GrayLu Week 2016 Day 1 (September 1 - Happy Gray Day!)

Prompt: Whispers

My first attempt at a non-Hakuoki fic...

CoverArt courtesy of whitefoxie on tumblr!

Chapter 1 - Perceptions, or How to Totally Misread a Situation
Fairy Tail Guild, Part I

Lucy was quickly getting to know everyone at Fairy Tail. It was in her nature to be both kind and outgoing, and most of the other mages were reasonably friendly. Some people, like Mira and Levy had become true friends, although Mira was still a bit mysterious in some ways. And everyone at Fairy Tail was like family, of course – which meant that things weren't always harmonious!

It was strange how running into Natsu by complete coincidence had led to her being a valued (well, improving) member of the strongest team of Fairy Tail. At least, that's what others called them. Lucy knew that Erza was one of the strongest members of the guild all on her own. And Erza had hinted that Natsu would eventually be at least as strong as she was. Lucy was just amazed at how much damage the so-called Salamander could take – and so had been many of their enemies before he found a way to take them down.

The one person on the team who she felt she didn't know reasonably well by now was Gray, who tended to be a lot quieter and more serious than Natsu – except when they were in one of their knock-down, no-holds-barred fights. Lucy found Gray a bit confusing. On the one hand, she'd seen the Ice-Make mage flirting with pretty girls a number of times. He certainly seemed capable of smiling. On the other hand, he seemed to carry a certain sadness with him and although he made it clear that he cared a lot about his team-mates, he didn't actually smile at them much. Well, unless he was laughing at Natsu.

"Hey Luce." Lucy looked up, surprised, as Gray sat down beside her at the table in the guild's big common room and eating area.

"Hi, Gray – what's up? Have you been looking at the job board?"

He took a sip of the drink he was carrying and shrugged.

"Not really. Just passing by and saw that you were waiting for Erza." He nodded at a large piece of cake across the table from Lucy and they exchanged a smile.

There. There it was… He had a great smile. Not a grin like Natsu's or a smirk like half the males in the guild. No wonder he attracted so many girls when they travelled. … On the other hand, it could be the fact that he usually ended up walking around in the bare minimum (heh) of clothing – sometimes just a pair of boxers if he was really distracted. He had really nice muscles… Lucy was just trying to decide whether his eyes were dark, dark grey or a kind of really deep blue when Gray coughed in a "um, hello?" kind of way.

"Everything okay, Lucy? You're just kind of staring at me, you know?"

"Staring at you? Me? Oh, no, nothing like that – I mean why would I stare at you? I mean – other than the fact that you're taking your clothes off! Gray, stop it!"

He managed to stop before things got too far and jumped up to collect his things. Lucy sighed. She should just get used to it. And really, would it be so hard to get used to? Now, was his hair really black or was it some kind of midnight blue that just looked black? No she decided, when he sat down again with his T-shirt in one hand. More like it's so black that it has navy highlights.

"So, um, how are you finding having flame-brain around all the time? He can be a complete mooch."

Lucy blinked and reddened slightly. She'd been staring again.

"Oh, yeah, I wish he'd come in by the door, you know? But on the whole it's not as terrible as it could be, I guess. Though he tends to raid the fridge. Which is a real pain considering we never make as much from our jobs as we should, because we wreck things. Well, he wrecks things, and sometimes Erza and you do too. "

Lucy tried to look stern, but the way he ran his hand through his hair and looked away at her words made it difficult to be serious – he was cuter than she had realized. Come to think of it, he looked a little like Natsu when he did that. But less goofy. Anyway, Gray did "stern and serious" way better than she did, so her glare probably didn't work very well. He wasn't as good as Erza, though – Lucy figured that Erza had some kind of degree in "how to make people obey you with just one look".

"Yeah, it's a problem I guess," Gray muttered. "But it's mostly down to the fire-head."

