Conscious as he was of his ban on seeing Natsu, Gray gave it a full day after Lucy left before heading to the guild. He hated going the past few days. Whether or not everyone knew the details, they at least heard that Makarov took Natsu away from him. It felt like a walk of shame to go into the building and have everyone stare, thinking about what he might have done to be deemed untrustworthy. Gray still had only the barest idea himself.
Once he was certain Lucy and Natsu were gone, he stole himself and went in. If he felt confrontational, he might have gone to Makarov's office and demanded to know exactly what Natsu said he did. He didn't have it in him to be so bold. The past few days being told he wasn't safe for Natsu had taken their toll on him, and if him knowing Natsu was the one to report him was a risk to Natsu's safety, then Gray didn't dare get Lucy in trouble. Instead, Gray went up to the bar to get a drink and see if Mira could confirm for him that Natsu was doing alright. Lucy had already given a brief summary, but it wasn't enough detail for Gray to be comfortable with.
He felt numb as he took his seat. Natsu liked someone. He wasn't involved with Lucy after all, but he was still out of reach. Who was he really drawn to? Lisanna? Sting? Gray didn't know if he could act supportive if that's who Natsu really wanted. Not that it mattered, if Natsu made up a story about Gray abandoning him for days in order to split them apart.
First making up an excuse of wanting Gray to have a break so he could sneak off with Sting, and now this. If Natsu really hated his company that badly, he should have said so upfront.
No one smiled at him. A few people even pretended they couldn't see him as he waved to Mira, who wasn't allowed to ignore him. She at least didn't look like she suspected he was plotting a murder when she came over to greet him, but it was never a good sign if Mira didn't smile at you on the job.
"What do you want?"
"Uh…" That was not a cheerful greeting. "Anything strong."
"Before lunch?"
"It's not like I have anywhere I need to be after lunch."
Now outright scowling at him, Mira turned and grabbed two bottles from behind the counter and mixed their contents.
As if she could sense the opening of a new bottle, Cana plopped down in the stool beside Gray. "Oo. Breaking out the heavy duty stuff? Pour me one too."
"Coming right up!"
Gray sighed. He was going to get some serious Jekyll and Hyde vibes if Mira planned on being cold with him while acting her usual cheerful self with Cana.
The drinks were mixed and poured and set down for the two of them. "This is all either of you get before noon."
"Lame," Cana muttered.
"I'm sure you can coax more alcohol out of her," Gray said.
"She always does this in the morning. One drink only. You wouldn't know 'cuzz your normally too uptight to live a little."
"There are more ways to live a little than getting wasted before lunch."
"Those ways aren't as fun," Cana said. "You still upset over the whole thing with Natsu? Laxus says the poor guy needs help getting up and down the stairs. I'd think it'd be a relief not to be responsible for him anymore."
The night that Gray agreed to let Natsu move in with him, he'd found Natsu crying. Makarov, Laxus, and Mira, assuming that his hearing had declined along with his vision, had a conversation outside the infirmary door about what to do with him when the amount of help he needed increased by such a tremendous margin. They'd discussed removing him from the guild, even going so far as to put him in a nursing home. The logic there being that they thought it wouldn't be fair to anyone to expect them to handle Natsu's care in its entirety.
Seeing Natsu crying then, Gray had wanted to hurt everyone responsible for upsetting him, but he hadn't known the culprits at the time. Now, listening to Cana say something so bluntly, even if Natsu wasn't there, it took all Gray's self-restraint not to slug her. Natsu couldn't help it that there was so much he couldn't do on his own.
"Maybe the old man shouldn't have sent him to a two story house. You guys all saw him trying to get up to the second floor here when Porylusica assessed him. Have some common sense."
"Says the guy with a second floor apartment."
"He didn't need help getting anywhere inside the apartment," Gray countered, leaving out the detail of how Natsu needed help getting anywhere by sundown. Laxus had likely complained about that, if they all heard of Natsu struggling on Laxus's stairs. "I never had any issue with helping him in or out of my apartment, so if you guys think helping him on the stairs is such an imposition, I'm happy to take him back."
"The master wouldn't be too happy if you did." Gray forgave Cana for laughing when she said that because, in all likelihood, she'd already downed a six-pack before coming to the guild. And talking ill of him wasn't as bad as saying things that would upset Natsu. "That reminds me, Lucy's back. Her apartment's up some stairs to, so I guess it just sucks to be Natsu, but he's staying with her now. She told me to have you go talk to her."
"Yeah. I saw her earlier…" Gray fought the urge to gossip, but he needed to confirm that he hadn't been the only one to get the Natsu-Lucy relationship wrong. "Did you know Natsu and Lucy aren't together?"
"Yeah! Weird, right? I would have thought they were, but Lucy told me a week or so back about how she's been playing match maker for him. I guess he's got a thing for Sting."
"She told you? She told me it was a secret."
Cana shrugged. "She didn't name any names, but it seemed obvious from how she brought the whole thing up. Helping him with someone he liked, then bringing Sting up like that. Natsu and Sting. Must be like falling in love with a yellow tinted mirror."
"Or rose," Gray said, trying to sound like he was joking. Like he could joke. Like this wasn't the worst news in the world. He'd rather have heard that he needed to amputate his leg. It would feel like he lost less of himself than he just had listening to Cana as she ripped out his heart.
"Yeah. I've heard somewhere how people usually go for the ones that balance them out, but I guess dating someone who's like another version of you is a thing. I take it you don't approve."
With so many people watching him, Gray couldn't be too vocal in explaining how thoroughly against the mere notion he was. "It's Natsu's choice. Doesn't matter what I think."
"So what were you fighting about then?"
"Sting's an asshole. Whatever Natsu thinks of him, I'm allowed to not like him. The prick hated me by default anyway." Technically Sting hated Gray because the blond thought he'd abandoned Natsu on the street, which Natsu had likely failed to clear up given the current situation, but that was neither here nor there. "Since I guess I'm not allowed to stop by Lucy's, let her know if she comes here that I'm always available for an update."
"On Natsu?"
"Him too. How's he doing at Lucy's?"
"He seemed happy to be out of Laxus's house, but last night was the first he's spent with her so far."
Right. Obviously. "Good," Gray mumbled. "Tell him… nah. Let Lucy know I'm waiting for more news from her." It wasn't like he had anything to report himself. He still wanted the whole situation sorted out, even if Natsu liked Sting, but…
Natsu and Sting…
"I think… I'm gonna go home."
"You don't want to take a job?" Cana asked. "Been a while since you didn't have anything keeping you away from work."
"Yeah… maybe." Gray mumbled. Sting and Natsu. Natsu and Sting. He didn't even want to think of it. Maybe it wasn't even a good idea to see if Lucy could get him and Natsu back together. Even if he wanted to at least be trusted with Natsu again, supporting Natsu while seeing him and Sting together would be too painful. "Forget what I said before. Let Lucy know I'm gonna be out of town for a while."
Natsu had Lucy to look after him, and she knew what she was doing. If Natsu really did love Sting, then Gray wasn't sure he could ever bear to set foot in Fiore again.
-x-
STA: Ooo. So close.
FranGipani6181: Yay~ Although you can only be in so many places at once, and when you throw other matchmakers into the mix...
Supernova888: Oh? This Natsu-centric story is going to be the... E.N.D. of you? *bricked* (But if you predict them getting together for long enough, sooner or later you'll call it.)
Ryuu91: Ah! French! My moral enemy. But yeah, slowly but surely everyone's getting up to speed on everything.