I rung the bell. Thrice. The door opens. I see no Gray.

Okay okay wait. Cue me clearing my throat.

I drove all the way to Gray's casa grande and thought about it again.

What if he doesn't talk to me? What if I embarrass myself? What if-

A certain sound of certain doorbell snapped me out of my trance.

Looks like my feet carried me here involuntarily.

It's too late to back out Lucy. You brought this upon yourself.

Oh fuck off, the other me!

I'm your subconscious, you idiot.

Whatever.

Cue the eye roll and a groan.

I rung the doorbell for the third time because when I tried it twice and no one came for 5 minutes, I thought I should turn around and leave.

But no, the door opened...

To NOT reveal someone who I was expecting.

Instead of Gray, I saw a burly man who had a scar on his right brow and had almost same features as Gray.

"Lucy is that you?" That unknown person asked me.

"Um, yes?" I squeaked.

"Oh. My. Absolute. Zero! It's really you! Oh, you've grown so much! You look like Layla! Ah, it's been so long since I last saw you!" He squeezed me in his arms- his way of hugging people I guess- and almost cut my breathing supply but then he let me go quickly and observed me from head to toe.

And trust me, it was WAY too uncomfortable.

"Uh, not to be rude or anything, but how do you know me? And who are you?" I asked him hesitantly.

Stupid Lucy, of course he knows you! Fullbusters should've had some contact with the Heartfilias!

That explains why he's so familiar.

"Oh um, uh, yeah, right. Right. I forgot." He looked around nervously and composed himself before saying, "I apologise for this behavior." He cleared his throat and said, "It's really good to meet you, Lucy Layla Heartfilia. I am Silver Fullbuster, Gray's beloved daddy," he winked and added, "I'm 100% sure you've heard about me from Gray and others."

"Um, sorry but no." I bit my lip to try and suppress the round of laughter that was bubbling in my throat when his jaw dropped. He looked hurt, honestly. I snorted when he turned around and ran into his house, saying, "Gray Fullbuster! You and I need to have a good chat for an hour- after you meet up with this pretty lady of course," he turned around and motioned me to come in, "-so get your frozen ass down here!" He turned to me and said, "I'm sorry for this language. It's just that my own son disappoints me sometimes. He's nothing like me, although he has my looks. He has his mother's cold attitude but even she wasn't like that. To think your own son would think of his daddy poo as an embarrassment." He sighed.

"I get it Mr. Full-

"Silver." He gave me a look that clearly said 'call me 'Mr. Fullbuster' and you'll pay'.

"Silver." I said. He smiled.

The taste in my mouth after calling Gray's dad with his name was weird.

"Dad? Send Erza up!" I heard a certain someone shouting it from above.

"But-

"Mr- I mean Silver, stop." I shushed him.

"Lucy?" He looked at me questioningly.

"Trust me." I gave him a sincere smile and stalled to Gray's room.

"Look Erza, I'm telling you I- what are you doing here?" He glared at me when he saw that I wasn't the one who he thought I was.

On the other hand, I didn't have to knock because the door was open, otherwise he never would've bothered to even reply.

"We need to talk, Gray." I solemnly said.

"We have nothing to talk about." He put an ice pack on his eye and winced. I flinched.

Ouch.

"We have a lot of things to talk about." I said and sat on his bed without his permission.

"Look Gray, things don't always go how we want them to go, and...and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry but I don't like you that way. I don't want to ruin whatever we have just because of one stupid thing. I just...can't... can't let this die. I've had-

"Why are you apologizing? I should be the one saying sorry. I dropped that confession bomb, left you all alone in the night and yelled stupid things at you. I'm sorry." He mumbled while looking away.

I smiled. He hasn't changed at all. Just like the old times.

Wait- what?

"But hey, help me find a girl, would ya? Seeing everyone with their partners suck." He looked at me and smirked. I blushed, trying to hide my red face by my hair.

Of course he meant Natsu. He's been shipping us from the start.

"So, we're friends, right?" I looked up at him and raised my brow. He nodded and brought his hand forward before saying, "Friends."

