I Love My Job Sometimes
I apologize for OOCness.
Sometimes Gray could really hate his job, he loved his family at Fairy Tail – perhaps with the exception of Natsu – and work was always good, except for the few times when he was stuck on a really bad job with Natsu… or right then, when he had to work with his childhood rival.
Lyon was being stuck up, annoying, a big jerk and just ever so full of himself. Unfortunately for Gray, he just kept on talking about recent successes on jobs and all the money he'd acquired, even boasting about the appearance he'd be making in Sorcerer Weekly; all the while looking at Gray with that smug look on his snobbish, totally not handsome in the slightest face. And those not interesting and pretty at all onyx eyes gleamed at him, reflecting the smirk on his lips.
Sometimes he cursed his luck, of all the people to fall for; it just had to have been Lyon.
*/*\*
Earlier that morning, he'd walked into the guildhall as normal, if not a little annoyed that the rest of his team had left him behind and went to talk with Cana and Mirajane for a bit, discussing the relationship between Natsu and Lucy and hoping that they'd just get together already. Even Gray was starting to ship his friends; those two were bad with this stuff on a whole new level.
Not that he could talk, but he stuck by his opinion that it was weirder for him being in love with another guy, and one of his rivals at that!
They were starting to talk about Levy and Gajeel when the doors opened and all heads turned curiously to see who it was. Gray however cursed his luck, speak of the devil…
"I need to talk to you Gray." His eyebrow arched and Lyon sighed, pulling his face into a 'what can you do' shape before beckoning him over. "Just come on." He turned on his heel and walked back out of the guild, knowing that Gray would follow; after all it was probably important for Lyon to have come all the way over from the Lamia Scale, and Lyon knew Gray thought that.
He hated that Lyon knew him so well, it was annoying. He told the two ladies he'd see them later and all of his guildmates went back to their own business. It was bright outside and he was squinting, so he couldn't see the look on Lyon's face but from how he was speaking, Gray noticed a sort of tightness in his words.
"An urgent request came into the Lamia Scale this morning, specifically requesting two ice wizards. I'm one and I want you to be the other."
Typical. Not even a belated hello and it was straight to the point. At least he wasn't asking about Juvia, it was painful for him.
"Why do I need to be the second one? There are plenty of other ice wizards you could partner up with who you'd get on with a lot better. Last time I checked, you didn't like me."
"Well while that is true," Cue small stinging pain in his chest, "your prowess is admittedly impressive and you're more competent than most other ice wielders. And also, dislike aside, I know I can trust you to have my back." Pain in his chest dulling, Gray thought that sounded almost soft, definitely softer than anything else Lyon had ever said to him. Except maybe when they were children, but that was a long time ago.
"What's the job?" The older wizard smirked victoriously for a moment before turning serious. Well, Gray supposed he had said 'urgent request.'
"There are bandits and Vulcans attacking a small village up at Mt. Hakobe, and it's near the peak where it's coldest so any helpers need to have…"
"…A resistance to the cold." He maybe shouldn't have interrupted but it might move along faster if Lyon knew he understood more. "Did the request say why the village was being attacked?" White hair shook from side to side and Gray ran his fingers through his hair. "Well anyway, how soon should we leave and exactly how much stuff should I be taking?"
"We can either catch the next train in an hour, drive up to the bottom of the mountain and then trek the whole way up Hakobe or we can go by Ice Make: Snow Dragon. You won't need to take much with you, we should be able to deal with them fairly quickly and only have to stay overnight before coming back home." It seemed like Lyon was putting in another implication there but Gray assumed he was just being hopeful.
"Okay then, so we're going by dragon, can you even maintain a spell like that to be used as transportation?" He felt a burning on his skin which wasn't from the sun, so Gray knew he was being glared at in ad 'do you seriously doubt me?' manner. "Okay I get it."
The heat of the glare lifted and Lyon seemed to be contemplating something as he turned his back to create their mode of transportation. "So how's Juvia?" Cue the big scorching pain in his chest. "Is she alright?"
Gray glared at the back of the idiot who hurt him every time by saying something like that and spat out his answer, venom practically dripping from his tongue. "She's fine, opening up more and says she's even getting on better terms with her 'love rival' but she's still not interested in you." That was mean of him, he didn't care too much; only really a little when he saw the older wizard flinch as if he'd been struck. The jerk was probably only wincing because he knew Juvia cared for Gray more than him, not even because of the tone he just took. Gray was sure of that much, sure that he just meant so little to the other man; and it stung.
Just great, he was already regretting agreeing to this mission and he was going to be stuck with Lyon for at least another day.
He hated his job sometimes.
