Finally. Natsu knew he had 'anger issues,' but he'd wanted a phone since he was nine and 'misbehaving' was not a fun reason for not having one. It was the day after his birthday and Igneel came home after work and handed Natsu a bag. Inside, there was a brand new android phone. Natsu knew he was a… difficult kid to raise, but he was sixteen and not having a phone while everyone else did was torture. Other parents grounded their kids when they got in fights. Those parents had absolutely nothing on Igneel. He gave Natsu a challenge. Make it a week in school without making a teacher call home. Up until now, Natsu hadn't managed it. He didn't try to get in trouble; it just kept happening. He defended people and because of it, he was the one that stood at the center of the fights that broke out. He wasn't going to apologize for it. Better him than the smaller students who couldn't get back up if one of the older students knocked them down. At least Natsu gave as good as he got.
Natsu eyed the phone in his hands, glancing up at Igneel in disbelief.
"I thought it was about time I get you one," he said, then sighed tiredly. "You're going to get in trouble no matter what I do, so at least this way, I can get some kind of warning before I have to come get you because you got suspended."
Natsu grinned widely, holding the phone in his hand and crashing into Igneel to hug him. Igneel's eyes widened and then he chuckled lightly, hugging Natsu back.
Natsu pulled away, still grinning like he'd been handed a million dollars, and he ran up the stairs, calling out, "I'm gonna call Gray!"
Igneel shook his head, laughing at his son's antics. He wondered for the hundredth time when Natsu would just ask Gray out, instead of fighting him out of boredom when there was no one else to fight and dragging him home to feed him instead of apologizing properly. Then again, Gray fought almost as much as Natsu and gave as good as he got.
Natsu ran into his room, closed the door, and plopped down on the bed, dialing Gray's phone number. He'd memorized it when they were thirteen and he ended up calling Gray from the house phone whenever he was bored. They never talked about anything that might get them in trouble on the phone, not with Natsu still using a house phone and the looming possibility of Igneel picking up the other line. But now Natsu had a cell phone and he was downright giddy as the line rang. One ring. Two rings.
"Hello?" Gray's voice.
"Gray! I got a phone!" Natsu yelled out.
"What? Natsu? Why are you being so loud?" Gray was holding the phone away from his ear.
Natsu took a breath. "I got a phone," he said in a more appropriate tone. His smile was still audible on the other end of the call.
Gray laughed, "You? With Igneel's challenge? Bullshit."
Natsu pouted. "I'm serious, Gray!" Gray was still chuckling.
"Okay, okay. But I bet it's not because you actually beat the challenge, is it?" he asked.
Silence.
"I knew it," Gray said. He was smiling, though.
"Shut up, I still got a phone," Natsu responded sulkily.
"For what? You'll lose interest in it tomorrow," he claimed.
Natsu went defensive. "What? No way!"
"Natsu, you have the attention span of a fly," Gray informed him.
Natsu rose to the bait. "Yeah? Well, you might as well be a stripper with how much you love taking off your clothes." It was no secret that Gray felt better without too many layers. He just didn't like the heat and his 'too many layers' was what most people considered basic clothing.
"You know what? Maybe I should be a stripper just to spite you," Gray said. He didn't think about the words before he said them. That was how conversation happened between them. Effortless. Except now Natsu isn't answering. "Natsu?"
Natsu's mouth goes dry at the imagery the words brought to his head. Gray taking his clothes off slowly on stage, skin lit up in the low lights, hips moving to the beat of the music, dark eyes staring right at the audience. His thoughts slip out before he could hold them back, sand running through his fingers.
"As long as I get a private show, you can do whatever you want" he said. Too late he realizes what he just told Gray out loud and he laughs shakily, trying to play it off as a joke. The other end of the call is quiet. For too long. Natsu starts panicking. Please just laugh. Just laugh. Don't freak out, it's a joke, I swear-
"Would you like that?" Gray asks, voice quiet. His heart is thundering in his chest.
Natsu blinks. What? Did Gray just ask… ask… Natsu doesn't want to say yes if Gray is going to laugh at him, but if he says no he's afraid he might be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime and he is not willing to pass this up if it's real and he really fucking hopes this is real.
"I have to make sure you're qualified before anyone else can see," he responds, choosing his words carefully. There's a complete silence. He thinks he just made it awkward and quickly adds, "I could even show you how it's done," to make it even and less weird and oh my god I just made it worse. He's not answering. Why is he not-
"Natsu?" Gray asks, voice low. Natsu is hyper-aware of every sound on the other end of the line.
"Y-yeah?" Natsu says, and at this point he's just hoping that Gray didn't catch his stutter, but it's quiet so of course he did, you idiot!
"I want to see that," Gray says. Natsu stops breathing. His heart is running a mile a minute and his hand is trembling around his phone. Still, he needs to be sure.
He's red and nervous when he asks, "L-like… a competition?"
There's a deep inhale on the other end. A slow exhale. Natsu braces himself for a laugh or a rejection.
"No, just to look at you," comes the reply. Natsu is hard. He's really, really hard. He lets out a stuttering breath, preparing himself for what he's about to say.
"I want to watch you first," he tells Gray. Gray is quiet for a second and then his voice lowers a decibel that has Natsu twitching in his pants.
