"Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love."

— Saint Teresa of Avila

Natsu was in the hospital for a few weeks, but he healed quickly, with Wendy coming every day to help him recover, as well as the hospital's own magical healers and machines. Soon after surgery, he was allowed to remove the ventricular assist device as his heart proved it could beat healthily on its own. He went through many tests, took medications and sat through hours of healing therapy, but finally he was released.

He needed to take it easy for a while longer, so Erza sternly enforced "house arrest" on him. The members of Fairy Tail took turns bringing Natsu nutritious meals, rather than the junk he and Happy usually ate, as well as cleaning up his house since he was forbidden by the doctors from lifting anything heavy for a while.

"This sucks!" he exclaimed. "I can't work out, can't lift weights, can't fight."

Lucy sat with him. "Too bad we had to give the healing machine to the Magic Council. We could use that to heal you up really quick."

Natsu cringed at the idea. "No, I wouldn't make anyone else use that. Ever!"

"Why not?" she pouted. It seemed the most logical solution: a machine that really worked miracles. "You managed to heal Gray when no one else thought his leg would recover."

'And look where that got me,' he thought to himself, but Natsu said nothing.

There was a knock on the door, and Lucy went to answer it. "Gray!"

Natsu bolted up in bed. It was the first time Gray had come over. Natsu had not even seen him since regaining consciousness in the hospital.

"It's my turn to bring food for the guy. It's a mango, avocado, black bean, and grilled chicken salad. It's supposed to be really good for the heart."

"That's sweet, Gray. I'll put it in the kitchen. He's resting in the bedroom."

"Nah, I just..."

"You haven't seen him. Don't be stubborn."

"Fine, fine," he sighed.

Natsu listened to the sounds of footsteps. He smelled Gray's scent as he got closer. It was an aroma of wintermint, pines, and snow that he missed so much. Smelling it again sent a tingle straight down his spine. He pulled his knees up in bed to hide the arousal starting to form already.

There was a soft rap just as Gray turned the corner to the bedroom. Natsu saw that he got a haircut, not much, but the bangs were not so shaggy anymore. He wore a loose shirt in the summer heat, and Natsu realized it was the same purple shirt he had worn on Tenrou Island. His sword pendant necklace gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the light curtains. Natsu had missed those droopy blue eyes so much.

"Yo," Gray said softly. "Well, you don't look so bad, considering."

Natsu wanted to compliment him, tell Gray he looked great, how happy he was to see him again, but then he remembered hearing Gray asking out Juvia. Bitterness flooded over those happy feelings and drowned them.

"I'm surprised you bothered to come at all," he grumbled instead.

Gray gave a light shrug as he stepped into the room. "Erza insisted it was my turn to bring you dinner. I don't like cooking hot food, so it's a salad."

"Typical of you," Natsu scoffed. "Something cold from a cold-hearted bastard."

Gray flinched at that. "Are you starting up with the insults already?"

"I don't need help from someone like you."

"What the hell?" Gray shouted. "What'd I do to you, huh?"

"Didn't come see me for a frigging month, that's what!" Natsu shouted.

Gray froze, petrified with guilt. He had been mad that Natsu took off during his healing, so he might have purposely not visited the hospital in a twisted form of revenge. However, he also knew how angry he had been that Natsu left without a word, although Gray only had to lie still for a week. Natsu, on the other hand, had been through a major surgery and weeks of recovery. Gray realized that Natsu must have been just as angry as he had felt earlier, since Gray never visited him in the hospital.

"Look, you didn't want to be around when I was getting healed, so I figured maybe you didn't want me around."

Natsu looked up at him sadly. "I wanted..." His words choked off. 'I wanted you there, Gray! I wanted you to talk to me while I was trapped in my own mind. I wanted you to be there when I was scared that I might die during heart surgery. I wanted you to put a few ice cubes into the water they gave me for taking my pills. I wanted you to encourage me, support me, smile and tell me I was doing a good job, and to look happy that I was recovering. I wanted you around!'

Natsu folded his arms and looked away stubbornly. Like hell could he confess all that! "If you're not even sincere about it, just drop off the food, tell Erza you did your duty, and leave."

"Hey!" Gray marched in and hit the top of Natsu's head. "I spent a lot of time on that salad, so you better like it."

Natsu petulantly glared at the ceiling with a bump rising on his head. "You shouldn't attack a defenseless sick person."

"You are anything but defenseless, even with a bad heart. What the hell happened to you, anyway? The doctors told Erza and Makarov, but those two refused to tell any of us what was going on."

Natsu gave an awkward shrug. "It was all technical. I can't remember what they said."

"Idiot!" Gray yelled angrily. "This is your heart we're talking about. That's important."

Natsu suddenly lashed out, "When was the last time you ever cared about my heart?" He instantly regretted saying that and turned away. "This coming from a guy with a heart of ice."

"Hey, my heart is healthy. Whatever is wrong with you, you need to take things seriously. It's annoying being this worried about you."

