A/N: So I lied everyone. I don't know how many chapters this will be but it definitely won't be 3 or 4.

This is a filler chapter where we meet some more people and goof off some. We'll always being doing that in this story.

Thanks for the love (reviews, favorited and follows), it's very appreciative. I saw how a lot of you followed and I stared at all of your names like 'bitch, they're waiting for your updates. start updating.' so I did. And I'll try to keep them quick as possible. Bear with me. :)

"Good morning class!" Macarov cheerfully greeted the group of teens standing around him. "Today is day one of our special riding program, who's excited?"

It was eight in the morning, of course he received annoyed or tired blank looks. Macarov waved off the silence and chuckled. "The mood will lighten up eventually! Hopefully..." He muttered that last part to himself before beaming and clapping his hands together.

"The program lasts four weeks and each week for seven days, you all will be working about horses, learning about horses, training and doing just about every little thing with horses. The first week you will not be riding any horse, sadly. Instead you will be learning about them. A whole lot. So by the second week, you'll know all you need to know and will be assigned to a horse." Macarov began pacing in front of his group.

"The horse you recieve will temporarily be your horse. For the second and third week you will spend time getting to know your horse and ride it. Groom it, feed it, hose it down after extended hours of riding. The fourth week won't be filled with work but fun little competitions. Everyone will participate and when the last day of the fourth week ends, you will use your skills in our rodeo. Barrel racing, jumping, etcetera. It's an annual thing we have after complete special programs. Now that I've talked all of your ears off, I'll be handing you all over to Mirajane."

Macarov stepped aside as a gorgeous silver haired woman stepped forward, a gentle smile on her face. "Hello everyone, my name is Mirajane and I'll be your first week instructor. Master didn't explain this but for each week you'll have a new instructor." the woman smiled around at her audience. "With the little time we have I won't waste much time but let's introduce ourselves, okay? Name, age and if you ever did horse back riding. You all know that I'm Mirajane but Mira is just fine. I'm 20 years old and have been riding horses since I was five."

She gestured at the end where a red hair vixen like teen stood. "Name, age and if you ever rode."

After introductions were made Mira clapped her hands together happily. "I'm so excited for our day! Shall we begin?"

"My head hurts just thinking of the word 'horse'." Lyon muttered to Gray as they walked to the cafeteria.

"Tell me about it. Who knew one animal had so much going on." Gray closed one eye, leaned back slightly in his walk and sighed, hand stuffed in his pocket. Mirajane was sweet, but jeez could she talk his ear off. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Wouldn't I have stopped going in this direction if it were the wrong way?" Lyon retorted and Gray snorted, turning his head to the side. "I've eaten here already, breakfast remember?" The silver haired brother paused as he thought sarcastically. "OH yeah, you don't because your dumb ass over slept. You're lucky I came back for you or you would have missed all the wonderful facts about horses."

Gray rolled his eyes. "I would have survived without knowing every little detail."

Lyon led them to a set of navy blue doors and pushed them open. The sound of loud chatter entered Gray's ears as he stepped in the big room after his brother. Long tables with connecting benches lined half of the room. Most of them were occupied by the rest of the teens taking the program.

The brothers walked past a couple of them to get in the food line and Gray spotted some of the students that stood out to him. One was the red head. Her name was Flare and she seemed... unique. The other was a guy who seemed to have taken a liking to Lyon. His eye brows were the craziest shape though. Gray thought they might start growing on the guy's forehead. The name was forgotten but Gray thought he seemed okay.

"Like anyone here so far?" Gray asked Lyon as they both piled their trays with food. The two then proceeded to the checkout line where a couple of people were already waiting. One of them, a blue haired girl, took a step back just as Gray walked up and accidentally bumped into him.

"Oh excuse me, I didn't mean-"

"Hey you okay there?-"

The girl and her companion who was Gajeel the brother's just noticed turned around to face them. Gajeel just gave them a nod while the girl had a full throttle blush covering her pretty face as she stared at Gray with watery eyes.

Gray noticed and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't sweat it. Um," the raven haired teen took in the girl's clothes and recognized them to be riding gear. "You ride? Are you taking the program too? I don't think I saw you... but if you are, I'm sorry. I'm Gray and this is Lyon," Gray paused when he said his brother's name and looked at him, eye brows raised. Lyon was staring at the girl like she was steak drowned in sizzling sauce. Gray thought he even saw him lick his lips.

