Title: Numb as Ice
Summary: Okay. This is a sequel to my previous story "Daylight" an AU where Gray and Erza's lives where set in the real world. Erza's a pastry shop owner, and Gray's a hitman. Well, it's better you read the previous strory first. If yo did. Great! Basically , it starts where the last story left off.
A/N: Yes! I Finally got to squeeze this in to my busy life. But I'm so saaad.. Saaad, because I've missed the GrayZa week so baaad. I guess this should make up for my crushed feels. Ouch. But anyway, I dunno when I'll be back again, but expect that I'm still into this fandom~ Hurraaaah.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its Characters. Come on, Ive done this many times before, right?
He comes home back that midnight, when the wind outside was at its coldest and the streets were empty and silent.
Erza doesn't leave the doors unlocked; she knows he can handle them so easily. She is worried, yes. That doesn't mean she's lost trust in his promise as she clutches the necklace on her check. The sword or a cross that Erza always felt to be her lucky charm and guardian.
She sleeps at night, thinking of him and his safety, but keeps the hope that he will return to her.
She trusts him, of course.
So when she feels the familiar cat-like steps on her doorstep, Erza's spirit lifted up as she immediately straightened herself and went to the front door.
She finds him there, eyes surprised by a little of how the redhead knew he was coming.
"I'm the one who should be making that face, you pervert." Erza makes a comment as he welcomed the man in; his suit ruined and stained of blood.
A pregnant pause. Erza lets the other man relax in her atmosphere. Just like the last time.
Gray doesn't speak for a while. He just lay there on the couch, head down and thinking deeply. Erza walks out the living room and then comes back with her medical tools She wouldn't miss the large gash on his side and the bleeding cut on the cheeks.
Gray flinched a bit at the contact of sudden coolness and sting of the water on his face. "Don't move." she commands as the renowned "Titania of the Fairy Tail Hills".
"You sure look like you've had a tough time out there..." Erza carefully treated the man, asking him to strip his clothes so she can do the treatment.
"They were just lucky." he whispers. It looked like he was starved.
Erza was used to this. The smell of blood and gunpowder, of traces of tensed emotions trailing the other from behind, of violence written by the other's figure. After all, it had been a couple of times she did this to him every time he comes home to her flat from his 'job'.
Erza knows, and is well-prepared for that. He feeds the man, who is looking pale than the usual with anything nutritious inside the fridge.
He really needs to eat more.
Unknowingly, Erza was caught staring at Gray and was shot back with a carefree smirk. "Oh, look who's the pervert now..."
Right. That idiot.
"You moron. I was just thinking... Have you always looked this pale? I mean not in the very handsome way. It looks to me more like threatening."
Gray just smirked at her response. "So you do stare at me like the pervert you always accuse me with.-"
"I do not!"
"Do."
"Don't!"
"You do."
"I don't! And don't dare try to change the subject here, Fullbuster. I'm just concerned here!"
Gray stared and formed a devious smile on his face, "Tch. Does that really matter?" he says, scoffing.
"You matter." Erza stated firmly.
Gray's eyes widened at the slightest, and then found it in him to scoff at the serious tone she made, "Pfft. I live in the shadows quite literally. What do you expect?"
"When was the last time you ever are a descent meal?" she said nonetheless. The raven's figure sure was muscular enough, but then it struck to her how much lifelessness it held. It scares her.
No answer.
Something in Erza clicked that early dawn. Gray's life had been really hard on him. His childhood, she didn't even know if he ever had one. Gray was supposed to be younger than her by a year, but his cold and mature demeanor really made him a lot older and the wiser. He had learned to isolate himself in a thick, cold ice to keep others away. Erza doesn't want that.
It reminds her of her old self.
Later, when the sun began to rise, they decided to go to bed, all the while Erza keeping an eye on Gray who looked more weary than usual; the bags on his eyes doubled, and the lack of response from his usual old self.
It took a while for the red head to approach the raven who has been lying with his back facing her on the other side of the bed. It took a moment's hesitation of Erza snaking both hands on his head and Gray willingly complied to rest on the scarlet's thighs, eyelids heaving through Erza's gentle touches and pats on the messed up raven hair.
"What's on your mind?" she said. Erza feels she had just hit the spot.
"He... Has a daughter..." she keeps steady.
"I know what you mean. Gray, how many times do I have to tell you-"
"It's not like I'm not listening, Erza... Sometimes, I really don't know what's right anymore.", he bit his lip in silent grief and Erza's wondered how many times did he ever bit his lip: she sees confusion in those eyes, guilt in those acts.
She replied with a gentle pat on his head, "I know... I know. I've been there, Gray... But my mom always told me..." she smoothes the traces of Gray's chest.
"To always feel here whenever everything fails you." then she kissed his forehead with the slightest pressure, feeling the man's consciousness drift from her.
"But I...I don't know if... I still know how to feel..." Gray replies in a sleepy, musky voice as he barely kept awake.
Erza's heart clenched. Sometimes, as how she always came to acknowledge the maturity in Gray's age she can't help but observe how the younger man seldom act with the innocence from the childhood. The childhood he forced to skip to make him a man.
Innocence, in many forms like simple questions that she herself doesn't know how to answer either; it aches her to see how much he's suffering even without himself noticing.
It's terrible.
Finally she answers in a soft smile, "Idiot, then why are you here with me?" but she thinks Gray already slept. Tomorrow, or as soon as he recovers, Erza is sure to make it her mission to break Gray's cold ice.
By the way, I'm thinking to make this a full-story if I have time. But for now, I'd like you to think this as a oneshot. Depends on the feedback.
Reviews are treats!