"Sting pulled out a lacryma for us to contact the guild. Mira told us that Gray was back, but he didn't come to get me for days after she said so, and when he showed up he acted like nothing happened. He grilled me on what all I did with Sting and got weird about how Yukino made us cookies to shut us up once, but he acted like he hadn't waited forever before picking me up. At first I thought that he wanted a few days off from having to help me, and that… I didn't like to think that, but I understood it. But then when I complained about it to Mira and she pointed out that Gray decided to leave me even though he didn't trust Sting, it just… it seemed bad. Like, maybe he was too tired of me to care if something went wrong."

"That can't be right. Gray told me he ran to get you as soon as he could." Something about this nagged at the back of Lucy's mind. Something that told her that this was not only wrong, but that whatever piece she was missing was one she'd played a major part in. "Gray and I met at the train station, and I could have sworn I watched him buy a ticket once I told him where you were. At first he thought I took you with me when… Oh. Oh."

"What?" Natsu asked.

"I'm so stupid! Oh my God, Natsu, I'm so sorry! I went and ruined everything!"

"What is it?" Natsu leaned so far forward in curiosity that Happy grabbed his arm to make sure he didn't fall off of Lucy's bed.

"I took a job," Lucy said. "It was only supposed to last a day and I would have been back before Gray. I've had trouble with my rent ever since you… well… you've been off active duty and Gray hardly worked because he wanted to be there for you, and Erza and Wendy and I started taking jobs with other people while we waited for the two of you to come back. After we learned you wouldn't… we just stayed apart. The whole team wasn't getting back together, so it felt weird to go on without you two. We still take jobs together sometimes, but usually I'm on my own, or tag along with Levy, so I can't do as difficult of work. I mean, Levy and I are alright, but Jet and Droy are… not… and none of us are as good as Erza." She almost said 'as good as you or Erza,' but caught herself before she could throw out such a cruel reminder. "So an easy, high paying job came up and I couldn't pass it over. I was supposed to be there when Gray got home, but there was an incident at the train station that delayed everything for days."

"So Gray came home and you weren't there."

"And I might not have told anyone else where you were," Lucy admitted. "You were confident in Sting, and he and Rogue seemed alright the day they visited here, but I'd seen a few people go to Makarov whenever they thought Gray mishandled you, and I was worried that they might think I'd done the same if they found out I left you with… well… Sting."

"Sting took good care of me."

"Yeah, but Sting and being a good caretaker is like Sting and reading. Apparently it's a thing, but you wouldn't guess at first glance. I was mostly okay with it because I figured Rogue would be there to help too."

Natsu had to concede that one. If Sting and Rogue hadn't taken charge the day he nearly fell into the canal, he wasn't sure he'd have expected either of them, or at least not Sting, to put too much thought into what all he needed others to do for him.

"So then Gray…"

"I got home a few days after him. Gray probably didn't apologize for coming late because he didn't realize we all expected him to get you a few days earlier. He just thought I took you with me when I left town, since all I had to do was provide special effects for a show. And form his perspective he didn't waste a second going to pick you up."

Lucy expected Natsu to be angry with her. Her carelessness caused the split between him and Gray and even forced him to spend a few nights with Laxus. Natsu, however, was completely uninterested with being angry. Instead, he lit up upon hearing this theory.

"So we can tell Gramps is was a false alarm and I can move back in with Gray?" Natsu asked. "He didn't want time off from me. I'm not wearing him down! I didn't burn anyone out!"

His elation only made Lucy feel worse. She'd been fixated on how Natsu felt about Gray in particular. She'd forgotten about his own self-esteem. Wearing people down. He certainly needed a lot of help, especially as the day wore on. She could see how someone else in a similar situation might want time off from whoever they took care of. Lucky for Natsu, his friends were too loyal for that.

Too bad she went and made it seem like Gray wasn't so loyal.

"I need to let Gray know right away," Lucy said. Now that she knew there was nothing to worry about in stepping out briefly, she asked, "Will you be okay with just Happy?

"Aye!"

"Good. I'll bring back takeout for lunch—or we can go to the guild to eat. We need to straighten things out with everyone else too. I found out that you two were separated when Cana gossiped about how Gray had his Natsu privileges revoked."

"So what you're saying," Natsu clarified, expression dead serious, "is that it's a privilege to be with me."

Lucy swatted his arm. "I didn't mean it that way. You take care, alright? I won't be gone long."

"Bring Gray back with you."

"Will do!"

-o-

Gray wasn't home when Lucy knocked. Had Cana not told her that Gray was avoiding the guild, she would have gone straight there, but Cana had told her that Gray was avoiding the guild, so Lucy waited outside his apartment instead.

