Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima Hiro Sensei. I don't own anything.
This is rather random one-shot. I had include myself in the fic as a fan of Fairy Tail XD. It was an extension from the original two-shots I did in Chinese when I first saw the DVD cover of Vol.24 after which I had been observing if Gray will ever be featured on the DVD cover. I seriously thought Gray would be featured after a pair of Natsus, Lucys and Erzas had been featured on the cover of Vol. 21, 22 and 23 respectively. I was so wrong.
Be sure to google for the DVD cover if you wish to know how does the DVD covers mentioned in my fic look like.
Warning: Fans of Gray might not like this XD. It is meant to make fun of Gray who is being under-used and under-appreciated.
Reviews are really appreciated. Do you think Gray character is being under-appreciated? Why?
The Under-appreciated Gray Fullbuster
"Where is the director?" A raven-haired boy break open the door with few of the staff flying inside. The person who also known as the director who was munching and holding his bread rolled his chair backward to see what had happened.
"Isn't that Gray? What's up? You should be on leave today. " His voice was muffled as the man with thick spectacle took another bite from his bun.
"Why am I not on cover with Natsu?" Gray held up the DVD of Vol. 37 to show him. The cover featured Natsu and Brain II (aka Midnight).
"Ahh.. that! I thought I had arranged you to be featured with Ultear with the same format before?" The director became bored of his complaint. "Not again!" This was not the first time Gray had complained about the characters featured on the DVD cover. "He is still feeling sour over it."
Two years ago...
Gray was at the DVD shop. He found ranges of anime DVDs and Blu-ray on the shelves. He just realised that it seemed that Fairy Tail did not have Blu-ray released after looking at the volumes of Fairy Tail DVD on shelves. Vol. 22 was just released on shelf. Lucy and Edolas Lucy was featured on it. He dug through the shelf searching for Vol. 21.
HappytheExceed passed by and picked up just the DVD he was looking for: A cover featuring Natsu and Edolas Natsu. HappytheExceed loves the cover featuring two Natsus, hence despite the ultra price tag the DVD (5000+ yen) for just four episodes, HappytheExceed bought it, all for the sake of the first press postcard of the same cover.
"Excuse me, the staff of the DVD shop pushed Gray aside as he was blocking her way. She wanted to stick the DVD pre-order advertisement at the side of the shelf."
Gray noticed that it was an order for Vol. 23 of Fairy Tail. There was something which bothered him a lot. As the second main male character of Fairy Tail, shouldn't be his turn to be featured on the DVD rather than Erza? Come to think of it, he was not featured until the end of Edolas arc. Vol. 24 was the last DVD which featured the Edolas arc. Gray smiled. It was going to be his turn.
Wait! He had yet receive any notification for the photo-taking session. Maybe they had approached his Edolas counterpart as it was their first and last time to be featured after all. He better check with Edo-Gray.
Edo-Gray was elated when he heard about the possibility of being featured on cover. He would be able to impress Edo-Juvia. He was really jealous of his Earthland counterpart for having a cover with their own Juvia when he saw the cover of Vol. 7 the other day.
"I want to be on cover with Juvia!" Smoke puffed out of his nose. He was really excited.
"No, you are no taking with her but with me." Gray tried to correct him.
"What?! Why? You don't know how much I want to be with Juvia!" Gray facepalm at his reaction.
"So have they called you about it?" Gray went straight to the point.
"No, I didn't hear from them." Edo-Gray replied immediately. He realised that Gray was already topless. He could not stand his stripping habit. Gray eyed him carefully when he gawked at him.
"Put on your clothes!"
"Strip off your clothes!" The boys yelled at each other in unison.
At this moment, a huge black cat known as Pantherlily came to them.
"Have you seen Gajeel?" He asked the the pair of Grays.
"NO!" They replied in unison. They looked at each other and they laughed. They made a good combination. The DVD cover should feature them.
"That will be a problem. I didn't know how to get to the studio. I thought Gajeel will know since he will be attending as well." Lily scratched his head looking at the piece of paper with an address written on it. "I wonder if you guys will know how to get to this place?" He showed the boys the piece of paper.
Two Grays took the piece of paper. Gray froze. That was the address of the studio which would be taking pictures for the DVD cover.
"What are you doing with Gajeel over there?" Gray managed to get his words out cautiously.
"The production team called me to take photos with Gajeel for the upcoming DVD cover. It is Vol. 24 if I remembered correctly." He scratched his cheek. "That would feature the last few episodes of Edolas arc." He did not realise that tears was flowing down Gray's cheek. There goes his only chance to be on cover with his Edolas counterpart. That was why he had a scene of himself in tears while he turned transparent when he realised Wendy just noticed his presence in episode 86 of the anime.
"Can anyone notice me even though there is no sunlight shining in here?"
After which Gray fought really hard for a chance to get on the DVD cover. He worked with Loki to ambush Wendy and Mest (Doranbalt) who was on their way for the photoshoot to stop them from taking pictures for the cover of Vol. 25. Mest had no right as he was just a character with a very small role. They managed to knock Wendy out by eating tons of prune right in front of her after knocking Mest out. The boys headed to the studio proudly to realise that they were packing up.
As that week was a long holiday, photoshoot were taken earlier than scheduled so Wendy and Mest were actually on their way home after the photoshoot when they were ambushed.
Vol. 26 will feature a male character with black hair. Gray was disappointed when he heard from Natsu that the said character was a mysterious character not him. Natsu was guiding him along. Gray was shocked to see Natsu with dark eye ring.
"Do you know? The photoshoot was ongoing for three days straight as he wouldn't stop crying. The production team even brought him a toilet bowl for him to cry on". Natsu murmurred while dozing off on a chair. He was not allowed to go home until the photoshoot was done.
Gray almost wanted to give up by Vol. 28 when Juvia was featured. Loki shook his head in disappointment as she was selected over him. "All for the sake to sell the DVD." He muttered in sourness.
His goddess of light appeared when the daughter of his Teacher, Ultear approached him.
"They didn't spell it out directly but they want me to be featured with my opponent for the cover of Vol. 29 and that will be you. I will be more than happy if you reject the offer..."
She froze when she saw Gray in tears. She could not believe her eyes. Gray was too touched to say anything else.
"Thank you so much. Thank you so much..."
Gray's time finally came when he was finally given a cover on Vol. 34, the third DVD which featured X791. Of course, he would be featured as one of the "prominent" main male character after Natsu. That was why Gray requested the photographer to zoom in on him to make sure he "stands out" on the cover.
Subsequently, Gray had been under-used even in the release of merchandises. It is rather prominent in a Japanese mobile game. Gray had not been featured as a reward of an event since a Battle League event last year featuring the cover of Vol. 15 DVD.
