Csilla: Well I've literally had the worst luck, which I hope will be over once the new year starts :/
Dedicated: Kaity & Kris
All he had to do was head straight home after practice, his father had even warned him not to stray from his trek home but did listen? The answer would be a resounding no!
Onyx eyes stared out at the icy streets from the comfort of the cafe he had stopped in for a quick cup of cocoa. Quick. He had only stayed as long as it took him to finish the single cup. Ten minutes. Ten freaking minutes! How the hell had the outside world turned into a snowy tundra?!
"Crap, I'm so dead..." He muttered under his breath, debating if he should risk falling on his ass (and possibly hitting his head) just so he could make it home.
"I highly doubt that," Gray glanced to the person who was heading his way before gazing out the window, "but then again I guess you can never tell in this day and age" the rosette laughed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.
He seemed familiar to the raven, that much Gray knew but he couldn't put a name to the grinning face beside him. As if sensing his dilemma, the rosette introduced himself: "I'm Natsu, by the way..."
"I'm-"
"You're Gray Fullbuster, right? My friend talks about you a lot… Juvia Lockser? Long blue hair with bright blue-"
"Ah, yeah… I know her," At the mention of the girl, he visibly shuddered. Juvia had seemed sweet at the beginning when he first met her, but over the years she had begun to rub him the wrong way: showing up at his part-time job every night he worked, appearing at his house to make breakfast for him every possible, and the list sadly didn't end there.
Laughing again, "Yeah, she can be a little too forward but she means well… Anyways, you… uh, heading home from practice or something…?" Natsu wondered, pointing to the additional bag slung over the raven's shoulder.
"hm, yeah…" Shifting the bag to a more comfortable spot on his shoulder, Gray shoved his hands into the pockets of his blazer before he pulled out his phone.
Before he could even pull up either of his siblings' or his parents' numbers, Natsu spoke up again: "Don't bother… there is no reception, thanks to the snow..."
Sure enough just like he said: Gray had no signal. Great. Stuffing the device forcibly back into his blazer pocket, he turned away from the window: "Guess I better get comfortable..." He grumbled, heading towards an empty booth.
Footsteps behind him was enough evidence to say Natsu was following him, Gray sat down and watched as the rosette took the seat opposite of him. Before he could form a retort, Natsu spoke: "We're stuck here… might as well, talk until the snow settles enough that we can head home,"
Gray couldn't really argue with that logic, but - "If we do that then what's stopping you from telling your friend everything I say?" the raven had seen his fair share of underhanded tactics from his fangirls.
Natsu turned his face so his eyes were staring outside, his hand raised to cover his mouth before muttered something under his breath that Gray wouldn't possibly be able to hear. The rosette chuckled, redirecting his eyes back to the raven: "Trust me, when I say I won't..."
"So what do we talk about?"
"Twenty Questions?"
"Might as well..."
Cobalt eyes shined the moment Gray agreed to Natsu's suggestion, the rosette immediately began his questioning: "Siblings?"
"A brother and a sister,"
"Older or younger?"
"Both older,"
"Do you play a sport?"
"Yeah, volleyball"
"Cool, what position?"
"Middle blocker,"
"Why volleyball?"
"My older brother played,"
"Ooo~ what position did he play?"
"Setter,"
"Was he any good?"
"Yeah, he was the ace for his team"
"Wow! That's so cool! What about you? Are you the ace at our school?"
"You know that's two questions, right?"
Natsu grinned, "Yup and you just used one of yours,"
"I'm good, or so I'm told… and no, I'm not the ace"
The rosette nodded his head in understanding while Gray wondered if maybe he said too much with his response, but he had little chance to dwell on it as Natsu went for his next set of questions: "Favorite subject at school?"
"Biology"
"Geh… why? Its so gross,"
This time it was Gray who laughed, "Because its simple memorization… and… its really interesting,"
"Alright, least favorite subject?"
"Math"
"Amen to that," Natsu laughed before diving to his next question and this went on for the next half hour -the question ranging from mundane and simple to slightly personal, but none too personal to make the raven feel uncomfortable- until the rosette told Gray it was his turn.
"Wait, you only asked fifteen questions… What about your other five?" Gray began, but his statement fell on deaf ears as Natsu quickly pointed out that that counts as one of his questions.
Thus began the raven's turn for their little game of twenty questions: "Do you have any siblings?"
"One brother,"
"Older or younger?"
"Older"
"Do you play a sport?"
"I used to play baseball,"
"What position?"
"Third baseman as well as the clean-up hitter,"
"Clean-up hitter, what's that?"
"Basically its my job to bring the batters home when the bases are loaded,"
"Wow, so you're actually really good at baseball?"
Natsu feigned a hurt look as he remarked, "I'm hurt… Do I actually look like I would be bad at baseball?" before it dissolved into a playful laugh.
"Now you're down to four questions," Gray added and before the rosette could argue, the raven pushed forward: "Favorite subject?"
"Does lunch count?"
"Three questions and no,"
"Feh, fine… English, I guess"
"How come?"
"I don't know really, I guess its probably because its a foreign language and I'm intrigued, Spanish is my third favorite language"
"What's your first and second then?"
