AN: Hey guys! Sorry this took so long. I felt like this was one of the chapters that I could easily screw up, so I pent an extra-long time working on it to try and make it not suck. Hopefully this is to your liking! As always, reviews, favorites, follows, etc. will be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

Notice: I don't own Fairy Tail. Its characters, settings, etc. all belong to Hiro Mashima. However, this fic does contain a fair amount of OC's if you somehow haven't noticed. These are mine. But nothing else. You know. Copyright stuff. Don't sue me.

Chapter 14: Half-confessions, Cover-ups, and a Visitor

No. What the hell was she doing here? Gray wasn't nearly ready to face her yet. I haven't taken on nearly enough jobs, he thought. There's no way I'm strong enough to tell her yet, and definitely no way in hell I'm strong enough to beat Ezra. Plus, there's no reason why I should ever tell her at all, since she went out with Ezra already. I guess I just have to get over my feelings right now… and forever.

The clink of Erza's armor as she approached startled Gray from his thoughts. He quickly straightened up and began babbling incoherently. "E-Erza! What are you doing here? I-I mean, it's totally all right for you to be here, of course, because this is your river after all- I mean, what I should say is, you might be wondering what the heck I'm doing here? And, you know, that's a really good question. I shouldn't be here at all, and I'm sorry for disturbing your secret hideout, and I'll be going now-" Gray started to dash off into the woods, but Erza stopped him with one arm.

"Calm down, Gray. You're acting very strangely. Is something the matter?"

Gray was never cold, but his teeth felt like chattering, he was so nervous. "Uh… Nope. Nothing at all." He laughed nervously. "Why do you ask?"

"You've been gone from the guild for days," the red-haired girl explained. "Natsu and I spent all day looking for you. I found out about all that extra work you've been taking on by yourself. I appreciate the work ethic, Gray, but why didn't you let us help you? We could've…"

Erza's lecture droned on, but Gray was too dumbstruck to pay much attention to her words. She… was looking for me? Why would she take the time away from Ezra to find me? I mean, I know she's my teammate and all but she knows I can take care of myself…

Erza's armored hand on his shoulder startled Gray out of his space out. Erza stared at Gray with an expression of deep concern. "I know you want to get stronger, Gray, but you should do it with us. We're a team for a reason. Now promise me you won't ever abandon us like that again, even for just a week."

It was kind of funny that Erza seemed to think Gray could possibly refuse her. Of course he couldn't.

"Y…Yeah. 'Course, Erza. I'm sorry. I won't do it again," Gray mumbled while staring at the ground.

Suddenly he felt her hand lightly grabbing his chin and lifting his face upwards. Gray could tell he was blushing. God help me, please don't let her notice. "Really, Gray… Is something bothering you?" she probed. "Please… you can tell me. I won't judge you no matter what it is."

Yeah, right.

What if he did just tell her? What if he just said it? I'm in love with you, Erza. I have been ever since I found your soft side at this same river when we were kids. You're the most loyal person I've ever known, and you draw on your strength from that same loyalty. I always feel safe in battle beside you. Ever since that day, I've known that you've been through so much pain and suffering, but you soldier on through it all just to protect everyone else. I can't express to you how much that makes me care about you.

Gray's perfect, ideal confession flashed through his mind again. He'd memorized it word for word; it would be so easy to just recite it! It would be like when he used to have to recite poems at school before Deliora destroyed his old life.

"Gray?"

Gray took a deep breath. He was going to say it.

A certain feeling Gray had become very familiar with one again crept into Gray's mind: doubt.

She's not going to take it well, it whispered. You're a stripping pervert who always gets into fights with an idiotic, childish, pink-haired pyro. You've shrugged off the one girl who actually liked you for months, and now you want to convince Erza to be with you? Forget it. Why would she choose someone like you over the great Ezra Mathin, Ice Boy?

"Erza, I… I've just been thinking about… Ur," Gray finished lamely.

Erza looked concerned. She bought it. "Oh, really, Gray? I'm so sorry. Do you want to talk to me about it?"