The youngest Fullbuster sighed. "Wow..." he mumbled. But then realized... that the girl was kind of looking at him like that. "Uh."

"Juvia! There you are!" a familiar voice rang out. The cafeteria quieted down as Lucy, Erza and a girl who had Mirajane's hair strutted in. All eyes were on them. The ladies also wore riding clothes and Gray could see that they were all dirty. Gorgeous, but dirty. And, he took, slightly heavily breathing.

Juvia, the bluenette, dragged her eyes off Gray and stared at the approaching girls. "Uh, y-yes?" she asked. She noticed the girl's appearance and asked, with a voice slightly more urgent, "What is it?"

"Rain got out and won't come to us. We tried everything-"

"Believe me." the girl who resembled a lot to Mira cut over Lucy's talking. The blonde nodded.

"It's only because Rain listens to Juvia." Erza added. She looked at the bluenette. "Wendy is watching her so we could come tell you. Our concern was if we left her alone, she'd wander off."

"Yet here you all are." Gajeel's rough voice cut in. He held two trays in one hand and took Juvia's from her with the other.

"We had to put our horses up or they'd be loose too. Wendy just happened to be in the area so she didn't mind." Lucy explained. Gajeel just grunted as he paid for Juvia's lunch.

"Just go get your damn horse." he told her. She smiled gratefully at him before turning to follow the girls. Juvia passed the brothers but not before casting a shy, flirty smile at Gray. Then she was gone.

"Her."

Gray startled at Lyon for suddenly speaking. He gave his brother a confused look. "What?"

"You asked if there was anyone I liked so far."

Gray scrutinized his face up as he tried to remember. Once he did he made a face. "You're such a moron." But Lyon wasn't listening, he was talking to Gajeel about Juvia and Gray could tell by the deep scowl on the pierced rider's face he was non too happy about the advances his idiot brother had for her.

He sighed and stepped up to the counter when the other two walked away. After buying his food he found a deserted table and sat down. Gray unwrapped his sandwich and took a hefty bite out of it before letting his thoughts bring him to Natsu. He hadn't seen the pinkette since last night and frankly, that was too damn long of a gap for him. Natsu told him he lived in the apartments but Gray didn't know which one or to even get there if Natsu was there.

Actually, Gray doesn't know at all what Natsu will be doing while he's taking the program.

'Is he going to be one of the teacher's?' Gray pondered this as he chewed his food slowly. 'Ha, that's funny. I'm done for the day.. I'll go find him after lunch.' With that decision, Gray took another big bite of the sandwich. He was in the middle of swallowing when the cafeteria door's jolted open with a loud bang. Once more the room went to hush mode as more experienced riders came in, Natsu included.

There were four of them, not including Natsu. One was a loud neon blue and white haired teen who was talking animatedly with Natsu. Trailing close behind (very, very close Gray noticed) Natsu was a silent black haired teen. Following the trio were two others, another blue haired teen though his hair was much darker than the other's, and a chestnut colored hair teen who wore glasses. Surprisingly none of them (even Natsu which surprised Gray) wore riding clothes. They wore normal street clothes and damn, Gray thought Natsu couldn't look better in grey sweat pants and a white hoody.

"-and then Master was all like 'My time is not to be wasted' or some shit like that and then he yelled at this dude over the phone and Pantherlily and I were like 'OMG' because Master never loses his cool-" the happy blue and white haired teen was gushing when Natsu cut in.

"Unless you fuck him or us over. Hn, that guy is dumb threatening Gramps like that. Sabertooth-" Natsu stopped when the dark haired teen behind him tugged his hoody sleeve. Natsu stared at him before tilting his head around until he spotted Gray. Gray blinked when the other caught him staring and was beginning to try and play it off when a huge beam spread over Natsu's face (a slight blush as well). The pinkette left his group and sped over to Gray.

"Gray!" he greeted, passing a table with a couple of the other teens in the program. All kept their eyes glued to the energetic Natsu when he walked by, some even staring at his moving ass. Natsu plopped himself down next to the raven haired male. "How did your first day go?! I wanted to come and spy but Gramps had me all over the damn place doing this and doing that. Ugh. I really wanted to see you."

