This story was written as a collab with the wonderful artist Becausewhenyoupracticeyouimprove on tumblr as a birthday gift for the lovely Selenba! I highly encourage you to read this there for the full experience with pictures. There's a link to it on my profile (:
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Gray groaned as he sat down on the little swivel chair that was way too close to the ground to be any comfortable. The ninety minute pottery class was without a doubt going to be the most miserable experience of his life. If he hadn't realized it the very second the idea of it had fallen from his boyfriend's lips, then it was certainly when he'd walked into the room packed to the brim with middle aged women that were instantly wide-eyed and ready to gossip.
There was also the matter of the horridly unattractive, dust speckled blue apron cinched around him. Was there seriously no alternative to such a hideous looking backwards cape? Hell, if it was up to him, he would've just taken his shirt off to avoid getting it dirty. But he was sure Natsu would've fought him over it, especially when they were in a room filled with ladies, so he forced himself to keep it on.
However, even though he wasn't having a good time so far, either his enthusiastic boyfriend didn't notice or simply didn't care. Natsu was practically bouncing on his own chair as he fiddled around with all the pottery making equipment laid out beside the throwing wheel in front of him. There was a dull knife, a tool with a metal loop on one end, an intimidating thick needle to name a few. Gray mused that they were actually instruments of torture…
Natsu flicked at a dry piece of clay stuck to the table in front of him. He was anxious to get started already! In fact, he'd always found the concept of pottery to be quite fascinating. The process of taking something soft and pliable from the earth that could be easily washed away with enough water, forming it into something useful or beautiful, and then baking it with fire until it was strong and unyielding, it amazed him!
Therefore, when he saw a flier advertising the beginners' pottery class, he knew he just had to go! Even so, he wasn't about to go alone, which meant Gray absolutely had to tag along. Being his boyfriend made him the obvious first choice and if he was honest, Natsu thought that the whole thing actually might end up being a little romantic.
He imagined the two of them working together, running their hands over the wet clay, and effortlessly forming beautiful masterpieces. Plus, as an added unforeseeable bonus, for some reason that he couldn't discern, Gray looked sexy as hell in that apron.
However, he quickly learned that his little fantasy was about as far away from reality as cats flying. Their teacher had quickly covered the basics with a couple demonstrations in the front of the room and had Natsu actually been paying attention, then maybe he would've had a clue for what he was supposed to be doing.
Carelessly chucking some clay onto the flat surface of his throwing wheel, he stomped down onto the metal pedal beneath his foot to get it to start spinning and wrapped his wet hands around the rapidly circulating mass. He distantly remembered that the teacher had said something about centering the clay, but he'd smashed it down in the center of the wheel before turning on the wheel so he figured he was fine moving on to molding it into something. Shoving his thumb down into the middle of the clay blob, he tried to pinch his fingers together to make the walls, yet, he only succeeded in transforming the glob in front of him into a drawn-out and uneven mess.
Cursing quietly, he let the wheel come to a stop before trying to smooth out the wet earth back into a semblance of a pot. But when he stepped down on the pedal again, he was immediately frazzled when he saw somehow his efforts had made things even worse.
Irritated yet trying to keep himself from slamming a fist into his "masterpiece", Natsu swiveled to his left to face Gray in hopes that he was at least doing a better job than his companion, however, seeing his boyfriend at work left him speechless.
Gray's elbows were stiffly barricaded against his inner thighs, pale hands smoothly cupped around the slowly rising walls of the vase he was molding. His deep blue eyes dropped in concentration as he leaned over the throwing wheel, though the movement of his fingers looked effortless.
He pulled his hands away for a moment to dunk them in water and while he was washing them of excess clay, Natsu looked on in awe at the pure perfection of Gray's art in progress. The thin gray walls of clay gently sloped upwards in a concave fashion, with smooth, flat top, and sides smoother than glass. It was truly the beauty that Natsu had wanted to make in the first place!
Watching him get back to work on the base of the vase, Natsu felt the sting of jealously not only for Gray's surprising ceramic making skills, but also because his boyfriend hadn't spoken to him once since they'd walked through the door! He could tell that Gray hadn't been thrilled at swapping their usual pizza and video game date night for a pottery class, still he could've at least paid him a little attention.
Natsu knew he was being stupid, immature, and trivial, yet that didn't stop him from scooping up some of the excess watery clay from the side of his wheel and hastily flinging it at his boyfriend.
The gray and slightly clumpy mess splashed across Gray's upper arm. Jolting at the wet sensation dripping down his skin, he immediately shut off his pottery wheel and glanced at his shoulder. Seeing the clay staining one of his favorite shirts, he glared over at the person he knew was responsible.
"Natsu…" he growled as he dug up a handful of his own and splattered it across Natsu's apron covered chest.
They paused for a second at the silent challenge in each other's eyes, before an all out war broke out.
Clay soaked into their aprons, speckled their shoes, and mashed against their skin as they flung the substance at each other. The poor ladies around them were splattered every once in a while, though they were too fearful of the grappling young men to even think of coming between them.
Gray was digging out another fistful of barely solid clay to pummel at his idiot boyfriend when he saw a trickle of gray dripping down Natsu's forehead. He halted for a second as he wondered how the hell anything had actually ended up in Natsu's hair in the first place before he realized the liquid was sliding down closer and closer to the squinty green eyes that he loved so much.
Thinking fast, he quickly wiped one of his messy hands on his favorite pair of jeans, abandoned the ammunition he was holding in his other, and scooted his chair to the right. Easily smacking away Natsu's clay-covered hand, Gray leaned in and managed to catch the drop with his fingers before it could run into his boyfriend's beautiful eyes.
Said eyes widened exponentially at the unexpected and gentle gesture. Gray's fingers were cold against his face as the clay was smeared away and along his forehead.
Pleased at his timeliness Gray smirked as he caught his boyfriend's stunned gaze and was momentarily lost there in their mossy depth. Shifting on his seat slightly, he moved even closer with obvious intent.
The corner of Natsu's lip twitched slightly in anticipation as he fought to urge to close the gap between their mouths himself. He lifted his chin within Gray's grasp to encourage his boyfriend to hurry it up a bit and let his eyelid flutter shut. It had taken getting his entire body getting covered in clay and almost going blind in one eye, but he was finally going to get his romantic moment!
He felt cool breath blow across his face, though nothing could truly mask the smell of wet earth permeating the air around them. Though he was expecting it, he was still a little surprised when Gray's lips ghosted over his own because in all actuality he was never mentally prepared for his boyfriend's chilly mouth. They were so close that all he needed to do was lean forward just a tad and—
A slimy finger flicked against the tip of nose. Instantly flinching at the feeling, Natsu's eyes shot open and his hands flew up to his face.
How dare his bastard of a boyfriend play such a stupid trick on him! Just when it seemed like everything was going to work out...
Angrily rubbing at his nose and turning back to his forgotten attempt at pottery, he completely ignored Gray's snickering as he turned his wheel back on and started working again.
Intently smashing his hands against the clay to forcefully mold it into something better than Gray's, Natsu was caught off-guard when his chair started moving sideways on its own.
Gray pulled on the leg of Natsu's chair to bring him back over. He slung an arm around the grumpy teen's waist, quickly pressed his lips to his boyfriend's cheek in an unspoken apology.
Though it was short, Natsu swore he could still feel the outline of Gray's lips even after the other had gone back to working on his own masterpiece.
Despite the class not being exactly what he expected, when he looked over at the small smile on Gray's face, he couldn't help but feel as though, maybe it was exactly the kind of date that he'd been hoping for.
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