Graylu Fluff Week 2017

Day 2 Prompt: Winter


[I] - Too Many People


"You guys are doing a lot better now, aren't you?" asked Mirajane rather smugly, the morning after Gray and Lucy's play date at the park.

Gray's cheeks reddened a little, and he ignored Mira in favour of his breakfast, leaving Lucy to grin at Fairy Tail's hostess, bartender and demon-mage.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Mira, but yes." Lucy composed her face into a suitable bewilderment, while Mirajane rolled her eyes at Lucy's nonsensical—but telling—response.

"So—"

"Mira," said Lucy gravely, "you're my friend and you give great advice, but—"

"Okay, okay! Just let me know if either of you need any more food—or a room…"

"Mira!"

The lovely, white-haired mage sauntered away snickering, and Lucy turned back to Gray a little anxiously. She knew he wasn't really one for big scenes. He surprised her with a crooked smile.

"It's okay, Luce. Thanks for getting Mirajane to lay off a bit, but I don't mind as much as it probably looks. I mean, at least she thinks we're good together, right?"

Lucy released a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. It was comforting to know that Gray was making a sincere effort to cope with the extra attention—and that he could even see an upside to it.

"Yeah. I shouldn't get so worried, I guess."

Gray's dark eyes met hers and he reached across the table to take her hand.

"I wish you wouldn't get so worried about how I'm going to react. I'm not going to suddenly change my mind about us you know—definitely not for a bit of embarrassment here or there."

"Right. Right, of course." Lucy didn't feel up to explaining that old reflexes—in this case from a long-past relationship—tended to die hard.

Just then, Erza came in with Natsu, who appeared to be trying to explain something to her.

"But I've been training super hard, I swear! I can help!"

"It's an S-class mission and you're not qualified." Erza's voice had the edge of somebody who had been saying the same thing for the past ten or fifteen minutes.

"I'll bet I am! It's not my fault that—"

Erza spun around suddenly and straight-armed Natsu in the chest. He staggered, but didn't go flying as he might have once.

"Okay, Natsu—"

"I can come!" Ever optimistic, Natsu rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"No. But you can meet me outside in an hour, and if you can beat me then you can come."

"Yusssss!" Natsu had absolutely no fault to find with this, and seemed fully prepared to start something right away.

"I want my breakfast," said Erza firmly.

"Right, right. So I'll see you after break—"

"In an hour. Outisde. Behind the guildhall."

Giving up, Natsu looked around, saw his friends, and sat down with them.

"You should see this quest! I mean, we can totally do it—just a volcano that's acting up, and some kind of weird cult and a city in danger. We've handled that kind of thing tons of times."

"Once," commented Gray laconically. He had unobtrusively given Lucy's hand a last squeeze before letting go of it. Lucy had a feeling that he was actually least comfortable behaving as a couple around their own teammate. "And Erza had to save our butts."

"Okay, yeah, but that was ages ago!"

"Why not just pick a different quest?"

"All I have to do is beat Erza in an hour."

"Okay. Lucy and I will just look at the regular job board—you know the not-S-class-job-board —while you're getting ready for Erza to trash you again."

Natsu scowled.

"Look, Ice Princess—"

"Yeah, Charcoal Brain? You want to tell me how your one-hundred-and-seventeenth time is going to be different from all the others?"

"Well, it will!"

Gray opened his mouth for the obvious rejoinder, saw Lucy's look of chagrin, snapped his teeth shut and drained his coffee. She knew that they'd play the "yes it will—no it won't" game for a couple of minutes and then brawl. But he was supposed to be having breakfast with her, not fighting with Natsu.

"Would you like anything more, Luce?" He did his best to ask casually, as if he wasn't breaking years of Natsu-pummeling tradition.

"No, I'm good. But thanks, Gray." Her smile was like gold, he thought. To hell with fighting Natsu, maybe it was time to grow up.

"Natsu?"

