Melting Gray [Gratsu]

5

Chapter Five

☆Natsu Dragneel ☆

Warning: Double update (you're welcome)

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"So, are you Gray's boyfriend?" Lyon asked out of the blue. My eyes snapped open to the size of golf balls as I stared in awe at this little kid. What kind of question is that?

"Um... No," I mumbled, feeling my face heat up.

"Oh," Lyon said, looking dejected. "I asked because he talks about you a lot."

My face was probably resembling a cherry right about now. "Does he?"

"Yeah," Lyon nodded vigorously. "Do you like snow cones?"

Actually, I hated pretty much everything cold, but I didn't want to upset this adorable little kid. Plus Gray would probably hate me if Lyon got sad. "Sure!" I shrugged. "I had one in second grade, it was tasty."

"I'm in second grade!" Lyon gasped. "Can we make some? We have a machine that shaves ice, but all the favors are on the top shelf. Gray hid them there when he thought I wasn't looking."

"Well, Gray can be a jerk like that sometimes," I laughed, tossing myself off the couch and letting Lyon take me into the kitchen.

"Yeah..." Lyon pouted. "But he's also really nice too! He's always looking out for me and the family. But..." Lyon frowned, lowering his voice. "After the accident, he never seemed to smile anymore until just recently!"

I was really surprised at all this. Like, I was having some mental freak out in my mind as Lyon pointed out where the ice shaver was. The accident he was referring to obviously meant him going blind, but what did he mean by 'until just recently'? Even I have only seen Gray smile two or three times!

Lyon stuck out his tongue in concentration as he dropped ice cube after ice cube into the shaver. When it filled up to the desired length, I cranked the side handle as Lyon watched, mystified as the ice tinkled down like dainty snowflakes on a November evening.

We put in more ice and shaved it as well, then poured it into two paper cups.

"The syrups are up there," Lyon pointed to the top shelf of the pantry. By standing on my tip toes, I could barely see the bottles of multicolor snow syrups. Curse Gray for being so tall.

I pulled over the chair from the island and climbed up on it. Now I could see the flavors clear as day. "Blue raspberry, lemon-lime, cherry, watermelon... Lyon, what flavor do you want?"

"Cherry!" Lyon announced. I nodded in understanding as I slowly handed him the cherry and blue raspberry bottles. He set them on the counter as I scrambled down and pushed the chair back to its original place. "Pour mine first!"

"Okay." I carefully tilted the red liquid over his cup and swirled it over the ice. It only took a few seconds for the ice to completely tint red, and Lyon giggled gleefully. He popped a spoon in his snow cone and ran to the table.

"Thanks, Natsu! You're the best!" Lyon grinned. I felt myself blush as looked away shyly. Hey, it's not every day I get compliments like these, and I'm not picky.

"You're welcome," I smiled, pouring blue raspberry syrup into my cup. Before I began to snack, though, I carefully pushed the syrups over the top ledge. Gray wouldn't even know they were gone.

I took my cup and plastic spoon and went to go sit across from Lyon, who already had a line of koolaid-like red around his mouth. I bit back a laugh and shoveled a bite of shaved ice into my mouth. Immediately I cringed, because it was so damn cold!!

"Ugh, brain freeze!" I whined, holding my head in my hands. Suddenly I heard a short from behind me.

"Brain freeze? Really?" Gray chortled from behind me. I pouted as he found a seat and sat down.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," I responded pompously as I crossed my arms in defiance.

"You're so weird," Gray shook his head, an impish smile on his lips.

"See, Natsu? I told you he was smiling more recently! It's all thanks to you!" Lyon announced, gulping down a double-bite as if his life depended on it.

Ugh, now I was really starting to feel my cheeks flare up. This kid and his 'innocent' comments. I looked over at Gray, who was scowling, but also had a fair blush as well.

"That's not true, Lyon," Gray muttered, a dash of annoyance in his voice.

"Oookay then," Lyon nodded slowly, and I held back a scoff at his sarcasm. He's seven. Oh my god. Lyon then threw his empty cup in the garbage and took off. I could faintly hear what he was shouting now. "Aunt Ul! Can we play now?"

"He doesn't think before he speaks," Gray commented, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.

"I can see that," I joked. "Apparently you're a jerk who hides all the snow cone flavors."

"Am not!" Gray defended childishly. "He gets way to hyper after having cherry? Oh god, you didn't give him cherry, did you?"

I was silent. He groaned. "Great."

I could only laugh at his ticked off expression. The way his forehead creased, his lower lip jutted out the tiniest bit, and his prone dimple on the corner of his mouth. It was just all so cute.

What? I asked myself dubiously. What am I doing, thinking of him like that? I shook my head violently to clear that stupid thought out of my brain, thankful Gray couldn't see my embarrassed expression.

"Um, I-I gotta go," I said suddenly, cursing myself for stuttering. "I'll see you around, I guess. Hope your bruise feels better."

The bruise. That's what I came here for. So how did it turn into so much more than that?

"Oh, bye..." Gray trailed off, looking in the direction of my voice with raised eyebrows. I fished around the pile of stuff in the foyer for my bag, tugged on my sneakers, and ran out of that house like it was on fire.

Well, my face was.

Dammit.