Chapter 10

Naked Protectiveness

By NekoErza

After an uncomfortable night in the cave, Natsu and Gray were finally able to leave. The storm had calmed down over the night and now the snow fluttered down peacefully in the morning sun.

Gray had barely been able to sleep, feeling sick and uncomfortable. The cramps only got worse over the night and he was feeling slightly nauseous.
Natsu wasn't rested any better since he had stayed up with the ice mage looking out for him and providing hot compresses to try and soothe the pain. He felt weird doing this for Gray (who in return was clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable about the whole situation too), but he had done this for Lucy before. She had had severe menstrual cramps one time they were on a mission together, so Natsu was fairly certain he was doing a pretty good job with the ice mage now.

He felt a fluttering feeling in his stomach every time he saw the relief on the pale face as he placed the warm patch on her stomach. He was happy to help his friend through this hard time.

The duo walked down the mountain, making their way through all the freshly fallen snow. Natsu shivered and made a movement to pull his scarf closer around his neck as he remembered the piece of clothing was still tightly wrapped around the round chest of his teammate. He let his eyes travel to said place and blushed slightly.

"I'll be glad once we're home." The ice mage sighed exhausted. He longed for a drink at the guild and to crawl into his own bed and sleep for 3 days straight. He could definitely live with that plan.

"Me too, but don't we first have to go by the village again?" The slayer looked around as he tried to sniff out where the village was, but all this cold and snow was throwing off his sense of smell.

"Normally I would, but we've finished the job and they gave us the reward money already. It's a rather big detour to go back, and for what anyway? I'd rather just go home now, if you're okay with it."

"Yeah, of course it's fine by me." Natsu quickly assured. It was indeed unnecessary to go back, but he had a reason to ask. He was just hesitant to bring it up. He pondered for a second, but decided to just say it. The situation had already reached the maximum level of embarrassment last night anyway. He was sure both of them could handle a bit more. "It's just... I just thought you'd want to go to the nearest town to get... you know. Don't you need like... pads? Or whatever..."

A dark blush crept over Gray's white skin. The slayer couldn't help but think it was cute how the raven tried to hide it by turning her head. Gray tried to sound indifferently, but still the voice had an uncomfortable pitch to it.

"Not that's really any of your business, but I took a bath in the mountain lake this morning. I had a spare pair of boxers and I always have a roll of bandage with me. It does the trick just as well for now. We'll be back at the guild in the afternoon, I can handle it till then."

"What about clothes?" He looked at his teammate only clad in pants and his scarf as a top. "You lost most of yours again."

"I'll probably just lose those as well on our way home anyway." Gray shrugged. Really, Lucy's money went almost completely to paying her rent, Gray's money went to buying new clothes. He looked down at his meager outfit; he'd almost forgotten that he was still using Natsu's scarf. He knew how precious it was to the pinkette. "If you don't mind me using your scarf a little longer, that is."

"Oh, no, no, of course I don't mind." He quickly assured. "As long as you don't lose it, because I will kill you if you do."

The raven chuckled. "I know you would. Like I said, I know what this scarf means to you, I will take good care of it." He was starting to understand why Natsu loved it so much; the fabric felt great! He didn't even have the slightest tendency to remove the piece of clothing.

"Good."

"So, straight home then?"

"All right."

Normally Natsu would have continued to tease Gray about a situation like this, like they always did to each other when the other felt embarrassed or irritated, but he had decided to step off of it this time. He had laughed last night and Gray had been absolutely furious about it. This kind of situation was just on such a different level than their normal teasing and bantering. "Are you feeling any better at least?"

The raven shrugged. "It still hurts, but it's bearable at the moment. The pain seems to come in waves. I hope it's not going to be like this every time. I mean, if Porlyusica hasn't found a way to change me back by next month of course."

"You have to go for a check up with her one of these days, right?"

Gray nodded. He had an appointment with the pink haired healer in two days. She wanted to take some more blood and see if anything had changed in the meantime. She was still busy trying to find something to turn this curse around, but she still had no clue. No potion seemed to work. "She might know something about menstrual cramps too. I can't believe women go through this pain ever month!"

"Apparently it really differs. I overheard the girls talking about it a few times in the guild." The slayer remembered.

"You listen in on the girls?" Gray asked raising an eyebrow. He didn't take Natsu to be the eavesdropping type.