The pink-haired mage looked surprised. "You offering to get me something?"

"Yep. Once-in-a-lifetime offer."

"Oh…. Well, if that's the case…"

Looking at Gray as if he'd suddenly turned into a frog or something, Natsu asked for food—of course—and Gray went to the bar to order. He wondered just how much his life was going to turn upside-down for Lucy. He watched Natsu and Lucy chat while he waited for the food. They were comfortable together, he thought. Would he ever be able to see them laughing and talking like that without getting that painful, internal dialogue about how he wasn't optimistic enough, cheerful enough, exciting enough? With a shake of his head, he carried the food back to the table, making a point of sitting next to Lucy, instead of across from her with Natsu.

"So you're planning to do some writing today?" he asked Lucy.

Natsu gave him another strange look and dove into his food.

"Yeah, I'm really hoping to get somewhere with it. The weather's kind of nasty, and we hadn't planned on going on a job—had we?"

"Only if we go without Erza, it looks like. Which is fine by me—might be good for us to stretch ourselves a bit, you know? Especially if"—he caught himself in time, and mentally subtracted "flame-brain" from the sentence—"Natsu figures we can do it."

The Fire Slayer was now staring at him open-mouthed, and Gray had to resist a strong desire to use his fist to make Natsu's jaws close. He was just trying to be mature. He felt his flush deepen as Lucy put a hand over her mouth as though to repress—or conceal—a laugh.

Natsu swallowed whatever he'd been chewing rather convulsively: "Uh, ice—uh, Gray—you feeling okay? 'Cause I can't remember the last time you called me Natsu and that's twice in ten minutes now."

"Do you prefer "flame-brain"? I don't mind using it, as long as we don't fight over it."

"What? No! I mean, no, of course I wouldn't prefer it! Geez Gray, what has gotten into you?" Natsu's face suddenly lightened and he set down his fork and sniffed the air. "Hey, wait a minute, are you two going out now or something?"

Lucy uttered a muffled cry of exasperation, and that helped Gray not to lunge at Natsu.

"Of course we are, you dork. We've been going out together for almost three weeks!"

"Huh, I hadn't noticed before."

Great. Just what I needed to hear. Gray tried to look around surreptitiously, but he shouldn't have bothered being careful. Everyone who was actually in the hall at this time of the morning—about half the guild, it seemed—was either staring openly or snickering quietly.

"Enjoy the food, I'm going to walk Lucy back to her place and then I'll be back to watch how badly Erza hurts you this time."

Natsu's mouth was full, but he rolled his eyes expressively. Gray helped Lucy up—not that she needed it, but since everyone was so interested he might as well get to hold her hand for a moment. On a more conciliatory note, he told Natsu:

"On the off-chance you win, I'll be standing by to go with you, how's that?"

"Okay. You'll come too, Lucy?"

Lucy nodded, still repressing a strong desire to giggle at Gray's attempts to deal with Natsu otherwise than with his fists and magic. It was honestly very sweet him; the truth was that her giggles were at least partly on account of nerves, because Natsu's comments together with Gray's behaviour had thrown her a bit. After spending so long thinking about going out together, had it really taken them almost three weeks to start to gel as a couple? And what exactly was it that Natsu had noticed? On second thought, she didn't want to think about that.

Gray and Lucy made their way out of the hall without looking at each other, but once they were outside in the crisp February air their joint sighs of relief caused them to exchange rather rueful smiles. Gray ran a hand through his hair in typical fashion for him when he was thinking or embarrassed, making half of it stand up on end.

"Er… I'm not quite sure what to say…"

"Oh well," Lucy said practically, rubbing gloved hands together, "nothing we can do about it now, right?"

"Yeah. So, you good with me coming back to see Natsu get smacked down again?"

"Yes, of course. I don't think everything has to change between us and our friends, you know."

"I know, it's just that I feel like you ought to have more of my attention than that pink-haired dork."

