Natsu sighed. He was being patient, too!!! He was — truly. Sometimes Gajeel took soooo long. Ugh. “Gajeeeeeel! Isn’t it obvious?! One — technically were both like 500 or something. Secondly, every other dragon slayer’s hair matches their element. Laxus has a yellowy blond, Sting a lighter blond, Rogue’s is black — except sometimes white but that’s different — Erik’s has enough of a purplish red hue to justify poisonous animals, Wendy’s is blue and mine is light red!” Natsu sighed and shook his head, pitying Gajeel. “You’re the odd one out!” A short pause. “Unless we dye it silver….”
i don't even know what year this is from ft. @chaoticor
His hands were already raised in defense as he cut in with "Woah, woah, woah," every few words that Natsu managed.
"Now - hold on─" Alright, so Natsu had a point to make, and he was trying to get it out. Gajeel inhaled once, deeply, as he crossed his arms, leaning forward.
"Right," yes, the twin dragons' hair, too, corresponded. "Okay, but are we even counting Laxus? He's not even─he was engineered, it's... Suspiciously uniform. The matching hair was probably planned." He scoffed, looking up and to the left, almost dismissively.
"Odd one out?! Have you never seen black iron? It's a real thing, lots of metal has been blackened. And have you seen me?" He points with both index fingers at himself. "Me? With silver hair? That's gonna age me by like, forty years, at least!" And he really wasn't exaggerating. He didn't need to test it out to know, he knew exactly how old he looked ─ because he remembers the many times he'd seen eyes go wide to confirm his age, back when he was still in his teens.
"I already don't look my age. Do you know that I haven't been ID'd once since I was twelve?! And you wa─hold on. Pause."
Gajeel talked with his hands almost all the time, and the more agitated he was, the more excessive, but now his hands rested on either side of his neck after pushing his hair back and out of his face.
Another deep inhale, and his shoulders slumped. Gajeel gingerly brought his hands together, pressing them flatly, and used them to point at Natsu.
"Did you just call it light red?" He wasn't entirely sure how he managed to keep a straight face, but it was a very serious question. "You called your hair light red? Brother do you mean PINK?" And that was as far as his straight face could go, because Gajeel burst out in laughter right then and there.
It'd been a minute since he'd laughed so hard no sound came out. A closed fist slammed down on the table as he howled - once, twice, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes.
From across the guild hall, Juvia could be seen stopping in her tracks, and glancing at Gajeel. She looked a little irritated, but was still polite when she asked, "are you alright there...?"
Gajeel tried to respond to her, truly, but his voice was nearly inaudible between laughs as he attempted to tell her, "this bitch thinks his hair's light red. That shit is pink,"
"Pink is a nice shade. Don't be a jerk," but Juvia's words were barely audible past the noise of the hall, and worse, over Gajeel's obnoxious laughter.
When he finally recovered, Gajeel looked up, dabbing away at a tear in his eye, and looked Natsu straight in the eyes. "And I've never seen pink fire─my bad, light red fire. So by your logic, yer an odd one out, 'cause I don't see you bein' a ginger. See? That's all it was, y'just didn't wanna be the only reject in the pile!"
