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“Whoa, there? Are you alright, man?” Natsu hadn’t realised he was unsteady on his feet until a pair of hands were gripping his arms to keep him upright.
The world was immaterial around him, the ache of his mind around him instead of piercing through him for once. Natsu tried to mumble his response that he was just going home to the set of hands keeping him steady. He knew this was a bad situation, somewhere at the back of his mind he could hear his parents’ voices telling him to be safe. He also knew he was underaged and drunk and alone since his idiot friend, Sting ditched him for that sexy looking guy at the beginning of the night. Natsu thought it strange that someone as outgoing as Sting always seemed to go for the broody guys.
This made him chuckle, an out of body sound that seemed to cause a different reaction from the person helping him out. Natsu tried to tell his body to cooperate until he could call a rideshare to take him home. He already knew his older brother, Zeref, would ream him out for this and that was before his parents saw him the next morning.
“Your name is Natsu, right?” the guy asked which made him look up slowly and nod his head in affirmation.
Staring forward trying to get his eyes to focus, he realised this guy looked fuzzily familiar, with shaggy black hair and deep blue eyes. Then it clicked, making him a little winded when he realised he knew exactly who this guy was; the whole school did. But for the life of him he could not tread father through his foggy mind enough to focus past the guy’s dark blue eyes, not his reputation or name.
“Green?” Natsu finally asked, knowing his name was at least a colour.
The guy chuckled and Natsu could feel the vibrations of the low laughter through his arms where he was still holding onto him for support. It created shivers down his spine and Natsu hoped that wasn’t a sign that he was about to hurl.
“Close enough, can I see your phone? I’ll call you a ride,” he asked, causing Natsu to decide he was going to trust this guy who was helping him out, against his family’s better judgment.
Admittedly he was way too drunk to get himself home and he at least recognised this beautiful guy from his school. Why hadn’t he ever realised how beautiful this guy was before? Porcelain skin, raven hair, blue blue eyes, soft touch… Natsu knew he was forgetting something.
“Damn, your phone is dead,” Green grumbled, keeping one hand on Natsu so he wouldn’t topple over.
Natsu wanted to tell him he could call Zeref, even if he would never hear the end of it, but he couldn’t think of Zeref’s number off the top of his head. “Come on, I can’t leave you like this.”
Suddenly Natsu was being led away to a rideshare that suddenly appeared as if out of thin air. Natsu wondered how this guy figured out where he lived but was even more surprised when he got into the car with Natsu. This guy was really considerate to make sure Natsu got home safe.
Natsu bowed his head down when the car started moving, and he became a lot less confident that he wouldn’t puke. He always forgot how bad his motion sickness got whenever he was intoxicated.
“Just keep driving, I’ll pay extra if we need to,” Green’s voice was a little scary almost like he was threatening the driver, but Natsu was being soothed by the sweet boy who brought his head into his lap and started stroking his hair.
It wasn’t that far to Natsu’s house, but it felt like an eternity until Green was helping Natsu out of the car and he stumbled up onto the curb. Natsu was proud of himself for not throwing up in some stranger’s car, not to mention avoiding puking on top of the very attractive man who had become his sort of saviour.
“Don’t worry, my stepmom is home and is also a nurse. I’m not kidnapping you,” the guy stated in his deep voice that sounded so nice in Natsu’s ears. But that was a strange thing for him to say.
That’s when Natsu pushed himself to take in his surroundings and realised that they were not in front of his home. The house in front of them had off-white siding with a green roof, nothing at all like the red brick house Natsu had grown up in. Plus, this was only a small bungalow whereas Natsu’s house had three storeys.
Again, Natsu heard his parents’ voices in his head, always from a young age telling him not to go along with strangers. He knew this guy, but not much more than just someone he went to school with. This was a bad idea, so he pulled out his phone to call Zeref.
“Do you know your phone number; I can call someone if you need to. My stepmom is going to check on you to make sure you don’t get alcohol poisoning,” the guy’s voice had an automatic calming quality to it, nothing like the tone he had used to talk to the rideshare driver. “Your phone is dead, remember?”
Natsu did remember again, a wave of exasperation rising through him before he ended up walking along to this guy’s house; because his phone didn’t work, and he had no way of getting himself home. He hoped Sting was having a good time, because he was going to kill him next time he saw him.
Green continued to lead Natsu up to the door. Despite the late hour, the lights were on when they walked through the entryway, disorienting Natsu who felt another bout of dizziness hit him. Thankfully, Green still had his hands on either side of him to lead him through the house.
“Ur! I have a patient for you,” Green called out, waking up anyone who wasn’t already awake.
Natsu shushed him, thinking the house still sounded too quiet for them to be shouting. Green just smirked at him before helping him into what looked like a living room which was right off the entryway.
“I told you, I’m not patching you up anymore from fighting. If you’re bleeding you have to wrap it yourself,” the woman named Ur suddenly appeared in the living room where Natsu needed to close his eyes again after getting another wave of dizziness that he willed away. “Oh, you brought me someone else entirely.”
