The Black Angel [Gratsu]

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

★ Gray's POV ★

I had to say, Natsu and I made a good team.

Usually I was unlucky enough to get stuck with a partner that slacked off on their share of work, so this was a refreshing change. When we buckled down and got everything planned out, we finished the presentation and nearly perfected the layout in just under an hour.

As Natsu tweaked the citations for the bibliography, I sat on the edge of my bed and admired the world outside. The sun would be setting soon, which meant nighttime, and that meant Angel would be returning to my roof shortly. I tried to fight the forming blush on my face and bit my lip. Itchy to busy myself with something other than thinking about Angel, I stepped towards my bookshelf and grabbed my vintage camera.

"Hey, Natsu," I said suddenly, raising the camera up to my eye. Through the viewfinder I saw Natsu raise his head up and give me a strange look. "Smile."

"Why are you taking a picture?" He asked.

"Because I want to, obviously," I lowered the camera some so he could see my obnoxious eye roll. He laughed at that remark, and I took that as the perfect moment to snap the photo, keeping my hands steady as to not make the photo blurry. Natsu scowled when he heard the shutter click and returned back to what he was doing.

I set the camera and photo down on my nightstand and crossed the room, staring out the window again. Outside was a view of our tiny backyard and the woods that lay behind it. I had fond memories of exploring those woods when my family first moved to this house, and they made me feel happy. I remembered one day in particular; it had just rained but I wanted to go play by the stream. When I returned home, I trekked mud on the downstairs floor right after my mother had just mopped. I still remember her face of pure horror as she saw me covered in dirt and flashing my gapped teeth in a smile. Upon the resurface of the memory, I couldn't help but grin.

The whirring sound of the camera shutter brought me out of my nostalgic reverie. I looked at Natsu, who was holding the camera up to his face. He brought it down, smirking at me. "What's that look for?" He raised his eyebrows. "It's only fair, you know."

Rolling my eyes yet again, I took the undeveloped Polaroid and put it next to mine. The pictures would colorize in about fifteen minutes; until then I willed myself to focus on finishing the rest of my homework. I knelt down and pulled out my Physics textbook, then found my notebook and a pencil before flopping on the bed again.

"You're in Physics?" Natsu asked with a hint of envy in his voice.

I nodded as I flipped to chapter eleven, Vibrations and Waves. I had already started taking notes in the last few minutes of class, so I picked up where I left off. The acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator is zero whenever the oscillating object is at the equilibrium position...

"I have no idea what that means," Natsu said, pointing to the words I just scribbled down.

"It's saying the object is going to omit a certain force that is proportional to the displacement, which is the change over an interval of time, but only in the equilibrium position," I tried to explain, the concept being fuzzy myself.

Natsu looked dejected. "Man, I'm stupid. Stuck in a freshman science class. Biochemistry is so easy."

"Why are you in a freshman science class?" I remembered from his first day that I showed him to his science class, yet it didn't occur to me why he was in that particular course.

Natsu stared at his lap, looking mildly humiliated. "I... Well, I've never been to an actual school before," He mumbled, so quietly I almost didn't hear him. "I tried to keep up with the curriculum the best I could, but it's different here."