Gray looked out the window, his face twisted into a defiant scowl. Erza, who was sitting into the opposite side of the train, looked no different. Out of all the people she could have shared her first mission with, it had to be Gray Fullbuster?Gray, to her, was nothing more than a eight year-old brat.
Well, then again, she guessed it could have ended out worse. After seeing her crying at the river (their river), both have them had stopped fighting for a time, but it still didn't mean that they enjoyed each other's company much. Occasionally, Gray would invite her to sit with him and Cana, and she would join timidly, but most of the time she would refuse and say that she was "perfectly fine not sitting in between a stripper and a creepy card mage".
"What does the job say again?" Gray asked. It was the first time they had spoken since they had departed from Fairy Tail. Erza extracted the wad of paper from her pocket, reading it out loud to him.
"A monster by the name of Shade has been terrorizing a village," Erza recited, before looking at him. "We need to find the monster first though." Gray hesitated before nodding. Erza detected a slight wince of pain, a slight dim of the eyes...but, then again, Gray had always been like that. Cana, who was Gray's best friend in the guild, had called him "sad", and even though it was such a babyish word she didn't think she could have described him any better.
Gray had seemed on edge ever since their conversation in the train. Erza, who had promised to herself never to get close to anyone in the guild (just in case one of them died), could not help but worry for her guildmate. She knocked on the door of the mayor's estate.
An old, blonde haired man quickly appeared at the entrance. His grand air and charming smile told her that this was the man that she was looking for, and she wiped off her serious face to give him a nice smile.
"Oh, so are you the mage from Fairy Tail?" the mayor asked, looking hesitantly at Gray. "Um...is that boy with you?" Erza looked back to see that Gray had already stripped, mumbling about "hot sixty-five degree weather" and "too much sun". Erza blushed in embarrassment, murmuring out a "yes". The Mayor laughed, before urging both of them into the mansion.
"So, you want us to defeat a monster?" Gray asked. The mayor nodded hastily, and his countenance became very serious.
"Yes, the monster "Shade". Every night, at around six-o'clock in the evening, he emerges and starts eating our food, hurting our people, and destroying our homes! It's terrible!" The mayor said, before breaking into tears. Gray's eyes looked downcast, as if some bad memories had invaded his mind, before looking up to meet the Mayor's tearful gaze.
"Don't worry, Mayor. I will do everything in my power to stop Shade." Gray said, a determined look on his face. Erza had never seen him like this. Even after the river incident, she had only thought of him as an egotistical brat who only cared about being cool, getting stronger, and hanging out with Cana. Erza smiled at him, before winking playfully.
"You mean we, Gray." Erza said, before Gray looked at her and smiled.
"Yeah, we. We'll defeat Shade, at all costs!" Gray said, pumping his fist in the air. Erza did the same, and the Mayor, who was too taken aback to speak, simply laughed and hugged them both.
"So this is the next generation of Fairy Tail," The Mayor murmured, before raising the Fairy Tail hand sign in the air and waving them goodbye.
"It'll be faster if we split up," Erza said. If anything, she needed to show Gray who was the boss around here. "I'll go east, and you'll go west." Gray nodded, and both of them departed. Gray had been made fun of enough by Macao and Wakaba, and he knew that if he didn't defeat Shade by himself he would never be trusted again, by Cana, by Macao and Wakaba, and by Grandpa. He wouldn't be able to call Erza his rival.
However, there was one other reason why he was so intent on fighting Shade himself. Deliora, the demon of disaster, had destroyed his home town. He had taken away his family, his friends, and his hometown. He had taken Gray's world, and crushed it to a bloody pulp. He didn't want anyone to go through what he did...or go through the pain of losing a loved one.
It was 6:00 pm. The village members had prepared their houses. Gray had created ice shields around each house. Suddenly, the cry of Shade could be heard. Gray smiled. Shade was coming, and it was coming for him.
The Shade was a very strange animal, Gray noticed. Nothing compared to Deliora-he was a gigantic white alpha wolf, with sharp teeth, and blood shot eyes. Gray grimaced as memories of Deliora continued to flood his mind. The fear, the blood, the pain of losing his family and his friends and his town and Ur... Gray barred his teeth, sprinting towards the Shade with an angry battle cry.
Gray had underestimated his size. He was taller than the Mayor, and twice as long. He was bigger than a house all together.
"Ice Make Lance!" Gray called, jumping up and forming ice weapons in the sky. The Shade writhed in pain, before jumping up to eat him. Gray grinned, before shouting "Ice Make Cannon" and firing at the Shade with full power.
