Edit, 2012: Hello, everyone. I have gone back, rewritten and edited this oneshot a bit, so hopefully most of the grammatical mistakes (English is not my native language) are gone, now. To those of you who have been reading and reviewing this for these past 3 years: thank you! Hopefully it is more enjoyable to read, now.

Original Author's Notes (2009): Oh God, do I love GrayxErza. I was so happy when I found people actually writing for them. I wrote this little piece back then when I first read chapter 91—after shipping these two from the very start of Fairy Tail, having a whole chapter dedicated to them was gold. I'm really hoping this fandom will grow. Gray and Erza have so much potential, it would be a shame to waste it.

Hopefully this little ficlet is enjoyable, I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts. This was my first serious attempt at writing Fairy Tail fanfic, so I'm a little hesitant about how it turned out.

So, please, review?

Also, please ignore the weak beginning; I wrote it just five minutes ago, since I realized it was about time to post this and it wasn't finished yet.

.

.

.

No one like Erza

By: Kanae

—

"What's the ruckus about?"

"Oh, Gray!" Kana let out a crooked grin, leaning forward and drunkenly swishing the beer she held in one hand and spilling some of its contents in the table, causing Mirajane to stifle a giggle behind her palm. "Nothing, we were just talking about our newlyweds over there," by over-there, her thumb shows, Kana meant Natsu and Lucy, who were a couple of tables away and engaged in another one of their arguing fits, a flustered Happy flying in circles around them and trying to calm them down—or make things worse. Gray was not so sure.

Still, he found himself arching an eyebrow. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

Kana all but deadpans at him, her mood souring. "You gotta be shitting me. There's no way you haven't noticed there's something going on between those two."

"Huh? There is?"

"Of course there is! Now shut your mouth, Elfman!" The big guy can't do anything but retreat in fright, hurriedly returning to the table he shared with the rest of the male crew. Kana looks at Gray again, shit-eating grin back in place, as if no one had just been about to interrupt and question her conclusions. "Tell ya what though, they aren't the only ones heating things up around here. Lately everyone seems to be hooking up!"

Gray blinked. Seeing his perplexity, Kana's grin inflated. "See for yourself!"

He only needed a quick look around the guild to realize that, indeed, everyone had a special someone with them. Or at least, most seemed to; be it girls from other guilds, or even some that obviously weren't from any guilds at all. Regardless, point of the matter was the guys who were alone were few and far between—and, from what Gray could see, they were all drowning their loneliness in alcohol.

"It seems you are one of the few who's still single, Gray."

Back to reality, the ice mage was just about to frown and to defensively proclaim how he was not interested in finding someone just yet—girls are high maintenance, you know? I can't go around wasting all my money and time in such trivialities! I've got better things to do!—whena weird glint possessed Kana's eyes and she leaned even more towards Gray, her smirk turning predacious.

"Hah, could it be that you're… gay? It would explain a few things, ya know? Like all this dumb rivalry stunt you have going with Natsu. So it was all about pent-up sexual tension? My, Gray, I never knew!"

The shock was so great that he took his sweet time to react. But when he finally did, his voice could be heard like thunder through the whole guild.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND? I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS, GOD DAMN YOU WOMAN!"

And so, a fuming Gray Fullbuster wasted no time in getting up from the table and storming towards the door, ignoring each and every person who dared to ask what was wrong.

There was only one thing going through his mind at that very moment—a sole purpose, a sole objective that he had disregarded for quite some time, but that had now proved to become immensely important in the five minutes he had spent sitting with Kana the rest of the crew.

I'm going to get myself a girlfriend. And I'm going to do it NOW.

Oh yes, he was.

At some point—between aimlessly walking through the streets and getting rid of most of his clothes—Gray had realized that, just perhaps, the task at hand would not be as easy as his mind had made it sound. Getting a girlfriend implied getting to know the girl in question, finding things in common and building up a friendship until it reached the adequate point.

Doing so required time, dedication, and as such—effort; not to mention, endless hours of interacting with the girl. How would he manage to do all that in less than three hours? It not only seemed impossible, but was so. And he was not the kind of guy to use a girl and dump her just for the kicks, either.

So, what else was there to do?

Gray heaved in a sigh, massaging the back of his neck with his left hand. I guess I won't be able to do it now. But perhaps finding the right girl will be good enough for today?

It seemed to make sense. After all, when it came down to it the girls he interacted with on a daily basis were Lucy, Erza and Juvia—Lucy was kind of like a sister to him nowadays, so that automatically crossed her out; Juvia was nice but she could be kind of weird at times, and he was not really attracted to her in that way. And Erza, well… Erza was simply out of the question.

