Author's Note: This is another fine example of something I've had done for months, literally since August 3rd according to my word doc, but it took me 200 years to finally sit down and edit it. I do have other responsibilities I should be doing, but instead I'm doing this. Priorities x) I'm uncertain about it, but my really good buddy Mary (dont-fear-the-glamed-up-reaper on tumblr, please go check out her work!) said I should share it, and I'm doing it for her TuT Hope it's alright!

title: burn baby burn
rating: T
summary: Being an ice mage definitely had it's perks—and disadvantages.

Gray didn't know if he was a lucky man, or a cursed one.

Inside a small shed at the beach, Juvia, clad in a purple polka-dotted, frilly bikini, was whining and wailing, her fingers lightly skimming the deep red sunburn seared into her back.

Gray, equally half naked with his arms crossed over his chest, quietly studied her, assessing the situation. The rest of Fairy Tail was frolicking outside in the sun while he was assigned—or threatened, recalling Erza's menacing glare—to take care of his guildmate's injury.

"You have the means to handle this," she had commanded, shoving a crying Juvia into his chest. "Now go."

Gray pursed his mouth, bouncing his leg impatiently while Juvia sniveled and whimpered. He should probably say something, he was just delaying the inevitable—

"Juvia's so sorry, Gray-sama!" she cried, making him flinch at her sudden outburst. "Juvia ruined Gray-sama's time with the guild! It's all Juvia's fault!" A stream of tears sprang from her eyes as she wailed loudly, burying her face in her hands.

"H-Hey, hold on," he said, cringing when her cries grew louder. "Nobody's blaming you for anything. So you forgot sunscreen, happens to everybody—"

"Juvia didn't know! Juvia has never been in the sun for so long!"

"Well, accidents happen, no big deal—"

"Being by the ocean made Juvia sleepy, and now look!" She glided her fingers over the sunburn on her back, wincing and crying out. "Waah! It stings, Gray-sama!"

Gray shook his head, glancing to her face. "You've never had a sunburn before, have you?"

Juvia pouted as she met his gaze. "Is that what this is?"

"Yeah," he answered, uncrossing his legs. He reached over and slipped out a towel from the beach bag, laying it flat across the floor. "You put some aloe vera on it, keep putting it on every now and then, and let it heal on it's own."

"But… it's on Juvia's back," she mumbled, watching as he secured a bottle of aloe vera and placed it down. "How will Juvia reach—?"

He cleared his throat, fighting the blush creeping on his cheeks as he nodded towards the towel. Juvia blinked, following his gaze before returning to his eyes with a tilt of her head. He twitched at her genuinely puzzled stare—what, did he have to spell it out for her?

"When it's somewhere you can't reach," he muttered, making a conscious effort to keep his voice leveled, "you have someone else do it for you."

He could practically see the words processing in her head, slowly sinking in before her eyes grew gleefully wide.

"Gray-sama's hands? On Juvia's body?!" She cupped her blushing cheeks and gasped, shuffling her knees in excitement. "Touching… everywhere?!"

Gray stiffened, his face burning red at her words. "N—Not like that!" he stammered, but she was already lost in her fantasy world as hearts sprung merrily around her while she swayed side to side. She then promptly flung herself forward, landing on her stomach with her body sprawled across the towel.

"Juvia is ready, Gray-sama!" she beamed, and he sweat-dropped at the eagerness bouncing in her voice.

"Er, right," he coughed, swallowing as he swept her hair over her shoulder. His fingers glided through the soft tresses before he heard a low sound, something like a… purr? He looked to Juvia, only to twitch upon finding that she was indeed purring, resting her cheek against her folded arms and swinging her slender legs back and forth in anticipation.

She wore the dreamiest smile on her lips, and Gray fought the heat rushing to his cheeks. Of all the people, he had to get stuck doing something like this to someone like her, whose skin looked smooth and creamy and soft to the touch—

Gray quickly cleared his thoughts, roughly shaking his head. Now was not the time to be thinking about that, definitely not. He had a task, and that was to assist his hurting comrade, nothing more.

Nodding determinedly, he situated himself above her, straddling her hips with his body hovering inches above hers. His knee accidentally brushed her waist and he hissed a curse, swallowing hard. God this was so wrong—this arrangement, this whole context. If anyone were to walk in on them, especially in this compromising position—how the hell would he explain himself? Her body, so nicely fitting under his, undressed to a skimpy bikini top and frilly bikini skirt. The thin swimsuit band tied securely around her back, highlighting the curve of her body from her slender shoulder to her narrow waist to the wide swell of her hip. Lying down on her stomach, the skirt bunched up around her hips, exposing the hugging purple bikini bottom and slight curves of her cheeks—

"Thank you," Juvia timidly peeped, drawing him out of his wandering gaze as his eyes snapped to her face.

"Huh?" he replied, gathering his scrambled thoughts.

"Thank you…" the girl repeated with a blush, holding a hand to her lips, "for taking care of Juvia."

"Uh," Gray muttered, glancing away and clearing his throat before popping open the cap to the aloe vera bottle. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

He squirted the gel onto his hands, lathering it into his palms. Cracking his knuckles, he lowered his hands to her skin, stopping centimeters above her lower back.

Okay, he had to do this carefully. Too hard would hurt her and aggravate the sunburn, but if he touched her too light, the aloe vera wouldn't be properly applied. His hands began to tremble—damn it, why was this suddenly becoming so difficult? He was freezing up, but ice mages didn't freeze.

