Title: Mine
Couple: Gray X Erza (GrayZa) and Natsu X Lucy (NaLu)
Genre: Romance/Humor
Rating: T+
Warnings: Possible OCCness and Strong Language because of Natsu's foul mouth.
Authors Note: I'm alive! Surprisingly. I haven't forgotten about this story/one shot collection, ha it takes me forever to update doesn't it? Sorry. Thank you to those who have waited so patiently, this is my Christmas present to you! Another thing, this is only part one because it's so fricken long! So expect part two soon. I promise it will come soon! Hopefully within the next week. I also apologize in advance for any mistakes.
Love to all and Merry Christmas/New Year!
I do not own Fairy Tail, wish I did but I don't.
Mine
Part I
ZiraUzu
Forever is not a word…rather a place where two lovers go when true love takes them there.
~Unknown
xXx
They met in a café on campus. It wasn't exactly the meeting she had been expecting, considering how at most cafés the waiters in college don't tend to strip mid sentence. But maybe that's why she found him interesting.
Eraz Scarlet was a strict, level headed woman and wasn't expecting what her friend Cana may have called a 'fateful encounter', no, all she had wanted that morning had been a nice cup of coffee to go along with the book she had been reading.
And she had been doing just that when he walked up, her nose buried deep into the captivating book's white pages. She gave him her order quickly, her eyes never leaving the page or losing their spot as she did so, "Coffee with a forth of creamer, preferably hazelnut and two lumps of sugar as well, please."
She could tell she had startled him when he remained silent for a time.
"Uh, sure thing," he said. She heard the scribbling of his pen, then the sound of his footsteps as he retreated back towards the counter to place her order.
Erza glanced up, it had been a whim of sorts but he was already gone. Yet as soon as her eyes strayed back to the pages of her book he was there again. And without her coffee.
She stared at his empty hands as if expecting the coffee to magically appear before her. When it didn't, and she knew it wouldn't, a scowl crossed her face and she looked up at the man as if he was at fault, which in a way he was.
The look on his face told her that he was a little surprised to see her scowling at him. Her piercing eyes stared into his as if to say 'well, where the hell is my coffee?' he only smiled at her. Erza found it a little unsettling. It wasn't that his smile was creepy; it was actually quiet handsome, she just hadn't been expecting it. People don't usually smile when she's glaring at them.
"Coffee machine's broken," He said as if to answer her unspoken question.
"I see," she said, her frown disappeared but her brow was still slightly pulled together. Normally the young redhead would have just left. Lucky for him, her craving for hazelnut coffee had just been a bit too tempting that morning.
"You a student here?"
Erza blinked and looked back up at the young man standing next to her table. Why he was asking her random questions that had clearly obvious answers was unknown to her. Besides didn't he have a job to do?
Whether he was ignoring his job or not was none of her business though, so she nodded once in answer.
"Ah, what are you majoring in?"
Erza ran a hand through her fiery hair and sighed, "Don't you have a job to do?"
The man shrugged, "Not really."
The young woman glanced around at the multiple tables waiting to have their orders taken. Sure he didn't.
"You never answered my question."
"And how will you knowing what I'm majoring in be of any benefit to you exactly?" She said as her eyes scanned a few lines of her book.
He shrugged. Erza sighed again and glanced at him briefly before returning her attention back to the black print in her book, "Armor creation."
"They have that?"
"They do here," She answered bluntly.
The fine hairs on the back of Erza's neck stood up as he felt the man's curious eyes watching her read. It was unsettling to her, she was a strong, independent woman but even she didn't particularly like being watched every second while she was trying to read.
Erza closed her book, "Shouldn't you be helping other customers? It is your job after all." She said without even glancing in his direction.
"Nah, they can take care of themselves, besides I'm only a part-timer. So it's not like it really matters if I get fired or not."
"I see, but still you sh— what are you doing?!" Erza almost fell out of her chair when she turned to the man beside her just as be begun to yank his shirt up his torso and over his head. He gave her a what's-up-with-you face before he tossed his shirt to the floor. Then he started on his belt.
Erza glared and before she knew what she was doing she had punched him in the face. She hadn't even realized she had done so until she saw him on the floor in front of her holding his nose.
"What the hell was that for?!"
"You shouldn't strip in public," She stated as she slowly lowered herself back into her chair, a newly formed blush lightly dusting her nose. "It's indecent."
The man raised one raven colored eyebrow in confusion at her words. Then he glanced down, "Dammit not again!"
"Gray! Are you waiting for Hell to freeze over? Give the customer her coffee and get back to work!"
