Warning: this has themes of abuse. If you have any triggers towards that, please don't read.

This is my favorite chapter so far. Hands down.

Thank you as always, to Epicocity. (you guys should check out their latest Fairy Tail story trust me it's brilliant.)

On another note, that latest chapter made me so mad. I DID NOT WANT TO GO BACK TWENTY MINUTES AND SEE WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO NATSU. I WANTED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED WITH FACE. But you can't always get what you want…. And I suppose I won't for several more chapters. *dramatic sigh*

Juvia didn't have any strength left, but she still attempted to back away quickly, her hands slipping on the wet grass. Lyon looked at her with nothing but concern, and for whatever reason it hurt her, as much as a knife would. It was just a painful reminder of what she'd lost, and she struggled to her feet.

"Juvia is fine," she said quickly, her blue eyes growing wider than they should. She was desperate to get away now, and it seemed to her that was all she did anymore. Getting away from Gray, from them, from herself. Her life was falling apart before her eyes, and she couldn't do anything about it.

Lyon only approached her, his face the perfect mask of gentleness and tender concern.

"Please get away from Juvia," she said slowly, and then she heard it. The fast chopping of something airborne, descending over her with quick snaps. She knew now that her chase was over. They'd caught up to her.

She looked around wildly for a moment, she couldn't let them think Lyon was in on it. Raising her hand she punched him straight in the nose, sending him flying to the ground. She knew her own strength, and knew he would be unconscious. Her head shot towards the sky, and she tried to will her legs to run, but it was to late. She felt the dart enter her neck, could practically feel the drug swirling through her body, making her eyes and limbs heavy—causing her to crash to the ground as the darkness surrounded her.

Two months later

Gray was currently lying in his bedroom, making no noise, and pretending he didn't exist. At least, that was what he was trying to do, but it wasn't something that was particularly easy. The reason for his total and absolute insistence that he shouldn't exist in this crazy messed up world? Erza Scarlet.

It was July, the middle of summer, and while he had given her his phone number on the last day of school, she still hadn't called him yet. He wasn't a stalker, but she promised she would call him the next day! Instead of feeling angry with her for ignoring him however, all he could feel was this crushing concern that almost made him feel sick.

"What are you doing?" Ultear's tone of voice was definitely kinder than it had been the previous summer, the look on her face almost genuinely concerned. He didn't blame her, he'd pretty much turned into a hermit since coming home from school, hardly ever leaving his room, glaring and shuffling his feet when he did.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked her. She laughed, which was something he had not expected her to do. It wasn't funny.

"You've got it bad," she taunted, although he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Got what bad?" he countered.

"You're in love aren't you? With Erza," she sang the last word.

He spluttered.

"No-No I'm not—"

"Don't even try to deny it little brother," she looked happy now, the first real expression he'd seen fully cross her face in ages. "I can tell a relationship when I see one."

"I don't—"

"So what's bothering you?" she asked next, moving to sit on the end of his bed. "You know you can tell me anything." He looked into her violet eyes, and made a decision.

"I haven't heard from her all summer," he confessed quietly, his blue eyes darting away from her own and focusing on the pale wood of his bedroom floor.

"So?"

"So I feel like something's wrong. She said she would call me, and I dunno," he broke off when he realized how stupid he sounded.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she questioned him, her eyebrows knitting together. He frowned at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Go after her," she said, pushing him the chest, "I can't believe I had to tell you that," and she got up and walked out of his room.

…

"Hey….Dad," Gray started rather nervously, his eyes flitting towards his Father's back.

"Son?" his Father practically barked out, turning around sharply. Gray stifled a sigh. His Dad was way to over the top sometimes…make that all the time.

"I wanted to ask you something," Gray practically mumbled, his eyes trained on the ground.

"Ask away," his Father said, and judging from the tone of his voice, he was already bored with this conversation.

"Can I borrow your car?" Gray's voice was shaky as he spoke. He'd never asked to borrow his Father's car before, but he needed it if he was going to find Erza.