Suddenly the woman was crouched in front of Natsu, who was guided to a cool, black leather couch, looking quite maternal and concerned. It was nothing like his own mother who would never be this calm if she ever saw Natsu this inebriated. This woman had cropped black hair, dark brown eyes and the type of expression that said that nothing much fazed her. If Natsu could think more clearly, he would have thought about her comment to Green, and about how unfazed she sounded that he always got into fights.
That’s when it hits Natsu. The main detail that kept nagging at the back of his mind. This guy had a reputation at school: the troublemaker. Natsu always saw him in the halls with bruises and scraped up knuckles. Despite not knowing this guy wasn’t straight until tonight, since it was LGBTQ2+ night at the bar which is why Natsu had been there himself, there was a real reason why Natsu had never realised just how beautiful this guy was before tonight.
Zeref himself had a sort of ongoing history with this guy’s older brother (Lion?) and would have even more of an issue with Natsu’s current situation, but nothing about this guy had given Natsu a wrong impression so far.
Even when he had been a little assertive with the rideshare guy when it looked like Natsu might puke in the car, Natsu felt comforted that Green was looking out for him.
Surprisingly, it appeared that Green’s stepmom was serious about checking him out since she apparently had a blood-pressure cuff in her home which she used on him and had Green fetch Natsu some water before he sat down beside him on the couch and even held his hand; although that wasn’t a direct order from the nurse lady.
“He might vomit in the night, but he’ll be fine once he gets some rest. You brought him home, so he’s under your supervision, Gray. Good job on actually looking out for someone other than yourself, kiddo, but I’m going to bed. Lyon’s already asleep since at least one of my children abides by a bedtime. Your sister never did though either,” she sighs, the only thing Natsu being able to process is the name she referred to her son by.
Gray—not Green.
Natsu cringed in embarrassment but the guy holding his hand—Gray—took it to mean that he didn’t feel well and moved him up into his hold before leading the way. He didn’t know where the lady went but all he could do was focus on arranging his feet to cooperate as Gray led him down a hallway.
“Do you feel alright, or do you need to stop by the washroom?” Gray asked during their journey down the darkened hallway.
“ ’m fine,” Natsu mumbled, his eyes drooping towards unconsciousness.
“Alright, handsome. Come on, then” Gray ushered him until Natsu realised he was being gently manhandled down onto an unmade bed.
He couldn’t take into account the room around him except that it was spinning and that it smelled the same as when he had laid in Gray’s lap in the car ride.
It took a lot longer than it should have since every time Natsu jostled too much he paused to assess if he was going to puke or not. Eventually, Gray was able to direct him into a comfortable position on his side.
He then pulled a mostly empty garbage can from under a blurry looking desk and put it beside Natsu by the bed.
Once the bucket was in place and Natsu started to immediately drift off, he realised that his caretaker was moving away from him.
“‘ray,” Natsu called out in a muffled voice, but it was enough for the other boy to stop.
“Yes, Natsu?” he replied, telling him that he somehow knew his name.
He wondered if it was from before tonight or if he had mentioned it in all of his slurred mumbling.
“Stay,” it was a small plea, but Natsu never liked being alone whenever he felt vulnerable, and he knew waking up in a place he didn’t know would freak him out.
The soft chuckle he heard made his head spin and he didn’t think it was just the excess alcohol.
“Don’t worry. I was just going to change in the other room, so I don’t make you uncomfortable. You heard my stepmom though, I brought you home so I’m in charge of you until you feel better,” Gray’s reassurance calmed him even as his heart racing and palms sweating.
“ ’ou can stay,” Natsu murmured before his consciousness started to slip again.
“Alright. I don’t think you’ll catch a glimpse of anything anyway,” Gray teased him so that he fell asleep with a small smile on his face.
xx
Natsu woke up the next morning with the telltale signs of drinking way too much as his head throbbed and his mouth was too dry.
However, that wasn’t the most pressing thing on Natsu’s mind, instead it being the unfairly attractive guy taking up the space beside him on the bed.
“Gray,” his mind supplied.
Pieces of last night filtered back enough so that he wasn’t freaked out. Mortified was a better description since he could remember asking the guy of his dreams to stay with him like he was some child falling asleep after having a nightmare.
A groan escaped his lips in exasperation, apparently startling the boy beside him awake, until all Natsu could see was blue.
Gray might have already been awake given his careful gaze instead of hazy realisation like Natsu. A smirk followed, sending shivers all the way to Natsu’s toes from being looked at like that so early in the morning when his head was throbbing. Gray looked like he could devour him, though he knew Gray wasn’t about to cross the blanket barrier he had apparently constructed by tucking Natsu in and then sleeping on top of the remaining covers.
“Morning,” Gray said in teasing tone, Natsu knowing this time he was blushing.
He knew he should feel mortified, ashamed of last night’s mess, but he also couldn’t bring himself to regret his current predicament.
