This two-shot is dedicated to none other than Lorelei (Xx.Irrelevant.Trash.xX). It's her birthday today, so I figured I'd write something for her that she personally wanted to see from me. But before we get started I just want to say that she is easily the most beautiful, amazing, wonderful person I've ever met, and I wouldn't have made it through this long winter without her. She's always been there for me when I needed to talk about something, and she continues to be there for me in the highs and lows of life. Lorelei, I know you're reading this right now, I love you and I hope you have an absolutely amazing birthday.

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Part one: Natsu, a natural actor

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Natsu had always wanted to be an actor.

That was something he never told anyone, but it was true. He wanted to be on stage, to say some deep, moving lines that would have the audience in tears, and to captivate their attention with his bright, flashy costume and heroic deeds.

But of course, he was too afraid to try out for various character roles in local plays and musicals. He didn't think he could sing very well anyway.

His own stage fright before he was even on stage was starting to bother him. He desperately wanted to be courageous enough to play a main character in an upcoming reenactment of the play Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. The main character Cyrano was loved by all despite his freakishly large nose, and he was perhaps the most quixotic character known to literature. Natsu had read this particular play before, and the ending made him cry, so he knew he had to get the role of Cyrano. It was perfect.

He was confessing his troubles with theater to his boyfriend Gray just three days before the auditions.

"Ughhhh, I want to be in the play but I'm so scared!" Natsu groaned, plunking his head down on Gray's shoulder and pouting.

"You're such a child sometimes, you know." Gray ran his fingers through soft, fluffy pink hair. "And don't worry so much about it. You're a natural when it comes to acting. So just try out for the part and show them what you're made of, okay?"

"But... But what if they don't like me and give the part to someone else?" Natsu fretted, playing with the fabric of Gray's shirt in a nervous fit.

"Nat. Stop it. You're so anxious it's starting to stress me out." Gray scolded gently, smoothing his thumb behind the spunky fire dragon slayer's ear. "You'll never know unless you try. I'm pretty sure you'll get the part. You've got all that wonderfulness in you that Cyrano has. And your acting skills are perfection. Please, just give it a shot."

"But I don't want to do it by myself. I'm scared." Natsu complained, nuzzling his face into the crook of Gray's neck and pouting some more.

The ice mage sighed, slightly annoyed. "Oh, for crying out loud, you're being such a baby."

"Oh yeah?" Natsu turned to give him an absolutely venomous glare. "Well, I'm not as big a baby as you are."

"Fair enough." Gray laughed. "And if you really want, I can... Oh, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... I can try out for a part in the play too. I've read Cyrano before, and I think I'd make a pretty great Christian, don't you think?"

"Really? You'd do that? For me?" Natsu looked up at him again, eyes sparkling with childlike wonder.

"Yeah, I would." Gray decided, cupping Natsu's face and pressing a kiss to his nose, eliciting a giggle from the dragon slayer.

Natsu threw his arms around Gray and pulled him into a crushing bear hug, practically squealing with delight. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The entirety of Fairy Tail was shocked when they found out that both Gray and Natsu got roles as actors in the upcoming play Cyrano de Bergerac. Natsu was to be the protagonist, Cyrano. Gray was to be the antagonist, Christian. Master Makarov was extremely pleased with this turn of events, and decided that he'd pay for tickets for the entire guild to go watch the play when it came out in the theater.

Four months passed, and the performance day finally came.

Natsu was as nervous as ever because although he knew all his lines and all his actions, he was worried about the feeling of people's eyes on him. He didn't want to make a bunch of silly mistakes because people were... To put it blatantly... Staring at him.

"Relax, babe. You'll do great." Gray reassured, as they got into their costumes backstage.

"Oh, I'm so nervous. It's gonna be so weird at first, with all those people watching. And the entire guild will be out there too!" Natsu wrung his hands nervously, letting his ice mage fix up his cape.

"Yeah, exactly. Everyone will get to see how awesome and wonderful you are. Stop freaking out, it'll only make things worse." Gray kissed his forehead before stepping back to smooth down the wrinkles in his own costume.

"Alright, alright. I'll try." Natsu rolled his eyes and sat down on a log that was going to be used as a prop. "Hey, thank you for doing this with me. I never would've made it to the auditions if you hadn't practically dragged me there. And it'll be nice, performing the entire play with you."

"Anytime."

When the curtain rose on Cyrano's first scene, Natsu felt about as capable of acting as a carrot. But he still leapt right into it and started performing his lines, exactly as he had practiced them. The entire audience seemed to love him, clapping and cheering whenever he did something heroic, laughing when he said something clever, and crying when he got emotional over Roxanne.

Natsu didn't really feel like a natural actor until Gray came out for the first time and began playing his role as Christian. Suddenly all of the dragon slayer's stage fright vanished, and his true acting skills came out. He felt a lot more comfortable on stage, knowing that Gray was there with him, that his ice mage was going through the exact same thing he was. And eventually, by the time the play was halfway through and they were doing the balcony scene where Cyrano had to court Roxanne for a socially awkward Christian, Natsu found himself actually having fun.

