The Princess of Fairy Tail High

I bond with the Ice Princess

Gray and I get to our dorm room, and I take a long look at what he complained about. I can't really call either of our sides neat or messy. Gray's slight mess just seems to be more on his side. He has clothes and boxers and stuff covering his blue blankets, and some magazines on the carpeted floor. His desk is the neatest thing in our room, somehow. Mine is covered with piles and piles of paper. School work that I'm not looking forward to picking up again. My bed is pretty neat too, I have to say. It's the only thing I can't stand messy. The red sheets and blankets are pulled tight, and the pillows are lined up. I don't know why, but I always make my bed.

I pick up my laundry from Gray's side and shove it into my laundry bag, giving Gray a look at the same time. Once I finish that exhausting act (note my sarcasm), I sit on my bed and face my roommate.

"So. Girl problems?" I have to force myself not to laugh.

"Well... you know Juvia Lockster, who was my date to the Halloween dance?" Gray sits on his bed across from me and looks everywhere but my face.

I smirk, "that girl who always followed you around until recently?"

Gray's eyes widen. "Yeah, her. To be honest I didn't think you ever paid any attention to her."

"The important thing here is that you did, my friend." I point out. Gray nods.

"Yeah, well. Mira would always tease me about the two of us, how I'd sooner or later come to terms with my feelings..."

"And now?" I look expectantly at my best friend. What I wasn't expecting was his face to cloud over with an unspoken emotion. No words were needed. Gray's face said it all. His confusion, torment, love, hate, anger, frustration. I could never read anyone else as well as I read Gray right now. A small sigh escapes his lips, and I feel a sudden rush of anger.

Huh? Why am I angry right now? Because Gray 'came to terms with his feelings'? Because Gray can make weird faces? Gray looks like any normal teenage boy... in love. And by the slight blush, maybe he realizes it too.

But just as quickly as I felt angry, his face turns dark, and the entire mood changes.

"Someone's after her." Gray spits those words. I cock my head in confusion, but don't say anything. "Lyon Vastia. I know it. He spoke to her during the Halloween dance."

I look up at him. "But that dance was supposed to be FT students only." Well, except for Loke and Aries, I think to myself.

"He asked her for a dance!" Gray puts his head in his hands. "I just... don't know what to do about him. It's not like Juvia and I talk anyways..."

"So change that. Dude, the worst thing I'm hearing now is that you're, well, self conscious. You lack confidence that you and Juvia have what it takes. Just ignore this Lyon guy and focus on your own relationship with her." I roll my eyes as if it were the simplest thing in the world. When I look back at Gray, he's sitting there with his mouth hanging open. "What?"

"N-nothing! It's just weird to be getting this kind of advice from you. Or any kind of advice at that... I mean, you were the player! The man, the bad boy who took girls out and then paid them no attention." Gray trails off, and I face palm.

"Oh god, was I really like that?"

Gray looks at me, astonished, "yeah! Like, five months ago!"

I cross my arms and feel myself start to get defensive. "It's not like I didn't care about those girls. It just never worked out with any of them. They didn't spark anything in me. No one did." I sense that Gray's about to bring her up, and I brace myself.

"... Not even Lisanna?"

Woah. Not what I was expecting. I almost choke on my spit. "Lisanna's a different story. We were young, we didn't know what we were doing. I always felt bad about how things ended, but whatever there was just... wasn't anymore."

Lisanna and I dated for almost three months in our freshman year. She came to the school late in the year, having studied somewhere abroad for most of her life. She had this funny accent, and didn't understand a lot of things that we did here. But we had known each other before she moved away, and we just fell back into place. It must have felt right, for a little. Then I ended things with her, and she just broke away as if she wasn't even there anymore.

I feel bad saying it now, but Lisanna became nothing more than a name to me after that.

Gray shifts in his seat, "I guess that makes sense. Thanks for the advice, man. I guess you can be smart sometimes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I laugh.

"That half the time it's like you don't even have a brain!" Gray retorts.

"Hey!" I reply, joking, "Lucy said she thinks I'm beginning to mature."

"Well then she doesn't have a brain either." Gray replies, snorting.

Immediately I feel myself react to his words. My eyes narrow, and my hands ball into fists. Something deep inside me wants to punch the day lights out of Gray for insulting Lucy.

"Don't you ever say anything like that about Lucy. Ever."

My face twists with a sour expression, and I scrunch my eyebrows. Gray nervously eyes my fists, and tries to cover it with a joke. As if he could joke about anything like that.

"Calm down Natsu, I didn't mean it seriously. Relax man," Gray holds his hands out, until I cool down a little. "Wow, you really got worked up for Lucy. I can see how you braved that fire for her. If you were half as angry then as you were just now, you wouldn't have felt anything else."

I stare at my now limp hands and reply softly, "I just couldn't stand that Luce was in danger."

My heart begins to pound with the same force as it did that night. The fear I felt washes over me again, but this time I'm safe in my room, on my bed. Lucy and everyone else called me a hero that night, but I didn't feel any of that. I only felt Lucy's hand as we pulled each other to safety. And later, Lucy's lips on mine.

Then November came. School work became a little heavier as teachers prepared for the break, and Lucy argued with her father and the masses. Magazines and whatnot all wanted interviews with the survivor, with Lucy Heartfilia. I don't know why she didn't just tell me. I mean, I've been to this school for three years known as the guy with a good background. People don't exactly know how big my house really is, but they know I have money. Lucy didn't have anything to hide from me, but she chose to anyways.

Why? Why'd you keep yourself secret, Luce?

What is there to hide?

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Hmm slight Gruvia in there from Gray's side for once! Haha ❤️