Chapter Text
It was another beautiful day in the town of Magnolia. The sun was beaming down on the dirt roads of the town as the citizens milled about in their day to day activities. The town had since calmed down from the excitement that was the Fantasia Festival and were now returning to their everyday lives. The merchants were selling their merchandise and the citizens were spending time with their friends and family. Children could be seen running down the cobbled streets; their laughter echoing joyously throughout the town. Adults stopping in their day to day menial tasks to connect with others and relate about the present events that had come to pass.
Even from the outside, the notorious Fairy Tail Guild seemed to be having a quiet day. No chairs had come bursting out of the front doors and interspersed fractals of elemental magic weren't flinging out of every single orifice imaginable. However behind the large wooden doors that marked the entrance to the guild, it was nothing short of chaos.
Lucy sweatdropped as Natsu’s fist collided against Gray’s cheek.
This wasn’t too surprising when it came to the fire and ice mages of Fairy Tail, but even she had to admit that their fights were starting to get out of hand. They had been fighting each other nonstop for the past week and a half, and there was no evidence of them stopping anytime soon. If she had to guess, the only reason that they were able to continue doing so was because Erza had decided to go on a month-long S-Class quest. And without the looming threat of the Queen of the Fairies over them, the boys were able to work out their frustrations with each other. Whatever those frustrations may be.
Sure, she could understand where they were coming from, but did they really have to destroy the guild in the process? They had just finished rebuilding it a few weeks ago.
She closed her eyes as she rested her cheek in her hand so as not to witness the imminent destruction. But her eyes quickly opened once more when she heard an equally exasperated sigh from the other side of the bar. Mira had paused in her cleaning as she stared at the fighting mages; her thin eyebrows furrowed slightly as her sharp gaze tracked their brawling bodies as they narrowly avoided crashing into Wakaba and Macao as they attempted to play poker. The men absently lifted their arms and their subsequent game pieces as one of Natsu’s flailing feet or one of Gray’s wayward feet struck out at them.
Lucy frowned curiously and tilted her head to the side as she watched the takeover mage’s perturbed expression,
“Is something the matter, Mira?”
Mira hummed thoughtfully as she turned towards Lucy; resting her forearms on the table,
“Nothing really, I guess. Just, something needs to be done about those two.”
Lucy snorted softly and rolled her eyes teasingly,
“You’re telling me! If they keep going the way that they are we’re going to have to rebuild the guild hall. Again. And that’s even if Erza comes home in time to stop them herself.”
Mira giggled lightly; standing upright once more and leaning her hip against the bar-top as she tossed her cleaning rag to the side. Lucy’s eyes narrowed slightly as she took in the contemplative expression on the older mage’s face.
“That wasn’t actually what I was referring to.”
The celestial mage raised an eyebrow as she shifted her gaze towards the fighting mages once more. She had turned in time to see Gray had sent Natsu flying into a nearby table; a victorious smile erupting across his face as he cracked his knuckles. She sighed loudly as she realised that he had stripped down to his underwear once again; his silver necklace draping loosely around his neck as he rolled his shoulder backwards. The sound of shifting wood reached her ears as the dragon slayer pushed himself into a sitting position. He tried to rub the redness out of his cheek as he rushed back up onto his feet; his hands bathed in red hot flames.
“What are you so happy about, ice princess?” Natsu called with a smirk; dropping his hand from his cheek as he cracked his own knuckles, “I’m just starting to get fired up!”
Gray scoffed and brought his fist to his palm, “Bring it on you pyro, I’m not going to let you beat me!”
The pinkette wiped some sweat off his chin,
“You asked for it, boxer-shorts; don’t go begging for mercy when you can’t keep up!”
And with that, the boys were fighting once more. Lucy shook her head fondly at the two idiots she adopted as her friends, and had to admit that as far as their fights go, things were still pretty tame. At least they hadn’t managed to pull anyone else into their nonsense. Though, judging by the annoyed twitch in Gajeel’s eyebrow from across the guild, it would only be a matter of time before the metal dragon slayer took matters into his own hands. If that happened, any remaining hope for the sanctity of the guild hall would be lost.
Lucy tapped her fingers against the bar top as she turned her gaze towards Mira once more to see that a soft smile had also wormed its way across her lips. Lucy tilted her head to the side once more as she regarded the takeover mage, but was pulled out of her thoughts when she realised that Mira was motioning towards her with a glass of water. She smiled gratefully as the glass of water slid towards her; a lemon wedge sticking out of the rim. She slowly raised the glass to her lips and took a quick sip.
