A Mission for Learning

Pairing : Erza X Gray – Fairy Tail

Rating – T.

A Present for 82and9make91- as I felt that all of Dragon's Claw deserved presents no matter what place we get – I hope he likes it- its his favourite pairing- so I want to do it justice :)

*** may contain spoilers for the Anime/manga up to episode 126***

Plot: When Lucy, Natsu, Wendy, Charle and Happy went on their Cargo escort mission Erza and Gray also had a mission, a very important mission for them both.

The guild was so much quieter without Natsu, Gray pondered. Too quiet, he was bored, there was no decent jobs and even worse, no one to fight with! He was starting to wish he'd gone with the slanty eyed bastard on the cargo escort mission, but the thought of having to put up with his groans the whole way through was too much to bear.

He looked around the guild, it seemed so empty now, nothing interesting was going on, until he saw Erza walking towards him. Erza. She intrigued Gray, she wasn't like all the other females, she didn't seem to care about not having a relationship, or gossiping about clothes or hair or who liked who. He liked that, it made her stand out, she was unique. Not to mention beautiful, Gray liked her eyes best, so expressive, sometimes they were the only thing that let him know how she was feeling, so he was surprised to see they were filled with worry.

Gray stood up quickly. " Whats wrong" He asked the scarlet haired woman, grabbing her arm. " Master says we have to go on this mission" She replied , her voice quivering. That's when Gray noticed the request slip in her hand, I slowly take it off her. "He says that we need to do any missions there is at the moment. He gave me this one..."

"Well what's so wrong with it?" Gray asked, before looking down at the slip and groaning.

...Babysitting!

Babysitting two spoilt rich kids to be exact, and a baby. Now Gray knew why Erza was so nervous. Babies. The one thing Erza Scarlet's scared of is babies. She told him late one night, when it was just the two of them. She's afraid, that with all the strength she has, she'll hurt a baby. Gray found it sweet, that she's so scared of such a small harmless creature when she can face men ten times bigger than her and have no fear.

He looked her right in the eyes. " Calm down. It'll be fine Erza." He whispered, noticing her staring at the children in sheer horror- a look Gray never thought he would see marr Erza's beautiful face. In response she grabbed Gray's left hand and squeezed tightly, causing Gray to meet.

"Hey Mister! Where's your top?" the eldest kid commented tauntingly. "Oh shit!" He yelled, and began to search for it frantically, the client couldn't be too happy if they walked in and found Gray half naked.

Soon enough the two boys turned out to be a handful, taking all Gray's energy to amuse them with his magic, but the mission was turning out okay for Erza, until the baby began to cry. A look of fear instantly appeared upon Erza's face, her bottom lip trembling as she looked reproachfully a the cot in the corner of the room.

" Erza, you need to see why the baby's crying" Gray yelled over the noise. The baby's crying set the children off, screaming at Gray to do more magic. "Can't you check? I...i cant Gray..." Erza replied in a strangely timid voice that did not suit her at all. " I can't Erza! I need to keep these two under control, it HAS to be you" Gray yelled, getting more and more frustrated with Erza's weakness.

Shaking, Erza slowly approached the cot. Unsure of what to do she simply stared at the baby, before picking it up gently, extremely cautious of hurting it. Cradling it as she saw it's mother do before she left she gently rocked her arms ever so slightly, hoping to stop the crying.

The baby stared up at Erza, transfixed with her scarlet hair. It slowly reached out and grabbed a strand of scarlet hair with it's tiny hand. Erza giggled, a sound that was unusual, but not unpleasant. Gray had never heard Erza giggle, but he took it to be a positive sign. He watched as Erza began to relax, walking over to the chair in the other corner of the room and sitting, still gently rocking the baby.

Gray had never felt so proud of Erza as he did now, she was conquering her fear ( even if it was a slightly insane fear for her to have). He laughed to himself as he began another bout of ice make magic to please the troublesome two.

***After the mission***

Gray began to walk home, the mission was finally over and Gray was happy it'd been a complete success. Erza had quickly been won over by the baby and spent the remainder of the mission looking after it.

" Gray, Wait!" Erza yelled after the ice mage and raced to catch up. She was soon at Gray's side, the ice mage having stopped to wait for her. " I want to thank you , for today, I would have never had the courage to face my fear if it wasn't for you." Erza whispered, smiling at Gray.

With that Erza reached up and pulled Gray's face to hers, their lips mere millimetres away from each other. Gray's eyes widened. Is she...is she going to kiss me? Gray's heart began to race, Erza, Erza Scarlet was going to kiss him, and he...he wanted it. Gray took a deep breath and pushed his lips upon hers, relishing the feeling of her perfectly soft lips.

The kiss ended far too soon for Gray, and they quickly parted. They stared at each other for a moment in awe. Erza quickly pulled Gray back, and passionately pushed her lips upon his. The two stood in the street for a while, embracing each other and kissing.

Erza pulled away from Gray " I think we should get out of the street, don't you. We can continue this at mine." Erza whispered.

" But...you live at Fairy Hills, it's strictly no boy's isn't it?" Gray exclaimed, shocked that Erza had suggested such a thing. " Well... yes, but it's me that enforces the rules, and I think I can make an exception just this one time for you, so what do you say Gray?" Erza responded, her voice full of passion.

" Lead the way!"