Note: If you're celebrating, happy Easter :)
"You're looking kind of hot," Gray said casually.
"Why, thank you," Lucy said dryly.
Gray raised an eyebrow, and Happy snickered.
"Fine, fine, the sex appeal still isn't working." Lucy scowled and fanned at her reddened face. "And I wouldn't be, if someone didn't insist on trying to torch the guild to the ground every time he walked inside," she said with a pointed look in Natsu's direction. "It's winter and it's still somehow one hundred degrees in here."
"It can't be anything over like eighty-five," Natsu said as he blithely attacked his lunch. Lucy's glare intensified.
"Let me help you out," Gray said. He produced a handful of ice cubes with a flourish and dropped them into Lucy's drink. They clinked against the glass and bobbed to the surface.
Lucy's mouth dropped open. "Whoa, I thought you needed to use your hands for molding."
"Yes," he agreed with a polite smile.
"But you didn't!"
"Do it again," Erza demanded, finally taking an interest in the proceedings. She leaned across the table to stare at Gray's hands with narrowed eyes and the concentration of a hunter stalking its prey.
Gray obliged and produced another handful of ice cubes with a flourish. He lifted his hand, fingers balled into a loose fist with the back of his hand facing the team, then held it out and uncurled his fingers to reveal the ice cubes nestled in his palm. They splashed into Lucy's glass and filled it to critical capacity, pushing a small amount of water overtop the rim to puddle on the table.
No one could spot his telltale molding gestures. The only movement was his hand rising, curling into a fist, and opening again. His other hand stayed at his side.
"How odd," Erza said, her mystification written all over her face. "How are you molding without the hand gestures?"
"It's a new skill," Gray said serenely.
Natsu was less than impressed. "Can you do anything cooler than a couple of ice cubes?"
An ice hammer dropped out of the sky to bonk him on the head. Perhaps a bit smaller than usual, but impressive nonetheless. Gray's hands remained on the table top in loose fists, no movement visible.
"Wow," Lucy said as Natsu cursed and grumbled. "That's really cool. How long did it take you to master that?"
Gray smiled a little sheepishly. "Too long and it's hardly perfect yet, but I'm working on it. I figure it might come in handy for situations that require more subtlety."
"Subtlety?" Happy asked. "Are you ever subtle?"
"I guess probably never, but at least I can if I need to be. Or if my hands get immobilized, it would be nice to still have a way to defend myself."
"I suppose that's fair enough," Erza said, her face still creased in puzzled lines. "At least you are improving your abilities and teaching yourself new skills. We should all do that. Maybe we should have a training camp!"
Everyone else around the table groaned in unison.
"Well, there is one other reason," Gray said. "I can't wait to see Lyon's face."
Lyon's face was priceless.
"Impossible!" he said. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"
"Although the only proper molding is two-handed, it seemed prudent to learn something less intensive in case my hands are ever disabled," Gray replied. "So I'm perfecting zero-handed molding."
Lyon looked at the spot where the ice lances had hit the wall of his guild and then back at Gray, eyes wide and shiny with disbelief.
"There's no such thing!" he declared. "You're obviously moving your fingers, it's just hidden inside your fist. But that's not enough for proper molding, not of this magnitude. Not of any magnitude. There's some trick. Some sleight of hand."
That Gray had travelled all the way to Lamia Scale to show off this baffling new trick would be enough to rankle anyone's pride. Not to mention the fact that it was impossible.
"I've been picking up lots of new things," Gray said. "See?"
He made that curious motion again, raising and then extended his fist before flipping it palm up and uncurling his fingers. A small ice bird sat in his palm. It shook out its wings and hopped off his palm to swoop through the air.
Lyon's jaw hit the ground. "But you've never been able to figure out dynamic molding!"
Gray smirked, then winced as his bird began winging in wobbly circles like a drunken sailor and crashed to the floor in a hail of icy splinters. "Well, I'm not very good at it yet. The results aren't as good as with two-handed molding, either. Anything less than two-handed is still unbalanced and not as powerful, although handy in a pinch. But I'm learning. I'm going to be better than you at dynamic too."
"You will not! How are you even doing that?"
Gray smiled beatifically. "Magic."
Lyon looked at him like he'd just said something very obvious and moronic. "Well, obviously."
Gray just laughed.
"I can't believe we aren't getting a white Christmas this year," Lucy complained.
This had been a bone of contention all day, and a matter of anxiety for several days previous. The weather forecast had predicted temperatures too warm for snow, and there was no rain in sight even if the temperature dropped low enough. It felt cold enough for snow, but it was Christmas afternoon and there was no snow to be found.
"Very disappointing," Erza sighed. "We haven't gotten very much snow this year."
"And good riddance," Natsu grumbled. "I don't see the appeal."
"It's fun," Happy insisted.
Lucy puffed out her cheeks and stared out the window glumly. "I have a lot of fond memories of white Christmases. I used to go out with my mom to build snowmen and make snow angels, and then come back inside for hot chocolate."
"You don't know what you're missing out on," Gray agreed, rolling his eyes in Natsu's direction. "We always had white Christmases in Isvan. I mean, it pretty much snowed year-round, but still. All my best Christmas memories are in the snow."
"I just think it's beautiful," Erza said wistfully.
"And making snowmen is fun," Happy added.
Natsu was not convinced. "If you say so."
They gave up on him. He had never been a reasonable creature.
It was maybe twenty minutes later when Lucy shot up from her seat and rushed to the window.
"It's snowing!" she cried in amazement.
That caused a stir in the guild, and everyone made a rush for the door or windows. Except for Natsu, who still did not seem enchanted, and Gray, who rose from his seat and drifted toward the window but hung back behind the crowd.
"I can't believe it," Erza said. "It's not cold enough. There wasn't any precipitation. The weathermen said we wouldn't get any snow."
"The weathermen were wrong!" Happy whooped as he zoomed out the door over the heads of all the other guild members streaming outside.
"Aren't you coming, Gray?" Lucy asked, dropping back. Her eyes shone like stars, wide with excitement. "Isn't it wonderful? It's a Christmas miracle!"
Gray smiled and kept one hand tucked behind his back as Lucy grabbed the other and tugged him outside to revel in the miraculous snowfall.
"Just like magic," he said.
Note: Okay, yeah, it was originally in "Words". But it was so much fun that I moved it out :) No clue where the idea came from, but it's such a cool word and silly fic lol
emmahoshi: Okay, let's be honest. If Gray came up with a new trick, he would immediately show it off to everyone in as annoying a way as possible lol The boys are like that. Oh, yeah. We're the lone member of Team Fahrenheit over here LOL Usually it's pretty hot, but we got hit with the big ice storm this year. We actually got snow the first day that stuck and then it froze over and lasted a few more days. Not sure I'd want to live with ice year-round, but a little bit of snow is nice.