Both bounced away from each other. Gray fell onto the concrete, a sharp pain going through his chest. He tried to get up, but fell down again.
"Really?" he asked, a sad smile on his face, "All I can take is a little fall to the ground? Ur and Lyon were right. I really wasn't ready for Deliora. I never will be." He coughed up some more blood, collapsing onto the floor with his breath coming out in jagged pants. The Shade lurched towards him, opening his mouth and picking up Gray.
The pain was like nothing-NOTHING- he had ever felt since the day Ur "died". Teeth gnawed into his ribs, ripping the flesh off of his bones. He gritted his teeth, before yelling out in pain. The Shade, after a few more minutes, dropped him onto the ground, sitting down next to him with what seemed to be a sadistic smile.
Erza was surprised. It was nearly 7:00, and no casualties or food thefts had been reported yet. In fact, everyone seemed fine. Erza pouted, thinking that Gray had defeated the monster without her. Her face twisted in disgust, thinking of the superior glance he would give her (that SHE should be giving to HIM) when the Shade's raid would have ended. Erza checked her clock. Only one more hour until 8:00.
A pained yell pierced the air. Erza's eyes widened, because she knew that voice. It was Gray. She ran off into the west, her heart beating out of her chest and tears threatening to spill out of her eyes because she knew this was coming for her. If only she hadn't cared for Gray, if only that day at the river had never happened, she wouldn't care what happened to him. In fact, she might even be happy if one day he disappeared. It would mean that everyone would leave her alone.
And then, she realized, that she didn't like being alone.
Being alone, for her, was safe. She didn't want to lose anyone close to her anymore. Her past had shown her that getting too comfortable with people just meant more hurt in the end. Fairy Tail was no different-it seemed that if you ignored people, they just went away. But Gray didn't. He kept pestering her, because...well...maybe he did care for her, even if it was just a little bit.
And, deep down inside, she cared for him too.
Erza requipped into one of her armors, a sword in her hand and a resolve in her heart.
Gray couldn't get up. His body was bloodied and beaten...and, what's more, he was humiliated. It was just like that day with Deliora. He wanted his body to move but it couldn't and as much as his brain tried to send signals his body wouldn't respond.
The Shade paced around him, eyeing him with hunger. Gray didn't blame him. If you only got to eat once a day, he would be hungry too. Gray eyed him with exhausted eyes, trying to put up a tough face but all he could muster was a weak growl. Gray couldn't defeat him-not like he was now.
He had two options. First, he could let himself be eaten. Not a bad idea, as that would eventually happen anyway. Gray would much rather end this sooner rather than later. The second one, was that he could use iced shell.
Gray toggled the second one around in his mind. He would still technically be alive. Plus, it would protect the village, and it would mean that Gray wouldn't get hurt any longer. However, in Gray's state, he wasn't even sure if he had the magical power to perform it, much less stand up and get into the stance.
However, now that Gray thought about it, there was one more option. One that would probably lead to his death, but could also lead to his victory (and without performing iced shell).
He could get up, for Ur, and fight.
He went for the third one. After five minutes, Gray had managed to stand, his body dangerously teetering over to the side. The Shade looked surprised. No...impressed was the right word. Gray grinned, and launched at him. He pressed his hands together. He launched into the air.
"Ice Make..."
The Shade roared at him, his bloodied teeth dripping with saliva. Malice dripped from his eyes.
"Gugnir!"
Gray shouted, a giant lance shooting up and impaling the Shade. The Shade's eyes rolled backwards so you could only see their whites, and his mouth dropped open. Blood oozed from the giant hole in his stomach, and he started his descent to the floor. Gray smiled, letting out small pants as he clutched his left side in pain.
"Well..." Gray said, struggling to keep conscious, "At least I...could do...that much...," Gray said, before closing his eyes, and letting his body fall to the ground.
Erza had changed into her blood hound outfit. While it was good for fighting, it was also good for sniffing out specific people. This time, she was looking for Gray.
His smell was sort of minty, as well as that of a refrigerator. Erza smiled. Well, that didn't come as a surprise...Gray was naturally a person of a very cold temperature. Cana said that it was great to hug him on hot summer days, because it was like being wrapped in an ice pack. It was divine.
The loud shriek of the Shade brought her to an open clearing. She looked down to see the Shade's bloodied body on the ground: he was still alive, but he had sure learned his lesson. She looked up to see Gray falling to the ground.
