Chapter Text
“This is the place” Said Erza looking between the sheet of paper in her hand and a large building across the square.
Gray eyed the building, it seemed like some sort of an event hall, the ornate large doors were the kind designed to let in streams of people, and the high angled windows ensured the lighting inside was tightly controlled.
“Didn’t the client say the event starts at 2?” Asked Gray, looking at the other direction, where the town’s clock tower stood.
Erza nodded.
“Did the client say how we can gain access?”
The redhead shook her head ”No, apparently it’s quite exclusive, we should find some place nearby where we can watch the doors without drawing suspicion”
Gray grunted, it was 12:10 O’clock now, so almost two hours of waiting. It was just his bad luck to end up on a team with Erza, who always insisted on being early then would not let anyone relax while waiting.
Erza pointed at a restaurant that had a roof terrace seating area overlooking the square and quietly walked towards it. Gray simply sighed and followed without complaining, it was going to be a long wait.
The two Fairy Tail wizards were on a mission at the coastal town of Hargeon, their client wanted them to watch over an event which they were organizing which had received threats of disruption. Initially their entire team was meant to come, but Lucy got sick, Wendy decided to stay watch over her and Natsu just stubbornly decided to stay back too, and thus a very unfortunate Gray ended up on the mission with Erza. At least Juvia was out of town and didn’t hear of this! She didn’t usually call Erza a love rival, but she tended to feel upset at him going anywhere alone with anyone.
Gray was too busy imagining Juvia asking Erza to fight her over him so that he didn’t notice Erza had suddenly stopped until he crashed into her.
“Ugh..Erza?” he asked, alarmed at whatever gave his guildmate pause.
Erza was just standing there frozen, staring ahead. He followed her eyeline to see what she was looking at, and his jaw almost dropped to the floor. A few feet away stood a man and a woman talking. And the man was… Mystogan?! It can’t be!
“Could this be Jellal?” Gray whispered to Erza, who shook her head.
Gray then turned his attention to the woman that was with this ‘Mystogan’ figure, her back was turned to them, but she wore a cowboy style hat over her long green hair, and if she was a few inches taller, Gray might have thought it’s Bisca.
“Who do you think it is?” Gray asked. Erza seemed to be over her initial shock because she simply shrugged her shoulder and went back to walking.
“I don’t sense any magic power coming off them, it must be just some sort of costume. I don’t think we need to worry about it”
Gray still had a bad feeling about this, as he followed Erza into the restaurant he continued to glance at the couple, now getting a glimpse at the woman’s face, she didn’t seem familiar at all, though her outfit was quite reminiscent of something Bisca would wear.
Gray and Erza managed to get themselves a small table overlooking the town square, it gave them a decent view of the Hall’s entrance, though only Erza could see it, which Gray was OK with, he’d leave the watching to her! The table cost them quite a bit though, the waiter had said the restaurant is very busy with many of the event goers coming there to have lunch before the event, Gray quickly noticed he wasn’t exaggerating, the place was packed!
Another thing the two Fairy Tail wizards quickly came to realize is that many people there were dressed in some interesting costumes. Whatever the event was, it seemed the theme was Fairy Tail!
“Oh look, that’s 4 right there” said Erza eagerly pointing towards a redhead walking in the street belew, dressed in a very elaborate approximation of Erza’s Heaven's wheel armor.
Gray sighed, this game of spotting people dressed like them was no fun, so far he only spotted one, and Erza was already on her fourth. He also did not want to admit he’s been keeping track of how many ‘Juvia’s he’d seen, (it was 3!) which didn’t make him feel better, though he couldn’t tell if he was more upset that she got more than him, or less than Erza!
Gray looked at the clock again, how has it only been twenty minutes? He wondered as a very frantic clearly overworked waitress placed a cup of coffee in front of him and a strawberry cake for Erza.
Gray’s attention was drawn to two men who stood at the edge of the terrace looking down to the street while chatting and laughing. One of them was dressed in what was certainly Fairy Tail’s team A uniform from the Grand magic games. He had tried to style himself to look like Elfman but was entirely too scrawny to get that across. The man was leaning down over the railing watching the street, which is what drew Gray’s attention to him. The other appeared to be dressed normally at first, but something about his outfit felt familiar, was this supposed to be Loke? The hair was quite similar, the clothes did seem like something Loke would wear but Gray didn’t remember seeing him in before, the man also had a camera hanging around his neck and something about his face felt oddly familiar.
The photographer scanned the roof, clearly looking for someone, then his eyes met Gray’s and widened, Gray too felt his own mouth open in shock, because he recognized the guy, he had last seen him a couple months ago, in café in Margaret town, accompanied by 6 Juvia fangirls.
