part 3 to [the skies are bright tonight, and so are you]
title taken from SEVENTEEN's Our Dawn is Hotter than Day. please give the song a listen, it's very adorable!
gray is a man of simple habits. he wakes up, suffers through classes, and maybe goes out to the convenience store on the corner of the street to stock up on instant ramen and the rare vegetable. he even gets dragged to the occasional party. although that was more cana's thing than him.
but dating someone like natsu would be a...first.
don't get him wrong, gray adores natsu. he's utterly sweet, texts gray all the time, listens to him ramble. he even showed up with emergency coffee that one time gray tried to pull an all-nighter for his midterms.
but natsu is wholly different from gray than he first assumed. and gray doesn't know why, but he's attracted to natsu. it'll probably take him a month at the very least to disentangle those feelings, and gray has no plans to do any kind of emotional dissecting soon.
perhaps there's some truth to that old phrase: maybe opposites do attract.
cana grumbles, and shakes her nearly empty styrofoam cup. "i really don't wanna listen to you go on about how natsu is the moon to your sky, please. i've already suffered through one of these with juvia, i don't wanna go through this again."
"cana, for the love of all that's holy-"
"whiskey, definitely."
"-will you just help me plan a goddamn date?"
cana stands up. "you're a big ball of fluff, that's what you are. just ask him out already. take him out to see a movie!" cana throws her hands up in the air, flinging the cup expertly into a nearby trash can. "for fuck's sake, he's been staring at your ass ever since that party i took you to." cana pauses, and adds, "you know, i kinda regret that decision now."
gray bites his lip in worry. "do you think he'll want to go out with me?"
cana sputters in disbelief. "i literally just told yo-you know what? i'm leaving, goodbye!"
gray watches mutely as she walks away. he yells her name, and cana gracefully reacts by flipping a finger above her head.
was it just him, or did cana seem sort of averse to all his planning? maybe he should just listen to her and take natsu out for a movie – he couldn't fuck up a movie, right?
this is it. moment of truth. all he has to do is walk up to him and ask natsu out. knowing himself, that's probably the one thing that he'll fail to do.
juvia kicks his foot under the table. "it won't be weird unless you make it weird."
"sage advice," gray grumbles.
juvia kicks him again.
they're in natsu's place of work, the university coffee shop, and maybe the universe really has it in for him, because no sooner does juvia kick his ankles again – "god, how does lucy put up with you," he hisses under his breath – natsu looks up from the register and locks eyes with gray. he waves him over, gesturing wildly.
gray swallows. takes a deep breath. and gets up to go over.
natsu smiles when he approaches. "took you long enough. don't worry, i don't bite," natsu adds, snapping his teeth playfully. "your usual, then?"
gray nods, and hands him the change. gray moves over to the next counter, where lucy's already making his drink, and he's not completely sure, but it feels like juvia's staring holes into his coat, so he just goes, fuck it, and says in a rush, "why don't we go out tomorrow? there's a movie playing that i wanted to watch."
and this is when gray's stomach drops, because natsu was serving a customer when he'd asked, so now he has four pairs of eyes on him.
the customer clears their throat awkwardly, and moves on the next counter. gray is flushing. he can hear juvia snickering behind him.
natsu, though – oh bless this adorable man – natsu simply laughs and repeats himself. "took you long enough."
natsu comes over early to pick him up for their date. gray nearly has a fit over the callous attitude cana adopts – until she gets fed up and throws a dark blue sweater at his head.
natsu's wearing a peach coat, and gray finds it oddly adorable, the way it doesn't clash but rather complements his similarly coloured hair.
and judging by the way natsu blushes when gray catches him staring, natsu must be a little less confident tonight.
gray: 1, natsu: 0.
since the theater is close enough to walk, they decide against a taxi and take to the streets. as they walk, gray notices how long natsu's arms and how they swing past. he's wearing long sleeves under his coat, so there's no chance of seeing his tattoos tonight. gray sighs inwardly.
they make idle small talk as they walk, and gray's eyes keep darting to natsu's (empty, his mind supplies unhelpfully) hand, until finally, gray prays to the stars above and quietly takes hold of natsu's hand.
natsu jerks and looks at gray for a second, but immediately softens and smiles. gray's eyes are still wide.
natsu softly squeezes back in reassurance.
snacks? check.
drinks? also check.
movie? the ads have begun playing, so partial check.
natsu? in the bathroom; he promised to be quick.
it's just a simple date, but he anxiety keeps blowing it out of proportion. no, natsu is not doing this out of pity, it's out of genuine interest in him. no, nothing will go wrong eith-
"hey! so, did i miss anything?" natsu says as he plops down next to gray.
