And GrayZa week continues! Here's day 2: Tears.


"And the tears go streaming down your face, when you lose something you can't replace; when you love someone but it goes to waste, could it be worse?" -"Fix You," Coldplay


Dark blue eyes darted from left to right, searching. He waited for the flash of bright red to come and ease his mind, but it never did. "Where is she…?" He mumbled. The others around him seemed preoccupied, unconcerned. Maybe he should have been, too. She probably wanted to be alone, after the recent developments with her childhood friend, but that didn't stop him from worrying.

Gray Fullbuster was a worrier by nature, and he'd probably be worrying about Erza on his death bed, whether that headstrong woman liked it or not.

"Is she alright?" Gray tapped Wendy on the shoulder, knowing she'd checked up on the subject of his thoughts a while ago. "Not really," Wendy whispered, her innocent face falling into something akin to discomfort and sadness rolled into one. "I haven't known Erza-san for very long, but I wouldn't expect her to be so sensitive. She seemed so untouchable…"

Gray shook his head. "No," He sighed. She pretends to be invulnerable, but she doesn't think she is in the least. It's all a ruse she uses to protect herself. She's insecure." He ran a hand through his dark hair and huffed, pushing himself up off the ground. "I'm gonna go check on her."

Natsu, Lucy, and the others glanced at him as he left, but quickly resumed their previous conversation. They all knew Erza was in a particularly fragile state, and they all figured they'd leave her alone, he assumed. But he wasn't good at leaving things alone, was he? The anxious Ice Make mage headed in the direction Wendy had pointed him in, wasting no time in finding her.

When he heard sobs, he knew he'd reached his destination.

Gray stopped, slipping out of her line of sight. He bit his lip, watching her silently. Erza looked miserable and helpless. Nothing at all like the warrior he knew. Her entire body shook violently, racked with painful-sounding sobs. Gray swallowed hard, internally struggling with himself. He did want to go over and talk to her, of course; he wanted to at least try to console her. After all, he was the one who said she had to be in the guild so she didn't have to cry. But it appeared that this time, being in the guild wouldn't matter. She was crying anyway.

That was partially his fault, at this point. Gray didn't want her to cry, but he wasn't exactly doing anything to stop it, was he?

But, on the other side of things, there was a valid reason for that, he supposed. The entire reason he said all those things was because he didn't like to see her crying. He didn't know what to do.

Panicking, Gray turned and walked back in the direction he'd come from. He felt stupid and cowardly, but he couldn't seem to stop his feet from taking him away from the woman he'd been so worried about. No…not woman, he thought. Girl. Gray had been with Erza for most of his life. She was one of the many who changed him from an angry, lonely boy to a man who would put everything on the line for his family. Likewise, he'd helped her grow from a crying girl with one eye and nowhere to go into one of the strongest women he, and possibly the world, had ever seen. But now, all of that seemed to fade away. Suddenly, it was as if she'd transformed into a broken little girl again right before his eyes. It'd been years since he'd seen that girl. As much as he wanted to, he wasn't sure if he could do anything for her now.

Gray and Erza had witnessed each other crying many, many times. And while he wasn't sure about her, there was one thing he knew. No matter how many times he saw it in his life, he would never be able to handle seeing her cry.


I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. Like I said, that class takes a lot out of me, and I spent too much time on NaLu week when I should've evenly distributed how much time I spent on NaLu and GrayZa, since they're my favorite pairings and the weeks overlap. As a result, both the prompts so far have been short and just kind of thrown together. I wish they weren't but what can you do, you know? Ah well.

Hope you enjoyed it :D