The man, which Gray decided to name ‘Loke’ for now, whispered something to his friend who looked at him incredulously before turning towards Gray. For a brief moment, he simply looked in their direction with a dubious look on his face, while ‘Loke’ kept talking to him in a hushed tone.
Eventually, the two men approached Gray and Erza. ‘Loke’ began what seemed like a greeting before his eyes darted to Erza and the words died on his lips, ‘Elfman’ had a similar reaction.
“is that….?” Asked ‘Loke’
“No way!” whispered ‘Elfman’
For her part Erza seemed about ready to summon a sword- or ten!- so Gray put up his hands in a calming gesture.
“It’s alright…I know them…well, I know one of them, they are just Fairy Tail groupies from Margaret town”
“Groupies?” Asked ‘loke’ sounding offended. ‘Elfman’ chuckled, mumbling something about being guilty.
Erza frowned. She was often the type to soak in fan admiration, but she was no doubt wondering how this might jeopardize the mission. Gray motioned for the two men to sit, hoping to stop them from drawing the attention of others.
‘Loke’ shook his head. “We’re waiting for our friends, they should be arriving any minute now”
“Friends?” Erza and Gray asked simultaneously, though Gray’s voice was clearly more panicked.
“Yes! This is our meeting spot” Said ‘Elfman’, far too enthusiastically.
‘Loke’ nodded “You’ve met some of them” he said to Gray, then turned to his friend “ they will be so excited to see the Erza scarlet”
Gray groaned, that group was loud and unruly, the last thing they needed for such a covert mission!
‘Elfman’ looked over his shoulder and smiled “Speak of the devil!” he said cheerfully, then raised his hands and waved to 3 girls who had just claimed the stairs to the roof.
Gray’s attention was immediately drawn to the girl on the right, who wore a white and blue knee length dress with long boots and a matching hat, Gray recognized the look immediately as Juvia’s signature outfit after she joined Fairy Tail. The girl, who Gray was now able to place as ‘hat girl’ from their pervious meeting, wore a blue wig to cover her brown hair, though the wig was of the long and wavy verity, creating a mismatch with the look which the real Juvia wore only when she had short hair, that detail bothered Gray for some reason. He was also going to struggle keeping his naming scheme, because calling her ‘Juvia’ made him feel uncomfortable!
He was quickly distracted by the second girl, who he also recognized as hat’s girl cousin and co-editor of the Juvia fan club newsletter, and she was dressed as… him?! She had a perfect replica of his white coat, black pants and cross necklace. Even her hair was styled exactly like his, and from the way it moved as she animatedly talked to her friends, might not even be a wig but he remembered her having long hair., Did she cut her hair for the costume? Oh Well, she will henceforth be known as ‘Fake Gray’ in his mind!
The 3rd girl was inexplicably dressed as Mermaid heel’s Kagura, up to this point Gray had only seen people dressed as Fairy Tail members, perhaps he just wasn’t paying attention? She had kept her hair , which was reasonably similar to kagura’s, as it was last time he’d met her when he had dubbed her tattoo girl for her prominent Fairy Tail shoulder tattoo, which was now obscured by her long-sleeved jacket.
Gray felt dread in the pit of his stomach, this ‘Kagura’ if memory served was a loud super enthusiastic Erza fan and she was going to blow their cover for sure.
“Maybe…” he started to tell ‘Loke’ hoping he can get his friends reaction under control, but it was too late, ‘fake Gray’ had already spotted them and let out stream of excited exclamations. Right, he had forgotten how much the girl he once called ‘quite’ was anything but!
Everyone in the restaurant turned to look at them so Gray got up and gave Erza the ‘please play along’ look, which she seemed to understand. “Hey! Long time no see you guys! And we’re even wearing matching costumes!” He told fake Gray with a laugh, pretending to be a longtime friend. Erza followed suit, greeting the group as if she knew them all along. All the onlookers turned back to their own conversations. ‘Kagura’ remained frozen in place, staring at Erza. ‘Juvia’ too seemed hesitant, she clearly recognized him as the real Gray but was eyeing Erza as if unsure if it was just a very good costume.
‘Elfman’ noticed a large table nearby had been vacated so he cheerfully suggested everyone go sit there, Gray was about to decline but Erza moved to follow ‘Elfman’ so he simply sighed and joined the group. ‘Kagura’, who was still frozen in place, needed to be dragged by the two other girls to sit with them.
