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“No.”
Natsu leaned against the raven’s kitchen counter and quirked an eyebrow at his lover in surprise. It wasn’t often that Gray told him ‘no’ right away. Whenever he asked for something, the ice mage would put up a front by saying ‘no way in hell’, maybe throw in a few nicknames, but the pinkette generally always got what he wanted in the end; though Gray would always deny it (being the tsundere he was…even if he didn’t know what a ‘tsundere’ was until Lucy told him). However, this time around Gray seemed dead set on their date night remaining between the two of them…considering who he asked him to double with, he could see why.
“C’mon ice princess,” He smirked at him, “Don’t be a bastard; it’s their first date and they’re nervous about being alone with each other, it won’t be that bad.”
Gray stared at him incredulously,
“You do know who you’re talking about right? This has the potential to be nuclear.”
He smiled at his lover coyly,
“People thought the same thing about us and we turned out okay.”
The ice mage scoffed,
“If ‘okay’ is code for fighting every other day instead of every day, then we’re doing fantastic…but a date with them of all people; Natsu we’re just asking for a disaster.”
The dragon slayer would be lying if he said that Gray was completely wrong and things were going to go amazingly. He knew what those two could be like, and well they made Fairy Tail’s exhibitionist look tame. Not that the ice mage never did anything as forward as the other two, but well, stripping his clothes off every chance he got tended to send the wrong message.
A message that sent his own hormones firing.
“Should you really be saying that about your best friend?” He teased the ice mage as he pushed himself away from the counter and stalked towards the ice mage who was leaning in the doorway.
He could tell that Gray was trying to keep his scowl on his face but was absolutely failing. Natsu smirked at his lover and reached out to loop his fingers around Gray’s belt loops. He tugged the raven forward so that their lower abdomens brushed against each other. The pinkette smirked as he heard Gray inhale sharply from the movement.
“With me being his best friend,” Gray stated through clenched teeth, “I know what he’s capable of doing and having met his ‘other half’ a few times as well and I know what he’s capable of.”
Natsu chuckled,
“I do too, but still it could be fun you know.”
The ice mage stared at him flatly,
“You have a strange definition of fun.”
The fire mage pressed his lips to the corner of his Gray’s lips,
“Gray, you’ve known me for over ten years and you’re just figuring that out now.”
He could tell that the ice mage was cracking under his ministrations. His scowl was starting to smooth out and his shoulders were starting to relax. Natsu knew that despite the fact that Gray was damn set against going on a double date with the two of them, the frosty bastard would end up doing it anyway and not only because Natsu had asked him to. No, Gray would do it because Loke was his best friend, maybe even his brother in some respects, and he’d do anything for the people he cared about.
Natsu knew this first hand…
“If anything goes wrong on this date, you’re taking the heat for it.”
On the other hand, Gray could be a frigid bitch when he wanted to.
FTFTFTFT
So far so good …
And he hoped that it could remain that way, but considering who they were with it was debateable. Gray leaned back against his seat in the booth and smiled slightly at the couple sitting in front of him. Never in a million years would he have thought that these two playboys would fall in love…with each other. Don’t get him wrong, Loke tended to give of a bisexual vibe; even if he did lean towards women, he had revealed (to Gray at least) that he had fooled around with some men. So, in a sense Loke being interested in pursuing a relationship with men isn’t too weird.
His date, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter.
He couldn’t fathom it at all; Natsu teased him for being close minded, but there’s closed minded and then there’s plain impossible. Gray glanced at his lover from the corner of his eye as he stuffed his face with some ribeye that he ordered and sighed; people believed that they were plain impossible and doomed to fail at first too…but they weren’t dating Hibiki Lates.
The Hibiki Lates…of Blue Pegasus…the guild that spawned perverts.
Gray didn’t know that Hibiki even thought about men as people to even think of. From the very moment that the ice mage had met the archive-user was way back when they had to team up to defeat the Oracion Seis, Hibiki (along with the rest of the Trimens) proved where his sexuality lied; in more ways than one. He stared at the brown haired green eyed ladies’ man in front of him and couldn’t help but feel protective over his best friend; which was completely valid given the fact that Hibiki was a playboy , there was no way that he had a serious bone in his body.