"nah, you're just in time."
gray passes over the popcorn, and settles in as the movie begins playing.
they're barely fifteen minutes in before gray suddenly sits up, and whispers urgently, "natsu, is it just me, or do you smell something burning?"
natsu looks confused for a second. he takes a deep breath and frowns. he suddenly smiles and leans in to whisper in gray's ear, "maybe it's my heart burning for you."
gray pulls away and looks at him with unconcealed disgust. "really? of all the things y-"
gray stops, because the acrid smell of smoke suddenly gets stronger, and someone in the front row screams.
natsu and gray both get up, and with the added height, they see the source of the smell.
the screen is burning. flames lick across the edges, and gray is suddenly jostled out of the row, as natsu pulls him along to the outside.
"call the fire department!" natsu yells at the cashier.
between the two of them, and the cashier, they manage to get out the very few people inside. it isn't long before the fire department shows up and hurry inside. meanwhile, the rest of them are carted to the street, and the police take down their information in a notepad like a badly written cliche.
natsu bumps his shoulder against gray's. "well, this is a date i won't be forgetting soon," he jokes.
gray stares at him in horror. "i can't believe this happened."
natsu laughs. "yeah, but our friends are gonna get such a kick out of this."
gray swallows. "how about we go home?"
natsu grins. "and reschedule?"
"definitely."
"you should have just taken him to a diner." cana's lying on gray's bed, head hanging off the edge. she yawns, flips over on her stomach, and holds her chin in her hands. "cheeseburgers and fries solve any kind of crisis, trust me."
gray lifts his head from his desk and looks at her murderously. "you're the one who convinced me to take him to a movie," he grits out.
"well," cana begins, "in my defence, it was like nine in the morning, much like right now, and i'd only had one cup of coffee." she himself, and adds thoughtfully, "you know, now that i think about it, that theater's been standing for like thirty years. what did they say caused the fire?"
gray lets his head hit the desk with a low thud. "the projector apparently overheated," he says.
cana lets out a loud laugh. "this is not funny, cana!" gray says, but he can't keep off a tiny smile from his face.
"yeah, but can you believe the timing of-" a sudden chirp causes her to jerk, and she balances herself on one elbow as she pulls her phone out of her pocket.
gray gets up and falls on his face next to cana. "who is it this time?" he asks, voice muffled by the bed.
"mira – she wants to meet up." cana sighs deeply.
"oh, really? have you told her what happened with laxus yet?"
cana glances darkly at gray. "no. and she doesn't need to, either."
"just saying, it would've been better for her to hear it from you than someone else. that would be like a bad cliche."
cana grunts.
"alright then, shakespeare," gray snarks. cana gets up and sits on his back in retaliation.
gray's trying to shake her off his back when there's a knock on his door. it takes cana by surprise, and it's enough for gray to topple her to the ground. so when gray looks up at the door, natsu's wide eyes are trained on cana.
"huh," natsu says. "is this a bad time?"
"life is a lie," cana says from the floor. "time is a concept made by capitalists. what are we humans, but mere-"
"okay, that's our cue to leave," gray interrupts as he gets up and grabs his coat from where it was hung on the back of his chair. "we can listen to your existential crisis later." he pushes natsu out of the doorway and waves goodbye to cana. "i'll buy some instant ramen on my way back!" he yells as he pulls on natsu's wrist and runs through the corridors.
once they're outside the dorm building, natsu stutters to a stop, halting gray as well. "well, that wasn't weird at all."
gray laughs. "nah, i needed to get out of there, anyway." gray cocks his head. "wait a second, why did you come over?"
natsu scratches behind his ear, and says, "i wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out. with me, i mean. there's this flea market in town and i thought you'd want to go – with me, obviously."
holy shit, he's so adorable, gray coos internally. thankfully, he doesn't say it out loud. instead, he says, "yeah, i'd love to."
natsu takes him to the park on the other end of town. thought he doesn't mention it, it isn't gray's first time at this particular park. the only way natsu will ever know his past adventures with cana would be either over his dead body, or if he got cana drunk enough.
the market is big, bright and colourful; the vendors sell cheap trinkets like bracelets and plastic toys. they're beautiful, but gray can tell that they won't last a month.
natsu is almost like an overexcited puppy in the way that he pulls gray to each stall. natsu pulls him more often to the food vendors but gray won't complain. cana had begun her spiel early enough that he wasn't able to eat any breakfast, and once natsu learns this, he eagerly pushes gray to the closest park bench.
