Title: Who Says Fairy Tales Only Happens In Books?
Summary: Natsu is a very "keep-to-myself"-sort of person who has had a hard time making friends, mostly because he doesn't share the same interests that most people of his age. He works at bookstore in the busy city of Magnolia, which has been in the Dragneel family for generations. It's a really cozy place away from his peers and Natsu would love to just spend the entire day there. Then, he meets Gray Fullbuster…
Couple: Natsu x Gray (NatGray / Graysu)
Author note is at the bottom~
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Chapter Two: Dinner...?
To say that Natsu wasn't looking forward to seeing Gray again would be the an understatement of the century; tonight was the night that his dad had agreed to dinner with Gray's family.
"Who cares if they're new?" The irritation was written all over the teen's face as he rode the train after school; his dad had mentioned in a text that they would be closing shop at 4, meaning no work for Natsu today. He wasn't sure if it was the impending doom of spending time with another person that wasn't his dad or work-related or the high-pitched giggling from the group of girls, who were (in Natsu's opinion) up to no good.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"Yeah, I think so - What do you think he's doing going into the city?"
"Probably to go infect another place with his weirdness"
Natsu sighed; he slipped his phone out of his pocket, browsing through its contents until he came across a year-old text message. His eyes scanned over each word in hopes of finding something he hadn't before; unaware that the girls were planning on doing something horrible, he didn't notice when one of them moved over towards him until he felt the seat shift. His cobalt eyes widened in surprise then noticed that one of the girls from the giggling group was closer and obviously irritated by the person who sat down beside him.
"G-Gray-sama? Y-Y-You must stay away from him... He's bad luck," Natsu recognized the girl that spoke as Juvia, a girl in his Phys. Ed class who constantly pretended to have her period.
'but wait-! G-Gray-sama?' The teen eyed the one sitting beside him, who didn't seem so thrilled about what was just said; "Why should I? We're going to the same place," He sighed, relaxing as Juvia and the others moved away.
"Sorry about that... I saw they were about to do something nasty so I intervened,"
Natsu barely registered his comment and instead scoffed: "Gray-sama? Really? You just moved here and already you're the eye-candy for the girls," jerking his head to hide his irritation with the raven at the moment. Although, he was slightly grateful Gray stepped in when he did; god only knows what those girl would have done.
"Don't ask me... It's not like I want to be eye-candy for any girl," Gray muttered, turning his head away from Natsu's peripheral vision to hide the pink dusting his cheeks.
The rest of their trip into the city went by quietly (and awkwardly) but finally the stop to Natsu's haven was mentioned; Gray followed in suit behind the rosette out the metal doors of the subway train. The thoughts of what his dad would do to him was beginning to haunt Natsu's well-being; said rosette inhaled deeply before speaking: "So its Gray, right?"
"Uh... Yeah but how did you-"
"My dad mentioned it yesterday,"
"Oh,"
"So... w-where did you move from?"
"Edolas,"
Natsu stopped moving the moment Gray stopped speaking; 'Edolas...?' He couldn't believe it; "erm... Natsu...?" Gray walked over in front of him, curious as to what caused the rosette to stop like that but was not expecting what he saw: tears forming.
"Hey," placing a hesistant hand on a clothed tanned shoulder, "Natsu... you okay?" Gray wondered if Natsu had some bad memories with his old town but those thoughts were put on hold once he heard Igneel call out to them: "Ah! Gray! Natsu! Over Here!"
Natsu seemed to snapped out of his stump and look over to his dad before his eyes glanced back to Gray, who in his opinion magically was in front of him. And touching his shoulder; the rosette snapped away from Gray and walked over to his dad pushing aside his depressing thoughts for now.
"I don't see why we have to tag along - Gray's the one who wanted to do this," Natsu heard an adolescent girl huffed, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Ultear, there's nothing wrong with accepting a dinner invitation especially when we just moved here" Gray's mother sighed, patting the girl's head as the two families headed for the restaurant across the street.