Me being me, instead of shaking his hand, I lunged onto him and hugged him.

"Owowowowowow! Luc- get back!"

Once I realized my mistake, I quickly moved back and flinched.

"Sorry. I just uh, got lost in the moment?"

That's the best excuse you could come up with?

Shut up.

Cue my brain eyerolling.

No wait, don't.

We sat on the bed, my head resting on his not-badly-damaged-right-shoulder-because-Erza-knew-he-is-a-righty and his head resting on my head. How did I know it was Erza? Because no one can ever beat him up like that. We talked about a lot of stuff and even ate pizza before we were in that position. Right now, we were looking through Gray's old pictures.

"That was you? The one in pigtails?" I laughed when I saw a sulking Gray with a laughing Natsu and smirking Erza.

"Erza made those on my hair because I liked my hair long, silky and ruffled." He huffed.

"That's a treasure." I held the album when a picture slipped out from it. It was of a girl with wavy blue hair and blue eyes. She was looking to the left (her right) and was smiling. She looked the same age as us.

"Who's this Gray?" I asked him, waving the picture in front of him. He quickly snatched it, put it in the drawer and locked it.

"It's no one." He looked sideways, not making an eye contact. I saw a little- oh my God Gray was blushing!

"Gray," I glared at him that made him gulp.

By now he should know that I'm not letting this go easily.

"Fine," he whined. "Sit."

I sat back down, my head turned towards him. He unlocked the drawer, took the picture out, closed it and sighed.

"This girl is Juvia. Juvia Lockser." He drawled out.

"She's your crush, I presume?" I added. He nodded.

"Just don't tell this to anyone. I was walking by Mira's cafe when I saw her. She looked like a goddess in a human form. Even though she's smiling, her eyes looked tired...like she was going through a lot. Something came over me and I took a picture of her." He sighed after telling me about this 'Juvia' girl. She was really pretty, with blue eyes and blue hair. She had a nice figure and an innocent smile plastered on his face. Gray was right. Her eyes looked dead.

"I think I've heard that name somewhere." I thought long and hard about it but I couldn't pinpoint where I heard it.

"You would've. Locksers and Fullbusters never got along, that means my parents- well now dad only- don't get along with her parents. Thing is that we've talked before but when we found out about our feud, we were instantly separated. It wasn't that hard...we barely talked." Gray said.

"I see." I replied.

"I want to talk to her once again, but I'm afraid that it'll cause a lot of problems to both of us." He said. He looked so upset.

"Oh, and I'm really sorry about what I did Lucy." He said.

"It's okay Gray." I told him.

"I wanted to move on and I kinda had a little crush on you but now it's gone. I guess it's just my mind." He looked at me apologetically.

"I understand." I checked my phone for new messages or calls and I saw 4 messages and a missed call from Natsu. I groaned loudly.

"What's wrong?" Gray asked.

"Natsu." I replied while picking up his call.

"Where are you Luce?! I've been looking everywhere for you! You never replied to my texts! You never picked up the damn phone! Do you-

"Okay! Okay! I get it! You were worried! I'm fine, you idiot. I'm just out for a while." I mumbled the last part.

"Where?" He asked.

"Somewhere?" I said.

"Be precise about it." He moaned.

"Wow! So you actually know what 'precise' means. I'm surprised." I laughed.

"It's not the time to-

"Yeah yeah. I'm coming home anyways. I expect you to be out when I come home. See ya!" I quickly hung up before he said something.

"Lu-

Too late.

"I have to go now Gray. He won't leave my ass alone." I said, my words coming out in a pissed tone.

"Yeah okay." He laughed.

"What're you laughing at?" I asked him in annoyance.

"He really likes you." He guffawed.

"What the-

"Go now or he'll kill me if he finds out that we met. Oh, and don't tell anyone about Juvia please." Gray pleaded.

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. He smiled with a thankful look plastered on his face.

So he accidentally got a little crush on me because he wanted to move on and look forward.

Great. Just great.