Gray made it two more weeks in secrecy. He would have liked to make it another thirteen weeks and then gotten away with never having to fess up, but two more weeks where he could pretend that everything normal was better than nothing.
Happy, much to Gray's relief, was completely mute about the pregnancy. Save for ribbing Natsu once about those constant questions about any new aches Gray had. Teasing both of them about their relationship kept him satiated. Not that Gray particularly enjoyed the constant implications that every little gesture he made in Natsu's presence was a sign of genuine interest—especially since most of them were—but it beat hearing that he was fat, or had a motherly glow. And when he mentioned to Natsu that his chest felt tender lately and Natsu confessed that Zeref had observed his more recent mammal test subjects lactating, Happy went into a different room so Gray couldn't hear him laugh. That one had been ripe for teasing, and Gray had been stunned to see Happy leave the subject be.
"If there's anything else he noticed specifically with the mammals, let me know now," Gray said at that time.
Natsu hesitated, then asked, "Is there anything else bugging you lately?"
Sooner or later, Gray was going to hear that question enough times to give in and ask Natsu what he was so worried about.
With Happy quiet about the pregnancy, Gray wasn't immediately exposed, but letting him in on the secret wasn't without consequence. For months, the guild had been perturbed to see Happy regularly show up on his own while Natsu ditched him for Gray, so seeing the slayer and cat reunited caused a stir. The obvious revelation was that Natsu and Gray were now comfortable enough in their relationship that they didn't mind Happy as a witness anymore, and he was regularly questioned about what went on at Gray's apartment. (The little hairball loved to make a mountain of a mole hill. Natsu wiping up soup Gray spilled on the table became Natsu catching a little dribble on Gray's chin using his tongue before the two passionately made out.) That being privy to their private life meant that Happy also likely saw more signs of whatever was medically wrong with Gray only generated more interest, but Happy insisted that Gray didn't like it being discussed, so he wasn't allowed to tell.
Still, the interest was upped, and Gray felt himself watched more closely. His clothes were becoming increasingly ill-fitting, and Gray frequently found himself putting his hands on his back, trying to relieve the pressure the baby put on him. It was a comically typical position to expect to see a pregnant woman in, but out of place on a man who at least appeared normal. Still, Gray couldn't shake the feeling that sooner or later people would piece things together.
It made him antsy around the guild. He couldn't help Mira or Mavis with anything breakable, because he shook under everyone's scrutiny. Even though he'd begun taking on more tasks that let him be around everyone, he found himself slowly migrating back to the basement. At best, he might make occasional trips between the basement and Mavis's office as he carried books from the records room to the guild's Archive Lacrima. But he couldn't hide constantly. He had to make token appearances throughout the day to act like Natsu's boyfriend, and Mavis refused to let him eat in the records room or her office—even though she ate in both all the time. Working through meals was also forbidden for anyone under her employ who ate for two.
So by way of having been teased by everyone and especially Happy for all his boyfriend appearances to the point that he was too embarrassed to search for Natsu, and because Jellal, Erik, and Erza were all off on a job that day, Gray found himself needing to find someone else to sit next to while he ate. Unless he wanted to eat somewhere else. But while the rain had almost fully let up, there was still drizzle enough to make Gray reluctant, and Natsu had the umbrella.
The obvious answer was to find members of his team who he hadn't seen as much since his and Erza's pregnancies forced everyone to work separately, but Natsu and Erza were already gone, and Lucy wasn't around and Gray wasn't sure if it was okay for him to sit with her anyway.
Wendy, however, was still there.
To say that Wendy was still a member of their team was a bit of a stretch. She'd still worked with them regularly, but as she grew older and more people her age joined, she started going on more jobs with those newer members and tagging along with older members less. But she was still the next most likely person for Gray to have gone on jobs with, so when he caught his eye he waved, and she waved back.