Not that Loke was any better, but that wasn’t the point.
“Oi Gray,” The celestial lion’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, “What the hell are you so deep in thought about? If you think any harder you’re going to have an aneurysm.”
The ice mage smirked easily,
“Nah, that would be Natsu; he’s the one who lacks a brain.”
“Watch it ice princess,” The dragon slayer growled out as he shoved some fries in his mouth, “If you’re mean to me, you’re not getting any tonight.”
The raven barked out a laugh,
“Yeah, let’s see how long that threat would actually last, why don’t we?”
His smile widened when he heard Natsu cursing him under his breath before grabbing a handful of onion rings and shoving them into his mouth. He had to admit that it was a good idea for the four of them to come to an arcade and most of that was because of the variety of food and the fact that this particular arcade was buffet style. He learned early on in their relationship, you know when they were friends, that the one way to make Natsu behave was to surround him with an unsurmountable amount of food; but really, that wasn’t the point here.
“So, Natsu and Gray,” Hibiki smiled at them, “Thank you for letting us intrude on your…date…tonight.”
Gray’s eyebrow rose slightly and Natsu even paused in his inhaling to state,
“It wasn’t a big deal; Gray and I have plenty of date nights, it’s your first…it was the least we could do.”
Loke opened his mouth to offer his input when their waitress came back with refills of their drinks. Gray’s eyebrow twitched as Hibiki and Loke, the supposed couple, grinned lecherously at the poor girl who was stuck with waiting their table. He almost reached across the table to punch Loke in the face when the sparkles started to appear near his shades and wanted to run away and hide when he noticed Hibiki was tapping into his Trimens persona; seriously, how were the dating?!
“Hey there beautiful,” Loke pulled down his shades and winked at her, “How are you doing this fine evening?”
The ice mage resisted the urge to face palm as a blush spread across the girl’s face; it’s not like this is the first time this happened tonight either,
“Uh,” The girl looked away nervously, “It’s going okay, I guess?”
“A princess like you shouldn’t be working as hard as you are,” Hibiki added lustrously as he reached out the girl and grabbed onto her hand, “Why don’t you have a break and sit down with us?”
Was this really happening?
Gray leaned back in his seat once more and shot a side glance at Natsu who had frozen with a slice of pizza hanging from his mouth. He blinked at the two other men and the waitress for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and shoving the pizza down his esophagus. Had everyone lost their minds in a span of two seconds?!
“How are you not fazed by this?” He hissed at his oblivious lover.
The pinkette swallowed the remainder of his pizza,
“Because they’re perverts; it was bound to happen…just like you were bound to throw off your shirt at any given notice.”
“What are you talking about?”
The dragon slayer shot him a glance that clearly said ‘are you serious’ and he quickly found out why. A scowl slanted his lips when he felt a suspicious, but all too familiar, breeze brushing against his chest. He looked around himself and his shirt was nowhere in sight…again…he folded his arms across his bare chest and levelled a glare on his lover.
“Shut up.”
“Corrine,” Loke purred drawing Gray’s attention back to their flirt-fest, “What do you say about joining me and Mr. Lates here after your shift?”
Hibiki winked as he pressed his lips to her hand,
“You like you need a little pampering, my gorgeous flower.”
Gray’s mouth dropped open as the girl stuttered something that sounded like an agreement before turning on her heel and running off. Perverts or not, that was a little odd…especially since the two of them were the ones who were supposed to be dating. He looked between the two ladies’ men and buried his face in his arms in exasperation.
“Gray?” Loke’s voice reached his ears, “Are you okay man?”
“Okay?” He laughed semi-hysterically, “Okay? Can you tell me what the hell was going on right now?”
The sandy brown haired mage folded his hands on the table,
“What do you mean? I think it was pretty brilliant if you ask me.”
