Story Title: The Guilty Choice
Rated: T
Warnings: Language, Yaoi, includes sexual themes...
I don't own Fairy Tail. This Fanfic is produced for entertainment purposes only.
O.o.O The Guilty Choice O.o.O
By
Flame-Belt
Team Fairy Tail took strides under the heavy pouring shower. Lucy's dirty clothes began to be soaked with acid rain. The only thing which has stopped her from summoning Horologium was the fact that she was a few meters away from a motel in the outskirts of Magnolia. Since the mission they had to accomplish wasn't three days far, they decided to walk for a while for Natsu's sake.
The addressed pink haired wizard was silent. Not good-silent, not sad-silent, but angry kind of silent. No one chose to comment on the Salamader's attitude with their extreme focus to get out of the rain first. Happy chose to get away from the dark aura and rest on Lucy's shoulder, the girl who whined, trying to walk fast to get to the small shelter.
Gray and Erza were the ones who took the responsibility to talk to the front desk attendant. Natsu raised his Lemon-Yellow shirt to dry up the wetness of the rain on his face and neck while watching Erza negotiating the prices of their rooms.
"Gray."
Gray turned around to look at Natsu questionable, the boy who seemed to have something important to inform.
"Excuse me, one minute."
The attendant simply smiled, "No worries, take your time."
Gray nodded once politely, then went over to Natsu.
"Yes?"
"Two single beds."
"…"
Gray gave Natsu a ridiculing look stating are-you-serious?, but it didn't have the effect he was hoping for.
"Two… singles? Really?"
"Yes. Is that a problem?" Natsu gave another look which stated, do-you-have-any-damn-problem-with-it?, however, Gray chose silence over arguing, being too tired himself.
"Two singles, sure. Joy."
The irritated, tired black haired Ice-Wizard marched towards the attendant with a quick mood change.
"Excuse me, can I have two single beds in the room instead of the previous arrangement?"
"Sure. Double Room with two single beds. Do I include breakfast for you and Erza-sama's room?"
Gray exchanged looks with Erza who shrugged. She nodded to the attendant who quickly made the arrangements and asked them to wait for a while until their rooms are ready.
Natsu's luggage was his small backpack, as well as Gray. Lucy had two handbags, but they had mostly the remaining food and drinks. Erza's luggage was carried by ten muscular, healthy men to the room as she waited for the preparations. Gray thought of approaching Natsu, but then discarded the thought until they were in their own rooms away from unnecessary interference.
"Happy…"
The Exceed caught the low whisper coming from Gray and flew to the Ice-Wizard's shoulder.
"Aye?"
"Ah… I need to… speak to him about what happened so…"
"You don't want Happy-sama to be there?"
"Honestly?"
"It looks like a no, huh? I could be there for you, you know?" Happy sweat dropped. When his caretaker was in a bad mood, it is doomed to be bad mood for everyone.
"I don't think so. Better if you stay with them."
"Aye… But—Natsu is—Just be gentle."
"Let's not fool ourselves, you know me, right? It probably won't end well."
"Try your best!"
Gray watched as Happy flew back onto Lucy's lap. He allowed himself to glance at Natsu, who stood in all his glory, leaning on a column with closed eyes and crossed arms.
Indeed, it wasn't going to end well.
Five minutes Later, their rooms were ready, and Lucy was joyful that she was going to soak in the warm water she desired at that moment—even if Erza decided it would be a shared bath since she couldn't wait until the dust and dirt were wiped away from her young body. As both of the girls discussed their dilemma of toiletries, Gray and Natsu walked silently behind, with Gray wishing that he was one of those girls. No worries. No problems in life.
When they were parting, each for their own rooms, Lucy called Gray who lazily acknowledged her.
"Yup?"
"Be cool with Natsu, you know? Inner peace as they say."
"Lucy, have you seen the way we argue? It's always a disastrous-event. Don't be like 'be cool with Natsu'. The hell I'm gonna be cool. I'm not the Gelato guy."
Sighing, she took a deep breath, "He… is your boyfriend. The reason I care about this so much is that I don't want you two to… you know. Have a fallout."
