A/N: I keep breaking my promises. I'm so sorry. But at least this is a long chapter (I hope).

Shout out to the lovely reviewers from the previous chapter! PinkKoala213, SeoSakurachan, Iceberry2666, Leonardo the Hedgehog, CelestialTitania, That Awesome Indian Girl, Absolute-ZERO999, TheDelta724!

Also thank you to the new followers and faves!

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I took too long editing this. Please point it out to me if there are any grammar mistakes etc.

Faking and Loving

Chapter 10

DAY 5

It had been three days since Erza had received the hate notes.

And throughout those three days those notes were left continuously in her locker. She had discovered a pattern when she found the notes in her locker. Just before lunch after class she would find one and around 5:00 when club activities were over she'd find another one. After the pretend kiss attempt, she hadn't done much with Gray besides the usual hand-holding, joining him for lunch and helping him out with homework after school. Despite agreeing to pretend to publicly kiss, in the end Erza rejected the idea. Gray was quite puzzled, though Erza mentioned that she wanted to catch the person giving the notes first. Maybe that person could be the same person that didn't like seeing Gray kiss girls and instead sabotaged the poor girls instead. Anyhow, she was going to find out.

Their friends thought they were on a date almost every day but really Erza just helped him out with homework. But it was perfectly fine for Erza if they wanted to think that that way.

Honestly she was looking forward to just eating cake (he promised to treat her after all if she went through with this). But if Gray wanted to ask for help with homework, who was she to refuse? And discussing homework did help diminish the slight awkward tension that still lingered. Erza was never much of a talkative person, she liked just listening to her friends chat and she would join in sometimes if she knew what they were talking about. Back then, Gray was the one that always talked, he always had something to say to her.

He always had something to share with her.

It might have been just pure bragging on what accomplishments he did for the whole day, but he always attempted to talk to her, and for some reason, when Gray was around she would say more than she usually did. It was usually just comments to shoot him down though.

Him and that overconfident grin of his.

There were also those few times when they just sat quietly together. Without Natsu around, there was always a different air around them, something Erza couldn't quite recognize. She wasn't the type to talk to her friends about her personal problems and she realized she usually hid behind the rough exterior of hers.

Some of them were fooled, but Gray usually wasn't.

"You're not okay, are you?" He'd ask when he finally found her, alone and near tears.

"What are you, a stalker? How do you always find me?" Erza would say, pretending to be rough, but she was still obviously rubbing off her tears in attempt to hide them.

"S-Shut up! I just know okay?" He said, a tiny blush painted on his cheeks. He shoved a handkerchief in her hand. "I know you're not gonna tell me what's going on, but if you ever do…use this before saying anything." He said, referring to the handkerchief. "Don't use your sleeves. It's disgusting."

"You stripping out in the open right now is what's more disgusting."

"Crap!"

She smiled at the memory.

But of course things weren't really the same now. If it weren't for helping him out with homework, or talking about the mission, she wouldn't know what to say to him. And he, never talked much to her anymore, which was a given.

Erza was determined to quietly use this favor of his as a way to be friends again. That was for certain.

She shook her head. Time to focus.

Erza had wanted to catch the culprit days before, but her schedule simply didn't allow it. And yesterday when he schedule was free, she was called by one of her teachers to talk about her "future" after graduation.

But today was perfect. She had found out the day before that the book club wouldn't have any after school activities so she would definitely have time to investigate.

Gray offered to help but she declined. It was something she could handle alone. He was stubborn at first but after she reminded him that he had basketball practice almost every day, and that she knew he had another game coming up, he reluctantly complied.

"You're passionate about basketball aren't you? Then don't lose focus. What else can we focus on but the things we love?" Erza had told him.

Gray had been shocked at her words. Maybe he had noticed she had changed a bit. Although neither of them brought up the argument that had caused the two of them to distance themselves from each other.

They were still quite awkward but they were civil. And perhaps, just a little, they finally understood each other. Maybe there was no need to bring up the past.

And maybe, Erza thought, maybe Gray had stopped hating her.

"You want to know the students that were absent in my class?" Porlyusica-sensei asked.

Erza nodded. "Yes. Even for a short while. Were there any students absent during the time between 8:30am till 10:30am in class 2-B during Chemistry, sensei?"

