a/n: If you haven't noticed yet, this is totally not focused on their school life. I'm jumping many months, because I was an idiot and said at the very very beginning 'two years earlier' when I didn't in fact have enough events to documate every month of their experience. But anyways, Gray and Erza have now known each other for a little over a year J
Also, I know these last few chapters have been like GrayZa crazy, and it's going to tone down some after this chapter. The actual major plot of the story has just begun, and I hope you stay along for the rideJ
…
"What do you mean you haven't broken a single rule?" Gray's disbelieving voice rang out through the once calm quiet of her dorm room. Erza glared at him, pursing her lips and crossing her arms over her chest.
"I have," she said, her voice lingering uncertainty on the word have.
"You're lying," he said automatically, from where he lay sprawled on her bed. They were in her dorm, lazing around, it was only the middle of September.
"I am not," she protested, spinning around in her desk chair, "I have broken laws Gray, if you can't remember." Since returning to school, neither of them had talked once about what went on at her house in July, even if it sometimes haunted her thoughts when he was near. It was better he didn't get involved in her messed up life.
"That doesn't count," he protested, "You were only there because Laxus asked you to be there." Her face pulls down into a frown—she can't deny that one.
"I don't need to break any rules," she states firmly, pulling her legs up to her chest and surveying him with her good eye, "people who break rules are hooligans."
"Hooligans?"
"Oh shut up Gray."
"No seriously, who says hooligans anymore?"
"I said shut up!" She protested, her face becoming the same shade as her hair. He laughed.
"So you basically don't know how to have fun?"
"I reject that statement completely. To have fun you don't have to break rules."
"Okay, I can see that," he said, mostly to himself, his face thoughtful. It scared her. "Let's go down to dinner."
…
It was later that night, while Erza lie awake staring at the ceiling, her brain mulling over many things but mostly Gray, that he came back to her dorm. This alone was breaking about fifty rules, because of course a guy couldn't come into a girls room in the dead of night!
"Erza," he hissed, shaking her awake. She jumped upwards and smashed her forehead against his, and they both fell back, whimpering and clutching their heads.
"You asshole," she spat, rubbing her forehead.
"Little is rather testy this late at night is she?" he teased, and she glared at him.
"You're going to wake Wendy," Erza whispered, "What are you doing here?" Although part of her suspected that the bluenette was apart of this… whatever this was, because she hadn't stirred once, which was oddly suspicious.
"I'm going to teach you how to have fun," he said, "meet me by the river in 'bout an hour. I left something for you on the end of your bed—it's Lucy's."
And with that statement he left almost as quickly as he had came.
She picked up the item he had left her, it was a piece of fabric, and traipsed to the bathroom so she could turn on a light and see exactly what it was.
It was a one piece swimsuit, the kind that wouldn't show to much of her skin for her to be uncomfortable, surprisingly modest. Something fell out of the bottom of it, and she bent down, picking up a far scantier piece. She was certain that Gray hadn't put it there, and decided that she would murder Lucy when she was done… doing whatever Gray had planned.
It rather thrilled her, as she threw the bikini over her shoulder and changed into the one piece, and found that it fit her like a glove…which was odd since Lucy was several sizes bigger then her hard muscular form. Not thinking to much of it, she grabbed one of the towels reserved for showers and headed out into the hall.
She scolded Gray in her head for not telling her exactly how to get out of the school without triggering some sort of alarm—before she saw it. It was one of his drawings, and it looked like it was discarded on the floor, no one would think twice if they saw it.
She grinned when she saw it was a self portrait, his little inky hand pointing forward.
She followed his artwork all the way out of the school, following a route that took her through the gyms, around the bleachers, through the lunchroom, in all the shadows so the security cameras wouldn't catch her.
She finally made it out onto the school grounds, the winds whistling through her hair and blowing it behind her, stinging her body. She shivered slightly, and wrapped the towel like a cape around her, starting towards the river.
The moonlight guided her path, surprisingly bright tonight. She was careful not to break any twigs or anything that might signify someone to her presence, instead treading as carefully as she possibly could.
She caught sight of Gray as she rounded the riverbank they became friends on. He was standing with his back to her, and was wearing a set of navy swim trunks that looked suspiciously like his underwear, (That was a totally innocent observation.)
She decided that he was probably planning on a quick swim, something that would break her record of no rules broken. A smile quirking up her lips, she wondered if he knew she was here. He didn't turn around though, so she assumed he could not.
Now was her chance. She crept up slowly behind him, a grin of colossal proportions spreading across her face as she took both of her hands and with a giant heave—shoved him into the river.
He fell into it with a cry, spluttering frantically as he righted himself in the water, his eyes flickering to meet hers. She moved closer to the bank, her toes playing with the sand on the edge as she laughed at him.
"Is that how you want to play Scarlet?" he asked her, reaching out to grab her ankle, faster then she thought he could move. He yanked her into the river, her whole body thudding against the surprisingly hard and slippery stones in the bottom. Her whole head was underwater for a moment, and so when she surfaced, her scarlet hair was fully plastered over her face, obscuring her face. She almost went to all the work of rearranging it so it covered the part of her face that needed to be covered, but then she realized that this was the one person she could show her whole face to. She flipped it all out of her eyes, and found that she was much closer to Gray then she assumed.
There was a moment when they were both still, not even their chests pumping to get oxygen to their brains, every muscle in lockdown. Her eyes were fixated on him, him with the water running in rivlets down his neck and back, over those tan abs she'd seen a billion times before but suddenly seemed all the more appealing now, and then when her cautious eyes found the strength to look up into his own—she found the same conclusion she had just made there.
A voice whispered in the back of her mind that this was a terrible idea, an idea that would ruin everything, even more then the events of July had. Certainly someone else other then them would know about it, he could get hurt, she could get hurt, they could both end up broken messes.
They already were broken messes she realized, they both were a mess of tangled string, knotted so tightly that only the most skilled fingers could get them undone. Somewhere along the way, her string had gotten tangled with his, and even she couldn't figure out how to reverse it.
She leaned forward, making up her mind—her every thought now out of her own will, based purely on the implication of want. No not want, need. She needed this, she needed him and his tangled string. Her Mother had used to say she would find somebody that would fix her, make her right again—Erza had spent so many long nights imaging that person's face, what they would be like to her, how they would act.
Nobody is not broken though, she realized. Everyone has some fucked up quality about themselves, everyone has suffered. It's just a matter of how much. Gray was certainly not the man her Mother had envisoned for her, but maybe they could untangle each other. Maybe he could forget his Mother and she could forget them, and they would live in a pretty house in a pretty city, and be everything she wanted.
It wasn't realistic. Her lips were millimeters away from his, and she couldn't. She quickly pulled her face back, because she didn't want that. She didn't want to drag him down into her broken dream. Neither of them were the people that lived in that fantasy, and she couldn't try and force them to be.
"Erza," he said, and she turned away, "Erza look at me." She did. He pulled her into her embrace and kissed her.
She kissed him back.