"As for freaking fallouts, we-"
Mamma Mia. How the hell?! When?!
"I kind of picked it up you know? You two try to hide it so hard, but come on. Two guys unconsciously holding hands? You two couldn't stand each other before. It kinda sold you out."
"Shit… crap. Wait—shit, shit."
"And why is that… a bad thing? Look at the bright-"
"-Woman are you kidding me?! Me and him! C'mon, we're both not ready to leak this yet! How—You know, ok, who else?!"
"—I honestly don't know. I took a guess... glad that girly intuition is still intact."
"Ok—please wait. Lucy… No one has to know about this! If this is known, then before I can say knife, Natsu and I will be mocked and bullied to death!"
"… How come you think so low of your friends?"
"—Hey! Don't even start with that! What I mean to say—forget it. Just don't tell anyone."
"I have demands then."
"Blackmailing, already?!"
"-Yes. Be cool with Natsu."
His dark blue eyes were shocked for a second. Slowly, he nodded his head, "Thanks… I really appreciate it that you're not… I mean-"
"-I really didn't mean to catch you guys holding hands off guard, but I'm glad I did." She laughed while wiping the water off of her forehead, "—I know you probably think I'm pulling your leg, but seeing you two close is... exciting and refreshing in a sense."
"… Go on." He snorted with a small smile.
"And—yeah, wrong."
"Bitch."
"Is that how you treat someone holding your secret in the palm of their hands? Jerk, you know what can happen if Juvia ever? Like ever?"
Lucy's unspoken concern pierced through a paling Gray. It was enough answer. "Aye, Lucy-sama. My life is flashing before my very right eyes."
Gray sighed as he entered his and Natsu's room. He saw Natsu using a towel to dry his wet hair while he searched in his backpack for a fresh change of clothes.
"Are you gonna enter the bathroom or should I go first?"
Without even facing Gray, the pink haired asked the question which came out pretty irritated.
Gray sighed and had dropped his backpack on the bed before he proceeded to approach his-for-now-significant-other.
"Natsu-"
"-Are you gonna go first?"
The Olive green eyes, the ones which were surrounded by droplets of water, challenged him to try to begin anything, so understanding that mood, Gray quickly gave up.
"Yeah, I will go first."
He searched in his backpack for dry clean boxers and debated if he wanted a shirt for seconds. Deciding that he could easily discard of the piece of clothing later, Gray grabbed one V-neck T-shirt and headed for a quick shower. He caught Natsu in the corner of his eyes, starting a fire in the chimney, sitting in front of it, sniffling a bit from the cold.
Gray cursed under his breath and entered the bathroom.
Five days ago, Team Fairy Tail was summoned Hisui E. Fiore (shit you not, the princess herself) claiming that she wanted Fairy Tail guild, the number one guild in the country to work on her request. First, Makarov went against the proposal because of the series of bad events in the Dai Matou Enbu, however, after she has offered a large sum of money to renovate some of the old parts of the guild, Makarov decided to use Team Fairy Tail as a cash cow.
Away from digressing about Makarov's money-driven pathetic mind, Team Fairy Tail accepted the job in Crocus. In short, 'The notorious five' which have been terrorizing Crocus with their master-thievery arts and who even had the guts to steal from the royal palace, those guys, they were admirable. But Gray didn't give a shit because by then they were rotting in prison due to the strength of one hell of a Salamander and another called Titania.
Everything went smoothly aside from the fact that Gray threw himself in front of bullet-like dagger which was originally aimed at Natsu. During all the joy/excitement/freaky monstrous faces that Erza and Natsu kept displaying, the dumbass didn't pay attention to the dagger that came flying maximum speed.
Nothing much happened, Erza protected them both. Hell yeah, long live Erza Scarlet, but no sir, no siree! Natsu couldn't take the fact that Gray almost died protecting him. Not only that, but Gray didn't even activate his Ice-shield. Nothing. It's as if the Ice-Wizard's emotions blinded him in a flash. He was acting too brashly.