"Of course not!" The pinkette blushed. "It's not always easy not to hear things like that with my dragon hearing. I hear things I'd rather not all of the time. Especially the high pitched voices of the girls are hard to filter out. That's why I like it when it's rowdy at the guild, that way my ears get rest of all the things that aren't meant to be heard by me."

The raven frowned. He never thought about it that way. "Must be irritating."

"It's pretty annoying at times, but anyway what I was going to say... I've heard them talk about it. Wendy got her first period not too long ago."

"Poor girl." Gray mumbled. They should not have to deal with this at such a young age.

"Apparently the first time can be very painful because the muscles aren't used to it, but it gets better with time. That's what they told Wendy. It often differs from person to person, though. Some women barely have any pain at all, while other ones have to deal with it every month. Same for regularity, severity and duration of periods. Taking the pill works for some women to control it to some degree."

Gray gaped at the slayer with open mouth. "What the hell? Did you follow the course Female Issues 101, or something? How much do you actually know about this?"

Natsu blushed slightly and grumbled. "It's quite a regular topic between the women, you know... And like I said, I have problems shutting everything out."

The raven was baffled by the slayer's sudden knowledge on such an unexpected topic, yet was also glad at least one of them had some idea what to do. "I hope it gets better, because this really sucks!"

It was quite an embarrassing subject to talk about, surely between two men (Gray still refused to think of himself as a woman).
Gray had already noticed before that Natsu was not as dense and clueless as he always believed him to be. This only proofed again that there was a lot more to this man than he showed to the rest of the world.

Gray snapped out of his thoughts when Natsu spoke again. They had reached the foot of the mountain in the meantime; the temperature was slowly rising and the surroundings were getting more colourful again.

"Master is going to kill us, you know."

"For stealing and going on the mission request he explicitly told us not to do? Yeah, he's definitely going to be pissed."

Suddenly both felt really gloomy. The knew what happened to the members that didn't follow the rules.

"I don't want that punishment!" Natsu screamed out.

"Like I do! Remember what he did to us after we went on the Galuna Island S-class quest?"

Both shivered at the memory.

"You don't have to worry about it probably, though." Natsu said in envy. "That pervy ji-san only spanks the girls on their ass and that's about it for their punishment!"

The flame brain was right there, but still. "I absolutely DO NOT want to get spanked by that pervy old man!"

"Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to steal that request after all."

"I'm starting to doubt it too. Why did we do this again?"

"To prove a point, I guess. You did get the chance to prove everyone wrong. Master wasn't sure you'd be able to do the mission and you kicked ass! Of course, I did too." The pinkette grinned as he added the last part.

"You idiotic sulphur breath." The ice mage chuckled in return. "I could have done it all on my own, you know. Still, thanks Natsu. For everything."

Natsu was a bit taken aback with the gratitude since he had expected more insults, but smiled nonetheless. "No problem, Gray."

They walked further down the road, but soon the pinkette noticed Gray's pace went down and soon the ice mage was a few steps behind. Natsu turned to see what was up with that. "Everything okay?"

"Just... another wave." Gray grimaced as he tried to massage some of the pain in his belly away as he walked.

"Just say so. Sit down for a sec." Natsu made a gesture to a grassy verge on the side of the road.

Gray looked ready to decline as another wave of pain hit his lower back, so he sat down anyway. He sighed as the pain relieved a bit as he lay down in the grass.

Natsu stared at the ice mage. Was this girl really the same old ice mage? He, or more likely she, seemed to annoy him a lot less the past few weeks.

Gray opened his eyes again as the pain didn't subside and looked at the dragon slayer with a slight blush. He really hated to ask. "Could you warm up another compress?"

"That bad?" Natsu asked as he started rummaging through their backpacks in search of the water flask.

The ice mage nodded with a pained grimace. He was so tired of this! He had always had respect for women, but he definitely had found something to add to it! He couldn't imagine having to deal with this every month and go about your normal daily activities like nothing's up.

"Shit." Natsu muttered under his breath as he stopped searching the backpacks. "I think we left the flask behind the last time we stopped and we don't have another one."

"Goddammit." The raven groaned as he let himself fall back in the grass. The compresses were such a good remedy for it too.

Gray lay in the grass a little longer, but the pain didn't seem to go away. What else would serve as a decent compress? He couldn't immediately think about something.

Or maybe... Gray pondered. Yes, that could work.

The raven opened his eyes and sat up straighter. He didn't like asking, but heck, he would probably feel so much better! Next to that, Natsu and he had been closer these two days than they'd ever been. Just this would not make such a big difference.

