Authors Note: This story takes place sometime before the Edolas Arch.

The Price of Being Clever

The moon was the only thing that was giving light to the damp street. Just like he was the only thing providing any noise to the other wise deadly silent world Gray found himself in at the moment.

He was running as fast as his body would allow. His feet slammed on the cobble stones of the street, his lungs burned with desire for more oxygen, and his heart pounded away to the point that he could have sworn his ribs would crack. The reason for his late night run was simple, he was being chased, or more accurately hunted.

A swift turn to the right brought him to another empty street. He dared not look behind himself. It would slow him down and that would mean his end. He did however glance down at the darkly colored bag tucked under his arm. It was the reason his life was in danger after all.

In the corner of his eye he saw an ally way full of trash and without thinking he lunged towards it. Upon finding an old overturned can he ducked behind it and turned his body so he wouldn't be visible from the street. His reasoning being that his pursuer would most likely believe he wouldn't stop until he reached safety. Best to be unpredictable and the chance to breath normally was hard to pass up.

Now all he could do was wait.

Silence. He needed to be silent above anything else. Even if that meant stopping his breathing which would in turn stop his heart. What awaited him if he was caught would be worse then death anyway. After a while his goal was achieved. He still drew breath but there was no sound in the dark night. Gray held back the need to sigh from relief. Maybe he would get out of this miss after all.

Thats when he heard the footsteps.

First it was one, then another, getting closer with each one. Slowly they came closer, echoing slightly with each smooth movement. He couldn't move and now he truly did not draw a breath. Should he run? How far could he possibly get now? That question had no merit, for one had to be able to move to run and he was paralyzed with fear.

He started to shake. There was nothing he could do. He was trapped. It was over.

When the footsteps had stopped in front of him he didn't dare turn to look to his right and so eyes stared at the darkness in front of him, he regretted that it would be the last thing he saw.

"I finally found you..."

One Hour Earlier.

"...and then...when she turned around...the book had moved to the other side of the table!" Mirajane proclaimed and froze with her arms over her head as if to wait for her audience to react. She stood behind the bar and her angel costume was projecting an interesting silhouette on the bottle covered wall behind her.

Needless to say her audience,which consisted of the eight people sitting at the bar at the moment, wasn't very frighten be Mirajane's most recent ghost story. Except for poor Wendy who was shaking and causing the wings of her fairy costume to bounce slightly. Lucy gave her a few reassuring pats on the back as the younger girl mutter 'So Scary!' a few times to herself.

"Oh come on Mira, that story wasn't scary at all!" Natsu shouted with his voice being slightly muffled by the ninja mask he was wearing. His usual loud voice made a slight echo in the almost empty guild hall. The party had started there but now most of the guild members had taken their cheer to other bars and pubs around town. The trick or treating had stopped roughly an hour ago, and the remaining members in the guild had started to tell ghost stories to end the night.

"I have to agree with the flamer on this one..." Gray said out loud to no one in particular. Luckily Natsu was to busy trying to tell Mirajane what made a good ghost story to notice.

"Well its Mira, I didn't expect much from her when it comes to something like this." Cana told him and took another swig from her drink. "Oh by the way, I've been meaning to ask, what are you suppose to be anyway Gray?" she continued and adjusted the fake red horns on her head that complete her she-devil costume.

"Its kind of obvious isn't it?" Gray sighed and turned so she could see him better. A red jacket, white shirt, black paints, a hat, and an eye patch is what she saw. He had also gone through the trouble of making the clothing seem torn and dirty in areas.

"...a homeless guy?" she asked dumbfound.

Gray clinched his teeth and pointed to the eye path on his left eye.

"...a wounded homeless guy?" she asked with the same expression.

Right when he was about to erupt with anger because of her stupidity she started to laugh at him and he realized she was just messing with him. Still clinching his teeth he whispered to her "Laugh it up."

Sitting on the other side of Cana was Juvia who was watching every second of their conversation. She started daggers at the brown haired girl for not only sitting next to Gray but for speaking so casually with him. She was already in a saddened and slightly angry mood because the only compliment he had given her vampire costume was a half hearted 'Thats cool' before going on about his business seemingly not giving her a second thought.

"Cana-san is Juvia's friend but Juvia wishes she would switch seats with Juvia!" she thought desperately to herself.

Noticing this from a few seats down was Lucy who was having a good time, but desperately wished she had had enough money to buy a different costume. With her apartments rent, and repairs that needed to be made to said apartment, the only option she could find for a costume was recreating her Cat-girl outfit from the time she had gone on that scavenger hunt through Fairy Hills. She would have tried to make something else but the spark of creativity hadn't come to her for it, but better to save her best ideas for her book in her mind.

On the other side of the bar Elfman was sitting next to Erza and was trying to tell her how 'real men don't get scared' and several other things proclaiming his manliness. She paid him little attention but she had to admit he really fit the part for his Frankenstein costume. Once her seemed to reach a stopping point she adjusted her witch hat and called out to Mirajane.

"I believe its time Mira." she said to the other women on the other side of the bar.

