I'm beginning to take a serious liking to this pairing, tbh.

There was something off with the new girl.

She was very stern, and as unyielding and humorless as the metal she strapped on. Her hair was a rich shade of red, uncommon but not unheard of. Brown eyes, like wet bark.

But none of these were what captured Cana's curiosity. Or rather, not them by their lonesome.

It was in the way her body had trembled around unfamiliar adults. Always angling to keep them in her line of sight.

It was in how she held herself in her makeshift armor once she had procured it - as if she were untouchable. How she never seemed to be without it, even in the rare times Cana had glimpsed her in the baths (for the redhead liked to bathe alone).

It was in her fanatical desire to control her surroundings. Gray's stripping included. Which Cana could have told her was a lost battle from the beginning, but that was another thing - the new girl didn't like being told what to do. Not by Cana, at any rate.

It was in the mess of her room. Cana couldn't help but notice whenever she peeked into Erza's dorm at Fairy Hills, and how Erza saved even things that would be considered trash to most other people. A leaf given to her by a very drunk Macao, pieces of scrap metal she'd picked up somewhere, small bits and bobbles from jobs.

It was in how she hoarded food, and packets of sauce. Her blank stare and shift in posture as if to protect it whenever someone approached her while she was eating. The brunette knew this well. She remembered very clearly her long journey to reach Fairy Tail after her mother's death, how hard it was to find enough to eat for herself and Cabbage.

It was in how Erza would flinch at loud noises, the way her eyes darted for escape routes.

It was in the letter J, and in blue hair that seemed to terrify the girl so - as well as her reluctance to explain the meaning behind her surname (and in her violent flinches and shudders someone commented that it matched her hair).

Cana saw a great deal about Erza Scarlet that the new girl probably didn't want her to.

And that was fine, Cana decided. She wouldn't pry further.

After all, some things weren't meant to be out in the open.

Like how her own eyes never strayed far from the door, searching, hoping, praying for a glimpse of orange hair.