Actions

Work Header

critical hit

Summary:

When Sting tells Natsu that one of his friends from school is going to be joining their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game, Natsu isn't impressed - their table is already full. But while Natsu and Gray's in-game characters clash completely, Natsu finds that real-life Gray might not be that bad after all.

looking for group

Notes:

i am a huge d&d nerd and have been wanting to write this for a long time, just never got around to it. all of their in-game stuff (characters, races, spells, etc) are taken from wizards of the coast's dungeons & dragons 5th edition. if you haven't played d&d some of this might not make sense, but i tried to make it as accessible as possible! you should also try it out because it's a ton of fun ^-^

find me on tumblr as @splendidlyimperfect

Chapter 1: first impressions

Summary:

Natsu's an idiot and Gray joins the party.

Chapter Text

It was Dungeons and Dragons night, everything was a disaster, and Sting was really starting to regret listening to Natsu.

“Get out of there!” he shouted to Rogue, who crouched behind one of the cultists, bloodstained daggers gripped tightly in his hands. Rogue nodded and a silvery mist rose up from the ground, shrouding him and then dispersing once he disappeared.

Sting growled, hefting his greatsword in both hands and surveying the battlefield. They’d taken out three of the cultists, but five still remained - two of them still at the altar, attempting to complete the summoning ritual.

“Pelor guide me,” Sting murmured, kissing his blade and then charging at the nearest cultist. He felt the light of his deity flow through him, imbuing his attacks with holy light as he struck out.

“Duck!” Natsu’s voice came through the ruckus and Sting cursed, looking around wildly to find his friend. Natsu’s red robes made him easy to spot – they matched the smattering of scales that ran down his temples and arms and marked him as one of the dragonborn. Currently, a ball of lighting was forming between Natsu’s hands.

“Don’t you da-”

Lightning crashed down around him and Sting cursed, summoning a shimmering sphere of magic to protect him from the blasts. The cultist in front of him cried out in pain, taking a bolt directly to the chest and practically exploding in front of Sting.

“Gross,” Sting muttered, wiping splashes of blood and gore from his silver chestplate. He looked over at Natsu, who was grinning like an idiot and readying himself for another spell. “Stop them!” Sting shouted, pointing toward the altar.

It was too late. The magic between the two cultists coalesced, then expanded and absorbed both of them into its inky miasma. Sting watched with horror as the darkness bubbled, growing up and up until it towered over them and began to take shape.

It was a demon. An enormous demon – it towered at least fifteen feet tall, with horns like a ram’s protruding from its skull, and claws that were half the length of Sting’s forearm. Cloven hooves dug into the ground, and the demon bared its teeth, roaring into the sky.

“Well, fuck.” Natsu said. Sting looked over to see the sorcerer standing next to him, while Rogue materialized quickly on his other side. Natsu looked up to Sting and grinned, a ball of fire forming in his right hand. “Sorry about the lightning.”

“No you aren’t,” Sting grumbled, and Natsu laughed, shaking his head.

“Not really,” he conceded, looking back at the demon. It glared at them, reddish eyes set into its monstrous face. "I’m out of lightning, but how does a fireball sound?”

“It sounds like you’re a moron.”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

Sting leaned onto the D&D table and sighed in exasperation.

“You are a sorcerer.” Sting glared at Natsu, gesturing to the numbers on the character sheet in front of him. “You have like, eight hit points, and if you charge into one more goddamn fight face-first I’m not going to heal you and you’re gonna have to roll a new character.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Natsu replied, grinning at his cousin. He grabbed a Dorito from the bag in front of him and used it to gesture at Sting. “You love my hot-headed personality.”

“He really doesn’t,” Rogue replied, popping an M&M into his mouth. He turned to Gray, who was sitting at the opposite side of the table and picking at the edge of his character sheet. “Yes, they’re always like this. No, it never ends well.”

Gray laughed nervously, chewing his lip. Natsu glanced across the table at him, breaking his banter with Sting for a moment. When Sting had mentioned that his friend from school would be joining their weekly D&D session, Natsu had been less than impressed – their group had been fine just the way it was. But now that Gray was here, with his dark hair and his soft lips and pretty eyes, Natsu was starting to think he didn’t mind.

“Are you two done?” Erza raised her eyebrows at Sting and Natsu, her face partially hidden behind the cardboard screen she used to hide her own dice-rolling from the group. Natsu wasn’t sure she was always honest about the numbers she rolled behind it, but as the Dungeon Master she had control over the entire game, and he really didn’t want to piss her off.