Of all the things he had to make up a lie about, it had to be that. Thinking about his old master was probably even more painful than thinking about Erza. Well, he had to roll with his cowardly decision now.

Gray sat down on the riverbank again, and Erza joined him. The starlight's reflections in the water seemed to be taunting him for his cowardice.

"Well, last week was the anniversary of when Ur cast the Ice to Shell to save Lyon and me from Deliora." Lie. "I just thought about how it was all my fault for getting into that fight with Deliora in the first place." Not true. Gray had been too focused on his own petty selfish problems to remember. "I thought, 'What if that happened again? What if I was the only one who could save somebody from the guild, and I just wasn't strong enough, like Ur was?' I had to become stronger." Well, at least his lies were plausible, and Gray didn't have to try to exude fake emotion. Real tears were coming from his eyes at the memories. How dare he deface Ur's memory like this? How could he just use her sacrifice as an excuse for his actions?

Gray felt Erza's arm around his shoulder, pressing his face against her armored chest plate. It hurt, but Gray didn't mind. "It's okay, Gray. I understand. I feel that way about everyone in the guild all the time. But I have the perfect remedy."

Gray couldn't make any noise but a sob. What a loser he was. Here he was crying like a baby, getting tears and snot all over Erza's pristine armor.

"It's okay, Gray." She started stroking his hair. This was too much torture. "What I always remember is that I'm not alone. Everybody in the guild will always be at my back. So no matter what happens, I'll never have to save someone on my own. I'll have the entire force of Fairy Tail behind me. And so do you. So does everyone in the guild."

Gray stopped crying. Those feelings may have been meant as a cover, but they were real. And Erza had comforted him.

He couldn't take this much longer- being stuck in her half-embrace, not being able to take it any further. His body was heating up too fast. He was going to spontaneously combust if he stayed stuck in perpetual perpetuity like this.

Gray extracted himself from under Erza's arm, and shakily stood up. "Th-thanks, Erza. I really appreciate your advice. We should go on another mission soon."

Erza gave him a smile and agreed. Gray stalked off into the woods, cursing his own cowardice.

Erza couldn't get much thinking done after that curious incident, so she decided to just head home to her place in Fairy Hills. Lying awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, Erza remembered Gray's face back at the river. He'd cried in front of her. Neither one of them had shown real emotions to each other in private since he'd found her crying at the river so long ago. In fact, Erza didn't think she'd ever seen Gray cry, not even when she'd made him and Natsu scrub the entire guildhall with q-tips as punishment for one of their fights. Ur's death really must have meant a whole lot to him.

Erza didn't know how long she'd been staring at the ceiling before she heard a curious rapping noise coming from the glass of the window. She jumped out of her bed just as the window opened, and a dark figure slipped through, enveloped in a black cloak, and with a hood pulled over his face.

An assassin? How did they get into Fairy Hills? She quickly requipped into twin swords and lunged at her assailant. Suddenly he parried with twin swords of his own, which she swore had not been there a second ago. She was so surprised that the assailant was able to easily disarm her and point a weapon at her throat. Erza opened her mouth to scream, but a hand was placed over her mouth that muffled her cry.

"Please, my dear," a familiar voice soothed. "It would look quite bad if I were to be discovered."

Th…That voice. What was he doing here?

The man released his hand from her mouth and lowered his swords. The he lowered his hood. As Erza had realized, the man was none other than Ezra Mathin.

"E-Ezra! What are you doing here? Are you here to…" Erza could feel herself shaking in anticipation.

"Believe me, Erza, I would love to, but there's something much more important we need to talk about," he interjected quickly.

Erza noticed an utter lack of any kind of smile on Ezra's face. He was dead serious. It didn't suit him at all. Ezra without any kind of devilish smiling was almost… blasphemous.

"You have to get the guild prepared for battle. Hydra Claw is going to attack tomorrow at dawn. Our orders are to wipe the guild off the face of the earth."

Hehe... scrub the guildhall with q-tips... totally Erza. I'm so proud of myself for thinking of that one. Anyway, hope you guys liked the chapter! Let me know what you think, and as always, I will see you guys next time. Hope y'all have a nice day.