"My car?" his Father seemed more interested now that it fully involved him. He actually looked at Gray, his whole face crinkling in concern, "Why ever, would you need that?"

"Well, there's this…" Gray trailed off, trying to decide what words he could possibly use to describe this, "Girl," he finally decided, "and I'm worried about her—so I want to see if she's okay."

"It's this 'Erza' girl isn't it?" his Father asked, and Gray actually let a look of surprise cross his features.

"How do you know about Erza?" he asked in curiosity, because he knew for a fact that he'd never mentioned her.

"Lyon and Ultear talk a lot," he said by way of answer, "Is it?"

"Yes," Gray said, deciding to go with the truth for once in his life.

"You can't go," his Father replied without a second of considering. Gray looked at him for a moment, his jaw hanging open at such an abrupt answer.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so," There was something in his Father's eyes, some complicated secret that he wasn't telling him.

"What the hell kind of answer is that?" Gray demanded, his voice rising slightly.

"It's the answer I'm giving you, as your Father," he said firmly, his eyebrows drawing so close together that they looked like they were joined as one.

"Well I don't accept that," Gray retorted.

"Well you have to," his Father said, "accept it and move on."

"I won't."

"You will because I told you to."

"YOU DON'T OWN ME!" now he really was yelling.

"I DO OWN YOU! I OWN YOUR FUTURE, YOU LIFE, DON'T YOU FORGET IT BOY!"

"I HAVE CHOICES—"

"YOU DON'T HAVE CHOICES! I MAKE YOUR CHOICES. Now Gray," he said, his voice lowering abruptly, "Tell me what this is really about? Are you in love with this girl?" he said the word 'girl' like it was vermin. Gray's stomach queasily spun in her body. His mind was totally blank, not because he was shocked by the question, but because he'd been asking himself the same question for the last month.

He abruptly turned on his heel and departed from the room like hell was following him, something almost like tears rising in his eyes. He hated his Father more than he ever had in that moment, something that tore apart at his insides until all that was left was a tangled mess of a broken life.

He slammed the door to his bedroom, the sound echoing throughout the house. He threw himself back onto his bed, a frustrated sigh escaping his lips. He fought the urge to scream out loud.

When he closed her eyes, he saw Erza's face. Her beautiful face, with that big brown eye and that red mane of hair, her way of smiling at him without showing any teeth, the way she hit him so hard he saw stars, but he was always seeing stars when he looked at her because she made him dizzy.

"Oh no," he muttered to himself, "oh hell no. I love her, I love her, I love her, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." It wasn't that being in love with Erza scared him…okay scratch that it terrified the living daylights out of him. He wasn't used to loving anyone, to letting himself be open to the option of love. Yet it had happened, and very suddenly he was a boy in love, which was something he'd never been before.

"You're in love with someone?" A cool voice asked from the doorway, and Gray nearly jumped out of his skin. Lyon looked across the room towards him, and nodded in his brother's direction, "and Dad won't let you go after her?" Lyon recently had his nose broken by some random chick on the street, and his eyes were still black.

"Yeah," Gray said, for lack of better words. Lyon tossed him something shiny. Gray caught it, and glanced downwards. Car keys.

"Go after her dumbass, she's not going to wait forever."

…

He had ended up crawling out of his window and sprinting across the lawn to Lyon's truck. He figured he had a good hour or two before his Dad went looking for him, and that was an hour Gray was going to put to good use.

Lyon's truck was an old dark blue classic and the door stuck unless you kicked it hard. It made a loud rumbling noise as you drove it, and smelled like cheap air fresheners and cinnamon gum, the scent that their Mother's car always used to smell like. In the back of his mind, Gray wondered if Lyon meant for it to smell that way.

It only occurred to him when he was on the way out of the city he lived in, that he had no idea where Erza lived, only that it was near the mountain peaks on the south side of the country. There was one person he knew had her address for sure, and he pulled out Ultear's phone (he had 'borrowed' it from her dresser) and dialed Mirajane's number.