It wasn't until he'd taken too many purposeful steps towards her that he saw that Juvia—previously hidden behind a pole—sat at the table adjacent to her. His steps faltered, but then he force himself to keep moving forward. So long as it was obvious that Wendy was the one he came to sit with, it ought to be fine. Ideally, he should still be able to engage in awkward small talk with Juvia. Barring that, he at least ought to not be afraid to go anywhere near her.
So Gray sat across from Wendy, taking a seat at the edge of the table so he wouldn't be seen awkwardly fumbling to get his legs over the bench. No sooner was he seated than did she hold a hand up to his forehead and say, "If you feel ill at any point, I can help."
"I…"
"I know it must be something beyond what magic can fix, or Porlyusica would have already handled it or come to me by now, but I'm sure I can at least alleviate symptoms."
"Y-yes. I'll… I'll let you know."
Gray kicked himself internally for not having thought to include Wendy in the secret earlier. He was afraid to ask about help with his backache for fear that she'd notice the cause while easing that pain.
Wendy noticed the hesitance in Gray's voice, and returned it with an equally hesitant smile. Him keeping his health secret was the norm as of late, but that didn't mean everyone had to like it.
"We're all here for you," she said.
"Most of us."
"Lucy is…" Wendy looked around, then leaned in and dropped to a whisper. "You know why she and Natsu broke up, right?"
Gray nodded and whispered back, "Miscarriages."
"I thought he might have told you. She came to me hoping I could fix it not too long before things fell apart between them, but until they fought the other day, I thought that Happy must have misunderstood and Natsu was the one to break things off. It didn't make sense to me that she would do it. But I asked her, and they broke up because she couldn't become pregnant and felt bad about keeping Natsu from having a child of his own, so it came as a shock her to that he found a boyfriend."
A boyfriend who, in a perfect world, ought not to be pregnant. Not that it mattered, since Gray still wasn't on board with giving Natsu the baby. Once or twice, in a moment of weakness, he'd considered that offering Natsu the girl after all might be a good way to try and win affection from him, but he always rejected the idea. Letting Natsu see her, maybe he could handle, but bribing Natsu with a child in exchange for love was desperate at best, and extremely creepy no matter how you looked at it.
Since, by that point in the day, everyone had yet to discover what was wrong with Gray, he gave a bitter smile and said, "A sacrifice made in vain, huh?"
"Well… I wouldn't put it that way."
"She sees it that way."
"It was just… rubbing salt in the wound." Wendy winced when she said the words. "It's nothing against you. She was upset about it, and I don't think she was ready to see Natsu move on."
But Natsu hadn't been ready to lose her over an issue she projected onto him, or to have her mess with his head, however unintentionally, by making him wonder if he was supposed to wait on her. And even if Gray was messing with Natsu himself, thinking of that made him too indignant to care that he was the one to rub that salt in those wounds by hinting that he and Natsu were together than going full throttle enforcing the rumors over Juvia.
Speaking of Juvia, she had inched closer and closer throughout the conversation. Gray kept tabs on her out of the corner of his eye as he and Wendy spoke. He ought not to need to avoid her constantly, but that was only in theory, and this was his first time in a long time being near her without also being tangled up in Natsu's arms.
"Not that I'm not sympathetic to her, but I don't really appreciate her making it my problem," Gray said. "They never talked about it with anyone. It's not like I knew their history when I got myself involved with Natsu, and no one made her react to everything by leaving him."
Wendy gave a vague noise to indicate she'd heard, but took the middle road and didn't join Gray in talking ill of her. "Well, I hope you two manage to get it settled. I don't know if you'll be able to work again, but once Erza returns to active duty, it would be nice if she and Natsu and Lucy could all work together again."
"You think?" Gray asked. "Erza's getting awfully used to going along with Jellal now. I feel like the team's going to drift apart for good at this rate."
"That's not true!"
"Is it? We already lost you."
The pointer silenced Wendy for a good five seconds. There was no denying that. Even if you tried to argue that she hadn't been an original team member. They'd picked her up as a steady part of their team not too long after forming.
