As promised: Second part of the chapter!

Chapter 12

Naked Visit

By Neko Erza

Gray sat next to Lucy on the bar, sipping his drink. He had been pretty anxious to try the tampon because he'd expected it to feel annoying in the beginning, but to be honest he could not even feel it. Finally some silver lining.

The raven tipped his glass and drank the last bit before jumping off his chair. "I'm heading home. It's been a tiring two days."

"Oh wait, before you go; here's a shirt, Gray." Mirajane smiled as she pulled out said piece of clothing from underneath the counter.

"Why do you have that there, Mira?" Lucy asked.

"I always have some extra shirts in case Gray looses his. I find them around the guild all the time, so they really keep replenishing themselves." The white haired woman giggled as she handed the white shirt to the ice mage. "You can't go home alone only dressed in a scarf; you might attract some bad people. You can go change in the bathro... Or you can do that."

Before Mira was even able to finish her sentence, the ice mage had already pulled of the scarf. All around the guild the men turned their heads to try and get a good glimpse of the topless girl.

"Graaaaaaay! Don't strip like that!" Lucy said as she quickly went to stand before the raven while giving the prying men reprimanding looks.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Gray blushed as it dawned on him what he'd just done. He quickly pulled the shirt over his shoulders and closed a few buttons. He was still pissed about the bra he lost. Those things really cost too much and it was actually more comfortable walking around wearing one.

The shirt was indeed one of his, but now it just hung loosely around his body and almost reached his knees. He rolled up the sleeves to his elbows so at least his hands were free.

"You really should buy some better fitting clothes, Gray. You look like a mess with that on." Mira said.

"You should give up on being so stubborn already, like Porlyusica said, you're not going to miraculously grow back into them." Lucy added.

"Yes, I was actually planning to." The raven grumbled annoyed as he lay some jewels on the counter to pay for his drink.

"Oh, come on, Gr-" Lucy paused dumbfounded. "What? Did you just say yes?"

Mira looked pretty stunned also. "What made you change your mind so suddenly? You were so hung up on wearing your own clothes."

Gray blushed slightly. He had been too stubborn about it indeed, to the point that it had gotten ridiculous actually. "I hate to admit it, but you guys were right. It's just so much easier to wear decently fitting clothes."

"Wow, Gray, you should go on missions with Natsu more often! You've become so mature about this suddenly." Mira giggled.

"It doesn't have anything to do with that flame brain!" Gray blushed. "I just think it's better to be a man trapped in a woman's body than to be a man trapped in a woman's body still trying to be a man . It's just one step less fucked up."

"So you're gonna buy women's clothes?" Lucy asked. She was still trying to process the sudden change, she really hadn't expected it at all.

"Like you said; I'm not going to change back unless we get a counter curse. I have an appointment with Porlyusica in two days and if she hasn't found anything by then, I guess I'll just have to lay my head down until she does." Gray fell silent for a few seconds. This was all so hard to admit and it was really starting to weigh down on him. "I'm tired of being stuck in between genders."

Lucy patted Gray's hand as she felt the sudden mood change. Her heart broke a little knowing she couldn't help him the way he needed. But she would help in any way she could! "If you want to, I'll go shopping with you?"

"Thanks, Luce." Gray smiled. He was so tired of feeling down, but his friends always seemed to know how to cheer him up even in shitty situations like this. He tried to lift the mood back up, "Yet, with my current size I'd probably have to shop in the children's section and I don't feel like doing that."

Lucy giggled. "You're about the same size as Levi, I guess. She can find clothes, so we'll find some for you too. "

Mira skipped in, clapping her hands excitedly. "I'm pretty good with clothes, I'd love to make female versions of your current outfits!"

"You don't have to go through all that trouble, Mira-chan." Gray politely declined.

"Come on, it will be cute!"

"Yes, that's exactly the word you should use when trying to convince me… Cute" Gray mumbled sarcastically.

"First we'll wait to see what Porlyusica has to say, then we'll go and see what we can find in store. We'll let you go home now. " Lucy said as she remembered Gray was about to leave.

"You can leave Natsu's scarf here if you want. I'll give it to him when he comes in." Mira said, nodding to the scarf that lay on the counter.

"No, I'm gonna take it back to him right now, that way I'm sure nothing will get spilled on it." Gray said as he grabbed the white piece of cloth. "Natsu would never forgive me if something happened to it."

Gray quickly wrapped it around his neck to be sure he didn't lose it, then waved goodbye to the two girls.

"Gray going to Natsu's?" Mira stated surprised. "Really, our ice mage is full of surprises today."