/ - - - - - /
So there the families sat, Natsu and Gray being the bridge between the two; Igneel and Ur chatting up a storm, leaving Natsu to fend for himself against the three siblings: Gray, Ultear, and a small boy with silver hair. Ultear kept her attention to her purple cell phone, obviously bored with their predicament already. Lyon kept scribbling on the paper place mat; which only left Gray and Natsu with nothing to do but talk...?
"So... uh," already struggling with keeping their dying conversation alive, "how did those girls know you?" Natsu mumbled.
"They," sighing, "saw me on when I went to visit my new school today," Gray mumbled back, regretting telling the group of girls his name earlier today.
Their conversation was interrupted when Igneel patted Natsu's head saying, "This is great - Gray's mom tell me that he'll be going to same school as you, Natsu"
Natsu let out a sigh about to glare at his dad when he saw a familiar set of silver-haired young adults walk into the restaurant; his heart beat quickened as recognition sank in and then he dove under the table. Gray's eyes followed him down about to ask but instead him and Igneel only got: "I'm not here!" in a hiss.
"Oh! Mr. Dragneel, why hello~" A soft voice greet them; Igneel chuckled, "Mirajane! Elfman! It's been too long. How have you been?"
Mirajane and Elfman smiled down at Igneel before Natsu heard a dreadful question: "Is Natsu not here with you? He's not the type to skip out on a free meal," from Mirajane.
"H-He's-"
"He couldn't make it you see he," Gray was at a loss for words, "he just got this book and couldn't pass up the chance to read it," Gray added, hoping it would sound believable to someone he'd never met.
"That sounds like him, alright~" Mirajane laughed, before waving goodbye to Igneel and walking with Elfman to their table.
"They're gone, Natsu..." Gray muttered, loud enough for the rosette to hear under the table; said rosette slid back up the seat just as their food had arrived.
"Thanks," He whispered to the raven beside him before digging into the plate of steamy-hot food in front of him.
"How was your day, Natsu?" Natsu tensed, wondering what he could tell his dad that wouldn't bring a frown to his dad's face.
"Well, 'same old - same old'-"
"Except for the 'getting saved by Gray' part," Gray muttered, thinking he had said it only loud enough for Natsu to hear but as luck would have it: Igneel did as well.
"What?"
Both teens froze; Natsu because the other had actually said that and Gray because he hadn't expected anyone but Natsu to hear.
"Well..." Gray started.
"You see..." Natsu began.
The duo was really trying to stall to avoid talking about; the raven feeling guilty for saying it and the rosette out of embarrassment. Igneel stared down the boys, concerned about what sort of incident needed one saving the other. Gray's eyes darted over to the fidgety Natsu beside him, as more guilt washed over him before he inhaled deeply and explained: "There was a group of girl from our school that were about to start something so before they could I sat down next to him... to sort of prevent it, you know. That's all," chuckling nervously at the end.
The raven had hoped he didn't just make Natsu out to be a wimp or something; the rosette seemed to relax, which comforted Gray a little on the inside.
"Is that all?" Igneel eyed his son cautiously; Natsu nodded his head in agreement before the two teens slowly went back to eating their dinner.
Dinner was proceeding well for Natsu; he had almost forgotten that Mira and Elfman had come into the restaurant. Well, almost: "Ah! Natsu, there you are! How have you been?" Natsu's shoulders instantly tensed and his cobalt eyes widened; he sat with a forkful of spaghetti hanging from his mouth and, as Gray noticed from the corner of his eye, his hand closest to the raven began trembling. Questions began to fill the raven's mind about the silver-haired duo and their relationship to Natsu.
"H-He j-just got here so... uh... he's pretty exhausted, you should just let him eat," Gray lied, hoping to get rid of Elfman so he could possibly find out about Natsu's strange behavior.
