Warning: bad grammar and vocabularies. I am not expert in English and it isn't my first language. So, feel free to tell me if there are things that wrong or need to be improved

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

Note: Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciated those.

Chapter 6: Those Eyes

The first thing Natsu felt when his eyes slowly opened was a light feeling in his body and a soft warm bed. His eyes was greeted by a blurry sight as he found the light was blinded him when he opened his eyes

The first thing he saw when his vision became clearer was a red color. His eyes widened as the color of bright red filled his eyes and dominated his sight. The bright color reminded him of blood. Because of that He unconsciously repeated the scene that reminded him of that color in his mind. After that He felt a weird sensation, a sickening feeling in his stomach as if forcing him to throw up.

Natsu gasped at the sensation he felt and rose up fast from his bed covering his mouth with his palms. The sweat came out pouring from his forehead as his nightmare kept flashing back in his head.

Without him realize a red color that he saw earlier moved and came to his sight once again but before the pink haired mage could react, a sharp pain feeling hit his head making its pain spread thorough his body as he let out a yelp of pain.

"Are you backing to your sense now?"

A stern voice echoed through the room making him snapped from his dreadful thought. He rubbed his head as the pain reminded him that this was a reality not a dream. A sense of relief replaced the fear he had just now when he glanced at his saviour and found a figure of woman stood beside him with pissed look but Natsu could tell there was a hint of worry in her tone when she talked to him before. Now that he calmed down a bit he realized the red color object he saw earlier was only Erza scarlet hair.

"Yeah. Sorry" He replied her previous questioned a bit late with a sheepish smile.

He waited for the s-class mage to say something but he surprised when she didn't replied at his apology or even shouted at him for his weird action earlier. Instead she just stood there staring at him with an expression that he couldn't describe at all. He tilted his head at her confusing act then after a few second he noticed the corner of her mouth moved and opened a bit like she wanted to say something,

"See, I told you there was something wrong with the flame head" a scoff breaking a silence between both of them and Natsu scowled at the sudden interruption as he glared at the black haired mage who had already made himself comfortable sitting on the couch.

"You're here?" Natsu narrowed his eyes at the so called ice mage ignoring the part of insult in his words "Since when?"

"Since the beginning, Idiot." Gray answered huffing in annoyance "I am the one who had to babysitting you the whole time" added him with irritated expression.

"The hell, I can take care of myself perfectly." Natsu shouted defensively. Hearing the word babysitter made a scowl appeared on his face.

"Yeah, right" Gray replied sarcastically with a mocking tone.

Natsu eyes twitched he opened his mouth to retort back with his usual insult but stopped as his mouth changed into a smirk "Though, I think a babysitter suit you more, than your current job"

"Why you, flame br-" Gray stopped his outburst when he saw the death glare Erza gave him. Instantly his scowl changed to a rather forced smile. He noticed the dark face she had and he blinked feeling confused of her sudden change on mood.

Staying away from this place looked like a best idea he could think at the moment. So, he made a way towards the door muttering the excuse that he wanted to eat outside. It wasn't completely a lie though, he did feeling hungry after all.

The fire mage snickered seeing his bickering opponent left although he did questioned a bit his reason to walk away in the middle of their fight, he just shrugged it .

"So, Natsu." Hearing his name Natsu turned around. Raising his eyebrow at Erza who finally decided to speak. He blinked when he saw the serious look she had and wondered when the atmosphere in this room suddenly became tense.

"Gray told me how you screamed the whole time in your sleep. What's wrong?"

"I'm fine." He replied with a rougher voice than he expected. "It's only a little nightmare" He stated muttering the words nightmare softly because he wasn't too sure if the last part of his dream was really a dream.

Erza watched how Natsu expression changed when he answered her question so she knew there was a lie in his answer. Though she didn't knew which part it was, but she wouldn't push it now seeing Natsu current state.

"Alright, then-" she talked again but Natsu somehow had a bad feeling about this as he watched and listened to every word she said.

"Mind to explain about your reckless action during that Mission earlier?" she asked him with a darker different expression and low voice.

Natsu could only gulp as he stared at the red scarlet haired mage face that seemed like growing darker every second passed if it was even possible.

And here he thought his nightmare had already over.

...|...|...

"One curry and Ice tea, please."

The waiter smiled sweetly at his customer who was quiet a beauty with her long chocolate-brown hair and bright dark eyes she looked quite a catch. He winked at her before walking away leaving the table with her order in his hand.

"Mm, excuse me sir" he stopped his walk as he heard his sweet customer called him. He turned around fast and putting his best smile to face her.

"Anything else, my lady?"

"Well... You don't ask my companion what he wanted to eat" she answered glancing a bit at her black-haired guy companion whose face looked pissed enough to kill someone.

"Upps, sorry I forgot" the waiter answered with sweet tone though it sounded so fake in Gray ears as he noticed the dirty look he occasionally thrown at him from the first time he entered this restaurant. This waiter clearly forgot on him purposely. He gritted his waiter. Cursed him in his mind.

