March 25th. Gray and Ultear.
Prompt: butterflies, special cooties, love-sick. {tag: graytear fluff/angst}
Gray had it bad.
A prettypretty girl with a smart mouth and pretty lilac hair, and pretty purple butterfly clips- she gave him the kind of butterfly cooties no boy his age was ready for.
He was twelve and he didn't exactly have girl cooties anymore, but, he called this feeling he only got around her – 'the special cooties'.
Cause he felt like he really shouldn't be feeling like this. Not about her.
But he could tell these weren't just any 'butterfly cooties' though. They were the special kind.
The kind of special cooties Dad said only Mom gave him when he first met her.
He didn't know how he knew. He just did.
But there was a problem.
The girl that made his heart trip and beat and fumble fast was Ultear Malkovich.
And… he sort of knew her. She was a whole grade younger than him.
And she was Ul Malkovich's beloved daughter.
Who just happened to be his seventh grade Art teach.
Who just happened to have one of her endless legs, [that pretty much every boy in his class liked to stare at, except him, but damn, Ultear was sure going to grow up real lethal pretty. Not that she wasn't already to him.He was hopelessly loyal and her besotted slave anyway, even if she didn't know it. He had determined a while back that he simply didn't have eyes for any other girl no matter how cute.] and her right arm in a thick white cast.
Because of him.
Because he had accidentally rammed into her last week despite warnings and spear-headed her down the stairs. She had shielded him and taken the fall for him, while he got away with a few scratches and a sore back.
If that wasn't enough. Not only had he caused Ultear's mother's injury, he had also ruined Ultear's chances of competing in the annual ice sculpting contest held in school the same evening.
She had been so looking forward to it too, gleefully flipping snow about and impatiently working hard on her sculptor for her mother ages on end. She had wanted to make her proud. But once her mother went toppling down the stairs and broke a few bones, she couldn't think of anything else but the hurt and fear.
She refused to leave her mother's side despite Miss Malkovich urging her too. He couldn't blame her.
Her mother was all she had. She didn't know anything about her father or any other family she may have had. Only Miss Malkovich. Strong, stern, beautiful and kind Miss Malkovich, who looked like she was in a terrible lot of pain.
He hadn't wanted to leave their side too. It was all his fault..
He had refused to go too, but Ultear's pretty dark eyes grew darker and turned on him. They filled with sadsadgut-wrenchingtears and knocked the breath out of him. Eyes flashing hate, her small face scrunched up in anger and she clenched her fists, blurting out,
"Go away. This is all your fault Gray!"
And he winced, his eyes suddenly blurring and filling with tears too.
He knew he was twelve and he was a boy and he shouldn't cry. But he couldn't help it.
She was right. It was his fault. He hadn't been paying attention and she told him to be careful, and stop horsing around but he hadn't listened. But no matter what, he hadn't meant to hurt her. But he couldn't find anything to say to Ultear. Her tears made him feel like the worst little shit in the world.
Even though a tiny part of him whispered she wasn't being very fair. He cared about her mother too! She was his favorite teach, the only teach he gave his full attention to in class and that said a lot.
And he liked Ultear. He liked her so much, and yet, he had hurt her in the worst way possible now.
He had gone and done the one thing she could probably never forgive. He had hurt her mother. The person in this world most important to her. Even if he hadn't meant to.
To make matters worse, Miss Malkovich had shushed Ultear through her pain and smiled gently at him, extracting a promise from him that he would compete and win the ice sculpting competition for Ultear's sake. Especially because her daughter couldn't be there now to do it herself. Ultear didn't look at him as he clenched his fists and quietly gave her mother his word before he stiffly forced himself to walk away as the ambulance took them away.
He won. He won the competition for them. He silently gave his trophy to Miss Malkovich when she was well enough to return to school, too scared to approach Ultear directly. She hadn't so much as said a word to him or even looked at him since then.
He was bummed. He didn't know how to make it up to her. And he sure as hell hadn't been able to stop crushing on her. Even though he told himself he must.
Ultear had been giving him weird cootie alerts since they were three, tumbling each other by chance, in kindergarten and daycares their families happened to coincidentally enroll them in… he never directly talked to her since then. She was younger and wasn't in any of his classes, but when he passed by her in the corridors again in middle school, he just knew.
She was the one.
Heck, he could sooner get over losing to Natsu and Lyon than get over her.
His cheeks burned when she merely glanced his way. And his heart hurt like hell when she cried. He felt like he would cry with her when she cried and laugh with her if she laughed and make her every kind of the bright ice shavings she craved and imagined. He would empty the last bit of his allowance on every stupid kind of chocolate he knew was her favorite if he knew it would turn her frowns upside down and bring back the happy light in her stormy violet-gray hues. He sneaked glances at her during phys-ed, and let her steal the ball from him when she shot hoops with the guys because she was just that cute. He suspected she was actually just that good, probably even better than him, but he was too distracted to be able to tell for sure.
He couldn't stop his heart from beating 7 times fast and turning embarrassingly red at random when she teased him or simply tossed him her heart-stopping smiles without a care.
Everything she did gave him butterflies.
When she poked him he got butterflies. When she asked to borrow his stuff he got butterflies. When she lent him things he got butterflies. When she smiled at him she got butterflies. When she tripped over him, hurt her knee and started bawling, he got butterflies. When she accidentally touched his hand he got butterflies. When she furrowed her brows in concern he got butterflies. When she was mad at him he got butterflies. When her eyes lit up with a mad, teasing gleam he got butterflies. When she was frowning at the time he got butterflies. When she breezed through her homework he got butterflies. Even when she passed him a note meant for Gerard from Erza beside her, he got butterflies.
It was incurable. He just got butterflies no matter what she did. The good kind and the bad kind and the everysortofthing in between kind. He got so many butterflies in his tummy from her, Gray thought he was going to explode and be sick someday.
He was probably sick already. And not the regular kind of sick. Just goddamn Love sick. God, he was such a sorry sap of a kid.
Not indifferent or cool at all like he pretended to be on the outside. At least as far as Ultear Malkovich was concerned. She undid all his cozy and cranky buttons.
And now, he didn't know how to make it up to her. He almost wished the butterfly cooties with her name on them had stayed in their cocoons and never wreaked havoc inside him.