"Well, maybe everyone can still get together from time to time," She said. "For old time's sake."
"Maybe."
But Gray doubted it. He wouldn't mind working with Natsu still. They worked well together when they weren't fighting, and he wanted to spend that extra time with him. (And that, come to think of it, was another point against giving Natsu the girl.) The rest of their team, he didn't see getting together for work much. Things with Lucy were messy enough, and would only get worse once she learned about Gray's baby. And aside from Erza relishing in all the extra time she got with Jellal now that he wasn't constantly avoiding town, he thought that they might end up staggering work like Gajeel and Levy often did, so arranging a mission with her would require timing things around when she could leave the baby in Jellal's hands. Or never, depending on how reliable a father she found Jellal to be, or how much she liked motherhood. Meredy had stopped working completely because she hated being away from little baby Uriel.
"Juvia worries that Gray might not be able to work at all," Juvia said. She startled Wendy when she spoke, apparently making her presence known to the younger girl for the first time since she sat down.
Gray assessed the statement and found nothing more than medical concern in it, even if her expression screamed anxiety, so answered as platonically as he could. "I'm not expecting to be sidelined forever. Hopefully, I'll be up for work again in… the next few months."
He almost said three. He had three months left. But then he remembered that unlike Levy and Meredy who were able to get back on their feet shortly after giving birth, he would be undergoing surgery. He swallow back a wave of nausea as the implications hit him for the first time. For however awful as Meredy made birth look, wasn't it still the way that babies were meant to come out? Zeref hadn't mentioned anything about dead frogs everywhere, and if he had, there was no way Natsu would have ever forced Gray to go through with things, right? Gray got that Natsu thought he was saving a life, but surely he would never willfully sacrifice Gray's for that of a fetus?
"Gray?" Juvia asked.
"Huh?"
"Juvia wanted to know if you could talk about what went wrong." She and Wendy both looked concerned. Had he missed the question once already? "At first, Gray said it was only an injury, but The First kept making concessions and Laxus said there were regular checkups with Porlyusica."
"Yeah." Gray looked away. "We said it was an injury because I didn't want to talk about it."
Juvia took the hint and stopped pressing. "It's good that Gray has at least one person to confide in. Natsu is lucky to be so trusted."
Natsu was lucky Gray had been too numb to throttle him after he learned about the baby. Zeref was the one who let Natsu in on what was going on—not Gray. But he had been a huge help in the end, and Gray would need to talk to him about how necessary that surgery was. Now that he really thought about it, if there was a viable way to not be sliced open, then that would be preferable. Probably. He didn't exactly want to be grotesquely stretched out like Meredy had been, but did he really need a giant scar across his abdomen to remind him that the little girl who followed Mavis around came out of him?
Since Juvia was still looking at him and he'd already missed responding to her once, Gray gave an uncomfortable grunt. "He's been helpful."
"Everyone can help," Juvia said.
"I'm fine with one helper. Adding Happy was one too many."
"I haven't seen Happy cause any trouble with your health," Wendy said. "He doesn't even mention it, and it wouldn't be like him to only make fun of it in private."
"Well… he doesn't," Gray admitted.
"Juvia hears Happy teasing Natsu and Gray about each other constantly." Juvia smiled as if this was a joyous thing, but it didn't reach her eyes. Gray gave her credit for trying. "Perhaps Gray is embarrassed to have Happy tease him over matters of the heart?"
"No," Gray said, but he undermined himself by blushing over it.
Juvia gave a solemn nod. "Juvia was afraid of that, but… Juvia… Um… Juvia is… happy for you?"
Gray didn't call her out on the lie, so it was Wendy who asked, "What do you mean?"
"Gray is always so pushy with Natsu when everyone is looking, but he becomes shy when he thinks no one is. Juvia thought… Juvia thought Gray might feel the need to be closer to Natsu than he's comfortable with at the guild." And Juvia didn't say a word about why she might think that Gray would feel the need to do that. "But when he's shy, Gray looks at Natsu the way Juvia always wanted Gray to look at her."