"All of them were present. Nobody dares to skip my class." She replied.

"Then, during second and third period today? I believe you were in class 2-C and class 3-B?"

Porlyusica-sensei was surprised Erza knew her schedule. "Everyone was present, Erza. However, there was a student that left early during fourth period after lunch."

This was it! Porlyusica-sensei was the only teacher left that Erza didn't investigate yet, so this must be the clue to finding out the culprit who left those notes!

"Which class was that?" Erza asked eagerly.

"1-B. But I don't remember the student specifically. I still have trouble remembering all the first-years."

The first-years? "It's good enough sensei. Thank you!" Erza thanked her Chemistry teacher before rushing off to class 1-B.

As soon as she arrived, she sighed in relief as she saw one person in the classroom. He had his back turned so she couldn't make out who he was, not that she really knew the first-year students much either.

Erza hurried and slid open the door while shouting "Excuse me!" in that harsh, strict tone she was so used to.

Her determined look turned into a flustered shock as she mistook one person for actually two people that were currently making out.

What?

Both the students turned to the loud gasp that echoed in the classroom and saw the Erza Scarlet currently looking at them in a flustered state, no doubt.

Erza gasped as she took in the state of the two students, one male and one female. The female student was in a state of half-undress, the blouse of the Fairy Academy school uniform were unbuttoned all the way down, leaving her pink, lacy bra apparent. Even her skirt was slightly ridden up and her tie was obviously loose, lying on the floor. The girl who's legs were wrapped tightly around the boy's waist immediately dropped to the ground as she pushed him away and let out an embarrassed "Stupid!"

The girl had quickly ran out of the classroom, not bothering to pick up her loose tie on the ground, leaving the boy she had apparently made out with to snicker, even as he was currently sitting on his butt; the result of being pushed to the ground.

All the while Erza continued to gape as she processed the sight in front of her just now. In this classroom, how could they –

"Erza Scarlet-san?"

"Huh?"

"Did you need something?" The blond boy smiled.

Erza finally snapped out of her trance. "Y-Yes, a-actually I was –" Erza couldn't believe she was stuttering at a time like this.

Focus!

If she didn't do it now, she would have to wait until school started again next Monday. It would be such a waste of time.

"Erza-san, can I ask you the trouble of helping me up?"

Erza was still a flushed mess, nonetheless she stepped forward approaching the boy that was still sitting on his butt at the corner of the classroom. She held out her hand to which the boy gracefully took in his hands, but before Erza realized what was going on she was pulled to the ground by the blond boy and in a second she was lying on the ground.

The redhead groaned at the impact and looked up to see the blond boy straddling her. She frowned, no traces of blush present on her face anymore.

"What are you doing?" She asked almost glaring.

"I think I should be asking you. What is the famous Erza Scarlet doing in a first year's classroom after school hours? Not to mention you interrupted me in the rudest way possible." He said, his voice silky smooth as he lowered his body slightly closer to Erza, his face nearing hers.

Erza's frown deepened though her face was still calm showing no discomfort with his proximity. "I wanted to ask someone about the student in this class that left early from school during Porlyusica-sensei's class today. You're in this class aren't you? What's your name?" She asked, her voice oozing with authority. It was a habit she couldn't grow out of, even after she quit the student council.

The boy chuckled. "Eve Tilm. Nice to meet you, Erza-senpai."

Eve. Where did she hear that name from? "You haven't answered my other question. Do you know or not? If not, then I will be on my way."

"I don't. But more importantly," Erza ticked at his fast dismissal of her question, "are you really dating Gray Fullbuster?"

The position they were in slowly started to become more uncomfortable to Erza. Eve was in no way crushing her body to the ground, though the hardness of the floor was undeniably getting to her.

But this Eve guy, whoever he really was, asked her as if he was challenging her. As if he was waiting for her to cause an outburst?

Erza wasn't sure. She had to be careful. "Stories spread fast, don't they? Even to the first years."

"It's all anyone's talking about, after all."

"Nice." Erza deadpanned. "Will you please get off of me before I push you off myself? You wouldn't want to get pushed around a second time today, would you?"

The boy showed obvious irritation at her remark. He finally distanced his face away from her and got up, dusting off the dirt on his pants. Stretching his hand out towards Erza, he asked, "I worry for you, Erza-san. Being Gray Fullbuster's girlfriend must be hard on you."

