My Antidote | Gratsu

three

Tuesday | 20:18

Gray snaked his arm around Natsu, once again, too shocked to do anything but hold onto the boy's shaking shoulders.

"I'm sorry." The pinkette let out a choked laugh and inhaled deeply, gradually calming himself down. Gray didn't say anything, causing Natsu to blush vermillion.

After a moment, the raven-haired boy began to slowly nod, lost in thought. He wanted to help Natsu and he had quickly created a plan that would benefit the both of them.

"Come on," he breathed out and crawled away from Natsu. He grabbed several coloured markers and a couple of sheets of lined paper. "We're making you a bucket list."

Natsu wiped his puffy eyes and snorted, looking at the ravenette as if he was insane.

"What?" His eyebrows furrowed as Gray repeated himself. "This isn't a cheesy teen movie where the lead female role is tragically dying and her boyfriend attempts to save her by creating a to-do list!" He joked, but the other boy didn't laugh.

Instead, he cleared his throat and removed the cap off of an orange marker with his teeth, "where do we start?"

"This is such a dumb idea..." Natsu mumbled under his breath before joining Gray, where he was sat against one of the bedroom's pale blue walls. He watched as the boy scrawled out 'Natsu Dragneel's Bucket List' in cursive.

"Number one," Gray clicked his tongue, turned to look the pinkette up and down. He pulled a face. "Get... A... Tattoo..." He began read his words aloud as he wrote them down.

Natsu's eyes widened and he snatched the pen out of Gray's hand, "what if I don't want a tattoo?!" He gasped defensively, causing the other boy to chuckle and roll his eyes.

"Who cares if you don't want a tattoo?" The ravenette grinned, sliding the sheet of paper in Natsu's direction so that he could write on it next. Natsu shrugged, agreeing with Gray's words, before writing number 2 on the list.

The boys repeated this process over and over again, taking turns to add something to the list, passing the paper back and forth.

Natsu had just scribbled down number 14 and it was Gray's turn to write the final venture. He tapped his indigo ink pen against his chin thoughtfully, unsure on what to write. Eventually, he had an idea.

A smirk was playing at his lips as he casually wrote number 15 on the bottom of the lined paper. Natsu was peeking over the ravenette's shoulder, so that he was able to see what Gray was writing and when he did his jaw fell open.

"Fall in love?" The pink-haired boy almost-snorted, reading the other boy's griffonage out loud. "You have got to be kidding me."

Gray shook his head, cheekily, causing Natsu to sigh and press his fingertips into his temples. "Look, I believe love takes roughly five years to build up and seeing as I only have a little over a year left..."

The ravenette rolled his eyes, "bullshit."

Natsu raised his eyebrows pointedly, saying nothing. Then he shrugged; even if he didn't fall in love, there was no harm on it being on the list – although, the goal of this particular list was to complete everything on it. One uncompleted task didn't hurt, he supposed.

The boys sat in silence for a while, Gray nonchalantly flopped backwards on Natsu's bed, crossing his arms behind his head.

"I hope you're not helping me out of pity," the sick boy cleared his throat, tracing Gray's loopy handwriting with his forefinger.

"The reason as to why I'm helping you," the ravenette sat up and grabbed another blueberry bar. "Is one I've already told you."

Natsu blinked, expectantly.

"You interest me Dragneel, enough said."

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Friday | 13:45

A few days had passed since Gray and Natsu wrote the bucket list and only a couple of texts had been exchanged between the two boys. Natsu was disgusted at how fast time was passing. Time. Something he had hated ever since he fell ill.

"Dragneel!" A loud voice echoed around the classroom and a wooden ruler slapped down onto the boy's desk, awakening him from his thoughts. "Stop daydreaming! Unless you care to share what you're thinking about with us all?"

Mr Macao, his math teacher, was towering over him, his face stern and unforgiving.

"I bet he's thinking about his last gay hookup!" A voice snickered from the back of the classroom, causing Natsu's cheeks to flush red. He recognised the voice as Laxus Dreyar.

Despite his illness, certain ignorant students still made homophobic marks. It didn't matter though. Natsu was used to it.

He quickly shook his head and looked down at his lap, "no Sir. I'm sorry."

Mr. Macao nodded and stepped backwards, scratching his stubble as the bell signalling the end of class rung clear. "Dismissed."

Simultaneously, all students began to pack their school supplies back into their bags and flood out of the classroom as quickly as they could. On a Friday, Magnolia High disbanded an hour early and everybody was always desperate to make the most of that opportunity.

Unfortunately Natsu's extra hour was cut short.

"Natsu may I talk to you please?"

The pink-haired boy paused just as he was about to walk out of the door and turned on his heel, to see his teacher glowering at him from his desk. With a single nod, Natsu sauntered over to Mr. Macao, hesitatingly.

"Take a seat." The teacher nodded towards a plastic blue chair in the front row of desks. Natsu slowly sat down, his eyes never leaving Mr. Macao's stern gaze.

"What do you need me for?" The boy swallowed nervously and wrung his sweaty palms out on his skinny jeans. Whenever somebody spoke to him in this way, it triggered memories from when he was first told he was sick; he hated it.

The middle-age man inhaled deeply, "I've been told to inform you that you will be attending therapy every Tuesday and Thursday, after school." He spoke quickly, ripping it off like a band-aid.

"What?!" Natsu scoffed, uprising and swinging his satchel over his shoulder once again. He rushed over to the classroom door, breaking out into a stride. "No. I'm not going to therapy, let whoever told you to inform me of this, that!"

With that, he left the classroom, slamming the door behind him. Not caring that he had just spoke to a teacher in such a presumptuous manner.

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A/N ♥︎ I kinda hate this chapter, but we're gonna roll with it. I'll be posting the bucket list in its own chapter, so you'll see it soon. More updates coming soon!! // ♥︎ L

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