"Hey, Natsu?"

"Hmmm?"

"Could you..." Gray tapped his fingers against his stomach.

Natsu looked confused at first, but then it dawned on him what the raven meant.

"Oh, you mean...?" He asked flustered.

"If you don't mind. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it would work. I'll be back on my feet in no time then."

"S-sure. If it helps." The slayer tried to calm his nerves as he scooted closer to the ice mage. He rubbed his hands together, trying to get the right temperature; not too hot for Gray's skin to burn, but warm enough so it would relax the muscles.

He carefully placed his hands against the raven's naked stomach and watch the reaction; Gray immediately relaxed and sighed contently at the soothing feeling. The pain ebbed away slowly and he laid back a bit more comfortable as the warm hands did their work. Somewhere in the back of his mind something was telling him that this was weird, but it felt so good he happily shut that voice out for the moment.

Natsu was blushing already, but when Gray, seemingly without thinking about it, placed his hands on top of Natsu's to push them firmer against his stomach, his cheeks felt like they were on fire. Was Gray just ignoring the whole situation, or was it really not as awkward as Natsu thought it was? The slayer decided the latter was probably the case and forced himself to calm down. He had massaged painful muscles plenty of times before, this was no different.

They sat like that for a while; Gray enjoying the warmth seeping through his skin as Natsu's hands soothed the pain.
The slayer was being a bit too delicate, so Gray kept his hands firmly on top of his so he could add the needed pressure. Even though his hands covered almost Gray's whole stomach, the pinkette still carefully shifted his fingers once in a while to make sure he got every painful spot.

"Could you go a little lower?" The raven asked after some time. He didn't even think about being embarrassed about this anymore, he just wanted the pain to stop. He absolutely hated to admit it, but the warmth of Natsu's hands was ten times more effective than just the warm compresses and the pain seemed to be almost gone. Had Lucy really been right about Natsu's magic being more 'friendly'? He was certainly starting to believe it. He normally couldn't stand any heat but right now this felt like heaven!

Natsu was glad Gray had his eyes closed, since he could feel a blush return to his cheeks. "S-sure."

Gray's pants had already been pretty low and now that the pinkette shifted his hands, they came dangerously close to the raven's waistband.

"Maybe you should do this to Lucy next time as well. It works even better than the compresses."

"Hmmm, maybe." Natsu hummed, still painfully aware of where his hands were. Why was his heart beating so fast?
His hands glided over the porcelain-like skin and he couldn't help but admire how soft it felt, especially in comparison to his own calloused, rough hands. Yet even though it was soft, Natsu could clearly feel the hard abs underneath.
He had to suppress the urge to let his fingers wander and caress all of the soft, pale skin. He could feel a tingling sensation in his fingertips from the cold that the ice mage emitted.

"I guess this is enough." Gray sighed after the pain had ebbed to a level where it was easily bearable. He was almost sorry this was over.

"Turn around first, I'll get your back too." Natsu said before he was fully aware. That had slipped out without him even thinking about it. "I mean, you said you had pain in your lower back too, right?

"Oh. Yes, I did. If you don't mind?"

"I suggested it. Otherwise we might have to stop again in ten minutes, Popsicle pants." Natsu smiled as he motioned the ice mage to roll over.

"Flame brain thinking ahead, that's certainly one to write down." The raven chuckled as he rolled over.
He mentally cursed those big boobs, because really, they were in the way all the time. Even just lying on his stomach was uncomfortable. Next to that, at the moment they felt more sensitive too, probably because of all the hormones.

Natsu's warm hands ran over the raven's lower back, carefully working his magic on the sore muscles. He couldn't help but notice how stiff the ice mage's entire body was. All the muscles felt blocked and rigid.

"Your muscles are really tense, Gray. When was the last time you took care of 'em?" The slayer frowned.

"I haven't in ages and with all the shit that's been going on lately, I've been stressing out quite a lot." Gray sighed. Changing gender, suddenly having all those foreign things happen to him, having to change so much in his normal routine and life. You'd be stressed out for less.

"You should get massages more often, it's essential to training too. What purpose has growing muscles and then not taking care of them?"

"Of course I know, flame brain. Now, please stop lecturing me."

"If you know, then why not ask someone?"

"Who'd I ask? Lucy doesn't like doing it and when she does, she doesn't put enough strength behind it, so it's of no real use. And Erza..." Natsu could feel a shiver go through the raven's body before he continued. "I once was stupid enough to ask her. I think she almost fractured my spine and I wasn't able to go on a mission for a month!"

