I had so much fun writing this little request from gray-x-natsus-matching-hip-scars on tumblr! The prompt was "I didn't do it" and Gratsu?
Enjoy! :)
"Lucy, Cana, Juvia," Gray asked the three women who were all sitting at the bar in the guild hall, "please, I need your help."
"What is it this time Gray?" Cana asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because if it is more sunburn that you don't want Natsu to know about." Lucy carried on, trying not to smile.
"And you need us to put burn relief on your back." Cana continued, feigning annoyance.
Juvia caught on and spoke in unison with the other two, "we won't."
There was a moment of silence before the three burst into laughter. A pink blush, spread over Gray's cheeks at the rather mortifying memory. He hadn't wanted to admit to Natsu that he had actually got sun burnt that day at the beach, and there was no way he could easily reach all of his back to relieve the pain. No matter his stripping habit, when Gray consciously stripped off his shirt and it wasn't for Natsu, he felt awkward to say the least.
"It's alright Gray! We're joking!" Lucy giggled, "what is it?"
"I want to throw Natsu a 21st birthday party!" He grinned, and waited eagerly for one of them to speak.
"Sounds great!" Lucy grinned, "but there's one problem, we don't know Natsu's birth date…"
"Really?" Juvia looked over at her girlfriend with a slight frown.
"Living with Igneel he never really knew." Lucy filled her in.
"What brought this on?" Cana interjected.
Gray's smile became, if possible, even wider. "Natsu hasn't had a birthday party before, how could we have thrown one for him if we don't know his birthday? So I thought I would give him one…"
"Give him a birthday?" Juvia frowned.
"The name Natsu means 'summer'," Gray explained with a bashful smile, "and seeing as tomorrow is meant to be the first day of summer, I want to make tomorrow Natsu's official birthday!"
Lucy nodded, "you are too cute Gray!" She giggled, "so what do you have in mind?"
"A surprise party!"
Gray planned out the whole thing with Lucy, Cana and Juvia while Happy took Natsu out for a fishing trip, this was something Gray had already organised. Then when Gajeel and Levy arrived back from their job they offered some idea's too. Gajeel insisted that he play his guitar at some point and Gray, who hadn't even thought about music at that point decided it wouldn't hurt to put Gajeel and Levy in charge of music all together.
This conversation was overheard by Laxus who decided he'd help with music too, and with a wide grin declared himself DJ for the night. Freed, who had been pulled along to the group by Laxus offered to set up some warding so that only those invited could get in, so they wouldn't get rowdy gatecrashers. The guild didn't have any trouble at all getting wild in the first place.
Eventually Erza and Wendy got back from their job and demanded to know what was going on.
"Gray is organising a surprise birthday party for Natsu." Lucy piped up with a grin. "It's tomorrow night, the first day of summer."
"Will there be cake?"
"Plenty!" Cana grinned, "and booze too!"
"Wonderful!" Erza grinned, "well you better act normal because Natsu is heading over now."
"We passed him on our way here." Wendy added, her eyes shining at the thought of a surprise birthday party.
Gray's eyes widened and he bundled up the large sheets of butcher's paper which they had been planning on. Making sure he had them all he chucked them behind the bar he threw a meaningful look at Mira who smiled knowingly as if to say 'I'll deal with it!'
"So everyone get here at seven-thirty tomorrow night, Happy is bringing Natsu at eight." Gray's lips spread into a wide grin, "this is going to be awesome!"
Just minutes later Natsu banged open the doors to the guild hall.
"Snowflake!" Natsu cried out, "haven't seen you all day! Happy decided it was a good day for a fishing trip."
"Was he right?"
"Yes, as always…when it comes to fish anyways." The Pinkett grinned at the cry of defiance from the blue exceed. Natsu then strode up to Gray and wrapped his arms around him to pull his boyfriend into a deep kiss. "That's better!" Natsu grinned smugly before giving Gray a peck on the lips and heading towards the bar. "The usual Mira, please, and one for Gray too."
- o - o - o -
The next night all the guild members plus Sting and Rogue settled in places around the hall ready to jump out at Natsu and yell surprise as he came into the guild hall with Happy. The room was buzzing with nervous excitement as they waited for Natsu to arrive. None were more so than Gray, who had been practically bouncing out of his skin all day. Carla, who'd been on lookout rushed back into the hall.
"He's coming, he's coming!" Carla flicked out the light on her way in and hovered there to flick them back on.
Suddenly the doors to the guild hall burst open, "Hey guys I- why are the lights off?"
As Carla flicked on the lights, everyone jumped out from their hiding spots and yelled at the top of their lungs.
"SURPRISE!"
Natsu jumped at least a foot in the air crying out in astonishment. As his eyes widened in shock and Natsu instinctively sent a ball of flames towards the group. There was a collected yelp from all of the guild members before Gray stepped forward.
"ICE MAKE: SHIELD!" Gray yelled and instantly a perfectly symmetrical wall of ice shot from the ground dispersing the ball of fire and protecting the group. When he was sure the flames were gone Gray removed the shield.
"Sorry!" Natsu apologised sheepishly, "what's all this for?" He turned to where Lucy and Juvia stood, "was this you?" He grinned, looking from the giant letters hovering above them spelling out 'HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY NATSU!', to the tables covered with food and drinks.
"We didn't do it!" Lucy and Juvia said together with matching grins, "Gray did!"
"Gray?" Natsu whispered, a smile stretching his lips as he looked up at his boyfriend, of course he did.
"It's just that you don't have a proper birth date that we know of, so you haven't ever had a birthday party." Gray grinned hopefully, "so I felt you should have a 21st party at least. Your name means summer so I thought today, the first day of summer would be perfe-" Gray was cut off as he felt Natsu crash into him and wrap his arms around him tight. As Natsu's lips met his Gray lent into the kiss, snaking his arms around Natsu's back to hold him closer.
Natsu pulled away just for a moment to stare happily into Gray's dark eyes, "Gray! Thank you!" His voice came out only a whisper, but in the quiet hall, everyone heard.
"Any time!" A smug grin twitched at Gray's lips, "oh, and something else…"
"What?"
"Happy Birthday Natsu!" As Gray lent forward to capture Natsu's lips once more with his own, the whole guild echoed his words.
"Happy Birthday Natsu!"
P.S. For anyone curious, in this case Natsu's birthday would be May 7th, it's the first day of summer in Japan (according to Wikipedia), I thought it would suit :)