"you have to eat," natsu repeats, and gray smiles fondly at his actions. it isn't long before their table is filled with enough food to supply a small army. natsu laughs at the analogy when gray tells him.
"sure, but we're a two-man army, we gotta fill up," natsu says thoughtfully. "oh," he adds, "let me go buy a bottle of water. be back soon!"
gray watches him walk away mutely. if he hadn't been fortunate enough to walk into the university coffee shop rather than the one he usually goes to, gray wonders if he would have met natsu in some other way. maybe it was meant to be.
or maybe the sap in him was clawing his way out.
gray hasn't taken his eyes off natsu even though natsu had muttered a quiet, "you can start eating, it's okay," before leaving. it's precisely because he hasn't stopped watching natsu that he sees what happens so very clearly.
natsu's walking on the bicycle path back to their table, but before gray can tell him to step off the path, he sees a cyclist behind natsu coming at an unimaginable speed. gray gets up and yells, but the damage is already done.
natsu's on the ground, hand clutching his head. the bottle of water he had bought rolls away from him, and gray scoops it up as he runs over. a few people are already crowding around natsu and the cyclist. gray pushes his way forward through the crowd, and kneels next to natsu.
"that was a hell of a crash," gray starts. "are you okay?"
natsu doesn't reply, and merely points to the cyclist next to him. she's clutching her foot, and her face is screwed up in pain. gray shifts over to her, once he glances over natsu to see he's okay. "on a scale of one to ten, how much does your foot hurt?"
"ten," she whimpers out, and gray blindly reaches back for the bottle of water he had set down before. he hands it to the girl and she gulps it down hurriedly. natsu appears behind gray, and nudges him. "do you wanna take her to the hospital?"
the girl doesn't seem to hear natsu, so gray relays the question once again. she hesitantly nods, and says, "i need to call my parents though."
"sure. do you want to borrow my cell phone?"
the crowd dissipates, and after a while, gray talks to the girl's parents himself. they agree to meet at the small clinic close to the park (gray doesn't know where it is, but natsu shakes his shoulder and says he'll guide them), and gray hangs up.
"so," gray begins awkwardly. natsu jabs him in the ribs with his elbow and helps the girl onto her feet. she's shaky on her feet and her knees nearly buckle, but natsu holds on.
"i'm asuka," she says. gray notices natsu cock his head slightly at her voice.
"wait," natsu interrupts. "asuka connell?"
asuka grins in surprise. "yeah!" she suddenly frowns. "i'm sorry, do i know you?"
natsu shakes his head. "no, no, i know your parents! i haven't seen them in a long while – this is going to be fun."
gray crouches down, and with natsu's help, they get asuka perched on gray's back. gray stands up straight, and asuka giggles.
the clinic is right around the bend, and they arrive in less than a minute. natsu barges ahead and opens the door for them, and a little bell sounds overhead. the place smells of faint disinfectant, gray notes, though that was probably expected of medical centres.
a head pops up from behind the counter, and gray whips his head around. asuka giggles from behind his shoulder and exclaims, "hello, wendy!"
wendy is a short blue-haired girl who looks younger than gray, but seems to be old enough to hold down a job, judging by her nametag. wendy frowns at gray, and gray is confused for a moment before he realises that he still has asuka on his back. he moves to set her down, and wendy comes closer. "i'm pretty sure we'd be out of business if asuka didn't come in every other week," she jokes. "what is it this time?"
asuka's parents arrive fairly quickly, and after a quick lecture on safety, they spot natsu, and there's a sudden cry of joy. natsu hugs them so fiercely it has gray feeling slightly jealous, but he's soon pacified when natsu holds his hand afterward and introduces gray as his boyfriend.
it isn't until they're walking back that it suddenly hits gray – their date was ruined again. gray looks over at natsu to voice his thoughts, but he falters when he sees the serene smile on his face.
gray holds his hand a bit tighter.
he opens his mouth to speak but natsu beats him to it. "this is sort of funny, you know."