The pinkette laughed, he didn't have any trouble imagining something like that happening. The two women were definitely not the best option for the job, but maybe... "You... could ask me. Next time you're having trouble."

"Nah, that would be weird, wouldn't it? This time it's just because it's medical and there isn't an alternative." Gray sighed, although he certainly was enjoying this at the moment.

Natsu felt a pang going through his stomach at those words. "Yeah, I guess so."
He felt like hitting himself in the head. What the hell was he saying anyway? And why had he felt disappointment when Gray shot the idea down?

"I might ask Mira some time. I could definitely enjoy that." Gray chuckled. No person on earth could deny that Mirajane was a beauty and probably every man in all of Magnolia would do anything to get a massage from her. "She looks like she would do it firmer than Lucy but not as bad as Erza."

An image of Mirajane massaging female Gray flashed before Natsu's eyes and he had to do his utter best to not let that image shift into anything else, into something more. He quickly focused back on the conversation. "Why don't you ask your girlfriend, the girl from Blue Pegasus? I bet she wouldn't be so happy to know you asked some other girl. Let alone Mira."

"Nah, she's from Blue Pegasus. Those beauty queens would be even softer than Lucy. And... I actually don't know whether Lysabelle is that jealous. I think she wouldn't mind if it's something as innocent as a normal massage." Gray pondered. He tried to remember the times he'd went out with her, he could remember a couple of times when girls talked to him and she's been a bit pissed, but that was probably normal.

"You don't know for sure how she's react?" Natsu asked, cocking his eyebrow.

"No, so?"

"She's your girlfriend, yet you don't know. Quite the relationship you've got there." The pinkette scoffed as he continued to run his hands over Gray's lower back.

"I said she's 'kind of' my girlfriend. We're together and going out and stuff, but I wouldn't say we're serious yet. We're still getting to know each other."

"What do you even see in her?" Natsu suddenly blurted.

He had only seen the girl once, but even that short moment was enough for him to decide that she and Gray didn't fit together.

The ice mage remained silent for some time before finally giving his answer. "She's really pretty."

"That's all? Just her looks?"

"Well, it's the first thing I noticed of course." Gray shrugged. "But she's nice as well, we have fun."

"Doesn't sound like the best foundation for a relationship."

"Are you going to give me advice about relationships?" Gray asked as he looked at the slayer over his shoulder.

"No, I'm just telling you what I think. I just don't think you fit together, that's all." He really didn't see why Gray would choose such a woman, sure she looked really pretty, but so does every other Blue Pegasus member. And there had just been something in her attitude that had thrown Natsu off, she seemed quite like a bitch if you asked him.

Gray sighed and for a moment Natsu thought the raven was gonna yell at him and tell him to not meddle in other people's affairs, but to his surprise it didn't go like that. "You might be right actually. It's quite... empty what we have. I don't think I even know what kind of magic she uses. We go out and have sex, that's about all we do."

Natsu flinched at the last part. He had already had sex with her? If he remembered correctly Gray had said they'd only been dating for about two or three months. Natsu actually hadn't thought about it like that, but he guessed it was normal. Gray was (supposed to be) a healthy young man and he knew himself that it was an age where you certainly had the urge to chase after certain bodily needs.

Natsu couldn't help but wonder how Gray dealt with that issue now that he was a woman.

'No, focus Natsu.' The slayer had to tell himself. This was Gray he was thinking about after all. Gray, his childhood rival!

"Never mind all that. I'll just ask Wendy to massage me some time. She's our little healer after all." Gray said putting an end to the subject. He didn't feel like talking about Lysabelle. It was just another source of worry since he had had to avoid her for more than a month already. He was just so tired of this curse; he wanted his old body back, his own voice and his own physical abilities. And he didn't want to have a period ever again!

He could still feel the biting pain in his abdomen and lower back, but luckily Natsu's warm hands were still doing their magic. Really, what was it that made this so much more pleasant than the warm compresses?

"Is your back okay?" The pinkette finally asked, yet he still kept his hands in place.

"Yeah, it's bearable. Thanks, flame brain." Gray said as he shifted to finally get up.

"Should I just do your whole back right away? Since I'm doing it now anyway." The slayer quickly asked, laying a warm hand on the raven's shoulder before he completely sat up.

Gray halted in his movement and for a second he was tempted to say 'yes', but he withhold himself. "Nah, we should get going, otherwise we'll miss the train."

