Okay, I thought about the previous chapters on this shipping dump and came to the realisation that I should probably put the names of those who had their requests completed. So from now on i'll include the name of the person who requested the current chapter.

1: Gray/Mirajane (Myself therefore irrelevent)

2: Guest - Gray/Erza

3: Asolute-ZERO999 - Gray/Ultear

4: Unknown – Gray/Cana

5: Various People – Gray/Erza 2

6: AveAtaqueVale – Gray/Lucy

7: Yungsun – Gray/Wendy (Platonic)

8: Hiraethe – Gray/Natsu (Platonic)

9: NighrWing – Gray/Irene

10: Fallingxoxo – Gray/Erza/Lucy

11: Guest – Gray/Levy

12: AbsoluteZERO999 – Gray/Ur

And that's that. XD And this chapter was requested (a while ago) from 'Nalu Nalu Nalu'. So, I apologise it has taken me this long to get to it, but here's to you, my dude! Sorry, if the storyline is a little obvious here, but if I can make it interesting enough then i'll consider it a job well done.

Chapter: 13 – Gray/Lisanna (and your side-order of Nalu ;) )

:::-(())-:::

Her head slumped into her hands, breath hot against her forearms and eyes closed tightly to try and give herself less of the outside world, of reality to take in.

She couldn't watch this, not now. Not in front of the guild hall, with everyone cheering and clanking their drinks together, celebrating what she feared since her return to her home-world. Every night she spent up and awake, unable to fall asleep due to the sheer prospect of this very thing she was almost forced to witness along with everyone else's obliviousness.

It wasn't very easy to make Lisanna Strauss come undone at the seams, given that her sister was a sinful beauty that took advantage of that fact and had a good career made out of it. She had grown used to the leering gazes of men and women alike being directed to her sister, who was nonplussed by the stares which in turn helped her grow the same thick skin.

In fact, one of the only times that she had actually given a damn about anybody's thoughts of her was with the same man who had his arms around another women right now. The same man and woman who have become the very thing being celebrated tonight.

She let out a quiet groan before sinking further into the table, unable to pick her head back up as she listened to the sounds of laughter growing ever closer to her. Immediately her brain recognised the voices, her body tensing to the point of frigidness soon after.

'Oh god, why must you two torment me?' Her mind whirled around like a whirlpool as she tried to prepare herself for what would likely be the most difficult next few minutes of her life. She promised herself that she wouldn't lose it, not with him, not with her.

After-all, she should have realised that this trend of hers wasn't going to end anytime soon.

"Hey, Lisanna!" The overly cheerful (and suddenly grating) voice of Natsu pierced her inner silence like a harpoon to the skull. His unfiltered joy feeling like a metal baseball bat being swung at her head with every inflection. There was a damn good reason she chose to sit at the very back of the guild, shrouded by the S-Class balcony above. It drew little to no attention to her or her plight.

But Natsu, being the incredibly social person he was, found her like she was standing in front of a lighthouse's beam. There was no hiding from the pain he wished to cause her.

Steeling herself, she looked up and put on her practised smile…

"Hi, Natsu!" She chirped, almost wincing at how robotic she sounded. She silently thanked whatever gods were looking over her as Natsu didn't notice a thing.

"I can't believe it, Lissie." She tried her best not to flinch at the once affectionate nickname. "She actually likes me back… Her. Lucy! SHE actually likes me!"

His voice was pure, radiating a sickly glee that made Lisanna want to die inside.

She smiled sweetly at him, forcing herself to be happy for him.

"I knew she did." She was veryaware of that fact. "You were all she would go on about for the last few weeks after-all."

"R-Really?"

"Oh yeah, it was kind of annoying actually." She laughed, hating the falseness of it.

She briefly looked away from him and to the bar, seeing Juvia pressing herself up against Gray, asking him when he was going to do what Natsu did for her. She held back a small giggle at the Ice Mages annoyed expression accompanied by a blush, though she could understand why. Juvia never really cared what she was pressing against his body most of the time, and if she did, then she didn't care.