“Poor boys,” Mira whispered; leaning across the countertop once more with her chin resting in the palm of her hand, “Why they don’t just confess to each other is beyond me.”
Lucy choked as the water she was drinking went straight up her nose and shot out of her mouth. Mira giggled at her knowingly and slid a complementary napkin towards her. Lucy pouted at the takeover mage, and absently cleaned the water off the table in front of her. As she was doing so, the blonde mage stiffly turned her head to look at Natsu and Gray to see that they were still exchanging blows and insults; other guild members expertly moved around them in a way that comes from years of practice.
“Confess?” She whipped around to face the takeover mage in disbelief, “Where would you get that idea?”
“Oh come now Lucy,” Mira tapped the tip of her nose, “I’d say that it’s pretty obvious with the way they act around each other.”
“How, how they act?” Her eyes widened, “Are we watching the same idiots?”
Mira smiled in amusement,
“Of course we are silly~ We’re talking about Natsu and Gray, right?”
“Right?”
“You mean you haven’t noticed how much they’ve changed lately?” Mira inquired playfully, “Seeing as you’re new to the guild, you never had the chance to see what they were like before.”
“What they were like before?” The blonde bit her lip nervously, “How could they have been any worse than this?”
Mira seemed to pause for a minute; the smile sliding off her face briefly as she pursed her lips thoughtfully. She twirled the ends of her hair with her finger absently,
“Well, Natsu and Gray always had an interesting relationship. From the moment they met they became immediate rivals; there was always just something that neither of them liked about each other.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow,
“Okay?”
Mira hummed with a slight shrug,
“Despite that, Gray always made sure to watch over Natsu and Natsu would do the same for Gray; though it was usually the former because Natsu could be a tad airheaded back then.”
Back then? Lucy sweatdropped; considering how he acted now, she would hate to see how airheaded Natsu could be when he was a child. She probably wouldn’t be able to stomach it.
“But lately,” Mira continued, “they’ve been even closer than before. I don’t know why, but it was actually a little after you joined that I definitely knew that there really was something there.”
Lucy chewed on the inside of her cheek after Mira’s explanation. In a way, she was kind of right actually. It was subtle (seeing as the bozos fought about everything under the sun), but even she had to admit that the two mages had changed since she had joined Fairy Tail. She thought back to the Lullaby mission, their relationship seemed a lot more tense than it was now; they couldn’t even be in the same room without wanting to tear each other a new one. And there was an almost animosity between them; at least on Gray’s end. But the biggest shift in their relationship had to be after the Galuna Island mission.
She still didn’t know all of what happened to Gray on that island when he first fought Lyon and lost or of what transpired in the temple between the two of them and Natsu, but it had to have been something pretty huge. For days afterwards it was as though Natsu couldn’t stop gravitating towards Gray; whether it was to insult him, ask him to go on a quest, or tell him Happy wanted the ice mage to take him fishing, Natsu made sure to put himself in Gray’s space. Even though they still fought, a lot like they were doing today, there was a sort of friendliness between the two mages; not that she could actually explain how the comradery was shown. There was almost some sort of understanding between the two of them.
“What do you think Lucy?”
The celestial mage jumped out her thoughts and nearly knocked her glass off the bar-top. She noticed the takeover mage looking at her with curious eyes and a mischievous smile on her face. Lucy smiled at her apologetically,
“Sorry Mira, I was lost in thought; what did you say?”
“I asked if you wanted to join me on a mission.”
“A mission?!” Lucy squawked and nearly fell off her seat, “I didn’t realise that you still went on quests.”
“Not that kind of mission, I’m needed here after all.” The platinum blonde smiled sweetly; her hand reached out to pat Lucy’s, “I just think Natsu and Gray need a little push in the right direction.”
Lucy released a breath that she didn’t know she was holding and looked back towards her friends who were still fighting in the middle of the guild hall. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch slightly as she saw Natsu’s arm wrapped around Gray’s neck as he tried to wrestle him into a chokehold, knowing that it wouldn’t be too long before the two idiots lost their footing and fell to the ground on top of each other.
She turned back towards Mira,
“Are you sure that they like each other like that?”