It had started drizzling as soon as Gray was halfway across town. The raven considered turning around for a minute and just go home and give the scarf back later, but by now it was closer to Natsu's than it was to his house, so he decided to speed up a bit. He'd just wait for it to clear up at his place, it wasn't that late yet.

His feet splashed through the puddles on the muddy road that leads to Natsu's and Happy's place and by the time he finally reached the small house, it was really pouring down. All sounds were muted and hardly visible due to the clattering rain. Gray just hoped Natsu did go straight home and that he hadn't made a detour, fearing to turn up at an empty, locked house in this rain.

He quickly knocked on the door. To his relief, he heard some stumbling inside and things falling down (really, this guy had way too much things cluttering around) before the door creaked open.

"Gray?" The pink haired dragon slayer asked somewhat confused, nonetheless he smiled. The ice mage never visited him!

"Can I come in?" Gray asked while already stepping over the threshold. He didn't feel like standing in the rain any longer, waiting for an invitation.

"Yeah, sure." The dragon slayer said as he was still a bit taken aback by the sudden appearance of the raven. They'd said their goodbyes not that long ago. "What's up?"

Gray was about to answer as he stumbled over a box and fell face-first on the floor.

"Watch it." The pinkette laughed as he quickly pulled the tiny raven back on her feet. "Did the master spank you so hard you can't stand on your own two feet anymore?"

"No! It's because you have all this shit just lying around!" The raven yelled annoyed as he kicked the box aside and mentioned to all the stuff just laying and hanging around. "What even is all this stuff?"

He looked around at the various, seemingly random things, until his eye landed on a certain newspaper clipping hanging from the wall. With a big picture of his face -his real face- on it. Why would Natsu have something like that?

Natsu saw Gray staring at the photograph and grinned. "It's a picture of you after you kicked that Rufus guy's ass big time at the Grand Magic Games!"

Gray's gaze wandered to the clippings next to it and saw several pictures of the games; Erza after Pandemonium, Cana after destroying the MPF with Fairy Glitter, Wendy after her battle with Chellia, ...

And as the raven looked further, his face was actually fairly good represented on the wall, which stunned him slightly. He wouldn't have been surprised if Natsu had cut him out of everything, seeing as they were rivals and that they fought all the time. Yet he didn't, he was as present on the wall as the rest of their team.

Maybe he really should start considering the dragon slayer higher.

"So, Master's punishment wasn't that bad?" Natsu brought matters back to the order, pulling Gray out of his thoughts.

"He wasn't there. He got called away for a meeting or whatever and probably won't be back for a couple of days."

"Nice, he might forget about it then!" The pinkette said excited.

"Don't hope for it." The master would most certainly not forget this! Neither would Erza, now that he thought about it...

Natsu stared amused at the little raven spacing out again. "Then... why are you here?"

"Right!" Gray snapped back to reality. "I came to return your scarf. Mira gave me a shirt so..."

Only now Natsu really noticed his scarf around the woman's neck. It really wasn't unbecoming around the ice mage's neck! The way it almost melted together with the creamy white skin and the lovely contrast it made with the raven hair...

Natsu suddenly felt his stomach twitch, looking at the ice mage like that. "Y-you could have returned it tomorrow. I mean, you didn't have to come all the way here just for me..."

"I'd rather just give it back to you as soon as possible." Gray explained as he started unwrapping it. "That way I'm certain I won't loose or ruin it."

Natsu had to smile at the raven's considerateness.

Gray handed it over to the pinkette. "I'm sorry I didn't wash it. I'll pay for dry cleaning if you want."

"It's fine. It's special fabric, it doesn't need a lot of maintenance. It pretty much dirt-repellent."

"You sure? It's all wet now too."

"Oh right!" Natsu remembered the ice mage had just stepped in from the pouring rain. "I'll get you a towel." Gray was completely soaked. The raven hair was dripping onto her shoulders and the white shirt clung to the wet body...

And had become see-through!

The ice mage hadn't noticed it apparently. And even though the shirt was too big, the outline of the big breasts were visible and it clearly showed the raven wasn't wearing a bra... The dark outline of the guild crest on the chest attracted even more attention to it.

"No thanks, I'm gonna need to head home anyway, so I'll just get soaked again. " Gray huffed, not looking forward to the trip back.

Gray's voice pulled Natsu out of his thoughts and his attention away from the breasts, although he couldn't help but glance down again every now and then.

"O-okay." The pinkette stuttered uncomfortably. Should he say something? It would be bad to send his friend back out like this. But hell, he didn't want to have another awkward moment!

"Really, what was Mira thinking giving me a white shirt in this weather." Gray suddenly huffed, plucking at the wet collar. "Thank god not many people take the path up to your house. Oh well."

