When Sting tells Natsu that one of his friends from school is going to be joining their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game, Natsu isn't impressed - their table is already full. But while Natsu and Gray's in-game characters clash completely, Natsu finds...
D&D night gets unexpectedly cancelled, but Natsu wants to hang out with Gray anyway.
A/N: So. I, uh, haven't updated this fic in almost two years. My bad, I guess? Anyway, I've been struggling to write lately and I was looking through my WIPSs, and instead of picking something recent my brain was like *the one with nerdy Gray, work on that.* So I did, because some writing is better than nothing, and I hope you enjoy the fluff.
Also I made some art of nerd Gray, enjoy:
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"I'm stoked for this fight tonight!" Natsu grinned at Gray, who was curled up in the passenger seat of Natsu's car, looking out the window at the slowly setting sun. "We're gonna kick this thing's ass."
"I dunno about that," Gray replied, fiddling with his necklace. Natsu couldn't quite make out what the pendant was. "We're all nearly dead and out of magic. We might be fucked."
"Pfff," Natsu scoffed, pulling out of the Starbucks parking lot and heading towards home. "Maybe with that attitude. Don't worry, we'll pull a win out of this. We always do! Did I tell you about the time we dropped a house on a dragon?"
Gray shook his head and Natsu launched into the story, complete with wild hand gestures and sound effects. He could feel Gray's gaze on him as he listened intently, even when the retelling took several unexpected detours. It made something warm grow in Natsu's chest. Most people in his life were used to his rambling, chalking it up to his ADHD and excitable nature. They usually tuned him out after a while, though, or nodded along while drifting off to something else.
Gray listened, though. He'd shifted in his seat to face Natsu, knee tucked under his leg, coffee held between both hands, and Natsu could feel the deliberate way he followed Natsu's words. It made Natsu feel important.
He'd just wrapped up another story where they had accidentally created a super-intelligent zombie when both of their phones pinged.
"It's Sting," Gray said. "So sorry guys, I can't make it tonight, work called me in last minute. Can we reschedule for next week?"
Natsu felt a flood of disappointment wash through him as he glanced over at Gray, whose brow was furrowed as he stared at his phone. He was so cute – he had gotten his eyebrow pierced at some point during the week, and it made him even more adorable.
"Well," Natsu said, chewing on his lip. "That sucks."
An awkward silence filled the car. Natsu really didn't want to drive Gray home – he'd been waiting all week to see him, and when Natsu had picked him up, the shy smile Gray had given him had made Natsu feel breathless.
"Well, I don't—did you wanna, uh..." Gray trailed off, tugging at a loose thread from the hole in his jeans. "I mean I don't have any, uh, plans? Obviously, since we had—I mean, so maybe we, um, we could..."
