Chapter 1 : Gray
.
Gray Fullbuster had been lying on his bed for at least an hour. This time again, he couldn't manage to sleep. He had ended up getting used to this little ritual he had with her for more than a month, and it was impossible for him to fall asleep without her. Yes, he had ended up depending on her nocturnal presence.
He caught a glance at his alarm clock. Twenty-nine past eleven. She shouldn't be long now. Gray turned his attention to the window to which his bed was against, expecting to see her appearing. He remembered the mission that had led them to this addictive habit of theirs and a smile appeared across his lips. He would have never thought that a mage like her would get into such a cute habit, especially with him. At first reluctant, he had ended up accepting her to come every night. Mind you, she had rather imposed herself one fine day without his say and she had come the following day, and the day after next, and so on and so forth, before he could even realise that her nocturnal visit had become essential to him, too. Actually, he had felt the same emptiness as her after this mission, but this feeling, he knew it for way longer than her... And if he had been reluctant at the beginning, it was especially because he had feared that things would change between them. He knew that she went only to sleep because, for whatever reason, he enabled her to appease her insomnia, but he had feared that he would end up getting too used to her presence, but also fantasising or having perverse thoughts about his team-mate and thus, he would have created a distance with her, way bigger than it already was. While it had been even harder for him to sleep in the same bed as his team-mate at the beginning, he had ended up enjoying the fact that she came every night, at the same hour. It was like their own secret, which got them even closer, to the extent that they had the impression they had found again this friendship so fraternal that united them. Yes, fraternal. With her, it couldn't be otherwise, but at least, it was him who she went to see and not Natsu, Lucy or God knows who.
Gray looked at his alarm clock once again. It was almost one o'clock and she was still not here. He sat up and looked at the window, waiting to see a shadow coming from nowhere, but still no sign of his favourite mage. He started worrying. What if something had happened to her? No, it was impossible. She was the most powerful female mage of the guild. Maybe she had managed to fall asleep without him this time... He felt heartache at this thought. He shouldn't mind it; he should even be happy to know that she didn't have insomnia problems anymore. But that would mean that she would no longer come to see him every night. That would also mean that she wouldn't need him anymore and that he wasn't that essential to her. How cheesy he was...
Eventually, two little knocks at the pane made him snap out his thoughts. He then turned his head toward the origin of the noise and a smile appeared across his lips. In less than a second, he had opened the window in question and was welcoming a mage with scarlet hair.
"Erza! Are you aware of what time it is?"
That was all he could say. He would definitely not tell her that he had been waiting for her for almost three hours, and much less that he had ended up thinking that she wouldn't come because she had found another person to appease her insomnia (with blue hair).
"Sorry. Juvia was lurking around your place and she ended up seeing me. I told her I was doing a round because some people had complained about some dubious noises every night. I think she understood something else because she looked at your apartment while saying that she had been sure about it for a while and that she had now the confirmation that you were cheating on her... I had to spend hours convincing her of the contrary... And when she finally stopped crying, she hid in the lane opposite you and set about staring at your apartment. I thought she would never leave! And while I was pretending to patrol she suddenly went toward me and set about sniffing me!"
Gray smirked. Erza finally understood what it was to be followed and sniffed by Juvia. The water mage could be freaky sometimes.
"And then?" he asked, suspecting what the mage with blue hair had done.
"She ran away, saying that she should have known it from the beginning and that she now knew who spent her nights with you. I didn't know you had a girlfriend, Gray. You should have told me, I wouldn't have come all those nights."
Gray sighed. Erza could be very smart as she could be ignorant. Not figuring out that Juvia had been talking about her while she was the only one who spent her nights with him... All the more so as being in his bed, she would have known if he saw a woman during the night. But Erza being Erza, little did she know that Juvia was persuaded that they were going out together... Deep down inside, Gray was quite glad that the requip mage was that blind. Not only because she didn't realise that slipping in his bed every night could seem ambiguous, but added to that, she wouldn't feel guilty toward the ex-mage of Phantom Lord, because in both the cases, she would have stopped her nocturnal visits, and of course, awkwardness would have set up between the two childhood friends. Without forgetting Juvia... The two girls being friends, Erza wouldn't want to hurt her, even though to her, slipping in Gray's bed didn't have any ambiguity nor any meaning, other than helping her with just his presence. So even though he would never admit it, he liked her nocturnal visits and wanted in no case for them to stop.
Gray contemplated Erza for a few seconds. She had slipped under his sheets in no time at all, without him even having realised it. As usual, she was holding his pillow and, in a fraction of a second, she had already fallen asleep. He smiled, seeing her face so peaceful; so serene. He had ended up getting used to seeing her so different from the awake Titania, but he always was surprised at the rapidity she fell asleep (and this time, even quicker than usual, probably because of the hours she had spent outside, waiting to be able to come at his place), and couldn't help but contemplate her for countless minutes. Gray's gaze moved down, little by little, and it was only at this moment that he noticed that she had requiped herself into a babydoll. Yes, Erza Scarlet was wearing a babydoll and was incredibly sexy when she was sleeping (especially in his own bed). He observed her naked legs for a while, blushing. His eyes moved up to the top of her body and his gaze eventually stopped at her chest which was rising at each of her breaths. Gray slapped himself mentally, like every night, and lay down next to Erza. He closed his eyes and the young woman's perfume filled his nostrils. In a few minutes, he had fallen asleep in turn. His childhood friend's presence really changed everything...