My Antidote | Gratsu

one

Monday | 19:50

"It'll be fine!" Sting Eucliffe, Natsu Dragneel's bestfriend of five years repeated himself for the hundredth time that day. "Gray Fullbuster really isn't a bad guy! You're making assumptions when you don't even know him."

The pinkette let out a groan and tossed his PS3 controller onto his bed, temporarily pausing the heated game of COD – which he had Sting had just now been playing.

"You don't know him either." He stated, rolling his eyes. "And I never said he was bad. I'm just stressed because all anybody cares about these days is my illness." The blonde boy quickly nodded, understandingly.

Sting and Natsu had met when they were only twelve years old and Sting had been there for Natsu ever since. There when he was diagnosed with this repulsive illness, there when he was at his best and there when he was at his worst. Sting was basically a guardian angel. Always there for his indisposed best friend whenever he was needed – which was always.

"Well..." Natsu watched as his friend cracked his knuckled and stretched. "You'll be okay."

The feeble boy shook his pink head of hair sadly and looked down at his lap, "we both know that's not true." After a quick moment, he looked back up again to see that his best friend's indigo eyes had glazed over. Sting was biting back tears yet again.

Natsu sighed. All he did nowadays was bring sadness upon the people he cared for.

A couple of silent minuets passed, until Sting let out a shuddery breath and wiped his puffy eyes, "come on, Nat." He smiled at the pink-haired boy with as much dignity as he could muster and un-paused the video game they had been playing earlier. "Let's just finish playing."

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Tuesday | 7:46

Natsu awoke the next morning, feeling rays of sunlight on his face, spilling through a gap in the thick curtains. He rubbed his eyes groggily and grabbed the pills from his bedside table, taking two as instructed to.

With a large stretch, he slipped out of his bedsheets and padded down the stairs, heading towards the kitchen.

"How are you feeling, baby?" His mother, Grandina Dragneel, greeted him instantly. She was busying herself by preparing a cup of honey-lemon tea for Natsu, as she did every single morning.

Her son grunted as a response, grabbing a blueberry protein bar from the pantry and gratefully taking the steaming mug from her.

"Will that boy be coming over to work on your biology project after school?" Grandina queried out of the blue, causing Natsu to freeze and almost choke on the hot beverage he had been sipping on. After class yesterday, Natsu and Gray had arranged to meet up today, to work on their assignment. Although, he hadn't mentioned it to either of his parents yet.

All of a sudden, realisation hit Natsu and he made an incoherent noise, his mouth still full of tea, and rolled his eyes.

Of course. Sting had obviously made his mother aware of Gray's existence. He always told Natsu's parents the things Natsu didn't. One time in ninth grade, he told the pinkette's dad, Igneel, that his son had made out with Lisanna Strauss behind the school's sport shed. Needless to say, his father hadn't shut up about it and he had ended things with Lisanna before she even had a chance to visit his abode.

He chuckled fondly at the memory. He never liked that girl anyway – he was just experimenting.

After a short moment, Natsu cleared his throat and responded to his mother's previous question, "I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know as soon as I do." He smiled at her breezily and then slipped back upstairs to get ready for school.

Once he had changed, splashed his face with cold water and thrown his school supplies, along with extra pills, in his satchel, a loud knock was heard on the front door.

Knowing who it would be, Natsu glided swiftly down the cool marble stairs to greet his only other friend, who wasn't Sting of course. Lucy Heartfilia.

"Hey!" The blonde girl smiled warmly at the boy as he stepped out onto the doorstep, closing the heavy door behind him. "Let's get going?" Natsu nodded once.

On the way to school, Lucy told Natsu about a cute gay boy she had met at a party and how she planned on setting the two boy's up. Natsu protested, much to her disappointment. Ever since he had came out to Lucy, she had attempted to set him up with every homosexual in Magnolia, the town in which they lived. Although, her set-ups never worked as the pink-haired boy had no interest in getting into a relationship. Not anymore, anyway.

"See you later," Natsu tossed the girl a small smile, as they prepared to part ways at the school gates, once they had arrived.

Lucy bowed her head, "bye Natsu!" She then scurried off to find her boyfriend, Loke Zodiac. The pink-haired boy watched for a moment, in time to see Lucy's eyes light up when she found Loke, leaning against the metal railings, outside the assembly hall. He had pulled her into a brief kiss, before linking his fingers with her's and guiding her to their first class.

Natsu smiled in the couple's direction, until they disappeared into the math building and an unfamiliar, longing feeling washed over his body.

All of a sudden the bell, signalling first period had started, rung throughout the school, causing Natsu to jump. Slightly embarrassed, he decided it was time to head to class and gradually made his way to the 'physiological ethics' building.

"Finally," Natsu heard a familiar voice moan from just behind him. "It's about time you stopped watching that blonde chick and got to class!" He stopped in his tracks and whipped around to see Gray, leaning coolly against a row of outside-lockers.

"Hello Gray, it's wonderful to see you too." the pink-haired boy cleared his throat, sarcasm oozing off of his tongue and resumed walking. The ravenette walked quickly to catch up with him, following closely behind. "So, is there anything in particular I could help you with?"

Gray nodded, "yes actually." Natsu raised at eyebrow at him, and stopped outside of his class room, waiting for the ravenette to continue, expectantly. "Are we still on for tonight? I want to get this dead ass project done and over with – and fast." He spoke quickly, wringing his sweaty palms out on his tight skinny jeans.

Natsu nodded, "sure! Who's place?"

Gray's body immediately stiffened and a faint pink blush was slowly creeping onto his face, "uh... Could we please study at your place?" Awkward tension filled the air.

Natsu frowned slightly, a strange vibe was radiating off of the tall boy, but he quickly shook off the feeling. "Yeah, that's fine!" He shot Gray a brief smile before opening the classroom door. "I'll meet you outside the gates, okay?"

Gray nodded and then quickly rushed off to his own lesson, but not before he shot Natsu a quick grin. He was already extremely late and couldn't afford another hour detention with Mr. Clive.

It was only when Natsu had settled down at his desk, that he realised his first lesson on a Tuesday morning was without Gray.

He had been waiting for Natsu.

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A/N ♥︎ Sorry if this chapter is kind of sucky! It was basically just a get-to-know-everybody so you are able to understand the concept and characters a bit more! The updates will be quite frequent as I've written a lot of this story in advance. Anyway, I hope you enjoy/enjoyed! // ♥︎ L

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