It took Gray three months to explain what "beat me to your pants" meant, and Natsu was less than pleased with the wait time. That Happy found out about his curiosity over the term and told everyone in the guild not to explain it to Natsu only upped his irritation, as the chorus of snickers that ran through the building whenever Gray teased him about the idea made his feel like the butt of some joke. He knew Gray would be embarrassed in that contest, but the amount of retribution Gray decided to get for it was way too much, and Natsu was sitting at the edge of his metaphorical seat waiting for the right moment to balance things back out.

There was never a good moment. When Gray took him to the park to see the fall foliage, Natsu was too caught up in the sight to remember his plans to hide all of the clothes Gray shirked beneath fallen leaves, and Gray was able to redress himself before anyone passed and saw him in his birthday suit. When they went to an aquarium and an octopus spat ink all over Gray's face, Natsu was too busy laughing to think to snap a photo, and Gray used kept his Devil Slayer markings on display for the next week and told everyone he was training his control over how they spread across his skin, so there was no chance for others to see how absurd he looked on their outing. Even when Natsu tried to tell everyone the real reason Gray was wasting so much magic, they all dismissed the idea. Someone getting squirted in the face with ink was too outlandish a story to be true, and Gray wasn't so prideful that he'd maintain his Devil Slayer markings for a week straight just to hide a little ink splatter. (And he did keep them up around the clock, since he lived with Happy.)

Natsu was about ready to give up on his payback for Gray's payback. His mind was anywhere but Gray, in fact. Gray had left the guild early to deal with something important in the apartment, a faulty pipe or some other issue. As the one who couldn't crank a wrench and didn't manage the funds to hire a plumber, Natsu hadn't paid much attention to the problem. All he knew was that Gray needed to be there while something was fixed, and Erza was taking him home after he finished helping Mira with the dinner dishes.

Running orders to tables was still off limits to Natsu, although he occasionally snuck one out when Mira was busy. Aside from that, he mostly did back room kitchen help. Mira let him prep vegetables, wash dishes, turn a burner down on the oven, and any other little thing that took little energy. Chairs were placed at the end of each counter so he wouldn't tire himself out standing as he sliced lettuce, and patronizing as Natsu found that, he did have to admit that it was nice to be able to sit while he worked.

That night was a busy one. Fried had gotten severely drunk earlier in the evening as some sort of drinking game, and ended up confessing his love to a similarly drunk Laxus, and now there was a celebration of their apparent joining as a couple. Mira handled most of the added work, afraid of overtaxing Natsu, even if he he'd gotten to be good at recognizing for himself where his limit was and not overdoing it. (In Gajeel's words, it was damned miracle that he'd been able to learn such a thing, but Natsu had been forced to admit eventually that it was a valuable skill to have.) While Natsu might have the lighter load of the two of them, however, he still found himself finishing one task, just to find another two crop up. It came as a tremendous relief when Erza peeked her head into the kitchen to retrieve him.

"I'm escorting Lucy home before Cana talks her into anyone, so I need to get Natsu now."

"Oh, but I'll never get to everyone in time without him," Mira said, which was a lie. Mira was some sort of superhuman when it came to running the guild, and she only ever pretended she needed anyone's help to make them feel good. But Natsu still took comfort in knowing that he at least made her work a teeny bit easier.

"You'll survive," Erza said. "Gray will smother me in my sleep if I leave without Natsu."

"Only because he couldn't beat you when you're awake," Natsu said, holding his arms up for Erza to lift him easier.

Being a superhuman in her own right, Erza carried Natsu on her back and Lucy, who was a little more drunk than Natsu expected, in her arms. Throughout the walk home Lucy giggled about any inane thing that crossed her mind, most of which had to do with Erza finally realizing she was a princess. By the time Erza dropped Natsu off at Gray's doorstep, he had a month's worth of embarrassing stories to dangle over Lucy's head.

Erza bid him farewell with a wink and a "You two have fun," which was a decidedly weird way to tell someone good night and sweet dreams, but then Erza had always been a little weird. Natsu thought nothing of it until he opened the door and was hit by the strong scent of roses.

He had read about this before. When Lucy ran out of books for him to read while Gray was away on a job, she'd started borrowing indiscriminately from Levy and Erza's collections, and those two read books that Lucy was too embarrassed to touch.

Natsu stepped inside cautiously. His vision was one thing that had barely improved since starting on the Suraci's pills, and the dimly lit apartment was hard to make out the details of, although familiarity told him where the furniture was. It would be easy to flick a light on, but Natsu wanted to see where Gray was going with this.

He sniffed, looking for Gray's scent beneath the rose, and thought his boyfriend might be in the bedroom. The obvious next course of action was to go in there and see what Gray had in store, but after a moment's thought Natsu turned to the kitchen sink instead. There wasn't anything particular that he needed to do in the kitchen. He just wanted to see how long Gray could last before altering his plans.

After two straight minutes of washing his hands, Natsu felt Gray's arms wrap around his chest.

"Hey," Gray whispered, lips up against Natsu's ear. "I have a surprise for you."

Feeling Gray's breath on the back of his neck, Natsu went rigid with nerves. This was something he'd wanted. Something he'd long wondered about. Something he entirely expected to underperform on with his condition. When Gray moved back, Natsu swallowed hard and gathered up the courage to look back and see exactly what the surprise was. When he turned around, however, Gray had already retreated back into the bedroom.