"So, what do you want sir?"

Gray scoffed but regardless he answered it. His hungry stomach was far more important than this annoying guy.

"Chicken pork, beef stew, sushi, lasagna, cream soup, and for the drink I will take five glasses of cola" he finished his order and turned toward the waiter finding him with a stiff expression as he stared at the ice mage without blinking.

Seriously? He rolled his eyes it wasn't even a half of Natsu usual portion.

"Well, that's all" Gray raised his voice a bit making the waiter jumped a little.

"Oh. Alright then. I'll be back soon with your orders "he turned around but before he even took a step he was being called out again.

"What?" he answered rudely didn't care about his appearance as a scowl made a way into his face because the one who called him was the guy and wasn't a girl as he preferred.

"Do you have an ice-cube? Give me a full glass of it" Gray ordered ignoring the weird look the waiter gave him.

"Excuse me sir, but I think it isn't in the menu. So, you can't ord-"

"Right. I'll be waiting those then" Gray interrupted his talk as he grew rather tired dealing with this man's antic. He sent the waiter a glare before he even started to speak again. He felt rather satisfied seeing that guy flinched in fear.

The waiter then excused himself and dashed towards the kitchen door as he was thinking that he forgot he was dealing with a mage from Fairy Tail.

"Sorry, about that Gray-san" His girl companion suddenly spoke up and Gray raised his eyebrow at her words

"Why did you apologize for?"

The girl looked up staring at the mage and sighed. "You guys should be treated like a hero but instead all the people in this city did the opposite thing, sorry"

Gray stared at the brown haired girl who they or precisely Natsu saved during the mission. He panicked a bit after noticing tears started gathering in her eyes but when he saw there wasn't any tears came out he sighed in relief.

"It's fine. We had already gotten use to this kind of situation" Gray talked back trying to cheer her up."Thanks to Natsu destructive power" added him with sarcasm. And his stupid brain. This part left unspoken as he only said it in his mind.

"So, Claire." Gray called out the girl's name that he only knew for a few hours with a serious face.

"Is the building we almost destroyed really that important?" He questioned the matter that was bugging him because even though they usually destroyed one or two things in their usual mission people in that town never got angry like the people in this town. He remembered the angry look an old man gave him and a few people before when he walked past them.

"Yes, it is. Because that big library building is our town attraction" She noticed the confuse look on his face and continued her explanation.

"You see. Our town, Cielora is also called a literature town" she explained

"Literature town?" Gray raised his eyebrow at this nickname.

"Yes." Claire said proudly with smile. "You know, the majority of the people in this town like to read" she explained while glanced at the person outside who read while he was walking.

"Seriously?" Gray asked with an unbelievable look after hearing this fact. No wonder he saw many people read books when he took a little walk back then. Smirking he thought about someone in the guild who would like being in this city. Yup those two would certainly love this town. Levi and-

He stopped his thought as he blinked confused. Who was the other person he wanted to mention other than Levy? He wondered confused with his thought. There shouldn't be anyone who loved books other than levy in Fairy Tail. So, why did he say there was two person?.

Ok. Screw that. His tongue just slipped a bit. That's all. He decided to just ignore this thing as he listened more of the brunette detailed explanation

"Yes, even a few of them are a famous writer book. So, my dad, I mean the mayor of the city built a big library building for all of us. Not only it made people happy but it is also attracted many people to came to our town because our library was said to have a complete collection of all the books in the world." She finished her explanation with a proud smile but then her expression changed a bit ad

"It's not that the destroyed building that making us angry about, but the people are angry because many books damaged and couldn't be read anymore"

"I see" Gray sighed. "I think we did something very bad then" he commented remembering the shocked face of the mayor when they said they accidentally destroyed the hideout of the suspicious group and the building near it too.

"Kind of. But I did grateful that you guys saved me and others as well. Thank you" the girl bowed down voice filled with sincerity.

"Whoa... You don't have to do that" Gray almost shouted surprise by her action. "It's fine really, you have already treated me foods. Let's just call it even." He smiled nervously.

She let out a small laughter then suddenly her face lit up as if she remembered something important

"Can I know where your other friends are?"

Gray raised his eyebrow at her question but regardless he answered "At the inn. Why do you ask?"

"I would like to thanks them all" she smiled widely "Especially the one with pink hair"

At the mentioned of the pink haired mage Gray snorted "Nah. It's fine you don't have to. I bet Natsu is having FUN with Erza right now" he said emphasizing the word fun as he imagined how Erza would torture Natsu but it looked like the girl misinterpreted his words and had a different imagination than him as her cheeks blushed and her words stuttered.

"S-sorry , I s-houldn't have asked "

The ice mage furrowed his eyebrow at her strange reaction as he looked at her flushed face but after connecting one thing with others he drew the best conclusion.

She was just shy because he was way too hot for her

...|...|...

