It had been over 7 months since any new kids joined Fairy Tail. The last two had been Jet and Droy, who flung themselves through the door and yelled to see Makarov, trying to make themselves seem tough. They were OK, Gray thought, just too energetic for even him. They went on jobs together and constantly tried to get Levy to come with them. Levy, now 9, just didn't want to go with them. Not yet, at least. Gray had gone on a few jobs with Cana and Mira, if only because he was so bored at the guild and these jobs provided him with temporary entertainment.

So why was it that when a new kid finally came it had to be Erza Scarlet. The fiery red-head seemed so confident and strong and stubborn. But Gray had found out quickly enough that wasn't quite the case. She cried. She was scared. The screams of insults and proclamations of rivalry in the guild soaked in through her invisible shield and terrified her. Erza wouldn't tell anyone why noises would spook her or why she always stayed so secluded but after that day at the riverside, Gray was determined to keep from seeing her cry again.

Which is how he found himself pinned on the ground with a dagger held aimed for him. Erza's grip on his shoulder was surprisingly tight; Gray couldn't even push himself up if he tried. He had planned on letting her win when she challenged him to an actually magical fight, but it seemed she was able to win on her own. She dropped the dagger in her hand and it disappeared before hitting the ground.

"You're very defensive, Gray," Erza commented, pulling him up on his feet.

"You caught me off guard!" Gray huffed, crossing his arms and turning to the side away from the girl.

"I never said it was a bad thing," Erza said. He looked back over at her with confusion on his face. She sighed and explained, "Being defensive means being aware at the right times…it can be very strategic if used correctly and not just because you're compensating for weakness…"

"Why do you know so much 'bout fight?" Gray asked. She talked so much about strategy and tactic but Gray barely knew anything about it. He just knew punch and kick then ask questions. "Did somebody teach you before you came here or something?"

"No. Everything I have learned I've learned on my own. Why do care?" Erza's eyes narrowed and her arms crossed. Though when she crossed her arms it was always more like a hug to herself with her hands under her armpits as if to protect herself.

Weird… Gray thought. He shrugged it off, opting instead to acknowledge the words Erza had just said. "I don't care!" He waved her off, headed back toward the guild. "But if you teach yourself so much maybe you should teach yourself how to play and have fun?" Gray called, shutting the heavy wooden door to the guild behind himself.

Erza stood on the sidewalk. Her lip quivered, I'm alone again…by your own choice…YOU DUMMY! She smacked her forehead before starting the walk home. She pulled on the eyepatch and sighed, realizing her own new nervous habit. Why would I need to play…I'm not weak like that!


"Cana, ya needta stop spoiling that child!" Gray fussed in his usual "father voice." He scratched at his naked stomach and yanked up his loose shorts. The lollipop stick between his lips fell out onto the floor and Levy picked it up and threw it across the room.

"GOO!" she cried, crossing her arms. Gray glared and smacked her on the head.

"Child abuse!" Jet called, pulling Levy into a hug. Gray rolled his eyes, plopping down beside Cana and putting his arms behind his head. "Don't cry, Lev," Jet cooed at the wailing child.

"Heyhey, Auntie Mirajane is here!" Mira called, plopping down beside Lisanna. Lisanna hugged her, laughing.

"Ohh, Auntie Mira!" Lisanna giggled, "Did you bring presents?"

"Psh, hell yeah!" Mira pulled a soda out of her back pocket and handed to Lisanna, "Gotta spoil ya kids somehow! Lordy knows it won't be 'cause of your dad!"

"That's right! No sodas! Bring it here, daughter!" Gray roared, coughing and making grabby hands at Lisanna.

"Noooo!" Lisanna giggled, kicking at Gray's hands. "Never!"

"Gray, honestly!" Cana tugged his hair gently, "Leave the poor children be! They deserve treats every now and then!" Gray let Cana hug him, though he puffed his cheeks and mumbled in mock anger under his breath.

Erza watched the game from her table. It was amusing to see, especially when Elfman stomped over as the grandpa and called out for everyone to speak up while he cupped a hand around his ear. She watched them all: Jet and Droy fretting over Levy, Gray and Cana 'arguing' over parenting, Mira probably enforcing bad habits on her siblings…it was all so foreign to her. Erza could remember pretending to be a witch 'riding' around on a broom and having the time of her life. There wasn't much playtime back then, but what she experienced made some of the best memories she had. She hadn't even noticed she was staring quite obviously at the other children until Gray's face was inches away from her nose.