“Positive!” Mira winked at her, “I promise that we won’t interfere too much. They just need a little push in the right direction.”
Lucy seriously doubted that that would be the case but…
“I’m in.”
FTFTFTFT
Gray leaned tiredly against the pillar closest to the bar with sweat dripping down his bare back. A small smile was on his face as his muscles ached from the continuous ‘sparring’ that he and the flame asshole had been doing for the last week. With Erza gone for a month and Gramps meeting the council, it was a perfect opportunity for him and Natsu to fight each other without any consequences. No one else was going to stop them, and as long as they didn’t cause too much damage no one would really complain. It was the perfect challenge; the challenge he had been looking for to help distract himself from his inane thoughts.
The ice mage reached for his glass of ice water that Mira had brought him earlier in the day and took a large gulp. He frowned to himself and pressed his fist to his palm. A small summoning circle appeared before little cubes of ice fell into the glass with a harsh clinking sound. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Natsu sitting a little further down the bar; his nose buried in his third helping of lunch for the day. Mira must have set aside just as they had finished and left to go wander the guild with Lucy; he was sure that he saw the two of them talking earlier.
Gray grimaced as his attention was once again brought to the dragon slayer as he witnessed Natsu swallowing an entire turkey leg whole quickly followed by a large bowl of boneless wings. He honestly couldn’t help but wonder where the idiot put it all; he wouldn’t be surprised if one day Natsu woke up and he looked like Reedus. Then again, it wouldn’t be too much conjecture if Natsu’s fire magic had something to do with his insatiable appetite. He probably just burned through food extremely fast. Much like him in regards to the fact that he didn’t need to eat nearly as much food as his magic helped him to conserve energy to make sure his body stayed somewhat warm and functional. Of course, it didn’t excuse Natsu from being an absolutely disgusting eater.
“Oi ice princess!” Natsu called him out of his thoughts, “Whatcha staring at? You want to start something?!”
“Maybe,” Gray smirked around his glass as he brought it to his lips, “Though I’m pretty sure your mountains of food would start feeling neglected.”
Natsu scowled at him as he dropped his finished food onto his plate and pushed himself off the bar stool. It wasn’t long before Natsu’s forehead was pressed against his own causing fire to clash with ice for what had to be the billionth time this week. The dragon slayer smirked at him challengingly,
“Are you sure it’s the food that’s feeling neglected or do you just like getting your ass handed to you ice block?!”
“Oh please,” Gray scoffed as he pushed back, “You said that last time and I kicked your ass, fire clown!”
“Were you fighting the same fight I was, popsicle pants?” Natsu growled tauntingly, “I’d say it was pretty clear who won the last duel and it sure as hell wasn’t you!”
The ice mage opened his mouth to release another scathing remark when his attention was pulled away from the dragon slayer when he noticed that Lucy had suddenly appeared beside them with her hands clasped behind her back and mysterious smile on her face; where the hell had she come from? He frowned at her suspiciously as something churned in his gut; why did he have a feeling that Lucy was up to something?
“Natsu, Gray!” She smiled at them, “There you are, I was looking for you everywhere!”
Gray blinked at her in confusion and he was faintly aware of Natsu moving away from him so he could direct his attention towards the celestial mage. He frowned to himself as he felt his chest tighten when Natsu did so; maybe it was good that Lucy was distracting them, it seemed as though he had fought too hard today.
“Looking for us?” Natsu furrowed his eyebrows, “But you’ve been watching us fight all morning.”
“No I haven’t,” Lucy shifted her brown eyes away nervously and waved him off, “You must have been seeing things.”
Liar .
“Oh,” Natsu scratched his cheek thoughtfully, “Okay!”
The ice mage sweatdropped as he stared at the fire mage; he couldn’t honestly be that stupid. He resisted the urge to face palm as he realized that of course he was that stupid; this was Natsu he was talking about, he was so oblivious sometimes it was nearly painful to watch. He was pulled out of his mental verbal abuse of Natsu’s inherent lack of intelligence when Lucy’s hip banged into his to gain his attention.
“Do you need something Lucy?” He huffed in exhaustion.
“Not particularly,” She shrugged her shoulders, “I was just bored and was wondering if you guys wanted to play a game of cards or something?”
Gray’s eyes narrowed in suspicion once more; there was something not right about any of this. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was and it was bugging the hell out of him. He was about to decline when he felt Natsu’s burning arm wrap around his shoulders and bring him so close that their heads nearly knocked together.