"You want me to dance for you, Natsu?" he asks, holding his breath as he waits for the reply.
There's a silence, an intake of breath, a rustling sound and then- "Yes."
Gray bites his lip. "Natsu, are you in your room right now?"
"Yeah."
He bites his lip harder. "Okay. Good."
"You?"
Gray nods, even though Natsu can't see it. "Yeah."
A command comes from the other end of the phone, a low growl. "Lock the door."
Gray stands, walks over to the door, locks it, sits on his bed, back against the wall. "Done," he says.
"What are you wearing?" Natsu asks. It's such a cliche question that Gray laughs a little.
"Boxers. I strip at home, so-"
"Nnnngh." Gray shuts up real fast, his heart in his throat.
"Oh god, are you-"
"Fuck."
"Already? You're touching-" Gray starts to ask, but what he hears next has him nearly drooling.
"Yesss," Natsu hisses out.
"Fuck. Fuck, that's hot," Gray says. He's palming himself through his boxers, groaning. He's so hard it hurts.
"You're so sexy, Gray. Always, mmm, stripping your clothes, showing off- nnngh- your body, fucking tease." Gray can hear a wet sound over the phone, in the background, movement. Just imagining it is too much. He shoves down his boxers with one hand, keeping the phone against his ear, not wanting to miss a second of Natsu touching himself, making those sounds because of him. He wraps his hand around his cock, thumb rotating over the slit, shudders.
"God, wanted you to notice me. Wanted your eyes on me," he pants out, hand moving up at down, curving to the side at the base of his cock.
"Yeah?" Natsu asks, "Not Juvia?" His hand stutters to a stop.
"No!" he shouts.
"Not Loke?" Natsu goes on. Gray restarts his movements, laying back on the bed, kicking off his boxers entirely.
"N-no, only- fuck- only y-you!" he breathes out, hips jerking upward as he closes his eyes, imagines Natsu doing this to him. The image makes him tremble with need.
"I'm so hard for you," comes Natsu's voice, breathy, desperate, so fucking sexy.
"Shit," Gray moans out, breathing ragged. This isn't going to last. Not when Natsu sounds like that.
"Keep talking, Gray," he says, nearly begging, "So horny for you." There's a sound of something snapping closed and then a squelching sound and oh my god he's using lube and Gray is falling apart just hearing him, just thinking about it. His hand is moving up and down frantically, phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder, left hand shooting down to play with his balls.
"Please," he says. He doesn't know what he's asking for, he just needs it.
"Say my name," Natsu growls. Gray's eyes shoot open and his breath stutters.
"What?" he asks, cheeks tinted pink, hair stuck to his forehead.
"Say, nnngh, my name!" It's a shout, a command and Gray obeys because this is so hot and it's Natsu and he's wanted this for so goddamn long.
"Oh fuckk, Natsu!" he cries out, chest rising and falling erratically, hips rocking as he jerks himself off frantically, brows drawn in concentration, muscles twitching under the strain.
"Yeah, just like that," Natsu breathes out, the wet sounds are growing faster by the second.
"N-natsu," he whimpers because he is beyond the point where he can keep his voice steady. He sucks a finger into his mouth, tongue circling it quickly, messily, coating it in saliva.
"So fucking needy for me." Natsu hums out, "You want my cock?"
"Mmmmm." Gray couldn't reply around the finger in his mouth. He takes it out, lifting one leg high so that he can circle his entrance. He'd only fingered himself a few times before, biting his lip to keep from screaming Natsu's name in the shower.
"Answer me!" Natsu demanded.
"Yes! Want your cock! Need it!" He circled the entrance of his hole slowly, pushing his middle finger in deep, hips shaking as it entered all the way to the knuckle. His eyes slipped shut again, he breathed deep.
"Where do you want it, Gray?" Natsu asks, voice deep and sinful.
"In-inside," he says, finger pulling out slowly, ramming back in, touching something heavenly that made him cry out, tears gathering in the corner of his eyes, hand pumping his length furiously.
"Fuck! Fuck, I, oh god, Gray," Natsu calls out, voice seeming farther from the phone, but Gray could still hear him clearly, so so clearly, "I, nnnngh yeah, so good for me Gray, so good."
"Close! Natsu!" Gray screams, sliding two fingers into his hole, curling them up into that bundle of nerves, hand still working up and down quickly, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, please."
"Deep inside you, Gray, so deep, I can't-"
"Ah!" Gray shuts his eyes tight, feeling the sticky substance shoot over his chest, hearing a similar splatter on the other end of the line.
There are matching drawn out moans over the phone and both of them are breathing heavily. It's a long time before either of them say anything, both catching their breath.
Natsu is the first to speak.
"I fucking love you Gray." It's quiet. It's simple. It's true and Gray lets out a huff of air even as he smiles deliriously. He leans his face closer to the phone.
"I've been trying to say I love you for years, you oblivious idiot."
Natsu laughs and it's high and out of breath and the happiest sound Gray has ever heard him make. Natsu's laugh always made his chest tighten.
"I need to thank Igneel for the phone," he says. Gray can't help the onslaught of laughter that rips free of his throat.