Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima
Day 4 Prompt: Reunion
That's What Family Is For
Gray groaned as he heard the phone ring loudly from his nightstand. He could have sworn he'd put the damn thing on vibrate before he'd gone to bed. Still half-asleep Gray briefly considered ignoring it, but a quick peek out his window showed it was still dark out. He sighed in defeat and stretched his arm to grab the offending device, stopping briefly to see who the caller was. He groaned, it was his brother Lyon. This better be important.
"Hello?" he mumbled into the phone.
"Gray? Oh, thank God you're home. You are home, right?" the slightly panicked voice of his older brother assaulted Gray's ear, and he quickly woke up, a twinge of worry creeping up his spine.
"Yeah, I just got home from a job a few hours ago." he replied and quickly asked, "Is everything ok?"
"Yes, everything's fine. I just need a huge favor." Lyon answered. "Meredy missed her flight and had to catch a later one. She won't be able to make it home in time to take the girls to school, and I have to meet a client in an hour. Can you please take them? I'll drop them off to you on my way to work. Please? You know I wouldn't ask if I had any other option."
Gray screamed internally, a quick glimpse at his watch informed him that he'd only gotten two hours of sleep after arriving home from the flight from hell. He was tired, cranky and honestly a tad hungover. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with two little girls, but Lyon was right he never asked him for help. It was an emergency, and that was what family was for.
"Yeah, fine," Gray replied as he made his way to the kitchen to determine whether he had any food in the house to offer his nieces. He'd been gone for a week and had planned on going grocery shopping after he woke. "How much time do I have before you get here?"
"I'll be there in 30 minutes," Lyon said excitedly. "Thank you so much, I totally owe you one. Don't worry about food I'll give them some Pop Tarts or something."
Lyon hung up, and Gray wondered at the excitement in his brother's voice for a minute before promptly forgetting it as he made his way to his bathroom. He would need a cold shower to try to wake himself up, and coffee, lots of coffee.
He stared at himself in the mirror debating whether to shave or not, ultimately deciding it was too much effort. He dried off and grabbed some clean clothes, not bothering to see if they matched. He was only driving the girls to school after all. He ran his fingers through his hair, which was already spiking in all directions as it usually did. He deemed himself presentable and headed to his kitchen to start the coffeemaker.
Mug in hand he looked for the remote and found some cartoons for the girls. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, and when he opened the door, he was hug tackled by two little girls.
"Uncle Gray!" they yelled at the same time, Lyon arriving behind them. He put an object in his pocket and smiled fondly at the sight of his brother with his daughters. The girls were fraternal twins aged 7, each with blue eyes and hair the color of one of their parents.
"Hey, monsters!" Gray looked down at them and grinned happily as they continued to hold on to him. "I turned the TV on for you, why don't you go in the living room while I get my orders from your dad?"
The girls quickly let go of him at the mention of the TV and ran towards his couch, ecstatic to be allowed to do something which was usually forbidden in the morning.
"Do you want to come in?" Gray asked his brother politely.
"I can't, I have to go to work. Here are the girls' bags, their lunches are already there." Lyon handed him the girls' school bags and looked at him with a strange expression on his face that Gray was not able to interpret. Lyon looked him over and wrinkled his nose. "Please tell me you're going to change out of those clothes before you walk them to school. You look like a bum."
"Walk them to school?" Gray said surprised, "I was planning on driving them."
"That would be rather impressive considering you have a flat," Lyon told him.
"What?!" Gray went outside to look at his car. Lyon was right, his rear tire was flat. "Shit!" What a crappy way to start the day, he must have driven over a nail on his way home or something.
"Hey, language! If the girls start cursing Meredy's going to assume they got it from me." Lyon complained. "Anyway, I've got to go. Thanks again, and for the love of God change your clothes. Trust me, you'll thank me later!"
With that somewhat cryptic statement, his brother smiled at him before walking towards his car. Seriously what had gotten into him today? Gray shrugged off the feeling that Lyon was up to something and went back inside to spend some time with the girls before they had to leave for school.