So, indeed, the only logical step left to take would be to meet someone new; someone who was available and fulfilled his expectations. Someone who was not out of his reach and who returned whatever interest he might have in her.

Yup, I'm going to find her now.

And so, Gray kept walking.

The first candidate appeared in a flowershop close by the guild; long, brownish hair tied loosely in a bun atop of her head, full-lips tilted upward in a content smile as she watered the plants.

While Gray had never actively flirted with someone he truly had some interested in, he did know what it took to be liked and how to treat a woman well. So, he put on his best smile and wasted no time in approaching the current target.

"Hey there, is this flowershop yours?"

The girl seemed surprised by his sudden entrance for a moment, but soon enough regained her composure and turned towards him with a happy smile. "Kinda. It's my dad's, but I help to take care of it! I love flowers! They're so pretty and human-like, even though they aren't—well, human! Haha!"

Gray resisted the impulse to frown.

Too talkative. Too bubbly. Was that a lame comment or what?

PROS – 0

CONS – 3

TARGET ONE: REJECTED

Not showing any kinds of inward struggle (and faking a good-natured chuckle while he was at it), Gray skillfully removed himself from the counter he had been smoothly leaning on and gave her a sheepish smile. "That's nice."

To his horror the girl started to open her mouth, so he hurriedly took a look at his wrist. "Dang, look at the time! I just remembered I have some place I need to get to like right about now, I will stop by and buy some flowers next time! See you!"

He whirled around and got out of there even before the brunette could register just what, exactly, had happened; and when she did, Gray was already too far away to hear her disappointed voice.

"Mou, but you didn't even have a watch…."

Alright, that one didn't go too well. I have to be more careful in making my choices next time. Perhaps some beforehand observation can do the trick?

In agreement with his new plan, once he found the girl he mentally labeled as Second Target, he took a magazine from the seller located in front of the café said target was currently in, and observed.

After a full ten-or-so minutes of camouflaged staring, Gray was only able to conclude a grand total of five things: one, the girl had blonde hair. Two, she liked coffee. Three, she seemed to be interested in detective novels. Four, said blonde hair was tied in a long braid which lazily hung down one of her shoulders. Five, she… well—she liked coffee.

All five things he had been able to tell within the first thirty seconds of staring.

Alright, that does it. This observation thing isn't working. At all.

After placing the magazine aside and growling with frustration, Gray effortlessly put on the usual act and smoothly approached the second target.

He had just parted his lips when the girl raised a hand and stopped him midway.

"If you are here to hit on me, you're wasting your time. I'm a lesbian."

At the end, an speechless Gray could do nothing but make his shameful exit after standing there doing his best impersonation of a gaping fish for the best part of a minute.

Target two: REJECTED.

Things went quite smother when he met the third target; a passing girl who had just happened to trip on him. So he, like the gentleman he was, had stopped to help her with her fallen things, seeing the chance and seizing it. It was all so clichéd that he felt kind of turned-off for a moment or two, but the girl's personality—and the memory of the previous two losses—seemed to make up for it, so he had wind up staying.

The curious thing was, after more than ten minutes of amiable conversation, Gray was feeling increasingly more disinterest. It wasn't that the girl wasn't nice—on the contrary, she had quite a few traits that he had marked as appealing on his mental checklist of how the perfect-girl should be; but still… there was something that did not quite click.

He tried to ignore it at first, but right before the girl gave him her phone number Gray had caved in and decided to listen to his instincts. And so, he had given her an apologetic grin and a half-assed excuse, turned around and gotten the hell out of there.

PROS – 4

CONS – 1

TARGET THREE: REJECTED

There was no logical explanation to what had happened, but Gray decided not to sweat it. It was bound to be an once-in-a-lifetime thing, right? So why worry about it?

It made no sense.

Exactly.

It makes no sense!

Was the only rational thought going through the Ice Mage's head as he made his way out of the restaurant, features doing nothing to hide the frustration and confusion he was feeling.

He had been wrong in disregarding the odd feeling he got back with Target 3, for now, four targets later, it still reared its ugly head back into his guts whenever he started to see the girl was likeable.

What the hell is wrong with me? What's happening?

He didn't know, did not understand. He had no idea what the feeling was supposed to mean, didn't have a clue of how to get rid of it, either—but he would have to solve that now.

Target Eight had currently been located.

Alright, this is it. There's no turning back now no matter WHAT. Lame feelings be damned!

Gray's eyes narrowed, hands fisted as he made his way towards her across the street, his steps as firm and resolute as his mindset.

