First or Last Kiss?

~18~

The brisk air made Natsu want to wrap his scarf more tightly around his throat. He shivered, breath leaving his mouth in tiny clouds.

"So..." Gray began and Natsu flinched, closing his eyes tightly. He desperately wished this all was just one hell of a bad dream and that he would soon wake up. However, when he opened his eyes again, Gray's dark gaze was greeting him.

"Yo, Natsu, you okay?" Gray asked worriedly before laying a cold hand on his forehead to take his temperature.

"Jesus, what the hell, Natsu you're burning. We didn't need to go outside if you have a fever!" Gray was fussing over the dragon slayer and if Natsu hadn't been so nauseous he'd probably feel flattered.

"I-I'm not sick, dumbass!" Natsu grumbled and smacked Gray's hand away from his forehead, trying to ignore the way his skin tingled where the ice mage had touched him.

"I'm naturally hot, I'm a fucking fire mage," Natsu added roughly and mentally scolded himself for the way he was acting. He was being childish, he knew. Lashing out with his words as a defense mechanism. Natsu couldn't help it, he didn't have someone teach him how to deal with this when he was younger. He just had his instincts to trust, but how he wished Igneel had taught him about human communications.

"I'm –ah, sorry..." Natsu hung his head in shame and couldn't look up to face Gray.

"It's whatever," Gray said to his surprise and found he really didn't mind. There was probably an obvious reason behind all of this, he thought.

Natsu looked up to face Gray unsurely.

The air around them seemed to change. It was like the day before when they had been talking in the hallway. There was a tension lurking and neither knew what to do in order to dissipate it. Though they were both aware of the strain in the atmosphere, they weren't all too bothered by it.

In Natsu's case, he didn't need someone to tell him to understand that he was causing the tension, but he couldn't help himself. He was nervous. A dragon slayer had one life and one chance only. If he were to do this and Gray wouldn't be able to reciprocate his feelings, it would ruin him. It would be devastating, but Natsu had been prepared. He'd talked to Gajeel about it and he was pretty sure that the iron mage was in a similar situation. The other dragon slayer had been a great help, his experiences being more useful than Natsu's own. Unfortunately, Gajeel was not the one trying to confess his feelings to a certain ice mage.

Natsu just had to it himself.

"Okay... well, I know that this might seem as a surprise and you might laugh, but just promise me you won't—Ah, sorry. I'm just rambling," Natsu started and cracked his knuckles nervously.

Gray was starting to shift uncomfortably on his feet too and wished the dragon slayer would just hurry, the nerves were starting to get to his head.

"Okay, so I know you've only recently managed to tell Juvia you're not in love with her, like, at all. Am I right?" Natsu asked carefully. If he didn't want to scare the ice mage away, he had to be cautious on this matter.

"Um, yeah I did. But you know I'm trying to get over Lucy now and all that," Gray answered just as thoughtful.

Natsu's face immediately fell, he was so stupid. How could he forget his best friend and rival had been struggling with a difficult situation and here he was trying to push his feelings onto him. He should really be more considerate of other people's emotions.

"Ah, right! How's that going? If you wanna talk about it—" Suddenly, there was a hard wall against Natsu's back as he was cornered by Gray. The fire mage's breath left him in a second and even as he blamed the impact of the stone wall, he knew it was because Gray looked stunning in this lighting and he could never be able to say that out loud.