Summary: Gray confesses his love….but it isn't to Juvia.

Pairings: Gray/Erza friendship, some implied Natsu/Lucy, implied Gray/Lucy friendship, Lucy/Juvia friendship if you squint, implied Lisanna/Happy friendship, implied Gajeel/Juvia friendship, lots and lots of other friendship feels in general, and Gray/Juvia.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for giving me over SEVENTY FOUR HUNDRED REVIEWS! And so quickly as well!

It had been one of their more dangerous missions in which they encountered deadly mages from one of the darker guilds. In their attempts to put an end to the threat once and for all, they got reckless, and it wasn't until Gray successfully knocked out one mage that he noticed another one attacking Erza from behind, she was completely oblivious as she was busy cutting down the mage before her.

"ERZA!"

Without a second thought he dived between her and the attacking mage, and was hit with a blast of magic just as Erza turned round.

"GRAY!" Erza screamed.

Gray cried out in agony as he almost fell onto his knees. Erza had caught him before he could and helped him stagger back onto his feet. He barely had time to thank her when she re-quipped her sword for her a thunder weapon and blasted the mages into a tree.

This spurred the others into fighting with their all and soon enough Natsu had knocked the rest of the mages out with his fire, Wendy had thrown many more into trees, and Lucy and Virgo rounded them all up in chains in order to present them to the authorities.

It was then when Erza dusted off her hands, took in the sight of many unconscious bodies with a satisfied smile, and then turned to Gray.

Immediately her smile fell off her face and Gray gulped at the furious gleam in her dark eyes as she took in the scorch marks on his body, the cuts and bruises, and the fact that the last blast he had taken for her had caused a concussion and he was swaying on his feet, finding it more and more difficult to stand.

(The fact that Erza kept multiplying before his eyes was both mildly worrying and absolutely terrifying.)

"What were you thinking?!" Erza fumed. "Jumping in like that without a single care for your own well-being?! You could have been killed! You could have been injured a lot worse than you are! You….you….you…." Erza's anger drained away as she turned a deathly white beneath the blush on her cheeks and slowly she ducked her head in a bow of gratitude, "you saved me," she mumbled. "Thank you." Gray would have said 'you're welcome' but that was when Erza's anger decided to kick in. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" she smacked him over the head. "YOU STUPID MORON!"

"Ouch!" Gray ducked to avoid Erza's next swipe. "Erza!" he whined. "Cut it out! I didn't get killed and I'm not hurt….much, so quit your henpecking! Why wouldn't I save you? Of course I was going to save you!" Gray snapped having lost all patience. "I love you, stupid!"

The silence at this proclamation for deafening.

Erza froze and stared at Gray with a look akin to surprise mingled with sheer horror. Natsu's jaw dropped open, Lucy's eyes widened in shock, Wendy blushed, Charle didn't look at all interested let alone bothered, and Happy had the biggest grin on his face.

"You….you…." Erza stammered, "You love me?"

It was then when Gray fully realised exactly what he had just said.

"Bollocks."

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

The days after were weird and awkward.

Gray's abrupt and sudden love confession was not discussed…..between Gray and Erza. In fact currently they weren't able to look at each other or be in the same room as one another. Every time Erza met Gray's eyes she got flustered and tended to immediately turn around and walk in the opposite direction. It had been very awkward when she did this when she bumped into Gray at the entrance of Fairy Tail and immediately walked into a wall. Everyone else though felt it was fine for them to talk about it and gossip amongst themselves. It was bad enough that everyone kept sending him knowing looks and smirks but now they were teasing him about it.

"Erza, eh?" Wakaba waggled his eyes brows. "I didn't know you liked it so rough."

"Oh come on, he was always a masochist," Macao smirked, "Look at how he always seeks punishment out with all his fights and naked-ness."

"True, true," Wakaba drawled, "he likes the Black Purgatory Armour while his mistress punishes him."

Gray almost vomited in his mouth at the mental images that had produced. "Shut up, you perverts!" he yelled.

"Heh, heh, heh," Natsu sniggered like a moron, "Gray is a masochist."

Gray whirled round to glare at Natsu. "You could talk Ash Brain!" he snapped. "You're the one that gets off of Lucy kicking you into a wall or out of the window."

"She has nice legs," Natsu shrugged.

Gray shuddered at what was, quite frankly, too much information but before he could say anything, Cana draped an arm round her shoulder. "Never pegged you for the type that liked to be chained down," she grinned perversely, "I thought you preferred the submissive sweet type like Juvia. That you were the punisher."

