I honestly ship GrayZa so hard.
"Because they all had a bond that no bluenettes with rough backgrounds could ever surpass - implied grayxerza & hinted natsuxlucy"
Lucy didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before.
She could see it in his eyes, his hidden adoring gazes, and the gentle curve of his lips buried beneath insults directed at Natsu and the collars of his shirts. She could see it in her gestures, her slight blushes, and the poorly hidden turn when the butterflies turn into bees and her face is as scarlet as her hair.
She could see it in his frowns, when she told him to chase after her - the bluenette with the sad past and passion beyond compare. She could see it in the docile sadness in her eyes, every time she spoke to him, the silent message of "it's for the best" flashing like Vegas lights in her deep pools of mocha brown.
She could see it when their hands brushed, and Mira encourage their pursuit of those two bluenettes - what was it about bluenettes with hard pasts? - and when they knew - no, thought - that the other would never be theirs. She could see it when he fell at the feet of the emotional water mage, pushed by the strong hands of the fairy queen, a wistful expression dominating her features.
She could see it in the resigned gaze they sported when looking at each other, and she could see it when they only wished for the other to be happy.
"Yo, Luce."
Lucy glanced up, blonde twintails falling off her shoulders in a golden cascade.
"Natsu," she greeted warmly.
The pinkette in question grinned in response, propping a foot up on the bench where she was sitting, dark eyes never leaving hers.
"They're pretty stupid, aren't they?" Natsu noted, voice far away and stare trained in the oblivious couple's direction.
"You noticed it, too?" Lucy started, eyes wide and mouth ajar.
"Popsicle and Erza?" Natsu's eyes flicked to her surprised face. Smiling in exasperation, his shoulders fell slightly, "No, not until I saw you staring at them weirdly. At first, I thought you were just being the weirdo you are-"("I am not a weirdo!")"-but then I realized what was so interesting about them. No, I was talking about Mira and Lisanna."
He gestured vaguely to the giggling sisters, conversing quietly with a certain bluenette with hopeful blue eyes.
"Hm?" Lucy furrowed her brow. "Why them?"
"You're cute when you're thinking," Natsu remarked offhandedly, ignoring the bright pink blush blossoming on his partner's face. "And it's because they're always meddling with people's love lives, and they don't even realize if the people they're matching up don't work together."
"Like Gray and Juvia," Lucy said quietly.
"And Jellal and Erza," Natsu agreed.
"Since when have you been a matchmaking guru?" Lucy teased.
Natsu shrugged, beaming at her, "I'm a jack of all trades."
"Master of none," Lucy replied back, chuckling to herself.
A comfortable silence settled between the pair, a warm cloud of thinking of Gray and Erza and Juvia and Jellal and Natsu and Lucy, filling in the space between them and creating a noise so loud but so ignored of its own.
"Hey, lovebirds!" Gray called from the other side of the guild. "Wanna go on a job?"
Lucy grins teasingly at her teammate, "We should be saying that to you, Mr. Stare-at-my-girl-best-friend-for-twenty-minutes."
(Behind the bar, Mira did a double take.)
Gray rolled his eyes, and the four smiled at each other. Because, despite couples, he and she, her and him, they all had a bond that no bluenettes with rough backgrounds could ever surpass.