Natsu Does Not Dream of a Stripper Senpai

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters belong to Hiro Mashima, the story is based on the anime Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

Natsu Does Not Dream of a Stripper Senpai

Natsu Dragneel hated going to the library. It was boring, and they expected him to be quiet. He didn't really have many friends though, so when Lucy asked him to go with her, he'd agreed.

He was standing in the manga section, looking for something he could pretend to read while he waited for Lucy, when he saw the boy walking around half-naked in the library. He had very dark hair and some of the palest skin Natsu had ever seen. He weaved between people and tables, occasionally stopping next to someone and waving his hand in front of their face.

Natsu opened his mouth in surprise. It wasn't so much the fact that he saw him that filled him with wonder, but rather that no one else seemed to. Natsu recognized him right away. How could he not? He'd grown up seeing that face on TV and in movies. You couldn't walk around Magnolia without being bombarded with billboards of Gray Fullbuster.

In a way, Natsu had always thought of the teen as his friend when he was younger. Someone he and his sister could spend their lonely afternoons with in their small apartment.

Come to think of it, what was the last thing Gray had been in? Natsu couldn't really remember. Maybe the stress had gotten to be too much, and he'd gone crazy. At least that would explain what Natsu was seeing.

What was Gray Fullbuster doing walking around town in his underwear? Natsu continued to watch the slightly surreal display unfolding in front of him as Gray continued to make his way through the library, finally stopping next to Natsu, who couldn't help himself from saying something.

"Dude, what in the hell are you doing?" Gray jumped a little, but instead of looking embarrassed at being caught Natsu could see a small smile forming on his lips. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can see you, you're walking around in your underwear. Were you mugged?" Natsu took off his jacket and offered it to Gray.

Gray refused the jacket, but his smile widened a bit at the gesture before turning sad. "I wasn't mugged... you wouldn't understand."

"Well, my name is Natsu, Natsu Dragneel." Natsu extended his hand for the other to shake and was surprised to see the nervous look that crossed Gray's face before reaching out his own hand. They shook hands, and Natsu thought how nice it felt to just hold his hand for a second.

"I'm Gray, Gray Fullbuster," Gray said quietly.

"I know, I recognized you from your billboards." Natsu smiled, he wondered if he should say something about how his acting had helped him not feel so lonely when he was little. He decided that might be a bit weird.

"You'll probably forget this as soon as I go, but thank you. It was nice to be seen again." Gray said before giving a small wave and walking towards the library exit, leaving Natsu in a somewhat confused state.

He waited impatiently for Lucy to finish so he could tell her what had happened, but she was only half listening to him, already engrossed in a book.

It was nice to be seen again.

What did he mean by that and why had he looked so sad? Gray Fullbuster had been in the public eye since he'd been a young child, shouldn't he be used to being seen, and how come no one had reacted to seeing him walking around half naked? Typically, if you saw a celebrity walking around, they were always swarmed by fangirls, but no one had even batted an eye his way. Even if he'd somehow managed to become unpopular, you'd expect some kind of reaction. Natsu couldn't get the incident out of his mind.