Gray's stomach twisted uncertainly at the mention of Juvia. He hadn't seen the blue haired, insane, water mage since Happy burst into the guild and told everyone, on the top of his voice, that Gray confessed his love to Erza.

She vanished very quickly after that and Gray hasn't been able to shake off the feeling she went to cry into her pillow at home which unsettled him greatly.

He pushed Cana off of him. "You shut up as well!" he barked.

Cana merely threw back her head and cackled. Pleased to have wound him up rather than get upset at his rudeness to her. Gray would have said something nasty to shut that up but before he could open his mouth, Happy zoomed over his head.

"Gray and Erza sitting in a tree!" Happy sang for the billionth time. "K. I. S. S. I. N. G! First comes love, second comes marriage, and third comes a b-EEK!"

Gray took great satisfaction at the crashing sound of Happy, encased in a block of ice, landing on the floor.

"Gray!" Lisanna barked. She rushed over to Happy's side, transforming her arms into wings before she grab hold of the frozen cat and held him close to her chest. The feathers provided a little warmth and comfort for the shuddering Happy. "How could you?!" she snarled furiously.

"Very easily," Gray said dryly, "he's annoying."

"So are you," Gajeel growled as he cracked his knuckles, "but we haven't attacked you…..yet."

Gray shifted uncomfortably and looked around desperately for help. Since Happy's big mouth got him into trouble with…..well everyone, and made Juvia vanish, several people had been a little short with him in Juvia's defence. Gajeel was on top of the list and been looking for a reason to break Gray's jaw.

Unfortunately there was no one at hand, everyone either wanted to hit him for breaking Juvia's heart or just torment him for his 'love for Erza'. Lucy might have taken his side and backed him up as she wasn't the type to judge someone for not returning someone's affection and she wasn't the teasing type (much) but since they returned she declared she was neutral and immediately locked herself up in her apartment much to Natsu's never-ending (and never silent and incredibly annoying) dismay.

So that left Gray standing in the middle of the guild, completely alone, while Cana and Natsu made jokes about him, Gajeel made threatening gestures, Lisanna glared at him, and everyone else was no help at all.

Frustrated and thoroughly fed up with everyone, Gray stormed out of the guild building with the intention of never returning until someone else confessed their love to someone and they all focused on that instead. Which knowing most of his so-called friends, was never going to happen which means he was going to be a lonely hermit in the mountains for all eternity…..a naked lonely hermit…he'll have to grow a beard, and eat Vulcans, and learn to hunt so he can eat Vulcans, and -

"Oof!" Gray grunted when he suddenly crashed into someone. "Hey!" he snapped impatiently. "Watch where…..Erza!" he squeaked. "I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!"

"No, no," Erza shook her head, her eyes focused on anywhere but Gray, "it's all right. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Neither was I," Gray admitted, "so erm…..I haven't seen you at the guild much."

"Yes," Erza said. "Yes," she repeated after a moment of awkward silence, "I, erm, have been busy with sword cleaning and armour polishing, and erm….eating cake!" Gray couldn't believe he was getting 'I'm washing my hair' crap from Erza, only with swords and armours and cakes. "Look! I can't do this!" Erza suddenly snapped. "I can't keep avoiding you, I quite like to see our friends and enjoy Mira's Strawberry cake without this hovering round us." Gray stood there silently as he waited for whatever it was that Erza wanted to say. When it became evident he wasn't going to say anything to encourage or discourage her, Erza took a deep breath. "The thing is…..I don't love you!" Erza blurted out suddenly, her cheeks matching her hair perfectly. "Not like that! I think of you as a little brother."

"Oh my God!" Gray cried out. "I didn't mean it like that! Why would I mean it like that?" he asked snarkily. "I mean, who would ever be interested in you? You're scary, and mean, and weird, you like cake too much, and-"

Gray didn't even see Erza's fist move but it didn't surprise him when he felt a sudden blow against his cheek which sent him flying across the street.

Gray landed on the floor hard. "What I meant," he mumbled against the ground, "is that I love you as a sister." There was a moment of silence as Gray turned round and faced Erza. His gaze met her eyes with a steely resolution. "I love you," he repeated, "as a sister."

Immediately Erza's body sagged with relief. "Oh thank God!" she muttered. "I was beginning to worry I would have to break your heart and then you would kill yourself because you would never get over it."

