Melting Gray [Gratsu]

35

Chapter Thirty-Five

☆ Natsu Dragneel ☆

Needless to say, I won. Again. (A shredding sense of déjà vu burned inside me, but I didn't quite know why.) For some reason, my victory even surprised myself, even though my horrible and perverted golf puns obviously threw Gray's game way out of whack.

"Agh!" Gray cried exasperatedly when I showed him the tallied points on the mini golf score card. 39 - 47.

"Too bad, so sad," I held my hand up and looked away sassily, feeling extremely proud of myself. At least this time I won properly and not with Gray purposely losing for my own sake. Or who knows? Maybe he faked it again. Gray always was a good actor when it came to hiding his own feelings.

"I'll beat you next time, I promise."

"So there's going to be a next time, then?" I grinned.

"And another next time, and another next time after that."

I looked up to the sky. It was beyond dark now, with the only light being artificial street lamps peppering the corners of the mini golf course. It almost felt like we were the only ones in the world. Gray seemed to notice my sudden silence and followed my train of vision up into the vast sky and viewed the horizon trapped with twinkling stars.

"Aren't they pretty?" I whispered. "It's so weird, thinking there's billions of stars out there, and the fact that we're all just so fucking insignificant and just microscopic imprints on the entirety of the complex universe. Those stars are so much more important to us, because-"

"Natsu?" Gray cut me off. I twisted to stare at him. "Please don't get all existential on me now. You're too cliché sometimes."

"Don't rain on my parade, Gray," I frowned, albeit still amused. "The world is a mysterious place." Gray took a few step closer, suffocating the short distance between us. My breath hitched as his hand softly grazed my cheek: his hands felt cool and rough.

"No matter how many stars there are out there, and the meaning of it all means virtually nothing to me," Gray whispered, rolling his lower lip under his teeth. "Because I have one star right next to me in life, and that's you, Natsu."

I began to stutter embarrassingly. "Gray..." I couldn't quite choke out the words.

"No, don't talk, I'm not finished," he shushed me with a soft voice. "The world may be a mysterious place, our lives may be meaningless, the universe doesn't give a single shit about us, and at some point we'll all be forgotten. While all circumstances are against us, we're still allowed to live, and while I do so, I'm going to spend that priceless time loving you."

"But what about after death?" I muttered. "Will you still love me then?"

"Wherever and whenever that may be," Gray spoke without hesitation. "I always will."

"Promise?" I gasped out before I could register what I was saying, and I immediately regretted it. Gray was silent for a moment, thinking about the word that had spilled out of my mouth. But his response made something violently trigger inside me.

"I promise."

My eyes pooled with hot tears and I buried my face into his sweater bashfully, allowing the sobs to escape past my dry lips. Gray ran his fingers through my hair absentmindedly, his soft shushes and the slow beating of his heart kept me steady. Sometimes Gray was the only thing that kept me steady at all. I clutched onto him tighter and his arms wrapped around me in a fluid motion like they were meant to be there.

"I love you too," I cried through my tears.

"Shh..." Gray murmured. "You don't have to say it. I already know."