Natsu's jaw dropped. Gray knew! "You... don't care it's become see-through?"

"It's just you." Gray shrugged uninterested. He looked outside to see if the raining was gonna stop any time soon.

"T-thanks, I guess.." Natsu didn't know if he should feel happy or offended. But even though he was a she now, this was still Gray Fullbuster, so he should probably go for offended.

Natsu fidgeted uncomfortably nonetheless, the shirt wasn't completely transparent of course, but it still showed more than enough! The fidgeting didn't go by Gray unnoticed and a devious smirk played around his lips.

He pushed his ample chest a bit forward, making the fabric of the shirt pull tighter around it. "Or does it make you feel uncomfortable?"

"W-what are you doing?" Natsu asked jittery. He could feel the red burn on his cheeks.

Gray burst out laughing. He had found a whole new way to annoy that flame brain! "You should see your face!"

"This really isn't funny!" Natsu yelled flustered. "Don't do such weird things!" ...cause it's making me feel weird.

"Come on, Natsu. I'm just joking. I've been embarrassed enough last night, you can take a turn." The raven chuckled as he wrapped his arms before his chest nonetheless.

Natsu was about to say something back, but when he looked down into the little smiling face, he couldn't get the words over his lips. "Whatever..."

Gray looked outside again. "Looks like it's clearing up a bit."

"You can stay a little longer if you want. I- I mean, till the rain clears up completely." The pinkette said still a bit flustered.

"Thanks, flame brain, but I'm still exhausted from the mission and my back and stomach still hurt, so I'm just gonna go home."

"Okay." The slayer answered a bit disappointed. He kinda liked having Gray over! Not a lot of people visited all the way here. "Thanks for bringing back my scarf."

"No problem. If I wore it any longer, I might not want to give it back." The raven grinned. The fabric really felt great, and it definitely wasn't as annoyingly warm as other scarfs.

"It is great, isn't it?" The slayer said proudly as he dried the scarf with his flames.

"Thanks for lending it to me." Gray said as he stepped out the door again. "See ya one of these."

It was still drizzling and it was completely dark out by now. Natsu stared as the raven pattered through the muddy road "Be careful, Ice princess. Don't go and be a damsel in distress."

Without turning around, Gray raised his hand and gave him the finger. Natsu chuckled. None of the girls he knew were this cheeky (except for Cana maybe).

He waited in his doorway until the girl was out of sight, feeling slightly worried. Maybe he should have walked her home, like he normally did to Lucy.

Of course he shouldn't have! Why was he even thinking this? Natsu sighed frustrated as he slammed the door shut.

'...it's just because I look like a girl. ... You can't seem to shake the feeling that you have to protect a girl... Everybody knows you have a soft spot for women... you would, probably unknowingly, stick up for the girls and have a protective nature over them... It's just the way you are. You can't help it, even if it's me in female form.' Gray's voice echoed through his head.

That must be it. He was just being overprotective again. He had this feeling for the other women of the guild, he was always worried for Lucy like this!

What was he thinking? Gray just kicked half a dark guild's ass yesterday, why would the ice mage need someone?
Natsu kept repeating those things to himself as a reason as to why he felt like this. Over and over it played in his head, he was just being protective like with the rest of the girls.

But still... why didn't it feel like just that?

As soon as Gray walked through his door, he threw off his wet clothes. He stored the rest of the tampons he bought in the bathroom and grabbed a towel while he was there. He wrapped it around his hips in a force of habit, only to remember and wrap it higher up, around his chest.

He tried to rub out the sore feeling that had returned to his lower back, and decided to just crawl into bed and try and sleep it off.

Before he got to his bed though, he passed a mirror and stared at his reflection. He remembered the first time looking at himself like this, when he had only just been turned.

He stared at himself for about a minute before sighing and running over to his closet. He rummaged through some boxes and pulled one out that was filled with issues of Sorcerer Magazine. Along with Mira, Erza and Natsu, he was featured in it quite frequently.
He normally didn't read his own articles, he actually gladly skipped them, yet now he searched out his most recent cover. After some searching he found one from about three months ago, with a 5 page interview and photo set.

Seeing his real face earlier at Natsu's had left him feeling weary. He was slowly adapting to living like this, but seeing how he used to be, how he should be... He didn't even know what he felt.

He returned to the mirror and stared at a picture of himself (truly, he had never looked this long at himself), then he looked up into the face was so completely different and yet he could clearly distinct some of his features in it.

He felt another painful throb in his stomach, like his body was trying to remind him of what else had changed. He threw the magazine on the ground and growled confused.

Gray didn't know what he found more unsettling: seeing his own face, how it used to be...

...or the fact that he was slowly getting used to hers.

End of chapter 12

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!