A small smile broke across Erza's face as the news of her coffee reached her ears, "The coffee machine has been repaired?"
The man behind the counter raised a bushy eyebrow, "Repaired? It was never broken."
"What?" Erza's previous scowl reappeared on her face as she turned to unleash her newly boiled wrath on the idiot waiter that had kept her waiting for nothing. He was gone though, she looked left, right, hell she even checked under the table but the raven haired man was nowhere in sight.
Erza muttered something about 'rude indecency' and reached for her book, which had fallen under the table when she had punched her now absent waiter in the face. She was about to get up to leave when a steaming cup of coffee was set in front of her on a small eggshell colored saucer. She frowned up at him only to see that he was looking away like he was embarrassed as he sported a new Band-Aid across the bridge of his nose.
"Sorry 'bout that."
Erza stood and slapped his across the face.
He chuckled, it was a deep sound that came from his once again clothed chest and Erza decided that she liked the sound. "I guess I deserved that," He said, a wide smile crossed his face.
"Yes you did," she said as she reached for her cup and took a sip. She couldn't help but let a small smile of her own cross her lips though it went unseen by the man in front of her, for she kept her cup at her lips to prevent him from seeing it.
"You know, I've never had an armor creating woman slap me in public before."
"And I've never had an idiot for a waiter who lied to me about a coffee machine braking just so he could talk to me. Most of my waiters don't tend to strip mid sentence either."
A light blush dusted his bandaged nose, "I-It's not like that's the only reason I said the machine was broken," he said as he rubbed the back of his head.
She smiled at his poor excuse for a cover up and sipped her coffee again.
"Erza Scarlet," she said as she offered her hand.
"Gray Fullbuster," he said as he accepted her offered handshake.
"You're an interesting one, Gray," she said as she put her empty cup in his large hands and grabbed her book from the table.
He smiled, "I could say the same thing about you, Erza Scarlet."
xXx
They had always been close friends, best friends even.
He had always been there for her, had counseled her through every friendship gone wrong, through the hard times when the divorce had happened, when she had lost her mother, he had been there when her father hadn't been, he had even beat the shit out of jerks that had made her cry. There had been plenty of jerks over the years.
Even now there were still jerks.
The buzzing of his cell brought him out of his state of half consciousness. Natsu rubbed his eyes and glanced around his dorm room from where he lay, upside down on the couch his roommate had brought in. He groaned and stretched his arms as he spotted the small device half way across the room on the floor next to his bed.
In his still half asleep state Natsu flipped off the couch. He lay on the floor for a moment before army crawling over to his cell, being too lazy to just stand up and walk over to it in the first place. He grabbed the piece of plastic off the floor and pressed the talk button without looking at the caller ID. He yawned as he brought the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Natsu?" The sound of quiet sniffles came from the other end of the line, "S-sorry did I wake you up?"
He glanced over at the electric clock that sat on his roommate's desk. It read 2:43 AM. "It's fine, don't worry about it."
"If you say so."
He was met by a steam of silence. "Did you need something, Luce?"
"I . . . Do you think y-you could come here, Natsu?"
His tired eyes softened, "Sure."
The thought that it was two in the morning, that he should be asleep, that he had class the next morning were never things that he considered thinking about at times like these, nor were they something he worried about. All he was worried about was Lucy. When she called him in the early hours of the morning he never complained, and he never seemed to care about the walk, that he usually complained about any other time, that he would have to endure in the dark either.
Her eyes were already red and puffy by the time he crawled through her second story window. He was barely over the sill and had the window shut before she let out a shuddering sob and threw herself at him. He grunted in surprise as she sobbed into his shirt. He said nothing though and just held her.
After a few minutes when she had calmed down a bit he gently pried her fingers from his shirt so he could remove his jacket. As he was doing so Lucy walked over to the mini fridge that she kept in the corner of her single dorm room. She opened the small chest and pulled out a tub of rocky road.
"You want some?" She asked as she grabbed two spoons. One of which she offered to him as he moved to sit on her bed.
"I'm gonna get fat soon you know." He teased as he took the offered spoon and scrapped a clump of the soft ice cream from the tub. "How many of these things do you have in there anyway?"
She giggled at his teasing comments, "Three including this one."
"Hmm, you know you're only going to have at least one left by the time I leave here right?"
She blinked her red eyes, "You plan to eat that much?"
"No, I plan to steal one and take it with me when you're not looking. Then I'll hope I can get it into a fridge before it's completely melted."