Erza had been the one to get the group together two years ago, and they’d barely missed a week since. Natsu had never played before Sting invited him to join, but the mechanics of the game had been easy to pick up. The role playing was his favorite part – he could be anyone when they played. A daring fighter, a cautious druid, or, in this case, a cocky sorcerer with only eight hit points left.

“Ready to keep going?” Erza asked. She had a look on her face that Natsu wasn’t particularly fond of. It usually meant that their party was going to get fucked.

“If someone agrees to stop trying to be a big damn hero,” Sting grumbled, flicking Natsu’s ear. Natsu swatted his hand away, grabbing his energy drink and chugging it before tapping on his character sheet.

“Let’s do this,” he said, grinning at Sting, who was glaring at him. “We’ve got a demon to kill.”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

The demon snorted at them, shaking its bull-like head and flexing its enormous, clawed hands. Natsu felt the fire in his hand crackling between his fingers, and he grinned, turning to Sting.

“C'mon," he said, raising his eyebrows. “We can take it. Don’t be such a pessimist.”

“I’m surprised you know a word that big,” Sting muttered. The holy symbol of Pelor on his breastplate was obscured by smears of blood, but it was still a bright reminder of his paladin’s oath.

“Would you two knock it off?” Rogue hissed. His dark leather cuirass was scratched and stained, and there was a streak of blood on his cheek from an earlier fight. “Are we killing this thing or not?”

“Yes,” Sting sighed. “Just, for the love of Tyr, let me take the lea—”

“Fireball!” Natsu shouted, pushing both hands out in front of him and launching an enormous ball of flames at the demon. It roared in pain as the explosion hit right at its feet, knocking it backward and singeing the dark fur that covered most of its body. It turned to glare at Natsu, snorting and pawing at the ground with its two cloven hooves.

“You fucking-” Sting gripped his greatsword in both hands and charged past Natsu, shoving him out of the way and rushing at the demon. He dodged its sharp claws, swinging his sword around and grunting as the blade sliced into the demon’s thick hide. Rogue materialized on the other side of the demon, daggers flashing as he attacked. As quickly as Rogue had appeared, he vanished into the shadows, evading the demon's horns.

The demon reared up and lashed out at Sting, razor-sharp claws descending on him. He ducked out of the way, breathing a sigh of relief when they dug down into the dirt instead of his chest.

“Natsu, look out!” Sting looked up to see Rogue shouting from the shadows, and Natsu staring cockily at the demon, which was digging its hooves into the ground again. “Get out of there, you arrogant motherfu-”

Rogue’s warning was cut off by the demon charging toward Natsu, dirt flying up behind it. Natsu’s eyes widened and he moved to jump out of the way, but tripped on a loose rock and fell to his knees.

“Natsu!” Sting shouted, starting to run toward his friend even though he wouldn’t make it in time. “Move!”

A blast of cold startled Sting and he skidded to a stop as an enormous wall of ice rushed past him, cutting in front of Natsu at the last second and blocking the demon. The ice cracked under the impact of the beast’s heavy horns, but didn’t fall.

“What the-” Natsu looked over with wide eyes to see a young, dark-haired boy in deep blue wizard’s garb standing with his hands outstretched, snowflakes drifting down around him. “Who the hell are you?”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

Natsu looked across the table as he spoke, making eye contact for a second with Gray before Gray looked down, his cheeks flushed a light pink. Gray picked at the rim of his coffee cup, turning it around in his hands.

He's fucking adorable, Natsu thought, taking in the scar on Gray’s forehead, the way his hair fell across his face, his faded t-shirt with some videogame logo on it. His thumbnails were painted bright purple, and Natsu realized they matched the plugs in his earlobes.

He wondered absently if Gray was gay. Sting had never mentioned it – but he also hadn’t mentioned how attractive Gray was either. An oversight on his part, clearly. Natsu knew that Sting was completely enamored with Rogue, but Sting had to be blind to not see that Gray was hot as hell.

Natsu shook his head. Sure, Gray was hot, but Natsu needed to stay in character. His sorcerer’s pride was generally his downfall, and he would never tolerate being saved by some stranger, even if he was pretty.

“I, um,” Gray stuttered, looking down at his character sheet. He took a deep breath and looked up at Natsu again.