"Oh! Your right, I guess it is!" the white haired beauty called back. "Elfman, could you help me?"

With a nod of agreement the younger Strauss got up and followed her. To one of the back rooms of the guild. Once they left the whole group seemed to perk up. It was a guild tradition that on after the trick or treating was done any candy that the guild hadn't given out would be shared with any of the members that wanted some. This tradition of course resulted in in Mirajane accidentally buying more then the could hand out to the children of Magnolia. Each year she went through great lengths to buy new and interesting candies and the guild along with the trick or treaters were very grateful to her.

Everyone started to softly speak with each other, until they heard Mirajane return and shout out "Its gone! All the candy is missing!"

A collections of shocked gasp and 'whats' filled the room as Mirajnae went behind the bar again and Elfman sat back down. This continued until Erza slammed her fist of the bar to gain everyone's attention.

"This is unforgivable! I will personally punish those responsible!" she turned and shouted to everyone that could hear her. Which must have been the whole town with how loud and commanding her voice had become. "Mira, when was the last time you saw the candy?" she asked and moved behind the bar to stand next to the white haired women.

"Well lets see..." she mused and put her finger to her chin. "...our last trick or treater was about an hour ago and it was all there when I checked it then."

"But no one has left or gone since then." Gray commented.

"That means...it had to have been one of us." Lucy added.

"Everyone! Hands on the bar now!" Erza screamed and without thinking all nine of them slammed their hands on top of the bar in unison. "We are not leaving here until someone confuses and gives the candy back." she told them all with determination.

"Man, shes getting in to this." Gray whispered to Cana.

"You thought she wouldn't with something like this." Cana whispered back and hoped she didn't draw any attention to herself.

"If we're just gonna wait for some one to confuse it could take all not!" Natsu groaned.

"True, therefore we will find out who did this with a little investigation. Does anyone have an idea about who it was?" Erza told them all.

There was silence until Lucy spoke up. "Well when trying to figure something like this out we have to find out who would benefit from doing the crime. So who would want the candy the most basically." she explained. No sooner had the words left her lips then all the eyes of the room move to the fire dragon slayer at the end of the bar.

"H-hey I like candy but I wouldn't steal it from everyone!" he yelled in his defense.

"Don't remember that time a few years back when you tried to get a few bags out of the guild without anyone noticing?" Gray told him in an mocking tone.

"Thats was a long time ago! Besides you tried that once to back in the day so whose to say you didn't do it!" Natsu shouted at him.

"Because unlike you I've grown up since then! This is stupid! Its just some candy its not-" he continued and took his hands off the table.

"Hands on the table!" Erza shouted and they went right back to where they were. He glared at her but continued to speak.

"...all I'm saying is that its not like its a great loss or anything." he finished and calmed down.

"That sounds like something a person would say when they don't want to be found out!" Elfman yelled.

"That sounds like something a person who is trying to sift the blame would say!" Gray yelled back.

"A real man doesn't lie! I didn't take it!"

"Enough screaming!" Erza yelled.

"I guess that doesn't mean you huh?" Lucy thought to herself and sweat dropped.

After everyone had calmed down Mirajane decided to try and make there investigation a little more controlled. "Alright, since no one is admitting to it I think all we can do is ask everyone one last time and take their word on it. We should trust their word right?" she said and looked at Erza who nodded in agreement.

"I swear on my man hood! I didn't take the candy!" Elfman proclaimed.

"Juvia wouldn't do such a thing." the water mage added with confidants.

"Wasn't me." Cana said simply and took another drink seeing as their hands now belong to them again. Erza glared at her for this and the younger women shuddered.

"It really wasn't alright." she said more seriously.

"I didn't do it." Gray said and looked Erza in the eyes without flinching.

Everyone now turned to the youngest person there as Wendy felt everyone's eyes on her. She shook slightly and whimpered. "I-I wouldn't"

Upon seeing this they all wondered why they even considered her a suspect.

"I didn't do it I swear." Lucy said and tried to seem reassured.

"I wasn't the one that did it." Natsu told everyone and nodded sternly.

"For what its worth, it wasn't me either" Mirajane smiled and held up one hand.

"And it goes without saying that it wasn't me." Erza told them and stood tall.

With that there wasn't much more for them to do about the matter. The rest of the night was spent telling ghost stories and finishing Halloween happily. Everyone was glad that the atmosphere had returned to normal. Most of them even forgot about the missing candy, but Erza still looked at everyone with a questioning eye. After a while some of them started to leave and that left Gray, Erza, and Mirajane left in the guild.

"I'll help you clean up in the morning Mira-chan." he told her.

"Thanks I'll appreciate the help." she smiled.

"Gray..." he heard Erza call from behind him. He turned around and saw her standing there wearing her usual armor along with a black bag in her hands that held her costume in it. She also looked to have a kind of unsure face. "...would you walk me home?"

It was a shock to Gray. Erza didn't need any one to watch her back just so she could get home. What was she trying to do? Regardless of his doubts he agreed. "Yeah, I was going to leave soon anyway."