"Hello?" her bubbly voice came through the speaker.

"Hey Mira it's Gray. I was just wondering, could you tell me where Erza lives?"

"Gray what are you doing?" a tone of suspicion edged into her voice.

"I'm going after Erza," he said, "I'm going to find her. Mira please, I need your help."

"Are you in love with her?" Mira asked excitedly.

"Mira—"

"You are!" she squealed, and he had to hold the phone away from his ear so she didn't puncture his eardrum. "Okay let me get it for you…"

…

It was several hours of driving later and one crappy meal at a roadside McDonalds before he reached the town Erza lived in. It was called the Town of Heaven, which was a rather odd name for a town but Gray decided not to question it.

The town was very small; a collection of around sixty houses or so, clustered together at the base of the mountains. There was a tiny high school, a gas station/grocery store, and a hunting store. He stopped at the gas station, mostly to ask for more precise directions to Erza's house. It was such a small town; he expected that the lady behind the counter would know who she was.

"What can I help ya with?" the woman asked in pleasant enough voice, extending a chubby hand for Gray to shake, "Names Louise, but you can call me Lou." Gray found himself nodding back and taking her hand, it was a good thing that she was friendly.

"I'm actually trying to find someone," he said, rooting around in his pocket for the picture of Erza he had, just in case nobody did know who she was, "her name is Erza Scarlet," the woman gave a soft sigh of recognition and reached out to take the photo, probably to examine it further.

It was a picture Lucy had snapped of them sometime after she returned to the academy; Erza was wearing a happy smile, her brown eye staring directly into the camera. Gray stood next to her, and somehow they'd caught him staring down at her right before the shot was taken, his hand reaching out uncertainly to take hers. After Lucy printed and showed him the picture, he took Erza's copy and ripped it to shreds. She didn't know he was reaching for her hand when the picture was taken, and she shouldn't know.

"Are you her friend?" the woman asked, a hopeful expression filling her face.

"Her best friend," Gray corrected absentmindedly.

"Do me a favor boy," she said, "keep her smiling like this. Her house is just down the road, be careful of her stepdad."

"Thank you," he said, trying not to focus on her comment. Why wouldn't Erza smile like this normally?

…

Erza's house was tiny. It looked like a very large shed, with windows and a front and back door. The yard was filled with weeds, the sidewalk looking up to the house cracked and splintered, the blue paint of the house faded and dull. The roofs shingles were falling off, and the willow tree next to it looked like it was falling into the house.

He nervously stepped on the porch, which groaned and creaked under his weight, raising one fist to lightly knock on the shabby brown door. There was a great deal of swearing inside, and the sound of someone lumbering towards the door.

The door was pulled brutally open from the inside, so it slammed against the wall indoors. The man behind the door assault was tall, with deep tan skin and odd tattoos decorating his arms, neck and face. He had long white hair that reached his shoulders, and a beaky nose that reminded Gray of a bird. The man's eyes narrowed at the sight of him, frowning deeply as if he knew the boy from somewhere.

"Who're you?" he barked, his words slurring slightly. His eyes were so bloodshot they almost looked red.

"Gray Fullbuster sir," Gray mumbled, and then in a louder voice, "I'm a friend of Erza's." The man looked at him for a moment, and then let out a cackling laugh.

"You wanna see that Scarlet girl?" he asked, "I'm sorry, but she ain't getting any visitors from your folk. Grounded." Gray shrugged.

"That's to bad," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'll just have to come back another time."

"How about you don't come back?" the man suggested, "Wait for her to return at that freaky school you both probably attend."

"Right Mr.—"

"Call me Zero," the man grunted, "Best to remember it boy." And he slammed the door in Gray's face.

Somehow, that only made him more determined to find Erza. Seeing her stepfather furthered the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, making him nearly sick. He waited until he heard Zero stumbling back across the house, and then crept away from the porch, around to the left side of the house. How he knew it was the left side? He may never know.