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

“We can talk later,” the ice wizard replied, holding a hand out and staring intently at the demon. He looked at Sting and nodded his head. “You’d better get him out of the way.”

Sting frowned, but when he saw an icy cloud forming over the demon’s head, he dashed over to Natsu and grabbed him by the back of his robes, dragging him away. The wizard closed his eyes and dropped his hand, and chunks of rock-hard ice began to plummet downward, pelting the demon and drawing gashes through its hide.

“Hey!” Natsu shouted indignantly, yanking himself out of Sting’s grasp and summoning another ball of fire in his hands. He pushed the flames outward, melting a hole in the ice wall and scowling at the boy. “We have this under control!”

“Doesn’t look like it,” the boy grumbled, continuing to rain down hail on the demon. It roared and lashed out at Rogue, who dodged the horns again by disappearing and reappearing next to Sting.

“We can handle-” Natsu shouted as the fire in his hand suddenly turned on him, catching his sleeve on fire and quickly rushing up to his chest. To his shock, his robes disintegrated under the intense flame, and seconds later he was standing in front of the wall of ice, completely naked. “What the-”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

“-actual fuck?” Natsu stared down at the number “1” staring up at him from the face of his twenty-sided die. “You,” muttered at the die, “are going in the shame corner.” He flicked it into a small area between him and Sting that was cordoned off with pens and designated for the ‘dice that tried to kill them.’ It already held four other dice.

“You know the rules,” Erza snickered from behind her barrier. “Roll a one, something bad happens.”

Natsu’s dice rolled to a stop and Sting looked down at it, laughing. “It landed on a twenty.” Natsu groaned and dropped his face into his hands.

“So... I’m naked,” he said, glaring at Erza, who was hiding her face and laughing behind her screen. This was the part of the game that was both fun and frustrating – Erza had the power to make up whatever consequences she felt like. And apparently tonight she felt like embarrassing Natsu in front of Gray.

“Can I make a check to see if I can grab the Bag of Holding before it bursts into flames?” Sting asked, crossing his fingers. Erza contemplated for a second, then nodded. Sting tossed his die across the table – his was white and sparkly – and it landed on a “17.”

“All right, you manage to snatch the bag, which contains all of your potions and scrolls, before it catches on fire as well.” Erza gestured for Sting to mark down the bag on his character sheet.

“Which still leaves me naked,” Natsu grumbled. He glanced up at Gray, who was giving him a shy smile. Natsu felt his cheeks flush hot and he dropped his gaze back to the new dice that he’d pulled from his bag - hot pink this time.

“Maybe you should have listened to the paladin,” Rogue said, smirking. “Now you’re almost definitely going to die.”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

Natsu glanced down at his naked body, sighing in resignation. At least he still had his magic – he could feel it coursing through him, tingling along the scales on his arms and chest.

“You should probably run,” Rogue said, glancing between Natsu and the demon.

“I am not running,” Natsu hissed. “I am a champion of Fiore, and I’m going to fight this goddamn-”

“Shut the hell up and get out my way,” Sting growled, charging in again as the ice storm dissipated. He leaped through the hole Natsu had created, then thrust his sword forward directly into the beast’s chest, driving the blade inward as it exploded with holy light. The demon howled in rage and pain, flailing at Sting, but Sting’s heavy armor blocked its blows.

Rogue disappeared again in a silvery mist, leaving Natsu standing alone, naked and unimpressed on the other side of the ice wall.

Before he could come up with another spell to help his friends, the demon was dead. The ice wall shattered and dissolved, leaving Natsu with a view of Sting, standing next to the creature with his sword buried in its chest. Even Natsu could admit that Sting was impressive, his plate mail gleaming with holy light as he spoke a prayer of thanks to his deity.

“Told you we had it under control,” Natsu said, turning to the ice wizard, who was standing off to the side and looking at him strangely. Rogue turned to Natsu, scowling at him in exasperation.

“When someone saves your life, you usually say thank you,” Rogue said. He wiped the blood from his daggers and sheathed them.

“I didn’t need saving!” Natsu protested, waving his arms and then remembering that he was completely nude.

“Don’t be rude,” Sting said, pulling his sword out of the demon. It dripped with black ichor and he made a face. “You would have died without his help and you know it.” Natsu grumbled. “What’s your name?” The question was directed at the wizard.

