Seeking Stars In Your Eyes

☆ Eight ☆

The next morning, Gray awoke with an indescribable urge for cake. He stayed in his bed and kept his eyes shut, not wanting to wake up or even get out of bed. His eyes were heavy and his bed was so comfy and warm. The warmth felt nice against his magically cold body.

It is an odd thing to crave, for Gray at least. He was not Erza, He didn't shove his face in a cake at every opportunity. Nor did he eat cake a lot.  Gray soon decided that his intense craving for cake, was in fact nor for cake, But for something else. Something more desirable, sweeter, plumper.

Gray was craving sweets or sweet fruits, He loved the sweetness of a strawberry as much as Erza does, Yet, the calling for chocolate was also strong. The chewy sweetness, the desire to feel it melting in your mouth. That called to him on this particular morning. But then again, Peaches and Nectarines and their natural sweetness, their natural juice that was healthier than chocolate.

Thinking about such foods and sweets, It made Gray hungry. His stomach grumbled causing Gray to turn and twist in his bed. Gray sighed an opened his eyes, unfortunately, he was facing a window and received a face full of bright, golden, morning sunshine.

The light was hurting Gray's eyes, It was like when you're in school and your parent or guardian turns on the light and you're clinging to seconds and minutes of sleep but the light is slowly burning your retinas.

Gray turned away from the light and slowly sat up. He kept a blanket wrapped around himself and walked down the stairs in search of something to satisfy his craving.

Gray wandered into Natsu's fairly large kitchen still in an epic search for something sweet. He went through cabinets and cabinets and nothing he found was to his liking yet. Gray had to admit it, Natsu had a lot of food in the house. But then again, He was Natsu. Natsu devours food, what may be a big meal to gray would be a snack to Natsu. 

Gray still found nothing, perhaps he was looking in the wrong place. Gray was hesitant to wake Natsu up, Natsu wasn't always the nicest when he's woken up earlier than he has to be. Gray wasn't really fancying the idea of having Natsu mad at him. Natsu became snappy, aggravated and not your typical Natsu. 

Still, gray's desires pushed him to at least try, and If Natsu was put into a bad mood, Gray had a plan. A plan that involved bribing and food. Gray also came up with a backup plan that could backfire on him but he didn't think he had to go that far. Plan B was; to steal all of Erza's cakes and blame it on Natsu. 

"Natsu?" Gray knocked on Natsu's door, hoping that Natsu did indeed have something he wanted.

"Mmmm.." A groan was heard from inside the room, "Wha?" 

Gray creaked the door open to see Natsu resting on his forearms in a twisted plank position facing him. 

"Do you have any Chocolates or Fruits that I could have?" Gray asked hope seeping through into his expression, "Do you?" 

"Mmh yeah, Chocolates are in the bottom cabinet under the silverware drawer and Fruits are in the Fridge." Natsu flopped back onto his pillow seeking the warm comforts of his bed and the welcoming nature of sleep.

"Okay.." Gray questioned himself, A; why didn't he check the fridge, B; How he missed the chocolate.

Gray leaped down the stairs as his mouth watered at the thought of the sweetness he craved. He threw the door of the fridge open to find a variety of fruits and veggies, in the back a box of strawberries caught his attention.
He dragged them out of the back of the fridge, only to go digging for the chocolates Natsu spoke of. Low and Behold he was correct, Gray did find chocolate where Natsu had specified.

Gray had a light bulb moment like you see in cartoons or those Aha moments. NO, not the Aha signpost from English class. He would make Chocolate covered strawberries!

(Author in 9th grade having flashbacks to 7th grade (American style)

Making some room in the kitchen, Gray laid out a sheet of parchment paper and placed strawberries on it like a grid of some sort. Putting some milk chocolate into a small glass bowl proceeding to place that into the microwave to melt it.

 Dipping half of the strawberries into the melted milk chocolate. With the other half, he dipped in melted white chocolate. Then with a plastic bag, he made opposite stripes. For example, If he dipped it in Milk chocolate then he put white chocolate stripes on it and the reverse.

Once they were hardened like a shell, Gray set aside a few for Natsu and started to eat the strawberries. Unaware of the small mess he made, Gray continued to eat.  

Natsu came down, not super pleased with the mess, Natsu wanted Gray to clean it up. Natsu didn't want to yell at Gray, But he wanted his kitchen clean. 

"Gray?" Natsu ate a strawberry.

"Yeah?"Gray smiled knowing how jealous Erza would be right now.

"Could you please clean up the kitchen, you uh... kinda made a small mess. Don't feel bad tho, because then I would feel bad." Natsu sighed, the mess bothered him, but he didn't want to show it.

"Oh yeah sure."Gray cleaned up the kitchen as Natsu asked, although Gray didn't seem to enjoy it. In fact, Gray kept getting purposely distracted or just working slow.

"So, to the guild hall then?" Gray asked and  Natsu nodded.

"Erza texted me about a job she thinks our team should take. She's going to bring it up at the guild, so C'mon." Natsu grinned.

"Alright." Gray shrugged.

Gray wondered He knew Natsu was Gay for years already, So perhaps Gray could ask Natsu some questions. Gray had been recently questioning his sexuality and he wondered if Natsu could help him with that.