A New Home (Gratsu)

A New Home?

~A little note before I start. I know Natsu hasn't even been introduced to the story yet but we'll get to that. I want to focus on what brings Gray to meet Natsu before I delve into their relationship. Also I didn't know before but I kind of Brotp ship Rogue and Gray... Ray? Grogue? Either way I'm down!

Also I republished the first chapter after I edited it to make it look more readable. I wrote it in Word so when I copied and pasted it all of the hard work I did structuring it went out the window...~

Gray must've dozed off because when he opened his eyes the entire world on the other side of the window looked completely foreign to him. The forests and hills surrounding the Blue Pegasus Clinic were gone and in their place were a beautiful ocean, sandy white beaches, and snaking canals. Gray had never seen a place like this before. As he pressed his face into the window, so that he could take in as much of it as he could, he felt like a child for the first time for as far back as he could remember. Ahead of them a large city, which Gray assumed was Magnolia, was revealing itself like a sunrise. It all looked so beautiful to him. So unreal.

"You know kid you'd get a much better view if you'd roll down that window," spoke Elfman, dragging Gray out of his strange daydream. Gray blushed but mumbled a 'thank you' and quickly rolled down the window. The only problem was the illusion was broken now. Sure the city looked beautiful, the beach looked great, and Gray was sure there were loads of adventures to have here but that didn't mean they'd happen to him. Odds were he would get stuck in some repurposed apartment complex down in the slums where those canals didn't look too pretty when they were full of trash. Gray looked over at Elfman who, after being packed into this car like a can of sardines for who knows how long, definitely looked like he could come from the grimy part of Magnolia. Gray couldn't remember if all of those sweat stains and rips were in Elfman's clothes before he got in the car or if they were there because of the car though so he tried to keep a little hope.

"God is it always so hot here? I feel like I'm melting!" groaned a frustrated Gray. When he had lived with his Aunt Ur, who had taught him ice-make magic, he had developed the unfortunate habit of randomly stripping off his clothing. After Gray had fallen into his struggle with anorexia that habit had disappeared almost completely, only appearing around close friends. Since his only close friend was Rogue he was the only one who knew about Gray's 'little issue'.

"Relax we're almost there. Besides it wouldn't kill you to sweat a little! Sweating is manly!" Elfman deadpanned. At first Gray found Elfman pretty funny but this whole 'manly' business got really old really quick right around the time when Gray realized that Elfman wasn't joking. "It won't matter soon anyways. Strauss House has great air conditioning."

"Air conditioning? Wow you guys must have a fancy place if you can afford that," Gray noted, surprised. Poor places didn't have air conditioning usually so he could knock out that theory. Gray was hell-bent on finding the catch to his new home. Just because he hadn't found it yet didn't mean that it wasn't there. At least that's what Gray kept telling himself.

"Actually the city pays for everything as long as you guys don't cause too much trouble. A couple years ago we had to kick out this kid named Midnight. He was running around giving townspeople nightmares, stealing from people... you know some really un-manly stuff. Almost got the whole house shut down," Elfman spat, clearly still upset about it.