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First Kisses


In general, it took Gray a while to warm up to people. It had taken over a month before he got used to Cana, and Erza only became bearable after the river. Natsu held the record. It had taken months and months. Five months later, they were sort of friends. They still fought and annoyed each other, but now the fights were less serious and sometimes just for fun.

Today, there was no big reason for them to be fighting. Well, maybe there was. Natsu had just unveiled his newest nickname for Gray: ice princess. Gray was not amused. He had almost started pounding on the other boy right in the middle of the guild hall, but Erza was lurking around and the adults would tell them to take it outside anyway. Instead, he grabbed Natsu's shirt and dragged him outside, where they'd circled around to the side of the hall out of the way of the street and proceeded to smash each other's faces in.

Gray was pretty sure he was winning, but then Natsu shoved him hard in the chest and he flew back toward the wall and landed in a thorny bush. Technically it was a rose bush, but it was a sickly thing that never really bloomed because no one had a green thumb around here. Gray had always been of the opinion that it was an eyesore and should be removed, and now he was cursing all the stupid adults who had planted a highly dangerous bush out here and neglected to dig it up even when they couldn't make it grow anything but thorns.

"Ow!" he cried with an unholy screech.

The thorns snagged at his clothing and held it fast, and he couldn't find his footing. The feeling of being trapped sent him into a panic. He floundered about, flailing his limbs in desperation to escape, and the thorns sliced through his skin like tiny knives. The more he struggled, the more tangled he became. But how could he not? It hurt, and he needed to escape right now.

"Holy crap!" Natsu said, rushing over to peer down with wide eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Gray snarled. A thorn sliced across his arm, and a wail escaped his lips before he could choke it back.

Natsu was actually looking rather worried now, which wasn't a good sign since usually he delighted in watching Gray squirm. "Hold on, I'll burn you out!"

He held up his hand and fire burst to life around his fist. Gray's eyes widened and he redoubled his efforts to untangle himself. Which he quickly realized was a mistake when he sank further into the thorny embrace of the bush and garnered dozens of new scratches that stung and burned.

"Stay the hell away from me! You're going to burn me alive! No fire!"

"But how else am I supposed to get you out?"

That was a good question, and one Gray didn't know how to answer. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Reinforcements arrived in the form of a small crowd of mages swarming around the side of the building to see what all the commotion was about. Gray had little use for adults in general, but maybe they could make themselves useful for once and get him out of this predicament.

"Oh dear," said someone. "What happened?"

A small, red-haired girl pushed her way through the adults' legs and marched over to regard Gray, who winced. He might be on better terms with Erza, they might even be something like friends now, but she could be scary as hell when she found him and Natsu fighting.

"Stop thrashing around," she said. "You're making it worse."

Gray stopped. Nothing short of Erza's decree could have made him overcome his brain's panicked fight response, but she was scarier than a rose bush.

"I was trying to get him out, but he got all snippy about my fire," Natsu said, trying to rack up brownie points. Gray scowled over at him.

Erza just shook her head, her braid swaying back and forth across her back. "How did you get yourself stuck in a rose bush?"

"I…tripped?" Gray suggested weakly.

Her eyebrow crept slowly up her forehead. "You just happened to trip backward into a rose bush well off the beaten path?"

"…Natsu might have helped."

"So… You two were fighting again?"

Gray winced. "We're friends," he said, stealing her own words to get them out of this bind. "Friends shouldn't fight, right?"

"Maybe," Natsu said at the same time. Gray glared at him.

Erza rolled her eyes. "Let's get you out."

She pulled a sword out of thin air and Gray flinched back, the thorns tugging at his clothing and snagging his skin. He eyed the blade in alarm, wondering which body parts he was going to lose to this. He wondered if it was too late to go back to the option of Natsu's fire. He might prefer to have his wounds cauterized than lose an arm.

"I'm sorry!" he squeaked. "Please don't kill me!"

Erza didn't deign to respond. She hacked at the thorny branches, and Gray shrank back as far as he could while bits and pieces of debris went flying.

"Aw," one of the adults cooed. "Can you believe they used to hate each other?"

Gray was too terrified of getting his head chopped off to glare or snap out a nasty remark. Erza's sword slashed a little too close to his arm, but then she slowed down and engaged in a more delicate procedure of carefully cutting away branches or pushing them out of the way with the flat of her blade.

Within a couple minutes, she had grabbed Gray by the front of his shirt and dragged him out of his thorny prison.

"Holy crap," he breathed, his legs wobbly like a newborn fawn. "I'm alive."

"Of course," Erza said with a sniff. "I said I'd get you out, didn't I?"

"You didn't say in one piece," he muttered.

"Quit whining."

She punched Gray on the arm, and he screeched and jerked away. There were streaks of red slicing across every inch of uncovered skin, and each one smarted and stung. His whole body was throbbing with the vengeance of a thousand malicious rose thorns.

"Not my fault!" Natsu said defensively.

Erza frowned at Gray. "Is it really that bad?"

"Of course it is," he snapped back. "It hurts."

"Hm…" Erza leaned in until their noses were almost touching, and Gray's eyes went wide as she searched his face with a solemn expression. His breath caught in his throat and he could feel the heat working its way across his cheeks at how close she was. "I can fix that."

"Wha–?"

Erza kissed him on the cheek, and he choked out a strangled sound of disbelief. Someone whistled. She kissed him twice more on his cheek and nose while he stood stiff as a board and the gears in his brain spun uselessly, then snatched up his arm and began planting quick pecks all over it.

"Ew," said Natsu.

Gray spluttered some more, but finally came to his senses and snatched his arm away. "What the hell?"

"Cana says that kissing scrapes and scratches makes them better," Erza said seriously. She stared intently at the scratches on his arm, as if expecting to see them seal up and heal in front of her very eyes. "Like magic."

"Y-you…"

She huffed out a breath and turned away. "Well. That was disappointing. I was expecting something a bit more magical."

Gray gaped after her as she walked away without a backward look.

"Aw," cooed someone. "Young love is so adorable!"

"Wait," said Natsu. "They're in love? Ewww…"

"I–I–" Gray shuddered and held his arm well away from his body as he stared at it in horrified disgust. "Bath! I need a bath right now! Cooties! Cooties everywhere!"

He took off as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, running for home and a nice warm bath with lots of soap. The adults broke into raucous laughter as he raced past them.

"Give it a few years," Makarov said with a knowing chuckle.


Note: LOL I feel like such a troll. I can't help it—the prompts that try to make me write something specific just make me want to find loopholes. Aside from the cooking one, because I can never have too much of Erza's kitchen disasters.

Also, the thought of baby Gray running around all "Cooties! Cooties everywhere!" cracks me up something terrible XD