“Sure!” Natsu laughed loudly, “That sounds like fun! It’d also be another way for me to kick the ice princess’ ass too.”
He scoffed and pushed the dragon slayer away from him,
“As if you could beat me at cards flame brain; you don’t have the mental capacity to do something like that.”
The pinkette scowled,
“Like hell I don’t! Bring it on stripper; I’m gonna kick your ass so hard that you’ll never want to play cards again!”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lucy press her fingers to her temple,
“Only you two have the ability to turn a game of cards into a fight to the death.”
“Hey, don’t back out now Lucy,” Natsu smiled at the blonde excitedly, “It’s more fun if you lay everything on the line after all; it would be a waste of a game if you didn’t.”
Gray couldn’t help but nod in agreement at that statement,
“I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I agree with the flame bastard; card games aren’t fun unless you win something at the end of it.”
Lucy stared between him and Natsu in complete disbelief before she threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. She muttered under her breath (and he was sure that he heard her call them a few names in there) before a reluctant smile spread across her face.
“Fine,” She crossed her arms across her chest, “We can bet if you guys want?”
Gray found himself frowning again, only for Natsu’s arm to tighten around his neck forcing the two of them closer to each other. The raven cursed at the heat that flushed through his body at the close contact and shoved the dragon slayer away from him. Why did the asshole have to be a freaking furnace all the time; it made him uncomfortable. Natsu on the other hand didn’t even seem too bothered by the fact that Gray had pushed him away once more. Instead he had thrown himself into Lucy’s space and slammed his hands down on the table in front of them.
“Hell yeah!” Natsu smirked, “You’re so going down Lucy!”
Gray narrowed his eyes suspiciously,
“So what are we betting?”
Lucy pressed her finger to her lips as her brow furrowed thoughtfully; the digit tapping out an inconsistent rhythm as she seemed to look absently around the guild hall for some sort of answer. Gray rolled his eyes impatiently and was about to walk away, so he could waste his time doing something actually interesting, when she seemed to make a noise of epiphany.
“If you beat me, I will let you read my story.”
Gray raised an eyebrow curiously,
“What is stopping me from reading it on my own?”
“And what do I get out of it?!” Natsu spoke over him, “I don’t care about reading your story; that’s such a boring reward!”
The blonde scowled at the pink haired dragon slayer and flicked his forehead. Natsu hissed under his breath and rubbed the slowly growing red spot. She then turned her ire on Gray with her hands firmly on her hips as she loomed over him. Gray swallowed thickly and shrank away from her intimidating aura; an all too familiar chill starting to gather at the base of his spine. They really had to stop her from spending so much time with Erza. Lucy was getting too scary for her own good.
“But wouldn’t it be better if I gave you the right to read it rather than you going behind my back and stealing from me?” She hissed warningly; her expression barely softened as she turned to face the fire mage, “Also, Natsu, if you win then I’ll let you move into my flat for a week, and I won’t be able to complain.”
Gray nodded his head contemplatively as Natsu all but beamed from beside him; the red mark standing in stark contrast against the tan skin of his forehead. The ice mage scowled as the pink haired mage bounded closer to Lucy once more grasped onto her shoulders excitedly; his boisterous voice carrying over the low din of the guild hall.
“Now that is a reward that I can get behind!” He cheered, “All the free food I could eat!”
Lucy tilted her head towards the ceiling,
“That’s not what I said.”
“C’mon popsicle pants let’s do this!” Natsu shouted over her complaints exuberantly, “We’re going to win no problem!”
Gray sighed loudly and pressed his fingers to his temple,
“You idiot, we don’t even…”
“It doesn’t matter, we’re going to win!” He interrupted him once more and again threw his arm over his shoulders, “One thing I can count on is that with you by my side, there’s no way we could lose. Even if you’re a stupid stripper.”
The ice mage sputtered slightly from the declaration as he felt warmth take residence in his cheekbones. Before he could even think about throwing Natsu’s arm from his shoulder again, Mira had suddenly appeared before them and had started to distribute the cards for the game. He tried to listen to the instructions, but found himself zoning out as Natsu’s words continued to reverberate through his skull. As stupid as Natsu could be at times, he wasn’t wrong about this. They’d be able to beat Lucy no problem.