It seemed that Lyon had anticipated his lack of food and had sent the girls with enough Pop Tarts for the three of them. The two girls sat on the couch on either side of him and as they watched television and munched on the sweet pastries, they snuggled up against him.
"Uncle Gray, who's Natsu?" Mila, the white-haired twin asked.
"Natsu?" Gray asked puzzled. "Where did you hear that name?"
"Mommy and Daddy were talking about him the other day." Ellie, the pink haired twin answered. "They said you liked him."
Gray felt his cheeks redden and he tried to hide behind his coffee mug. "He's an old friend of mine, I haven't seen him in years."
"You do like him!" Mila squealed. "Your cheeks are red."
"They are most decidedly not, this coffee is just very hot." Gray lied. "Why were they talking about him anyway?"
The little girls shrugged. They had only overheard bits and pieces. They continued to tease him for a little bit but lost interest when he did not respond. Gray began to have a bad feeling about Lyon's strange behavior. He looked down at his clothes and ran upstairs to change, just in case. His heart sped up at the thought of seeing Natsu again, but that was impossible, wasn't it?
Natsu had been his best friend ever since he could remember. He had been his entire world. The reason he'd realized he was gay, his first crush and biggest heartbreak. Gray had finally gotten the nerve to ask him out only to have Natsu tell him rather uncomfortably that he didn't see him that way.
Their friendship had kind of devolved after that, they had tried to do things together, but it was awkward. Soon after, Natsu had started dating Lucy, and that had been the excuse they needed to naturally distance themselves from each other. Gray had never liked Lucy very much. He'd thought her shallow and only interested in Natsu because of his looks. The two had gotten married soon after high school. Gray had been invited to their wedding, but Natsu had been merciful enough to not ask him to be his Best Man. Instead, Lucy's friend Loke had taken his place.
It still hurt when Gray thought of Natsu, of how much he'd lost just by confessing his feelings. He'd been angry at first, they had been friends for so long and to have Natsu just let go of him so easily had hurt. Gray knew part of that was Lucy's doing. He'd never hidden his dislike of her. Deep down he knew if Natsu had wanted to stay in his life, he would have done so. Then again, neither one of them had ever been good with feelings. He'd been in several relationships over the years, but they all lacked that spark that he'd felt for Natsu.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized this couldn't be Natsu related. Lyon had it out for Natsu after he'd found out about the rejection and subsequent abandonment. Gray had been lost, and Lyon had been the one to pick up the pieces. There was no love lost between the two. Still, something was most definitely up. He looked back in his closet and picked a nice pair of black jeans and a blue button-down shirt which he left unbuttoned, he grabbed some boots and put them on as well. He looked at his watch and saw they'd have to get going if he wanted to get them to school on time.
"Alright monsters, time to go," Gray yelled out from his room. "Grab your stuff."
By the time he got to the living room the girls had turned off the TV and were waiting patiently by the door, backpacks already slung over their shoulders. He grabbed his keys and opened the door for them. They left the house and began the fifteen-minute walk to the school.
The girls kept a conversation going amongst themselves content to hold on to Gray's hands as they walked. As they neared the school's playground, he noticed a little girl crying. Mila and Ellie let go of his hands and ran to the playground to meet up with their friends.
The little girl looked eerily familiar to him. She had pink hair and pretty green eyes that were somewhat slanted. He got a strange sense of deja vu just from looking at her.
"Layla honey, it's ok." Gray heard a familiar voice say. "Daddy's going to come pick you up after school. I promise." Gray froze, it was Natsu.
The little girl began to cry harder, and Natsu picked her up in his arms trying to console her. He whispered in her ear, murmuring words and peppering her face with small kisses as he held her tightly. The bell rang, and Mila and Ellie hug tackled their Uncle one last time before running inside.
"Layla, you have to go inside now." Natsu chastised gently as he put her down. "You don't want to be late. I love you, and I promise you I'll be right here when you get out. Ok?"