The Juvia fan club quickly arranged the searing around the table, Gray noticed with some relief that they gave him enough personal space and didn’t crowd him, they did, however, show no such concern to his guildmate, with ‘fake Gray’ and ‘Loke’ sitting on each side of her, and the entire table seemed oriented towards Erza. ‘Elfman’ had found the time to bring over Erza’s half-eaten cake, and even some extra napkins, but Gray’s coffee was left there on their old table growing cold. The only person to pay any attention to him was ‘Juvia’ who greeted him shyly. Gray was very concerned that this girl fancied herself the real Juvia and might think she’s in love with him or something. So he tried to keep her at arm’s length, literally and figuratively. He casually pushed away the chair closest to him so she’d hopefully get the hint and not sit next to him without him having to be rude about it.
“What’s with the long hair?” He asked her.
“I know what you’re thinking, that it’s not era accurate, but It’s actually a recreation of Juvia-chan’s photoshoot from last year where she reprised her old look but with the long hair” she answered, unconsciously twirling one of her blue locks with her hand.
Gray snorted “Is that really it?”
She sighed “No, I ran over budget and had to use an old wig from last year…but the photoshoot thing is real! I have the sorcerer weakly issue to prove it!”
She then nodded to him and went to sit by her cousin, brandished her notebook and immediately turned to fawning over Erza. The table was now basically split in half, with Erza in one corner surrounded by 5 adoring fans split on both sides of her, in the other corner sat Gray, flanked by two empty chairs.
By the time they all settled down a newcomer announced herself, she was also dressed as Juvia , but in her Phantom Lord outfit, complete with the Teru Teru Bozu and an immaculate wig with the large curls in the exact shade of Juvia’s hair. Gray was far more impressed with her attention to detail than he was with the other ‘Juvia’, but his mode soured when she met his eyes and smirked, for he recognized her as Phantom girl, a name he decided to continue to call her by, because 2 Juvias was going to be confusing!
After a round of greetings and some nods of appreciation for Phantom girl’s outfit, she came to sit by his side, which he didn’t mind much because she at least hated his guts. “Hey loser!” she greeted before sitting, Gray ignored her.
Erza cleared her throat and the group went quiet, well all except for ‘Kagura’ who had not made a sound at all, is she even breathing?!
“So you guys are all here for the event?” She asked and received a chorus of nods and “yes!”s as answer.
The chaotic energy of the group seemed to put Erza off, she met Gray’s eyes and he subtly nodded toward ‘Juvia’, letting her know she was the group’s pseudo-leader.
“What kind of event is it then?” Erza asked, directly addressing ‘Juvia’
“It’s the annual Hargeon Fairy Tail cosplay exhibition” She answered, saying that meaningless sentence with such matter of fact tone as if she expected them to know what that meant.
“Cosplay?” Asked Gray “What’s that?”
“It’s an event where people wear costumes…obviously” Answered Phantom girl sarcastically.
Gray huffed, he had gathered as much…but like why wasn’t it called a costume party?!
“You said it’s a Fairy Tail exhibition… but it’s not run by the Guild is it?!” Asked Erza.
“No” ‘Juvia’ shook her head “It’s by the local Hargeon Fairy Tail society. They are one of the biggest and their organization is just so great! This is why we come every year…the Magnolia convention is bigger but it feels more corporate, this one just feels more intimate”
Gray remembered how much ‘Juvia’ loved to ramble on every time she started talking about the logistics of her fan clubs. He decided to keep them on topic, pointing at ‘Kagura’ “She’s not in a Fairy Tail costume”
‘Kagura’ jumped with a panicked look on her face, she had been staring at Erza all along and Gray suspected she hadn’t followed the conversation at all.
“Me?...I…I..was…I just” She stammered, unable to form a sentence.
Fake Gray giggled - which she should not have done if she meant to stay in character!- “ She’s part of a Grand magic games reenactment play , she’d been practicing her Kagura moves all week now look at the poor thing!”
‘Kagura’ simply glared at her friend but said nothing.
It was Erza’s turn to bring the conversation back to business. “So you all have tickets to enter?”
‘Juvia’ nodded “Yes, we bought ours as a group months ago! They sell so fast, you have to buy them in advance”
Gray looked around the table, he did the math and realized that two of the members he met last time were not there. “Is my nemesis not coming?” He wondered out loud, before he realized what he said.
“Your nemesis?” Asked ‘Elfman’, the rest of the group, including Erza, just looked at him confused.
“Oh…I meant…The woman who is obsessed with Lyon” he muttered quietly, feeling his face growing hot.
He heard someone whisper a question about if the woman or Lyon were his nemesis, but he ignored them. Phantom girl snickered.
“Her daughter got sick and she couldn’t come” Said Fake Gray with a knowing smile.
