Color My World

Black and white.

That's what the world looked from the perspective of individuals who had yet to discover their soul mates. Different shades of black contrasted by tints of white and wherever these two blended, tones of gray smoothly mingle in with the rest of this dull, dull world. This was how people viewed the world as they mindlessly wandered around hoping to finally have a glance at their soul mate. Because even at the most fleeting of glimpses, the moment your eyes meet theirs that is when the magic begins. The magic of color.

The experience is exhilarating, unbelievable and indescribable yet many try to recount the magic of color being brought into their world. They try to describe the hues of blue that make up the sky, the tints of greens seen in all of nature, but the most hardest to describe is the sight of color flowing into your soul mate's being. It is an experience that can only be understood once you have gone through it.

Because of all these romantic tales surrounding individual's first encounters with their soul mates, it has been molded into society to hope and dream and fantasize about this once in a lifetime event that is surely to change your world.

So despite living in this seemingly eternal colorless world, life moves forward and everyone continues to hope that today would be the day where color would finally be blessed upon their dull, dull world.

Gray hurriedly clambered up the stairs of his apartment. His calves were burning as he ran up the final set of stairs that led to his apartment floor. He cursed himself for having picked out his apartment on the fourth floor rather than the first. But that didn't matter right now, what did was getting to his apartment room as soon as possible.

Loke, Gray's roommate and friend, had texted him saying there was an emergency and should get to their room as soon as possible. Gray immediately had dropped everything he was doing and rushed towards his home. Through the frantic pace he had been traveling, worst case scenarios were playing through his head. What had happened? Was his friend in danger? Had their apartment been robbed? All these vivid scenes made him quicken his pace as he ran through the halls of his floor and skidded to an abrupt halt in front of his door.

Gray nearly fell face first onto the floor as he threw the door open and called out for his friend.

"Loke!"

Said friend then decided to poke his head from their shared kitchen, a calm but radiant smile present on his face. And no sign of any distress at all.

"Ah, Gray you made it! That sure was quick."

Gray was still intaking several gulps of breath needed to stabilize his heart rate. Through pants he managed to give out a weary response as he rested his hands on his knees. "What happened? Are you in danger? What's the emergency?"

Loke's smile widen further if that was even possible. He was practically beaming.

"Gray, I've found my soul mate!"

Gray's head snapped up from Loke's loud outburst. His eyes widen as he took in the shining aura he emitted as he made sense of what Loke had just said. He found his soul mate. Then that meant that…

"Wait! So you're telling me that that was the emergency? You made me run half across town looking like an idiot so you could tell me something that could have easily been said through a phone call or a text," Gray practically yelled as he shot the man an annoyed frown.

His roommate's sudden flare-up only managed to surprise Loke momentarily before his glowing smile resumed its presence on his face. "I'm sorry. It's just that at that moment I could hardly think. I just wanted to shout from the top of my lungs that I had finally found my destined soul mate. And I thought you would want to be the first to know."

Hearing Loke's sincere response made Gray regret his previous outburst. His friend had only wanted to share such wonderful news with him and that was nothing to be annoyed at. If anything he should be honored that Loke decided to tell him before anyone else.

Gray sighed. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a jerk. I'm just grumpy and tired from running all the way here." He then placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and gave him a sincere smile. "What I first should have said was 'congratulations'. I'm really happy for you."

Loke returned Gray's smile and nodded in understanding before both moved to sit on the living room couch. Gray propped up his feet onto the coffee table while resting his hand behind his head.

"So tell me, what's your soul mate like?"

At that question Loke looked like a puppy who had just been presented with his favorite treat. "Oh God, I thought you'd never asked!" Gray chuckled at his reply as Loke shifted into full rant mode.

"She's absolutely beautiful, Gray! Stunning, honestly. She is an angel sent from above and she's all mine. I honestly still can't believe how blessed I am to have been bestowed with such a woman. She has the most softest and golden hair. And her eyes! Her eyes are filled with so much kindness, they practically glow."

"Golden?"

Loke stopped mid-rant to focus on the confused tone of Gray's voice as he repeated the word. "Oh that's right. You can't see colors yet."

Gray felt a sharp pang to his chest. He knew that Loke spoke the truth, yet hearing those words said out loud made him remember once more that he had yet to find his soul mate. In all honesty, he was mildly envious that Loke had found his soul mate before he had. But that was only a small fraction whereas the majority of him felt happy and proud that his friend had gotten to meet his destined one.

