A/N: This is my so-called 'comeback' to the fan fiction world after having laid down the pen for many years. Man, is it rusty. But I love Gray/Lucy, so I hope you guys enjoy this.
Disclaimer: I can only wish I owned Fairy Tail.
YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE
"Oh, she's going to let me in
I just know it's so
Then again, who do I kid?
I don't have a prayer for writing the book."
- The Eels, "Jeannie's Diary"
He is surprised at how naturally stalking comes to him.
Of course, he doesn't gawk in public or tail her like an open shadow. A man has to have some standards. He's perfected the art of camouflage (unlike Juvia, who seems to think that people will assume her head is merely an extension of the pillar it peeks around), and being a rather private person himself, he has complete respect for the concept of personal space.
So he lets his senses do the job instead most of the time. It doesn't require much of an effort – he swears his spine starts tingling whenever she walks into the guild, like today. His sense of sound amplifies and lets the sweet sound of her laughter bathe his ears. His mouth goes dry, and then he turns around so that his eyes can have the ultimate feast that is her physical beauty.
Okay, so she's frowning, but even the way her brows knit is like a work of art, he concedes. And now she is leaning closer to him, and his breath hitches.
"Gray." Another tingle down his spine. For a moment, his imagination runs away and builds a bubble around the two of them. Closing them off from the rest of the world.
"Yeah?"
"What the hell happened to your clothes?"
The bubble pops.
"Crap!" As he flails around and looks for a spare change of clothes, Lucy just sighs and takes the seat next to his. He feels her arm brush against his as she does so.
He doesn't wash that arm for a week.
He files away moments like these as fairytales in the back of his mind. Not because he is a sucker for sappy and romantic stuff, but because he knows that fairytales just don't come true.
He's not a prince by any standard. On the other hand, she's the kind of princess that guys fall head over heels for. She is beautiful, kind, strong, brave, feisty, selfless…there are no 'buts' that could soil this picture.
Oh, wait. There is one. Just one.
But Lucy never looks at him the way he wants her to.
One night, the guild throws a party to celebrate Alzack and Bisca's engagement. Naturally, this means lots of booze and loud whooping and cheering. At some point, the men begin a drinking game, and before they know it the women join in and there's barely a sober soul left in the building.
At the end of the night, Mirajane rolls up her sleeves and gets to work, weeding out the less drunk to help the completely hammered get home. One way or another Gray finds himself assigned to take an incoherent Lucy back to her apartment since Natsu is already out cold, snoring loudly and slobbering all over a table.
The journey back to Lucy's place is amusing, to say the least. Everybody knows Lucy can't contain her alcohol very well. After just one and a half glasses of beer, she is singing some silly song about penguins and attempting to grope Gray in places that make him glad no one is around at this time of the night to see them.
His more perverted side sits back and enjoys the show. Let's face it, it's not like he'll ever get to experience this again.
Except that she doesn't stop once they reach her apartment. Later, Gray will recall brushing her hands aside and telling her to get some sleep, only to be shushed by her slurred protests. She giggles when he picks her up and deposits her gently on the bed. She has such an adorably goofy smile on her face that Gray is hypnotized. He barely has time to contemplate kissing her when she reaches for him and beats him to it.
Inside, his bones melt and sparks fly from behind his closed eyelids. He knows she is too drunk to know what she is doing but his mind is still foggy too, and he cannot stop himself. This is a dream, he thinks, it has to be. It's one he's had many times, so why shouldn't this be another one? So he indulges in this moment and savours the bubblegum and lavender taste of her lips, the feel of her hands running through his hair, the way her body hums and throbs against his.
The bed springs squeak slightly as she pulls him clumsily onto the bed, lips still pressed to his. For all her talk about never having had a boyfriend, she is an excellent kisser that easily puts all of his fantasy versions of her to shame. She sighs against his mouth, sending a shudder through his body. When they finally pull away for air, he feels like someone has stolen his breath all over again for she is looking at him in a way he has only dared to dream about before this.
"Lucy," he whispers, leaning in for another kiss. She giggles and obliges until finally, she breathes another satisfied sigh and leans her forehead against his, eyes still closed. Then she speaks.
"Natsu…"
It's spoken in a nearly inaudible murmur, but Gray hears it as a cascade of bombs that obliterates his warmth, hope and heart. Next to him, her weight deadens and he discovers that she's fallen asleep.
He tucks her in and leaves silently. Once outside, he breaks into a run and tries miserably to outrun the futility and despair creeping up on him.
It takes most of the guild two days to recover from the celebrations. Lucy practically skips past the front doors, feeling more refreshed than she has in a long time. That's the last time I let Natsu convince me to drink!
There is no sign of Natsu or Gray just yet, so she settles down at the bar counter where Mirajane fills her in on what happened after the party.
"…and Gray brought you home, thank goodness he had more sense than Natsu not to down two whole barrels of mead at once." Mirajane shudders at the memory.
Right on cue, a loud pink tornado breezes through the front doors. A mop of tousled dark hair follows behind him, albeit walking more slowly than usual.
"Morning, Luce!" Natsu says with his usual animated vigour, which he applies two seconds later to his breakfast. Lucy rolls her eyes and turns to Gray.
"Hey, Gray. So Mirajane told me that you were the one who took me home the other night. Thanks for going to all that trouble," she says earnestly. "I didn't do anything…awkward, did I?" she adds with a tinge of embarrassment.
Gray simply looks at her for a moment. Then his lips curve into a smirk. "You mean, besides you dirty dancing on the counter top?" he teases her.
"Be serious, Gray!" she says, mortified and kind of horrified because what if that was exactly what she'd done? She'd never been that drunk before.
"Relax, nothing happened," he reassures her. "Anyway, I gotta go do something. Catch up with you guys later."
He is out the door before anyone can say anything. Lucy wonders why he's acting differently today. For a brief moment, her lips tingle with a vague memory of…something she can't put a name to.
She shrugs it off, and turns to talk to Natsu.
Outside, Gray runs and runs and runs.