Gray stared blankly at Juvia, refusing to process that she had caught on to both the fact that he and Natsu were performing for the guild and that it was no longer entirely a performance for Gray.
"Juvia wants Gray… T-to be happy! Juvia wants Gray to be happy. So… If there's any way to help…"
She wanted the two of them not to have to avoid one another as well. Gray offered her a faint smile and a nod. "Thanks. I'll let you know."
He was completely unprepared for her to throw her arms over him, and went stiff in her embrace. "Thank you! Thank you! Juvia will be the best wingman! First, Gray needs to be bolder! Natsu doesn't notice when Gray is shy."
That, or Natsu was trying not to notice after how catastrophically things went the last time Gray tried to be bold. Granted, that kiss had almost gotten Natsu to let Gray learn about the pregnancy before it was too late, so maybe it wasn't a complete disaster. But kissing someone in private only to find out they were being nice to mislead you was still humiliating.
"Um… Juvia?" Wendy said, "I think Gray might not want to be hugged."
Juvia shook her head. "Erik said so too, but Natsu hugs Gray all the time."
Had they told Juvia that? Gray couldn't remember why they would have fed her such a lie, other than to spare him a little unwanted attention.
At least, he couldn't remember why until when Juvia finally pulled back and her arm bumped against his stomach.
She paused, not sure what exactly she'd felt. Then, since she'd already invaded her beloved Gray's personal space once since he'd rejected her for Natsu, she reached back out and placed a hand over the bump.
Unsure what else to do, Gray made a vague noise of discomfort and scooted away.
"Gray… Is something there?"
"No."
"Juvia felt something."
"Well, Juvia imagined it," Gray told her.
"Juvia most certainly did not imagine it!" Juvia insisted, reaching out again.
Gray grabbed her hand. "Just lay off!"
By this point, they had created enough of a commotion that people nearby were watching. Mira hovered nearby. She had likely been there since Juvia started talking, and definitely shown up when that hug happened. Natsu had emerged as well, and anxiously stood a few feet away. Gajeel and Laxus hovered nearby, deeply interested. No doubt both of them had noticed little ways in which Gray was off that had slipped the notice of others. They might have hoped to catch more hints of his mystery health ailment from Wendy.
Natsu took a step forward, accusations of Juvia trying to encroach on his boyfriend on his lips when Happy flew past and planted himself between her and Gray. While the gesture was appreciated, his protective actions combined with the fact that he'd been sensitive to Gray's health but loved giving him grief over his love life screamed that the real concern wasn't anything romantic, but that Juvia had stumbled upon something to do with Gray's condition. He might as well have screamed at her that she really had felt what she thought she had.
"Gray… are you hiding something?" Mira asked.
Obviously. He hadn't exactly made it a secret that his health status was a secret.
He looked desperately to Natsu for help as Juvia said, "Juvia knows she felt something."
And Natsu, the traitor, frowned at Gray and shrugged helplessly. He'd been saying himself that it was a matter of days—weeks at best—before everyone found out, so Gray should have known better than to think that Natsu would find this situation salvageable.
A glint lit in Mira's eyes, and she said, "Is the master using an illusion to hide Gray's condition."
"If she is, it's none of your business," Gray hissed.
"But we all want to help," Wendy said. "If it's so serious that you need magic to hide what you really look like…"
Gray stood, sending a glare at the crowd that compelled everyone to part for him.
"Gray?" Natsu asked.
"Don't."
"It's not something we could have hidden forever."
Gray didn't respond, setting off towards the door.
"Gray!" Natsu called out, running after him.
Gray whirled around to glare at him too.