Gray snapped his fingers in front of Erza's face and waved his hands. She was out of it, it seemed. Cana had nagged at him to come over and invite her to play, but he couldn't exactly do that when Erza wouldn't even respond to him! He watched her blink and realize what was going on before speaking, "Look, we saw you watching us and Cana said I should ask if ya wanna play with us…"

"What?" Erza blinked. Had she been watching that obviously? For how long?

"Play. With us. House. Do you even know what that is?" Gray asked, leaning away from Erza and putting his hands on his hips. Erza shook her head. She couldn't even remember her own old home, let alone how to play as one. Gray's eyes widened. He had only been joking! He wasn't expecting to actually have no idea what House was! "W-well then you're playing with us!" He grabbed Erza's wrist and yanked her from her chair, dragging the older girl over to the house table. "She's playin' with us!" Gray announced, dropping Erza's wrist and sitting on the table top.

"So who do you want to be, Erza?" Cana asked. "We've already got the mommy and daddy. We've got a aunt and two uncles and the babies and a grandpa…" Cana explained who was already in the game for what position then allowed time for Erza to make a choice.

"…You get to be a person?" Erza asked. Everyone went silent, which flustered Erza. It was called House! What else was she supposed to assume other than they were all pretending they were houses?! She blushed and backed up a step, bringing her arms back around her body to hug herself. Mira couldn't hold in her laughter, bursting out loud and boisterous, pointing a finger at the red-head.

"Shut up, Mira!" Gray yelled, jumping on the white-haired girl's back. "She don't know what House is!" he explained still in the same loud tone.

"You've never played this before?" Levy asked, trying to take one of Erza's hands in hers. Erza shook her head shyly, hanging it after and turning away from the others as well as she could.

"Well!" Cana called, pulling everyone's attention her way. "You can be…the cousin! We don't have one of those yet!" Cana squealed, adding the extra member into the family tree. "You're Jet's daughter, the beautiful model with closets jammed packed with outfits only worn once! You're so successful that you can afford to retire early, only doing the fashion shows that you love to do for charity and you move into the neighborhood with your family so you can reconnect after years on your own being really pretty and rich!"

Erza's eyes widened as Cana told her character's backstory, overwhelmed slightly at how Cana talked about her. Beautiful? She nodded and gave a small smile, shifting on her feet and hanging her head.

"Great! Let's get going again!" Cana announced the resume of the game, hitting Gray on the head and snapping at him to get off his sister. Gray huffed and crawled off of Mirajane, complaining again about how it obviously Lisanna and Levy's faults. Levy took Erza's hand and squealed, cooing about how cousin Erzy came to visit.

"U-um…yeah! I just moved here to be closer to papa…?" Erza tried to explain. She was yanked into a seat between Levy and Lisanna, who begged to know about her fashion shows. "W-well…I do lots of them during the fall because the oranges and browns go well with my hair and stuff…" Her voice trailed off as she spoke, wariness present because she was so unsure if she was playing this game correctly.

"What did'ja say missy?" Elfman scooted closer to her, squawking about how his old ears couldn't hear her if she didn't speak up. "Did you say somethin' about oatmeal?"

Erza giggled, shaking her head. "Why would I mention oatmeal?" she asked, laughing because she had to ask that sentence.

"Because oatmeal is the answer to everything!" Elfman clicked his tongue after his answer, thinking about oatmeal was really working up the poor 'old man's appetite! "I'm going to go get some! Then you will know the power of oatmeal!" Erza laughed and shook her head as Elfman walked off slowly.

"So, Erza, why did you decide to move here? It surely couldn't have been just to be closer to your ol' Pop!" Jet asked, throwing an arm around Erza's shoulders.

"Um! Because it's peaceful-er here and y'know you can only take so much of runway!" Erza answered. She blushed and leaned forward, feeling heat behind her eyes.

"Well, Erza. I know you wanted to retire from the whole modeling thing but ya didn't have to let your own appearance go down!" Mira fussed, picking up the ends of Erza's hair after pushing Jet away.

"What do you mean?" Erza spun around, putting her hands over her hair. She knew it wasn't very well taken care of, but if she was a model, surely that wouldn't even be an issue for the game! Cana snuck around from Gray's 'drunken' hold to examine Erza's poorly kept hair. It was extremely greasy, to the point where it hard to tell if it was grease or water at the scalp. The ends were destroyed, fried and split to the point it was hard to tell where one strand began and another ended.