That had Gray smirking even though inside he was relieved he wasn't the only one who felt that way. "Oh really. That much, huh." He laughed at the blush Natsu formed and gently nudged the rider's shoulder. "Don't worry, I wanted to see you too." Natsu smiled at him. "What did you have to do?" Gray asked, not minding when Natsu took the sandwich from him and ate a bite.

"Ugh. Believe me when I say everything. Every start of a program, we have a rodeo at the end, you know?" Gray nodded. "Yeah, so we have this committee thing where at the very beginning of the program, we start getting the rodeo ready."

Gray raised a brow as Natsu took another bite. "Isn't the rodeo at the very very end though?"

"That's what I've been saying!" Natsu exclaimed, some crumbs spewing from his slightly parted mouth. Gray eyed a few that landed on the outer part of Natsu's lips and the corner of his mouth. "I don't understand," the pinkette continued. "But anyways, that's basically all I do. Clean poles, the barrels, just get tidy for the rodeo. And it's tiring as fuck." Natsu whined, letting his head fall back. "I want to come see you and know what you're doing because it sure as hell more fun than what I have to do."

He took another bite. "This is the best sandwich ever."

"Yeah, and you can go get your own instead of eating his." a new voice chimed in. It was the chestnut haired teen with the glasses. Donned in black leather pants, a green choppy top and a vest, he was quite the looker to Gray. He plopped himself across from the aforementioned and gave him a friendly smirk. "You must be Gray Fullbuster. I'm Loke, it's nice to meet you."

Gray nodded with a half smirk half smile. "Likewise. And you know, he's right Natsu. There's some perfectly good subs over there so give me mine back."

Natsu pouted. "I like yours. Plus I don't want to get up again. I'm comfortable." to prove his point the rider pressed himself to Gray and rubbed his nose against Gray's shoulder. "Very comfortable." Natsu breathed hotly on Gray's clothed shoulder, making him shiver as the heated breath surged past the cotton of his shirt. Loke watched with amused eyes.

"Wow Natsu, that's a first for you to do some PDA."

"First of all, that didn't even count as PDA." another voice cut in. It was the dark blue haired teen. He wore dark blue faded jeans and a red shirt that fit his well sculpted physique. He took a seat next to Loke, bumping shoulders with him gently. "Second, Natsu has to be in a relationship in order for some PDA to occur. No, friends don't count because that's a complete different thing."

"Jellal why do you always take out the fun in things? MY fun in things?" Loke asked while Jellal calmly struck a straw in his juice pouch and began to drink. Natsu glared at all of them.

"You all suck for not bringing me food." He was ignored.

"So Gray, Natsu has been telling us a great deal about you." Jellal started making Gray perk up a little.

"Oh yeah? Do tell."

Natsu flicked a fry from Loke's plate at his blue haired friend. "Or not. Zeref! Did you bring me any?" the pinkette eyed the newcomer's tray of slices of pizzas. None of them had meat since the owner of the tray was vegetarian but Natsu was too hungry to care.

Gray looked at the new person to arrive, the dark haired teen from before who stood oh so very close to Natsu. Like his hair he wore all black; jeans, shirt and an unzipped leather jacket. He chose his seat on Loke's other side and shook his head 'no'. Natsu frowned.

"What the hell am I gonna eat?" he demanded. Jellal and Loke rolled their eyes and Zeref pointed to the cafeteria area. "I just told you that I'm comfortable-"

"Natsuuu!" a loud voice intervened and Gray witnessed Natsu get tackled from behind, only seeing a flash of blue and white. A tray was smacked down on the table making a loud sound and once Natsu got his bearings back, he grinned happily.

"Thanks Happy!"

Gray stared at the arms wrapped around the pinkette's neck from behind. They hung down against Natsu's chest making Gray bristle slightly. He stared at the last person in the group, the blue and white haired teen. His hair was spiky like Natsu's, the blue on top and the white on the bottom. He was slender built like Natsu, maybe even slimmer. Like Natsu he wore a hoody but his was blue. Instead of sweats he wore black skinny jeans that hugged him nicely.

Still.

Gray didn't like him.

"Happy, sit down before someone trips over your ass." a rough voice ordered.

"Ah, you tell him that too?" Gajeel's familiar raspy voice asked the first speaker.

"I do." this new speaker was a slightly dark teen with soft mocha skin. His hair was jet black and he wore all black and white. A jagged scar cut diagonally across his left eye and Gray wondered how he got it.