The redhead stood up, blatantly ignoring his attempt to help. "I'm not interested in knowing your experience as Gray's ex, Eve."

Eve gaped for a second before clear ticks were almost visible on his forehead.

"Well, this was a complete waste of time. Thanks for nothing." Erza said almost in monotone, as she left the classroom without looking back.

Not looking back was probably one of the biggest mistakes Erza had ever done.

Lucy sighed as she closed her locker.

It had been three days since the blond girl talked to Juvia in Cana's room and she could not get the conversation out of her mind.

When they had gotten to Cana's room, before Lucy managed to ask anything, the blue-haired girl only cried her heart out. They both literally just sat there on Cana's bed, with Lucy wrapping her arms around the girl that had only previously been harassing her about her close friendship with her beloved Gray-sama.

Lucy asked herself why she was going through with this. She wanted to help out this girl and maybe instead of being pretend love-rivals, they could actually be friends. However, she had no idea on how to help a girl heal a broken heart. She had never got into a relationship with someone more than friendship nor had she ever been seriously in love with someone before to actually experience a broken heart.

"Juvia, I'm sure there's a better guy out there for you. Gray's not the only one!" Lucy tried to cheer her up her new friend as her sobs slowly came to a stop after thirty minutes of pure heartwrenching sobs and tears.

"Gray-sama is the only one for Juvia. Juvia has tried everything she can to make Gray-sama love Juvia. But Gray-sama is in love with another girl."

"But Gray isn't in love with Erza though." Lucy accidentally blurted out.

Uh oh.

"What?! Lucy-san, is that true?!" Juvia asked hopefully, unshed tears still present.

What the hell is wrong with you, Lucy? Are you supporting Juvia now? A part of her brain asked.

But I'm only telling the truth! Erza said Gray isn't in love with her or anything, Lucy hastily answered back in defense.

Your best friend Erza likes him though, remember? Her subconscious continued to argue with her.

Shit, that's true. Lucy thought. But she doesn't seem like it. Lucy unintentionally remembered the times she questioned herself whether Erza actually liked Gray. Maybe it was because of her personality that Lucy hadn't quite understood yet, but Erza seemed too…normal for a girl to claim to like Gray a lot.

You think Erza's lying? She'd never do that!

"I mean…love is such a strong word, Juvia." Lucy tried to reason. "They're only dating. And Gray changes girlfriends all the time remember?" Not that Lucy actually wanted Gray to break up with her redhead friend, but Erza said herself that she would be fine if things didn't turn out well and they just stayed friends, right? Compared to Erza who only likes Gray but would be fine if they were friends, Juvia was so obviously deeply in love with him that she looked like she'd literally be sick if she weren't his girlfriend…or something.

"But when Juvia sees Gray-sama with Erza-san, it feels different. It's not like his past girlfriends."

Does Juvia keep watch of Gray's exes? How does she even know? "That's probably because Erza's his friend first and foremost. Of course Gray treats her differently than his exes that were…"Lucy was about to say 'fangirls just like you' but she knew that wouldn't help the situation, "not his friends." She finished lamely.

"So Lucy-san is saying I shouldn't give up hope? Gajeel-kun said the same thing!" Juvia held on to Lucy's hands tightly.

Lucy forgot that Juvia Lockser who was terribly in love with her friend Gray, was best friends with the scary Gajeel Redfox, who also happened to be teammates with Gray and Lucy's friend, Levy's crush. Huh.

"Although Gajeel-kun told Juvia to not give up for different reasons."

"Different reasons?"

"Gajeel-kun said it's possible that Gray-sama and Erza-san aren't a real couple."

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Lucy shouted frustratingly. That didn't make any sense. What kind of bullshit was this Gajeel guy spouting?

But Lucy seriously needed to get her priorities straight. Who did she want to support being with Gray?

No doubt, if she was biased, she'd want Erza to be with Gray. But if Erza wasn't interested in Gray, then might as well support the girl who's terribly, almost-obsessively in love with him, right? If she wanted to support Erza, she was going to have to confirm Erza's feelings. At least while Gray doesn't have feelings for her yet.