An hour later Gray found himself sitting by the old river bank, his right leg sprayed out in the grass while his left one was drawn to his chest, a ghost of a frown being all too visible on his handsome face.

He was sitting. Alone.

Said choice had been his and his alone, at that; and he was not quite sure whether that was supposed to make him feel better, or worse.

He never thought something like this could happen to him—might happen to him. It's true that, lately, he had never really given a damn or worried about finding a girlfriend; had never really cared about finding someone to crush over or to cuddle with.

But that had not always been the case, had it?

For the last hour, Gray has been trying to remember since when did he lose all interest in being with a girl. He found them attractive, that went without saying—he knew a hot girl when he saw one, and he never wasted a chance to flirt even if it was just for fun and most of the time he did not even mean half of the things he said.

But then—then if he is so clear about all that, why did he feel that way today?

Since when had he started to feel that way? How come he had never realized it? Or perhaps he had, but he had never paid enough attention to it?

Just what the hell is wrong with me?

"Gray, What are you doing out here?"

The unexpected intrusion takes him aback. Not only because he did not even feel her approaching, but also because he never expected her to find him. Her out of all people.

"I could ask you the same thing. Weren't you supposed to be on a mission?"

He has turned to face her now, voice and behavior deliberately kept neutral, and he watches as she absently flips her long hair back over her shoulder, a huge set of suitcases of all sizes securely attached to her back. "I asked first, did I not?" Gray is just about to roll his eyes at her stubbornness when she adds, "But I'm in a good mood tonight, so I'll go first. I finished earlier, the bandit was a low-class one; they alone would have been able to take care of him had they not been so scared of leaving their houses."

He ends up rolling his eyes anyway, grinning. "What a bunch of chickens. I'm surprised you even bothered with them."

She smiles back, starting to make her way towards him, "You know me. I couldn't just leave them when I had accepted their request as an official mission," she stops walking once she is standing by his side and staring at the calm waters of the river. "Moreover, they gave me some pretty gifts."

"All those are gifts?" Gray skeptically asks, pointing a thumb to the suitcases Erza had dropped a few feet behind them. "Whoa, I should go and take a few jobs over there myself. What did you say the village was called?"

Erza chuckles good naturedly, "I'll be sure to let you know if I decide to take another one. You could join me, then."

"Sounds like a plan," Gray looks up at her, lips half-curved into a crooked grin, "But I wonder if I'd be of any help to the great Erza the Titania."

"Ha, very funny," Erza says, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same.

"Heh, I do what I can."

The redheaded warrior silently stares out into the waters for a few more moments before turning towards him, "Is that seat taken? I think my legs could use some rest."

Gray shrugs, "Suit yourself."

Erza gives him a thankful quirk of the lips before propping down beside him, "Thank you."

Gray waves her thanks off, and an amiable silence hovers over them.

It feels nice, Gray thinks, eyes set on the reflection of the moon above the calm waters. It's been a long while since it has been only Erza and me.

Perhaps Erza had been thinking something along those lines as well, because she chose precisely that moment to break the silence with an awkward attempt at conversation. "You still haven't answered my question," she reminds him, leaning back on her propped up arms and tilting her head to the side, causing a lock of her red hair to fall above half of her face, like a curtain. For a moment, Gray finds himself sidetracked by the sight and has no clue about what in the world was Erza talking about, so she has to add, a bit impatiently this time: "What were you doing here alone at these hours?"

Some realization dawns on Gray's black eyes and he shakes his head as if to wake up from a trance, turning away from the girl and setting his gaze elsewhere. The grass looks nice, "Nothing."

And it was true. Partly, at least.

Said girl raises a brow and rearranges the fallen lock of hair with a blow of air from her lips, "Nothing?" she inquires, genuinely interested and clearly not buying his lame attempt at avoiding the subject. "You have never stricken me as the kind of guy who just sits down doing nothing, Gray."

"Yeah? Then just what kind of guy do I strike you as, Erza?" he does not mean to turn and give her that look. Does not mean to take her aback by the gravity of his tone. He does not even mean to care. But he does.

Some way or another, he does.

They stare at each other in stunned silence for a while, until Gray averts his eyes and shakes his head once again, ruffling his dark hair with his right hand. "Sorry 'bout that, Erza. I didn't mean it like it sounded."

"And just how do you think it sounded, Gray?"

It's his turn to be confused, and he gives her a questioning look that Erza replies with a slight, but elegant shrug—elegant, just like everything about her seemed to be—and a reassuring curl of her lips, "I did not mean what I said as an insult."

