Yes, I'm finally uploading ! I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but a few months ago I graduated college (Yaaay!). I didn't feel like working however, so I started a new study. I really like it, only downside is that I have so much work to do I even have less time than before to write.

As for the last chapter (I hoped you liked it of course), I wrote that Natsu was complaining about the cold. Some of you seemed to be of the thought that he doesn't get cold. You can have your own thoughts about it of course. My opinion however is that he does get cold! Not as fast as others, since he has fire magic, but if you follow that logic Gray shouldn't feel hot either. And we all know Gray can't stand heat at all.
With that in mind I decided Natsu does get cold if he's on a snowy mountain; especially when he's not doing anything.

I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 9

Naked Pain

By Neko Erza

Natsu watched as the villagers carried off the dark guild members, taking them back to town so they got the punishment they deserved. They had retrieved the stolen goods so they could finally be brought to their rightful owners.

"You did a pretty good job, ice princess." Natsu said as Gray came to stand next to him. "Your fighting was pretty amazing."

"A compliment from you?" Gray raised an eyebrow.

Natsu chuckled "Unexpected?"

"Kind of." Gray smiled. He was so glad the mission went this well, especially after the small fiasco last time.

Natsu looked at the raven laughing, feeling a warmth bubbling up in his stomach. It was quite nice to hear the raven laugh for a change. Normally all he heard were insults or at most a mocking laugh; he made a mental note to give compliments more often. Gray looked up at him, so Natsu quickly looked the other way.

"I did blunder, though." The raven sighed, thinking back to not being able to wield his cold Excalibur. He had totally misjudged the situation.

Natsu snickered at the thought of Gray being yanked back by the big ass sword. "Yeah, that really sucked, nobody can deny that."

"I guess this is as far as the compliments go." The raven shook his head, yet the smile didn't disappear from his face.

"I guess we can overlook that fail, since that asshole of a master was kind of spurring you on. You weren't focused and overdid it. I know the feeling."

Gray had to laugh at that. "You? Overdoing things? Never," he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Girly voice or not, that tone definitely didn't change. Natsu playfully pushed the ice mage to the side.

"Hey, watch out!" Gray said, putting a hand on his lower back. "I think I pulled a muscle back then. My back's hurting."

"Probably from the weight of the sword."

"Yeah, it's been bothering me for a while now."

"Oh, does the little princess need to be pampered?" Natsu asked teasingly, pinching Gray's cheek. The ice mage slapped the hand away annoyed and gave the pinkette a push.

"Come on, idiot. We still got work to do."

"Work? We've rounded up the dark guild; work's done, right?" Natsu pouted.

"If this was all we had to do, they wouldn't have needed to contact an ice mage in particular, would they?" Gray said. "The trading route might be opened up again, but it's still not safe. That other ice mage tampered all the ice and snow here. The hazard of avalanches has increased quite a bit."

"So, you have to do your little ice thing to make it safe again?" Natsu added.

"Yeah, that's why they asked for an ice mage."

"But I can't help you with that!" The pinkette pouted like a small child. "What am I supposed to do while you work?"

"Shutting your mouth might be a good thing to start with." Gray mumbled, walking towards the cliffs that needed the most urgent attention. Natsu followed suit.

"I'm gonna get bored, so hurry up!"

"I told you not to come! You knew what we were up against. You should've just listened and stayed at the guild."

Natsu frowned. "I came because I thought you were going to need me."

"Well, I didn't after all."

"It's thanks to me that you are even here! Otherwise that Lyon guy would have been standing here." The pinkette countered annoyed. He stole that request to cheer Gray up. And he came along because he was worried for his friend, he didn't want to risk Gray being injured. Why couldn't that stubborn ice mage just see that?

The ice mage sighed and turned around. "I know, I know I'm here just because of you."

"You could be a bit more grateful for it."

"You know I am, flame brain."

The pinkette just raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms before his chest.

Gray let out a groan and stared at the other mage. Natsu just stared back, making Gray shake his head, "Please don't force me to be nice to you."

Natsu smiled in response, still waiting for Gray to say it. The way the stubborn pout looked on the female raven was just too cute.