…
The trip had been quick, but Gray could definitely say uncomfortable, at least on his part. Lyon had put him nearer the front of the creation, on the neck and Gray was practically gripping onto the head of the ice. It wasn't that the temperature was bad; it was actually very nice, just cool enough. And he wasn't slipping around either, no Lyon saw to that, by wrapping his arms around him and lightly pulling him back to his chest, which was bare if he might add; both of them had deemed their shirts unnecessary and had left them behind, so they wouldn't be lost if their stripping habit kicked in.
They didn't talk very much, it was awkward for both of them he supposed, though Lyon managed to keep perfectly balanced and he'd gloat about it a little. The only reason Lyon's arms were around him in the first place because he'd had difficulty at first staying still enough to not be in danger of falling. Lyon had instantly pulled him back against him and whenever Gray tried to wriggle out, insisting that the dragon was flying smoother now and he could stay balanced, Lyon's grip would tighten. It was annoying, but Gray couldn't dislike the contact. He should be allowed his dreams at least, Lyon would likely only ever want to hold Juvia like this, and all that it was at that moment was because he merely couldn't afford to lose a comrade, especially after admitting that he wouldn't be able to handle all the bandits and beasts on his own.
One thing about that was weird though, from one of their few discussions on the trip, he could tell that the reward wasn't terribly high for this job seeing as it was an emergency and most of their riches had been stolen at that point. So it made Gray wonder just why Lyon would accept this job, even if it would've had to be him to go, he rarely did anything that wasn't for himself and with such a little benefit back for his work it just seemed strange. He was going to ask earlier but he'd begun falling and Lyon had grunted for silence.
"Lyon?" Awkwardness had settled, he could ask now. "Why exactly are you taking this job?" The grip on him loosened in surprise and he turned his head to see his comrade's face.
It was quite impassive as he answered. "I did say it was an urgent request didn't I? And at the low temperature it'll be there, it had to have been ice wizards to go. The job fell into the hands of the Lamia Scale, so why wouldn't I take it?"
"It's just not like you. It's not a great benefit to you and you've never been the type to do something for anything other than your own gain. It just seems weird." He was able to shrug his shoulders and Lyon seemed to realize that his grip had slackened. That was remedied immediately by Gray being forced to look forward again and the hold on him tightened again.
"When I joined my guild I made new friends, met new rivals and even found a new dream to live for." Gray was positive he was imagining his back getting warmer, though it might have been his blushing faintly from Lyon repeating his words; only that didn't quite feel like it was him. "I'm different than that little brat who you grew up with and would push you out of the way for his master's attention, and I'm not that horrible Cold Emperor who hurt you on Galuna Island. I'm different Gray, and if these people need help from the Lamia Scale – even at low cost – I'm quite happy to lend my assistance."
Gray was suddenly extremely glad for being made to look forward, if Lyon had seen his blush then he'd never have lived it down.
"Oh look, we're getting close." Gray looked up from his lap to see the peak of one of the coldest places in Earthland and tried to relax as they flew the last bit in.
Just great, he was a blushing fool caught in an incredibly awkward position with a job to do.
He hated his job sometimes.
*/*\*
They were climbing up the last bit of the mountain heading for the village at the peak. They finally started having a more normal (for them) conversation with Lyon starting his gloating about his upcoming appearance in the magazine. Thankfully they had to speak quietly as they approached where bandits could be, so Gray managed to get his own back and pretend not to hear most of Lyon's comments; the infuriated face he received was worth it. Lyon managed to calm down quickly enough to start the process all over again and Gray was having fun.
At least before a shout came out of nowhere casting a spell. "Knuckle Shadow!" A barrage of long dark fists came hurtling towards them and they jumped out of the way, causing the punches to knock into a slab of rock, starting a mini avalanche as some part of the mountain started tumbling down. Gray looked up to where the attack had come from and saw a group of people in bandannas and cloaks. One of them was standing proudly in front with his hand pointed at them and he'd guess that was the wizard who cast the spell.
He glanced quickly to make sure Lyon was alright, and upon that being confirmed, ran at the attacker just as a black magic circle appeared when he started calling out his next spell.
Gray punched him in the face before any more of those moving shadows could be thrown at them and the guy went down easily. The others cowered away and started pulling out magic tools like special guns or a fire sword… Gray remained unimpressed as Lyon made his way next to him, having stayed back a bit to make ice for the rocks that fell. They would need a way down after all.
They looked at each other and smiled, this is what they were used to, and what they could handle easily. When Vulcans stood behind the bandits, they weren't shaken.
"My name is Lyon Vastia; I am a wizard from the Lamia Scale Guild. I've come here because of a request we received about bandits and Vulcans terrorizing this place, so tell me; would that be you?" He smirked and cocked his head to the side, taking in the shocked and scared looks on the faces of the bandits visible to them. It was a simple game, freak them out and make their job easier. Either by the opponent being intimidated or…
One of the men charged, holding his weapon high up in the air and yelling loudly, not thinking about his actions clearly in his fear.
