WOOOH! CHAPTER 10! Wow, this story is way longer than I thought. I'm liking it. I just sort of roll with it, and come up with new ideas, y'know? Thank you, lovelies. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the story up until now. I'm going to try and type things up quicker and get chapters posted, but. . . I have no logical excuse… I literally have about all the time in the world, but I'm too lazy to think… uh… I literally do everything last minute...ENJOY! I LONGER CHAPTER FOR YOU LOVELIES!

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Fairy Tail or it's lovely characters. If I did, I'm sure all my favorite couples would be together by now and have had 30 children. And since that isn't happening, it's obvious that I can only dream. *sigh*

"Erza!" Gray yelled as he ran to meet me at the gate. He bent down and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "The flame-idiot pissed me off."

"Just don't fight around me, or I'll beat you to a pulp." I glared. These fools... He looked up at me and gulped slightly before breaking out into one of his rare grins. I've noticed that he doesn't grin like the other blubbering idiot. Not that I really care.

"Let's go get some cheesecake." He said as he stood up and began walking towards the student parking lot.

"You drive, Fullbuster?" I asked. Gray shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I drabble." I sweatdropped as he put the keys into the passenger door of a very expensive black sports car.

"You drabble? You expect me to get in the car with a person that "drabbles" in driving?" I glared.

"Don't worry about it, Erza. I got my license." He pulled his license from his wallet to show me. He held the car door open and I warily got in. He closed it and walked around to get into the driver's seat.

"So what's this about only drabbling?" I questioned.

"God Erza! I just don't drive often. I usually catch a ride or walk. It's boring behind the wheel." Gray exclaimed, a sort of dumb expression on his face. I chuckled, and pulled on my seat belt. Gray mimicked my actions, and started the car. We drove in silence, besides the small talk here and there. There wasn't much you could say in the car. Gray is the type of person that respects a person by looking at them as they speak, and I am a person that demands that kind of respect. But you can't do that while driving. The mall was only 10 minutes away anyway, but as we passed it, I was confused.

"Uh Gray... You just missed your turn. You said that you'd take me to get my cake." I said angrily.

He smirked, which irritated me. "We are getting cheesecake, just not at Ryker's."

I frowned. I didn't know of any other cheesecake cafés in Magnolia. It was amazing nonetheless. If I could live off Ryker's alone, I would.

"Then where?"

"My Aunt owns a little cheesecake place not far from here. It's the absolute best."

"Better than Ryker's? Impossible, Fullbuster." I said.

"I'm telling you, that it really is. There is no comparison. Ul's is amazing!"

"No matter how many times you say it, it's still in impossible Fullbuster."

[Gray's: POV]

"This. Is. Amazing." Erza exclaimed as she took another bite of her strawberry cheesecake. I smirked as I took a bite of my own. I had ice-cream on it like I always did. Everything was better with a scoop of Edy's. Scarlet smiled and closed her eyes with every bite.

"I didn't think it was possible, but it is better than Ryker's. HOW COME I"VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS PLACE? It's amazing!" She said again. It was odd seeing this - I don't know- normal teenager side of Erza. Before, during that game of hide-n-seek, she had been sarcastic and funny, but she was still more tense. Here, she was almost carefree. Ul walked up to our table. Shit… why the hell did I think this was a good idea? I started to get nervous. Ul was most definitely going to embarrass the shit out of me. My hands started getting clammy as she got closer to our table. I went to wipe them on my shirt, which suddenly wasn't there. Both Erza and Ul reacted.

"Dammit, did you both have to hit me? I could get brain-damage y'know." I exclaimed from my place on the ground, holding my poor-wounded head in my hands. Demon women.

"There is no brain to get damaged, Fullbuster. Besides, if you strip in a restaurant, you are going to scare the customers, and if you strip in my presence, you are going to piss me off. It was your own damn fault for doing both at the same time." Erza stated. Back to everyday Erza. But from this angle, you could see some sort of hollowness in her right eye. From eye-level, her eyes looked the same, but her right eye was most definitely strange. Almost like it wasn't there at all.

I stood up and decided to ignore her insult. I brought my hand to her face and brushed her right cheekbone with my thumb. "Your eye."

