Chapter 2: Smiling not Laughing

Natsu swallowed, his gaze still intensely focused on where Gray would appear to him. Slowly, he could see Gray's now slender hand place itself against the inside of the door and push it open further. The air was pregnant with anticipation as Natsu could hear the faint clicking of heals on the tiles.

And out stepped Gray.

The deep blue nightgown hugged his slender body tightly, accentuating his waist, hips and, well, his boobs. They were grande, glorious, slightly smaller than Lucy, more elegant, a deeply cut v-neck showed his cleavage to the finest and Natsu could just see the edges of Grays insignia in the same color of his dress peaking out from underneath the fabric on his breast. A split that started suggestively high on his thigh showed off one of his gorgeous silky legs, it seemed to make a promise of revealing the other one later at night - or possibly Natsu was just making up stuff now. Open sandal-like heels adorned his feet and showed off his pedicured and painted toenails the color of the deep ocean –somewhere a shade between the dress and his eyes. His hands, he now realized, as one was leaning on Gray's beautiful hips, sported the same color on their nails.
Natsu's eyes trailed upwards to find Gray's neck bare of anything. For some reason this shocked Natsu; he'd seen the ice mage naked tons of times but he'd never shed his necklace. Letting his gaze linger on the naked collar bones made a shiver run down Natsu's spine over how exposed and vulnerable it seemed. Protected by nothing.
He tore his eyes away from Gray's neck and up to his face; he'd kept his hair down, long, reaching down to cover his lower back, but had adorned it with a deep blue sparkling headband, the colour of his dress. Strands of hair framed his face and covered his forehead and fell just before his eyes. Those eyes, dark enough not to stray too far from his usual onyx but light enough to clearly be blue, accentuated by the darkened eyelashes and eyelids colored black that faded into his skin. His lips were plump and alluring, glossed over with a light pink lipgloss that made Natsu want a taste more than anything.

All in all, Gray looked positively ravishable. Somewhere, he figured, Gray resembled his sister Ultear, she was fierce and elegant as well. Or maybe even Ur, although Natsu had only seen her on pictures, she was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever laid eyes on. Gray was probably number one, as of now.

Under his stare, the porcelain doll came to life, shocking Natsu out of his state of awe. Gray moved over to Natsu, due to which Natsu noticed that, even with the short heals, Gray was now just a tad shorter than him, he grinned, knowing this.

"Stop grinning, you idiot. I told you; you're sleeping outside if you keep this up." He scolded, he picked the untied bowtie up from the bed and moved to stand in front of Natsu. Reaching out his hand he tilted Natsu's face up and fumbled around his neck.

Natsu could feel Gray's breath on his neck with how close they stood. He could smell the shampoo and perfume that Gray wore as well and he had to dig deep into his resolves not to wrap his arms around Gray's form and capture him forever.

He felt a slight tug on his neck and some more fumbling before Gray stepped back to look at him, "there, all done." He gestured with his hand towards the mirror so that Natsu could see for himself.
Natsu did as he was instructed and turned to the mirror, examining himself. He looked good in a tux, but he'd known that already. He stretched out his arm when Gray offered his jacket to him and let his friend and rival slip it on to his arms before he fixed it himself. "How do I look?"

For a second, he expected Gray to say something like 'stunning' or 'dashing' and he imagined he would say something alike to him. But Gray only huffed and rolled his eyes, "we're not here for the fashion show, Casanova, we only need to finish the job and go home."

"Of course." Natsu said, being brought back to the harsh reality that it wasn't some romantic James Bond movie and that beside him stood Gray, his annoying rival. He let his grin slip back onto his face when he turned back to Gray and said, "well, I think you look pretty, anyway."

He was rewarded with a pink hue pulling over Gray's face and a muttered: "asshole" to go with it.

Natsu briefly reveled in the feeling of victory before Gray sprayed something in his face. When he looked at the bottle, it appeared to be cologne. It smelled eerily familiar to the dragon slayer, though he was sure he had never seen that bottle before.

"It's mine." Gray said, "but you're going to need something and that body odor is not going to cut it." He sprayed again, this time on his chest instead of his face.

Natsu deeply inhaled the scent and nodded, that was definitely Gray.

"Well then," Gray said, "let me just hide Mirajane's magic charm somewhere and we'll be out." His skinny legs carried him back to the bathroom and when he came back he was holding something that looked like a tiny pink lacrima, he put it in a jewelry box that stood open on his nightstand and shoved the little black suede box underneath his matrass. Then he walked to the door and held it open for Natsu, "the heck are you waiting for?"

Natsu nodded quickly and jumped out the room so that Gray could close the door behind him. When they were out of the hotel, Natsu finally thought to ask his friend; "what kind of lacrima was that?"

Gray frowned at him, his thin and neatly plucked eyebrows fascinating Natsu, though the frown was clearly meant to scold him. "It's not a lacrima, Ash for Brains, it's a magic charm." He waited for a reaction but Natsu was clearly at a loss, "they're items that mages can store some of their magic in, making them magic items. It's basically what most treasures are, but these small charms only have enough magic for a couple of spells."