The walk back to Fairy Hills was quite with neither of them knowing what to talk about. Gray walked a step or two ahead of her unintentionally. A look of intense thought was on his face. She watched him like hawk for an sudden movement. She had to, for the next few moments could see the case of the missing candy resolved in an instant. They continued on for a while and eventually they were roughly more then half way there. Thats when Gray stopped and in turn Erza stopped as well.

"Gray wh-" but before she could finish he turned swiftly and took off his eye patch in one swift movement.

"I know it was you Erza."

A look of shock graced her face and she could think of no words to say all the while he looked back at her with smug look of confidence on her face. Finally she was able to whisper "H-how did you know?"

He took a step back before taking a breath. "First of all, you overplayed your part. We all know that if something like this happened you would react the same way you did. With giving orders left and right. But there was something that I couldn't understand about the way you acted. You seemed 'off' somehow thats when I realized that you were trying to hard be you basically. If I didn't know you as well as I do I probably wouldn't have noticed. That was the first clue at least."

"Is that so?" she asked trying to seem unshaken.

"Yeah, I didn't know anything for sure until just now actually. You asked me to walk you home so that Mira-chan wouldn't offer to walk with you. We both know shes a lot smarter then she acts. But your biggest mistake was trying to take it all home in that bag" he explained and gestured to the black zip up bag that was currently in her left hand.

"If you really wanted to change you would have just re-quipped." he finished happily as if a great riddle had been solved. "But what I don't understand, is why?' he asked being the most serious he had been since he started to speak.

"I...well.." she stammered in a way that was so unlike her. "They made a new cheesecake candy!" she proclaimed and her voiced echoed through the empty street.

"R-really?" he muttered in surprise.

"Yes, I didn't think I'd like it, but when I tried it it was amazing! I wanted to have each one."

"But why take all the candy?" Gray questioned.

"If I just took the cheesecake one It would be obvious it was me, so I took it all. But the rest of it is still back at the guild. I just moved it to another place and tomorrow I was going to move it back when no one was looking. All thats in this is the cheesecake one. I-I don't feel good about this but all the shops are sold out of it and they won't make it again until next year." Erza told him in a pleading way.

"I see..." was all Gray could say. He never thought in his life that something as ridiculous as this would happen to him. "It seems like a lot of work for a bag of candy..."

"Yes, and now that you know I must swear you to secrecy! You can't tell a soul!" she said in her usual tone of voice and for a moment he thought about obeying and going along with her. He had wasted to much energy on something that in his mind didn't matter anyway. But the deadly serious look on her face made him reconsider it.

"Sorry but didn't you say whoever took the candy needed to be punished?" he smirked.

"Well yes but-"

Before she could speak an sharp spike made of ice was heading right for her hand. If she wasn't to flustered about what was going on she could have dodge it easily but she was caught off guard. The ice sliced the the strap of the bag and it started to fall. With a burst of speed Gray caught it and was behind Erza in a flash.

"I'm going to take this back to the guild. I'm sure the others will still give you most of these" he said and raised the bag to there eye level.

"Fullbuster..." her voice was dark and her eye were almost evil looking. The atmosphere had completely changed and he felt the faint plus of fear in his heart and mind. Now he thought he had made a mistake.

"Last names? Thats not good." he said weakly. With nothing else to say and knowing his life may very well be at stake. So he turned and ran with all that he had.

"I finally found you..." Erza said and looked down at him. She was breathing slightly heaver then as a result of catching up to him.

Gray clutched the bag to his chest and tried to stop his shaking. "Now Erza I know you want it but...I umm.."

He couldn't find words to say to the look she was giving him. He knew they were good friends, and that she probably wouldn't actually try to cause him real harm but with the way she looked at the moment he couldn't find his voice.

"Give it back and you'll live" she told him coldly and extended her hand to him.

Gray has a lot of pride but against an opponent like this he deiced that he had fought long enough and slowly placed the bag in her hand.

"Thank you." she said and turned away swiftly. With that she threw the bag over her shoulder and started walking away. Gray stood up and watched her reach the exit of the alley way. Before she made the necessary right turn she looked back and him and smirked.

"I'm glad to see you are as clever as ever." she said smoothly and started her walk back home.

Gray smiled bitterly and sighed. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders now and for the first time in a a while he could relax. He started his walk home and when he looked at the dimly lite night sky. Gray couldn't imagine anther Halloween being as scary as this one was.

The End.

Edit: 11-30-12, I've changed the main characters from "Team Natsu" to "Gray and Erza" as I fell its more accurate.

Well this is yet another story I wrote for a contest (do I write to much for those?) and as you can tell the theme was a Halloween one. I had more then two weeks to write it but ended up brain storming about it for most of that time and rushed and wrote this all pretty much in one go. I barely turned it in with two hours left haha.

The idea was basically to do a 'who done it' murder mystery and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't clear who had done it, so if you feel like reviewing I'd really appreciate you telling me if you saw the outcome coming. Ok, thats all for now, hopefully you'll see more stories from me from multiple fandoms soon! Thanks for reading! :)