“Gray,” the boy responded. He looked over at Natsu again, then shrugged his bag off his shoulder, digging around in it and pulling out what looked like a set of clothes. “You could probably use these,” he said, offering them up.

Natsu looked at the clothes hesitantly. The stubborn part of him didn’t want to accept help from Gray again, but the other part of him wasn’t enjoying standing around naked. He took them begrudgingly, muttering a short thanks.

“I’m Sting, paladin of Pelor.” Sting gestured to the symbol on his breastplate. “This is Rogue, and... well, you’ve met Natsu.”

Natsu scowled at Sting as he awkwardly hopped into the clothing Gray had given him. They weren’t as nice as his sorcerer’s robes – and he’d just had those enchanted – but it was better than being naked.

“And I've given you my name,” Gray said, leaning on his staff. “I was sent here by the High House of Magic to investigate cult activity in the area. I seem to have found it.” Sting nodded, gesturing back to the demon.

“This demon was strong, but it wasn’t their endgame,” he said. “They’re looking to bring back one of the ancient demon lords to our realm. The cult is planning to summon Baphomet.”

 

o.o.o.o.o.o

 

“Well, I think that’s a good place to call it!” Erza closed her book and folded up her screen, revealing a pile of rainbow-colored dice in front of her. Natsu yawned and stretched, glancing at his phone – it was already eleven.

“We good for next Sunday?” he asked, even though he knew the question wasn’t really necessary. Then he remembered Gray and looked over at him, raising his eyebrows. Gray looked confused for a second, then glanced down at his phone and nodded.

“Y-yeah,” he said. “I’m, um, always free Sundays.” He glanced up at everyone, smiling. “Thanks for letting me join you.”

“Well if you hadn’t joined, someone would probably be dead,” Sting joked, elbowing Natsu. Natsu rolled his eyes, grabbing his die out of the corner of shame and glaring at it.

“You’d better behave next week,” he muttered, tossing it into his dice bag.

“As if it was the dice’s fault and not yours,” Rogue said, raising an eyebrow. Natsu looked offended, but didn’t argue.

“Um... what’s your address?” Gray looked up at Natsu, phone in one hand. “I need to put it- for the Uber?”

“Oh!” Natsu frowned. Erza usually drove Sting and Rogue home, but they lived on the other end of the city – Sting had mentioned that Gray lived on campus. It was a twenty-minute drive from Natsu’s house, and if Gray was a student, he probably didn’t have the money to be paying for an Uber every week. “I can, uh, drive you home.”

Gray looked surprised, blinking at Natsu a few times and then brushing his hair out of his eyes. “Y-you don’t have to, it’s not- it’s kinda far, I don’t mind-“

“Don’t be silly,” Natsu insisted, steadfastly ignoring Sting kicking his ankle under the table. “I don’t work tomorrow morning anyway.” That was a blatant lie and everyone at the table except Gray knew it – Natsu usually insisted that they didn’t play too late because Monday mornings were his early shift.

“Oh. Thanks.” Gray dropped his gaze back to his books as he packed them into his bag, but a small smile crept across his face. Natsu managed to ignore the amused expressions of his friends as he ushered them all upstairs.

The drive was mostly quiet. Gray didn’t talk much, and when he did it was soft, short answers to Natsu’s questions. Natsu managed to find out that Gray was studying theatre, that he played lots of videogames, that he loved sci fi, and his favorite TV series was Star Trek: The Next Generation.

He’s your fucking dream guy, Natsu’s brain screamed, and he tried valiantly to ignore it as he pulled up to Gray’s dorm building. He barely knew Gray, had no idea if he was even interested in guys, and was having a hard time getting a read on him.

“Thanks for the ride,” Gray said softly, tugging his toque down over his hair and smiling. “I guess, uh, see you next week? What time should I be there?”

“I can pick you up,” Natsu blurted, words coming out in an unexpected rush. Gray looked surprised and Natsu frantically wracked his brain to think of a logical reason for offering that wasn’t you’re super cute and I wanna keep talking to you. “I, uh... visit. Family. We have food... lunch? So it’s, um, on my way, to go... back.”

Shit, now he had to fess up to Sting and convince him to not tell Gray that all of Natsu’s family lived three hours away from here. Gray’s smile made it worth it, though.

“Okay,” Gray said, playing with the strap of his backpack. “I’ll, uh... I can buy you a coffee?”

“Sure,” Natsu said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and grinning. “Sounds good. See you on Sunday.”