When the Snow Falls (Gratsu)

Chapter Two- Friend

I somehow ended up stumbling through Natsu's huge mansion, following him like a lost puppy. And I'm sure that if he wasn't there, I would be lost in this seemingly endless expanse of walls and doors that he called his house. Should I tell him...? Or would that make it awkward? Do I just show up here tomorrow for work and tell him it was a strange coincidence? Well, it was a strange coincidence... But what do I do right now? I debated my options in my head for a moment. Eventually, I decided to keep quiet about it for now, and try to put off seeing him for work as much as possible.

"Gray? Hello? Are you okay?" Natsu said, waving his hand in front of my face. I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Just great!" I said a little too enthusiastically. Wow, great way to try and make it less awkward. I mentally face palmed.

"Are you sure? You're not looking too good..." Natsu sounded genuinely concerned and I felt a pang of guilt for lying to him. Though it wasn't really lying... Just not telling him something that I probably should have. I sighed. Dealing with people is complicated. That's why I usually try to be unfriendly towards strangers- so that they will hopefully leave and never talk to me again. The only people I've really had to deal with is my family, and they don't provide much practice for a social life.

"Hey! Gray! Stop zoning out, I'm trying to talk to
you."

"Oh. Sorry... Again. I do that a lot."

"Trust me, I've noticed." How is this the boy I thought would be mean, lazy, and rude? He's quite the opposite of what I originally thought he would be. And maybe if I hadn't met him before work started, I would still think he was like that.

"So... What did you want to talk about?" I asked Natsu.

"I was just gonna ask you if you were hungry or wanted anything to drink."

"Uh, sure." I replied awkwardly. Curse my lack of social skills.

"Okay." Natsu stood up. "Follow me." I stood up off the pristine, white couch we were previously sitting on, and to my horror saw that there was a large wet spot where I had been sitting. Damn it, stupid snow. I thought. I looked over to Natsu's spot to see that he had left a wet butt print on the sofa too, and felt relieved that I hadn't ruined their fancy rich-people furniture.

I followed Natsu out of the room and through a maze of walls to what I assumed would be a kitchen or dining room. How does he know this place so well? I would get lost without someone here to guide me through it. Oh wait... That will be my job starting tomorrow. I realized that it would do me some good to remember all I can about the layout of the house now so that I wouldn't have as much trouble tomorrow, but I had already forgotten which way we came from the living room. After another minute of weaving through rooms and hallways, we arrived in a large dining room. A very large dining room. It was more of a ball room with a table in it if you asked me, but who was I to say anything?

"Woah..." I slapped my hand over my mouth to quiet the noise that had passed between my lips, but it was too late. Natsu laughed as he watched my face flush with embarrassment. There he goes again with that laugh of his... It's such a pretty laugh... I wonder if anyone has ever told him tha-

"You have a really pretty laugh." I blurted, my mouth betraying the secrets of my thoughts. Natsu stopped laughing to glance at me and tilt his head sideways. My eyes widened as my face turned an even deeper shade of scarlet.

"Really?" He asked, seeming confused. I nodded with my lips pressed together tightly, too afraid that my mouth would spill one of my other private thoughts if I gave it the chance.

"No one has ever told me that before." He said, a light blush dusting his face as he averted his black eyes from mine. My mind almost exploded from how cute it was when he was embarrassed. Woah, woah, woah. Slow down a minute brain. I haven't even known him for two hours and you're already calling him cute? What's wrong with you? I thought, but this time I was aware that my mouth could betray me once more and this time, it would not be something we could both just be embarrassed about for a minute and then let go. Me calling him cute would have more consequences than saying his laugh was pretty. I looked at Natsu, who was staring at me, but when I looked at him, he looked away quickly to make it seem as if he hadn't been looking at me. I smiled softly at the floor.

"So, Gray, let's sit down, yeah?" Natsu asked me, apparently getting over his shyness pretty quickly. He walked over to the table in the center of the room, and when I approached it, it looked way bigger than it did when I first walked in the door. The room was so huge it made this giant table look tiny. Natsu pulled out a chair at one end of the table and motioned for me to sit down. As I did, he bowed.

"My lady." He joked.

"Why thank you, kind sir." I joked back, curtseying before sitting down and letting him push me closer to the table. A girl that looked a bit older than our age with yellow-blonde hair and wide brown eyes came over to us and asked us what we would like. After Natsu told her, she nodded and left to what I presumed was the kitchen. Natsu and I talked for about twenty minutes before our food was delivered on heavy porcelain dishes. Natsu dug in immediately, but I felt awkward and unrefined doing the same in someone else's house. Once I tasted the delicious rich-people food, however, I couldn't help but take giant forkfuls of food. As we ate we took turns asking random questions to each other.

"What's your favorite color?" Natsu asked.

"Gray, duh." I answered. "What's your favorite animal?"

"Cat. What's your favorite movie?"

"Frozen. Is your hair naturally pink?" I asked the question I had been dying to know since I first looked at him. He laughed.

"Yes, actually. And it's not pink, it's salmon."

"I don't believe you."

"Can you not tell pink apart from salmon?"

"No, I don't believe that it's natural." I narrowed my eyes at the questionable hair.

"Well, if you don't believe me now, start looking to see if the color starts fading in a few weeks."

"Will I see you in a few weeks?" I asked, curious as to what his answer would be.

"Well, I guess... If you want to I mean..." He looked up at me, the light pink blush cover his cheeks once again. His eyes darted away a split second after they met mine.

"I-" I started saying, but was cut off by the door to the kitchen opening. It was the blonde girl again. She stopped when she saw Natsu looking at me with red cheeks and my mouth open looking like I was in the middle of a sentence. Her eyes flickered back and forth between my expressionless face and Natsu's flushed one.

"Oh, was I interrupting something? I'm sorry. I can come back-"

"Oh, no, it's alright." Natsu said to her, quickly composing himself. "What did you need, Lucy?"

"I was just going to take your plates if you were done." The girl, Lucy, said.

"Yes, please. Thank you." Natsu said to her. "Gray? Are you done?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you, Lucy." She blushed at my calling her by her name as she took my plates from the table. She walked out of the room hurriedly, as if she wanted to escape the slight tension in the room that had been there since she had arrived.

"... So..." I said awkwardly.

"What would you like to do now?" Natsu asked me.

"Uh..." I had no clue what rich people did for fun. Was he going to ask me to spontaneously fly to Paris on his private jet? Or maybe take a cruise around the Mediterranean?

"Wanna watch a movie?"

"Okay." So they didn't do anything extremely out of the ordinary. I was almost disappointed. Not that I would have known what to do if he had asked me to fly to Paris with him. I didn't know a word of French beyond bonjour and I certainly didn't think my still-damp jeans were worthy of a private jet. Natsu stood and I realized I was zoning out again, so I quickly got up and followed as he walked out of the room and entered the maze of a house once again. I started to get lost in thoughts about France and baguettes and berets, aimlessly following wherever he turned and not really registering the directions we were taking through the very complex house.

"Gray! Why are you walking so slow? Oh... Again?" Natsu sighed.

"Sorry." I said, picking up my speed slightly. Then, Natsu did something very unexpected. He grabbed my hand and started pulling me beside him at the pace he was walking. My internal dialogue about foreign countries faded away, and my eyes widened as I looked at our intertwined hands. There was a certain warmth spreading through my body at how close we were walking. I felt him squeeze my hand without looking back at me, and I squeezed his hand in return to let him know that this time, I wasn't lost in my thoughts, but was right here beside him.