For the first time, in 2 years, I seen Erza look frightened. I might not have talked to her, but I knew who she was. I sometimes caught myself watching her. Her strong front was always admirable. When she yelled at me for stripping, or Natsu for being loud, and even breaking up our fights. She's never wavered, even when she interrupted actual, dangerous fights.

"What about my eye? It's my eye. It's the same as my left." She swallowed nervously.

Ul smacked me upside the head with a menu."Stop flirting and hurry up and pay me, or I'll put you to work." I groaned and handed her 20 jewel, which was a lot more than what it actually costed, but at that very moment, I didn't care. I grabbed her hand and our stuff and dragged her toward the exit of the café. She hadn't protested, at least not yet anyway, but that didn't mean she wouldn't either.

"I want to talk to you. Please." I pleaded.

"I'll be back in a few. Pack a strawberry cheesecake to go for me, Lyon!" I shouted to my silver-haired brother. He popped his head out from the kitchen and muttered a whatever and some other stuff that I really didn't care about. All I needed to do at that moment, was to talk to Erza. I led her to the back of the building where a latter stood. I'm guessing that she decided that since I noticed, she would have no choice but to tell me. I felt bad, but I was concerned.

"Ladies first." She nodded and climbed up. I was glad she was wearing sweatpants. I climbed up after her and chose a spot to sit down. She didn't say anything. We just sat there in silence. The sun was setting by now. I still didn't have a shirt on, which sort of added to the awkwardness.

"Your eye is fake, isn't it?"

"Yeah.."

"You don't have to tell me how or why or when. I just needed to be sure."

"Nobody's ever noticed it." She was looking at the sun. I wouldn't have noticed either if I hadn't have caught it earlier. You couldn't tell unless you stared at it.

"What about Lucy and Levy?"

"They don't know. About my eye anyway." She looked at me then, and visibly cringed.

"We don't have to talk about this y'know?" I said. We were still on the rooftop. I was fully aware of the fact that just talking about this, made her upset or scared or something.

"No. It's alright. You deserve to know. You noticed it after all." She moved so that she sat in front of me, her legs crossed. It wasn't like I hadn't seen it before, but Erza Scarlet truly was beautiful. It was like she practically glowed. Even with her oversized sweat pants and t-shirt. Glasses and all. (Alright, so a lot of Erza's past will be the same as in the anime, but I'm going to change it slightly, so that it becomes more original to my story)

"Have you heard about the Tower of Heaven tragedy?" I nodded. "I was one of the few survivors. I was scared. Terrified of everyone and everything. I didn't have a surname. I didn't know my parents. I was lost and broken. But there were nice people that kept me grounded and gave me something to live for. The old man, Millianna, and the others. Jellal Fernandes, was my best friend. When I met him, he'd given me my last name."

"You married him?" I asked, feeling really confused. She hit me upside the head.

"No, you idiot. His last name is Fernades, and my last name is obviously not. Mavis, think once and a while. He said that he'd call me Erza Scarlet because the color of my hair was so pretty. This way, he'd never forget. He'd see my hair and say 'That's Erza Scarlet. The girl with the pretty hair'. Later that night, a few of us tried to escape with Jellal in the lead. We were caught, and I took the blame. Jellal tried to protest, but I didn't let him. They'd beaten me, went as far as taking my eye as some sort of warning. The damn bastards would go to any extents to keep their slaves in the palm of their hand. Jellal came to untie me from the pole I'd been tied to, and he was caught. They'd beaten him too." She had this vacant look in her golden brown eyes like she felt guilty.

"Doesn't Jellal go to Fairy High now? He's the weird scar around his eye and the blue hair?" I asked her. I felt like I needed her to snap out of it before she got in too deep. Feeling guilty ends up hurting you in the end.