Once enough time had passes that she could no longer assume he was simply running errands, Lucy decided to check the guild anyway. Even if Gray was depressed and avoiding everyone, neither he nor anyone else in the guild could go indefinitely without someone to interact with. Besides, he worked maybe once or twice a month while looking after Natsu. If she were in his shoes, she'd have taken advantage of how open her schedule would be to gather up some savings while her super cute and amazingly generous friend sorted everything with Natsu out for her.

She reached the guild but didn't see Gray anywhere. She might have left and spent a few minutes searching the town before returning to Natsu, but Cana was at the bar waving at her, and Lucy figured she could take a few minutes to give an update on how Natsu was doing. She needed to straighten the record out regarding Natsu and Gray anyway.

"You're going to stick around town now that you've got Natsu, huh?" Cana asked.

"You say that like I wasn't already around plenty."

"Please. You were out on a job every other day unless Gray asked you to take over for him. So, how's the little spitfire?"

"I haven't seen him spit fire in months," Lucy reported. "He's cheering up. I had to bribe him with hot chocolate to make his drink his tea, but he takes his pills without complaint, and he's diligent with his exercises. Physically though… it's not one of his better days. I guess the move yesterday wore him down more than I realized. I couldn't even get him to leave my bed. My legs are too sore to carry him again anyway."

"Yeah. I saw you dragging him in the other day. Got a kick out of it. If you're short on rent, I'd pay to see you do that again."

"We're not doing that again. I wouldn't have gone along with it once if Natsu didn't need cheering up."

"He thought it was funny to watch you struggle too?"

"Gray got him hooked on piggyback rides, so he's training me," Lucy corrected. "And there's no point in that now, because he's going back with Gray soon."

Cana cocked her head in confusion. "Not if the old man has anything to say about it. Gray ditched Natsu somewhere, remember?"

"No!" Lucy cried, standing up from her bar stool so fast she knocked it over. "This was all a misunderstanding! Gray was innocent. I-I mean he's still kind of an idiot about Natsu and Sting being friends, but he didn't leave Natsu anywhere unsafe."

"Riii-ight. Friends." Cana chuckled to herself. "I mean obviously Natsu came back safe, but from what I heard from Mira, Gray had no way of knowing that."

"Oh, Nevermind. You can hear the real story from Mira later, if her account means more. Have you seen Gray? I need to let him know I figured out what went wrong?"

Still convinced that Gray was went wrong, Cana gave a thoughtless shrug. "He took a job and left. Said he'd be gone a while. You missed him by about half an hour." Seeing Lucy's exasperated disbelief, Cana grinned and added, "You might still be able to catch him if you run for the train station."

The train station was on the other side of town, and Lucy was in heels. Maybe if she'd brought Natsu and Happy with her, then she'd be able to borrow Happy to make the trip. Then again, if Natsu made her carry him again, they wouldn't have reached the guild until Gray was long gone, and neither of them were up for that kind of excursions anyway.

"Forget it."

Lucy tried to sink back down into her seat. She squatted down to where the stool should have been, had she not knocked it over, then lost her balance and fell the rest of the way to the floor and crash landed on her butt.

When Cana's laughter subsided enough, Lucy heard Mira say, "Oh my. You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No. I've been put through worse."

"That's a relief." Mira reached over the bar to offer Lucy a hand. "You need to be more careful. You take jobs on your own now, Lucy. What if you make a mistake like that during battle?"

Lucy had taken a great many jobs that didn't involve battle since her team unofficially split up, and Mira knew that, but she did still take some fighting jobs, so she accepted the point without dispute. Taking Mira's hand, she let herself be pulled back up to her feet before returning the bar stool to its rightful spot and sitting back down.

"You sure looked animated," Mira mentioned. "Good news?"

"Kind of. I was hoping to tell Gray first, but… I guess he isn't here." Lucy couldn't help but sign. So close. So close to getting the two of them together. If Natsu were too afraid to confess first, she could have pushed Gray into it. "Is the master in? I need to speak with him. It's about Natsu."

-x-

STA: Finally!

Actually, I had fun with this stretch. All the little details that came together in just the right way to make people discuss things in such a way as to only add to the confusion. But it's nice to get to the point where things begin to clear up.

Guest: Aren't I awful?

FranGipani6181: To late. He left.

Ryuu91: Hm... I might have gone a little too far with making Mira protective of Natsu. Aren't I awful?

FranGipani6181: To late. He left.

Ryuu91: Hm... I might have gone a little too far with making Mira protective of Natsu.