She laughed. He smiled; this was how things usually went when Lucy's latest relationship ended. She would call him in the middle of the night and he would brave the darkness to come make her feel better. She would hug him as soon as he stepped through the door (or window, depending on which he used) then she would ask him if he wanted ice cream. Natsu was sure that if he didn't have a high metabolism and work out on a regular basis he would have gained at least ten pounds from ice cream alone. Once the ice cream had been broken out then he would do whatever he could to make her laugh, since laughter after all, was the best medicine that money couldn't buy.
"So, tell me what happened."
She stopped mid laugh. A frown crossed her face as she hunched her shoulders and pulled her legs to her chest and hugged them. "It's . . . a long story."
He put another spoonful of rocky road in his mouth, "I have time."
"Don't you have class tomorrow?"
"Fuck classes. I'll just skip and crash here."
"Natsu, you can't skip class."
"Luce," He grabbed her spoon and tapped her on the forehead with it, "Start talking then."
"I told you it's really long; you'll have to stay through all of it."
He smiled and handed her, her spoon, "Like I said, I've gone time, ok?"
A long story it was indeed. Between her speaking, her crying, and her blowing her nose it took Lucy a total of two hours to tell completely. And Natsu didn't like hearing one bit of it. He always felt that way though. Every time he would listen and every time he'd want to leave in the middle of her story just so he could go and find the bastard that had made her cry so he could punch whoever it had been in the face. How dare they make Lucy cry? How dare they make his Lucy cry? But each time he would stay and listen to her, what he hated most though was hearing her say she still had feelings for whoever it was that had broken her heart, hearing things like that had always made his teeth clench just a little tighter. He was the good best friend though so he would always say that he understood and that they weren't worth her love. This time was no different.
"He's not worth it, Luce. You can do better than him."
"I know, I know but I just—," He handed her a tissue as another sob fest surfaced. She blew her nose loudly, "Oh maybe I should just give up on love all together. I don't know why I even bother, it never lasts anyways. Mother and Father are proof enough to prove that." Her voice had dropped to a low whisper.
"Hey, that's not true, Luce, don't judge because of your parents' mistake, come on, don't give up entirely just because one shitty bastard decided to fuck up his chances. He doesn't know what he's missing!"
"It hasn't just been one though! It's been many!" She screeched as she buried her head in a pillow and cried.
"Aw, Luce," Natsu said as he grabbed her by her waist and pulled her towards him. She pushed the pillow in his face and tried to crawl away from his comforting hands.
"It's different this time!" She wailed, "I loved him so much!"
"No you didn't," Natsu said as he tried to block her legs from kicking him in the face, "You just think you did, that's all!"
"Shut up, Natsu you don't know what you're talking about," She yelled as she stared to beat him with her pillow, "You have no idea what it's like to love someone so much just to have them overlook you again and again!"
"Fuck that!" He yelled as he grabbed her pillow from her and held her tightly by her wrists. "You think I don't know? You don't have any idea what it's like to have you call me in the middle of the fucking night crying your eyes out over some cocky bastard that just wanted to get laid! You don't know what it's like for me to watch you gush over your newest boyfriend like he's the best thing that's ever happened to you." She felt the grip of her wrist lighten. His voice dropped to a whisper, "You think I don't know what it's like? That's you, Luce. You're always the happy one that's in love while I'm watching you from the sidelines practically dripping with envy because I want to be the lucky bastard that's holding you."
Natsu blinked as he realized what had just come out of his mouth and Lucy stopped struggling.
Natsu let go of Lucy's wrist, "Did, did I really just—,"
Lucy didn't say anything, she didn't move. She couldn't.
Natsu stood up abruptly from her bed, knocking over pillows and the tub of ice cream as he did so, "I-I think I should go."
Lucy came out of her shock-like trance as he reached for his jacket, "Na— wait!" Lucy scrambled off her bed and grabbed Natsu by his jacket just as he was reaching for the doorknob. He was leaving through the door for once. She wrapped her small arms around him from behind and grabbed handfuls of his shirt. "Don't go."
"Luce."
"Is it true?"
He could feel her trembling against his back, "Luce . . .,"
"Is it true?!," She screamed into his back, "And no lies, I want the truth, please."
He placed one of his large hands over one of her smaller, trembling one, "It's true." He whispered. He heard her take a deep, shuddering breath.
"Don't leave, stay here. Forever."
"Do you have any idea what you're asking?"
"I do," She whispered as he turned and placed his large hands on her tear stained cheeks. "Promise me something?"
"Anything," he whispered, he wiped her newly fallen tears away with his thumbs.
She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, he felt her bury her nose into the center of his collarbone, "Just so you know, if you don't already, it's going to be hard, Natsu. This is going to be hard, on both of us. If I try to run, catch me, don't let me go. Ever."