The little girl nodded and gave her father one last weepy hug before running up the stairs of the school just as the late bell rang. To Gray's surprise, once the little girl was inside Natsu collapsed onto a bench and began to cry. Gray had still not moved from his spot as he stared at the man he hadn't seen for at least 10 years. Before he knew what he was doing, he'd sat down next to him.
"What's wrong, Natsu?" Gray asked a little stiffly. He really wasn't good with emotions, and there were quite a few of them fighting for his attention.
Natsu nearly jumped when he heard the voice saying his name. He fixed his teary eyes on Gray and asked in disbelief, "Gray, is that you?"
"Oh, God. Lyon told you!" Natsu seemed both annoyed and embarrassed.
"Lyon hasn't told me anything," Gray said honestly. "What's going on? When did you get back in town?"
Natsu sighed. "I know it's like 8 o'clock in the morning but can we go get a drink?"
Gray looked at him with concern, Natsu had never been a drinker. "I guess. Are you sure you don't want to go for coffee instead?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"I don't think there are any places open, we could just go back to my place?" Gray left it as an open question, not exactly sure of where they were on the friendship scale at the moment.
"Sure, that sounds great."
They walked in silence all the way back to Gray's house. They entered and headed to the kitchen, Gray pulled a couple of beers out of his fridge and placed them on the counter. Natsu grabbed one and quickly opened it, taking a long swig.
Gray opened his but just held it in his hand for the moment. "So, what's going on?"
Natsu was walking around the house taking in the pictures on the walls until he came to one of the two of them. He took it off the wall and brought it back to the kitchen with him.
He put the frame on the counter and continued to look at it as he drank the rest of his beer.
"I don't deserve to be here," Natsu said as he pointed at the picture frame. He looked at Gray with those beautiful green eyes that he'd missed so much. "I made such a big mistake."
"I'm so sorry, Gray." Natsu teared up again, "I wasn't ready back then."
"What's going on Natsu?" Gray asked confused "Why was your little girl crying?"
"Lucy and I are getting a divorce." Natsu began. "She....... she doesn't let me see Layla very often, so every time she does see me she's terrified that I'll be gone again. This is the first time I've had her overnight."
"What? Why would she do that? Why didn't you call me?" Question after question burst out of Gray's mouth.
"She's angry, and she has every right to be, but she's trying to use Layla to punish me, and that's not right." Natsu began, "We're in the middle of a custody battle at the moment. As for why I didn't call you, there were a lot of reasons, but mainly because I didn't feel I had any right to."
"We're friends Natsu, no matter what happened between us we're at least that. You can always come to me."
"It's because of you," Natsu said quietly.
"What is?" Gray replied dumbly.
"The divorce."
They both remained silent. Natsu got himself another beer out of the fridge, an action that reminded Gray of years of fighting over Natsu emptying his fridge and he found a small smile begin to creep up to his lips. He took that moment to really look at his friend. He had not changed that much over the years, although at the moment he looked haggard.
"I don't understand." Gray finally said.
Natsu sighed. "There's not much to understand. I was a dumbass back in high school. I was scared of how I felt about you. When it was just me, I could accept it. I could tell myself that it was unrequited and I could move on from the feelings. When you told me you felt the same I panicked. It made it too real. I didn't want to deal with those feelings, not when I'd been told all my life they were wrong. So I ran away. From you, from my feelings. I knew Lucy liked me, so I grabbed on to her for dear life."
"It was a mistake, of course, I didn't love her." Natsu continued sadly, "I hurt her worse than I hurt you. Even though I made you both believe something that wasn't true, I started a life with her. I was a coward, but she was so happy. I thought she could be happy enough for both of us." Natsu shrugged miserably. "I don't know."
"As the years passed, I couldn't pretend anymore. Then Layla was born, and I couldn't just leave. Now that she's older I did what I thought was right, I told Lucy the truth about everything." Natsu chuckled nervously. "She didn't take it well. Her dad got her the best lawyers money can buy, and they have the judge believing that I'm a " Natsu made air quotes as he said the next word. "deviant so I'm not allowed much contact with my own daughter."