So, he returned the greeting, watching Gray roll his eyes like it was his reflexive reaction before moving to get out of bed.
“Hungry? I think there’s banana muffins downstairs?” Gray stated like this wasn’t a completely foreign situation for him to wake up with a stranger in his bed.
Natsu’s stomach heaved slightly at that realisation, that maybe it wasn’t at all foreign for Gray to bring needy strangers into his bed, even if it was simply to give them a safer place than the streets to crash.
“Don’t worry, I can give you a ride home before school since I figure you might wanna change of clothes,” Gray continued, Natsu’s embarrassment permanently coursing through his veins now that Gray was being so understanding towards his terrible adolescent decisions.
Natsu simply nodded, causing Gray to smirk back and then walk to lead them out of the bedroom. Following Gray’s direction, Natsu quickly scampered out of the messy blankets to chase after the black-haired boy. He noticed he was wearing a short sleeve, white button up shirt with a band tee underneath of some group he had never heard of before that Natsu suspected sang metal music. It was matched with a pair of ridiculously skin-tight black jeans with distressed rips throughout. Staring at his profile from behind, Natsu realised that Gray must have risen earlier to get ready since he noticed he smelled like winter fresh soap.
Natsu knew he himself must still smell like the cheap bar, but any further self-deprecation was halted when Gray led them into a kitchen where he noticed an older female moving about with a knowing look on her face.
“How you doing, Rosie?” the strange woman greeted him in amusement.
She didn’t really look like Gray, save for the fact that they both had black hair, but she must be Gray’s mother regardless.
“I’m sorry for all the trouble,” Natsu stammered as he felt the bright blush flaring across his face.
The woman laughed heartily back and Natsu couldn’t help thinking that this woman was beautiful, if not a little intimidating.
“It’s no trouble. Better that you’re safe here, than passed out or carried off to the hospital. Plus. it’s good for Gray to show me he’s capable of actually helping people,” her smirk was antagonising, making Gray groan in exasperation as he rolled his eyes. “My step-son has a good heart; he just doesn’t like people knowing he has one.”
Gray ducked out of her grip to ruffle his already messy hair and instead shuffled over to the coffee maker. Natsu gratefully accepted a steaming mug from him before he motioned for Natsu to sit with him at the counter.
“Alright, well I’m going to go to work. Lyon already left with Juvia this morning,” his confirmed step-mother declared before she waved them off and left.
Her lavender coloured scrubs confirmed that she was in fact a nurse like Gray mentioned, Natsu surprised he could even remember that much from last night.
That left the two of boys together, Natsu’s self-consciousness coming back in full swing until one thought bombarded his mind from the previous night among the haze and regret.
“Y--you called me handsome...” Natsu exclaimed with extreme trepidation.
He could remember everything he knew about Gray from the years of their high school experience together. Gray’s reputation as someone no one ever wanted to cross prominent in his mind. Natsu’s own brother was prejudice, his rivalry with Lyon Vastia a widely known fact and the reason Natsu had previously kept a distance.
Last night Gray had shown him such kindness, and despite his acknowledgement eye roll and deadly smirk, Natsu realised he could never be afraid of the person in front of him. He was intrigued and grateful and interested.
Was Gray interested too?
“Hm, you remember that, eh? I guess you weren’t as trashed as I thought,” Gray replied without giving anything away.
He didn’t refute the claim, but he also didn’t confirm Natsu’s desires either. Instead, they openly stared at each other, Natsu feeling the electricity build up until he thought the air might spark between them.
“How about if I called you babe, instead? That way I can hold your hand on the way to school and kiss you, if you want, before we end up in bed together again?” Gray’s tone was deadly, smiting Natsu’s hungover ass and rendering him incapable of coherent speech.
“B--babe?” Natsu finally stuttered, flustered and feeling his soul leave his physical form.
This had to be the best hangover in history.
Gray gave him a Chesire grin, obviously enjoying making him feel flustered.
“That’s right, all I need is your permission,” he didn’t realise Gray had moved to stand near him, Natsu wanting to fill the remaining margin.
“Y--yea, babe is good,” Natsu stammered, hearing himself in delayed time and wanting to face palm in response.
However, he didn’t have much time for regret when Gray took another step forward, leaning down now into Natsu’s personal space, his lips right beside Natsu’s ear.
“And you can call me anything you want back, babe,” Gray’s breath made Natsu visibly shiver. “Just not Green.”
Gray pulled back, that infuriating smirk etched across his face. Despite his profuse embarrassment, Natsu refused to be cowed.
“Whatever, sweetheart , we’re going to be late if we’re stopping at my house,” Natsu smiled, delighted by the name and absolutely knowing someone like Gray hadn’t ever been called something so pure in his entire life.
Gray’s startled expression confirmed as much, giving Natsu a thrill of satisfaction before they headed out of Gray’s house. Natsu reached for his hand, effectively getting over the last remains of his hangover when Gray reached back, vowing he would never have the urge to drink again.