Gift Giving
Happy birthday stardustgalaxy!
Nothing was a problem today; that Gray could believe… except he'd be lying to himself. His heart was practically jumping out of his chest and he swore if he saw anyone other than Natsu today (okay even if it was Natsu) he'd freak out.
Natsu's birthday, this day – the day he'd come back from a job late and hadn't had proper time to prepare for – was an incredibly big deal to him. There was a party for him next week, but Gray had honestly intended to spend the time with his boyfriend now and keep him smiling. It was a double edged sword, Natsu would never say he hated his life, and that was a terrific reason for him to love this day, but… it had also been the day Igneel had left him. Gray would usually find him crying somewhere when they were little; a heart-breaking scene that he'd never really been able to help with. He didn't know much about it these days, but if he ever got a minute alone with Happy he'd ask.
Seeing Natsu so troubled, not wearing that usual goofy grin, was always weird. A sorrow in his eyes that affected everyone around him, if Gray ever had to see that again he swore he'd never feel happy again.
Yes he was in deep; no he didn't regret a thing.
Knocking on the door to the Dragon Slayer's run down home; he crossed his arms over his bare chest until he heard the creak as the old wood swung open to reveal messy pink hair and sleepy green eyes.
"Morning flame brain." Perking up at the sound of his voice, Natsu clenched his fist and knocked Gray lightly on the shoulder.
"'Morning?' Oh come on ice princess you could have at least let me sleep in until 'afternoon!'" Not gonna lie, Gray thought Natsu looked adorable trying to be angry while he was half asleep. He wasn't even pretending very well either, a small smile was pushing at his lips.
"Get dressed properly, we're going out." An eyebrow would surely have been raised if Natsu hadn't been so tired; luckily he'd brought a lighter. Clicking it, he watched as Natsu instantly sucked in the flame, gaining a tiny bit of energy as he ran to dress himself.
*/*\*
"Ugh, you woke me up earlier than is humanly possible and brought me to a train station. I thought you were supposed to love me." Natsu being sleepy was cute; his whining would've been adorable too… at least if not for the flames he was breathing out as he complained.
"I do love you; just think that in this case it really isn't the journey that matters but the destination." Smiling half-heartedly at Natsu, he took his wrist and dragged him onto the train.
It was a simple matter to knock him out, Gray only had to press a certain pressure point on his neck and Natsu was out like a light, his head claiming Gray's lap as a pillow.
*/*\*
In retrospect, Gray's idea was fairly sneaky; he'd seen a job on the request board and his first thought was 'Natsu.' Arriving at the town, with a now fully awake and complaining lover, he spoke with the mayor, introduced the two of them and got to work, not wasting any time with the 'destination.'
The town happened to be on site next to a volcano, it had been assumed inactive for years but lately it had begun acting up again, and the citizens were worried; apparently there had been plans to knock it down and set tracks for a railway, but recent tremors had delayed their progress.
So it was a good thing Gray had seen the request.
"You didn't have to knock me out you know." Seriously? That was what Natsu really believed?
"You'd have complained and felt ill and you know it. I figured you'd appreciate more sleep than sickness." He threw a smirk at the grumbling fire wizard and took a hold of his wrist, pulling him up the mountain to the crater. Hot wind coming down as they neared the peak, his legs almost giving out before Natsu lunged forward to steady him. Smiling gratefully, the two trudged through old rocks and bits of mud with a tight grip on the other. It wasn't much longer until they reached the top; Gray's face felt like it was burning off but it was worth it to see how Natsu's eyes lit up as he looked at all the lava just waiting for him.
"You… are amazing!" Normally he would've leaned against a wall, crossed his arms and smirked victoriously, but right now the heat was getting to Gray far too much to do something like that. He managed to sort of pull off the smirk though, but the way his body was curling in on itself he doubted it looked too cool.
Natsu didn't seem to mind too much when he kissed him.
The shorter man pulled away to throw off his shirt and trousers as he dived into the crater, yelling. If Gray had been able to get closer, he would've watched as Natsu happily ate all of the liquid fire and destroyed some boulders here and there. But he missed the 'fun' and really only listened to Natsu calling out his magic attacks and turn the giant rock into rubble.
With his destructive prowess, Natsu'd taken down the entire thing in less than half an hour and it had been pretty big. The view had gone from an incredibly rocky range of mountains to an almost perfectly flat landscape.
"That was fun! Probably one of the best gifts ever even if I was forced to work on my birthday!"
"Don't try and lie to me, you love your job." Now that all the heat had gone and he was safely back on flat ground, he managed to successfully pull off his smirk and make an appropriate stance even while walking. Natsu smiling, a fun day of destruction, the rest of the day and he was back to normal, he could only hope Natsu shared his opinion that this day was great.
*/*\*
They ended up sitting by the river where they used to spar when evening came; everything was quiet, which shouldn't have been possible considering he was sitting with Natsu.
"Hey." Of course the dragon slayer never really stayed silent for long.
"What is it?" Natsu's head fell on his shoulder and Gray took a chance to wrap his arm round his shoulder. The sun was setting behind them, they'd gone out to eat (and he may have regretted that a little, Natsu's stupid eating habits…) and now everything was quiet, he should let Happy stay with Wendy and Carla more often for days like this…
"Thanks for today, it's a nice change to not end up crying." That shocked him a little; he never once thought Natsu would admit such a thing, even to him.
He didn't say anything about it, Natsu was leaning back into him and starting to close his eyes, and Gray wasn't looking forward to maybe digging deeper into this subject; not today.
"Happy birthday Natsu." He had no problem whispering that into his ear though. He deemed procrastinating okay for today.