"I'm sorry… It's just…"
It's just that there was no way to completely pass off what just happened, and there would be more and more slip ups as he entered his third trimester. And it was easier for Natsu to tell everyone now, rather than keep everyone guessing as more and more clues trickled in. Gray sure as hell hoped Natsu was sorry for that.
"Whatever," Gray muttered. "You tell them. I'm going home."
-o-
Out of consideration for Gray, Natsu ran off and found Mavis before giving anyone an explanation, hoping that she might have some last saving throw to make. She didn't. Not when Natsu and Gray made a show of whether or not to tell everyone. Mavis could tell everyone to drop it, but it was too late for them to really let it go.
Next, Natsu sent Happy after Gray to find out how much he was supposed to say, and borrowed the guild kitchen to start making fudge while he waited for an answer. For as mad at Natsu as Gray had been over the whole potion business, Natsu still couldn't swallow the idea that he would get away with that. It didn't feel right to hurt Gray and then have that remain an exclusive secret even after the rest of the details of Gray's pregnancy came out. But Happy returned with very specific instructions on that matter. Tell everyone about the potions and they would find Natsu's corpse in pieces in the river.
So when Natsu sat down to explain to everyone, he emphasized the other way he was to blame. He heavily stressed how he had be the one to shove Gray into one of Zeref's tests, even though he knew how dangerous even the most simple and altruistic ideas could become in Zeref's hand. Genius though he may have been, he wasn't flawless. He never bothered to think of a way to keep the R-System from exploding once it was properly charged, for starters.
The exact timing of events was fudged. Natsu went out on a limb and guessed that Gray didn't want the whole world to know about the first abortion, so he skipped over that and didn't mention the specific time constraints Zeref had narrowed down for how the serum affected others. When asked why Gray would have accompanied Natsu to see Zeref in the first place, he couldn't explain that it was a construction complaint without making it apparent that Gray was exposed to the serum well before he became pregnant at the start of winter, so Natsu lied and said that they were much less steadily dating at that point, and Gray had thought he ought to have a better sense for what he was getting into with in-laws.
That earned a round of laughs. If you thought there was any credible chance of Gray agreeing to marry Natsu, then it was impressive he was still willing after fully realizing he had to take Zeref on as a brother-in-law.
He also skipped the detail of Zeref potentially being the father. Every major physical difference between Zeref and Natsu could be passed off as a feature of Gray's. If Zeref was the father, they could always pretend that the girl just took after Gray more, and if she was the same sort of dangerous genius, they could say it skip a generation.
When Natsu reached the part about Gray learning he was pregnant, he made sure to stress how utterly miserable Gray was with that fact, and how it was absolutely not acceptable to deliberately tease him for it. And if Happy could adhere to that then so could everyone else and he would personally pummel anyone who so much as thought about making Gray feel bad because Natsu tried really hard to make sure Gray pulled through his depression and he would not tolerate anyone sending him spiraling back down because they wanted to amuse themselves.
Once that was all taken care of, the rest of the story went easy. Gray's pregnancy, thank the heavens, had been an uneventful one thus far. The few steps taken to conceal it were more interesting than explaining how everyone was progressing as it should. The only other blip was Natsu mentioning that Mavis would most likely be the one to raise the child. Everyone had something to say about that, and Natsu had to stress that—yes, even if he wanted nothing more than to be his daughter's father, he was willing to let that go. Gray was terrified of parenthood, and it wouldn't work to force him to raise a girl he didn't ask for just because Natsu wanted her.
Natsu came close to saying just a little more. To mentioning that there was a chance things wouldn't go well. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Telling everyone else and letting them worry when even Gray didn't know felt wrong.
He resolved instead to ask Gray for permission to speak in more detail to Wendy. Because if there was any way to ease his pregnancy aches, she was their best bet. And if there was any way to keep labor from wrecking him, then she was their best bet there as well.
His explanation finished, Natsu retreated back to the kitchen to finish the fudge. He had a feeling that Gray would be in need of a pick-me-up.