Then the spiteful smack of jealousy hit her like a truck, making the usually hilarious scene more bittersweet than anything. The way Gray acted towards Juvia's fruitless advances was what she had always been hoping for from Natsu. Obviously not in the way Gray did it of course. Gray was… Too honest with his feelings on Juvia at the best of times.

But was it so bad to want Natsu to look at her like Juvia looked at Gray? To look at her instead of Lucy?

She was used to this kind of outcome eitherway. If anything, such a reality of anyone being interested in her was something that would have surprised her in fact. She knew how to feel, how to act and how to generally be the grey-woman. Unnoticed and forgotten by all but her family.

She was always second to her sister, who had a career, admiration and a hopeful future beyond Fairy Tail if need be. Her sister, who was more caring than her, more outgoing, more powerful, more sexy… Mira was just her but better in everyway. She deserved that success.

This was the exact same thing, but instead of Mirajane, it was her Unannounced love rival: Lucy Heartfillia. Someone she considered a good friend and even family. She wasn't angry with her, no, she hoped that Natsu and her were happy with eachother. She was used to this, as soon as she even saw Lucy and talked to her she knew that she was outclassed yet again by someone better than her.

But it didn't stop her bitterness, it couldn't stop her bitterness.

"Lisanna?"

She was always shafted, always put to the side. Her looks, her personality, they were always lesser to someone out there. Someone who would always make their way into her friends/ families lives. Taking their attention away from her.

"Lisanna."

Once… Just once she wanted to feel like she was the one that mattered most, as selfish as it sounded.

Was that too much to simply ask for?

"Lisanna!" Natsu waved his hands in front of her face, a glimmer of concern present on his face.

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she gave a sorry smile to Natsu before getting up from her seat. An apology on her lips.

"Sorry about that, Natsu. I think I need to take some time outside, it's a little too hot in here tonight." She gave him one last smile before taking her leave, unaware of the set of eyes following her.

She briefly heard Natsu muttering about it being winter but decided against saying anything in return, afraid that she'd do something she'd regret. She needed the outside, the fresh air, anything but Natsu or Lucy or even Mirajane.

Right now, all she wanted to do was have some time to process everything and mourn the loss of one of the only people who gave her the feeling of being something more than a second fiddle.

When she opened the door to the balcony the cold winter air hit her hard, instinctively making her pull her thick coat around herself a little tighter than normal with a huff. She plodded sulkily to the edge of the balcony, taking in the amazing sight of the town during its Christmas rush. The colourful hue of reds, blues, yellows and greens merging together, creating a rainbow that formed a dome around the town, separating it from the clear dark blue sky above with its many stars dotted upon it like a blank canvass.

Thankfully, the wind wasn't too strong, so she didn't have to brush her hair out of her face too much, though her focus was clearly on the ground below. The people below milling around, laughing, shopping and generally having a nice time with their lives, free of stress for the holiday season.

God she wished she could feel that way right now. Not even for the reason many would expect.

"I shouldn't feel this way." She whispered to herself, small tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. "Damn it, why do I feel like this?"

Lisanna growled a little to herself, a thing that Mirajane has said was very un-ladylike and her brother calling it 'manly'. She couldn't stop that awful feeling of hurt from welling up in her chest.

Why did she have to have these feelings? She should feel happy for Natsu, for Lucy. It wasn't like they were going to start ignoring her, she had been told this more than enough times. The worse thing was that she believed this to be true, thus she had no clue as to why she still felt so overwhelmingly bitter about it and she wanted it to stop.

Suddenly, a pair of arms snaked there way around her waist in that all too familiar way she was used too, making all of her bitter thoughts, all her rainclouds and stresses evaporate for a small second. She should've known that he wouldn't have been oblivious to her problem. He cared for her more than she cared to admit to herself.

She still wondered to this day if she deserved his care, his affection, especially with matters like this. But she also knew that he knew and understood her more than she even she knew. When she couldn't put her thoughts and feelings into words, he could. When she didn't know what to do to take her mind off of everything, he swooped in and save her emotions from the terrible indecision.

He was quickly becoming her everything, even if days like this occurred, he always stuck by her side and never let her go through them alone.

'I definitely don't deserve this.' She thought warmly. But his presence gave her more bravery than she knew.

