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Bonus Day–Second Kisses

Erza had stopped by the bakery earlier that morning—it was never too early for strawberry cake—and happened to take a shortcut around the side of the guild instead of looping around to the front via the road. She didn't usually come by this way, so the rose bush caught her by surprise. It was nestled against the side of the guild hall, blooming blood red and beautiful. She had almost forgotten it was here.

If she recalled correctly, it had actually been here for a long time. But it had always been a sickly, withered thing that rarely bloomed and was more a tangle of thorny branches than anything. Droy had taken it up as his pet project a few months back, and luckily he actually had a green thumb and had somehow nursed it back to health. Erza was so surprised by the transformation that she wondered if he hadn't just dug up the old bush and planted a new and improved one to take credit for the miraculous revival.

It really was a far cry prettier than it had been before. Erza thought she remembered a time long ago, back when it had still been little more than a patch of thorns, that Gray had gotten tangled in it and she had rescued him.

She smiled at the memory. Gray sure had been a troublesome child. Her smile softened a little. But he had a heart of gold, had had one even back then despite always trying to hide it, and she had fallen in love with it. She couldn't say exactly when that had happened, but she had known unequivocally that she was in love with him for months now. She suspected he might like her too and had been trying to give subtle signs of interest to gauge his reaction, but he hadn't said anything and she was nervous about assuming because he was good at hiding his true feelings and could be hard to read.

She reached out, intending to take a rose for nostalgia's sake, but bit out a loud curse when a thorn snagged her skin. She jerked her hand back and stuck the tip of her finger into her mouth as she regarded the bush with a new and intense hatred.

"Stupid bush," she growled. Pulling her finger away from her mouth, she reached out and a sword materialized in her hand. "I'll show you! I'll hack you apart for that!"

"Um… Erza?"

She jumped in surprise and whirled about. "Gray?"

Gray's head poked out from around the side of the building, and he was watching her with wide eyes. Erza flushed at the thought that she had been loud enough to attract his attention and warrant investigation.

"Are you…okay?" Gray asked cautiously, eyeing the sword in her hand.

Erza cleared her throat awkwardly and banished the blade again. "Um, yeah. I was going to pick a rose and a thorn got me, that's all."

"So you were going to hack apart the whole bush with a sword?" Gray asked in amusement as he rounded the corner and strolled over. Now that the sword was gone and the danger level had been established as nonexistent, he seemed much more relaxed. "And right after Droy finally got it healthy. You'd break his heart."

"It stabbed me," Erza muttered mutinously.

"I seem to recall it doing a lot worse to me at one time. One little scratch shouldn't warrant a massacre. Although… I do seem to recall you doing a number on this thing back in the day too."

"Obviously I should have torn it up by the roots," she said stiffly.

Gray just laughed and thrust his hand into the bush to carefully detach a rose. Ice crept up over the stem to cover the thorns and frost lightly glazed the edges of the petals to set them glittering in the light. He offered Erza the flower with a grand flourish and leaned in close with a smirk.

"For the lady," he said.

Heat crawled up Erza's neck and across her cheeks as she accepted the gift. "Th-thank you," she mumbled.

"Are you alright?" Gray leaned forward another centimeter until their noses were almost touching and let his gaze roam over her face. "You turned all red."

"Y-yeah," Erza stammered, her face burning. Gray was so close, close enough that she could cross the gap and kiss him, and it turned her brain to mush. "I–I like you," she blurted out, and was immediately mortified.

Gray blinked at her slowly in bemusement, but then leaned in a little more until his mouth was right next to her ear and his warm breath tickled her skin as he whispered, "Can I kiss you?"

Erza swallowed hard, hardly daring to believe this was happening. "Yes," she breathed.

Gray nodded to himself, snatched up her hand, and kissed the tip of the finger that had been wounded in the valiant fight against the rose bush. Erza stared at him, her mouth hanging open and the gears in her brain spinning uselessly.

Gray dropped her hand and stepped back, grinning widely. "There, all better!"

Erza stared some more. "What…?"

"Kissing scratches is supposed to make them better," he said, all wide-eyed innocence. "Like magic."

"You–you–" Erza whipped around and began stalking away without another word, humiliation ravaging her insides.

She just wanted to get away. Clearly there had been some kind of miscommunication somewhere along the way, and it made her want to sink into the ground and die of embarrassment. She couldn't even bear to see Gray right now, couldn't stand how she had just thrown herself at him and expected something more.

A hand closed around her arm and brought her to a stop, and Gray was grinning roguishly as he spun her back around.

"I love you too," he said with a chuckle.

He pulled her close, circled an arm around her waist, and kissed her right on the mouth. After a moment of dazed incomprehension, Erza came to her senses and kissed him back, her heart fluttering with hope.

And Gray had been right: it was like magic.

Note: To help make up for yesterday's prompt lol This touching scene would obviously be followed by Erza punching Gray in the face for teasing her XD

Well, that's a wrap. I'll probably never do another shipping week again, but it was fun to do it once. Definitely an exercise in creativity to find loopholes for all the prompts lol