Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima

"Why are you naked?"

Gray walked home. He was tired, his solo mission had not at all gone the way he'd expected. He'd had a hard time finding the object his client had requested, not to mention that the woman had failed to say the object was cursed. Gray had to wait an additional week to get the curse removed, all in all, a job that was supposed to take one week had ended up taking a month.

A month away from Magnolia, from Fairy Tail and his insane guildmates. Usually, that would have been something to smile about, Gray loved all of his nakama, but sometimes the noise was just too much for him. Outside of his frequent brawls with Natsu, he tended to keep to himself. Solo jobs gave him some peace and quiet, recharged him to where he could tolerate and occasionally take part in the craziness. This time, however, being away for so long had been torture.

After months of false starts and misunderstandings, he and Natsu had finally gotten together. Both of them were very independent, and neither one of them had been in a proper relationship before so they were wholly unprepared for the needs that came with it. He sped up when he saw the first town marker that mentioned Magnolia, anxious to see his Dragon Slayer for the first time in a month.

Just thinking about Natsu was making Gray smile — those brilliant green eyes that were usually brimming with mischief, the smile that made Gray's heart skip a beat, that incredible body that Gray had only recently begun exploring intimately. It was late so he wouldn't be able to see Natsu until the following day, but as he walked home, he made plans, hoping that Natsu was not off on a job.

Gray entered his house only to be greeted by an unexpected sight, the house lights were on. He instantly became wary, dropping his bag on the floor and placing his fist on his open palm as he made his way up the stairs. He checked his bedroom first hoping that maybe Natsu was staying there waiting for his return, but it was sadly empty.

"Not so rough, asshole!" A familiar voice came from the bathroom, Gray hurried to see who Natsu was talking to.

"You weren't exactly gentle yourself, Natsu," Gray froze when he recognized his brother's voice. Natsu and Lyon? Those two couldn't stand each other. What the hell were they doing in his bathroom, and why did it sound so dirty?

Gray tried to calm down, this was his brother and his boyfriend, the two people that he trusted most in the world not to do anything to hurt him, well emotionally anyway.

"I can't believe this is happening," Natsu grumbled. Gray could hear his brother grunting with exertion, and he'd had enough.

He pushed the door in and wished he hadn't. Both Lyon and Natsu were standing in his bathtub completely naked, their clothes all over his bathroom floor while a bowl filled with some sort of solution lay on the floor next to the tub. Lyon was scrubbing Natsu's back roughly with a brush, hard enough that the skin looked raw. Lyon's body seemed much the same.

"What the hell is going on here?" Gray shouted, caught somewhere between betrayal and disbelief.

"Gray, I swear It's not what it looks like," Natsu looked horrified, and he hurried to assure him, Lyon at least had the decency to look embarrassed although he made no effort to cover himself.

"Oh yeah, why are you naked?" Gray yelled at both of them, and now that he had stepped into the bathroom he was assaulted by an ungodly smell.

"Are you done?" Natsu snapped at Lyon who shrugged and continued to scrub Natsu's back much to Gray's anger.

"Don't get mad at me Pinky, this was your idea," Lyon replied, his tone as irritatingly calm as always.

"Natsu?" Gray tried to express his objection to the situation, but the smell was overpowering. "What is that smell?" Gray was beginning to gag, so he backed out of the room only staying long enough to give an ultimatum, "I will wait for you downstairs, and if I don't like your explanation we're through."

Gray left without waiting for Natsu's response. He could hear the two of them arguing and decided to make some hot chocolate to calm himself. While waiting for the milk to warm up, he opened all the windows in his house to let some of the smell out. As upset as Gray was, he wanted to trust Natsu, he couldn't really believe that either of them would hurt him this way and even less with each other. So he waited for what felt like an agonizingly long time.

Both men came downstairs wearing nothing but towels, Natsu looking unhappy while Lyon mostly looked bored.

"What happened to your clothes?" Gray asked, seeing Natsu in that state was distracting, especially after just having seen him naked.

"I burnt them," Natsu explained before launching into an explanation, he looked scared and it made Gray feel a little bit better, "I swear it really isn't what it looked like. I would never hurt you like that. Hey, eyes up here." Gray blushed as he was caught ogling his boyfriend.

"I'll go get us some clothes from his room," Lyon went back upstairs returning fully clothed while handing a change of clothes to Natsu who quickly put them on. Lyon stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest watching as the drama unfolded.

"Now, explain to me why the two of you were bathing each other in my bathroom."

Natsu sighed, "You were gone for so long I wanted to do something nice for you, and I know how much it bothers you that Lyon and I don't get along, so I went to Lamia and asked him to go on a job with me."

"You and Lyon went on a job together?" Of all the things Gray had imagined as he waited, that was not even on the list, and he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him as he imagined how that must have gone.

"What's so funny about that?" Natsu frowned seeming upset that his gesture was not being appreciated.

"Nothing, nothing" Gray chortled trying to ignore the glare he was getting from both mages, "Go on."

"It took some convincing, but he agreed," Natsu continued, "We were just supposed to beat up some Vulcans, but we were arguing the whole time, and we managed to startle a family of skunks."

"They all sprayed us," Natsu's nose immediately wrinkled at the memory and Gray could only imagine how terrible that must have been for his heightened sense of smell. "We tried to go back to the guild, but Mira wouldn't let us inside, she mixed us some solution and sent us away. My house was too far, so we came here. We figured it would go faster if we just did it together."

"I'm sorry you had to see that, but I swear to you nothing happened," Natsu reassured Gray, even though the ice mage no longer looked worried. He was too busy holding his sides as he doubled over, tears streaming out of his eyes as he imagined Lyon's reaction to being sprayed by a family of skunks.

Gray finally got control of himself, wiping the tears from his eyes and getting three mugs out for the hot cocoa. "Alright I believe you, that smell was pretty bad, I can understand you both wanting to get it off you as quickly as possible."

He poured the hot cocoa in the mugs and passed them out. They sat in tense silence drinking their cocoa until Lyon finally spoke up.

"I was wrong about him," He admitted to Gray, "Natsu cares about you a lot, I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time."

"Pinky, it was fun beating up Vulcans with you, but don't ever come get me for another job," Lyon said gruffly, "Next time, maybe just ask me for a drink?"

"Yeah," Natsu grinned sheepishly.

"I'm gonna go, I know you guys have a lot of catching up to do, and frankly I don't want to hear it."

Gray got up to show Lyon out when his brother leaned over and looking straight at Natsu whispered something in Gray's ear that made his entire face turn beet red and earned his brother a punch. Lyon only laughed, closing the door behind him.

"What was that about?" Natsu asked curiously.

"Come to the bedroom and find out!" Gray grinned as he raced up the stairs with Natsu right behind him. It had taken a month, but he was finally right where he wanted to be, with his Dragon Slayer by his side.