"how so?"
"i don't think i've had to work this hard for a date in a long, long time."
"that's a big fucking mood," gray breathes out, and they both burst into a fit of giggles.
"do you wanna try again? i mean, there's only so many dates that could go wrong before the universe decides to throw us a bone." natsu shrugs, and gray finds it endearing enough to want to tease him.
"someone's pretty eager," he remarks, and gray won't deny it, it's an absolute pleasure to see natsu's ears go red.
natsu glares in faux anger, and gray laughs and pinches his cheek. natsu gently shoves his hand off and pouts. "let's reschedule again," he sighs.
and gray doesn't know what possesses him to do it (cana would say that he was "in the moment"), but he tugs on natsu's hand, leans in, and softly kisses him. when he pulls away, natsu's looking at him with wide eyes.
"that was... nice," natsu tells him.
they both flush red, and natsu refuses to speak a word out of embarrassment all the way back to the dorms.
gray still kisses him again when they get to his room, even if it's just to see the red on natsu's face again.
cana slaps his thigh in laughter. "watching you two dance around each other is giving me an aneurysm," she tells him mid-cackle.
they're in the common grounds in front of their dorms, cana sprawling across the grass and gray with his legs crossed leaning against a tree. the tree is large enough to provide shade for a good two meters in perimeter and gray wonders how old the tree actually is.
cana slaps him again. "hey, don't ignore me!"
"i wasn't aware you had anything to say."
"you know, it sucks being the only single one in your friend group," cana huffs, "because then i have to listen to all of your whining."
gray narrows his eyes. "juvia's been talking to you, huh?"
gray laughs when all cana does is groan out loud. "you don't get to comment," cana says. "i still think you should take natsu to a diner."
"cana, please."
"it's indoors, safe, and also an additional bonus: food. the worst you can get is a coffee stain on your clothes."
"is mira not available to annoy? or is this special treatment?"
"i oughta lock you out of your room for this disrespect."
"i still have your photos from when you were a teenager, do you really want to piss me off?"
"...have fun on your date." cana acquiesces.
"that's what i thought."
gray whips out a pair of tickets and waves them in front of natsu. "so? how about it?"
"you're delusional if you think i'm going to turn that offer down," natsu scoffs. "i mean, cotton candy? it's a big yes from me."
"good, the carnival's only half an hour away and the next train is in twenty minutes," gray says, grabbing natsu's hand and pulling him along. the wind is cold against their face, and gray pulls up the collar of his coat. he's wearing his lucky brown coat, the one that's long enough to cover his knees. this is the third time they've rescheduled – gray is going to need all the luck he can get.
natsu pays for their train tickets ("you got us the carnival tickets, so shush") and the train pulls in exactly ten minutes later. natsu looks a bit green when they climb aboard, but gray doesn't mention it. it's only after a while when natsu looks absolutely dead inside that gray cautiously asks him if he's alright.
"oh yea- just peachy," natsu chokes out. gray gapes at him in shock.
"no way," gray says. "are you motion sick?"
natsu doesn't reply – rather, he just looks at gray pleadingly. if that look was supposed to make gray sympathetic towards natsu, then he had another thing coming.
gray pulls out his phone. "blackmail is always a good choice."
they're entering the fair when gray cheekily pipes up, "so i suppose roller coasters are a no, then?"
natsu whines as gray laughs at him. "don't be mean to me," he pouts, and it's so unbearably adorable that gray reaches up and kisses him. natsu smiles at him so sweetly afterwards that it physically hurts gray, and since gray doesn't know how to handle it, he pulls them to the closest food stall. by his logic, natsu should have his attention diverted.
"cotton candy!" natsu exclaims.
fuck yeah, gray thinks.
natsu sneakily puts his hand in gray's coat pocket, and gray simply curls his fingers around natsu's and doesn't mention it. they make their way around each stall, not buying much, content with just perusing.
"haunted houses are a must," natsu says a few minutes later, through a mouthful of cotton candy. gray fights back a smile because natsu probably thinks that he'll scream, but gray doesn't know how to break it to him that he's never been one for jump scares.
he doesn't tell him, and instead enjoys the disappointed look on natsu's face when they come out. "you didn't even scream once," natsu accuses.
