The Waiting Game ( Fairy Tail Fanfic )

My Gift to You

Ch. 10 – My Gift to You

Because of their train being delayed, Gray and Erza made it back to Magnolia Town later than expected. The sun would be setting right about now, that is if the cloudy sky wasn't covering it. It was lightly snowing as they walked down the street, side by side.

Gray slowly came to a halt and Erza stopped along with him. "This is it."

It was an average sized shop stuck between two larger buildings. It was covered completely in pink paint with lots of other bright colors used for signs. It stood out far more than any other shops on the street, possibly to attract customers for business. The name of it was…

"Sweetie…Pie?" Just saying the name made it hard for Erza not to smile.

To be honest, Gray had no idea what the name of the shop was when he heard about it. All he knew was that it would be located in this part of town. He felt embarrassed that he would be walking into a shop with that kind of name.

"It's not that bad." The grimace on Gray's face said otherwise. A sly grin lit up on Erza's face. "Are you going back on your promise, big man?"

Like hell I'll let her talk down to me!

"No, we're going!" Gray angrily stomped through the snow and opened the door to little shop. A bell hanging on top of the door chimed when the door opened and chuckled to herself before following him inside.

The shop was much more crowded than Gray had expected. The shop was filled with customers and almost every table was occupied. Gray figured it would be a bad idea to go out with Erza on Christmas Eve. It was way too busy for his liking. The display case holding all the desserts was almost completely empty.

The upside to everything was the smell of pastries filling the shop. It was even making Gray hungry. Gray turned around to see if Erza had come into the shop yet and found her standing behind him, wide eyed with wonder. No doubt the smell was affecting her stomach as well. He thought he could see the faintest amount of drool slipping from her mouth.

"Don't get too carried away. I can't pay for everything in the shop."

Erza snapped out of her trance and gave Gray a knowing look. It was as if she was saying she might take him up on that offer if he was going to bother joking with her. Gray knew she meant it, too.

A larger woman entered from the back room. She was carrying a tray filled with fresh goodies to stock the display case with. "Why, hello there! Come to fill your tummy with some yummy? They're awfully sweet~ "

The way the woman spoke made Gray feel a bit uneasy. Trying to ignore those feelings and focus on his goal, he eyed the display of goodies before spotting exactly what he was looking for. "Yeah, I'd like to get a piece of the strawberry cake."

"Why, of course, sweetie pie!"

Chills ran down Gray's spine and Erza was doing her best to hold in her laughter. She didn't want Gray to hear her. Gray glanced back at her with a stern look and she quickly walked off to save a table for them. They didn't want to lose the opportunity to have a spot to eat. Erza went back to her muffled laughter when Gray looked away.

The lady hummed to herself as she cut off a slice of the cake and placed it on a warm plate. She held it out to Gray with a big smile on her face. "Here you are!"

"T-Thanks." Gray carefully took the plate from her. "Do I pay now or what?"

"No hun, we wait until after you're finished. I can assure that you'll be buying more~"