"What sort of crap have you been reading to get that sort of idea?!"

Erza ignored his question as she offered her hand to him. Deciding to not press the issue (because the last time he looked at Erza's reading material he had been scarred for life) Gray accepted her hand and allowed her to pull him up. He immediately regretted it when she then hauled him against her cold, hard, steel, armour and held his head against her bosom. "Never put me through crap like that again!" she said sternly.

"Fine!" Gray rasped against Erza's armour. "Now let me go! I can't breathe!"

Erza released him and Gray almost fell to his knees as he hastily took in greedy, deep, breaths. There was another silence but unlike the others it was a comfortable and relaxing one. Until, that is, Erza spoke up again.

"Do me a favour."

"Hmm?"

"Tell Juvia."

Gray looked up bewilderedly. "Tell Juvia what?" he asked.

"That you don't love me romantically," Erza rolled her eyes, "she's taken it quite badly and needs to know the truth before she makes a drastic decision."

"Do I have to?" Gray whined. "It's been so nice not having her…." Gray's voice trailed off as Erza shot him the most murderous and terrifying glare she had ever given him before. "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" he squeaked. "I'll go and tell her now!" he yelled as he ran down the street.

Jesus Christ, she was terrifying. Why did Gray love her again?

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Gray soon realised that Erza was completely right the moment Juvia opened the door. Not only did she look paler than usual, almost bordering a sickly colour, but her eyes were rimmed with red from too much crying, her hair was a mess from not being cared properly, and he had never seen Juvia look so unkempt before in his life.

To make things even more worrying, her room looked alarmingly empty. Gray had been in it before, many times actually, on the occasion when he needed to steal something of his back, or woke up after being knocked out and found himself in Juvia's bed (how she carried him back he would never know) and he had always been a little creeped out (and, grudgingly, flattered) at all the dolls made in his image that cluttered the room, and the posters, and the little shrine in general….

It was all gone now.

The walls were bare, there was a great deal of carpet that he had never seen before, and Juvia's desk, drawers, and shelves looked naked without his image adorning them.

"Gray-sama," Juvia murmured disbelievingly, "what are you doing here visiting Juvia?" she asked sadly. "Shouldn't you be visiting Erza-san instead? Her room is upstairs."

"No, no, I'm not here to visit Erza," Gray shook his head, "I'm here to see you."

"Oh," instead of looking pleased or jumping into a fantasy as she always did, Juvia slumped further into a gloomy state, "Gray-sama doesn't have to worry. Juvia has resolved that she would not let her feelings get in the way of Gray-sama's happiness. She will try to get over Gray-sama so he can be with Erza without rainclouds running his happiness."

"There's no need for that!" Gray yelped. Juvia looked taken back and Gray hurriedly went on to explain. "Look," he said exasperated, "I love Erza," Juvia choked on a sob and Gray shot her a stern glare, "as a sister," he stressed. "I love Erza as a sister and nothing more. Nothing romantic," he gagged on the word, "I don't think about holding her hand and kissing her and urgh, just no! But I do love her, she's family, and I'll do anything for her. You understand, right?"

"Juvia thinks so," Juvia said hesitantly, a flicker of hope flare in her eyes, "Gray-sama is saying….that Gray-sama is still available, right?"

"Right."

"Then…." A smile blossomed on Juvia's face and Gray couldn't help but smile back, "Juvia shall return to loving Gray-sama with one hundred and ten per cent!" she squealed excitedly before she flung herself at Gray. "Oh Gray-sama!"

"Gah!" Gray cried out, his voice muffled against Juvia's breasts. "Juvia! I can't breathe!"

"Juvia is sorry!" Juvia leaped away. "Juvia is just so excited that the possibility of her feelings being returned has come back! Oh no!" Juvia gasped suddenly, her smile melted away from her face quickly. "Juvia must rescue all the other Gray-samas!"

"All the other Gray-samas?" Gray questioned, and then he suddenly remembered all the dolls, and pictures, and other things. "Never mind," he shook his head, "….why do they need saving?"

"Juvia gave them all a way in an attempt to get over Gray-sama," Juvia explained as she grabbed her coat, "right now Gajeel-kun has probably done something terrible to them. We must rescue them before they're all ripped apart!"

Gray moved quickly to assist Juvia of the rescue of her dolls…..after all, he didn't need Gajeel to be conditioned into punching his face to the point the stuffing literally came out of him, did he?