Hi guys. Thank you for the kind reviews from the last chapter. And so, here is Gray. Hope you like it. ^^
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is not mine.
Enjoy!
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
"Ice Make Shield!"
"Let's continue some other time. I got to go to Lucy." Natsu hurriedly made his way to the guild's door but stopped when he heard Gray say something.
"Bastard! You're always hanging around with Lucy!"
"Of course I'll hang out with her. She's my partner." He said in a matter of fact tone while adjusting his scarf.
"Right. You're just partners. But you are not boyfriends or girlfriends. You're not in a romantic relationship to be with each other everyday. You're not in the level of Bisca and Alzack's relationship! Heck! You two are not even an inch closer like Jellal and Erza to begin with. You're just teammates so give her some private time. Her world doesn't revolve around you." Now, Natsu is confused.
"Woah! Where did all of that come from? Look Ice Princess, I don't know what you're into but try spending time with uh – Juvia for example – and maybe you'll know how I feel. Lucy's fun to be with. There is no boring time with her. Seriously Stripper with Droopy Eyes, life is fun so try spending it with other people." He said before he dashed to Lucy's apartment.
Gray does not know why he has to care about their relationship. No, he's not jealous. He is certainly not.
Maybe a little bit.
But lately, it has been the main talk in their guild. Everyone is sharing their opinions to what might be going on between his teammates.
Even Lisanna, who he taught must be sulking right now, greatly approves that they must be together. It's not even a month since that Natsu – Lisanna thing happened and yet, she acts like nothing has ever happened. Just what is wrong with his guildmates? Is Lucy and Natsu a big deal? So what if they kiss and touch? It's just freaking normal if they really are a couple. Is the world going to end if that ever happened? Then why are they making a big deal about it? Is it impossible for Lucy to fall for Natsu? Is it impossible to Natsu to even fall in love? DUH?!
So because Natsu and Lucy is currently the hottest topic of Fairy Tail's gossip bunch and bet tables, Gray just couldn't afford to be called outdated. Half-heartedly, with a deep, audible sigh and scratching of head in annoyance to why he should partake in this craziness, he placed an amount of 100 000 J, which was supposed to be for his clothes allowance, on the bet table.
It says on the bet board: In one week, will Natsu and Lucy confess their love to one another?
Choices are: YES-NO-NATSU ONLY-LUCY ONLY
Where would he place his precious clothing allowance? He should put it on what seems to be a realistic choice.
As their teammates, what does he see on them that others fail to see?
He placed both of his hands on each side of his miraculously still intact jean's pocket. Watching his guildmates think hard about them is just so fun. Yeah, whatever! As if he knows better!
From out of nowhere, Juvia came and placed a shocking price at the first option.
"They must confess to each other so Gray-sama will be Juvia's forever!"
Here she goes again. Why does she have to proclaim her love to him in front of everyone? Not like he cares so much though.
'Try spending time with uh – Juvia for example – and maybe you'll know how I feel.'
Words echoed on his mind like it was telling him that there is a clue left behind.
'Try spending time with uh – Juvia for example – and maybe you'll know how I feel.'
'How I feel.'
'How I feel.'
How he feels?
His eyes widened in realization. Could it be? Nope. Impossible. But Natsu is still a male despite of his idiocy. And with a girl like Lucy, who would not admire her? Not just in the physical, of course. Lucy is kind and all.
So, could it be that Natsu likes Lucy?
He took his money and was about to change bets when a hand slapped his hand away.
"Oi Gray? The heck is wrong with you? You already placed it in NO so don't change it!"
"Baka! You don't have to slap my hand away like that, you drunkard! If I want to change my bet, I can change it to wherever I want!" He yelled. Then Cana's irritated look turns into a playful one.
"Oh? Where will you place it if you are to change it?" Silenced filled the hall but their gazes are poetically screaming for untold information.
"Uh – Natsu only?" His looks went pale. Cana put a hand under her chin as she looks like she is thinking deeply. After seconds of what seems forever of thinking for Cana isn't the thinking type, she looked at Gray with a look that tells you that you should run for it.
His brain tells him to run but before the message could be even sent to the neurons of his feet, he felt a hand tapped him by the shoulder.
"Now now. Looks like Gray knows something we don't know."
"Well shit." Was all he could say for his guildmates already tackled him to the ground forcing him to spill the secret out.
Godda*** secret! He doesn't own one! Why does he have to suffer tot his punishment? All he did was think of a realistic option to place his bet money!
Mavis! Realistic option? If only those two weren't so dense, all of this won't happen.
It was now the fifth day and it seems like nothing is going to happen. Two more days and the suspense could kill them in an instant.