"I won't."
She craned her neck to look up at him as she pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw, "Will you stay?"
He pressed his lips to her forehead, "As long as you want me."
xXx
Sometimes she really wondered how it happened. How they had happened.
Their first encounter hadn't been exactly what she had called pleasant but she wouldn't say that it was horrid either. In fact she found the whole thing to be rather amusing more than anything else. And now here she was, what seemed like years later but what had only really been a few weeks, snuggling into his chest as she listened to him hum to himself.
"Do you ever wonder how it happened?"
"Hmm? What you mean us?" He asked.
She shrugged, "I guess."
"Not really," he whispered as he pressed a kiss to the back of her ear.
"Do you have a hard time believing it sometimes? Can you believe it?" She asked as she began drawing patters on the couch with her index finger.
"Maybe sometimes," He whispered as he wrapped his arm around her waist, "Not often though."
She smiled and grabbed his much larger hand. "Come on, Gray. Get up." Erza commanded as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. His arms fell from around her waist.
The man behind her groaned and turned to he was lying on his back with an arm draped over his handsome face. Gray wasn't usually a lazy person, but at the moment all he wanted to do was lie on the couch and just do nothing; he hadn't had a chance to do so in awhile since Erza made doing so a little complicated. What could he say; she was a woman that liked to get things done.
"Gray, come on. Those boxes aren't going to haul themselves. And would you put your pants back on?" She huffed as she got up and disappeared through the living room door only to return a moment later with two boxes in her arms. "Gray."
The raven haired man glanced at her from under his arm. He chuckled as he saw her lip was stuck out in a slight pout and her cheeks were dusted red from her growing anger. He stood from his place on the couch, somehow with his pants once again on, and walked over to take the boxes from Erza's hands. Once done he placed them on the couch and wrapped his strong arms around her thin waist. "Will you just chill. Just for a sec?"
Erza frowned as he placed her hands on his broad shoulders, "No I will not just 'chill'." Erza began, her tone sounded slightly offended so he was surprised when she chose to stay in his embrace instead of moving away like she normally would have.
"And why not?" She felt his forehead pressing up against hers.
"Because. You have all these boxes lying around. I understand that you just moved and you're probably tired, but that's no reason to leave things half done—,"
"Erza."
The redhead glanced up; her breath caught in her throat and she forgot the words she had just been about to say when she felt Gray's nose brush against hers. "Just relax," He whispered. Erza nodded as she turned her head down so she was now staring at his chest.
"I understand."
"Good." Gray said as he released the blushing redhead.
xXx
The late afternoon light that was streaming through her blind covered dorm room window danced across her eyelids. The light was dim, and dimming still as the sun began to dip below the horizon. It was still enough though to rouse the young woman from her state of sleep.
Lucy yawned and blinked her tired eyes as she sat up to glare at the innocent window. Chocolate brown eyes glanced around the room until they found Natsu sleeping in her desk chair on the other side of the room. The blonde smiled as she pushed her blankets away and stood so she could go plop herself in her new boyfriend's lap.
Natsu snorted in his sleep and jolted awake as Lucy sat on him. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was for a moment before he became aware of the extra weight that had been added to his lap. He smiled, "Good morning."
"I believe the correct term would be: Good afternoon, Natsu." The blonde said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Natsu raised his eyebrows at her and then glanced out the window, "Well damn." He returned his gaze to the girl in front of him, "You skip class?"
She made a face like she had been offended that he had even asked such a question, "I'm not the one who skips class, that's you. I'm a good girl."
"Sure you are."
Lucy's bottom lip stuck out in a pout as Natsu wrapped his arms loosely around her waist. He smiled at her, "You wanna go sit by the river?"
"No."
He chuckled and moved his hand to mess up her already tangled blonde locks, "Liar."
Lucy smiled before moving to stand.
She let out an excited squeal when the river came into view. Natsu smiled at her excitement and almost tripped when Lucy suddenly grabbed his hand, yanking him forward and down the small hill that met with the edge of the riverbank.
"I haven't been here in forever!" Lucy breathed as she sat down on the bank.
She pulled off her heels and dipped her feet in the cold water. She had come here often as a child with her parents when they had still been together and her mother had been alive. They had come to picnic, to get away from her father's crazy business life, for her birthday. It was a family favorite. Lucy glanced behind her at Natsu who stood a foot or two away, watching her. Just watching. She had the sudden urge to share this with another, with him and only him. It was a part of her and she wanted him to know that.
Lucy motioned to him with her finger and patted the spot next to her. "Natsu, come here."
