telling Natsu that he couldn't see Sting and that was that, which Natsu felt was too controlling. He's… I mean… He's weak now, and I'm sure it's hard to have to hope that people will help you do what you want, even if it's easier for them to make things go their way."

This time Cana had nothing to say in response. The whole guild had watched uncomfortably as Gray forbid Natsu from something in the name of safety, feeling it was wrong for Gray to act so controlling. The whole guild had then nodded along as Natsu was taken from Gray against his will in the name of safety. Lucy had become rather infamous for the liberties she granted Natsu before his last attack, but even if there was a general sense that she gave Natsu too much liberty, it was hard to dismiss her when she pointed something like that out to them.

"I'm going to go see Natsu." Lucy said, standing up from the bar. "If you spot Gray anywhere, ask him to stop by my apartment."

Lucy couldn't believe Gray might actually do Natsu any harm. Aside from their argument over Sting, the two of them had reached an understanding. Natsu knew that Gray had his best interest at heart and paid attention when Gray thought something was ill advised, and while Gray insisted on certain things, he generally deferred to Natsu when it came to what to do. It to kept Natsu happy and allowed him some control over his life, and since Natsu had finally resigned himelf to asking only for things that were realistic with his condition, they rarely fought over what he wanted. Sting was pretty much the only point of contention, and with the way Sting and Gray acted around one another, Lucy could understand why.

Had she not been in such a rush to make sure Natsu was alright, she might have thought to ask Mira what exactly the two had been separated over, but Lucy reasoned that it was an acceptable oversight. She could always ask Natsu for the details. Natsu account of the incident was something she would need anyway.

-o-

Natsu wept for joy when he saw Lucy.

"You missed me that bad, huh?"

He nodded, trying to wipe his cheeks dry as he smiled up at her. Keeping it to a simple 'missed you' spared him from having to explain that life with Laxus was so horribly awkward that he'd contemplated running away. Not to somewhere he'd never be found, of course. If no one could find him, he half suspected he'd die from being unable to look after himself. But if he made it back to his own home, then maybe Happy would have been able to take care of him alone. If everyone came looking for him and found him getting by, they might not make him go back to Laxus. The only thing stopping Natsu was that he had yet to figure out how he'd afford to keep himself fed.

The way Laxus seemed so unsure of how to handle him only made Natsu feel like more of a burden than ever before. In the three long days since he'd been moved in by force, Natsu had come to resent himself, not his illness, for his inability to handle things. To finally see Lucy, who he knew would take him in and who Makarov approved of, was the greatest relief he'd felt in a long time.

"This certainly isn't where I expected to find you," Lucy said. "What happened?"

"Gray ditched me. Gramps said I couldn't stay with him anymore after that. Said too many people came to him saying they saw Gray do something they didn't like."

"How did that happen?" Lucy asked. "Gray didn't just leave you, did he?"

"More or less. I wasn't in any danger, but he had no way of knowing that."

He took comfort in the disbelieving look on Lucy's face. Having spent the past week thinking of how cumbersome taking care of him had been for Gray that'd he'd ultimately be left behind, such skepticism as to the idea that Gray would really do such a thing was to be appreciated. Maybe some of that self-doubt had been a figment of his imagination.

"Did you confront Gray about it?"

"Not really. We were busy arguing over whether or not it was okay for me to visit Sting again. Since I wasn't really in any danger, I was more upset over him telling me I couldn't be with a friend. It only came up because…um…" Natsu blushed and looked away, feeling ashamed as he admitted, "I was mad, so I went to Mira to complain about him, and I mentioned how Gray just… left me for a few days. I wanted him to sound bad so she'd side with me when I complained about him, but… I hadn't thought of how Gray didn't know I was alright all that time, and when Gramps made a big deal of it…"

"Hey left you…?"

That didn't sound right. No part of that sounded right. Especially not when Lucy thought of how frantic Gray had been when she returned from her last job and he saw that Natsu wasn't with her. When he ran off after the explained where Natsu was, she thought he would head straight to Sting's place. No way would someone who couldn't even stand for Natsu to be in the care of someone he didn't see eye to eye with leave Natsu in the care of no one.

"You're sure?" Lucy asked. "He really refused to even come and check in on you?"

"I mean, he came eventually, but when we contacted the guild to see what was taking Gray so long with picking me up…"

Seeing the downcast look on Natsu's face as he recalled all of this, Lucy resolved to find Gray. Either there was a missing piece to this whole affair that he might be able to clear up, or she was going to kick his ass so hard the heel of her boot would scratch his throat.

"So I was right," Natsu said, drawing Lucy's attention back to him. "He didn't like me."

"Jellal tried to murder Erza, and I think it's safe to say he likes her," Lucy said. "Give me a few days to investigate before you give up on him."

"He hasn't come to visit either."

"Give me a few days."

Natsu recoiled, shocked by the sudden forceful tone and dark scowl. "O-okay."

"And in the meantime, cheer up," Lucy added, making herself smile again so as not to scare Natsu any further. "I'll get Laxus to help me move your things into my apartment while we sort everything out. You and Happy fly there whenever you're ready. I'll make hot cocoa."

Natsu looked at her in confusion. "That's better when it's snowing out."

Now it was Lucy who looked confused, even a little alarmed. Natsu was sitting right beside a window, after all. How he could have failed to miss the light blanket of snow on the streets below was beyond her.

"Are you looking outside at all?"

"Kind of." Natsu glanced out the window. "Oh. Kinda early for that… Okay. Let's make cocoa. Should help warm me up after the trip there."

The only comment Lucy could think to make was about what a shame it was that Natsu no longer had enough magic to warm himself, but she dared not say as much to him. She smiled and ruffled his hair instead.

"Leave everything to me."

-x-

STA: Finals tomorrow. Yay.

: Ah. That's really cool. It makes me happy to see people reading my story from all over the world :)

Animelover9696: *rubs hands devilshly*

Ryuu91: Don't worry. Thinks are mostly upward from here on out.