Gray continued to listen without interrupting, frankly, he had not heard much after "I was scared of how I felt about you." but he was trying.
"I suppose it's karma rearing its ugly head," Natsu said. "I don't really deserve you or Lucy, but I deserve that little girl. I've done nothing but love her unconditionally since the moment I learned of her existence."
Gray couldn't imagine how Natsu must feel. He felt quite strongly about his nieces, and he would be devastated if he couldn't see them as much as he did and they weren't even his. Lucy was playing dirty, and it wasn't fair.
"So you're saying you're gay?" Gray asked.
"That's all you got from all that?" Natsu laughed shakily, somewhat amused. "I mean I know you're somewhat dense but wow."
"No, of course not." Gray scoffed. "I heard the other stuff. I'm just trying to understand. You mentioned something about my brother earlier."
"Oh yeah, he's my lawyer," Natsu replied. "He's trying to help me get joint custody of Layla. Doing a pretty good job too, he's the reason I got the unsupervised overnight visit."
"Lyon is your lawyer?" Gray asked with disbelief. "How on Earth? He hates your guts."
"Yeah, I know. It took me quite a while to convince him." Natsu said honestly. "The first time I went to talk to him he punched me. Then he gave me the card of a police officer so I could report the assault. Your brother is a strange one."
Gray laughed with genuine mirth as he visualized the scene that Natsu had described.
"There was much begging involved. When Lyon met Layla, that's when he finally agreed to help me. He made me explain my actions, and as a condition of taking my case, I had to promise to tell you the truth. Didn't he send you to the school to see me today? I figured that's why you were there. Lyon knew I was going to be dropping Layla off."
"No, he didn't tell me anything. He just asked me to drop the girls off because there was no one else to do it."
'And to dress nicely,' Gray thought to himself. He began to wonder if Lyon had something to do with his flat tire.
"Oh, sorry. I just assumed."
"No, it's fine. , I'm glad you told me." Gray assured him. After a few more moments of silence he burst out with "So, you're really gay." again before he could stop himself.
"Yes, Gray." Natsu looked at him with an amused expression. "I am indeed gay."
"I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble absorbing that," Gray said embarrassed.
"No, I'm sorry. If I'd just been honest back then, I wouldn't be in this mess now."
"So now that you've told me about back then, what is it you want now?" Gray asked.
Natsu looked uncomfortable and nervous at his question, and Gray tensed up, ready for bad news. "I'm in no position for much of anything right now, but I would really like the chance to get to know you again if that's ok?"
"I'd like that," Gray answered honestly. "I've missed you a lot all these years."
Natsu face lit up with a smile that Gray had not seen in years. "I've missed you too." He followed that statement with a loud laugh. "I see you still strip."
Gray looked down at himself, and much to his chagrin saw his shirt on the floor and quickly bent down to pick it up. "Yeah" he laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head.
"Gray?" Natsu said as he began to tear up.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you. I know this is more than I deserve after what I did."
Gray smiled at him and gave him a hug. "Everything's going to be alright. You'll see. Lyon doesn't lose. He won't give up on you, and neither will I." When Natsu continued to cry, Gray kissed his head and held on to him until he was done.
They spent hours catching up, ordering ridiculous amounts of takeout for lunch just like they used to. Gray felt his heart lighten for the first time in many years. A few hours later Gray closed the door behind Natsu who was headed back to school to pick up Layla. Gray didn't want to get ahead of himself, but he felt hopeful. He grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts, clicking on the one that said Arrogant Asshole. He had a brother he needed to thank.
"Lyon" he smiled into the phone. "I changed my clothes and just so you know, you owe me a new tire."
A/N For anyone who read Not Your Wingman, this was the original story idea that somehow devolved as I wrote it. Maybe you'll like this one better.