D Subtle kindnesses, for Gray and Lucy, please (romantic or platonic relationship) Thank you!
Would it kill the guy to be a little romantic? Lucy wondered, annoyed.
Cana had a wry smile on her lips, swishing around her drink and probably reading Lucy’s mind. She was irritatingly good at that. Either Cana was too good or Lucy was too easy.
“Soooo…” Cana ventured with a snort of laughter, gesturing to the paper in front of Lucy, “I take it that isn’t an invitation to dinner at a fancy restaurant.”
“Haha, no, it isn’t. It’s a job flier,” Lucy grumped while trying to burn a hole in the offending paper with her eyes. It lay there, a bit rumpled from Gray’s rough treatment, crushing her dreams of a romantic anniversary date. “Really, Gray?”
She jumped as a strong pair of arms wrapped around her from behind, laughing a bit and relaxing as she realized who it was. She always relaxed; he felt so safe. Too bad he was as romantic as a rock!
Letting go too soon, he slid into the seat next to her, giving Cana a lazy grin and signalling to Mira for a drink.
“Gray, what’s this?” she tapped the paper for emphasis.
Cana snorted again before turning her attention to her drink. Lucy wasn’t fooled; the Card Mage’s sharp ears were always on the look out for more gossip. And Gray and Lucy had done nothing but provide it since they’d gotten together. Was it too much to hope things had finally settled down? Juvia seemed resigned or at least had stopped ambushing Lucy with barbed, hurt comments, and Natsu had finally started knocking on the front door after his last window invasion had gone wrong… uggh, needless to say, that had been mortifying! That didn’t even get into how Erza took the news; she was the chaperone Lucy had never asked for.
“For Team Natsu?” Lucy retorted archly.
“Oh god no,” Gray snorted and dropped his voice, “Just for the two of us. You didn’t look very closely at it, did you?”
Snatching it up and flipping it over, she tried to contain her squeal as her eyes went over the details, and she felt around for the two stiff tickets he’d tucked in the folds of the paper. Gray shot her a warning look to keep a lid on it. Whatever, playing it cool, like always.
It wasn’t until they’d left the guildhall, she jumped on him with a tight hug, which he awkwardly returned out of reflex.
“I thought you forgot our anniversary!” the Celestial Wizard gushed loudly. She couldn’t believe he actually got tickets. This was the most popular and exclusive couples cruise in Fiore, 7 days and nights of pure luxury. The price tag alone gave her sticker shock. What deal with a devil did he make to get them? No, she didn’t want to know. Lucy knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth - with her luck they’d end up ruined the canal.
He scratched his cheek, “Uh, yeah?”
“You did forget,” Lucy accused, pulling back a bit in puzzlement. “But… the tickets… Did Mira put you up to this? She’s such a busybody…”
“What? No! You’ve been talking about this cruise a ton, so I thought you wanted to do it?You’ve been so tense and under pressure lately. Plus, that last mission… well, it was too close for comfort, Luce. I thought you’d want to get away and relax a bit. You do too much.”
The last sentence hit her, the soft tone full of admiration and admonishment both. She felt… seen.
He brushed her hair aside, gaze steady and sincere, “Let me do something for you. You deserve it.”
Maybe he wasn’t roses and candy but as she threaded their hands together, Lucy thought this suited him better.