Gray was a natural at acting too, strangely enough. He knew all his lines perfectly, and he was able to really get into character and express strong emotion through his voice and body language.

By the end of the play, as Cyrano sat and comforted Roxanne over a dying Christian's body, Natsu found himself falling even more in love with his precious Gray than ever before. Oh, it was perfect. The audience really seemed to love it. They all cried at the end, that was for sure. There wasn't a single dry eye in the crowd that night.

Finally, the curtain dropped and it was over.

Natsu, Gray, and all the other actors and actresses stepped back out to take a bow, as was tradition, and they were met by only cheers and wild applause. The audience loved them.

"Thank you for doing this with me." Natsu whispered to the ice mage, who stood beside him on stage.

"Of course. I had fun." Gray whispered back.

And somewhere in the crowd, Makarov was cheering the loudest.

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Part two: An Unexpected Proposal

Freed smiled up at his boyfriend Laxus as the theater quieted down. It had taken a full ten minutes for the applause to stop, even after the actors had disappeared backstage.

"That was incredible." the greenette remarked, voice soft and silky. "I had no idea our Gray and Natsu could perform like that."

"Heh. Me neither." Laxus replied, slipping an arm around Freed's waist and pulling him close. "When Gramps finally lets us leave, you and I should go for a little walk. Just the two of us." he suggested.

"Okay. Sounds good." the little rune mage nodded before resting his head on Laxus's shoulder trustingly.

Laxus had never been more in love with anyone in his entire life. He and Freed had been together for a year and a half now, and it was the best eighteen months of Laxus's life. The little rune mage was so sweet and gentle and so very interesting, never failing to surprise Laxus with how intelligent he was.

When Makarov finally got up and led all of Fairy Tail out of the theater to go home, Laxus took Freed's hand and led him away from their guild members. Nobody really payed much attention to them as they slipped away into the night. It was extremely dark out so Laxus made sure to walk along the sidewalk, where there were street lamps to illuminate their path.

He led Freed down to the docks, where there was a sidewalk running along the side of the ocean. It was beautiful at night, the water was so still that it reflected the full moon and the shimmering stars set into the obsidian sky far above their heads like a mirror. Freed kept his eyes turned skyward, those beautiful hazel orbs sparkling with fascination. He knew all the constellations by heart because he'd spent a lot of time stargazing as a child.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Laxus asked, looking down at his little rune mage.

"Yes, it's lovely." the greenette replied.

They kept walking for a moment longer before a loud boom got their attention, as well as a flash of bright colors off to their left, where the ocean was.

"Oh, right on time!" Laxus turned to the railing that kept them from walking right into the ocean, pulling Freed to a stop beside him. "Let's wait here a moment. You're gonna love this."

"What's going on?" Freed asked, but Laxus gestured for him to be quiet.

"Wait."

And so they did. They stood in silence for a moment before a shimmering beam of yellow light erupted from the ocean and exploded into the sky. It became a nebula of blue and purple that danced across the sky for a moment before fading into nothing. The look of absolute shock on Freed's face told Laxus that the little guy had never seen fireworks before.

As a red and gold firework replaced the last one and the sky was filled with bright colors as more and more fireworks joined it, Laxus glanced at his rune mage.

"So, what do you think?"

"What... What are those?" Freed asked.

"Fireworks. Aren't they beautiful?"

"Y-Yes... But... What are they for?"

"Well, I heard it's this super important person's birthday today. And that person's best friend took it upon herself to somehow magic those fireworks into exploding out of the ocean for her. As a birthday present, if you will." Laxus explained.

"Oh." Freed just looked even more confused now. "Well, I hope that important person has a wonderful birthday." he added, sweetly.

Laxus chuckled before taking Freed's hand again, this time getting down on one knee. Freed's eyes widened slightly as Laxus reached into his pocket and pulled out a wedding ring. It had a golden band, and large emeralds set into it, glittering faintly in the moonlight.

"Freed Justine, it would be an understatement if I just said that I love you. I love you so, so much. You're my everything, and you're so damn important to me. The entire world would be hopeless and bleak and colorless without you in it. And I know for a fact that you're that special someone I want to spend the rest of my life with." Laxus declared, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of Freed's hand. "Will you marry me and be mine forever?"

"L-Laxus..." all the color had drained from Freed's face. After a long moment of silence, he slowly nodded his head. "Yes. A thousand times yes."

Laxus smiled and rose to his feet, slipping the ring onto Freed's finger. It fit perfectly. The emeralds looked great against his pale skin.

As more fireworks exploded beside them, Laxus took the smaller man into his arms and kissed him passionately. Freed kissed him back without hesitation, slipping his arms around Laxus's neck.

It was so perfect. Everything was perfect.

The end.

Happy freakin birthday Lorelei!!! I hope you liked this! I'm sorry for how sloppy it is in some places, I tried really hard but adjectives kept failing me :(. But yeah I hope this makes for a good birthday present. Oh and one last thing:

Lovely

Obviously amazing

Radiant

Exciting

Likeable

Excellent

Incredible

Now read the first letter of every word :)

Happy birthday Lorelei, love ya and I hope you have an amazing day!!!

-UltimatexAdmin