"Fiiiiine!" Gray whined. "Thank you for doing this, Natsu. Without you I would never have been here. I owe you a big one." He sighed, "While I'm on it; thanks for all the training the last few weeks… I couldn't have done it without you."

Natsu grinned, "That's all I wanted to hear, ice princess." He wrapped his arm around Gray's neck, ruffling through the raven hair with his other hand.

"Yeah, yeah." Gray grinned, then added quietly, "Also… thank you for the scarf."

The white scarf was still firmly wrapped around the big chest. Natsu's cheeks coloured pink as he quickly glanced at his scarf. "C-Couldn't let you walk around like that. Just don't lose it."

"I won't, I know it's very important to you. I just wish I could find my bra. Those things are way too expensive. It's really awful they dare charge so much for something that's so important."

Natsu gawked at Gray. "Did you really just say that?"

"What?" The ice mage asked blushing. "It's just the way it is."

"You're getting pretty used to all this women stuff." The pinkette said, still shocked by the raven's sudden declaration.

The red on Gray's cheeks only got darker. "It's just true. It can be pretty painful to walk around without a bra, let alone train and fight."

"Yet, you threw off yours during battle."

"It's just a habit, it's not like changing into a woman means I suddenly don't have that tendency anymore. I can't help it. I already learned to kind of control it when I'm just at the guild or something, but when i'm focused on something else it's very hard not to do it."

Now that Natsu thought about it, last few times he had seen Gray at the guild, he had always been wearing the bra. His shirt wasn't anywhere to be seen any of these times of course , but expecting that was asking for miracles. He saw Gray reaching for the piece of underwear several times, yet the raven always seemed to realize just in time to leave it alone. But… why would he, Natsu, notice something like that about Gray? Had he really been looking that many times?

"You don't have to get so defensive, ice princess." Natsu smiled. "I'm glad you're adjusting. Must make things quite a lot easier."

Gray didn't like to admit it, but it did make things a lot easier. He couldn't deny that he wasn't as strong as before, and that he desperately tried to hang on to his regular fighting tools in the beginning. He had to adjust to continue being a mage. Adjusting was just making things a hell of a lot easier for him. Yet, he wouldn't ever say that out loud to the dragon slayer; that way his stubborn behaviour from before just looked worthless and stupid. Which had indeed been a lot of foolishness, but he didn't need the pinkette rubbing it into his face.

"Did you start shaving your legs too?" The pinkette suddenly smirked.

Gray just knew a jab was going to follow. He had already braced himself for it. He really knew this guy too well.

"Yes, I do, actually." The raven admitted. "Although I'd rather shave my face than two whole legs."

Natsu looked dumbfounded for a moment. He hadn't expected such a quick, positive answer. He had hoped to embarrass the raven some more, the blush on her face looked just too cute. He smirked again. "Great, thank god you shave your armpits too. Really wouldn't be a sight to see otherwise."

"Of course." Gray said piqued. "I don't find girls with leg armpit hair sexy at all – NOT that I want to be sexy!" The raven quickly added, before the pinkette got the remark over his lips. "By the way, I always shave my armpits, man or woman. First of all; it looks much better and second of all; I think it's more hygienic."

"I agree." Natsu raised his arm, showing a hairless armpit.

"And here I was thinking puberty had just skipped you." Gray smirked.

"You damned little princess." Natsu said grabbing the raven and ruffling the black hair again.

Natsu sat around, watching the ice mage work. He'd thought he would be bored to death just sitting around, not being able to do anything to help, but observing the raven was way more interesting than he'd like to admit.

The graceful movements of the body, arms and even the fingers were really a sight to see. In comparison to his dragon slayer magic, ice magic seemed so refined and calculated. Yet, he had never noticed it, until his friend turned into a woman. Or did it just look so much more beautiful because Gray was a woman now?

The raven was halfway through with clearing the trading route, yet Natsu had noticed the raven regularly rubbed out her back. When Gray did it again, Natsu called out,

"Is your back bothering you that much? You should pass by Wendy once we're back."

Gray tried to rub away the pain again, it suddenly flared up at moments, then ebbed away again. "Yeah… I really don't know what the hell I did. I don't think it's a pulled muscle, it doesn't feel like that." His stomach had started hurting too. Did he get kicked during the fight or something?

