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“Natsu and Lucy sure have gotten close lately! It’s kind of cute!” Mira’s high pitched voice made Gray wince, thankfully he didn’t let it show, annoyed by her wording.
In hindsight, those words shouldn’t have hurt him as much as they did, yet they did. He turned his head to look at the two friends with a slight glare.
“Gray?” Mira asks, a knowing smirk on her face, making the ice mage roll his eyes. “Is everything okay?”
Gray nods his head and leans back in the chair, “Yeah, just don’t like the idea of someone following Lucy home.” He partly lies.
It’s true that he was worried about the blonde but, he knew he was more upset about something else, but he unsure as to what.
No you know what, he did know. He was jealous of Lucy for taking all of Natsu’s attention from him. Not that was what Mira thought.
“Aw! How sweet! Maybe you should escort her home?” Mira’s eyebrows bounce as she leans against the bar on her folded arms.
Gray scoffs into his drink, setting it down after taking a sip, “Not in the way you think I should.” She clearly didn’t know.
The bartender just laughs.
“Oh come on Gray,” Cana, Fairy Tail’s resident drinker, nudges the ice mage with her elbow. “It’s just a silly walk.”
Gray glares at his drinking partner and shakes his head, standing up, “And I’m heading home.” He can’t deal with their teasing right now.
He leaves the guild hall while the two girls laugh at his expanse. The doors shut and he makes his way down the path.
Its a few minutes later when he finds himself near Lucy’s place, he wasn’t really lying when he said he was worried about the blonde. Gray stops and steps down to the river bank just in front of her place, pressing his back against the shed and staring into the water.
He doesn’t know how long he stays and waits but he hears Happy’s familiar voice followed by Natsu’s. Gray couldn’t tell what they were saying but he knew they were checking out their friends place.
Gray pokes his head out from behind the shed, watching the two leave Lucy’s as she approaches, and standing at attention.
“All clear on your end sergeant Happy?” The dragon slayer says with a salute.
Happy copies the fire mage and speaks, “Aye aye Captain Natsu!”
Their half serious looks drop into frowns upon noticing the blondes frown.
“Yo, welcome home.” Natsu’s frown turns into worried grin.
“We’re happy to report that no suspicious individuals have been detected!” Happy says cheerily.
Lucy then turns to the father-son duo, head just slightly tilted downward. “Thanks you guys.” Her tone is soft; Gray could barely hear her from where he stood.
“Captain! It appears the book private is a party pooper, sir!” The cat teases as Lucy looks to him and says, “How did I end up being a private?”
Natsu chuckles and grins.
Gray could feel his heart weirdly skip a beat at it.
“Well you are still a nooby!” The fire mage’s grin falters, “Is something wrong? You look upset.”
Gray peaks out some more, trying to see the three better. Which he immediately regrets as both Natsu and Happy turn to where he was hiding, followed by Lucy.
“Is it him?” Lucy says in a whispered tone.
Gray hides back behind the shed as Happy flies over.
“Captain Sir! We’ve got a creeper over here!” The flying cat shouts.
Natsu jumps over the shed with a shout, “I’ll take care of him!”
He lands right on top of Gray, making the ice mage let out a yell of pain. “What’s your problem?!”
“Man, what the hell are you doing here?” Natsu asks, standing over the half-naked mage, ignoring Lucy’s ‘It was Gray?’ question.
“I never would’ve thought you’d be the perv whose stalking Lucy!” Happy said in an angered tone, hovering over Gray.
“Wait! You’ve got it all wrong!” Lucy starts but is caught off by Gray.
“Calm down.” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair.
“I overheard her say that she felt like someone was watching her so I followed her to make sure she got home safely.” He turns his head away to hide his embarrassment, not that he was.
“I was just looking out for a friend.”
“You loooove her! Don’t you?” Happy teases, reminding Gray of Cana and Mira’s teasing from earlier.
“Watch it or I’ll punch your face in cat!” He shouts, letting anger get the best of him.
He looks back up at Natsu as the fire mage starts talking, feeling a stab at his heart at the look he was giving him.
“You know I’ve never really liked ya’ that much but, now, I’ve lost all respect for you!” Natsu had crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring his jealousy flare up.
Now that hurt.
Gray, in his fit of hurt rage, stands up close to Natsu, face to face.
“What’chya mean by that?” If Natsu wanted to fight, then Gray was willing to.
“I’ve always suspected that you might be a pervert, ‘cause you walk around half naked, but now that you’re stalking cute girls I’m absolutely positive that- AHHHH!”
Gray in his fit of rage had smack the cat. Happy launching up into the sky, having lost control of his magic at the unexpected hit.
“I wasn’t stalking her! I was looking out for her!” He shouts, masking his hurt feelings with his anger.
“Well it sounds like someone’s in denial.” Natsu says. Gray couldn’t understand the tone the fire mage used, but he knew that that wasn’t how he usually sounded.
“Alright,” Gray shouts, bringing a hand up, “That’s it, you want a piece of me you fiery mouth breather?!”
Natsu brings his own hand up, a ball of fire in it. “You’re just mad that you’ve been caught red handed, you pervy Popsicle!”
Gray had never felt such relief at being called a ‘Popsicle’. Maybe Natsu wasn’t as mad as he thought.
I should probably explain.
Gray loves Natsu, not that he’d admit it even if the other knows.
Natsu love and adores Gray. He has made that clear since they first met as kids and he was willing to wait for him.
When Natsu first laid eyes and smelt the ice mage, he knew that was his destined mate, someone that some dragons spent their lives looking for. Natsu lucked out and found him so young!