"First, Japanese for obvious reasons and English, second"
"Favorite dessert?" After asking similar questions as the rosette, Gray wanted to pull away from the others Natsu had asked him.
"Strawberry shortcake,"
"Favorite meal?"
At this point, the raven watched as Natsu sat back in his seat, giving the simple question a moment of mental debate before answering: "That's a tough, its sort of a tie between pasta and chicken teriyaki"
"Why should I trust you not to indulge whatever it is you're planning with all these questions?" Gray was stunned, he hadn't meant to actually ask the rosette that and it would seem based on Natsu's reaction: he hadn't either.
Silence fell, aside from the obscure background noise from other people in the cafe, as they sat their letting the question weigh on their minds. The raven was the first to break it, "You don't really have to answer, I'll change it"
"No, its fine… I guess the best way to put it is: I have my reasons, Gray"
"Which are?"
"Well the first one would be that Juvia may be my friend, but we happen to disagree on something"
"Something?"
"Well aren't you now asking some personal questions?"
Two, the raven mentally noted before raising an eyebrow: "Answer the question,"
Resigning himself, Natsu quietly answered, "You. We disagree about you, okay?"
One.
"You have one question left," Gray commented, to which the rosette quickly added: "And you have five, use them well"
Seeing people walking just beyond the window was enough of a sign that it was time for Gray to head home, "Do you have any pets?" thus he had to end this soon.
"One cat,"
"What's its name?"
"Happy," Upon seeing the judgmental look in his companion's eyes, Natsu quickly added in one breath: "I was young when we got him, don't judge me"
Three.
"Do you think we should start heading out?" Nodding his head towards the window, Gray watched as the rosette's gaze traveled before seeing the movement beyond.
"Sure,"
Two.
They both gathered their things before exiting the cafe, not exactly sure why, Gray pointed out the direction he needed to head in to get home. He was graced with a small smile, "Guess we can finish our little game while we walk then,"
They walked slowly, careful not to slip on the snowy sidewalk, and when they were a distance from the cafe, Natsu broke the silence that had fallen: "Its surprising you're not asking more about the disagreement,"
"Would you have answered?"
One.
"Now I would have since now we both have one question left each," Natsu slowed to a complete stop, causing Gray to do the same as realization dawned on him as well. He was right.
"So what about me, were you and Juvia disagreeing about?"
Zero.
"You know I still have one question, that I could easily use to deflect your last question by asking: what does it matter? Aside from the simple fact that, yes, its about a disagreement over you"
Zero.
The rosette was right, Gray had absolutely no reason since he had only just met Natsu not even an hour ago. So why was he dwelling so much on a disagreement between one of his stalker fans and a random boy?
While the raven was battling with his thoughts, Natsu watched his companion's face contort as it tried to find some reasoning behind his interest in one argument. A smile formed at the warmth flooding his chest that he now had the raven thinking, even if just as a debate why Gray was so interested in an argument he had with Juvia, about him.
Clearing his throat, "Gray, I know that what I'm about to say is going to sound completely weird… I mean, I only just now worked up the nerve to actually talk to you… so I apologize if this sounds forward for someone like me… And I complete understand if you don't ever want to talk to me… I mean, I don't know about you but all those questions we were asking each other: it was a lot of fun and I really think if we had an actual conversation without such short questions, we could probably be friends. The disagreement I had with Juvia, yeah it was about you, which is probably why you thinking you at least deserve to know. You're right. You do deserve to know. Since we were friends, I thought I could tell her at least about my feelings… Needless to say, she didn't take it well and we fought. A lot. She said that there was no way my feelings were ever going to be returned. I argued back with that until I was told to my face that that was true, I wasn't going to give up. Now I'm not looking to confess, I actually picked that 20 questions game just so I could get to know you better as a person. Pretty lame, huh?"
Silence fell, the rosette was absolutely positive that this would be the 'sink or swim' moment he and Juvia had argued so much about. Swallowing the thick lump in his throat, Natsu watched carefully for any indication things might get ugly. Not that he thought Gray would react violently.
"Like I said, I really just wanted to get to know you and I apologize if I've made you feel uncomfortable" Clearing his throat, the rosette added quickly before noting: "This is my turn," pointing down a nearby street.
Onyx eyes finally lifted, meeting cobalt one briefly before Natsu tore his gaze away and began his trek down the aforementioned street. Slightly crunching of the snow behind him piqued his attention enough to glance back around to see Gray had moved so he was facing the street he was on.
Their eyes met, "I don't think its lame" was all the raven said. And for a moment, Natsu felt all the air leave his lungs. He definitely wasn't expecting that!
The raven turned and stormed off down another street, but before he could get very far Gray heard: "You mean it?" Natsu.
Turning slightly, "Of course, although maybe next time can we just have a normal conversation..." Gray immediately replied back, his comment made the rosette's face flare up to match his hair.
"S-See y-you to-tomorrow th-then!" Natsu stuttered before heading home, a smile weaving its way onto his face and refusing to leave the rest of the day.
Csilla: Wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to end this, so I apologize if the ending seems abrupt or anything... Hope everyone had a good Christmas/holiday~ :D