-o-
Natsu found Gray in bed, curled up under the sheets. With the fabric over him, you could plainly see where the bump was. When Natsu pulled the sheets back, Gray still wore the illusion.
"I made fudge."
"I don't care."
"This is as fresh as it's gonna get without me making it in your kitchen."
"I'm not hungry."
Gray had missed lunch in all the drama, and it took a while to get everything squared away at the guild afterward. Natsu didn't believe Gray even before Gray's stomach grumbled.
"Sit up," Natsu ordered. "You can eat in bed if you want, but you're going to eat."
Gray glared up at him. "Because I'm eating for two?"
"Because you'll feel worse if you don't eat."
He left Gray lying there while he fetched a slice of fudge, then pulled him upright and held it up for him. Gray glared, but opened his mouth and let Natsu feed him the bite. Natsu decided it must have been payback that Gray's mouth closed over one of his fingers on top of the fudge. Gray just didn't have enough experience biting people to know you dug your teeth into them rather than running your tongue over their skin.
The fudge must have done the trick, because Gray's expression was less listlessness and more a supreme pout when Natsu withdrew from the room, face red, so flustered that he walked into the doorframe rather than smoothly escaping to the kitchen.
Confused as he was with what just happened, Natsu didn't need Happy hovering over him and snickering at how furiously he was blushing. But Happy was a social creature and Gray wasn't in a sociable mood, so Natsu it was that he hovered over and snickered at.
"He lllikes you."
"No. He's depressed again. And he blames me for it. What was he even doing talking to Juvia, anyway? Of course she was going to get all touchy-feely-grabby with him like that."
"It's just touchy-feely, Natsu," Happy said, but Natsu wasn't listening.
He seethed as he started on something more filling for Gray than fudge. Chopping at vegetables with enough force to leave deep gouges in the cutting board. Gray obviously knew she would do that, so why talk to her unless he wanted her to? Did he go see Juvia just to mess with him further? Was that what this was about? Act all lovey-dovey in public, then coy and flirty in private to make Natsu think it might not be an act, and then cozy up to some girl to knock Natsu down a peg whenever he thought there might be something there?
Was this payback for that New Year's kiss? Because that was not intentional, and Gray sucked if he was intentionally messing with Natsu.
"Natsu?" Happy asked.
Natsu glanced back at Gray's door to make sure it was shut, hand covering the lower half of his face as if it wasn't too late to hide his blush from Happy. He could still smell Gray's scent on his finger, and that homey scent was carrying Natsu's mind into dangerous territory.
"H-how far do you go when you're teasing someone?" Natsu asked.
"As far as I can without getting killed," Happy answer. "Why?"
"Okay. So… how far do you think Gray would go?"
"Gray isn't really the type to tease, is he? That's my thing."
"How about a prank?"
"That's your thing."
"Well, what's Gray's thing?"
"Not being open with his emotions and calling you stupid when your horse around."
So this was probably some setup to call Natsu stupid for thinking that Gray wasn't just pretending then. Because why would he be sincere, after what Natsu did to him? Why would he be especially after everyone found out about what happened to him?
"Natsu?"
"What?"
"He likes you."
"Does not."
"You should ask him."
"He was this close to murdering me back at the guild."
"That's better than how Lucy will be when she hears about the baby," Happy said. "She'll murder you for real."
Natsu recoiled, having completely forgot that there was anyone else he'd been in a relationship with, much less that it crashed and burned. Lucy thought his and Gray's relationship was real even before they tried to convince everyone that it was. Whether or not Gray was acting, there would be drama when next Natsu encountered her.
He bit his lip, looking to the window, as if she might be right there watching him stress over what his not-boyfriend's mixed messages meant.
"W-well, I'll have to make the most of what time I have left. Pray for me, buddy."
"Only if you make fish for dinner."
Natsu shook his head and swept chopped cucumber, onion, and tomato into a bowl. "Gray picks dinner."
"But—"
"No buts. Did you have to tell anyone you laid an egg today?"