They started walking toward Lucy's place, and Lucy had to admit that it was nice to have somebody to walk with who was special in a different way than a friend. If nothing else, Gray made a point of blocking the wind, and steered her away from the canal and the worst patches of ice. They trudged up the stairs to Lucy's apartment, and Lucy let herself in.

Gray ran his hand through his hair again. Yesterday evening had been different—the afternoon out had felt special, and the sunset had been beautiful… Now it was just a grey late winter morning, with a few tiny snowflakes falling and a rather chilling wind—chilling for Lucy, anyway. Lucy looked up at him, hesitated, and then pulled him inside, so that the door latched behind him. It was a tremendous relief when she reached her arms up around his neck and kissed him, so that he could stop worrying about what to do. He had no hesitation at all in kissing her back; it was just knowing where to start that he still found tricky.

Surprisingly, to Gray at least, they had no difficulty in rekindling the feeling of the evening before; their "play-date" had led to some very serious making out on Lucy's couch after dinner. Just thinking about it now, with his fingers in her hair, was making his body heat up … a lot. He finally caught his breath, trying to remember that he had to leave. Maybe it was just as well that the wind outside was so cold.

Instead of leaving, though, he heard himself voicing some of the thoughts he'd had the night before when he was walking home from Lucy's.

"I was wondering if you'd be willing to go on a vacation with me—out of town, I mean. It's totally okay if you're not comfortable with the idea or too busy here, or think we should get a couple of jobs done or whatever, but I wanted to ask."

Lucy was silent for a moment, still recovering from the last nerve-tingling kiss, which she could have sworn she'd felt right down to her toes and in all the important places in between. Then she registered surprise.

"You mean—just the two of us?" Her deep brown eyes, which always showed everything she felt—laughter, anger, sadness, joy—reflected how taken aback she was by the suggestion. A vacation alone together, overnight or over a few nights, implied certain possibilities.

Gray knew that his cheeks were red, but he bit back the words of apology that had formed on his tongue the moment Lucy had hesitated. He didn't want to pressure her—at all—but he did want her to know what he wanted, which was mostly a chance to get away from the guild, from their teammates, from everyone who knew them and wanted to poke their noses into stuff that should be just between Lucy and him. He thought he'd better make that clear though.

"Yeah, just the two of us. We don't have to share a room, if you don't want to. We can take things totally slowly, that's not a problem. It's mostly to have some time to ourselves. Honestly, I can afford it right now, and I think you're caught up on your rent for once"—he smirked slightly at Lucy, trying to break the tension a little—"so you don't absolutely need a job in the next week or so, right?"

"That's true," Lucy agreed, her eyes now fixed on his face. He could hear a trace of doubt in her voice, but also interest. To his great relief, she didn't seem to be angry or think that he was being a complete jerk.

"I mean, I love being outside, I love the winter—and it's a lot shorter here than where I'm from—but I also think I could be happy just hanging out inside with you, too. It's dumb, but I like working on stuff while you write. It's comfortable. I know we just started going out, practically, but we've known each other for over two years now, right? I think—I hope you know—you can trust me."

He could see that Lucy was beginning to look more and more sold on the idea. He wasn't sure what had tipped the scales; she'd probably just needed to think about it a bit.

"So where would we go?" Lucy asked. She was still wearing her coat, but she'd unbuttoned it and taken off her gloves, and Gray was getting distracted again by her curves.

"There's a place about four or five hours northwest. We'd be able to take a carriage west along the main road to Crocus for most of it, and then it's just a short distance into the central mountains." Gray looked down. "Maybe it's a dumb idea. It's just a small town in a deep valley in the foothills but it's pretty. It's safer than the wild area north of Mount Hakobe and less expensive than the resorts closer to the rail line."