"I thought you guys were friends? In a sort of 'friends who fight all the time' kind of way I guess. Like, you know, it's a guy thing. He's usually pretty nice, right?"

Gray shrugged and then a strange look came over his face.

"He's an idiot, mostly." He had raised his voice for some reason.

"Hey! Who are you calling an idiot, moron?" Suddenly the familiar pink hair was visible – Natsu must have walked up from behind Lucy.

"Um, that's a little harsh, don't you think, Gray?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, Gray! Listen to Lucy!"

Natsu was smirking and Gray immediately jumped up, tossing the T-shirt aside. He'd never actually put it back on.

Lucy hastily intervened to say that it wasn't any better for Natsu to call Gray a moron, but by that point she couldn't be heard over the brawl that was rapidly turning the vicinity into an alternately hot and cold war zone.

She reached out automatically as Happy flew over to her. The cat – the blue, flying, talking cat – was adorable, and Lucy was determined to be great friends with him, even though he occasionally seemed to enjoy insulting her for no good reason. She thought maybe Natsu was a bad influence on the kitty, so she tried to spend as much time as she could with Happy when he was around with Natsu.

Lucy sighed. She still wasn't sure what she thought of Gray. When he wasn't brawling with Natsu, he was a smart, interesting guy. And just a little bit hot, for an ice prince, an annoying voice in her head added. She told the voice to shut up.

"That's ENOUGH!"

Ah. Erza had arrived. The armored red-head swooped down on the errant Slayer and Ice-Make mage, but they'd already heard her. Before she could drag them apart, they each had an arm around the other's shoulders and were smiling – albeit unconvincingly.

"Hi Erza! How GREAT to see you today!" Natsu looked like he was gritting his teeth rather than smiling.

"Good afternoon Erza. You're meeting Lucy now, right? Don't mind us. We'll just go and be FRIENDS with each other somewhere else." Gray looked like his smile actually hurt.

"Yup, because we GET ALONG SO WELL that you can just tell how good FRIENDS we are," added Natsu, as he and his sparring partner did a kind of two-step toward the door.

Erza put her hands on her hips.

"No fighting!" she said emphatically, as they backed away with as much grace as they could manage.

Lucy had to let go of Happy, since he wanted to go after Natsu.

"Bye Natsu!" she called out, as Happy went to hover around his friend's head. "And, um, bye –"

But Gray was already through the door, dragging Natsu with him. He hadn't bothered to say goodbye. In fact, he ignored Lucy altogether.

Lucy was hurt.

"What's with Gray?" she grumbled to Erza, as the red-head came over to examine her cake.

Erza smiled, but didn't answer. Then she frowned abruptly and stood up.

"I'm going to get more cake. I don't want them to run out while I eat this piece. I'll be right back."

Lucy nodded. Since it was Erza, she didn't make the obvious point that it would probably only take her about two minutes to eat the first slice. Her eyes went back to the door and she sighed.

"For a few minutes there I thought maybe he liked me…" she whispered to herself. "But I guess not."

Outside, Gray had shoved Natsu away and stalked off to his own place. Natsu was puzzled, but eventually gave up on trying to continue their fight. He might as well go take a look at the job board anyway. Lucy kept muttering about her rent and how they never made enough on their jobs.

Gray stalked into his apartment, a loft bedroom over a decent-sized living room and kitchen. He slammed the door behind him and threw himself moodily into a big overstuffed chair. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees.

"Gah!" He dropped his head into his hands. "For a few minutes I thought she was actually interested… but then it's all about Natsu this and Natsu that. And she totally defends him and not me. Probably too interested in Happy to notice what's going on anyway… So of course she says goodbye to Natsu and not me. Why did I even bother looking for her this afternoon anyway? Of course she'll fall for Natsu."

He unconsciously brought his hands together, and ice started to form.

"I just wanted it to be me," he whispered to himself.

End

So, Day 1 posted only 2 days late! But I have been working on my Hakuoki fic as well. ~(^u^)/