"Then take a break." Natsu smiled. He moved aside their backpacks, which he picked up a little while earlier, and tapped the place next to him.

Gray's face crunched up in pain again. "I'd love to, but I should finish this up."

Now Natsu was really bothered by the fact he couldn't help out. Just lazily sitting around while Gray did all the work while he was in pain. "Come on, just sit down for a minute. You're in pain."

"No, I really have to hurry up, there's a snowstorm coming."

"How do you know?" The pinkette asked surprised.

The raven turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "I can feel it in my boobs."

Natsu blinked confused a couple of times and looked at the mounts for a second. How could Gray…?

The ice mage rolled his eyes. "How do you think I know, flame brain? I'm an ice mage!"

"Oh… Oh! Yeah, of course." Natsu said blushing, yet he gave one last quick glance at the raven's chest.

Gray continued, hoping to round up this last part of the request as soon as possible. His injury, or whatever it might be, was really slowing him down, but about an hour before sundown he finally finished up.

Natsu had fallen asleep somewhere along the way. The raven walked up to the dragon slayer and gave him a light nudge with his foot to wake him up.

"Wakey, wakey. I finished the work."

Natsu tried to rub some warmth back into his arms. Doing nothing really does make him feel cold, then again if he weren't a fire dragon slayer, he would already have been suffering from hypothermia. Besides that, his neck felt strangely naked without his scarf; but since Gray had already lost all of his clothes somewhere on the mountain, he'd have to go without it a little longer.

"This really was a boring job." Natsu yawned while he stretched his arms above his head. "Those dark guild guys really aren't what they used to be."

Gray chuckled. Natsu still thought it sounded weird to hear the high laugh, sounding more like a titter. The sound made his stomach do a little jump.

"Let's get out of here, I want to go home!" The pinkette grinned, eagerly pulling the raven along.

"Uhm…" Gray started, staring at the sky. He hold Natsu back. "I guess I have some bad news for you, pinkie."

"Pinkie? Really?" Natsu asked, raising an eyebrow at the new nickname. "Just hurry up, it's starting to get dark."

"That's the point. You shouldn't travel across the mountain in the dark."

"But you know the terrain. Does it really matter that much whether it's light or dark?"

"If I came here more often it wouldn't be a problem, but I don't, so I'm not sure I'll find the way back in the dark."

"But... can't I sniff out the way back? Follow the villager's scent?" The pinkette pouted, giving another light tug on Gray's arm.

"Look, it's not like I'm so hooked on staying here, my back and stomach hurts, I'd rather just go lie on bed too, but too bad." The raven shook his head, "The snowstorm is approaching quicker than I thought. You said yourself that you have trouble sniffing things out in the snow, a storm will be a hundred times worse. We'll have to look for shelter. Not even the best ice mages go out on a mountain they don't know for 100 percent during a snowstorm, that's just suicide."

Natsu sighed. He really didn't like the idea of staying here any longer, he didn't get why Gray loved snow so much. But even he was smart enough to know the raven was right, it was too dangerous to wander through a storm. "So, we're staying here? How long do you think the storm will go on?"

Gray looked at the darkening sky. Clouds were packing tighter and tighter. "Normally the worst should be over by morning."

"We can stay in one of the caves those dark guild bastards used as a camp. The village only took along the goods, but left behind everything else. I'm sure there'll be some leftover wood to make a campfire."

"Good thinking, flame brain."

"I think I like 'Pinkie' more, now that I think about it." Natsu mused smiling. "'Flame brain' isn't a very lady-like way to call someone, Gray-chan."

"Shut up, Pinkie brain." Gray smiled.

The fire crackled and cast dark shadows on the cave's wall. Natsu happily warmed his hands, while Gray sat a bit further away, not really caring for the warmth. The pain was bothering him more and more. As another sting of pain went through his lower abdomen, he cursed softly.

Of course, the dragon slayer had no problem hearing the whisper. "I really wonder what you did? Did you get hit by magic or something?" He walked over to the raven and moved her hand aside from her stomach. He couldn't see any bruises or other marks, so the cause of the pain had to be internal. "Maybe you're sick?"