"How does it look like? A world filled with colors, I mean."

Loke gave Gray a small smile and looked around the room slowly, surely inspecting the different colors arranged throughout their small apartment, but only visible to him.

"In one word, amazing. Too amazing in fact. Now I understand why people kept saying that it is indescribable. It's something you really do need to experience yourself because you just can't find the words to describe what you see."

Something you need to experience yourself; how many times had he heard that before? Yet as he stared at their shared living room, he wondered if one day he would be able to see the colors hidden underneath all this black and white.

At that moment Loke's phone rang. The shrill of the ring pierced through the tranquil silence. Loke hurriedly took out his phone and read the caller ID as it kept flashing on the front screen. He grinned widely.

"It's Lucy!"

"Lucy?"

"My soul mate!" He answered with a tone that clearly implied he should already know this, even though Loke had not mentioned the name of his soul mate beforehand.

"Hello, my princess." Loke answered flirtatiously as Gray cringed at the pet name. Geez! They had barely met a few hours ago and they were already calling each other loving names? As Loke continued his conversation with Lucy, Gray wondered if that was how this whole soul mate deal functioned or if it was dependent on the couple themselves. He really hoped it was the latter.

Gray was so stuck on his thoughts about the whole soul mate pet names, he didn't realize that Loke had finished his call and had begun addressing him.

"Oi, Gray!"

"Huh! What?" Gray snapped out of his thoughts.

Loke sighed. "I said how would you like me to introduce you to Lucy?"

"But I thought you guys would be going on a date?"

The taller man wolfishly grinned, "Of course we are. Later though. She just got out of work right now and said she wanted to introduce me to one of her friends. I thought this might be a good opportunity to also introduce you guys."

Gray gave him a grin. "Alright then, let's go."

They were going to meet in town. The meeting place would be at the small park located near the shopping center. It was noon and as usual, both the park and shopping center were packed with people.

Gray and Loke had managed to weave and maneuver themselves through the crowd of running children and their dotting mothers chasing after them. They miraculously found an empty bench near the front that gave them a clear view of the stream of people walking to and from the park. As they sat patiently on the bench, enjoying the warmth of the sun, Gray's mind began to wander again. Loke seemed so thrilled and elated to be introducing Lucy that he couldn't help but wonder what kind of girl she was, and if his soul mate would give him that much happiness even after knowing one another for a short period of time.

"Loke!"

Gray broke out of his thoughts and looked up to see a young woman running towards them. Hand in the air waving, the woman gave them a beaming smile as her long flowing hair bounced softly behind her. Gray realized this must be Lucy and that she was cute. Once more propelling his thoughts back to wondering if his soul mate would be cute as well. He hoped so!

Loke stood up, a soft smile gracing his lips as he took Lucy's hand and gave it a kiss. "My princess Lucy." The greeting earned him a blush from her as she returned his smile.

Gray stood up as well, ready to introduce himself when Loke decided that now was the perfect time to kiss Lucy. Right in front of him. Gray immediately looked the other way to give the couple some privacy and to avoid having anyone notice his embarrassment. Damn that Loke for making him feel so uncomfortable right now! Where was Lucy's friend by the way? He could really use the company right now.

After several (long) seconds, they parted and Lucy realized Gray's presence. She gasped and bowed her head towards Gray in apology. "I'm so sorry! That was really rude of me." She offered Gray an apologetic smile and nervously chuckled, "Great first impression, Lucy."

Gray chuckled before grinning at her. "Don't worry about it. If anything I blame Loke," he said as he shot him a smirk.

Loke smiled his signature flirtatious grin towards Lucy as he grasped her hand with his. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself."

Gray at that moment decided to immediately introduce himself before any more kissing would ensue. He stuck out his hand towards Lucy. "My name's Gray. I'm Loke's friend and roommate. Nice to meet ya."

"My name's Lucy. Pleasure to meet you," she said as she took a hold of his hand and gave it a firm, but friendly shake.

"Oh and this is my friend, Na-" She stopped mid-sentence as it finally dawned on her that her friend was missing. "What the heck! He was just here a moment ago, I swear." Lucy began to frantically look around the park in hopes of spotting her friend.