"Oh," Natsu said, then it dawned on him, "Oh! You're borrowing her transformation magic through that stone!"

Gray nodded with a small content smile on his face, as though he was a little proud at Natsu for figuring it out.

"Then shouldn't you keep it with you? Like, won't the spell run out if you leave it behind?"

Gray shook his head, due to which one long strand of soft hair fell over his shoulder, grasping both Natsu's and Gray's attention for a second, before Gray continued: "no, see, since it's just a small charm, it doesn't store enough magic to keep me transformed all night and to transform me again tomorrow night if the mission fails. So levy altered some things about it and now I only need to use some of the magic to permanently stay in this form until I use some of the magic to turn back again."
Now it was Natsu's time to frown, "isn't that dangerous? What if you lose the charm?"

Gray brought his slender hand up to his head and raked his fingers through the locks on his head, incidentally moving the strand over his shoulder back to his back. "Well, yes, I suppose. That's why I hid it and why I'm not taking it with me. But even if it gets lost it's still not that big of a deal, Levy and Mirajane could turn me back without too much effort."

Natsu smiled at the idea of getting to take female Gray all the way back to the guild, for everyone to see him as a girl by Natsu's side.

"Oi, asshole!" someone shouted from across the street. Both Natsu and Gray turned their way and found two middle aged man standing there together smoking cigars. "How about you take care of your girl, it's freezing outside!"

It took a second before Natsu realized what they meant, and he looked at Gray, who stood there with a lot of skin exposed. He could catch a cold, if it wasn't for the fact that Gray was an ice-mage and would've probably been standing here naked if he didn't have any boobs to protect right now. He looked a little closer to see Gray shivering –not from the cold, but from anger.

"Fucking dick, like I can't fucking take care of myself." Gray grumbled, his face on storm.

"Calm down, Gray." Natsu whispered, he waved at the people across the street to show them he had no ill will. He shook off his jacket and draped it over Gray's shoulders. "Here, they're right, I look like an asshole with you nearly naked in the cold beside me."

Gray just rolled his eyes, but let the jacket rest on his shoulders, "that's it," he said, giving a small nod to the large building ahead, the lights shone brightly through the big windows and the entrance which, with the red carpet and pillars at the sides, looked like a portal to heaven.

"Alright," Natsu said, he laid a hand in the small of Gray's back and nudged him forward. But Gray didn't budge.

"We can't go in together, you idiot." He said. Upon the confused and hurt look Natsu gave him he rolled his eyes, "remember the only way I'm here looking like a fucking woman is so that the target will try to get in my pants. He won't do that with Fiore's most infamous dragonslayer by my side."

"Oh," Natsu said, he wasn't just a little disappointed that he didn't get to pretend that Gray –gorgeous, sexy Gray- was his escort that night, but he shook it off. "Okay, then at least let me think of a name for you."

"A what?"

Natsu chuckled, "you're not going to charm any guys with a name like Gray Fullbuster."

Gray couldn't help but let a blush creep over his nose, he looked to the side. Natsu wondered if he was embarrassed about his name, or ashamed that he hadn't thought to use another.

"So, I was thinking, since your name is a colour and all, maybe we stay in that trend? Say, Ruby? Jade?" He gave Gray a once-over and a shit-eating grin spread across his face, "Raven."

Gray couldn't help but roll his eyes, but at least the name fit him, he supposed. "Fine, do you want to take a shot at the last name or can I go in, now?"

"How about Dragneel," Natsu said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and earning a stomp to his shoulder. He sighed, "okay, let's see," he tapped his finger to his chin in though, "Raven Redfox?" That was obviously a joke, "McGarden? Heartfilia? Raven Lockser?"

"Stop that. If I'm taking anyone's last name, I'd rather it not be anyone from the Guild."

"I know it's not really last name material, but maybe Mika?" Natsu said.

Gray snapped his head towards him, eyes popped all the way open and mouth hanging agape. "Wh-what did you just say?"

Natsu turned bright red, unsure if what he just said crossed way too many lines, "that… that's your mother's name, right? I'm sorry, I just thought… I'm sorry…" He relented, his heart beating fast at the shocked and hurt face Gray held.

Gray stared at him for a second, "how…?" but he never finished the question, though Natsu figured he wondered how Natsu knew. After all, the raven never talked about his birth mother and father, only ever about Ur. "Raven Mika…" He mouthed instead, right before his hurt expression turned into one of determination. Then he tugged the jacket off his shoulders with one hand and held it out to Natsu. He didn't say anything else before he turned around and strutted forward into the beautiful entrance.

"Raven Mika," Natsu whispered, looking at the way Gray's hips swayed with every step, he looked positively marvelous, enchanting. He stared until the other'd disappeared into the building before he proceeded to put on the jacket, the cologne Gray'd sprayed on it infiltrating his nose and cracking his face open into a wide smile. God, did he love this mission…

He hated the mission.

AN:

Disappointments ahead for Natsu! Please drop your comments -positive or negative- into the comment section, I feed off those!