***WARNING: This story contains GrayxNatsu or boyxboy pairing. If this offends you in any way please turn back now!

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I never spelled it out for him because I didn't think I needed to. We had all of the same courses at school, took Judo classes in the evenings, and our houses were right across the street from each other. We spent every minute of the day together, so why hadn't he figured it out?

Or maybe he had?

Damn the pink-haired idiot!

At first I tried dropping hints here and there. Instead of calling him things like flame-brain or squinty eyes, I used some alternative nicknames.

One day, after I threw all my textbooks into my backpack, I shrugged it onto my back and went to meet Natsu at his locker.

"Hey Sexy," I somehow said with a straight face. He casually turned to look at me as he replied, "Hey yourself." The little jerk's self confidence was way too high!

So I tried again the following day with a name that was definitely more obvious.

It was a Friday night and we were getting ready to go out with a couple friends. For some reason, Natsu just had to style his hair and took his sweet time doing it. After what felt like hours later because he was a frickin' girl, he stepped away from the mirror in my bathroom and looked at me with frazzled eyes.

"Does it look good?"

"It looks great Babe."

He scratched the back of his head, which I know he only does when he's nervous, and there was a light blush on his cheeks as he broke out in a toothy grin.

But the moment was over as soon as it started when he brushed past me to grab his phone from the charger on my night stand.

When we met up with our friends, he was distant from me for the remainder of the night.

For that reason I decided that maybe words weren't the best way to get my feelings across. Actions spoke louder than words right?

The opportunity presented itself when we planned a four day road trip with Lucy and Erza. It wasn't a glorious trip since it was just to a small cottage that Lucy's family used to visit every summer before her mom passed away. How we managed to get my best friend to even agree to riding in a car is beyond me because of the severity of his motion sickness.

Two hours in, his face was green and sweaty as he leaned against the window. Lucy had complained that it was too hot outside for him to roll it down for some fresh air so he suffered in silence. Well, aside from the occasional groan.

Hoping to take his mind off his stomach, I wrapped my arm around him and gently ushered his head to lie on my shoulder. He didn't say anything in response but eventually I heard his breathing even out as he finally fell asleep. Leaning my head against his, it wasn't long before I was out as well.

I was pretty disappointed when he called shot-gun on the way back home.

But I wasn't ready to give up.

A few weeks after the trip, one night at his house, Natsu challenged me to a fight to decide who would get the last soda; which of course meant an all out sparring session. About ten minutes in, I managed to catch him off balance and sweep his legs out from underneath him. Landing on his back, he gasped as I pinned his wrists with one hand and his legs with my knees.

He had the cutest pout on his lips as he glared up at me in defeat but I couldn't bring myself to kiss him. I did however, slide my free hand up his neck and rested it just below his cheekbone. To my surprise, he smiled gently and nuzzled slightly against my palm. When I let him up, I told him he could still have the precious drink and he actually accepted it despite his damn pride.

It was small progress yet it was progress in itself.

Or so I thought.

The school dance was rapidly approaching and Natsu was agonizing over whether or not he should ask Lucy to go with him. I knew this because all he talked about was the pros and cons of going through with it as soon as the idea popped into his head.

When he finally got the nerve to talk to her the poor girl looked pretty shocked, still she agreed they could go as friends. Natsu was optimistic that he could win her over with a lovely night and I shoved my feelings aside and supported him.

Although I wish that would've been faking it, I came down with the flu the night of the dance. Apparently without his wingman, Natsu refused to go either.

Instead he climbed in my bed with me when I was shivering and I was almost too delusional to enjoy the warmth of his arms wrapped around me. When I woke up cuddled into his chest, I pretended to be asleep another hour just so that I could stay put.

However, he'd reinforced that his feelings weren't towards me when he complained the next day about Lucy finding another date at the last minute.

Maybe it was because I was sick or due to the cocktail of medication I'd ingested, but I asked him to leave halfway through his rant. Of course he was put off and perhaps a little bit hurt as he shuffled out of my room. I was just too physically drained to care.

That was the official breaking point for me.

I wasn't going to force something that Natsu clearly wanted nothing to do with. We could be best friends without the emotional mess and we had been for most of our lives.

I tried to hang out with him slightly less than before. If I spent more time getting to know our other friends, I thought it would be a healthy way to let my feelings for him fade away.

Shockingly there was instant backlash from his side.

He cornered me in my room after I got back from grabbing Sunday morning coffee with Erza.

"Why'd you go with her? You don't even like coffee!"

"I have other friends you know? And coffee is an acquired taste." I cringed slightly due to the fact that I hadn't acquired anything other than choking down the bitter drink.

"Yeah but why would you hang out with them when you could hang out with me?!"

"For Christ's sake Natsu! We don't have to be together all of the time! It's not like we're dating or something!" I snapped at him.

Natsu's eyebrows furrowed and he looked pretty torn about what to say next. It was weird to see him so lost in thought when usually he would've just punched me.

"Soooo," he drew out his words, "You don't want to hang out with me because we aren't dating?"

I smacked myself in the head with my palm.

"How the hell did you come up with that?"

"Do you want to date me?" he asked innocently.

My eyes widened at the direct question and he gasped at my hesitation.

"YOU DO WANT TO DATE ME!"

The accusingly way he said it had me even more confused. There was no way the idiot was that dense.

"You didn't know that?"

Natsu almost fell off the desk chair he was sitting on.

"N-no," he said as his face turned several shades of red.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

"You're lying."

"Gray seriously," he yelled as he waved his arms around dramatically but I just glared at his theatrics.

"Best friends don't call each other things like 'babe'," I huffed.

His lips puckered as he replied, "I thought that was part of the bromance!"

"And best friends don't cuddle on long car rides or when one of them has the flu!"

"But, you made me feel better during the road trip, so I was just trying to help you the same way 'cause you were sick."

His answer was so disgustingly cute that I lost half of my anger instantly.

"Damn you," I muttered to myself and if he heard it he ignored it.

"Fine, yes I want to date you. However, you've made it painfully obvious that you'd rather chase after Lucy so don't worry about it."

His dark green eyes studied the ground for a minute before they met my gaze.

"But I only went after her, because I thought you weren't interested."

Why was I best friends with such a moron? Then again he had made this much simpler.

"Ughhh come here," I told him.

He watched me curiously as he hopped off the chair and sat next to me on the bed. Honestly, he should've known what I was going to do.

Natsu's arms were outstretched behind him and he was leaning back against them when I scooted closer. Placing a hand on top of one of his, he was completely unaware when I leaned over and claimed his lips with my own.

He wasn't timid at all when he responded with a ferocious kiss of his own and that's when I realized it.

It wasn't Natsu that had always been indecisive about his feelings, it was me.

Whenever I tried to drop hints about how I felt, I had always backed off whenever he showed the slightest disinterest. I would scratch the surface of being more than friends but I never pressed hard enough for any real advancement in our relationship. It was only when Natsu asked me directly if I wanted to date him that he knew what I'd wanted to get across all along and clearly that had been the only way that actually worked.

Therefore it wasn't surprising at all when I pulled away long enough to whisper, "Be my boyfriend?"

And he didn't hesitate when he said "yes".

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