(Semi-Hiatus) It's More Than A Whisper (gralu fanfic)

Ch. 2 There's Always an Explanation

It was a normal day in the guild: Elfman was making declarations of manliness from the top of his lungs like usual. Mira gossiping away, Macao and Max arguing, with another argument going on with Jet and Droy. Gajeel was minding his business, Erza too by eating cake, and of course you can't forget Natsu and Gray's constant fighting.

"Take that fire freak!" Gray yelled while shooting pellets of ice at Natsu. That idiot, makes me so damn mad!

Natsu dodged to the side and shot a fireball at Gray, that hit him right in the stomach throwing him back and crashing into a table. "Take that perv!" Gray is so stupid! Just look at him!

"I'm not perv!" said Gray while struggling to get out of the rubble of the table. Oh now Natsu did it, I'm going to murder that stupid dragon kid!

"Well you're practically naked all the time!" Natsu yelled.

"Hey! I at least keep my underwear on!" Gray retorted back to Natsu. I mean, I did right?

"Gray-sama looks lovely without any clothes!" squealed Juvia, while twirling and grabbing her face. Gray face palms and reclines on a not broken table. Does she ever just chill out for a bit? 

"Haha! That means I won!" Natsu cheered along with Happy, "Aye, sir!" A stern looking Charle was shaking her head in the background of all the commotion. Yup, it was a normal day at the guild, but like always it didn't stay that way for long. Something was bound to happen, it never fails.

There was a sudden scream followed by a loud thump. Gray quickly shot up, scanned the room and saw that Lucy was on the floor whimpering with her eyes closed. She had hands over her ears and was screaming loud, way too loud. He rushed to Lucy, going on one side of her. Natsu's smile had faded, and rushed to go to Lucy's side too, kneeling on the opposite of her, in front of Gray.

"Lucy! What's wrong?" Gray had Lucy by the shoulders and was shaking her. There was an uproar of people surrounding Lucy, all trying to figure out what's going on. "Dammit! She's not responding!" Gray had an angry look that made Natsu get up and take a step back, maybe because he noticed Gray was caring a little too much.

She screams even louder, and throws a hand outward that smacked Gray right in the face. "Hey! What was that for?"

"AHH!" She yelled, "Get away from me you damn freak!" She frantically points her finger everywhere until it landed on Gray. Gray's face turned into one of confusion and Juvia was steaming with anger. Juvia also noticed that Gray was caring too much.

"See, Juvia knows Lucy is out to get her man!" Juvia said amongst the commotion. Gray shook his head in disbelief. This woman I swear, how am I still sane?

"Your face! Where's your face? Where did your body go? Ah, where you Gray?" Lucy was screaming at the top of her lungs and Gray just didn't seem to know what to do. Natsu couldn't process what was going on, all he knew was that Gray was acting weird. 

Erza stood up from where she was eating and split right through the crowd. "What the hell is going on?" She demanded. She looked around until her eyes landed upon Lucy spazzing out on the floor. Her scowl deepened. She saw how wrong Gray was trying to handle the situation. "Are you stupid?" She spat to Gray, hitting him across the head and sending him flying across the guild hall. By then Lucy had already opened her eyes and was rubbing her head.

"What's wrong?" asked Erza, kneeling in front of Lucy.

"It was a dream?" Lucy asked to no one in particular, avoiding Erza's question. She stood up, glanced around until she stared at Gray for a little too long. She turned around and walked out of the guild hall. Erza's scowl deepened more but she stayed kneeling on the ground.

"What the hell was that about?" Natsu asked when no one moved.

"Man, get a clue." said a standoffish Gray and walked up after Lucy with an attempt to reach her and who by now reached the door and was opening it. "Lucy, wait up!"

When she turned around, a scared look appeared on her face and turned back, slamming the door open and started to run down the street. Man what the hell is going on. Thought a little pissed off Gray as he started running after Lucy. Do things really have to get weird now?

She kept running down the street, bumping into people, knocking down things and the occasional yelp when she would glance behind to see Gray right on her tail. She kept on running, and running until she reached the end of the street which conveniently for Gray happened to be a dead end. "Aha!" Gray reached up to her and hugged her, not really thinking on what to do, but thought Surely she wants to be comforted right? She yelped and tried pushing him away. "What happened? Lucy come on, tell me." Why am I doing this? I don't hug people.

She looked up to see his face, and some of the fear resided from her face. She went to cup his cheek with her hand, and said "I'm so glad you're not a puddle." Well, that's nice to know.

Startled, he asked "A what?"

"A puddle. I had this dream and you melted in it." she said blunt but shyly and quickly. She stepped back away from the awkward embrace she and Gray were in. It was evident that she was freaked, but Gray couldn't help to be disappointed that she let go. What a pain..  

"Can I ask how exactly I melted?" His eyebrows quirked up in confusion and doubting if he really wanted to know this dream that apparently really scared Lucy but curiosity won him over and asked the question anyway.

"Lets walk and I'll tell you." Hesitating a bit, he agreed and began walking with her.

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After much reluctance, Gray finally was able to get Lucy to tell every detail of her dream. Weird dream to be exact.

 "That's weird." A little too weird, me sparkling? No. He said after a pause of silence occurred. She left out the part that the dreams have been happening every night, a variation of the same dream.

"It's more than that though." Still not telling him that it wasn't the first time she had that dream. "It felt real, but everything would go so slow." Lucy shuddered at the thought of it.

"Man, I must look really ugly melted." He chuckled. "But that is weird, but it was just a dream right?" It has to be just a dream right?

"I really hope so. I don't know what I'd do if you actually melted." She rubs her arms as if she was cold. "What if it was real though?" She mumbled, terrified that something more was going on. Gray glanced up to the sky, which was starting to fade.

"I doubt it, but I think you said it wasn't too far from here, we can check it out if you want to." He offered.

"No, it might be getting dark soon. Besides what exactly would we be looking for? We should just go back to the guild." She gives him a small smile and starts walking back to the guild. He joins her by her side, but couldn't help to notice that the whole walk back, Lucy avoided his gaze as much as possible.