Prompt: Whispers (GrayLu Week Day 1 - September 1st, 2016)
Standard Disclaimers Apply

She was at it again, Gray grimaced.

Throughout this past week, Lucy has been going around with this whispering game of hers. She would hide her mouth and the listener's ear, body leaning in as she murmured the words so that only the recipient could hear. It was fine when said recipient was Levy or Erza, or any other girl for that matter. When the recipient was male though, that was a whole different story.

He would struggle to hold in his frustration as Lucy's chest pressed against them. Some of them blushed; others were probably too used to the voluptuous girl by now to notice it (he growled at that rationale). What irritated him further was the quick glance he would sometimes get from them. It didn't take long for Gray to deduce that he was the topic of Lucy's hushed conversations.

He was angry at Lucy - there was no doubt about that. That didn't mean he hated her though. If anything, it was his favouritism for Lucy that allowed her to get away with it for this long. But this was it. He could not take a moment longer of her mischief. His patience had run out, and he has no qualms about confronting her.

Before he could call her over from where she just finished her whispering, she had already noticed his staring and waved. Unable to resist that sweet, gorgeous smile of hers, and without much thinking really, he waved back. If possible, her smile widened further before she turned on her tail and left the guild.

He could not, for the life of him, decipher what had just happened.

It shouldn't have been this hard to ask what kind of nasty gossip she had been spreading about him, but Lucy seemed to always be busy whenever she was at the guild. He had tried her place a few times, but she was never home either.

So he was exhausted by the time he finally got her to sit in front of him at full attention. It had taken him a few tries but at long last, he had succeeded in setting up a date (he smirked at his choice of words) - and in a nice, cozy cafe too.

While he sipped his beverage noisily, relieved that his efforts paid off, she merely continued her knowing little smile.

"And what can I do for you, Gray?" she questioned, her voice a lot more melodic than he last remembered it to be. She had been spending so much time with other people that her voice actually sounded nostalgic to him.

He tried to keep his face firm and his tone serious. "What have you been whispering about this past week?"

Her expression didn't falter by the least, which irked him just a little. "You're curious?"

Very. "I think I have a right to know."

"And you do. Come," she said, standing up. Confusion kept him rooted to his seat. She placed some coins onto the table, enough to pay for both of their drinks. Then tilting her head in that adorable way of hers, she grinned. "Weren't you curious? Come on, let's go!" She didn't wait for him to respond before she hauled him up by the arm and dragged him out of the cafe.

"Where are we going?" he asked wearily but nevertheless went along with her plans.

She didn't reply. Instead, she hummed excitedly as she pulled him along.

When he saw their guild hall coming into sight, he relaxed noticeably. "If it was just the guild, you could have told me that." But then he realized that if they were going to be at the guild, Lucy would be busy chatting up with everyone else again, and he wouldn't be able to extract the answer out of her.

"Hey, why are we going in?"

She didn't answer.

"Lu-"

"SURPRISE!"

"-cy…?" He glanced around at the faces of his friends as they smiled brightly with balloons and presents in their hands. "What…is this?"

"It's your 15 year anniversary here at Fairy Tail, dumbass!" Natsu provided, albeit rudely. Gray would have normally initiated a fight for that insult, but he was too shocked right now to do so.

"You guys…why?" was all he could manage to say. After all, the date they joined the guild was never really a big celebrated event. He was surprised they even remembered.

"Lucy asked around and planned it! She said that once in a while, something like this is good!" Happy explained.

"We helped too!" Levy chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah. Can we just get to the booze already?" Cana groaned, though she was already glued to the bar, gulping away at her huge jug of beer.

Before he could even mutter a word of thanks, they had all turned away from him and focused on the food by the tables. He had an instinctive feeling that they weren't really there to celebrate him per se.

Just then remembering that the girl who had planned all of this for him (who was the only one who had her undivided attention on him at this instant) was still standing beside him, he turned to face her. "Lucy…the whispering…you planned this? For me?"

"We all did! Well, I did it for you. I don't know what they did it for," she joked, eyeing the rest of the guild who were currently viciously clawing away at the feast in front of them.

"That's…Thanks…" he stammered.

The whole guild had somehow heard through the commotion, and had stopped abruptly for a second to say a messy "you're welcome" before returning to their food.

Lucy laughed lightheartedly and he couldn't help but smile fondly at her. "We should grab some food before they finish all of it," he suggested. She nodded eagerly. They hadn't gotten anything else at the cafe earlier other than drinks, so they were starving. This made him think. Had she only let herself be available today because that was the way she had planned it? She had purposely let him ask her out today so that she could distract him as they prepared everything.

At the realization of it, he paused in his steps. Lucy turned back to look at him, tilting her head in that same delightful manner she had done in the cafe earlier. She didn't get a chance to ask before he gently captured her in his arms. He felt her stiffen slightly at the sudden proximity, but when his hand went up to soothingly comb through her hair, she relaxed into his embrace. At her acceptance, he felt a tug pulling up at the corner of his lips.

"I really appreciate you doing all this for me…" he started. Then he leaned in further before whispering lowly into her ear, his baritone voice deep and husky. "…but this is punishment for going too close to other guys."

Before she could protest that no, she had not gone too close to other guys, she felt him nibble on her ear lobe. That earned a squeak from her, making him chuckle. Deciding to make up for it, he laid a gentle peck on the area before leaning back.

She was blushing from ear to ear, a sight that was very pleasing to him. Gray smiled, but did not indulge in it any further. "Let's eat," he murmured as he walked away.

He smirked, knowing he had left her hanging.

When she roughly shoved open the guild doors the next day, she immediately spotted him by the bar. She walked straight to him, her alluringly sweet scent drafting along. He was about to greet her with a teasing remark, most likely about yesterday, but she beat him to it.

Without any warning, she leaned in and whispered, "So about that punishment…"

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review if you have time! Thank you for reading and have a nice day! ^^