"Sheesh! He's like a little kid, can't hold still for even a few seconds." Lucy muttered to herself as she shifted her eyes through the crowd. "He's a really great guy, I promise. He's just been complaining that he's hungry and I didn't take him out to eat before coming here, but I told him that we'd all go out together to grab something to eat. He just gets really impatient sometimes." Lucy addressed both Loke and Gray in a frustrated tone as her eyes still continued their search, hoping that this little stunt her friend pulled didn't give off any wrong impressions.

Too late, Gray thought as a frowned settled on his lips. What kind of idiot just ditches their friend because he was too impatient to wait a couple of minutes before they all headed out to eat? This guy sounded like a brat! Now he couldn't wait to meet the guy so he could give him a piece of his mind for making such a nice girl like Lucy fret over his behavior.

"Ah! There you are!" Lucy nearly tackled him to the ground as she ran up to the guy who had been drooling at the nearby street vendor selling fried foods. "What to you think you're doing?" she scolded him loudly as she latched onto his arm and practically dragged him to where Loke and Gray were standing.

He let out a surprised yelp as he was being dragged away from the food vendor. "Wait, Lucy! I was going to buy something! I haven't eaten all day and it's noon already!" The guy struggled against Lucy's iron grip, still looking longingly at the fried goodness that was seconds away from being in his poor empty stomach. "I swear I can't leave you alone for five minutes."

The scene was pretty damn comical in Gray's opinion, this flailing guy being yanked around by a petite and refined girl. Serves him right, Gray thought as he let out a soft chuckle and smirked at the sight before him.

Lucy gave a final tug before they stood back in front of Gray and Loke. Well, the guy was still eyeing the street vendor, but at least Lucy had gotten him this close. She crossed her arms over her chest before sighing in exasperation. "Sorry about that. Like I was saying this is my friend, Natsu."

Lucy gave him a pinch on his arm and snapped him out of trance with the food stand once more. "Ouch! Hey!" Natsu gave her an annoyed look. She smiled innocently at him before saying, "Natsu, this is my soul mate, Loke and his friend, Gray."

Natsu, for the first time looked in their general direction. He turned his body to fully face them as he greeted them individually. His gaze first met Loke's.

"Nice to meet ya, Loke..."

And then Gray's.

"and Gra-"

That was it. That was the moment in which their eyes met and the world seem to completely stop as they gazed intensely at one another. Natsu's breath had hitched in his throat and Gray could not for the life of him tear his eyes away from his.

Then the colors began.

For Gray it started on the tip of Natsu's button nose. The color seemed to flourish so elegantly and gracefully as it slowly creeped its way onto Natsu's cheeks, up the bridge of his nose and down towards his lips. Soon Gray could see that Natsu's skin was sun-kissed. His light tan suited his complexion beautifully. The colors then seductively swirled towards his eyes. The colors melted into his irises, twirling and twirling around until they settled into the shade of a deep brown. The depth of that brown was simply breath taking and Gray thought he would love to get lost in them. But as captivated as he was, the colors continued their alluring dance across Natsu's face as they reached the edge of his hairline. Suddenly, the colors shot bursts of bright pink onto his wild strands of hair. Gray was initially shocked to see such a vibrant color, but he had never seen such a color before and Natsu pulled it off flawlessly. The colors' dance was coming to an end and as the grand finale, they quickly colored the rest of Natsu's body before showering the world with explosions of colors. Reds, yellows, blues, greens, oranges, every color possibly imagined blended with one another to create a parade of hues until they settled into their respective places.

Gray couldn't believe it. The black and white of this world was gone in the blink of an eye and left behind was a rainbow of pure colors. His eyes, despite his awareness of the coloration of the world, were still captivated by Natsu's colors. The wild pink hair, the brilliant dark brown eyes and his smooth tanned skin, all were so alluring to him. It nearly left him speechless. Nearly.

"This is amazing, isn't it?" Gray asked once he regained his composure and found his voice. He flashed Natsu an affectionate smile as he continued to stare into the eyes of his soul mate.

"What are you talking about?" Nastu asked.

As those words left his mouth, Gray swore his heart dropped to his stomach. He stared at him and for the first time since the colors stopped dancing around, he noticed Natsu's expression. Total deadpanned. No emotion whatsoever.