Since then he’s made comments to Gray about how the ice make mage would one day be his.
Gray didn’t know what to make of the others words until after Lisanna died. When she died, Natsu had approached Gray and told him everything.
See, dragons mate for life, they have one destined mate. After seeing how easily he lost his best friend, there was no way he was going to wait to tell Gray after that.
Thankfully the ice mage didn’t freak out like he was expecting, instead he said that he’d like to wait. Gray didn’t know how to feel about Natsu just yet, but if he was willing to wait a little longer until he could figure himself out, then he would.
Despite knowing what he knew about Dragons and Natsu, Gray couldn’t help but feel jealous of the attention others gave the Dragon Slayer. A fact that made Natsu very happy.
The two then tackled each other into a fight as Lucy yelled at the two of them. Neither heard any word she had said, meeting eyes as they fought and pleased smirks growing on their faces.
Once they got the fight out of their system, the two sat on the ground. Gray was leaning back on his hands and Natsu had his hands in between his legs, sharing a smile with Gray.
“Are you two done now?” Lucy asked in an exasperated tone, hands on her hips.
The two nod their heads and Natsu stands up, offering Gray a hand, as a silent apology. Gray takes it and stands with his help, accepting the apology.
“Sorry Lucy.” Gray says, standing shoulder to shoulder with Natsu, the fire mage holding his hand with both of his. “Won’t happen again.”
Lucy sighs and shakes her head, a fond smile growing on her lips, “No worries.” She waves her hand. “I’m going to head inside now, night boys!” She turns to head in.
“Hey, Lucy,” Gray starts, watching as she turns her head back to look at him, her head tilted to the side in confusion.
“Why were you so adamant about it not being me?” He asks, setting his free hand in his pocket while Natsu gave him a confused glance.
Lucy frowns and turns back around, taking a few steps toward them, “Turns out that feeling I had was just my father watching me.”
Her words made both of them tense up.
“What? He was here?” Natsu asks quickly.
“He wanted to check up on me… according to him.” She sighs and looks off to the side.
“The Heartfilia’s aren’t a rich family anymore… he came to ask for some money to get to Acalypha.” She scoffs and looks back over. “It’s weird to think…”
Natsu and Gray share a look before Natsu slowly asks, “Do you want us to stay the night? Maybe just Happy?”
Her eyes snap to Natsu’s, slowly looking over at Gray then back to him, “I… yeah, Happy being here would be nice.”
Happy gives a curt nod, having gotten back to the group sometime during Gray and Natsu’s fight.
Natsu let’s go of Gray and opens his arms out to Happy who immediately flies into his arms, “I’ll come by in the morning and pick you both up! Erza’s dragging us on a job.”
Happy nods and pulls away, heading to Lucy and sitting on her shoulder and waving ‘bye’ to the two as they head inside.
Natsu finally looks away once they’re in, looking to Gray and meeting his eyes, nodding his head in the direction of the ice mages house.
Gray gives a short nod and starts walking, shoving both hands into his pockets.
The two walk in silence until they reach Gray’s place. As soon as the door closes behind them, Natsu grabs Gray and brings him into a hug, keeping his mate in his arms.
“I’m sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean it.” He says, his voice muffled as he hides his face in Gray’s shoulder.
Gray snorts and brings his arms around Natsu, setting one hand on his hip and the other on his upper back, “It hurt in the moment yeah, but I know you didn’t mean what you said.”
“Doesn’t excuse that I said them.” Natsu looks up at Gray when the other pulls back, moving the hand that was on his back to Natsu’s cheek.
The Dragon Slayer leans into his touch, letting his eyes shut for a moment before meeting Gray’s eyes.
“Listen to me; I don’t care about what you said. All I need to know is that you didn’t mean them and that you’re here with me now.” Maybe Gray could give this relationship a try.
He’s never felt so warm and comfortable or right than he does by Natsu’s side. Standing here and looking into those deep emerald eyes of his, so filled with love and admiration.
He could feel his cheeks warming up, bringing his other hand to the other cheek, cupping Natsu’s face in both hands now.
It feels like forever, just the two of them staring into one another’s eyes and saying nothing, doing nothing. Not until Gray slowly moves closer, his lips brushing over the fire mage.
He could feel the warmth of the other pressed against him, as well as the warmth coming from his breath. He pauses glancing down at Natsu’s lips for a split second, meeting his eyes once more.
“Gray?” Natsu asks his voice barely above a whisper.
“Can I?” He asks him, his own voice in the same tone as Natsu’s.
Natsu nods his head, shutting his eyes as soon as Gray’s lips meet his own. He almost seemed to melt into the kiss, fingers grabbing hold on Gray’s belt loops.
When they part, Gray is a flustered mess, slowly sliding his hands down to settle on Natsu’s hips while the other let’s go of Gray and brings his own arms around his neck, a grin growing wide on his face.
“I knew you liked me.” Natsu teases while Gray glares at him.
“Tsk, believe what you want.” The ice mage says, moving his hands further down to pick Natsu up, smiling when he jumped into his arms.
“You’re staying tonight, right?” He asks as Natsu wraps his legs around him. Natsu nods, “’course I am.”
Gray hums, pleased with his words as he steps into his bedroom, getting on the bed and crawling to the pillows, setting Natsu down and lying on his back beside him.
Natsu quickly presses into his side, head and hand on Gray’s chest, content with listening to his heart.
“I’m still not ready… but I wanted to make sure that…” Gray falls quiet, trailing off.
“I’m yours… don’t worry.” Natsu hums, letting his eyes shut.
Gray smiles to himself and runs his hand through his pink locks and the two fall asleep together.