#edo-gray

She couldn’t pinpoint in her memories the moment when she first saw him.  It hadn’t been any great occurrence.  All Erza Knightwalker knew was that, in scattered recollections of various confrontations with the Fairy Tail guild, Gray Surge was a member.  By the time her intelligence network had brought her his name, and a face to put to it, she’d already seen him on the field of battle several times.  As she mercilessly hunted the Fairy Tail guild members, eventually she’d taken note of him - a man wearing entirely too many clothes, and wielding a spear not dissimilar from her own.  A single oddball criminal amongst a plethora of other strange characters.  He hadn’t been too particularly interesting, but she memorized his information just as she had all the members of Fairy Tail.  Erza refused to let a single one of the criminals escape her spear.

Though escaping was what the cowardly weasels were best at.

Although she couldn’t recall when her first sighting of Gray Surge had been, she remembered their first face-to-face meeting very well indeed.  After King Jellal had risen to power, he’d set the royal army to assisting with the country’s rebuilding.  It was a worthy task, she’d concluded, and well befitting a hero king as he was being called by the populace (much to his chagrin).

Erza had only one issue with her current mission.

Fairy Tail.

The new king expected them to work alongside each other, cooperate together.

Erza did not much like this plan, and she knew the rank and file under her command didn’t, either.  King Jellal was asking much of his army, and of Fairy Tail as well; to put aside years of enmity and rage and bloody battles simply on one man’s say-so was a tall order indeed.  But Erza was first and foremost a soldier at heart, and this strange man from a strange land she now called her King had won her loyalty with his compassion.  And so she would follow his edict, and never let the lower ranks bear witness to her continued rancor and disgust for the Fairies.

Which led her to the awkward position of having to deliver a job request to the formerly-criminal guild herself.  She was of the firm opinion that if her soldiers could see their commander performing a task, they would be less likely to protest the task, or raise dissent should it ever be ordered of them.

So she strode with purpose through the broken, but slowly, steadily, healing city towards where Fairy Tail had parked their guild’s tree.   Her blank, unreadable expression was one she’d long since perfected, and she wore it like the mask it was.  People parted for her, accompanied by softly murmured greetings or mutters of confusion as to why one of the top officers was wandering the commons.

There was a flurry of activity going on around the tree when she finally reached it.  Their interim guild master, Lucy Ashley, was standing on top of a table barking orders at the guild members bustling about.  Around her feet, lay several teacups, as several female members of the guild conducted a tea party around their screaming leader’s toes.

Lucy Ashley paused, having spotted Erza at the edge of the courtyard.  The blonde woman narrowed her eyes at the interloper.  For a long moment, it seemed as if she might try to start a fight with the redhead.  Erza would have welcomed the chance to release all her frustration in a good match, but she was denied the chance when Lucy turned slightly to address someone.  “Surge!” barked guild master.  “Go see what the Fairy Hunter wants!  I’m too busy to deal with her shit right now!”

A man, wearing far too many layers of clothing to be practical given the warm weather, squeaked at the order.  “Aye, ma’am!” he replied promptly.

Grudgingly, Erza had to acknowledge that the other woman had the makings of a good commander.  She’d managed to outmaneuver Erza several times in the past, and seemed to have a good handle on her people.  Erza was reminded somewhat of a few drill instructors from her rookie days…

“Um… hello.”

Erza focused back in on the man now standing in front of her.  “Gray Surge,” she addressed him with a curt nod.

He seemed taken aback.  “Oh, uh… yeah.  How did you know my name?”

“I memorized the names and faces of everyone in Fairy Tail, in order to heighten my pursuit of your guild,” Erza informed him bluntly.

Gray stared at her for a long moment, not sure how to process this revelation.  “…Okay.  Uh, so… What brings one of the army commanders to Fairy Tail?”

She held out a flyer.  “The army has a request for your guild.”

Now deeply surprised, Gray took the paper from her and scanned it quickly.  “Take care of some bandits in the outlying areas?  This seems more a job for you army, not us.”

“Are you refusing to take the job?”  Because if they were, she could just turn and leave.  It wasn’t as if there weren’t massive numbers of reports to sift through.

The man waved a gloved hand at her emphatically.  “No, not at all!  It just looks a little weird is all.”

Erza pursed her lips, annoyed that this was taking longer than strictly necessary.  She could already feel a large number of baleful stares directed her way, and without her spear, she felt far more vulnerable than she cared for.  “We have our hands full with the royal city,” she admitted.  “Crime rates have spiked all over the land, and our ranks are stretched thin.  It would be a great help to the army if your guild could take care of this area’s problems.  There is a monetary reward as well, of course.”

Gray suddenly smiled at her.  “That’ll make Lucy happy!”  He tucked the flyer into a pocket in his outermost coat.

The soldier couldn’t help but stare at him oddly.

Taking note that she was still there, Gray did a double-take.  “Is… is there something else I can help you with, Ms. Knightwalker?”

“…Why are you so nice?” she demanded, her tone abrasive.

“…Huh?” was Gray’s eloquent response.  “What?”

“Why are you treating me the same as you would one of your comrades?” Erza questioned.  “The other members of your guild have been glaring at me this entire time, but not you.  You have been polite; cordial, even.  It perplexes me.  Explain.”  She was acting under protocols that dictated she behave in this manner.  He, however, was not, and it was causing her some mental distress.

Confused himself, Gray cast a glance around the courtyard.  Indeed, there were many people outright staring at them - and their gazes were far from friendly.  Turning back to face the tall, demanding knight in front of him, he thought about it for a moment.  “They’re… angry,” he finally said.  “You killed members of our guild.  Of our family.  It’s going to take a long time to make that right.”

Erza nodded.  “That is understandable.  Members of your guild have killed a fair number of soldiers under my command as well - people whose lives were mine to look out for.  Resentment on both sides is to be expected.  I am not free of it myself.”  She paused, eyeing him up and down.  “And yet, I sense very little of the same from you.  Or is that massive number of outfits you’re wearing masking it?”

He let out light laugh.  “Maybe!”  Then with a sigh, Gray continued, “As for me… I just think that’s it’s a bit ridiculous to dwell so much in the past, on things we can’t change.  I think you have changed though, and I would rather get to know this person instead of the one that once tried to kill us all.”

A moment of silence passed between them, and then Erza held out her hand.  “I look forward to getting to know you and Fairy Tail better, Gray Surge,” she stated formally.  When he tentatively took her hand and shook it, Erza smiled slightly at him.  “And you may call me Erza.”

Redness crept into Gray’s ears, and spread across the bridge of his nose.  “Yeah, me too.  Call me Gray.”

Erza released his hand.  Glancing over his head, she gave a nod of acknowledgement to his guild master.

Lucy returned the silent gesture.

“Until next time, then,” she spoke to the former mage.  “I look forward to it.”  With that, Erza pivoted and marched away - mentally adding, “Kind, Polite, and Cute Blush,” to her mental file on Gray Surge.