Gray sighed as he remembered the event when he saw Natsu with his blank face in front of the chimney.
"Done. It's all yours now."
Without answering, Natsu stood up and took his sweatpants with the underwear to the bathroom, no eye contact or nothing.
The slam of the door was enough to echo in Gray's bones, the boy who threw himself on the soft and single bed.
Single bed for god sakes. Natsu should've died then. It would've been a good reason (that his significant freaking other passed away) that he's sleeping on a single bed. What was he? A dog kicked out of his own home? Even when they were titled as 'Rivals' they slept next to each other no problem.
Dammit, that Natsu…
He laid on the bed, feeling the comfortable cool sheets underneath. Thinking about the matter consumed all the time (all the twenty minutes) that Natsu spent on cleansing himself from the mud, dirt, and water. When he finally came out, Gray eyed him from the sleeping position warily.
Damp pink locks fell gracefully on a beautiful neck. The small pear-colored orbs were adorned by two layers of pink lashes. They were half opened due to exhaustion, and it was one of those times, when Natsu decides to abandon his shirt and walk around in pants, unintentionally showing off some naked upper body novelty that Gray appreciated too much.
Not a good timing since the curse of single beds were there.
When Natsu sat down in front of the chimney, warming up himself, Gray decided that it was his chance.
He made his way through the semi-dark room and sat on the wooden floor right next to Natsu.
"Hey." Lame.
"…" Natsu rotated his head merely two degrees because that lame topic-opening sentence didn't deserve attention.
"Ok, fine. Can you tell me what's wrong?"
Talking to just-out-of-shower-Natsu was really difficult. Just-out-of-shower-Natsu (and Gray just realized) has to be kissed, ravished, devoured. Otherwise, it would be a waste.
"…" Pear greens stared at him, then a pink eyebrow was raised in a mocking fashion, "Nothing is wrong. Go to sleep."
"Really now? You've been avoiding me ever since. I would know, trust me."
"Eh? Is that the obvious?"
Gray got somehow confused. "Hell yeah. You're upset, right?"
"… I'm not upset." Natsu gave him a scolding look, "Do you want me to be upset?"
God, supply Gray with the patience he needed for that.
"Your attitude has changed since we finished the mission… especially after—what happened with me jumping in front of you and then Erza beating the shit out of us both… Am I misunderstanding or what?"
Natsu gave a thoughtful face, and the bad thing was that Gray could read none of those swirling deadly thoughts.
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, you misunderstood… Why would I be upset because of you? You were thinking of saving me, right?"
"… Yeah."
"If I were you, I would do the same thing."
Gray rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed with annoyance. "Then why do you look so down? And don't tell me it's nothing!"
"…" Natsu looked genuinely puzzled and lost with a small water drop falling from his pink hair to his cheek, until his neck, "Bastard, why are you so worked up? It's just that… You're always too suicidal in your rescuing attempts. It brought me some old memories you know… then just thinking about it makes me a bit angry, but then confused, but then it doesn't really matter. I'm not upset, just energy deprived."
Gray looked at him suspiciously. "Sorry, but… still! Two single beds dude! Natsu, seriously?!"
"What?! I told you I'm not mad at you, what's your problem?!"
"Then why?"
The question was never meant to come out so pressing or broken. Gray wanted to remain calm with a single bed arrangement, however, single beds meant distance… if nothing worse.
"… It's not one thing, it's many things, but mainly one thing, and… shit, how can I explain this?" Natsu looked Gray for help—receiving none at all.
"Ok, look." He rotated himself on the wooden floor to face Gray. Fire in the chimney brightened his right half along with innocent honest green eyes that Gray wanted to believe in, "I… Since this thing has started, and I mean, what's going on between me and you—I really haven't been able to… hide any of it, and that day I touched you by instinct, you got pressured we were in public. I mean it's just—my hand just… and I know that you don't want anyone to know just yet, but I guess I was surprised you were so irritated."
"…"
"That being said, I thought you wanted some distance or something and I don't want to force-"
"-Don't." Gray interrupted, "Don't complete that line."