"I thought I'd come and eat lunch here since I never do but I regret it because I understand why I never do." Gajeel told the newcomer who nodded.

"Yes, I'm only here to get Carla and I food. Then I'm leaving from this nuisance."

"I'll join you."

The two left leaving the others staring after them.

"Well damn. I felt the loved- right here!" Natsu thumped his chest and Happy nodded against him before letting go. He grabbed a handful of fries from the tray he got for Natsu and swiped half the orange Zeref had peeled from his tray before trotting after Gajeel and his companion.

"Where are you- where's he going?" Natsu asked before grabbing a fry.

"He heard Pantherlily say 'Carla' so that's where he's going." Loke answered.

"Pantherlily?" Gray asked slowly. "That was that guy's name? Pantherlily?"

"Look, I'm named after an astrological sign, Natsu's named after summer and your name is a color. We don't hate on the names here." Loke said while chuckling. Gray just shook his head.

"So, are you all riders?" he took a bite of his over half eaten sandwich and waited for someone to reply. Jellal was the one who did.

"No one comes to Fairy Tail Stables and is not a rider. Most of us have been here basically all our lives. Macarov or as we like to call him 'Gramps' or 'Master' has been all of our father figures. Porlyusica is the head medical person here and she's been here longer than any of us so we kind of deemed her as our mother figure. She hates people though." Jellal took a drink of his juice.

"She hates... people?" Gray asked and turned to stare at Natsu who had a french fry hanging out his mouth. The rider nodded.

"Yeah. She's scary but we love her." he mumbled around the fry before sliding it all the way into his mouth. Gray watched with amused eyes.

"It sounds like this place means a whole lot to you all."

"Of course, it's our home." this time Zeref spoke and Gray was taken aback on how soft the teen's voice was.

"Anyways, enough about that. Tell us about yourself Gray. We heard from Natsu but we wanna hear from you." Loke said and gave Gray a grin.

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

"Your friends are cool." Gray told Natsu as they exited the cafeteria. The other three were walking in the opposite direction of them. When the group disbanded Loke told Gray and Natsu that he and the guys had to finish up some things for Gramps. Since Natsu was done for the day he chose to stay with Gray which Gray thrilled about.

Before they officially split though, Zeref tugged Natsu to him by the sleeve of his hoody but said nothing. Jellal and Loke waited patiently and all Gray could do was stare and wonder. He wanted to know the connection Zeref and Natsu had. He thought he had to be worried about Happy but Happy seemed to be too involved with this Carla.

Natsu hadn't spoke a word either until Zeref let him go. "I'll see you tonight." was all the pinkette said before turning to walk away, Gray falling in step beside him.

Now they were leaving the building and stood outside. "Where do you want to go?" Natsu asked, smile on his face. Gray shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. He was too deep in thought about Zeref and Natsu.

Were they... together?

Was Natsu stringing him along for summer fun?

'No.. he wouldn't do that.' Gray thought, rejecting the thought immediately.

Had they been together?

Not that it's his business but if Gray ever wanted to go that far with Natsu he would like to know.

"-ay? Gray? Graaay!" Gray jumped.

"Wha- yes?" he looked at Natsu who stared at him quizzically. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You zoned out there for a minute."

Gray nodded. "Uh, yeah. Ah, you know what? Mira gave us all a copy of this horseology book so I think I'll go read into a bit, get my horse knowledge on." Gray began to walk away from Natsu but the pinkette followed.

"I can help you out with anything you need! I'm like the book but better!" he gave a playful wink and somehow, that rubbed Gray the wrong way. He was bent up on Zeref and who he was to Natsu. Sitting at the table with all of Natsu's friends made Gray realize that he really was a stranger to Natsu, he was an outsider to Natsu's life. Anything could have happened between Natsu and one of his friends and he wouldn't know, only guess. It made Gray feel a way he didn't like to feel and now all he wanted to do was get away.

"You know what, I don't need your help. I think I'll manage with the book but thanks." Gray didn't give Natsu a chance to reply and went off, heading back to his room. Natsu stayed where he was watching with hurt and confused eyes at Gray's retreating form.

A/N: What's a story without a little drama? Don't worry, it will go away next chapter. This story is M so the M begins next chapter as well. If you don't know what M means (because some of you really don't) it's Mature. Meaning in my face, sex or foreplay. Any how. Hope this was worth the wait.