"Thanks for the food" Gray smiled thanking her. They both decided to take a little walk after came out from the restaurant /

"It's my pleasure" she smiled back politely. She opened her mouth to said good-bye but she noticed the strange look the dark haired mage gave her so instead she asked him if there was something wrong with her.

"Ah, you see. How do I say this" Gray scratched his cheeks as he picked carefully the words he wanted say. "At first, I thought you and Natsu knew each other"

The girl frowned hearing this statement "No. I never meet Natsu-san. Not until now"

"Yeah. I know" Gray sighed, staring at the ground like thinking about something before he started to speak again "But, it just that his expression a while back ago. It was the same expression he had whenever our nakama got hurt by someone. But-" He stopped for a bit for taking a deep breath.

"This time was more intense and powerful as if his emotion took over him and made him lost his mind." Gray breathed slowly "Even Erza and I had trouble calming him down"

"Yeah, I remember that. The scarlet haired girl somehow managed to knocked him out, though"

Gray snickered remembering how hard Erza had punched the pink haired mage until he got knocked out but soon his expression changed as he remembered Natsu expression during that time. The flashback came flashing through his mind making him remember that event once again.

The moment Natsu eyes and his met each other. Gray didn't want to admit it but he did feel a fear when he looked at the dragon slayer eyes. His black eyes darkened and filled with many kind of emotion but Gray could only recognized anger in his eyes because it was the only emotion that clearly shown in his eyes.

The ice wizard remembered how lost Natsu was as he kept ignoring or worse didn't even heard every word that Erza and he said during that time instead he just kept beating their enemies without mercy and destroyed everything he saw.

"You saw it too, right?" the ice maker wizard suddenly spoke asking the girl in front of him. Seeing the confuse look in her face Gray realized she didn't understand his question so he asked again this time with a full question.

"The look in his eyes at that time, the craziness in his eyes. You saw that right? So why didn't you run away like the other do?"

Staring at the girl face, Gray repeated the flashback in his mind when everything became a mess because of Natsu reckless action as he kept using his magic to beat the enemies and his surrounding without a care. Everyone else in that room was running away in panicking state and fear written all over their face but Gray remembered there was one girl who didn't even move from her spot at all. He noticed him as the brown-haired girl that was just came, the one who Natsu had saved just now. He thought the girl was too scared to move so he approached her trying to help. But the girl surprised him as he found her just sat still with a normal expression as her eyes kept staring at the certain dragon slayer and followed all his movement.

The first think that came out in his mind when he saw that, was the girl was definitely crazy. So it wasn't a wonder her face printed clearly on his mind as he could instantly recognized her when she approached him earlier to say thank you and treat him foods.

Seeing her didn't utter any reply Gray frowned thinking that maybe he said a wrong question or maybe the reason for her weird respond back then was just because her fear overwhelmed her or may-

"His eyes"

Gray instantly looked at her after hearing her reply although he didn't understand how those words explained his question.

Looking at the frown on the dark haired mage, Claire smiled a little before speaking again to complete her answer.

"When Natsu-san punched that guy who pointed his weapon at me he looked at me with those eyes. His eyes struck me. I remembered I had seen that kind of eyes before. So I kept staring at him and finally I remembered where I had seen it before." she stopped for a while then his mouth cracked into a sad small.

"You see, my mother died when I was ten years old. She kind of got mixed up in a dangerous trade and got herself killed by a professional assassin" she talked with sad eyes as she gazed at the sky.

"I'm sorry to hear that" Gray said softly. He knew what it felt because he also thought Ur as his mother.

"At that time I was still a child. I screamed, cried and made a fuss for a few months. There was a time when I yelled at my dad taking at all my anger at him crying and shouting to give my mother back. I even said I wanted to kill my mother's murderer."

Listening her past Gray got a little taken a back not expecting her to experience that kind of thing as he stared at her innocent face. Claire noticed his stare but didn't say anything as she kept continuing her speech.

"Because of that fuss my dad locked me up in my room all day and that was when I saw it, the reflection I had in the mirror. I noticed the color of my eyes darker than usual and the crazy look that showed in my eyes"

She took a deep breath before spoke again and looked straight at the black haired mage face.

"That's how Natsu-san eyes were. Eyes that filled with anger, sadness, pain and desperation."

Gray eyes widened as he heard her describing all the emotion that displayed at Natsu eyes at that time while he could only read one.

"It was the same eyes that you had when you lost something important, your beloved one." she finished her explanation, whispering the last part.

"But it wasn't me that he was looking at"

"What?" Gray furrowed his eyebrows at her sudden and weird statement.

"When Natsu-san saved me and looked at me. He stared at my face but I did have feeling that it wasn't me that reflected in his eyes. It wasn't me that he meant to save" she uttered the last part softly like a whisper.

Gray looked at her with a little doubt "How did you know?"

She took a step backward and looked at his face with a full smile on her face. "A woman's intuition" was her replied as she walked away waving at him and saying her goodbye.

To be continue

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