Get it together, he ordered himself. Juvia's back wasn't getting any less red with each passing minute, and the aloe vera gel would help soothe the ache of the sting. He'd done it plenty of other times before, to tons of other girls—being an ice mage had its perks when it came to treating burns on pretty girls—but why was it so different with her?

"Gray-sama—?" Juvia softly called, but right when she did, he lowered his hands and pressed them flat against her back. "Ah~!"

Gray instantly flinched at the sound, jerking his hands away. "What the hell?!"

"Ah, s-sorry," the girl murmured quietly, bending her legs and curling her toes. "Juvia was just… startled."

Gray twitched, suddenly itching to strip off his swim trunks because damn was it getting stuffy in here or what.

"Yeah, well," he muttered, carefully moving his hands above her once more, "it's gonna sting a little, okay?"

Juvia contently hummed, nestling her cheek further against her forearm.

Drawing a quiet breath, he placed his iced hands against her back once more, stilling upon feeling her tense beneath him. She quickly relaxed a few moments later, subtly shuddering when his palms glided up her back. His hands caressed the curves of her shoulders before sliding his thumbs down the dip of her shoulder blades, gliding his hands back down.

His heart pounded wildly in his chest, thumping so hard it pulsed in his ears. She was even softer than he imagined as he slid his hands back up the arch of her back, rubbing the aloe vera into her skin. His fingers faintly brushed her bare sides, making her squirm under his touch. Her back arched further while his palms pressed into her shoulder blades, and he furrowed his brow when she lifted her hips, increasing the dip of her back.

"Oi," he murmured quietly, "quit moving, you're just gonna make it wor—"

"Mm…"

His body grew rigid, his eyes snapping to her face. Her teeth dug into her lower lip as she held a hand to her lips, flushed pink like her cheeks. Her eyes were closed, squeezing tighter when his hands pressed into her skin, only to breathe a sigh at the ice magic flowing through his fingertips. Gray stared at her, so mesmerized by the expressions crossing her face that he failed to notice his hands gliding lower and lower. It wasn't until she mewled and wiggled her hips that he realized his hands had well passed the swell of her backside and were currently cupping her round, perky—

"Shit!"

He instantly whisked his hands away from her ass, suspending them in the air.

"S-Sorry—" he spluttered, but Juvia only whined and squirmed, searching for his touch.

"Gray-sama…" she breathed, sending heat rushing to his cheeks. "Please… it hurts…"

He violently twitched. God damn it—why did her voice have to sound so… like that? As if this situation wasn't suggestive enough, now she was making these noises, and if Erza or anyone else came walking by to see how Juvia was doing, it wouldn't be hard to assume they were doing something quite different than treating a simple sunburn.

He roughly shook his head, adamantly ridding the thoughts flooding his mind. Focus, he just had to focus. The sooner he finished the task at hand, the sooner this whole awkward situation would be done and over with.

Swallowing hard, he tersely muttered, "Just—one sec. Almost done."

He channeled his magic into his fingertips once more, pressing them nimbly into her skin. Juvia uttered a small gasp before exhaling a content sigh, sinking her body further into the towel. Gray moved his hands down her back, sliding down her spine and smoothing the aloe vera gel into the sunburn while Juvia softly hummed. His hands brushed her lower back while his thumbs swirled against her skin, eliciting a soft moan from her lips at the soothing shivers crawling along her spine.

His concentration faltered at the sound, sending his hands nudging up her back once more. His fingers slipped beneath the strap of her bikini top, and as his fingertips brushed against the skin underneath, the knot spontaneously came undone. He flinched as the tie fell off her body, the straps slipping through his fingers and exposing the entirety of her smooth back. Another rush of heat flooded his cheeks—great, just great, now she was practically topless, lying underneath him with his body perched inches above her hips. Man, if anyone were to walk in on them now—

"Ahn, Gray-sama…"

He flinched, immediately glancing from her face to his hands. He swore they must have had a mind of their own since they continued stroking her skin despite the mental duress plaguing his brain. And there she was again, moaning so wantonly it sent blood rushing through his head.

As if this tiny shed couldn't get any hotter, he was definitely going to combust into flames any minute now.

"O-Oi," he called quietly, struggling to keep his leveled composure. "Quit making all those… noises."

She glanced back at him from the corner of her eye, her thick lashes hovering low over her dark azure eyes. The flush to her cheeks and her wavy hair sprawled across her shoulders made his blood surge, roaring in his ears.

Softly, with a slow, dreamy blink, she asked, "What noises?"

His hands stilled as he twitched. Did she really not realize…?

"Gray-sama…" she whispered, and god her voice was so sultry, practically purring his name. There was no way she didn't know what she was doing. "Your hands… feel nice."

His face flushed as he averted her gaze. "Just—keep still so I can finish."

The girl beamed happily, closing her eyes and merrily swinging her legs.

Squirting a little more aloe vera, Gray swiftly applied another thin layer to her sunburn before retracting his hands. "There," he said, shifting off of her while wiping his palms against one another. "That's it."

Juvia abruptly sat upright, whirling around with a bright smile on her face. "Thank you, Gray-sama! Juvia feels so much better!"

His face erupted with a sudden blush, his eyes seeming to strain focusing on her face. Juvia tilted her head to the side, blinking in confusion.

"Gray-sama?"

His eyes briefly glanced down before looking off to the side. "Uh," he muttered, clearing his throat. "Your top—"

Juvia glanced down, only to scream before whirling around and covering her exposed chest. Gray simply stared blankly ahead, a thin layer of smoke rising from his searingly red face.

Maybe he was a lucky guy after all.