First or Last Kiss?

~16~

After Wendy had healed Lucy's hands, the group came to the conclusion that Ultear must be found. Which on its own was an impossible task, because not only would they be looking for an S-rank mage, but also one that the Council was desperately trying to find. Not to mention that Jellal, of all people, had formed a group including Ultear and that there was basically no hope left of finding them anytime soon.

At least, that was until Erza burst into the room, yelling loudly about how she'd come across a broken down Juvia, a depressed Gray and a hysteric white Exceed that demanded she came to their hotel room immediately. Naturally, she had been worried about both the Elemental and the Ice mage so she took both of them with her on her way to Lucy. She had absolutely no idea of the tension she'd caused between said Ice mage and a certain White Dragon Slayer.

"Well?! Is anyone going to explain, or are we just going to stare at one another?" Erza demanded, her usual calm demeanor forgotten as she paced around the room.
Wendy exchanged a quick glance with Lucy, who nodded her approval, before launching into a detailed explanation. She was careful to leave the parts 'Lucy and Sting' and 'Lucy and Gray' out of her story though, because she knew that Erza wouldn't have been amused in the slightest.

While the two were busy with their conversation, Gray eyed Lucy on the other side of the room. He watched how Sting held her and felt a pang in his chest, silently wishing the feelings would just go. His thoughts were interrupted when a loud source of energy stumbled across the hallway and crossed the threshold.

"Everyone!" Natsu shouted and Happy, who was perched on his shoulder, sighed heavily.
"I have been looking everywhere for you guys! Why couldn't anyone tell me you were here?!" he whined and plopped down next to Gray, who grumbled something about him being too loud. Natsu just shrugged it off and told Happy to go find something to eat. The Exceed let out his signature 'aye!' and flew off towards the kitchen.

"What's gotten you all down?" Natsu asked and scrunched up his nose at the other's unusual behavior. Gray raised a brow at the Fire mage and sighed, not wanting to explain the whole deal. He glanced at Juvia, who was in a hushed conversation with Yukio in the corner of the room, and felt the grip around his heart tighten. He turned back to Natsu to ask him something and found the other staring at him. Gray couldn't ignore the uneasiness of the situation anymore and his feelings were all jumbled. Maybe he just needed to talk to someone. Maybe he'd feel better afterwards. Gray sighed and concluded he must be going crazy if he were to actually talk to Natsu freaking Dragneel, but he motioned for the other to follow him outside, anyway.

Once they were outside, the atmosphere suddenly got heavier and Natsu, who couldn't really deal well with these kind of situations, tried his best to keep his fidgeting to a minimum.

"S-So..." Natsu started, but Gray cut him off with a wave of his hand. He gripped the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb before sighing heavily once again.

"It's Lucy," he started and Natsu cocked his head, question clear on his face.

"I... well, I ... uh—how do I say this?" Gray mumbled the last bit to himself and was surprised when Natsu spoke up.

"You love her."

It wasn't so much as a question, more like a statement that was bound to be made, but he didn't expect Natsu to have noticed.

"Well, yeah... it's something like that, I suppose." Gray rubbed the back of his neck consciously and cursed himself for being such an open book that even someone as dense-headed as Natsu could have noticed.

"And I take it that someone got in the way, right?" Natsu continued and Gray began to doubt everyone who had ever called the Fire Mage dense.

"A-Ah, yes? But it's noth—"

"Was it Sting?" Natsu cut him off and Gray was taken aback by the fiery look in his eyes. He could only nod and watch the Dragon Slayer's bottom lip jut out in a pout.

"Aw, I'm sorry." Gray was confused as to why he was apologizing but got no time to ask because Natsu was talking again.

"I should've told you, probably. I just didn't know you were – well, anyway. I knew Lucy was meant to be Sting's. They're mates. It's a Dragon Slayer thing, Gray. You couldn't possibly have interfered." Natsu sighed and moved back to lean against the crème colored wall.

Gray stood nailed to his spot for a good five minutes before Natsu's words finally made sense and he cursed. Of course, he thought. I couldn't possibly have interfered. Gray closed his eyes, willing the burning behind his eyelids away. When he opened them to look at Natsu, said boy was staring at him. He felt the heavy gaze and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

Natsu snapped his attention elsewhere when he noticed he was staring at the Ice Mage.

"You know, Juvia's been down a lot lately, too. I thought you maybe you knew why," Natsu said, not so subtly changing the subject.

"Uh... yeah, I'm in a bit of a mess I guess..." Gray carefully placed himself on the ground against the wall where Natsu was standing and continued, "I mean, Juvia's had a thing for me for a while, so I should've seen it coming."

"You mean, she confessed or something?" Natsu asked warily and Gray nodded.

"Wait, seriously?! Then what did you do to have her make it rain every damn day?!" Natsu almost yelled.

"I rejected her... I don't think it was as harsh as it sounds, but it clearly felt different to her. I really didn't mean to hurt her, Juvia's nice and all, but I was just trying to get over Lucy and..." Natsu nodded understanding and Gray was glad for once that he'd actually taken him serious.

There was a long silence between the two of them and Gray began to appreciate the Dragon Slayer's presence more and more. He'd never have known how such an understanding and sympathetic character hid somewhere inside of Natsu, if he hadn't taken his time to talk to him.

He'd always thought inferior of the other, besides his magic, he had been no one in particular. Except maybe his rival, but Gray believed that on an emotional level he was stronger than Natsu. Guess he was wrong, because it was clear that whatever Natsu had been through had made him to be such a strong person. The care and love he showed his nakama was as genuine as it could get. Gray had yet to learn and understand the other's efforts.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

a quick question here! would you guys like it if i added another pairing? (GRAY X NATSU) because honestly, i think it would make the story slightly more interesting for both you, the readers, and me! so if you guys would like to see some m/m action going on, let me know in the comments!