WARNING: This fanfiction is the effect of Kaity's (kaahthemarshmello) wish for a fanfic to be dedicated to her plus her later request that it be Natsu x Gray plus a request that hot chocolate be involved. -End of Warning-
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Gray walked into the Fairy Tail guild to see that it was pretty much empty aside from a few stragglers that had nothing better to do than sit around and drink beer and Natsu, who was sitting at the bar with what looked like a steaming cup of something in front of him. Something about the steaming cup made the ice mage walk over to his supposed-rival and sit down next to him.
"Hey," Natsu spoke without moving his eyes away from the steamy liquid in front of him.
"Why are you drinking hot chocolate? Aren't you a fire mage?"
"Dunno... Felt like it I suppose,"
It wasn't until then that Gray noticed the slightly pink dusting the male's cheeks; thinking it was the hot chocolate the raven sighed, "You should stop drinking it... it's turning your face red,"
Natsu's face darkened, of course, which didn't help the poor rosette at all; Gray noticed immediately the darken color tinting Natsu's face. Brushing his hand onto the other's forehead: "Are you sure you didn't catch a cold? You're feeling a little warmer than usual,"
At this point Natsu panicked, spinning around in the seat his forearm smacked the steamy hot cocoa off the bar and onto the poor raven's lap.
"Ah! Shit Natsu! Watch it!" Gray jumped off the bar stool, feeling the hot liquid burn his skin upon contact and the cold air later was only making it worse.
In one fluid motion, Natsu grabbed Gray's wrist and pulled him to the back room apologizing along the way.
"Here I'll get some sweats for you to change into," Natsu walked off into one of the adjacent rooms and reappeared with a pair of sweats which oddly enough to Gray looked similar to the ones he wore when they all spent the night at Lucy's.
"Do you always carry your sweat pants?" Gray asked him, thinking he would have something to tease the dragon slayer about.
"No, I live here..." Natsu stated point-blank as he retrieved clean towels from the bathroom closet.
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After changing into the sweats Natsu had lent him; Gray was surprised that they fit so well considering he had never considered the two were close in size.
"Thanks, I guess... Although this is your fault," Gray sighed, closing his eyes as he plopped down beside a wide-eyed Natsu.
No response.
Gray ventured a peek; cracking one of his onyx eyes open he saw an emotion that didn't seem to belong to his fiery companion: nervousness...?
"You okay?" Opening up the other as he leaned forward, getting a better look at his friend.
Said friend only nodded his head, bringing his face lower letting his shoulder block a side of his face; of course Gray wasn't going to take a silent nod as an appropriate response to his question...
"Oi!" A quick adaption of a 'ninja-remote' move, that Gray had seen while debating upon crashing Lucy's yaoi anime night, sent Natsu falling onto his back and Gray hovering over top.
Cobalt eyes widened as the realization of their situation sank in; body parts tried to squirm free but was stopped by the voice above them: "Natsu... what's with you? You've been acting weird... C'mon I know we used to try to kill one another but regardless, we're still best friends."
It seemed like the light in those cobalt eyes disappeared as Gray finished his statement; said raven didn't miss the change in those eyes he had memorized.
"Friends, huh?" Gray's eyes widened as Natsu continued with an obvious disappointment in his voice: "How long do you think we can keep going like this?"
The raven was speechless; just a few moments ago he was trying to pick a fight with the dragon slayer and now he was trying to figure out what his friend was talking about. Sure, it hadn't been easy to switch from enemies to best friends but Gray really preferred things this way; didn't Natsu feel the same?
Gray's body quivered for a moment before moving away to sit back down to his original spot; Natsu sat up as well, eyeing the raven with regretful eyes. For what seemed like an eternity the duo sat there in silence until-
"I'm just gonna head home," Gray began standing up and heading for the door, "we still going on tha-?" His words caught in his throat as a tanned hand grasped his arm.
Onyx eyes traveled down to arm attached to his arm then up onto the bicep and finally making their way to meet a pair of cobalt eyes that alone made the ice mage actually freeze in his spot. Natsu moved closer whispering, "Don't go,"
Gray wasn't sure if it was the defenseless posture or the way Natsu said those words but he pulled the rosette into an embrace; a part of him awaiting for the pain to erupt in his stomach... but it never came. Instead, shaking hands brushed against his bare stomach making it flinch but relaxed after a few moments.
"Talk to me, Natsu" Gray spoke softly, resting his head on top of the shorter mage's head.
"I-I can't..." A muffled response came from the rosette below him.
"Natsu... do you... do you really hate me?" Gray's question hung in the air for what felt like an eternity to the raven but right as he was about to pull away and push the thought out of his head, Natsu spoke: "No, I could never truly hate you... Gray,"
Gray stood still, wondering if there was more his friend had to say but after a few moments of silence; the raven spoke: "So are you forcing yourself to be friends with me?"
"Natsu..." He groaned when he got no response from his friend immediately.
"At times... but I don't want to go back,"
They stood there holding onto one another as their legs began loosing feeling in them from the lack of movement; Gray, not being far from the door, backed up enough so he could slide the two of them down until they were sitting on the floor. Natsu, sitting in between the raven legs, rested his head against Gray's shoulder.
"Tired of all the fighting?" Gray chuckled nervously, mostly because of their positions.
"That too..." Natsu trailed off; his face, which was hidden from the other, turned a bright shade of red.
"What else...?"
"Because... I sort of fell for someone shortly after we became... friends,"
Ignoring the fact that the word 'friend' didn't sound pleasant coming out of the dragon slayer's mouth, Gray asked: "Who?"
Honestly the raven could be so dense at times; Natsu nearly let out a hollow laugh at this thought.
"Seriously... Think about it," The dragon slayer moved away from Gray, still shielding most of his face as he stood up and began walking away only to be thwarted by Gray's hand coming up and grabbing a hold of his wrist.
"You can trust me... I won't laugh," Did Natsu dare tell the ice mage how he had, only recently, begun to feel?
"It's someone in the guild..." Natsu began.
"Natsu..." Gray warned him, growing a little irritated with the evasiveness Natsu was giving off.
"Someone we've worked with before..."
"..."
"S-Someone that's on a team..."
"..."
"O-okay... someone that's in our team..."
"..." Gray's interested perked as he wondered whether rumor was true and Natsu liked Lucy.
"Someone no one would expect me to fall for..." Natsu continued, twiddling his thumbs.
"...?" Confusion was obvious on Gray's face now as the raven thought it might be Erza instead... Or maybe one of Lucy's spirits (more of a side thought than anything else)
Silence fell for what felt like an eternity to the ice mage before he angrily growled: "If you really didn't want to tell me... you should have said so from the start," as he kicked himself off the ground and began heading out the door, violently opening the door before feeling something - someone stop him.
"I like you, Gray..."
Gray froze before slowly, very slowly turned around to see a blushing Natsu who added as his face turned darker shades of red: "The... p-person o-on the t-team that I-I-I l-li-"
Without thinking Gray closed the distance between them, kissing the dragon slayer hesitantly; right as he was about to pull away he felt soft lips kissing him back. As the need for air grew a little more obvious, the raven pulled away a little bit joking with a grin: "Maybe this whole 'you-spill-hot chocolate-on-me-and-we-go-off-to-be-alone' thing should be a tradition for us,"
"I-I-It's n-n-not l-li-like I-I m-meant t-to do that!" An embarrassed and blushing Natsu argued in his own defense.
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Csilla: I hope you liked it Kaity! :3
&everyone else... I hope you enjoy my little Natsu x Gray fanfic (god only knows why my poll is now screaming for more to be written)