Natsu Does Not Dream of a Stripper Senpai

He tried to tell Lucy that he was going to use the library's computer, but she waved him away, her cheeks sporting a pinkish tint. She must have been reading one of those romance novels.

Natsu wandered over to the computer section and sat down. He took out his library card, placed it in front of the IR reader and waited for it to grant him access to the computer. Once he was cleared, he quickly did a Google search for Gray Fullbuster.

After sorting through the many IMDB results, he found a news report that said that Gray Fullbuster had retired from the entertainment industry six months earlier. Okay, that might explain what he was doing in Magnolia, but had he had some sort of breakdown or something that would explain his behavior?

He continued to sort through search results but wasn't able to find anything that shed any light on Gray's strange behavior. Lucy came and got him, and although they had fun for the remainder of the afternoon, his mind would not let go of the sad look on Gray's face.

o-o

Natsu saw him again at the train station on his way home from school the next day, fully clothed this time. He was standing by the rails waiting for the train and Natsu decided to go say hello.

"So you do own clothes, good to know." Natsu teased, watching with amusement as Gray jumped at his words.

"Of course I own clothes, you idiot." Gray griped, "I don't always go around like that."

"I don't know, I've heard the entertainment industry can turn people into perverts, or were you practicing for a new career. As a stripper perhaps?"

"You can still see me, huh? Figures that the one person who can had to be annoying." Gray rolled his eyes at him, but he didn't walk away, and Natsu took that as an invitation to stay.

"Why do you keep saying stuff like that? It's weird, man."

"I already told you, you wouldn't understand. Hell, I don't understand it myself."

The train arrived, and they both got on it, finding seats together. "Do you live around here?" Gray immediately tensed at the question.

"Why would I tell you where I live? For all I know, you could be a stalker or something."

Natsu laughed good-naturedly at that, "You can relax, I honestly don't have the attention span or follow through to make it as a stalker. I was just making conversation."

Gray smiled at that, although it didn't reach his eyes, his responses seemed to always be a bit reserved. Natsu longed to hear what Gray's real laugh sounded like. He didn't think the gloominess he'd seen so far really suited him. Gray stared at him for a while, and they sat in uneasy silence until Gray finally began to speak.

"You saw what happened at the library, yeah? It's like that. People just stopped seeing me. They can't see me, and they can't hear me. " Gray looked down at his shoes as if he didn't want Natsu to see his face.

"I think it was just discomfort at first because it started with the people that were the closest to me. They just didn't know what to say, and pretty soon it was like they forgot I existed."

"After I retired I was kind of... out of it, so I don't really remember when I first noticed it had spread to strangers as well, but it's been at least a few months now. Every day it seems to get a little worse."

Gray finally looked up, and Natsu knew his face must have shown his disbelief because he could almost see the wall come up between them.

"I told you. You wouldn't understand!" Gray snapped as he turned away from Natsu, "Just leave me alone. I'm not some charity case you need to help."