Was this for real? Had Natsu really not seen the amazing arrangement of colors and their enchanting dance? Oh God, was he really one of those people who wasn't his soul mate's soul mate? Are you fucking kidding me?

Gray's internal turmoil and dread was interrupted when Natsu began to laugh. Real hard. So hard he grabbed the sides to his stomach as his body shook with every fit of laughter. Gray had never been more confused in his life than at this moment. Why the hell was he laughing? Was this really funny?

Finally, once Natsu's laughing fit subdued, he flashed Gray a toothy grin and spread his arms wide right in front of him. "I'm just kidding, come here, soul mate!"

As he moved in for a hug, Gray stops him with his outburst of pure anger. "What the fuck, you bastard! You scared the living hell out of me. You know how many damn stories I've heard about that?" Gray at this point was holding back from punching his soul mate right in the face. That jerk!

Natsu's grin turned into a smirk as he cheekily replied, "You should have seen the look on your face."

Gray could feel a vein begin to pop out on his forehead and this time he did not hold back. He pulled back his fist and begins to beat onto Natsu's chest while calling him every foul name he could think. All while avoiding Natsu's advances towards him, yet in the end he somehow managed to pull Gray close to his chest.

"That was stupid! That better not set the tone in our relationship because I swear I will end up killing you." Gray had started that sentence strongly, but by the end it was merely a feeble mumble. Natsu had managed to slip his hands around him, and they rested firmly on Gray's hips, tugging him even more closer. At this point, he could no longer hold back the reddening blush that had erupted on his whole face. He swore even the tips of his ears were tinted with red!

Gray instinctively had his hands on his chest in hopes of creating some sort of distance between them, but Natsu seemed determined to close that very distance. For the second time that day, their eyes met once more. Gray really could get lost in the depth of those eyes.

Natsu gave him a smile that nearly made his heart stop before closing the distance between them and embraced him tightly. He nuzzled closely into the crook of Gray's neck and leaned into his ear to whisper in a playful tone, "You're funny. I like that."

If Gray wasn't blushing before he certainly was now. He was never one for public display of affection or any type of affection to be honest, but Natsu completely melted that away with this simple hug. He was a little taller than him so Gray was able to rest his cheek comfortably on top of his head. He didn't like saying sappy stuff, but it seriously felt like their bodies were meant to fit perfectly into one another.

Natsu kept happily snuggling into the crook of his neck and Gray couldn't help himself but smell his hair. Oh fuck, he smells so good! Campfires and cinnamon swirled together in Gray's head as he buried his nose deeper into his pink hair. Gray could definitely get used to this.

Both of them had lost track of how long they had been standing there, embracing one another in the middle of the park, but neither cared. It was so comfortable, Gray had forgotten why he was even mad at Natsu thirty seconds ago.

When he decided to pull back, Gray nearly pouted at having lost the warmth of his body and that incredible smell of his. But as soon as Natsu flashed Gray his dazzling smile, all was forgotten. Damn, that smile of his just made Gray's stomach explode with a million fluttering butterflies. His blush came back, but this time Gray didn't care if Natsu saw. Instead he returned Natsu's smile with one of his own.

"Sorry about that. How about I take you out to lunch to make it up for it?" Natsu grinned even wider and extended his hand towards Gray. It was at that moment that Gray remembered something crucial.

"Wait. Where's Lucy and Loke?" They both looked around trying to see if they were still lingering nearby.

Natsu shrugged. "I guess they must have gone on without us."

This was true. As soon as Gray and Natsu had become transfixed on each other, Loke and Lucy realized what was going and decided to give the pair some privacy. Natsu turned back to Gray and once more extended his hand towards him.

"So what do you say we go on a date of our own? I promise it'll be fun." Natsu grinned at him as he wiggled his fingers in anticipation. Seriously, Natsu's smile was damn contagious so Gray couldn't help the idiotic grin that spread across his face as he laced his fingers through his and accepted his offer.

They held hands throughout their walk into town as Natsu began to enthusiastically list off his favorite places to go eat for lunch. And if anyone looked closely at their intertwined fingers, they would see a rare phenomenon. Small spurts of colors danced around their hands, an occurrence that only happened when the love between two soul mates was strong.

So strong that these small bursts of color could be seen even by those who were still in the world of black and white.

The End.