Your words

I hissed with frustration as I entered the guild, practically seething with anger. A thin plume of smoke managed to escape the corner of my slightly parted lips. But I didn't care. It wasn't uncommon for me to express how angry I was in front of the entire guild hall, seeing as it wasn't like me to keep my emotions hidden. I existed loudly. Nothing would ever change that.

"Oh, hey, Natsu." a familiar blonde girl with pale skin and shimmering blue eyes asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Where the hell is Gray?" I snarled, clenching my fists tightly so my hands would stop shaking.

"He's... He's over there." Lucy hesitantly pointed toward the other side of the room. I quickly located Gray's alarmingly pale skin and raven hair. "Why? Is he the reason you're so mad right now?"

"Yes." I started toward the ice mage, but not before glancing over my shoulder at Lucy. "Do me a favor and don't tell Erza what you're about to see."

"I never do." Lucy grumbled, entirely to herself.

I stormed across the guild hall, pushing past Jet and Droy, ignoring harried greetings from Mirajane, and cautiously dodging a very angry Juvia, whom was glaring at me and muttering something about love rivals under her breath. It seemed the only person in the hall who could match my fiery anger was Juvia. But she never acted on it like I did. She would just stand there and let it boil inside her, rather than actually confronting the person who pissed her off like I did.

"Gray!" I snapped, once I was close enough for him to hear me. "You idiot!"

"Good morning to you too." the tall ice mage didn't even look at me, much to my outrage. "What's the problem, slanty-eyes?"

"The problem is you. You and your damn careless actions." I grabbed his arm (none too gently) and started dragging him toward the door. "I need to talk to you. Now. Let's go for a walk, no arguments." I seethed, between gritted teeth.

"You're so damn difficult sometimes." Gray rolled his eyes as he stumbled after me, trying to keep pace. I was walking pretty fast, to be completely honest.

When we finally made it outside, I kept dragging him along behind me until we made it a safe distance from the guild, far enough away that if any nosy wizards were to poke their heads outside, they wouldn't see us. Finally, I slowed down and took a deep breath, feeling all my faked anger melting away.

"There. Finally." I sighed.

Gray was very familiar with this routine so he immediately relaxed as well, knowing that I wasn't actually mad at him. I changed my grip on him, sliding my hand down his ice-cold arm so I could take his hand and lace our fingers together.

"Sometimes I don't like having to do this, ya know." Gray mumbled, leaning over to kiss the top of my head. "We shouldn't have to make a scene and storm off just to get some time alone together."

"I know, Snowflake. But I'm not ready to tell everyone about us. Not yet, anyway." I replied, dipping my head apologetically. "I'm really sorry, I know this wears you out."

"No, it's totally alright. For you, I can handle it." Gray told me.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry, okay?"

"Alright."

And so, we continued to walk in silence, hand in hand. Our relationship was more physical than verbal, we didn't whisper sweet nothings to each other like other couples might. We didn't constantly exchange "I love you's" and other such meaningless compliments. Because we both knew better than anyone that words meant nothing. They were just words. So we expressed our love for each other in actions. Because actions speak louder than words.

We hadn't even technically made our relationship official before, because we never verbally clarified that we were together.

It started as little things, like speaking to each other in a more gentle tone, not wanting to fight as often because we didn't want to hurt the other, or occasionally shyly holding hands under the table during lunchtime. But time went by, and now we were doing all the things couples did. We would hold each other, share passionate kisses, and just generally express how much we loved the other through physical touches.

Ice and fire, the two most fierce elements in the world, tangled together in a dangerous relationship that knew no limits and spoke no words.

Gray wasn't much of a talker anyway, I thought to myself. He was more introverted, shy and closed-off. That's what I loved about him. He was the perfect combination of all the right traits to combat my fiery temper, my intense extrovertedness, and all the other explosive things about me that made me the one and only Natsu Dragneel.

The fire dragon slayer and the ice-make wizard. What a fascinating, perfectly imperfect combination.

I kept walking, trusting Gray to follow me, for at least five more minutes until we reached where I wanted to be. A tall, gorgeous Sakura tree that stood in the middle of a desolate field with freakishly tall grass that reached up to my knees.

"Let's sit down." I glanced over my shoulder at my ice mage.

"Sure." he agreed, nodding slightly.

I looked up at the long, tangled brown boughs of the Sakura tree. The lime green leaves were barely visible beneath the pastel pink of the cherry blossoms, which were shedding their petals everywhere like pink confetti every time a pleasantly cool breeze whispered through the branches. I loved this tree, especially during the spring time when it was in bloom.

I sat down and eased back until my back was pressed against the rough bark of the tree, maneuvering Gray between my legs so he was lying on my chest. He tucked his head up under my chin and closed his eyes, perfectly content to just lay there and relax.

I stroked his soft, silky black hair, tucking loose strands behind his ears and combing my fingers through the unruly locks. There were so many things I wished I could say to him.

Beautiful. Wonderful. Amazing. Gorgeous. Perfect. My everything. The best thing that ever happened to me. My love. The light of my life. My Snowflake. You mean so much to me, but those are so many words I can't bring myself to say.

Gray knew why I liked to keep our relationship physical rather than verbal. Words were sweet and beautiful and brought happiness to the soul, but they were also weapons sharper and more dangerous than knives that could be used to hurt, kill, and destroy. Many times I had been the target of manipulation and bullying because I was both gullible and way too trusting when I was a little kid. I thought everyone only said what they meant.

So now I hated words, to put it blatantly. I didn't trust them, didn't want to believe them.

I asked Gray to never verbally tell me that he loved me so he won't have lied to me if we ever break up. And so I wouldn't feel as though he betrayed me. I was being selfish, protecting myself from heartbreak like that, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to trust his words, so I asked him not to say them at all.

"Natsu?" Gray called out.

"Yes, Snowflake?" I glanced down at him, still absentmindedly playing with his hair.

"I know you asked me not to and I promised I wouldn't but... Please? I need to say it. I really need to." he said, pleadingly.

My eyes widened slightly. He wanted- no, he needed to tell me that he loved me. But I couldn't believe useless words, so I thought about it for a moment. Was I ready to trust him with so much? Speaking is something people take for granted, but to me it was something much more.

Gray would never lie to me.

Finally, I slowly nodded my head. "You may."

The way his whole face lit up made my heart melt because, in that moment, before he even spoke those sweet words that meant nothing, I knew he meant it. That he wasn't lying. That maybe his words had meaning, maybe they weren't just nothing at all. They weren't beautiful lies.

"Natsu... I love you. I am in love with you. I can't think of any other person in the world I'd rather be with than you. You've made my life better in so much more ways than one, and I don't care if we have to keep our relationship a secret if only it means I get to be with you." he said.

There they were. Those words he promised he'd never say. But they were exactly the words I needed to hear. I just didn't know it until he said them.

I tightened my grip on him and buried my face in his soft black hair, inhaling deeply and taking in his sweet peppermint scent. Only Gray smelled like that. It was what I loved about him. I knew it was my turn to speak, to say those words I knew I meant with all my heart, but could never get out of my throat until just now.

"I love you too, Gray."

The end.

-

How's that for something cute and fluffy? I figured it was about time I wrote another Gratsu one-shot, seeing as that ship is so cute it is still my number one OTP in Fairy Tail. Speaking of FT, I'm sorry I haven't been writing as much for that particular fandom lately. Really I am. I've been caught up in watching MHA and writing for MHA, and I've also been really into Bofuri lately, am considering writing something for that too. I'll try to get back into writing for Fairy Tail as soon as possible, I promise. Hope you enjoyed this one-shot! Much love!

-UltimatexAdmin