"I thought i'd find you up here." Gray's distinctive baritone met her ears, fighting away her fears. She could feel his smile on her neck and he leaned head against her shoulder. A gesture to let her know that was there, something he had quickly developed a habit for doing.

She couldn't help but lean her head on the top of his.

"Mmm..." She groaned shortly. Her eyes unable to meet his, settling for the view instead.

"Sorry it took me a while, but you know how Juvia is." He sighed. He really didn't like having to wait a little while to get here, but his stalker was very persistent.

"It's fine, Gray. I can't expect you to be here all the time, especially with your situation." She turned herself around in his arms, leaning against the balcony and letting him have some room to move. She was correct, he was part of Team Natsu, he was likely stuck at the table with his team as they took turns congratulating and messing around with the new couple. That and the whole commotion the two caused likely threw Juvia into a frenzy.

"Maybe, but I am still your boyfriend. I am allowed to worry, right?" He replied with a smirk. Watching as her face flushed a little. Even after all this time, she still wasn't used to being someone's number one person in the world.

It had been a month since they started actually going out and six months since they had started talking properly since she got back. The situation between them had been similar, she was sad to see that the world had moved on without her, especially Natsu and he was bitter that Erza couldn't see how unhealthy Jellal was for her.

Common ground was always a good place to start getting to know someone, especially someone you already knew but hadn't talked to in some time. Quickly, they had become friends, helping eachother beat out their little problems with the world and their place in it.

Some time after, though Lisanna couldn't point to where it began, she began to feel funny around the Ice Mage. Her stomach would get butterflies around him, his smirks would have a rage inducing effect on her where her face would turn slightly red and turn her brain to mush, though she quickly found out that Gray was in the same situation as her.

And bish-bash-bosh, two months after they were together and Lisanna couldn't believe her luck. Even if her mind would refuse to shut up about how inferior and undeserving of his love she was. Gray had once told her that whatever was telling her those things was an asshole, a lying asshole, that she was no burden, no more inferior than Gramps was young, which got a laugh out of her when the guild master had somehow caught wind of that comment and chewed Gray out in his outrage in front of the guild.

"Hey..." His voice took her out of her thoughts, as it always did. Sh looked into his eyes and saw a life there, a spark. She loved it, though she wasn't going to feed his ego by telling him that. "Next month, the team want to take a break from work, especially after the massive haul we made last week."

"Oh?" She responded, eyebrows raised. Team Natsu usually never got big hauls, mostly due to Natsu and Erza smashing everything in the town up during the process of their jobs. To have a massive haul this time meant that they hadn't been as destructive.

"Yeah, amazing, I know." He chuckled, making her smile a little. "Anyway, I was planning on taking a couple of request to last a few days. I was wondering if you would like to come along with me to finish them? Nothing too hard, I swear."

She froze a little. Was he asking her to go out with him?

"I mean, if you don't want to, then you don't have to." He mumbled, his eyes a little wary, wary of her response.

Though he clearly wasn't ready for her attack hug, stumbling as she somehow managed to build up enough momentum in the tiny space of him arms to almost knock him over.

"Yes! I would really love that!"

He laughed, wondering how she could be so precious.

"Great I was hoping you'd say that…" His nervous chuckle only made his request more sweet for her. To think that someone thought of her so fondly. Although she realised how taxing it could be to be so important to someone, she wouldn't trade what she had here for the world.

'Let the bad days come, they won't stop me… Not as long as I have you here with me.' She thought, smiling as she let go of Gray.

"We should probably get back to the others, eh?" He turned on his heal to walk back through to the guild. Noting that she was budging. "We don't have to announce our status yet either." He grinned as she went to flip him off but thought better of it.

"I think everyone's had enough excitement for tonight. Maybe when we come back from our job week." She gave him a little glare, though there was no heat in it. Though she huffed when he laughed at her attempt at scaring him.

"I'll see you later then."

"I'll be back in 10 minutes."

:::-(())-:::

It has been a while since I have been able to complete a chapter of anything in one day. I am proud of that, hopefully it keeps up.

So that was Gray/Lisanna. I apologise if things got a little confusing, I hope the subtext holds up. XD

-Viperhat