"I don't think so." Gray sighed. "I don't really feel sick. Maybe I-"

Gray abruptly stopped talking, his face changing in a horrified expression.

"Gray?" Natsu asked worried. "Gray, what's wrong?"

Gray pushed Natsu off of him.
This wasn't good. Not good at all.

"I- I gotta pee." Gray said, quickly getting up and skipping into a side passage of the cave.

The dragon slayer was left behind stunned. What was going on?

Gray paced around in the passage, tugging his hair.
'That can't be it. That couldn't be it!'

Natsu stood up and went over to the place where Gray had disappeared, but waited around the corner, granting some privacy to the raven. "Gray, say something. What's wrong?" He could definitely tell he didn't just have to pee. He was acting way too weird. "Gray!"

Still no answer. Maybe the injury was way worse than they thought after all. He took a deep sniff, focusing on Gray. He should have done this earlier, if he concentrated enough, at times he was able to find irregularities in someone's body.

He could clearly smell the adrenaline, Gray was definitely stressed or afraid about something. But he didn't need to be concentrated to know that.

Then he smelled it. The irony scent of blood filled his nose. "Gray?!" He yelled panicked. "Gray, are you bleeding?"

It remained silent for a few more seconds, then Gray whispered. "Y-yeah."

A pang of worry went through Natsu. He had just looked for injuries on the raven's body, how did he miss the fact that Gray was bleeding? You could see the smallest change of colour on that pale skin. Natsu forgot about the privacy and ran around the corner.

Gray was sitting on the ground with his knees pulled up. He looked at the pinkette with a horrified expression.
Natsu's breathe stocked in his throat. Never before had he seen his friend like that. The female raven looked so fragile and helpless. How could he still wonder why he felt protective over girls? The sight right in front of Natsu made an ancient instinct well up inside of him; it was his task to protect.

"Gray, what the hell is wrong? You're scaring the crap out of me!" The dragon slayer said angrily worried. "Where are you bleeding?"

Gray shook his head. "Leave me alone for a sec, Natsu."

"Like hell, Gray! You just said you're bleeding!" The pinkette knelt down next to him again. Gray was all tensed up and looked paler than normal. "Tell me where you're injured, Gray."

"I'm not injured!" The raven said annoyed. Why couldn't the slayer just leave him alone? This was already bad enough without having him around.

The pinkette was so confused. "Not injured? What, now that you're a girl you can 'magically' bleed without an inju-" Natsu's eyes went big as it hit him. He stood up quickly and took a surprised step back. "Oh my god! OH MY GOD! Are you…? You're…?"

The raven nodded, feeling like screaming at the top of his lungs. This was utterly humiliating. The last part of his pride as a man was definitely crushed.

"I… I'm…" He could barely even get it over his lips. Was this really happening? Of all the times this could happen, it happened when the two of them were alone, trapped in a cave by a snowstorm. Finally, it came out like a small squeak, "I'm having my period."

Natsu stared at the raven with his mouth wide open. He could barely believe it. Then suddenly, he let out a relieved laugh.

Gray stared at him in disbelief.

"Thank god, you're not injured. You were having period cramps!" The pinkette laughed. "You're a big girl now, Gray-chan! I thought you were grumpy, but you were just PMS-ing!"
The pinkette instantly stopped laughing when a ball made of ice hit him hard on the head. "What the hell are you doing?"

"This isn't funny at all, you shithead!" The raven yelled angrily. "What the hell are you thinking?"

Natsu stared at the raven for a moment as he tried to rub out the pain on his head. Then, he shrugged. "I don't know what to think. I don't know how to deal with this, Gray!"

Gray squinted at the pinkette. "YOU don't know how to deal with this?" He stood up, now absolutely furious. "YOU?!"

Natsu stared at the raven surprised. He couldn't believe how angry the cute little face could look.

"You don't know how to deal with this. How do you think I feel, you insensitive fuck?" The raven yelled. "I'm the one bleeding from a vagina I'm not supposed to have!"

Natsu was stunned silent. He didn't know what to say. Gray stared at him furiously, seemingly trying to mentally doom him to hell. After a while the raven let out a deep sigh and turned around.