He was absolutely silent as he tread through the yard, before he peeked into the first window on the left side. It was a scary sight of Zero belching in front of a shabby TV, and Gray quickly proceeded onto the next window.

He was lucky that time. This was obviously Erza's room, he could see into it. It was no bigger than a small closet, the twin bed taking almost all the space in the room. Erza was sitting on the bed; drawing in a sketchbook he had given her for Christmas the past year. Quietly, he knocked on the window.

Erza whirled around, her hand clapped over her mouth to stop herself from crying out. When she saw it was him, her eyes got huge. She bent towards the window, shoving it open with a great groaning sound.

"Don't keep the window open to long! You know I hate it when there are bugs in the house!" he heard Zero call.

"Of course not Papa!" Erza trilled back nervously. She waited for a couple moments, as if listening to hear any approaching sounds of her Father.

"Hey," he whispered, suddenly very aware of how stupid this idea. He seriously just showed up at her house in the middle of summer, without invitation, without warning—she obviously hated him—

Erza reached out and wrapped her arms around him. The hug was a bit awkward, considering she was inside the house and he was outside, but it was a hug all the same. Not being able to resist, he pressed his face into her hair, but instead of smelling of strawberries, it smelled like cigarette smoke. Still, if he concentrated enough, he could detect the faint scent, still lingering like a reminder of some of the happiest moments of their lives.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, her eye shining when she pulled back. He lifted a careful finger and brushed aside the other strands of hair, revealing the ruined mess of her other eye.

"I was worried," he confessed quietly, "when you didn't call me—" at those words Erza scowled.

"Zero wouldn't let me," she said and then gestured towards him, "back up."

"Back up?"

"I'm coming out."

He did as he was told, backing up a safe distance so she could slide out of the window. She closed it behind her, making as little noise as possible.

"Won't he come looking for you?" he asked.

"No," she answered surely, "He leaves me alone when the games on." She seemed nervous, and he noticed a bruise on her cheek.

"Let's talk," he decided, reaching out to take her hand. He tugged her to where his truck was parked, and they climbed up into the bed, before lying flat against the metal. He could see the sky from his position, but instead he turned his head and looked at her.

"What's going on?" he asked her quietly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, but her voice twanged slightly, as if she knew exactly what he was referring to.

"Who is… Zero? Is he your Father?" Erza shook her head.

"He's my Mother's husband. My Stepfather. I wouldn't be living with him at all—but Mama passed away years ago and left me with him. He was good when she was around, I promise," she sounded almost like she was defending herself.

"Does he hit you?" was his next question, although he already knew the answer. He could feel her hesitate, saw her tense up and freeze.

"No—"

"Don't lie to me Erza," he warned. She sighed.

"Yes," she finally said, "Yes he does. But I can take care of myself Gray, don't go getting anyone involved—"

"Run away with me," the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, in a torrent of passionate emotion. Erza sat up in surprise, her mouth opening in an O.

"What?"

"We can take this truck and drive," he said, "Drive wherever we want. You don't have to stay there anymore, you can be with me." She looked sad for a moment, but the moment passed and she looked harder than steel.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"There's something's you can't understand Gray," she whispered, "I can't just not come back. Leaving for school is one thing alone—but forever—I can't."

"What's holding you back?" he asked her, and her expression became guarded.

"I can't tell you," she said quickly, "I really can't. I wish I could Gray, but it's not how the world works." She stood up, leaping from the truck bed gracefully. He stood up as well, her rejection stinging in his ears.

"Okay," he said slowly.

"I really wish I could," she said, turning back to look at the house, and for a moment he thought she had succumbed to tears, "maybe in another life—but I can't." he jumped down from the bed also. She turned back to look at him.

"Erza—"

She cut him off by leaning forward, standing on her tiptoes so she could kiss him on the forehead.

"Maybe if I can figure out how to get out," she took in a harsh breath, "Gray Fullbuster, I will run away with you someday." Her voice cracked, "I promise." He could only watch as she walked back to her house, to an abusive stepfather and some other force tying her down.