"Gray didn't tell anyone he was pregnant."
"And I didn't tell anyone you were laying an egg on your behalf," Natsu replied.
Seeing that competing over Natsu with Gray was a losing battle, Happy sat down on the counter and sulked as Natsu salted and peppered his mix and tossed it with a little oil. Only as Natsu picked up the finished salad did he say, "Gray didn't ask for that."
"Gray will still eat it. It has cucumbers."
"Gray likes cucumbers?"
"He did yesterday." It was hard to predict what Gray would want. Sometimes Natsu made something on request, only for Gray to lose his taste for it by the time it was ready to eat. But despite the initial meltdown they caused, pickles were a steady hit, as was the brine from the homemade jars that Natsu had in mass production back at his shack. And while cucumbers weren't pickles, Natsu had never seen Gray turn them down either.
So he felt reasonably confident when he returned to Gray's room with the bowl of salad in hand and offered it to him. That Gray had remained sitting up only made Natsu feel better.
Until Gray looked down at the bowl and said, "That's not fudge."
"Of course not. You can't survive on nothing but fudge."
"We'll never know if you don't let me try."
"You can have more comfort food once you finish your salad," Natsu said, hoping that Gray didn't spend enough time with Asuka or the Redfox twins to notice that this was something you usually said to people much younger than Gray.
But Gray seemed to be in the mood to not act his age, because he opened his mouth while making no move to grab the bowl.
Natsu bit back a complaint. Gray was just exposed to everyone as pregnant, after all, and a little coddling wouldn't kill him while he came to terms with the day's events. Still, he was careful to hold his hand as far back on the fork as he could while he fed Gray. He wasn't about to attempt a repeat of that finger licking.
Gray obliged Natsu and ate every bite before reminding Natsu of his promise five minutes earlier for more fudge, and Natsu fetched him another slice. A comment about the little bit of pudge on Gray's cheeks from all the sugar he ate was bit back. Natsu was the one who enabled that sweet tooth, after all. And there would be better times to suggest that Gray maybe needed to at least get up and move around more if he was going to keep eating sweets.
He held this piece out for Gray to pick up, and Gray looked up at him expectantly.
"This feeding you thing had better not become a habit."
"My day turned out terrible," Gray said. "The kind of terrible that will follow me around for the rest of my life. Indulge me."
Natsu bit his lip and held the fudge up to Gray's. This time, there was no denying as Gray caught Natsu's finger between his lips and slowly released it that he was deliberate in his actions.
"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, all too aware of Happy watching from the door.
"Taking Juvia's advice," Gray said. "My day turned out terrible, so I'm taking whatever I can make up for it. Indulge me, alright?"
Natsu couldn't say no. Not when it was his fault Gray was pregnant, and he was the one to push Gray to admit that the jig was up. "Alright. Fine."
"Good." Gray grabbed Natsu's arm and pulled him closer. "Lie down with me."
"I-I need to… Dinner..."
"It can wait," Gray said. "I don't want anything for dinner unless you lie down with me for a while."
A while. Natsu could do a while. And he'd told Happy that dinner was what Gray wanted, so he had to ensure that Gray wanted something.
Natsu climbed over Gray and shot Happy a silencing look before lying down, and Gray flopped over beside him.
"Just stay like this," Gray muttered. "Let me pretend for a few minutes that that my life isn't a complete train wreck."
-x-
STA: that awkward moment when you make that character you hate the bigger person compared to the one you got nothing against because someone's gotta blow the lid on this conspiracy already.
ichika aono: Crap. I think I reused a joke without realizing it OTL. But yeah, I kinda made up an excuse not to add him, but the longer I went without him, the more I felt his absence.
Kori no Koibito: The tracks the Gratsu train must traverse are so long, you have to go through multiple tunnels to reach the endgame.
StuffyJinx: I guess I just prefer excruciatingly slow burns over the risk of nothing but fluff.