"If it's annoying, then don't be worried."

"Like I can help it," Gray shouted, but he turned aside as emotions he thought he had suppressed almost came to the surface. "Dammit," he whispered. "Do you think I wanna see you almost die right in front of me?"

Natsu glanced over hesitantly with large, sad eyes. He knew that feeling. He remembered seeing Gray almost dead. Now Gray had experienced something similar, witnessing Natsu's heart stop, carrying him to the hospital, watching over him. It was the exact same thing!

"We were all really worried, you know," Gray snapped. "So take better care of your life. You only have one lifetime as Natsu Dragneel. Don't screw it up. It'd be really annoying if you weren't around, especially since I still have to kick your butt."

The anger in Natsu slowly eased. "Gray..."

"And why it is so frigging hot in here?" Gray turned on a fan and opened the window. "No wonder your heart quit. It was probably being boiled."

"Hey, Snowball! I'm sick here. Stop turning the place into a freaking freezer."

"Don't you know that hot weather and heart disease can be a dangerous combination? More people have heart attacks in the heat than when it's cold."

Just then, Lucy walked in and said, "That's true. I read about that in a health magazine when I was at the hospital with you. Hot weather drastically increases the probability of problems for people with heart trouble, and we've had this horrible heatwave for nearly a week now." She laughed lightly. "Maybe Gray should stay around to cool you off and keep your heart safe."

Both men stared at her in shock, then at each other, and then both looked away stubbornly.

"Fine, maybe it was a little stuffy in the room," Natsu grumbled. "You still don't need to make it freezing cold, though."

"If you really don't like it, I guess I should cater to a sick person," Gray grumbled, and he turned the fan to a lower setting. "But it really is too hot, so only a little."

"Whatever."

"Fine!"

Lucy smiled that they were (more or less) getting along. "Stay for dinner, Gray."

"Nah, I have a date with Juvia."

Natsu flinched, and despite himself, he felt a pain in his chest.

"Natsu!" Gray shouted, seeing the discomfort in his face.

"I'm fine," he hissed.

"Lemme check." Gray took up Natsu's hand and placed his fingers against his wrist. Natsu looked aside with embarrassment. "Your heart rate is a bit fast. Your face is flushed, too. We should call a doctor."

"I said I'm fine!"

Gray bonked him on the head again. "Stop being so stubborn, asshole."

"Really, it's just..." You're too close! "It's fine, trust me. I'm just overheating."

"See! Fire idiot."

"Blizzard breath!"

"Gray," Lucy said, "keep some coolness on his forehead for now. Natsu, you should lie back."

"Whatever," Natsu grumbled, but he obediently flopped back onto his pillows.

"I'll make some iced tea to keep you hydrated," Lucy offered, and she hurried off to the kitchen. "Happy, where's the iced tea container?"

"Natsu never makes iced tea."

"Sheesh!"

The two boys were left in the bedroom alone.

"Seriously, just looking at you makes me want to sweat. Get these covers off you," Gray mumbled.

He pulled everything but the sheet off of Natsu's body. The Dragon Slayer was shirtless and wore only pajama pants underneath. Gray saw a scar where the doctors had operated on his heart, and he looked away from the wound, feeling guilty that he had not checked in on Natsu all this time.

Natsu put a hand over the scar and muttered, "I didn't want you to see it."

"We both have lots of scars," Gray reasoned. "This is just another one." He placed his hand on Natsu's forehead and permeated a bit of chilliness down onto the feverish skin.

Not meaning to, a soft moan shivered out of Natsu's throat.

"Sheesh, you're weird when you're sick," Gray muttered, trying to not let it show just how that moan affected him.

"Shut up."

"You shut up! Really, if I weren't here, what would happen to you?"

Natsu sadly raised his eyes to Gray. "If you weren't here, I'd probably be dead."

"Don't be morbid," he scolded. Gray stroked through Natsu's hair, cooling him down. "Don't hesitate to ask for help, got it? I owe you one for finding that healing machine, even if you took off like an asshole."

Natsu kept quiet and looked sad.

Gray caught the look on his face. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I really do owe you an apology. You were probably feeling sick back then as well, right? You're so stubborn, you probably didn't want to tell anyone that you were feeling weak."

"Something like that," Natsu grumbled.

"Then speak up next time. I thought you just didn't care."

"Of course I care!" Natsu shouted, but he choked up instantly. "That ... that is ... you're my teammate and my friend. Of course I was worried. I wanted you to get better. I guess I pushed myself too hard, though."

"I see," Gray frowned. Rei-chan was right. Natsu had been running all around Fiore for months, hardly getting sleep, rarely staying at home, all for the sake of finding that machine before Gray agreed to an amputation. "You worked yourself up so much, it probably caused this, right?"

"Maybe," Natsu whispered. It was close enough to the truth.

Gray suddenly bowed his head low. "Thank you."

Those squinty, green eyes widened in astonishment. "Wh-what?"