"A-at least we know where the pain comes from." Natsu said awkwardly, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Just leave me alone, flame brain." Gray said defeated and sat down on the other side of the cave of where Natsu was.

The two sat inside the cave in silence as the storm raged outside. Natsu wondered for a second if Gray's mood had something to do with it. Whenever Juvia was upset, a rainstorm raged over the town, maybe Grays's emotions could also influence the weather.

He felt bad about what happened before. Gray must be feeling rotten.

He looked at the raven sitting on the other side of the cave. Gray's face still contorted in pain from time to time. Natsu felt bad for his friend and he wanted to help.

Suddenly he remembered something and quickly started rummaging through his backpack.

Gray looked up curious. What suddenly got into the slayer?
He put his hand on his stomach as he felt another cramp. This really wasn't anything like normal cramps. It felt like someone was wringing out his insides. He felt sorry for his female teammates. Did they go through this every month?

He saw Natsu get up from the corner of his eye as he walked towards him. Gray stubbornly didn't look in his direction as he stood next to him.
The slayer fidgeted awkwardly. Gray was obviously still pissed at him.

"H-here…" Natsu said as he presented Gray a bag.

The raven looked at it confused. "What the hell's that and what am I supposed to do with it?" He grumbled.

Natsu blushed slightly, "I shouldn't have laughed. This must be nerve-wracking for you." He looked at the thing he was carrying. "It's my water flask. I heated it up, so you can hold it against your stomach." His blush got a little darker. "Heat supposedly helps to ease the pain."

Gray looked up at the slayer with big, surprised eyes. "I-"

"Just take it already." Natsu grumbled as he pushed the warm waterbag into Gray's hands and then quickly walked back to his spot.

The raven sat there stunned for a few more moments, before pressing the warmth against his stomach. He didn't really like the idea of heat, but it really felt better already. It didn't take long before he was able to relax more and the pain somewhat ebbed away.

Natsu smiled as he saw the relief on the ice mage's face. Gray couldn't believe how much better he felt. He looked at the dragon slayer.

"How in the world did you know?" Gray asked curious.

Natsu blushed slightly. "We go on missions with girls all the time, popsicle. Lucy has asked me to warm up patches for her a couple of times when she had trouble with it."

Gray thought back to their missions. "Really? I never noticed." He couldn't supress a smile. Natsu had dealt with this before, maybe not in the same kind of situation, but he actually had some experience with it. He would always help his friends, whatever it might be. This might not be happening to him, but it must be confusing for Natsu too to be there while Gray dealt with it. Or more precisely how he didn't know how to deal with it. He had called the pinkette an insensitive fuck, while he actually was anything but that.
Natsu really wasn't as childish, naive or dense as everyone thought.

However, he hadn't expected Lucy to actually talk to Natsu about it. She was really set on her privacy. "Why didn't Lucy just heat it up herself?"

Natsu blushed again. "She… You're just going to laugh."

"I would have the right to, you laughed at me. Sweet, sweet payback." Gray grinned.

Natsu laughed too. The raven's smile seemed to warm him up inside again. "Alright, alright. Lucy says… She says the warmth of my magic seems more soothing than just regularly heating it. She says it feels more… friendly."

Gray thought about it for a second. He didn't seem to mind the warmth as much as he normally did. He just thought it was because it relieved the pain, but maybe if Lucy felt it too… it really had something to do with the fire mage.

Gray looked up into the smiling face of Natsu and smiled back. "You're a great friend, Natsu."

End of chapter 9

So, Gray finally had his period! You didn't think I forgot something that important, did you? I was just waiting for the right moment to write it in... and I couldn't make it easy on him, could I? So I let him experience period cramps! I was actually pretty inspired to write about it now. I don't really suffer from period cramps or something like that. I normally just have one day that I have pain in my lower back (You owe your pain to that, Gray). But this time, it was way more than that. I'm sure my uterus was trying to eat its way out of my body. Inspiration!

Next to that, I'm slowly trying to change Natsu's behaviour. Instead of him directly getting pissed off at Gray, he's getting more playful (like ruffling Gray's hair) instead of just jump in and fight. He just looks for a reason to touch our lovely female ice mage.

Thank you for reading!