"Yes... I guess you're right." Natsu said, removing his hand from the cold skin. "But then let me at least redo the knot on the scarf, it's getting loose."

"Good idea." Gray had felt that the piece of fabric had loosened and it was quite hard to keep it up by now. Another reason he wanted to be a man again; people didn't seem to mind as much when he lost his shirt.
Before Natsu could reach for the scarf ends, Gray had already taken the piece of clothing completely off.

Natsu could clearly see the side profile of the breasts and his cheeks turned pink. "You really have to be a bit more shy about showing off your body like that. Men could get the wrong idea, you know."

"Ugh, it's just you around." Gray waved the comment away as he readjusted the white scarf around his chest again.

Natsu quickly tied the knot. "Still... You do it when other people are around too."

"I try to control it as much as I can. I've already become better at it." The raven mumbled as he got up.

The pinkette chuckled. Of all the people that this could have happened to, faith picked the one man with the crazy stripping habit to change gender. "Let's go, you silly stripper."

Not much later they sat on the train back to Magnolia. Both couldn't wait to get home: Gray was still having cramps and Natsu was already feeling sick from being on the train. He looked pale and sweaty and swayed around as the nausea hit him. When the train took a sharp turn he hit his head against the window.

"You really are an idiot, flame brain." The raven smirked at the pinkette who sat across from him.

"Are you enjoying my misery?" The pinkette grumbled annoyed as he grabbed the painful spot on his head. He'd rather have walked home, but he wanted to make sure the ice mage got home as soon as possible.

"Of course I am. You tease me about my misery too; you reap what you sow."

"Is that what I get for taking care of you? For being nice?"

"Oh, that wasn't being nice!"

"Then what the hell do you call it?" The slayer asked pissed. He had made sure to limit the raven's discomfort to a minimum, yet he dared say he wasn't nice?

"Well, of course it was nice, but I mean, it's just because I look like a girl." Gray explained. He was grateful for Natsu's help nonetheless though. If the fire mage hadn't been around he'd probably still be up on the mountain, curled to a ball in pain. Yet, it must have had a reason. Natsu had almost never been nice to him before!

"Excuse me?" Natsu asked in return.

The raven shrugged. "Everybody knows you have a soft spot for women. Ever since you were little you would, probably unknowingly, stick up for the girls and have a protective nature over them. It only got worse when Lisanna presumingly died. Whenever we're on a mission with the team I can see you keep an eye on Lucy, just in case. It's just the way you are. You can't help it, even if it's me in female form."

Natsu didn't know how to reply to that. There certainly was truth in it, he knew that, but it wasn't because he thought women couldn't take care of themselves (Erza was a very scary example of that), it was just an ancient instinct embedded in him that he couldn't fight.

"No wonder Lucy likes going on trips with you." Gray continued. "You can't seem to shake the feeling that you have to protect a girl. You probably spoil her like this all the time."

"I don't!" The pinkette pouted. "I mean... I can't help it if I do."

Gray smiled. "Don't get me wrong, before you say I'm ungrateful again, because I really am grateful for the way you helped me. Just remember to don't go overboard with it."
There had been times during the last weeks Natsu's sudden protectiveness had really bugged him. During yesterday's fight against the dark guild also, Gray hadn't failed to notice the slayer had kept an eye on him. It'd really annoyed him since he felt like people doubted his ability. He wanted to make it clear to Natsu that he didn't want to be treated like that. "Just remember, I'm still a guy, sulfur breath."

"Of course, I know that. You just look like you need to be protected. You look so fragile, Gray-chan. " The pinkette grinned back.

"Don't call me that."

"Then don't call me sulfur breath, droopy eyes."

"Squinty eyes."

The two chuckled despite both feeling like crap. The laughing definitely lifted some of the awkwardness that lay over this whole mission.

As neither of them made a move to continue the conversation, Gray shifted in his seat to be more comfortable and closed his eyes. Both could use some rest, even if it was still a catnap.

It remained silent for the rest of the ride, and although Natsu was sleepy too, he couldn't take his eyes off the ice mage.
He felt confused. He had been feeling different around his icy rival for some time now and he wasn't sure why it made him feel like he did. Was it like Gray said and was all of this really just the pinkette's protectiveness welling up?
Or was it something else?

I'm still a guy.

Natsu knew that of course, but still... The longer this lasted, the harder it was for him to see those two Grays as one and the same person.

Somehow, this girl in front of him was more than just his childhood rival.

End of chapter 10