Gratsu Week

Gratsu week 2017, Day 3: Hot Spring

I'll only be participating for this prompt this year sadly enough because I just don't have the time... 

Gratsu week day 3: Hot Spring

Gray didn't actually know why he had agreed to this, he hated hot springs for God's sake. It was too hot, too steamy; just nothing he liked in particular. But seeing Natsu sink into the water with a content smile on his face; his eyes closed in bliss as the hot water surrounded his body made up for everything he hated about hot springs.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Gray asked the pinket who turned his head towards him and said "Of course I am, the heat feels amazing on my skin..." he told the ice mage with a content sigh as he let himself slide a bit deeper into the water.
"Still, why did you ask me of all people to come with you. I'm an ice mage, you know?" Gray asked and Natsu hummed "I know. But I won two tickets for this hot spring resort and Happy decided that Carla was more important than me, so I thought about you," Natsu explained and Gray couldn't help but feel bad a bit. Happy had declined Natsu's offer to come with him to this fancy hot spring resort just because of Carla.
"But I don't really mind being here with you anyway so..." Natsu said as he leaned back and relaxed. Gray felt his cheeks flush; did Natsu really not mind being with him here?
"Hey, if you can't stand the heat you can just get out, you know. No one's forcing you. Your face is all red," Natsu informed the ice mage who shook his head and splashed some water on his face "I'm fine, just a little hot."

Natsu turned his head away and tried to relax again, maybe this had been a bad idea after all. Truth was, Happy didn't decline because he had something to do with Carla; Happy would never choose Carla over Natsu, how important he might think Carla is. Happy had proposed that Natsu would choose Gray to go to the resort so they could grow closer to each other. Cause Happy was the only one who knew how Natsu truly felt about the ice mage. So if Natsu would ask Gray to go with him to the resort, they would be spending two days together and could grow closer; maybe Natsu could even tell Gray about his feelings...

But now Natsu was sharing the hot spring with Gray, both awkwardly sitting in the hot water looking away from each other.

Then suddenly, Gray started talking again "Hey Natsu," he said and Natsu looked in the direction of the raven haired male; hopeful perhaps, maybe Gray would confess first. That was stupid to think of course, there was no way that Gray would confess to him, that Gray would even fall in love with him in the first place. "I'm gonna get out and head to the banquet already, okay? I'll meet you there," Gray said and Natsu nodded "Yeah, I'll get out in a bit too," Natsu replied with a smile that quickly disappeared when Gray walked out of the hot springs.

Natsu yanked at his pink locks and whispered to himself "What's wrong with you Natsu. This is stupid. As if Gray would actually ever love me..."

A bit later, Natsu got out of the hot springs as well and headed to the banquet where he would meet up with Gray again. When he spotted the ice mage, Gray called out for him "Yo Natsu, I got us a table already!"
Natsu smiled and thanked the ice mage as they both walked into the restaurant for dinner.

When they went to their rooms after dinner, Natsu was laying on the bed while Gray took a shower. It had been a long day and Natsu felt exhausted, that was probably thanks to the motion sickness he had experienced on their way here...
When Gray walked out of the bathroom in only a towel which he held around his waist, Natsu felt a blush creeping up to his cheeks and he quickly excused himself as he ran into the bathroom to take his shower.
When he walked out of the bathroom in his underwear and scarf, he found Gray already fast asleep on the double bed they would be sharing. Natsu thought he looked adorable as he was sleeping all curled up on his side of the king sized bed.

Natsu got under the covers on his side of the bed and turned his back towards Gray. But he quickly found out that this wasn't really a comfortable position for him to sleep in so he tossed around to get comfortable and be able to fall asleep. But once he found himself a comfortable position, he realised that this position forced him to look straight at Gray's face.
The ice mage looked so relaxed, cute even, when he was asleep; it made Natsu blush and however Natsu wanted to go to sleep more than anything else, he couldn't seem to do so while he was facing Gray. He felt nervous to have Gray facing him, being able to check all of him if he woke up earlier than him...

Eventually, Natsu had seemed to be able to fall asleep; cause he woke up again a few hours later. It was still dark in the room when Natsu opened his eyes again, the only light being the little red lights of the alarm clock next to the bed that indicated '3:00 AM'

Natsu sat on the side of the bed, however he still felt like he could sleep for an eternity, he was too restless to go back to sleep now anyway and got up, walked out of their shared hotel room and back to the hot springs to relax a bit.

When Gray opened his eyes again, it was a bit after three in the morning. His throat was dry so he got up to fix himself something to drink. But as he went back to bed, he noticed that Natsu wasn't in the room anymore. He hadn't been in the bathroom either, or Gray would've noticed when he got himself a glass of water... So where could the damn flamebrain be?

Gray thought to himself. If he was a simple minded flame brain, where would he go at this hour in the night. Two places in the hotel came to mind: the buffet and the hot springs. But since the buffet would certainly not be open at this time of the day, Gray decided to check out the hot springs.

When he arrived at the hot springs, he indeed found Natsu sitting in the hot water, all relaxed , only the upper part of his face above the water so he could breathe. "Hey Natsu, what are you doing here at this hour?" Gray called out to his friend who suddenly disappeared under the water as Gray's voice had startled him.

"What are you doing up?" Natsu asked him.
"I was thirsty and when I came back from grabbing a drink, you were not in the room; so I went out to look for you," Gray told the pinket as he got into the water himself. All of a sudden, Natsu felt embarrassed again to have Gray this close to him and Gray could feel the water heat up.

"Are you finally gonna tell me what's wrong with you now? You've been acting weird ever since we've left in Magnolia," Gray asked his friend and could now really feel the water heat up, he even suspected the water from boiling around Natsu. Natsu tried to hide his face in the water but Gray still saw the blush clearly "Come on, how bad can it be? You've always been able to tell me everything, right?" Gray tried to persuade Natsu.

Natsu slowly raised his face above the water surface again and tried to face Gray, but those piercing blue eyes were too much for him right now so he turned his face down as he muttered just loud enough for Gray to hear "Actually Happy didn't have something else planned, he wouldn't put Carla over me anyway. This whole thing of 'Happy has something, can you come with me?' is all set up so I could have some more alone time with you. Because I-... I... I've loved you for a while now Gray. But I never dared to say anything fearing you would flat out reject me. But I just need to tell you this. I needed to let it out now; I couldn't keep it in any longer... I'm sorry..." Natsu rambled.

Gray looked at him, a bit shocked. Had Natsu seriously just confessed his love for him? And why did he say he was sorry?
"Natsu, you don't have anything to be sorry about. You can love anyone you want. And you know, maybe the will even love you back..." Gray said as he moved closer to Natsu and leaned in closer towards his face. Natsu's pink locks tickled him, but Gray didn't mind in the least at this moment. He just wanted to let Natsu know that there was nothing to be sorry about and that Gray would love him back. Gray locked his eyes on Natsu's and whispered "I love you Natsu," before finally pressing his lips on the pinket's.

Natsu never thought this would happen, but now it had he was pretty happy that Happy had been able to convince him to take Gray with him to the resort and not the blue exceed that was his best friend...

"I'm so Happy Gray. I never-" Natsu started but Gray cut him off with another kiss "Shh, you talk too much Natsu... Let's go back to bed now and talk this all over tomorrow."