Mannequin
Disclaimer – I do not own Fairy Tail
Summary: Natsu can never get a break. Modern/AU
Mannequin (Rated T)
Natsu stifled the agitated groan he knew would escape his mouth when he gazed up at the sign for his new place of work. Fullbuster Clothes was a clothing store for gentlemen, and it was sponsored by none other than the Fullbuster Corporation, or Gray Fucking Fullbuster.
The pinkette, being the new night janitor for the place, stepped into the store and immediately jumped backward in shock. "Gray?!" he yelled.
But the stoic figure didn't move. Inching closer, Natsu discovered that the thing he'd mistaken for Gray was, in fact, a mannequin.
"What the fuck?" he mumbled, glancing around the store thoroughly this time. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Upon further inspection of his workplace, the pinkette discovered that all the mannequins in the store had been designed after Gray himself. It was like he'd been dropped into an alternate universe with no one but his sworn enemy in his midst.
Great. It was just what he needed. He'd hoped to get away from the bastard. Now he'd be surrounded by the likeness of him while he worked. Could he never get a break?
It started to make him wonder if people could buy the Gray mannequins. Who knew what kind of weird, freaky things people would do with them. That was enough to make the pinkette shiver.
"I take it you got a good look around the place?" someone questioned.
Natsu turned, spotting his new boss, Laxus Dreyar. "Uh, yeah. I guess so."
"I'll give you a thorough rundown of what you're to do while you're here, give you access to your cleaning supplies, and then you should be good to go, all right?"
"Yeah, sure," replied the pinkette, frowning back at the Gray mannequins as he followed Laxus.
Finally! Natsu thought to himself when Laxus finally left. Now he could work in peace! Even though he was alone in the store—save the night guard—he felt content just working without having someone hovering over his shoulder.
Pushing his janitor cart down the clothing isles, he stopped every now and then to refold shirts or hang up clothes, and dusting shelves off here and there.
But as he turned into another isle, he nearly jumped out of his skin, almost dropping his duster in the process when he spotted three dark figures at the end of the isle.
"Stupid mannequins!" he hissed, placing a hand over his racing heart when he realized he was in no immediate danger. "And why do they gotta look like fucking Gray?"
Roughly pushing his cart toward the ominous mannequins, Natsu decided to let out his aggression a little bit. Grabbing some cleaning spray, he shot some of the liquid into the eyes of one of the Gray mannequins.
"Take that, you jerk," the pinkette mumbled, rubbing viciously at the fake Gray's face. He even kicked the mannequin for good measure. But that only made the leg pop off. "Shit."
Feeling up the mannequin's leg in order to determine where to pop it back in, Natsu fumbled around with it until he felt it slide in.
And promptly slide back out again. "Aw, come on!" he seethed.
After trying to pop the leg in several times, he was about ready to rip the damn mannequin to shreds and beat the other mannequins with whatever limb he could get hold of. However, he really wanted to keep this job, so he just propped the leg up as best as he could.
Stepping back to admire his handiwork, he smiled smugly. No one would be able to tell he'd broken it…unless someone touched it. But he'd worry about that later. He still had work to do.
Turning on his heel, Natsu jumped and fell into the mannequin he'd been trying to fix when he spotted another mannequin. These stupid mannequins were everywhere! He was going to get a heart attack at this rate! And when the hell had that mannequin gotten there? Had it always been that close?
Grumbling to himself, the pinkette grabbed his spray bottle, determined to give another mannequin a piece of his mind. But before he could spray the mannequin in the eyes, its hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, making Natsu shriek.
"DEMON MANNEQUIN! SECURITY!" the pinkette screamed frantically as he tried to relinquish the mannequin's hold on him.
"You really are an idiot."
Natsu's jaw dropped. "You're not a mannequin."
"Well, aren't you the genius," stated the real Gray Fullbuster as he released the pinkette's wrist.
"You scared the crap out of me!" declared Natsu. "What the hell are you doing here, anyway?"
"I thought that would be obvious," replied Gray as he crossed his arms and smirked.
The pinkette stared at him blankly. "Obvious to who?"
"Whom."
"Huh?
"You should have said obvious to whom."
"Like I give a shit about that! Did you just come here to mess with me?"
"Not exactly."
"I'll call security on you."
"I own this place. Security can't lay a hand on me…no matter what I do to you," Gray smirked, taking a step toward the pinkette.
"Huh?" Natsu gasped. He stepped on the leg of the broken mannequin and fell, making the other mannequins land on top of him. "Stupid mannequins!"
"I'm going to have to hire a janitor just to clean up your mess," stated Gray absently as he approached the flailing pinkette.
"Get these damn things off me! No! Wait! I change my mind! Stay away from me!" Natsu freaked when the real Gray came closer.
"You look good with me on top of you," Gray commented shrewdly as he lifted one of the mannequins off the pinkette. "But the real one would look even better."
Natsu eeped when Gray moved on top of him, pinning him to the ground. "What the hell are you doing?!" he shrieked.
"What I came here to do in the first place. You."
"Gray!"
End