"And fewer people?" suggested Lucy with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Yeah…" admitted Gray. "Plus it backs right up against the mountains. But thinking about it—I don't know if you'd like it." Then he shrugged. "They've got a couple of nice chalets though, and I think the rooms are pretty cosy. Fireplaces, reading nooks, that kind of thing."

"You think?"

"Well, I only saw those places in passing. I was staying a little farther into the hills, not in town. Look—I've got to get going. Will you think about it?"

Lucy took a deep breath, and then smiled.

"I'll go. I think you're right about getting away for a while. As long as we stay in town in a decent place and not in some guy-shack in the woods."

"You will? I mean, that's great! And no problem—I swear, no guy-shacks. Is that even a word?"

"Well it should be if it isn't."

"So tomorrow? The day after?"

"Whenever you want," said Lucy recklessly. She usually liked to be organized about things, but she'd had to become a lot more adaptable when she'd joined Team Natsu. "Heck, we've gone on longer trips for jobs with almost no time to pack at all."

"So, you're going to come with me on vacation, just the two of us, to a place where it's colder and there's probably more than just a dusting of snow?"

"Yep. You obviously miss having a real winter, even if you can sort of make your own. Besides, this way you'll really owe me, right?"

Gray lifted her off her feet and grinned up at her. "You are the best."

"Thanks, but you're going to be late to see Natsu fight Erza."

"Fuck Natsu."

Lucy arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Gray crushed her in a tight hug and then set her down. "You know what I mean. Fine. I'll go pick up the pieces of Natsu's sorry carcase—again—and then I'll find out about a carriage, and then I'll be back. Don't change your mind."

"I won't. Promise." Lucy made a shooing gesture.

"Trust me?"

Their eyes met and Gray found himself holding his breath. Then Lucy nodded firmly:

"Yeah."


[II] - Keep Me Warm


They were in the small town of Wisteria Hills by mid-afternoon the next day. The trip had been uneventful, if a little rough, but there was something to be said for not travelling with a motion-sick Natsu and a hyper-active Exceed. As Gray had predicted, it was a little colder and a lot snowier, but it was definitely pretty.

The chalet had offered them a choice of rooms on the second floor, and the owner had taken them around himself so that they could decide what they wanted. Gray was more than a little tense, since Lucy hadn't given him an answer on the question of one room or two, and she'd been pretty quiet on the second half of the trip down. Not unhappy, exactly, but thoughtful and less talkative than usual.

The second of the three rooms available was perfect. It had a big desk at a bow window for Lucy, a cosy bedroom area with a large four-poster bed, and a couch and two squashy chairs around a small but serviceable fireplace with split logs ready and waiting to be kindled. Lucy and Gray's eyes met behind the owner's back as he extolled the advantages of the room—really a suite, he pointed out, if you considered the extra space for the sitting area around the fireplace. Gray shrugged at Lucy: it was her call; he'd made that clear from the start.

Lucy leaned forward and tapped the owner politely on the shoulder. He turned immediately.

"Yes ma'am? Do you have any questions?"

"No. It's just what we're looking for, we'll take it."

Gray felt his heart thud against his ribs, and for close to a minute he could only hear the rushing of blood in his ears. He managed to catch the tail-end of Lucy's brief conversation with the owner:

"…well, we're not sure, but at least three days. Is there any problem?"

"None at all. Let's get your bags up here, shall we?" The hotelier had seen quite a lot after thirty years in the business, and a swift glance suggested to him that the young couple wouldn't mind a moment or two alone. "I'll go down and organize your keys and so on. I'll see you at the front desk, sir or ma'am, to arrange for the deposit?"

"Yes, I'll be right down," Gray replied, his eyes not leaving Lucy.

As soon as the door closed behind the man, Gray pulled Lucy close. "Thanks for giving me a chance," he said quietly into her ear. "I promise, you can trust me. But I'm really happy I can stay with you."

"Just make sure you keep me warm, Ice Prince."

"Not a problem, Lucy. You'll see."


[END]


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