Gray glanced at his lover to see if he would back him up on just how crazy this was when he saw that Natsu had decided to start digging into his dessert. Could that pink haired idiot be anymore oblivious; it truly baffled him how he could love this dumbass so much sometimes. He glanced at his best friend to see if he had anything to say about what happened, but the stupid lion seemed just as happy as his ‘date’.
How in the hell did he meet these type of people?
“Are you going to explain the ‘brilliance’ of your plan?” He demanded, “‘Cause dude, I’m really confused.”
Loke leaned back and put his hands behind his head,
“Well, as you know this relationship is sort of new right?”
The ice mage blinked at him,
“Yes, in fact I’d say it came out of nowhere.”
The lion waved the statement off and smirked at Gray coyly,
“How we met isn’t that important, what is important is that we give this a try even if one of us had no idea he was Loke-sexual until recently.”
“Did you just say ‘Loke-sexual’?” Gray choked on the drink he had just brought to his lips.
“Yeah; it’s a label I give men who were not gay until they met me,” Loke winked playfully, “Actually, there was I time I thought you were Loke-sexual yourself Gray.”
Suddenly, Gray was forced to cover his face as all the cake that was stuffed Natsu’s cheeks came spraying out like he was doing a ‘Fire Dragon’s Roar’. The ice mage grimaced as he shook what used to be remnants of chocolate cake of his arm and he glared at his lover who was looking back at him in what seemed to be…jealousy? The sound of a somewhat girlish squeal brought his attention to the ‘couple’ across from him, who had gotten the full-on spit-take.
“You were Loke-sexual?!” Natsu demanded furiously.
Gray pressed his fingers to his temple,
“Can you please stop saying that; it’s not an actual fucking word flame brain!”
“Who cares if he was ‘Loke-sexual’ or not?” Hibiki hissed through clenched teeth, “Do you have any idea how many jewel this suit cost me; I bought it especially for today too!”
Natsu leaned across the table and grabbed the front of Hibiki’s dirty suit,
“It matters to me damnit! He’s my ice princess, so like hell I’m going to take this lying down!”
The ice mage released a harsh breath and stared at Natsu incredulously,
“Even if I was Loke-sexual, which I sure as hell wasn’t, it shouldn’t matter anymore dumbass because I’m with you; so let it go.”
Gray and Natsu glared at each other for what seemed like an eternity until the dragon slayer looked away petulantly; sadly, Gray knew he hadn’t heard the end of this. He ran his fingers through his hair in exhaustion and he stared at the chocolate covered couple.
“Okay, back on topic,” Gray sighed loudly, “What was the point of this date if you were going to pick up a chick all along?”
“Easy,” Loke shrugged his shoulders and wiped chocolate off his shades, “I wanted him to be comfortable with what we were doing, so why not set up a scenario where he could be himself until he’s ready to accept what he has become?”
In that moment, Gray understood how Natsu’s brain comprehended the world and it hurt him a bit. After all the years that he knew him, he never thought that the lion could be that insightful. He never considered the fact that Hibiki wouldn’t be ready to accept the fact that he liked a man. When Gray thought back to when he and Natsu had gotten together, it had taken him a little while to accept that what was happening between them was really happening. It’s not every day that rivals who hate each other become lovers who can’t live without the other.
Maybe in time Loke and Hibiki would feel that way too…
“And Loke saw the pros to having a threesome,” The archive-user smirked, “Though, we’ll treat dear sweet Corrine with the love and care that she deserves.”
But in the end, they were still perverts.
Gray pinched the bridge of his nose and laughed,
“Do whatever you guys want, just leave me out of it.”
The strawberry blonde playboy smirked,
“Aw, you mean you don’t want to go on double dates anymore?”
The ice mage snuck a glance over at Natsu who had transitioned from pouting to glaring angrily at the wall. He shrugged his shoulders and winked at the new couple as they also smiled at the dragon slayer’s inherent anger. Despite the strangeness of their relationship, Gray hoped that Loke and Hibiki would work out. On this small double date, that he spent most of judging their relationship, he learned that there might not be two people more perfect for each other…
Well except for him and Natsu of course.