"were you expecting me to?"
"it would have been appreciated, seeing as i was the only one who did scream in there," natsu says.
"yeah, but you have to admit – it was sort of funny."
natsu scowls and walks ahead, forgetting that gray still had his hand in a vise grip. as a result, gray gets pulled along roughly too, and he nearly trips. natsu looks over his shoulder at him, and asks in a singsong voice, "are-you-okay?"
"that's it, come here," gray yells, and natsu books it. gray chases him as fast as he can, but natsu's too fast for him, and gray ends up having to rest on a little bench by the entrance. natsu tries to walk past him, pretending to ignore him, but gray reaches out a hand and pulls him down to sit next to him.
they sit close together, natsu slightly out of breath, and gray humming. they sit in silence, watching family and friends enjoy the carnival. there's a little girl with a teddy bear running around with her brother, and gray points them out to natsu. he smiles at the sight, and in turn points to a boy piggybacking a girl through the carnival. gray laughs – the scene is absolutely adorable.
"okay," natsu says. "not to freak you out, but i think it's – maybe? – raining."
gray sticks his palm out and almost immediately catches a few drops. "oh fuck," he utters.
natsu grabs his hand and pulls him quick to the exit hoping to outrun the rain, but the rain is hard and it is fast. it doesn't take long before they're both completely wet, and gray has to fling his overly long coat over the both of them to protect them. they duck into an storefront that has a sunshade over the front. they're accompanied by a family of five, and gray stands as close to natsu as possible so as to let them stand comfortablely. it's while he's shifting that gray sees it – a diner, right across the street.
cana's words float in his head, and gray laughs out loud. natsu cocks his head and looks at him oddly, and gray simply points to the diner.
"do you want to go in?" asks natsu.
"it's warm, safe and there's food. you're delusional if you think i'm going to turn that offer down," gray says with a cheeky smile.
they run through the rain one last time and approach the door of the diner. they're shielded from the rain at this angle, and natsu shakes himself dry like a wet dog. gray puts his arms up, and yells, "no, stop it! bad natsu!"
that only makes natsu shake his head faster, and gray's previously dry face is now completely wet.
"you're horrible," gray tells him. natsu sticks his tongue out at him in response.
the blast of warm air from inside the diner nearly knocks gray off his feet – he wasn't expecting it at all. the diner's pretty crowded, mostly full of people who were caught in the rain like themselves. the waiters are passing out spare towels to the ones who came in, and gray and natsu thankfully accept. gray starts toweling his head and watches as natsu does the same. when they're done natsu excuses himself to go to the restroom and gray tries to find a spare table.
he finds a small table in the corner, wedged between two others, and natsu joins him soon. they flag down a waitress and they order themselves cheeseburgers (gray can already hear cana's laughter in his head) and fries.
"why do you keep giggling like that?" natsu suddenly asks.
gray's caught off guard. "say what?"
natsu repeats the question. gray buries his head in his hands. "that's because cana kept telling me to take you to a diner as a first date, and i kept shooting her down." gray gestures around them. "and now look where we are."
"and why didn't you? take me to a diner, that is?"
gray pauses. "because i wanted to take you someplace fun."
natsu clicks his tongue and places his hand on the table. gray automatically places his hand on natsu's and natsu clutches it tight. "you keep forgetting that i'm trying to date you because it's you. as long as you're there, any place will be fun." natsu has an earnest look in his eyes, and fuck, if gray isn't weak for big expressive eyes.
"that's...a very sweet thing to say." gray finally says.
"i meant it," natsu tells him.
their food arrives and they unlink hands to dig in. it isn't soon before they're done and paying the check ("let's split it," natsu says, and gray agrees). the rain hasn't completely stopped but it's turned into a light drizzle. the station isn't far away, and they make it there before the rain picks up again.
"are you sure we can't walk back to campus?" natsu chances.
gray looks at him, affronted. "campus is half an hour away, natsu! and that's by train!"
natsu grumbles, and he turns a little green when the train pulls in to the station. gray holds his hand tighter and tells him, "you can lean on me if you want."
"that would be appreciated, thank you," natsu answers gratefully.
he's adorable, gray thinks. and when they're seated and the train begins to pull away from the station, and natsu immediately leans his head on gray's shoulder, gray thinks that it would be very easy to fall in love with natsu.
very, very easy.
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