As all usual things were happening inside the guild, Gray is just sitting near the door, waiting for his rival to finally come. He has already made up his mind that if they are not going to confess their real relationship, then he will make them do it – by hook or by crook.
When the guild's door opened revealing a blob of gayness pink, the ice make mage immediately tackled him on the ground leaving the dragon slayer defenseless on his attacks?
"What? I - haven't – got – a – con – fes – sion – from - Juvia!" He hardly completed his words for it seems like Gray is really enjoying being on the upper hand.
"What's your problem Ice Princess?!" Natsu yelled after he successfully made it to stand. Feeling pissed, he ignited his right fist with his fire and send Gray flying to the opposite wall.
A man does not do a heart to heart talk. A man talks with his fist.
Well, awesome job for Elfman! His daily lecture about manliness paid off.
As fight ensues, their conversation kept up on a minimum voice that only they can hear.
"You! What is your relationship with Lucy? And Juvia will never confess to you. You think you're that handsome?"
"Shut up Stripper! It's not like I have interest on Juvia though. Lucy's my partner! Duh! I thought its clear right from the start?"
"Well, if you are really partners, then act like one!"
"You're spouting non-sense."
"You're acting something."
"Tell me."
"You act like her boyfriend."
"You act like her father."
"Too bad cause I treat her as a sister."
"Sister my ass! There's no brother who develops crush for his sister!"
"Exactly! And there is no bestfriend who acts like a boyfriend to his bestfriend."
"We are not in that kind of relationship. And give up on Lucy. She doesn't like you like that."
"That was on the past."
They both ended their fight with a single punch on the face. Both stumbled backwards making Gray fall on his butt and Natsu bumped onto someone. Gray peeked behind Natsu as the latter peeked over his shoulder to see Lucy.
Speaking of the devil, here she comes.
If he can't get anything from Natsu, then might as well ask Lucy. But there are possibilities that Lucy will also deny. So that idea is clearly an X. If he can't have the desired information in hook style, there is always the crook style, right?
"Hey Lucy!" He called while dusting his boxers. Tch. When did it happen?
"Hi Gray!" She greeted back.
"Are you up for a mission?" He asked Lucy. If Natsu gets jealous then it only means one thing right? He clearly likes her and all these bullsh** will end. No gossips, no bets! He might even win the bet! That means money and a lot of clothes so he will not go crawling all over the guild again and again finding for his clothes. He can just run home and get dressed. That's a brilliant idea, right?! HA! Beat that Squinty Eyes! Gray is awesome and smart!
Sadly, he didn't get a quick answer from Lucy, instead, she looked to Natsu with her brows raised in an inquiring look. Lucy is currently asking for Natsu's opinion! Does his opinion really matter? It is so much for what we call proximity. Alright, fine! They are close, soo close that you can't separate them that easy, but seriously? Does she need to have a piece of that Pyro's mind in every decision she will make? What are they, husband and wife? And so, that explains the matching outfit back in the fight with Oracion Seis, does it?! That's it! It is not just Natsu! They like each other!
As Gray handles his fight with his inner thought, another verbal fight is keeping Lucy and Natsu busy. He tried to butt in to their conversation only to be knocked flying across the hall. F**k. They even go in SYNC!
The strongest team including Happy strides in the middle of the woods. It is the mission Gray picked, to defeat a big rat who always consumes all the crops of the nearby farmers. The sun is setting down and the wind is also getting colder each passing time. Suddenly, Lucy poked Gray on his arm.
"Hey Gray." She called, her arms crossed across her body.
"Are you cold?" He asked and received a nod.
"It's not that cold." He mocked her.
If you are curious about Gray's plan, then there is nothing yet. They finished the mission easy as a pie, so much to his dismay. He should have picked a more dangerous job.
"Of course you'll not get cold. You're an ice wizard so you should be just fine with the cold." She huffed. Sometimes, she can really get as scary as Erza. Well, at least Lucy can't split a mountain into two.
Now, why don't they go into their lovey dovey mode? If Lucy is cold, shouldn't Natsu hug her? Before he finally forgot his plan, he proceeded on asking Lucy some tiny questions.
"Lucy, is Natsu your boyfriend?" He whispered onto her so that the others can't hear, completely forgetting that Natsu is able to hear him thanks to his sensitive ears. He examined her features closely, wishing to see some signs of embarrassment and being flustered. Unfortunately, there was none. She just scrunched her nose up while eyeing him in somewhat, looks like bewilderment.
"Where did that came from? No. We're just friends." She answered him, no trace of being defensive can be found.
"You sounded like Mirajane." She added which made Gray raised a brow.
"Really? How?"
"Well, she told me that maybe, just MAYBE Natsu and you like me. And do you know how my day ended up when she told me that? It was completely embarrassing and UGH! I don't even want to remember it!"