Was she brave enough though? To suddenly ask her friend, "Erza, do you actually like Gray? If you don't maybe you should let this other girl have a chance since she's terribly in love with Gray and I feel bad for her. It'd be okay since you said yourself that you'd be fine if your relationship doesn't work out, right? And Gray isn't interested in you yet, right?"

THERE WAS NO WAY SHE COULD ASK ERZA THAT!

Even if there was a nicer way to ask, she doubt she'd be able to run away unscathed. Erza, while she was a dear friend to Lucy, was still very scary no doubt. The blond was too scared to ask her.

This meant Lucy had to find another way to determine Erza's feelings for Gray.

She didn't really show how she felt about Gray around Lucy. Maybe Erza just was not the type to gossip about such things, at least from what Lucy had seen so far. Maybe she only showed affection for Gray and Gray only.

Lucy was going to have to check out their real relationship for herself. That meant, she was going to have to stalk on their dates.

Did she really have to stoop low as to stalk on a couple's date?

But it would be one way to see how both of them treat the other. At school, Lucy had never seen Gray and Erza do anything more than hold hands. Perhaps it was Erza's policy or something, since she heard from Cana that Gray didn't have a problem with making out on the stairs with his previous girlfriends. Maybe Erza hated PDA.

Lucy just realized there were a lot of things about Erza she knew nothing about.

She was going to have to find out when Gray and Erza's next date was. Where did they usually go after school anyway?

"You've been looking really ugly all day."

Lucy spun around in surprise to see Natsu leaning by the locker beside her, his arms crossed while looking at her with almost a bored expression.

She fumed, "Well, sorry my face isn't appealing enough!"

"What's wrong?" Natsu asked frowning."You're making that kind of face, and it doesn't suit you."

Lucy breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. She shouldn't be taking it out on Natsu. "Just…relationship problems, I guess." She said sighing, not noticing Natsu's eyes widen in surprise before wearing an even deeper frown than before.

"With who-"

"Lucy!"

Both Lucy and Natsu turned their heads to see Loke approaching them, his hand waving in greeting and his eyes focused solely on the blond beauty.

"Loke." Lucy politely greeted him back with a smile. "It's rare to see you alone," she said jokingly.

Loke was one of the most popular guys in school after all, next to Gray, despite not actually being a part of a popular club himself, unlike Gray who became popular after becoming ace for the basketball team. Like Gray, he was always seen with a bunch of girls, though Loke especially loved the attention, while Gray, Lucy observed, just tolerated it.

"Oh? Are you happy to see me without other girls? Don't worry, Lucy. You'll always be number one in my heart." Loke said, his voice silky smooth as ever.

Lucy felt her sweat dripping. This guy was flirtatious as ever, not that Lucy took any of his flirting attempts seriously. "Really, now?" She tried to humor him.

"Yo, Loke." Natsu said all of a sudden, his expression quite emotionless. Lucy felt like it was the first time she saw that kind of expression.

"Oh? Natsu was here? I didn't notice."

Bastard…

Natsu was frowning a little too much than usual, Lucy noticed. He seemed a bit tense. She would have to ask him later but she was in a hurry. She would call Natsu tonight. "Well, I gotta head back to my room now. It's getting late. I'll see you guys on Monday." She waved at Natsu who was about to wave back when suddenly her hand was grabbed gently by none other than Loke. "Huh?"

"Lucy, I have something I need to talk to you about." Loke said, his face quite serious. It was a rather different look on him.

"Um, okay. What is it?"

Loke turned to see Natsu who was curiously leaning in wanting to hear. Nope, that wouldn't do. "Can we talk…in private?" He emphasized glancing over at Natsu who was now pretending not to hear the conversation.

"Sure. Natsu, see you next Monday!" Lucy waved to him as she followed to wherever Loke was taking her.

After walking a few steps Lucy looked back to see Natsu still staring at her, an unreadable look on his face.

"So, what did you want to tell me?"

They were exiting the academy's main entrance gate; there weren't a lot of students left hanging around the school grounds. It was already so late. Lucy hoped she would have time to catch up to dinner as she looked at the time displayed on her phone.

Loke cleared his throat. All of a sudden he was overcome with a feeling of nervousness. Rarely did that happen. Lucy wasn't the first beautiful girl he encountered. "Would you like to go out with me?"

Lucy's head spun around so fast to look at him. "WHAT?"

