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Gray wasn’t sure what drew his attention to the new guy first, his wild pink hair, or the fact that said guy was about to set something on fire. Inside. In the art classroom. The same one that Mr. Jonah would throw a fit about whenever anyone forgot to clean their station.
He decided to be friendly, which, of course, had nothing to do with the guy being absolutely gorgeous and everything to do with Gray being a model citizen. Well, okay, fine. Maybe a little to do with the first thing. He worked his way over to what had to be a new student, seeing as Gray was sure he would have been dreaming about those eyes, and that body ages ago if he’d seen him before.
The guy looked up at the sound of his footsteps and smiled. An open, friendly smile that made Gray’s heart skip about a million beats. Look, math wasn’t his strong suit, the point here is he felt something.
So Gray did what any warm-blooded human with only so-so social skills would do. He waved and smiled back, walking into an empty stool, tripping over it, flipping along the way and landing on his face. You get the idea. He made a total ass of himself in front of the guy he had been crushing on for exactly one hot minute.
He decided then and there he wanted to die.
Quickly.
Painfully.
Honestly, he didn’t care how it happened, just as long as it kept him from being humiliated any further in front of the cute guy. He’d already been blessed by a smile. It had been hubris to want more.
Gray could hear snickering behind him and refused to look, already knowing it was Lyon. Asshole, he’d like to see him do better.
Wait!
No, he wouldn’t. If there was anything worse than completely tanking his chance, it would be watching Lyon succeed.
No! He was made of sterner stuff than this. He could rally. All he had to do was be cool. He was in the middle of giving himself a pep talk when he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up, fully expecting to see Lyon’s mocking expression.
Instead, it was the guy. His bright green eyes peered at him, brows furrowed in concern. He offered Gray his hand and helped pull him up.
“Uh, thanks, I guess,” Gray rubbed the back of his neck, having never gotten around to the part where he actually came up with something cool to say.
The guy tapped his perfect chest and said, “Natsu,” while looking at Gray expectantly, once again flashing him that fantastic smile that had Gray’s brain completely freezing up.
“Uhm, Gray,” he finally managed, repeating Natsu’s gesture, although not even remotely as gracefully. He was pretty sure he had looked like one of those gorillas you saw at the zoo.
Natsu nodded and repeated the name as if trying to memorize it, rolling the r in Gray’s name in a way that sounded really sexy to his ears.
They stood there awkwardly, Gray waiting for Natsu to say something else, while Natsu looked a little embarrassed. Finally, he turned away, returning to his work station and once again grabbing the lighter, which finally reminded Gray why he had wanted to talk to him in the first place.
Just as he was about to say something, he looked down at Natsu’s work station, noticing that there were several pieces of glass, each covered in what looked like smears and splotches of different colored ink. Gray watched as Natsu grabbed a dropper and poured what smelled like rubbing alcohol over each piece before lighting them all on fire, one by one.
Gray would have protested, but he was too busy watching the progress of the flame, his mouth open in awe. Natsu chuckled, taking the prettiest one and putting a piece of white paper behind it. He grabbed a frame backing and reassembled the frame before offering it to Gray.
“¿Te gusta? Pues te lo regalo.”
Natsu handed him the piece of art with a wink. He assembled the others and put them away in his bag, cleaning up his station, and finishing just as the bell rang. Gray had no idea what Natsu had said, but he’d loved the way he’d said it.
“Adiós, Gray,” Natsu waved before walking out of the room.
“What was that, French?”
“It was Spanish, moron,” Lyon solved his mystery, sounding as irritating as always.
“How was I supposed to know? I take German!” Gray looked down at his present and decided he might need to brave the cavernous school library for the first time in his high school career. He wasn’t about to let some stupid language barrier stand in the way of true love.