Ello again. Here's another one. Maybe a couple more. I'm watching Sherlock as I type this, so this could be interesting.

I don't own Fairy Tail.

~MM~

Natsu, Gray has found, is entirely too predictable. Even with his loud, convoluted logic that no one can honestly say they understand, Natsu is, in essence, a simplistic idiot. Sure, his answers to questions and problems might not conform to the rest of the world's opinions, but once thought about, all that really goes through the Dragon Slayer's mind is nakama, nakama, nakama. Food, maybe; Igneel, occasionally; but all that really survives and lasts in that melting pot of a mind is that diamond truth of friendship and family.

Gray has to say, it sounds unbearably mawkish even in his head. He isn't one for too much sentimentality; things like that don't keep one alive on the frozen plains of Ur's home.

But that's just Natsu's thinking – a map of his mind running circular and revolving down a flight of stairs lightened with torches, lined with locked doors. It's his behavior that makes case in point.

No non-idiot gets motion sick at eighteen years old – every single time he even so much as spots a mode of transportation. No self-respecting mage allows himself to be knocked out – intentionally or not, by Erza or not. No normal person gets left on a train due to the aforementioned things that shouldn't have even been factors in the first place.

It just so happens, though, that Natsu might not really be eighteen; for all his build and mannerisms, no one knows his birthday and the guild just speculates on appearance and conduct. Not that Natsu cares.

It just so happens that Natsu is a Dragon Slayer and not a traditional mage at all. His magic is learned, not innate, and it manifests through his skin and his organs; more beast than man.

It just so happens that Natsu isn't a normal person by any stretch of the imagination and that all the factors that shouldn't have ever come into place are the rules of the game.

So all in all, it's pretty obvious as to why Natsu gets stuck on the train.

"What an idiot," Gray mutters under his breath, watching Lucy try to calm Erza from his self-deprecation. "Just how––"

" ––stupid can you be?" Gray's mouth snaps shut when the words don't come out in his voice. He thinks for a second that Flame Brain's idiocy got to him and Gray is going to kill him when they do find him but then he sees Lucy's lips moving behind her wrist, fingers resting in her hair, eyelashes brushing on her palm. "How do you get left on a train of all things, Honestly, how much work is that pyromaniac going to make us do? We haven't even found Eisenwald yet and now we have to find the person that's supposed to be finding them! Natsu, I am going to kill you; just you wait, you manic, volatile, juvenile, daft, stupid––"

As Lucy continues to list of the many faults that make Natsu, Natsu, make him how he is, Gray finds himself slowly losing his frustration. He lets it drain from his fingers and drip to the floor, lets it freeze at his boots.

How long has Lucy known Natsu, again? No more than a month, Gray's absolutely certain. Maybe just over two and a half weeks. Maybe not even that. More than half of it Gray knows she spent ignoring the doofus.

How does she know him so well?

"––you simplistic buffoon! No better than a primate, I swear, just going on your own merry way to put us all out––"

Gray rocks back on his heels, stuffing his fingers still freezing with tension and insipid, simmering, exasperation into his pockets. A smile slips on his face without conscious consent.

Gray let's Lucy continue on with her tirade, glad to finally know someone else understands Natsu the way he does – even if that means uncovering him for the gigantic ignoramus he is.

~MM~

Gray is weird. I get the feeling that he really knows Natsu, and that's the reason why he fights so much with them. You can't piss someone off that often or that fast without knowing what makes them tick.

And it continues!

Again, I can't explain to you guys how much it means to me that you all are still following me and reviewing, I love you all from the bottom of my heart; you all mean so much to me. Your comments, no matter how small, never fail to make me giggle, normally in the middle of class (which gathers me odd looks); but I wouldn't trade it for the world.