"Heh. You can't blame her. Mira really has the eyes for relationships and she can tell if someone likes someone based on their actions. If she told you that, then maybe it is true. Natsu really li – "Before he can even finish saying it, Lucy cut her off by saying something that really did shut him up.
"So you're saying that you really like me? So Mira and Gemini are true? Is that what you are saying?" Talking about smart peoples! Gray's face flushed deep shades of red from embarrassment. Then after that, undying laughter was heard.
"Lucy got you in that one Stripper!" Natsu said after the laughter died down.
"You wanna go Fire Breath?"
"Why not? I told you we're not in that kind of relationship."
"Are you saying I am stupid?"
"Both of you stop that! We are all going to sleep." Erza said. They didn't notice the time, it was already dark and they are really left with no choice but to sleep under the stars. Besides, they are all sure that a certain sick Pyro will just whine about riding trains if ever they insist going back to the guild.
In the end, Gray failed. Seems like there is really nothing, huh? Now, he feels like all his efforts and his 100 00 J were wasted for nothing. Damn curiosity! But if there is really nothing going on between them, who is he to insist? He has nothing to do with it in the first place. He set his mind on giving up on them. What he has done is already enough.
He leaned his back on the tree and soon all of them drifted to sleep with a little bonfire serving as their heater in the cold night. It's a good sleep for all of them not until Gray woke up. There's a force that commands him not to sleep yet for something is about to happen. But Gray kept his eyes closed.
Near the bonfire, Lucy sat while rubbing her cold hands and placing it near the fire afterwards. It's just so cold to sleep. Among her teammates, she's the only one who seems to have a problem with the cold. You see, Natsu is a fire dragon slayer so cold doesn't really bother him. Erza wears armor while Gray is an ice mage. Happy, he can just snuggle close to Natsu and you can't possibly make Lucy cuddle up with Natsu, right?
"Achoo—"She covered her mouth and turned back, praying that she didn't wake any of her friends. She sighed when no one really woke up.
She continued sneezing until she felt something warm draped over her shoulders. She looked down to see the other end of Natsu's scarf settled on her neck while the other was still draped on him. Natsu sat beside Lucy and fixed the scarf so it would cover them better.
"You still feel cold?" He gently asked before placing Happy on his lap to be snatched by Lucy. He watched Lucy hug Happy tightly around her chest and the Exceed snuggles closer to her, feeling comfortable at her source of warmth.
"I feel better now. Why are you still awake?" She asked while petting Happy making him mewl to sleep.
"I could ask the same, you know?" He chuckled but immediately stopped to refrain from creating noise.
"But I ask first." She grumbled and pouts after. She heard a sigh from him making her look up.
"I can't sleep because you're noisy." He said while looking away.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She looked down and that's when she felt Natsu move closer to her.
"It's fine. Let's go to sleep." He said but instead of closing their eyes, they both looked up at the sky.
"There are a lot of stars." Lucy whispered.
"Yeah." Natsu's hand made its way to Lucy's head, making it lean over his shoulder.
It just feels like it is the right moment to do that and without even thinking for one bit, he just found himself completely draping his arm over her. He didn't felt nor hear any complaints from her and that's when he relaxed as they both smiled to themselves secretly.
Together under the stars, they watched the lights twinkle, always warming up their hearts and putting smiles on their faces.
"Thank you for warming me up." Lucy said, more like whispered as she snuggles closer to her personal heater in an attempt to kill the coldness that bugs them.
"You're really warm. I hope that's not heat of anger." She giggled upon remembering a thing that happened when she got drank.
"Don't worry, it's not. If ever you got drank again, I'll make sure I hide safely." He joked and then he felt a weak punch on his chest.
"Meanie." She replied softly.
"Or maybe I can stay so boys will not harass you. You're pretty messed up and kinda – uh – out of your mind when you're drank, you know." He said but Lucy has a hard time understanding everything he said. Sleep is taking the best of her and before she finally doze off to dreamland, she utter some words that she is not aware she's saying.
"Good. Always stay by my side, okay?" She was knocked out, the reason why she didn't saw the fair blush on Natsu's cheek.
"Okay." He replied softly before following her to their dream.
'And you say you're not into that kind of relationship? Fools.' Gray thought with one eye open to witness something that his mind is telling him he should see. Gray and Erza both shared knowing glances before completely falling onto sleep.
The whole week has passed and if ever you want to know who win the bet, Happy did with a NO.
"Of course I'll win. I know them better than you folks! AYE!"
DONE!
I think I got nothing to say. I'm really sleepy.
Sorry if it's too crappy. Sorry for the errors. Don't kill me!
Please leave a kind review for my hardwork. Jaa!
Have a good day and night!
-A.L.-