Ten Days Until Christmas [Gratsu]

Two days left

Gray woke up with his neck hurting like crazy. When he realised he had slept in his chair, he got confused.

Where had Natsu been yesterday?

Gray didn't yet now how, but the plan had failed. It had been such a great plan, too.

He noticed the book sitting on his lap and picked it up. He had stopped reading with just one chapter left, and decided to finish the book before making breakfast.

In the second to last chapter Josh had jumped into the sea to escape his step mother and her ghost. He wasn't a very good swimmer, but he did his best, and eventually he ended up on a beach where he passed out.

When he woke up he realised he had never been to the beach and then he saw his friend, Isaac, sitting next to him, wind blowing in his hair. While Josh was sleeping it had become evening and a chill wind was coming from the sea.

"Hey," Isaac had said. "I'm glad you're finally awake!"

"Hey Isaac," Josh said. "I missed you."

Gray closed the book and thought about the ending. He decided quite quickly that he didn't like it, then put the book away.

When Gray got to the guild, he saw Natsu and Lucy sitting at a table, talking and laughing like usual. He went over to where they were sitting but he didn't sit down himself.

"Lucy, come with me," he said. "I need to talk to you."

"I can't right now, I'm discussing candle placement with Natsu."

"That's not as important as what happened- or didn't happen- yesterday."

"Oh, about that..." Lucy scratched her head. "Natsu came to my place. He only read the first sentence."

"What!" Gray shouted, so loud the entire guild stopped for a moment.

"I'm very sorry, Gray. I'll buy you a drink, if it helps."

Gray looked at Lucy with disappointed eyes. "Yes, please, get me something."

Lucy excused herself to go get some drinks from Mira. Natsu turned to Gray, and studied him carefully.

"You seem bummed out about something. What happened?"

Gray thought it couldn't hurt to tell Natsu at least a bit of the truth. "The person I wanted to bring to the party as my date is, uh, already taken."

Natsu looked genuinely sorry for Gray. Aw, that's too bad! I hope you find someone else to go with."

"Nah, I've given up."

"Don't say that! Look, Lucy's on her way back."

Lucy walked slowly, careful not to drop anything. "I got all three of us Mira's yearly Christmas special! She said it's really good for all of us this time of year."

Gray grabbed his and took a sip. "Huh. It's actually pretty good."

Natsu and Lucy both agreed before going back to their candle placement discussion.

Gray had zoned out when Lucy suddenly started talking to him.

"What did you do last night?"

Gray shot her a look saying he was not in the mood for this discussion, but then he sighed.

"I read."

"Oh, that's great! What book?"

"Josh and the stormy sea."

Lucy squealed. "I love that book! Especially the ending, the author really leaves it to the imagination what happens next."

Gray lifted an eyebrow. "You like the ending? I really thought it was dumb."

"But Josh takes such a risk to get away from what's been torturing him for so long, and he finds his best friend on the other side. It's wonderful!"

When thinking of it like that, Gray thought, maybe the ending wasn't so bad.

"Hey," Natsu said loudly. "No spoilers!"

Lucy covered her mouth with her hand and laughed. "Sorry!"

Gray laughed as well.

One day left.