"I know," Gray replies honestly, not understanding still.

"I know you do. I just wanted to make sure. Now, what did you not mean by what you said?" Her soft smile is still there as she waits for him to stop looking at her and give her an answer.

If his mind had been clear enough, Gray would have perhaps wondered since when did Erza have so much patience when it came to wait for other people's answers. But as things were, he was having a hard enough time in trying deciphering his own thoughts; there was no way he would be able to understand another's. Much less Erza's.

"I guess… I was surprised that you actually saw me as a specific kind of guy," he finally says, lamely, and at once wishes he had kept his mouth shut. "It's nothing, forget it."

But Erza is curious, and whenever she got curious she would not let the matter drop until she had cleared all of her doubts. "Why wouldn't I see you as a specific kind of guy? Doing that is nothing special..." thoughtfully, Erza raises her face to look up at the sky and places a finger to her lips. "Though now that you mention it, perhaps I haven't really categorized you as anything but… Gray. You're quite complex, now that I think about it."

"…I am?"

He inquires, skeptical, and Erza turns towards him with a smile, perfect white teeth showing from underneath her parted lips.

"Of course you are. One of the most complex people I know, in fact."

It's only then that Gray notices that perhaps he had been kind of wrong before.

That perhaps it's not only that he cares.

Perhaps it's a little more than that.

Erza's eyes are shinning under the moonlight as she shakes her head with amusement, her smile still present.

And with sudden clarity Gray realizes that perhaps a little was the wrong word, too.

A lot may be closer to it. Much, much closer.

"I never could fully get you, not even as a kid," Erza comments, not noticing how wide open Gray's eyes were. "One moment you would be more than willing to fight, and the next you just wanted to talk. At first I could understand your behavior, or at least part of it. But at the end I gave up on trying to understand what was behind most of the things you said, or did."

But still very, very far.

"I… could never understand why you seemed to care about me, or what did I do to deserve that," her smile saddens, her eyes close. "But I was afraid to ask. I thought you might get embarrassed and say something I didn't want to hear."

Gray turns away, draws his knees closer to his chest. "…Where is all this coming from?"

Erza blinks, but her surprise soon turns into a chuckle, and the heavy air of the atmosphere lightens up a bit. "I don't know," she admits, sounding slightly sheepish. "I guess I got a little carried away, huh?"

"…That makes two of us."

"Huh? I'm sorry, did you say something?"

Gray shakes his head, no, nothing, and begins to stand up. "Come on, it's pretty late already. You must be tired."

Erza seems divided for a moment, her eyes darting from the river and back to him, but she seems to make a choice the moment he extends his hand towards her in order to help her stand up. "You're right. I'm sorry for keeping you here until this late."

"Nonsense," he dismisses easily, and manages to give her a weak smile as he pulls her up to her feet. His fingers linger on hers for a moment but he lets go faster than what was truly necessary, turning his back on her. "Let's go. I'll help you carry your presents."

"There's no need, I can manage."

"Shut up, it won't kill you to accept some help from time to time."

Erza can do nothing but let her lips quirk with gratitude, following him as he starts to make his way up the road that would take them to Fairy Tail's headquarters. "I'll make it up to you."

Gray rolls his eyes, "Whatever." But he does turn back to give her a grin from over his shoulder.

She answers his grin with a small smile, looking all prim and proper but at ease, and a part of Gray wishes he had not turned in the first place.

And he can't help but wonder just when he had been so stupid as to let her—her out of all the girls in the whole damn world—get in through his barriers.

He understood, now. Had a good idea of just what had been messing up his game earlier that day. Or rather, who was.

He was not sure of when he had set Erza as the benchmark, or for just how long had that unconsciously been going on in his mind. But he was sure of one thing:

He was doomed.

Doomed, with no chance whatsoever of salvation.

Because really, where would he find another girl who could even come remotely close to Erza, let alone surpass her?

He had been naïve. And stupid. And a fool when he decided he wanted her.

Because the day he did he ruined himself for everyone else. Ruined every girl for himself.

And as they both walk, he acutely aware of her light steps impossibly close behind him, Gray is not really sure if he is as disappointed as he should be.

There was just no one like Erza.

—

End

Author's Notes (2012): Why, yes. Erza was in a very good mood that night. lol

Original Author's Notes (2009): Honestly, this is more or less how I believe things are in Gray's head, whether he realizes it or not. He will have to realize it sooner or later, though.

Also, English is not my native language and this wasn't beta-read, so please forgive any awful mistake up there. If you could be as kind as to point them out in a review, I'll gladly fix them.

Thank you all for reading. Reviews are love!