When the Snow Falls (Gratsu)

Chapter Four- Compromising Positions

Natsu's POV

I opened the front door to reveal Gray standing outside my house in just a sweatshirt, jeans, and some Converse. He must be freezing. I thought as I ushered him into the house. Before closing the door, I looked outside. It was snowing a lot on top of the foot of snow that had already accumulated on the ground in the past day. I shivered and closed the door, not wanting too much of the cold air to get into the heated house. Looking at Gray, I giggled when I realized that he had snowflakes littering his hair and clothes. He looked at me as if questioning why I was laughing, so I ran upstairs to get a towel, leaving him standing at the front entrance staring at where my figure had been a few seconds ago. I grabbed a gray towel (I actually remembered his favorite color today) and ran back down the steps to find Gray still standing there awkwardly with water dripping onto the floor from his wet clothes. I quickly walked over to him and began rubbing his hair with the towel. He looked at me, surprised, but I only grinned at him like a fool. He looked so cute standing there staring at me with his black eyes that held so much mystery and his dark hair messed up from the towel and the snow. His confused and surprised expression looked adorable on him, only making me want to hug him even more. So I did. What have I got to lose? I thought to myself. I dropped the towel and threw my arms around his neck, launching myself into his chest. Unfortunately for me, he wasn't paying attention, and his shoes, wet from the snow, slipped out from under him and we fell backwards onto the tiled floor of my house. I landed on my knees straddling his hips with my lips only centimeters away from his. Our eyes met, his black ones wide with a hint of curiosity, and I took a deep breath. I lost myself in his eyes, lost all control over my body. I closed my eyes, leaning down toward him. I felt his lips only a breath away from mine. I moved to close the gap. Right when Lucy walked in.

Gray's POV

"Master, is Gray here yet- OMG!" She yelled as she looked at us. Why does everyone here say "OMG" out loud? Red faced, she backed out of the room, muttering her apologies as she tried not to look at us. She quickly closed the door, but not before saying, "I'm so sorry for interrupting! Please, go back to whatever you were doing and pretend that never happened!"

I looked at Natsu, who was still on top of me. What just happened? He was staring at the door where Lucy had retreated through and then looked at me with a mortified expression on his face. But the happy-go-lucky Natsu I knew quickly came back out from under the embarrassment and began giggling for a few seconds before it turned into full on laughter. Soon we were both sprawled on the floor of his mansion cracking up. This was the hardest I had laughed in a while. After a few minutes of laughing like hyenas, we were both out of breath.

"I.. am so... sorry." Natsu said in between giggles. "Now, the entire mansion will think we're... you know... a thing." I wouldn't really mind it. I thought, but I caught myself before saying it out loud, instead just staring him in the eyes with a blank expression. Didn't he just try to kiss me? Why is he worried that people will think we're a thing?

"It's fine, Natsu. Let them think what they want to think. I don't care." I told him.

"You may not care now, but you might care when you're walking down the hallway and you're ambushed with people trying to ask you what it's like dating your boss." He joked.

"I'll just call you and make you come save me." I joked back at him.

"Okay." He said with a serious expression on his face. I stared up at him into his sparkling black eyes that held a bit of mischief in them and wondered what was happening and why it felt so right when his face started moving closer to mine and his eyes started to close and mine started to close too before I realized that I can't do this. In the millisecond I had to decide what to do, I decided that it probably wasn't the right time for this, but I couldn't deny my Master something he wanted, so I kept my face still and my eyes closed and waited for his lips to meet mine, but it never happened. Instead, I felt the pressure of his body lifting off of mine, so I opened my eyes to see Natsu standing as far away from me as he possibly could, blushing as red as a tomato. I wasn't sure what to do or say or anything, so I just stood silently and waited for him to tell me what to do. He laughed awkwardly.

"Sorry about that... I don't know what came over me. I apologize for that." He said while rubbing the back of his neck and turning away from me.

"Natsu." I said. "Look at me."

He slowly turned to face me again, a deep blush still evident on his face and neck. I walked toward him, trying to make eye contact, but he averted his eyes from mine as if trying to diminish the awkward aura he still held around him. When I was about a foot away from him, I put my hands on his shoulders, making him look up at me. His eyes showed a vulnerability I had only seen in young children, a mixture of fear, embarrassment, and something else that I couldn't quite place, but I knew that look because I used to feel it constantly in school when I was bullied by the older kids who couldn't find anything better to do with their lives. I knew exactly how he was feeling in that moment, and I knew what I had always wanted as I child when I felt like that, but had never gotten. I just wanted someone to care. Someone to be there and support me and make me feel loved. I decided that he needed that right now, he needed me to care about him, be kind to him, support him. Right now, he needed me. So I gave the one thing I knew how to do right, the one and only thing I could do or say to let him know that I cared, that he wasn't alone. I did what he was originally trying to do before the Lucy incident. I brought my hands down from his shoulders and I hugged him. Bringing him into my arms reminded me of the only thing I ever wanted as a kid, but my mother was dead, and my father was working late, so I never got what I needed in those moments. Giving that support and kindness to someone else felt like I always dreamed it would feel like as a child. It felt warm and full of compassion and... love. When I hugged Natsu, it was originally to reassure him that I wasn't mad or upset, but it meant so much more after knowing how he was feeling by just taking one look at his eyes. After a few seconds of me putting all the emotion I could into the hug, he finally wrapped his arms around my neck and began to hug me tightly back.

"Natsu... It's okay." I whispered into his ear.

"Shhh... Don't talk. Please." He whispered back. And I understood. He didn't need me to tell him everything would be okay. He didn't need me to tell him I wasn't mad. He already knew. Just by one simple action. he already knew everything I wanted to tell him. And I knew he would be okay. This wasn't even about the almost-kiss anymore. It was only about how much he needed someone to care now. I could feel all of the things he was thinking. About his parents, who were never there. About people trying to befriend him to try and get his money. About all of the things he would hear his parents and their friends saying about him when they thought he was asleep as a child. Suddenly, I just knew. I knew that this, whatever we were, would work, that we would be closer than either of us had ever been to anyone before. The moment was all I had ever wanted, all I could ever want.

And I think he knew it too.

A/N

Okay, well that chapter was a pretty weird one. I think I was way too into writing it at the end lol :) Thanks for reading though!

~Jules