…that. The others followed the scared man, not able to think straight while they were afraid, and the two guild wizards slipped into their stances.
"Ice Make: Lance!"
"Ice Make: Eagles!"
The attacks flew at the enemies and promptly knocked them unconscious, even taking out a few Vulcans in the process. As the two ice wielders ran further towards the peak, they put their fists in their palms again and focused their magic as they started taking down the beasts. It was done in only a matter of minutes and Gray frowned, Lyon had made it seem like while this would be hard, it would be easy enough with two wizards. But this hadn't been hard at all; Lyon could have easily done it alone and got a bigger reward for it.
"Hey Lyon!" What the hell had this been? What were you thinking? Why did you lie about this? "What are you doing?" All Gray could see was his back but he was in an Ice Make stance and focusing his magic out onto a flatter area. And then he heard… music?
"Okay just, bear with me. A: Thanks for the help with the bandits and Vulcans even though you've realized by now – at least I hope – that I didn't really need it. B: The job was a lie." Lyon winced at the glare he was seeing from Gray before gesturing to the people they'd just knocked unconscious. "There really was a job to take care of Vulcans and bandits up here, but the bandits themselves are the villagers, there is nobody here to be robbed by them. They are not the ones who sent the request to my guild. Vulcans are always crawling all over this mountain so they're always a problem which was fairly easy to fit into all of this."
"Please stop trying to side-track and just tell me what the hell is going on?" Gray was able to keep his blush mostly controlled thanks to the cold in the atmosphere but he almost wished that it wasn't one of the rare times there wasn't a blizzard on this mountain, he could see Lyon clearly and vice versa, no pressure. The music was soothing and calmed him, but he was still irritated about being lied to.
"Alright, well a job request came in from somebody explaining about the bandits a week or so ago. They actually weren't causing so much trouble lately so it was low priority and low reward. I used the knowledge of that to make up the fake request I explained to you earlier; to get you to come with me. So now we've dealt with them, cleared up some Vulcans which is actually an official request so we can get paid. But while we're here I wanted to talk to you."
"Enough beating around the bush, what?" He wanted to groan but the atmosphere was so nice and he didn't want to interrupt Lyon again.
"I believe I may have feelings for you." Gray didn't believe it, Lyon was blushing; he'd gone bright red, though that made two of them. And of course he'd just said the thing Gray had wanted to hear from him for ages. He didn't believe it, he didn't.
"You're joking." Gray tried glaring, and he soon guessed why Lyon had cast that musical spell, it had an instant calming effect on him and he couldn't keep it up. Which was a shame because Lyon shaking his head sincerely made him want to glare again.
"I'm not. Do you remember a warm feeling on your back when we were flying over here? You were blushing, and I was blushing, why do you think I wanted to keep you looking ahead? I had you in my arms Gray and it was nice. I said I found a new dream, I have a different goal now, would you like to chance a guess at just what it is?"
He was shaking his head, this was bound to be a dream; Lyon would never say anything remotely like this unless it was in Gray's dreams.
"I want to be closer to you, I keep thinking about you every night, I imagine you admitting you feel like I do and you usually wear even less clothes than usual." He smirked at Gray's renewed flushed face before he kept on talking. "I only ever ask about Juvia to see you glaring at me. 1, because it is a very good look for you and 2, because it meant you felt something for me, even if I never knew before that is was out of jealousy for Juvia. To be honest I always believed you cared for her as I pretended to…"
"So how did you even discover that I returned your feelings?" His voice was no more than a whisper but the man confessing to him managed to hear it.
"By Mirajane and Sherry storming into my home, yelling at me to admit my true feelings. Sherry knows me so well from our time on Galuna Island and I talked about you plenty enough for her to see. And Mirajane seems to be your resident matchmaker and picks up on your feelings incredibly well apparently, it was her idea, I'm a little ashamed to admit, that this fake job was her idea."
Lyon was going to say something else but was cut off by Gray's hand covering his mouth. "Just stop talking and let me test something." He received a nod, and dropped his hand, choosing to press his lips to Lyon's almost immediately. It was soft and a little meek, definitely awkward given their positions but Lyon was kissing him back and he suddenly wouldn't have this any other way. They kept it short and pulled back a few moments later, locking eyes and breathing heavily, the pressure of being so high up getting to them suddenly.
"I am going to get back at Mirajane for this when we get home." He got a chuckle from Lyon this time.
"Can I at least take you out for coffee first?" There was cocky look back on his face, and his onyx eyes were glinting again and Gray for one was quite glad that Lyon was more or less back in character.
"Sounds good."
He loved his job sometimes.
Okay so not the best but I hope it was still alright to read. (I'm not very good with kiss or fight scenes so…)