Gray kept his head down. "You risked your health for my sake. You went that far just for me. You almost died, and it was all so I could walk again. I'm forever in your debt. So, I'm sorry if I've been an asshole to you and ... and thank you, really."

"No! No, it's fine," Natsu cried out. The last thing he wanted was for Gray to feel guilty.

"Shut up and accept my thanks, bastard!"

Natsu gulped, but a smile struggled up to his lips. "You're welcome. You'd do the same, right?"

Gray finally raised his head and smiled down at the Dragon Slayer. "Yeah, I probably would."

Natsu grinned, and when Gray put his cold hand on that burning forehead again, Natsu's eyes closed with happiness.

"Don't ever do that again, though," Gray said quietly. "Even if it's for my sake, don't work yourself almost to death. There's no purpose in you helping me if you're left even weaker."

"You know I'd still go that far."

"And I'm saying, don't do it again! Once is enough for one lifetime."

Natsu kept his eyes closed, enjoying the coolness stroking his hair. "Hey Gray?"

"What?"

"... I'm really glad you can walk."

Gray's cheeks went a little hot. "Idiot." He looked down at Natsu's relaxed face, and a smile flitted over Gray's lips. "I'll stay for dinner."

Natsu's eyes opened in surprise. "What? But your date!"

"I can cancel this time, since it's to take care of you."

Natsu felt bashfulness at hearing him say that, and he looked away to hide his joy.

"Someone has to look out for you." Gray let his fingers stroke through the pink strands and watched the way they shined in the sunlight. "I owe you for finding that healing machine, so the least I can do is hang around and cool you off. Maybe I should drop by more, at least through this heatwave."

Natsu felt his cheeks getting hotter and hotter. Gray wanted to hang out, alone, here in his house! Still, he grumbled to hide his excitement, "If you're busy, you don't have to go out of your way."

"Nah, I need the walking exercise, and it's a nice stroll, very scenic. I don't mind, really."

"But then you have to sit around here. It can be really quiet out here in the woods. It's probably boring to a guy like you."

Gray looked down at the Dragon Slayer's heat-tinged cheeks and smiled to himself. "I told you already, asshole. I don't mind. Now shut up and stop complaining or I'll change my mind and let you roast yourself."

Natsu settled back on his pillows and felt at peace with the surly tone. He really had missed arguing like this.

Gray placed a hand over Natsu's reddened cheek to cool off the flush, but when Natsu's eyes slowly turned up to him, the way they looked made Gray gulp hard. Being away from the Dragon Slayer had almost allowed Gray to convince himself that his confusion back then was just that, just weird ideas and random curiosity that was normal for a teenager. He thought he was totally over it, those fantasies were out of his system, he was dating Juvia and returning to a totally normal, heterosexual life, where she was his gorgeous girlfriend and Natsu was nothing more than a teammate and his childhood rival.

The view in front of him, his hand on Natsu's face, those green eyes gazing up softly at him, shattered all of his disillusions. Time seemed to stop for them, and they stared for minutes although it felt like no time at all. They stared at each other, giving soulful gazes although neither revealed any of the turmoil broiling in their minds.

To the side, Lucy and Happy were both spying on the two while the tea brewed. Lucy was shocked to see the smile on Natsu's face while Gray tenderly petted his pink hair, and now their locked gaze. She wanted to smash their faces together and scream "KISS ALREADY!" Of course, that was just silly yaoi fangirl fantasies she harbored.

Happy pulled back with his paws covering his mouth to hide his laugh. Lucy also slipped away and followed Happy back to the kitchen.

"What is it?" she asked the Exceed in confusion.

"Isn't it obvious?" Happy giggled. "They lllllllllllike each other!"

Lucy glanced quickly back to the bedroom. "Then it's not my imagination."

"Nope, but don't let them know."

"Why not? Oh. Right," she said seriously as she thought about it. "Gray is with Juvia now. She would flood us all."

"And we shouldn't interfere. That's what Rei-chan said."

"Natsu's girlfriend? She knows?"

"She's helping him. She's been teaching him how to kiss and what to do when on a date, so one day he can win over Gray."

Lucy's eyes grew wider. "I see. That's how it is, huh? He kept saying she's not really a girlfriend. So, it's like that."

"Aye! Rei-chan said Gray isn't ready. I hope he's ready soon. Natsu really likes him, although right now he thinks he hates him."

"Hates him? Why?"

"Because Gray is dating Juvia and didn't come to see Natsu in the hospital."

"So Natsu is jealous," Lucy realized.

"Aye, and Gray is mad at Natsu about Rei-chan, and even when Rei-chan practically told Gray everything, he didn't get it, and so she told me they weren't ready, but I really hope they're ready soon. Sometimes Natsu cries and says Gray's name over and over when he thinks I'm asleep."

"Omigosh, that is so sad!"

Now she really did want to smash their faces together and scream at them to start kissing. Both were too prideful and too stubborn to make the first move. She rubbed her chin. Was there anything she could do to push them in the right direction?