"Yeah. If you'd let me finish. Stop interrupting me fool. (Okay, this is where the back story becomes original. I'm making it up as I go haha) Jellal was given that scar that night. It was a brand. Like how farmers burn a symbol into their cattle to identify them. Jellal's scar is actually says 'irrelevant being' in an ancient language that we know longer use. We were forced to learn those few, nasty words as a reminder to those who even thought about breaking the rules. We'd so the brand on the other slaves, and we'd forget about any hope we had of freedom. The few that were branded got to pick where on their bodies it would be placed 'out of courtesy' they'd say. Jellal chose his right eye as a reminder of the eye I'd lost over his mistake. Eventually, about a few weeks after that, I held a rebellian. I'd lead the others in an attack against our 'masters'. Most of us made it out. Jellal and the others got separated. I eventually came across Fairy Tail which provided me with a home and education. They also paid for my eye surgery. I can't see out of it, but it looks real enough. I want to be treated with respect, not sympathy. I want to forget the past, but never the lessons it taught me. I ran into my best friends from back then on a few occasions, but our shared past pushed at each other instead of bringing us together. Jellal and I speak from time to time, but I don't think we could ever talk like best friends again. And that's all to my story. Kinda depressing huh? A story about a scared little girl that lost everything she had and everyone drifted away after she gave them a taste of freedom." Erza looked up at the sky. The stars were started to show, the sun barely kissing the horizon.

"What looks like just a few, is actually millions." I said, gazing at the stars.

"Huh?" I could feel her looking at me now, but I didn't acknowledge it. I laid back and continued talking.

"The stars. You can't see many of them right now, however there are so many stars that we can't see because we can only see so little of the night sky. What looks like a few, is actually millions." I explained. Erza laid beside me quietly.

"That sounds… very poetic…" She whispered. I chuckled.

"A poet I am not, but it's what Ul said to me when she gave me my necklace." I whispered back. I smiled and clasped my hand over the pendent. I held my other hand open in front of me and gazed at the stars between my fingers.

"She said 'The cross means faith and the stone in the middle is a star gem, a rare stone, that is represents you. Have faith in yourself Gray, and you'll be able to see all the stars.' I remember putting it all and loving the feeling that cold silver around my neck gave me. I smiled for the first time in forever." My hand still hovered above me, as she looked at me. I could see her smiling from the corner of my gray eye.

"What did you say to her?" She questioned. I chuckled.

"I was getting to that. If you'd let me finish. I said 'I'll gather all of the stars in my hands and give them to you. Because I'll need some proof. I'll show them to you first, okay?'", I closed my hand like I was taking hold of a star, and brought it to my chest. "That's what I said. She had smiled and said that she couldn't wait. So whenever I'm upset, I look at my necklace and come up to the roof and look at the stars, and I think about what she said about the stars. I think I know what she means now. She meant that the stars are the people I care for , and that as long as I never give up hope, I'll always be able to see them no matter how far they are."

"We gotta get going. It's getting late." I stood up and offered her my hand. She took hold of it, stood up, and pulled me to her. Her arms circled around me into a hug. I was beyond shocked. I was NOT expecting anything like this from Titania. But nonetheless, I hugged her back.

"Thank you Gray. For everything." She whispered against my shoulder. It was like all her walls crumbled down, and I was able to see how vulnerable Erza Scarlet really was. Even if it only lasted a few seconds, I was able to see that she longed for someone to notice her eye, and longed for someone to treat her the same. Our hug ended, and climbed back down the latter. I ran inside to get the cheesecake that I promised she can take home. I dropped her off at Fairy Hills, Fairy Tail's all girls dorm apartments. The car ride had be comfortably silent.

"Alright, meet ya at the gates tomorrow morning?" I asked as she grabbed her bag and stood from the car.

"Sure." And I seen a smile. It wasn't strained, or hiding any guilt. It was just Erza. Just genuine, Erza Scarlet. The most interesting girl that has ever walked the planet. She waved and entered her apartment. I waved back and drove home, replaying tonight's event. And here I had thought that we were just gonna eat some cheesecake.

*END OF CHAPTER*

Alright, that all came as I original intent was to make it funny, nd then BAM all this deep shit just comes out and I'm all like WOAH. I came up with all that stuff that Ul/Gray said too, and I realized that I am a deeper person than I thought ahaha. There wasn't much humor and I apologize for that. I'm also sorry if it was in any way confusing. I'm really tired and I just got my braces and my teeth are pretty much killing me, so I don't want to proof read it. Let me know what you think. I really liked this chapter. I wanna know what you think, and I'll see your lovely faces next chapter. ( ^.^)/