My most humble apologies, gentle readers! For the celebration of the massacre of indigenous peoples required my utmost attention.
I, too, hope you enjoyed your feast commemorating one culture's destruction at the hands of another.
"You are an idiot." She ranted. "An absolute, ridiculous idiot. How? How in the world did you let that demon catch you off guard?"
He held his hands up to protect himself from her slaps. "Ow, ow, ow! You know, I may have a concussion! So I'd appreciate it if you'd stop using my head as a drum!"
"You deserve it! Maybe I can beat some sense into you!"
"Or you'll beat any sense I have left, out!"
Her breathing was heavy with anger and worry and fear.
"Idiot!" She chucked a shoe at his head. He deftly caught the offending projectile and asked if she was going to actually help him or if she was going to continue berating him. Her answering snarl caused his mouth to clamp shut.
They stared at each other for a good minute before she summoned a first aid kit from her pocket dimension. "You're allowed to do that?"
"It's my dimension. I can do whatever I damn well please."
He sat still as she got to work. It wasn't serious but small cuts and bruises littered his back and right torso.
"Give it to me straight, doc. Am I gonna scar?"
But she ignored his attempts at humor. He tried again.
"Hey, are you gonna wear that cute little nurse outfit while you treat me?" That earned him a sharp pinch to the deltoid. He stifled his grunt of pain.
"I didn't mean it. I just wanted to get you to smile."
She remained silent. He raised his hand and drew her head down until their foreheads touched. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out."
She sighed, reining in her anger and worry. "What the hell happened, Gray?"
He sniffed noisily and muttered, "got distracted." He was ashamed to admit it. His mind had wandered to last night when Erza crawled into his bed in the middle of the night. It was too cold, she had told him. They hadn't shared a bed since three towns ago when they reserved a double. It was their last night up north and while it was somewhat warm during the day, nights were a different beast. When he reminded her that he's an ice mage and won't be able to do much to keep her warm, she had smiled sleepily and informed him that he was warm. Very warm. Sure, his skin tends to be chilly but he's still human. Still has hot blood pumping through his veins. And while he may be cold to the touch, he makes her warm; makes her feel warm. For some reason, it made him obnoxiously happy.
"What in the world could have distracted you that much?" He couldn't very well tell her the truth. She'd just want to throttle him even more.
"I'll tell you later. I don't think you'll appreciate it if I told you now." That earned him another pinch albeit a gentler one. "Hey, now! Be gentle on my poor, bruised body."
She tweezed a small piece of shrapnel from his neck.
"You know, there are better ways to get your hands on my tight, little body than hitting me." He paused and smirked, "well, not little as you're very well aware," he winked playfully.
She rolled her eyes, "ugh, I ought to leave you here to bleed out."
"Don't be ridiculous. These cuts and scrapes are way too small for me to bleed out."
"I can help with that." She jabbed the tweezer into a non-wound having patch of skin.
"It's not too bad, right? He didn't do much damage. All this is just from that initial tackle. He was kind of weak. How disappointing. Anyway, all that's left is the clean up."
"Which, of course, falls to me. Typical. And what if it hadn't been a weak demon?"
"Then you would have saved me. Because you liiiiike me."
She snorted at his Happy impersonation. Admittedly, it was pretty accurate. "Yea, right. Pretty sure it's the other way 'round." She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster.
"Well, yeah. Duh. It's pretty obvious. But we're talking about you. Not me."
She stilled her hands. They never spoke of this. They had flirted, touched, even shared beds. And feelings of the romantic variety have developed on her end. At first, she didn't really know what to make of those funny feelings. After her realization that Jellal should be left where he belonged; in the past, she thought maybe she was projecting her feelings for Jellal onto Gray. She was lonely and missed having those kinds of feelings and attention. And Gray was the only one brave enough to engage her. So yeah, she thought she was projecting. But when Loke had tried it a few months ago, she crushed him. So it was clear that she wasn't projecting; that her feelings for Gray were in fact, legitimate feelings. She was finally able to admit that some time over the course of these ten arduous weeks. They've gotten closer than ever before. They tested each other's patience and learned things about the other they wish they hadn't. But she still tried not to think too much about it because, well, it gets a little confusing. But she did assume he developed feeling for her too. Or at least hoped he did. But they never spoke about it. It had been sort of a... silent understanding. You don't bring it up, you don't address it and you can go on pretending everything is hunky-dory because once that can is open, there is no power in the universe that can unopen it. Better to keep things status quo than risk it on something unknown.
So is he really admitting his feelings? Right now? Right here? Without a big, sweeping, romantic declaration? Just a well, yeah. Duh. It's pretty obvious?
Somehow, she couldn't bring herself care about that. She wasn't disappointed in the lack of romance in his admission. Once upon a time, she would have been. She thought she wanted the romance, the flowers, chocolates, and cheesy poetry and everything else that goes along with it. All that pomp and circumstance. But dammit, all she wants is Gray. Besides, any over-the-top, dramatic, romantic gestures would have been very un-Gray-like.
"Erza? Everything okay?"
She grinned stupidly at him. "Just dandy. I'm almost done."
"Good. I wanna go home. I'm sort of sick of living out of hotels. I miss my bed." They had been traveling all over the northern continent for over two months; seven cities in ten weeks collecting artifacts at the behest of Warrod-senpai.
"Me too."
He intentionally misinterpreted that as her missing his bed too. He perked up at that and smirked. "Oh? Shall I invite you over for more sleepovers?"
"I meant," she glared at his smiling face, "I miss my own bed."
She curled her tongue against the backs of her teeth and as an afterthought added, "Although, I wouldn't say no to more sleepovers."
At that unexpected but welcomed response, Gray choked on his laughter.
Whoo, look at that wall 'o text! TKDR: feelings are stupid and confusing and we should just ignore them and pretend they don't exist.
Now, get into that good 'ole holiday spirit and leave me some reviews! It would be most appreciated.