"I would not blame it on that only, I get nervous also." Think pink haired sheepishly smiled, his hand absent-mindedly going through the messy pink strands of hair, "Are you… not?"
"Now? No. Now I feel like shit because I made you feel like shit."
"C'mon. You always make me feel like shit, you just don't realize that." Natsu tried to laugh it off.
Gray just stared into the fire, then looked back at Natsu who gave him his full attention, but judging from the look on his face, Natsu expected something not good—and Gray felt an ass for it all over again.
"You know that I like you, right? If-" Gray shook his head at Natsu's attempt to talk, "-If you know that already, then next time you come out with this stupid single bed shit, it's your funeral dude."
Natsu looked down at his bare foot with wistful silence.
"I know this might not sound sincere. Natsu… you gotta know that, I would never hate your touch. Hell, it's the most addicting thing I've ever endured. Out there in public… we can't have that, not yet. Not now at least."
"I understand that. For the sake of argument, I say that everybody knows, I wouldn't really be overstepping my boundaries in public—dude, how do those people even do it with kissing and stuff?! It's like they don't have respect for—the whole thing is messed up, and having the urge to touch your hand is as far as I can go, thank you very much."
"Really? As much as I want to say that I would like to show you off, I can't do that. Even if everybody knows. People having a chance to look at you being kissed is something that I feel pretty offended with."
"Hoooo? Mean-"
"A Kiss is practically sex. I don't want anyone to watch you having sex. Their eyes will be squeezed out before they can."
A small dust of red climbed up to Natsu's cheeks and neck. It was the most beautiful thing.
"Anyways… sorry if my behavior bothered you."
"Gray, you know me-" Natsu sighed, "-If… this whole arrangement didn't suit my liking, I would've called it off, but I understand so it's fine."
"It's weird we could agree together on something so easily." A grunt came out from Gray, "As far as I know, this motel is still intact. No fire or Ice accidents."
"Yeah. Why don't you stop tempting me?"
"But it was weird you know?"
"What was?"
"I thought you were mad at something that happened in the field and not stressed over being with me in the same room."
"… Shut your hole. You think too highly of yourself."
Gray didn't argue back. He stood up calmly, then went over to the two single beds. Both of his hands glowed, one moved to get the left side drawer out of the way, the other handle the right side drawer, putting both drawers next to each other, then used the moving magic in the both of his hands to merge both of the beds with a satisfied look.
Once he was pleased everything is like what he wanted, he switched off the small lamps and went over to Natsu.
"Can you move, or should I carry you?"
"Asshole. Who said you can do that without the permission of-"
"-Move it!"
Natsu surrendered immediately. There was a small huff when he stood up, but as he walked towards the two merged beds, small relief washed over his chest. He let the cool sheets absorb all the tiredness in his body and as soon as he laid down, Gray was next to him, then repositioned himself on top of the pink haired Fire-wizard.
They stared at each other for long. Sometimes, Gray noticed that they can go on talking and bickering for long, but at times like these, not a word gets out. He had already lost his shirt on his way to the bed—and he only noticed because of Natsu's warm chest touching his. Their noses were already touching and Gray could feel a bundle with nervousness underneath him.
He used his free hand to push back the pink strands away from Natsu forehead so that he can see his pear green bashful eyes more clearly. Oh no, they were not only green, they also had grayish spots inside fighting to be noticed, and noticed they were. His finger brushed over Natsu's lower lip, feeling velvet and smoothness that switched on all of his desires.
Slowly, their breaths mingled, and Gray could hear his heart loud, but then maybe Natsu's was equally as loud.
Warmth formed when lips touched, too fond of each other to let go.
The End
A/N:
Those who read this and liked it, thank you so much. I want you all to know that I'm not dead. And I decided to make it up to you for the long absence and lack of updates by giving you this. Something unusual, random, yet I wrote it. Something strange. *Laughs loudly and nervously!*
Anyways, those who want to know about any of my Fanfics status, my profile has it all. If you have any questions or confused, you can ask me also.
Always love you all. Your Sleep deprived friend,
Flame-Belt