Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or ideas from Fairy Tail, nor do I make any money from this work.

An Exercise, Come to Fruition

Part Two of Four (Probably)

Loke had once taken on a job involving the protection of an elite modeling agency. He had been charged with the protection of two dozen of Fiore's most attractive women. It was meant to have lasted two weeks, but, after only three days, the managers sent him back to Fairy Tail with an angry letter at his heels. They decided that they'd rather face the local thugs than deal with all the destructive catfights that had broken out over who got to spend time with him next. The experience had left him feeling particularly smug, and he distinctly remembered gloating about it to Gray (on multiple occasions).

Gray had promised that he'd eventually get him back for flaunting his conquests so openly, and Loke was pretty sure that karma had stepped in for the ice mage because Loke was fairly certain Gray was going to make a permanent ice sculpture of the moment when Loke admitted that he couldn't keep up their back-and-forth with Lucy anymore.

Maintaining a deep and meaningful relationship expressed through the medium of physical gratification proved to be a lot more time consuming that his usual strategy for sex-wining, dining, and finding a suitable surface.

Even pouring his heart and soul into the matter hadn't seemed to get him very far. He picked out perfect roses with a genuine desire to find which would best complement Lucy's eyes, spent most of his time thinking up ways to make her happy, and had even accepted being in a three-way relationship with another man in order to spare her the trouble of choosing between them, but every time he watched Gray make love to Lucy, he felt like he was just still a boy playing at love.

With Gray, Lucy's eyes had been open and wide. Even as the ice mage performed various sinful actions on her body, she somehow managed to look sweet and innocent. The little gasps she made sounded as surprised as they did pleased. Gray whispered against her skin and into her ear. Loke couldn't hear his words, but they made Lucy's face soften with a gentle smile.

Loke could stain her face with a hundred different shades of a blush, but he couldn't recall a single time he'd made her smile like that. He brought roses to stroke against her skin, swept her literally off of her feet and worshipped her with his lips, but her eyes had never crinkled at the corners like they did when Gray spoke five or six syllables against her neck or wrist.

Was it the deep voice? Loke had to admit that Gray really had something going for him with that. Combined with his habit of staring at you with a penetrating gaze from beneath his fringe of ebony hair, Gray's voice tended to cement his dark and mysterious appeal. It was the kind of thing even an expert like Loke couldn't learn.

Gray probably wasn't even trying that hard, but, judging by the way Lucy was breathing, she'd fallen prey to the accidental allure.

As Loke watched, Grey effortlessly pinned both of Lucy's wrists in one hand and twisted her around so that she was pushed chest first against a wall. With the other hand, Gray stroked her side, leaving shivers in his wake. He'd buried his head into Lucy's neck, and the quality of Lucy's moans told Loke that Gray wasn't just using his mouth to whisper anymore.

Loke was a little distracted by the way strands of Lucy's bright blonde hair caught in Gray's dark locks. The contrast looked like lines of stars on the night sky.

Distracted as he was, Loke didn't miss the deft maneuvering of Gray's other hand that left Lucy with her panties around her thighs and her skirt bunched up around her back. She made a very inviting picture. Loke's style wasn't usually quite so raw, but he had to admit that Gray's approach was affecting him in unexpected ways.

It took him a long time to summon his courage, but, eventually, Loke managed to do it. By the time he felt Gray's presence near Lucy's keys, he felt ready to call for a ceasefire. He composed himself and opened up his own gate, fully prepared to see a flustered Lucy in Gray's icy embrace. He was half hoping that he'd catch the ice mage using his magic instead of his body to stimulate Lucy; then, at least, he could claim that Gray was cheating.

The view that greeted him was not so pleasant as he might have wished. Rather than a straining Gray, there was a panicked Gray. Rather than the scent of sex and victory, there was the scent of fear and despondency. Most importantly, rather than a flushed Lucy, there was no Lucy at all.

Loke turned around, trying to figure out from where he had entered the human world. His key was not jangling merrily on Lucy's hip, or even cuddled closely in her discarded clothing. It was not splayed across a table along with all of Lucy's other keys. Instead, it was clutched in Gray's hand so tightly that the ice mage's knuckles had gone white. Loke was fairly certain that there was frost creeping up the golden sides. He felt a chill. He was about to protest, but then Gray looked up. Loke shivered.

The last time he had seen Gray, the ice mage had been buried in Lucy and his eyes had been closed in pleasure. This time, he stood alone in the middle of Lucy's empty room and his eyes were as hard as diamonds. He'd gone from strangely alluring to painfully frightening while Loke had taken a catnap in the Spirit World.

Loke had a bad feeling about this.

Lucy felt like skipping merrily along her way. She had managed to find a high-paying job two towns away from Magnolia, and, out of the goodness of her selfless heart, she had conceded to Natsu's pleas to walk in lieu of taking the train. As long as she kept them at their current pace, slyly mentioned a great spot for fishing, and somehow reigned in Natsu's destructive capabilities, she was looking at a good long week of peace followed by the look on her landlady's face when she managed to pay her rent before it was due. Life was good.

Except, she maybe felt just a little guilty. She hadn't exactly left Magnolia in the most admirable way. She'd essentially snuck out like a thief in the night. She'd been so frazzled and afraid of running into Gray that she hadn't even folded her clothes before packing them. When she'd detached Loke's key from her ring, her hands had shaken so badly that she thought Aquarius was going to demand punishment. As soon as she'd arrived at Natsu's house, she'd breathed a sigh of relief.

Still, she reasoned, she was more of a victim fleeing injustice than a criminal dodging the law. She was hardly naïve of the competition that fueled Loke and Gray's recent spate of satyriasis, and she didn't exactly appreciate being treated like a ping-pong ball (even if Mirajane seemed to think it was sweet).

She didn't always want to be having sex even if was with two of the hottest guys she has ever seen, she doesn't like feeling guilty all the time because she's caused yet another rivalry to form in the hallowed halls of Fairy Tail, she wants to go on a date sometimes that doesn't end in orgasms, she misses the days where Gray was all super sweet and protective, she doesn't want to even contemplate how much of that was just fueled by rivalry, and she's pretty sure-

"Lucy," Happy interrupts, "your face looks uglier than usual."

She's pretty sure she doesn't want to be thinking about this anymore anyway.

While she's been internally ranting and turning various unpleasant shades of purple and red, Happy has perched on top of her head and Natsu has found the perfect place to camp for the evening. Her neck is starting to hurt, and she's pretty sure that Natsu's definition of perfect is going to involve some sort of ample fish supply rather than a cushiony bit of forest floor, but at least no one is wagering her cleavage in a bizarre show of machismo.

She's so happy that she only throws Happy half as far as she could.

Author's Note: Well, the good news is that I think I finally know where I'm going with this (other than to complicated sex). The bad news is that it's still taking me awhile to get there. I apologize for the excessively short chapter and snail-like pace. Please review!