This was the moment of truth! Over a year of teasing by Cana about what he might be able to accomplish in bed would either be disproven or validated tonight.

Natsu strode purposefully into the bedroom, then froze at what he saw.

There were no real roses, but Gray must have forked out to get candles that didn't have an artificial tinge to their scent. To match the dim flickers that led up to the bed, Gray had frosted the walls with facets of ice that reflected the dancing flames.

Gray himself lay on the mattress. He was completely naked, and remained decent only by the sheet tastefully arranged to fall over his waist. Ironically this means he was more covered up than he normally was when in bed. He eyed Natsu as though the fire slayer had his pre-Suraci's figure, which made Natsu self-conscious of his utter lack of muscle definition.

"Feeling up for a little more activity before bed?" Gray asked. "I can take you for a ride I know you'll love."

With that, Natsu fell apart, ducking his face into his hands and biting down hard on his lip to keep from bursting out in laughter. It was impossible to feel anxious over Gray's attempt at seduction.

"H-hey? What's wrong?" Gray pushed himself upright in bed, then hopped off to hurry over to Natsu. "You aren't that tired, are you? Mira thought we ought to shoot for morning if we were going to do anything, but I didn't want to risk you being wiped out for the rest of the day."

Objectively, Natsu realized that Gray was referring to his disease and how easily an exciting morning could result in a nap from lunch to dinner. But because Gray said what he did right after dropping such a cheesy attempt at seduction, Natsu's brain still interpreted Gray's concerns as posturing. As if Gray was such a stud that he leave anyone spent for the day after the ride he took them for.

"Natsu?" Gray tentatively slid a hand under Natsu's to feel his boyfriend's cheek, as if contact would let him detect anything amiss. "Hey. Speak to me."

Certain he would burst out in laughter if he removed his teeth from his lip, Natsu stayed silent. His only visible reaction was the faint trembling of his shoulders as he struggled to regain control of himself. Gray, misinterpreting this for extreme fatigue, leaned in closer to try and make sure Natsu wasn't in danger of another attack. It had been over a year, but the last one did enough damage that Gray was determined never to let Natsu suffer any further degeneration ever again.

Natsu seized the moment when Gray leaned in to grab him, pulling himself forward so that their lips met. If he focused on what his tongue did, it helped draw him out of what Gray said. Hopefully Gray would mistake the occasional chuckle that escaped for him experimenting with his kisses.

The tactic worked. It only took a second before Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu and pulled him closer, and they had yet to break away for air when Gray swept Natsu off the ground and carried him towards the bed.

"You're up for this," Gray asked as he set Natsu on the mattress.

"I'm down with it."

As Gray was already naked, he set to work stripping Natsu down, working at his belt while Natsu shrugged off his vest. He tossed the belt across the room when he managed to undo the clasp, and flipped Natsu from his butt to his back to pull his trousers off.

"Have you done this before?"

"No. You?"

"Not with a man," Gray admitted.

"Uh oh." Natsu smirked up at Gray. "You know what you're doing, right?"

"I know more than you do." Gray smirked back. "Told you I'd be the first to get into your pants."

"Oh! Is that what the pants thing meant?" Natsu asked. His expression brightened as he asked, eyes widening as innocent curiosity beat out the lust that filled them seconds before.

"It means something better than you expected, doesn't it?"

"It definitely doesn't mean what I expected."

"Well."

Gray reached for Natsu's scarf, but Natsu grabbed it and held firm. The scarf stayed on.

Gray tsked. "You know I can't reach your neck like that."

Smirking up at him, Natsu said, "You have the rest of me to work with."

"True."

Gray leaned forward, kissing Natsu again before moving to nibble on his ear. No sooner had he done so than did Natsu grab the sheets and roll over, wrapping himself up as he turned in bed.

"Uh… Natsu?"

"I'm sleepy."

"…what."

"I'm sleepy," Natsu repeated, turning his head so that Gray couldn't see his smirk that reached from ear to ear. "You can get in my pants some other time."

"But… But you…"

Natsu could smell Gray's arousal, and he knew how badly Gray wanted to protest. Claiming fatigue, however, was the ultimate get out of jail free card for Natsu. No one dared press him to do anything when tired, lest they trigger an attack. Gray above all others wouldn't take the risk, especially not for sex. It wouldn't do to taint the memory of their first time like that.

"Fine. I can wait until morning."

"Mm… I think I'll still be tired in the morning."

"When, then?"

Natsu thought about it, counting the days Gray made him wait to learn that he was thinking about sex in the first place. Wouldn't it have been nice to have that much of a heads up instead of coming home one evening to the surprise that he had been judged fit enough to attempt a go? "Maybe in three months."

"Are you mad at me?"

"I'm not that mad."

"Your mad at me."

Natsu looked back, pushing himself up to give Gray one last kiss for the night. "Only a teeny bit. You'll like it better when I've had more time to recover anyway."

"Are you sure you want to do this? You're raising my expectations now."

Gasping with fake offense, Natsu asked, "Are you suggesting you have low expectations of me?"

Gray hesitated before grabbing a corner of the sheets and pulling it over himself. "You know what, I'm really tired to. 'Night, Natsu."

-x-

STA: Anyone who remembered that I don't like sex scenes should have seen this coming. (It was a toss up between Natsu being petty, or one of them turning out to be too ticklish to bear it. The latter sounded funnier, but the former implied less abstinence going forward.)