"You're right, Mira!" Cana breathed out, leaning forward to look Erza in the eyes, "When was the last time you had a good pampering?"

"Uh…" Erza looked anywhere but at the two critical girls who were ever too glad to touch her hair and whisper to each other. "I dunno…"

"Emergency girls club meeting!" Cana announced, taking Erza's hand and running off with the other girls trailing after them. They all fell into the bathroom, Cana slamming the door shut and telling Erza to sit on the toilet lid. "Does somebody got shampoo?"

"Yeah, I have some in my cubby," Levy said, going over to the metal cubby in the corner of the bathroom and finding the bottle. Everyone in the guild had one of these cubbies to keep their toiletries that might be needed just in case something were to happen and they would need to stay at the guild temporarily. "Here you go, Cana."

Cana took the bottle with a thanks and started up the sink, testing the water's temperature. "OK, Erza, c'mere." Erza followed the younger girl's instructions and stuck her head under the water, trusting her and Mira to not try to drown her while they washed her hair. The shampoo smelled good, like strawberries and flowers, which made the experience a little less horrifying. They rinsed out the shampoo and Lisanna got a towel to help Erza drying her hair. Levy had snuck out the door to go find the scissors Mirajane told her to get.

Erza's eyes widened when she saw the scissors. She wasn't sure she trusted them that much.

"We have to, Erza!" Cana explained, "You're hair needs to be cut or else it won't grow any healthier. I don't care about how it got this way, but I wanna help you fix it now!"

It took a little persuasion before Erza gave in. Cana took her own hair down to use the hairtie she had. She put the hairtie in Erza's hair, pulling it down until it was loose and lined up just about with her jaw. Snip! Erza felt her hair tickle her cheeks and the ponytail just removed was placed on the sink in front of her.

"Don't look yet, Erza," Lisanna said when she saw Erza's head start to rise. They turned Erza to the side and cleaned up the cut, making the raggedy look Erza walked in with become a cute bob with long bangs hanging over eyes. The four girls finally let Erza look up, smiling at their work. Erza's eyes filled with tears and a hand clamped over her mouth. She didn't look like the same grief-stricken little girl that walked into Fairy Tail just two weeks before. She looked like the beautiful girl Cana was describing as Cousin Erza.

"Oh, don't cry Erza!"

"We're sorry!"

"We didn't want to make you cry!"

"It'll grow back!"

Erza smiled. For once, it was big. A big, bright smile. She spun around to face the other girls and enveloped them all the best she could in a hug. "Thank you, you guys…" she breathed out.


"Oi, they've been in there a long time. What d'ya think they're doing?" Gray asked Droy, crawling out from under the table to sit beside the other boy.

"They said something about Erza's hair before they went in there. I guess it's a makeover or somethin'," Droy answered, dropping his head down on the table. "Whatever they're doing I hope they finish soon! I need to pee!"

Just then the door opened. Out walked Mirajane, Cana, Levy, and Lisanna with Erza taking up the caboose.

"Finally! You guys were in there forEVER!" Gray complained, getting up to meet the girls. He froze when he saw Erza, who crossed her arms without hugging herself. "What happened to your hair?" he asked.

"Don't be rude!" Cana fussed, smacking his head.

"OW!" Gray yelped. "I just wanted to know what you guys did to her! Why did you cut her hair?! It was pretty when it was long!"

"So it's not pretty now?" Mira asked, linking arms with Erza. As much as she didn't want to be buddy-buddy with this girl, it offered an opportunity to pick on Gray so she was going to gladly take it.

"That's not what I said!" Gray yelled.

"So you think she's pretty?" Mira snickered, leaning toward Gray. Gray blushed and turned away.

"That's not - !" He sighed, "Yeah, sure…"

"Oooh!" Cana and Levy cooed, hugging one of Gray's arms each. Lisanna giggled and held Erza's hand, looking up at the girl who was looking different.

"Gray," Erza called, catching Gray's attention. "Don't think I can't still kick your butt." She smirked, hugging Lisanna closer.

Gray grinned, "Is that a challenge?"

"You bet."

Wow I've been writing a lot...anyway I'm really happy with how this turned out! It was kind of really Erza focused, which was an accident... but in order to do what I want for the next chapter I had to do this...yeah, we'll go with that!

Review and tell me what you thought! Also, if you see errors, PLEASE tell me! I accidentally closed out my tab with this story and had to re-edit it so I may have missed some things that I originally had gotten!