He didn't miss the wide surprised cobalt eyes that were now staring at him as he stared up at Elfman, praying he would just leave; and said man did just that. A sigh of relief escaped the raven's mouth before he felt his face grow warm from Natsu still staring over at him, whipping his attention back to the food he sat still for a moment before deciding to go to the bathroom to cool down. His hand followed in suit as he quickly got up to go cool down but not before smacking into the glass of Dr. Pepper he had ordered, which flipped and landed right into Natsu's lap!
"Ah! Shit!" Natsu whined, ignoring the complaint from his dad about his language, as he tried to dry the soda off his lap.
"I-I'm sorry," The raven immediately apologized; biting his bottom lip in anger and frustration.
"Why don't you help him clean it up in the bathroom, Gray?" Ur suggested quietly, pointing to the bathroom that was on the other side of the room.
"C'mon," Gray dragged the rosette off his chair and quickly through the room then into the bathroom.
Once inside, Gray peeked back to see the soda 'damage' on Natsu's pants; he knew it must be sticky and probably uncomfortable for the rosette. His eyes traveled up without thinking until he locked eyes with cobalt eyes; Gray turned away, his face heating up several degrees of red from embarrassment. The sound sneakers squeaking against the floor snapped the raven's attention back. Realization covered Gray's face; the soda was making the jeans stick to Natsu's skin uncomfortably.
"Strip,"
"Wait... w-what?"
"Go into one of the stalls and give me your pants," turning away blushing, "so I can at least get the soda out," He added in a more shaky hush voice.
"W-what i-if s-someone walks in...?" Natsu knew Gray was trying to help him; the raven shrugged his shoulders replying, "I'll l-lock the door,"
Natsu headed into the closest stall as the raven moved to lock the door; the duo would have to get this done quickly before they cause a scene. The rustling of jeans followed by: "Here," made Gray quickly grab the offered jeans and move over to the sinks.
He pushed the faucet until the water was coming out at a medium-pressure; he grabbed a little hand soap and grind it into the the denim before rinsing them off.
"Okay, now to dry them" Gray muttered, more for Natsu's comfort than anything else, as he smacked the button on the air dryer; the raven had made sure only to wet the part that was sticky to prevent a long waiting time.
Once the pants were dry, Gray handed them back to Natsu who in turn quickly slid them back on as small talk was bounced back and forth between them: "Better?"
"Yeah"
"..."
"Thanks"
"No problem"
The duo left, glad that no one was talking about the men's room being locked or anything as they walked back to their table. Neither of their parents seemed to notice they had returned, the dinner continued and finally ended without any problem. Natsu and his dad headed down the stairs to the subway while Gray and his family walked straight. Feeling a little regretful, Natsu swung around promising he would be right back running back up the stairs and nearly crashing into a body that was about the same size as his.
"N-Natsu?" The rosette instantly recognized that voice as Gray's; he looked up to see a surprised expression, which he was sure matched his.
"Uh... I um... er... w-wanted t-to say," inhaling deeply before blurting out: "G-Good night, Gray" He swung around and began running back down the stairs.
"Natsu," the sound of his name made the rosette stop and glance back nervous of what would be said next, "Night," Gray added with a small smile before disappearing from Natsu's vision.
A smile spread across Natsu's features as he finished his descent down the stairs and stepping into the subway train; when his dad pointed it out, the rosette tried hard to stop but in the end he couldn't and he didn't understand why.
( - - - - - )
Author Note: Thanks Kris (mosherocks4) for helping me with ideas for this chapter; we really love tormenting our little Natsu~ :D and for everyone (including Kris) thanks for the reviews and sorry if this ending seems a little rush -or something- I was struggling when it came to writing it :p
Responses:
AznAkatsuki - This is a Gray x Natsu fanfiction; its just not my usual one-shot... and personally, I only write Gray as the seme and Natsu as the uke
every reviewer - I hope you all love this chapter as much as the previous~ If any of you have any ideas, you would like to see... leave them in a review ;D