He looked terrible. His whole body was bloodied and bruised up. She wouldn't be surprised if he had spent a good fraction of their fight in the Shade's mouth (however, when Gray confirmed it a while later, she was more surprised than she thought). And then it hit her.
If Gray fell to the ground NOW, in his state, he would die.
"GRAY!" Erza screamed, running towards him with arms ready to catch him. He looked down at her, murmured something, and closed his eyes. Erza gritted her teeth, and ran faster. Her heart seemed to throb out of her chest. And, suddenly, Gray fell into her hands, throwing her down, onto the concrete.
Erza caught her breath, looking to see a nearly unconscious Gray sprawled on her body. She quickly started up, to hold her head. She had fallen hard. She shook her quickly, before gingerly removing Gray from her stomach and placing him on the floor.
He looked worse than she anticipated. She smiled at him: to think he could only handle a small beast! No wonder Master never let him go on too many jobs alone. Erza looked over him.
He was breathing: but barely. Erza took him on her back, and hurried off to the mayor's house.
And only then, did she notice that she was crying.
Erza felt like she had been running forever. The village was far bigger than it looked. Every now and then, she would stop, looking over to see if Gray was still alive, and then run faster than she had before. When she had reached the Mayor's house, it was nearly 9:30.
She knocked on the door sharply. After a while, the Mayor opened it. He was taken aback, his eyes dilating.
"Please, Mayor!" Erza said, tears sliding down her cheeks. "My friend got hurt! Please treat him!" The Mayor wordlessly motioned them inside, barking for the doctor. A lavender-haired nurse entered, carefully taking the boy from Erza's shoulders and throwing him on a stretcher.
Erza pulled her knees up to her chest, and dropped her head. The Mayor put a hand on her shoulder.
"You Fairy Tail mages...are something else." Mayor said, before a few tears slipped down his face. "Really something else!"
When Gray woke up, he was in pain. It hurt to move, and it definitely hurt to talk. However, what hurt more than anything, Gray noticed, was to see Erza cry.
Now, everyone knew that Gray had a soft spot for crying girls...but for Erza, he took it WAY too far. He never really got her past...she had told him details, but she was pretty tight-lipped...but he never wanted her to feel sad. No one really deserves to.
When Gray woke up, he was surprised that Erza flung her arms around his neck and told him how much she missed his company. Now, that was new. Erza usually declined whenever he asked if he wanted to join Cana and him in a card game, or when they went out on a mission together. But, then again, the Great Gray is as much of a nice guy as he is a fighter (Cana will deny this, but he didn't think Cana knew much about this stuff anyway).
And, what surprised him even MORE, was when Erza called him her friend.
"Hey, is it okay if my friend and I can get some lunch please?" Erza asked to the nurse, and she said that it would be coming right up. Gray looked at Erza in surprise. The last thing he thought Erza would call him was her "friend". Sidekick? Sure. He could imagine that. Servant? Even more imaginable. Rival? Well...that's what he thought of them. But friend? He never thought he would ever hear it from HER. Maybe from Cana, because it was so obvious to everyone. But, he couldn't help but think that perhaps...just PERHAPS...this was the start of something beautiful for him and Erza.
After three days, Gray was finally released from the Mayor's house. While the nurses felt it was way too soon for such a thing, Erza insisted that Gray could get all the medical attention he wanted back at the Fairy Tail Guild.
So, off they went. Since Gray couldn't walk by himself,so he had to lean on Erza. It wasn't the most favorable outcome, but, if they wanted to get back in due time, it was the only way to do so.
"You want to go slower?" Erza said, as Gray winced at the pressure on his foot.
"No, I'm fine," Gray muttered, blushing a bit as he tried to position his body in a way in which it would weight Erza down less. Erza glanced at him.
"Stop moving around," Erza said. Gray looked at her, before conceding to his original position. It was going to be a long walk to the train station.
'Erza, catch me!" Wakaba screamed, in what was supposed to mimic Gray's voice. The guild members doubled over in laughter. Gray, who was now properly bandaged and resting in the guild house's infirmary, shot Wakaba a warning glance.
"Shut up!" Gray yelled, and Wakaba, who was not the least bit scared of Gray or his threats, guffawed. Cana, who was sitting next to Gray, wiped away her tears of laughter and leaned over to whisper something in his air.
"What do you want?" Gray asked her, before Cana giggled.
"It seems like it was time for the princess to save the prince, huh?" Cana asked, and Gray, who had never been too good with metaphors gave her a confused glance.
"Huh? Princess? Prince? I come from a small village, Cana, and..."
"Just forget about it," Cana said, before erupting in laughter again.