The nervousness increased tenfold. "I wanted to ask you out, on Sunday."

Was this really happening? Lucy had always known that Loke was quite the flirt, and he would try to flirt with her every day. She didn't mind it all that much, knowing for a fact that it was just harmless flirting. Though she did always make sure to brush him off, since Loke always had other girls to attend to, and she didn't want any extra attention on her. It was enough that Juvia thought she was out to get Gray, she sighed.

"So?"

Lucy looked up at the ginger-haired boy in front of her. He was quite earnest and he was a nice friend. But she wasn't really ready to date anyone. Especially popular pretty boys like Loke. And the fact that her dad wouldn't like it one bit. "Um, sorry, Loke. I can't."

Loke had a feeling he was going to be rejected but that didn't help his disheartened expression any better. "Why?"

"Oh…uh, my dad doesn't let me have a boyfriend." Lucy laughed nervously. It was true. Lucy almost protested at first, but maybe her dad knew her better than she did. She wasn't in the mood to be dating anyway. She already had trouble making friends before getting into Fairy Academy. Honestly if it weren't for Natsu, she wouldn't know how to be friends with so many people on the first day.

Her reasoning made Loke smile. He hid his relief. "That's good, because I wasn't asking to be your boyfriend, Lucy."

Lucy blushed in embarrassment. "You weren't? How silly of me!" God, I knew this guy was just joking around. Lucy, why'd you just take him seriously now?

"I just wanted to ask for a date. On Sunday."

"Um…" Dates, boyfriend, pretty much the same thing in Lucy's opinion. A date was one step to getting into a relationship right? "I'm not sure."

"It's just one date. How about if I say it can be just a friendly date?" Loke felt like he was losing his touch. He knew Lucy wouldn't agree so easily, but now he had to reduce his fantasy of a romantic date with Lucy to a friendly one?

To hell with it. As long as he could spend some time alone with her right? Maybe after one date she might think twice and let him take her on real romantic ones.

"My father wouldn't want me to be alone with a boy unless for um…studious reasons."

That was the best excuse you could come up with? Just say you can't date! Lucy thought.

"Oh, then it would be no problem. We won't be alone." Loke gave a charming but fake smile. Not that Lucy knew.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a double date!"

"I still am not-"

"With Gray and Erza!" Loke blurted out.

Lucy stopped in shock. She looked at Loke with wide curious eyes. "How do you know? Erza didn't tell me anything."

Loke laughed nervously. "Gray's my best friend too and um…he just talked to me about it. He was going to take Erza out to…" - stop talking - "to that new amusement park that opened near Onibus."

Lucy wasn't convinced. "And Erza agreed to it?" Erza did say her weekend was spent on more studying. Wait, she had a boyfriend now.

"Yeah! I mean, Gray had a hard time convincing her but in the end she agreed. But Gray was worried Erza would be nervous, since they've never gone out on a proper date besides spending time together at cafes after school, so I suggested maybe we could tag along. And we can leave them alone when Erza's more comfortable."

Loke was so impressed with his lie. How did he manage to come up with all that?

But he was pleasantly surprised when Lucy's honey brown eyes brightened with excitement. This was the perfect chance to spy on Gray and Erza's current relationship, without actually having to resort to stalking! Plus, this was also the first time she would get to see Erza actually have fun! And of course, this would be her first date but she suppose it didn't really count as she had other things to focus on, like possibly seeing how Erza actually acts around Gray. Was she the lovey dovey type? Lucy didn't know. There were a lot of things she had yet to learn about her roommate. Loke was like a knight in shining armor at this point though, giving her this chance. She grabbed on to his left arm and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! I'll go!"

Loke continued to smile charmingly, but he didn't feel as happy as he thought it would, since he just lied to the girl he was interested in getting to know of. Now he was going to have to convince Gray to take out his fake girlfriend?

Oh boy.

"It's been a while since you called…"

"It's only been a week."

"It was that long."

"Always the joker."

"I know I shouldn't be bothering you -"

"- You know that's not true..."

"I just really want to see you…"

"Me too…I just have to deal with some stuff at school first."

"Oh…"

"But don't worry. I'll have it sorted out quickly."

"I'll wait."

"I'm sorry-"

"It's okay. I want to wait. I miss you, Erza. So much."

"I miss you too."