FTFTFTFT
They didn’t beat Lucy.
He didn’t know how the celestial mage did it, but she actually beat them. In a challenge. What the hell?! Gray stared up at the ceiling of his flat, still completely baffled by the fact that Lucy had somehow beat them. Not that Lucy was stupid or anything, she was probably one of the smartest in the guild bar Levy, but still. Her poker face was not very good, and Gray swore that he was able to read her like a book, but somehow she had managed to beat him.
He expected her to beat Natsu, but him ?
To make matters worse, now he had to go through with the punishment for the bet. How was it that he managed to agree to the terms of the bet without even knowing what his punishment would hold? Natsu, that’s how. Stupid flame-brained idiot. Now he was forced to stay in house all day to make the stupid bet as painless as possible. And just to make it clear, he wasn’t hiding from the bet. No sir. He was just making sure that he would actually be able to carry through with his end of the deal without committing homicide. Dragon-cide? Dumbass-cide.
Gray huffed loudly under his breath as he sat up in his bed; running his fingers through his hair frustratedly. This was all so stupid. His attention was pulled from his thoughts when the sound of someone knocking at his door caught his attention. He growled as he pushed himself to his feet; the pounding growing more and more insistent as he made his way to the front of his flat. He scowled darkly as he ripped his front door open, an insult on the tip of his tongue only to freeze completely.
“What. What the hell are you doing here?!”
Natsu rolled his eyes and shoved his way past the ice mage and into his flat; as if he had done so every day for the entirety of his life. Gray felt his scowl deepen as he slammed the door shut behind him and turned to face the dragon slayer who had decided to make himself at home on the sofa. The pink haired male had sprawled out across all of the sofa cushions with his sandaled feet propped up on the arm rest and his arms pillowing his head. His amber eyes narrowed at Gray expectantly, as if waiting for him to do something ridiculous like feed him.
“What the hell Natsu?!”
The dragon slayer rolled his eyes,
“Did you forget the bet or something ice princess?”
Gray glowered at his nonchalant tone,
“Of course not, why do you think I stayed home today?”
Natsu clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he swung himself around into an upright position. He slumped against the cushion with his arms folded over his chest; mirroring Gray’s defensive position from across the sitting room. He seemed to watch the ice mage for a few moments before he threw his arms up into the air in exasperation.
“That’s cheating. We have to uphold the bet, it’s Fairy Tail rules.”
Gray scoffed,
“Since when have we ever cared about the rules?”
The dragon slayer raised an eyebrow,
“Always. You know the rules surrounding bets just as well as I do Gray. Fairy Tail takes those very seriously. Plus, imagine what would happen if Erza found out that we didn’t follow through?”
The raven swallowed thickly as the threat of the armoured fairy descended upon him. Natsu wasn’t entirely wrong about Erza kicking their asses about not following through with the bet. Tie that in with the fact that she would undoubtedly hear all about the fighting that they got up to whilst she was away; really they needed all the help that they could possibly get. But with what their punishment entailed, it would truly be a miracle if either of them survived long enough for Erza to even punish them herself.
But that left Gray with yet another question.
“Why do you want to do the punishment so badly?” He frowned at the fire mage, “You could’ve done what I did and we could’ve just told the girls that we followed through with it. They wouldn’t even know the difference.”
Natsu stared at him blankly for a moment before shrugging his shoulders,
“Honestly, it shouldn’t be too hard. We used to do it all the time.”
“Are you serious?” Gray deadpanned, “I’m pretty sure you’re remembering things a little differently than I do.”
The fire mage pushed himself to his feet and walked over to Gray, firmly settling himself in his personal space. Gray fought back the discomfort he felt towards the heat that was rolling off Natsu’s body and held his stance. The living furnace that was Natsu Dragneel always made him uncomfortable when he got close like this, but he knew that if he showed any hint of weakness the idiot would either hold it over his head for the rest of time, or he would feel guilty over the fact that he had been making Gray feel uncomfortable all this time. There was really no in between. Plus, if he was truly bothered by it, he would have said something a long time ago. He could deal with a little discomfort.
“Sure, fighting is the way we communicate best,” Natsu shrugged again, “But we do know how to just hang out, right?”
And that was the question wasn’t it.
This is what the entire bet hinged on: Natsu and Gray being able to be around each other without throwing a single punch or starting a single fight.
Why had he agreed to this bet thing again?