He said nothing and did as he was asked. He shifted over to her as if in slow motion and lowered himself to the ground, pulling his shoes and socks off once he was seated. Lucy leaned her head on his shoulder and let a content sigh leave her.
"I used to come here a lot as a child," Her voice was soft, fragile. Natsu could tell that she was somewhere far away, locked in her child hood. "It was a favorite place, not just of mine but of my mother's as well."
"You never told me that before."
He felt her shrug slightly. "I never thought it was important enough to tell anybody." She paused, "But I wanted you to know."
He bumped his head against her lightly, "I'm glad you trust me."
"I'll always trust you."
"Always?"
She turned her head toward him, her eyes ablaze. His breath caught when she placed her small hand against his warm cheek. He was breathing slower than he ever had before and so was she as she leaned towards him. She was close enough that he could feel her warm breath fan across his face. "Always." He heard her whisper before he closed the distance between them.
xXx
The sound of something small hitting her window woke her up. Erza grumbled quietly as she rolled over in her small bed. Opening one of her hazel eyes she glanced at her alarm clock that sat on the end table next to the head of her bed. A sleepy scowl crossed her face when she saw it was one thirty three in the morning.
Something hit her window again and Erza sat straight up in bed. A new anger fumed inside her as she threw the covers off her legs and stopped over to the window, ready to bitch out whoever had just woke her up.
Of course she hadn't expected it to be Gray standing under her window.
A small smile slipped across her mouth as she crossed her arms and leaned against the window sill. "What are you doing?"
He glanced up at her, a small smirk on his mouth. "Surprise, late night date. Come down here."
She blinked at him, disbelief written all over her face. Was he serious? Did he even know what time it was?
Another frown crossed Erza's face and she could tell that Gray was surprised by her sudden change in attitude. He had expected her to be happy, excited even though it was clear that she was anything but.
"Something wrong?"
She felt her teeth grit together. "No, Gray nothing's wrong, you only woke me up in the middle of the night to go on a date! Honestly, did it now occur to you that I might have class tomorrow?"
Gray shoved his hands in his pockets and began kicking the ground with the toe of his shoe. A light pink dusted his nose and she could tell that she had embarrassed him, but only slightly. "I might have considered the fact that you had class."
She gazed at him, once again with disbelief on her face.
He chuckled, "Honestly, love, live a little. Now get dressed and get your cute little ass down here."
Erza felt the blood instantly rust to her face at his new nickname, that and the fact that he thought her behind was cute. She glanced behind her. She might have to hurt him for the butt comment, maybe.
Her face was still a slight pink color when she slipped out the side door of her dorm. He was waiting for her off to the side, against a tree with his hands still in his pockets. A smile broke across his face when he saw her and he instantly pulled her into his arms when she neared him.
"Ready for some fun?" He asked when she gently bumped her forehead against his.
"Depends on what kind of fun you're talking about."
He cupped her cheek and gazed into her hazel eyes. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then her nose, "Nothing bad I promise. I'm sure even you will have fun. Now come on, we're meeting a friend of mine and his new girlfriend there."
She nodded as she slipped her hand into his, letting him lead her down the dark sidewalk.
"Oh come on, Erza it wasn't that bad."
She chuckled humorously, "It was— that place is monstrous. And I will never step foot in it again."
Gray could tell that Erza was angry, even more than that, she was furious. The arch of her back was tense, the aura around her deadly and he was afraid that she was going to turn around and chuck one of her heels at him.
His idea of a 'fun night out' with Erza had gone downhill rather quickly. It had started out nice enough, they had grabbed something quick to eat before meeting up with his friend Natsu and his best friend turned girlfriend Lucy. It was when they had actually met up with Natsu and Lucy that things went bad. Natsu had suggested a club in town that was recommended to him by his roommate and they had all decided it was a good idea.
However the club turned out to be a strip joint. Things went to hell from there.
"I mean honestly, Gray! Lucy seems like a nice girl, I'll give her that but that friend of yours is psychotic! What other kind of perverts do you hang out with?"
"I'm sorry, Erza I didn't know it was a strip club and in Natsu's defense, neither did he."
He stopped when she halted in her stomp fest and let out a frustrated huff. Erza turned on her bare heel and marched over to him and much to his surprise dropped her heels so she could grab his face. His eyes widened when she practically smashed her mouth on his.
After a moment he felt her mouth relax against his and he followed suit. His arms circled her, holding her against him for a moment before he released her mouth.
"You're such an idiot." She whispered.
He chuckled and placed a gentle kiss on her nose, "I know."