“So sad really, she and her husband were going to dress up as Laxus and Mirajane for the couples costume contest!” Added ‘Juvia’.
Gray told himself he should not be too happy his nemesis was not coming on behalf of her poor sick child… OK maybe just a little!
Erza was furiously blushing and muttering something about ‘couples’ contest’.
“Levy’s fan isn’t coming either…her mom wouldn’t let her, but maybe next year” Said Phantom girl, she had used the girl’s name, but he substituted it in his head with his own nickname for the very emotional teenage girl.
Gray cursed himself for derailing the conversation, he needs to keep this lot focused! “Do you think it’s possible for us to get tickets then? Maybe scalped ones or such?” he asked, determined to be back on track.
The group exchanged very mischievous looks that filled Gray with dread.
Phantom girl cleared her throat “We do have the tickets of your nemesis and her husband” she did use the moniker this time, looking at Gray with her characteristic smug grin. Gray wanted to punch it off her face so badly!
Erza perked up “Great, so can we buy them?”
The group once again exchanged looks and Gray sighed, he knew what they were going to offer before they said it.
“We will give them to you if you answer some questions for us” Said fake Gray, the group’s negotiator.
Gray huffed “Have I not answered enough last time?”
He received some confused looks.
“The offer is for Erza-chan” said Fake Gray politely
Oh, right.
Gray felt irritated. The last time he met this group he came to begrudgingly like them and enjoy their company, and he knew he wasn’t the type to crave attention, so why was he upset about their fawning over his guildmate?
“This lot can be quite shameless sometimes” Phantom girl whispered to him conspiratorially.
Gray eyed her. “You think you’re too cool for them then?”
“Of course” She said, grinning “ Even when I’m shameless I am cooler than that…look at them! They can’t handle meeting one of their idols! Can you imagine what they would do if they met Juvia-chan!?”
Gray considered what she said, he realized the source of his irritation was him being inexplicably jealous on Juvia’s behalf, it did not feel right to see this self-proclaimed Juvia fan club be uninterested in Juvia the minute they got to meet a bigger celebrity. It made no sense for him to be upset about that, yet here he was! Perhaps he was being harsh, they probably would be acting like this if it was Juvia there not Erza, he had no way of knowing.
Gray pushed his irritation aside and nodded to Erza to let her know she can accept the deal if she wants.
“Alright then” Said Erza “The tickets in exchange for some questions, it is a deal”
“But nothing too personal” Interjected Gray, eyeing the group members one by one, they clearly were looking to exploit any ambiguity in the agreement. They huffed and mumbled some complaints but acquiesced.
Gray pointed at ‘Loke’ “You first” he turned to Erza “He asks interesting technical questions”
‘Loke’ beamed at the complement, and Gray hoped he wouldn’t regret his recommendation.
‘Loke’ rummaged in his backpack and fished out a photobook, he flipped few pages before stopping at a page and showing it to Erza.
“This is the X792 summer collection steelheart armor, it’s said to be able to withstand any direct physical damage , rumor has it you already acquired it, can I get a confirmation?”
Erza smiled but shook her head softly. “No, I’ve been meaning to buy it but it’s hard to come by”
‘Loke’’s eyes glinted “Oh…what about the grand crocus auction next month, you know it will be up for bidding there, right?!”
In the corner of his eye gray noticed that Phantom girl had passed a small note to ‘Kagura’ who was sitting on the other side of her.
Erza was crossing her arms, looking thoughtful. “I’ll have to look into that, thank you for informing me”
‘loke’ seemed so proud of himself and got a pat on the back from ‘Elfman’ as if he had accomplished something grand.
“Alright who’s next?” Asked Erza.
Phantom girl raised her hand. Gray considered chiming in to warn Erza but thought against it, he was curious what the group’s contrarian had up her sleeve. He had noticed the other girls whispering while reading the note she passed, and he suspected they had some sort of scheme to get Erza admitting hot gossip they can peddle later.
“ I wanted to ask you about Phantom Lord…you know the guild” Phantom girl asked, Erza nodded, so she continued “Would you support an effort to re-form it?”
“And…And would you support Juvia-chan joining the new…the new Phantom Lord?” asked ‘kagura’ quickly, stumbling over her words.
Gray narrowed his eyes. The speed with which she asked a follow up question suggested it must have been coordinated, was that what the note said? They had used a similar technique to trap him last time. This was obviously a tactic to confuse Erza hoping she would confess some secret love affair with Juvia, a concept which ‘Kagura’ was obsessed with.
“Hold on..you should wait your turn” said Gray coldly, with a pointed look at ‘Kagura’, letting her know he was on to her games. The girl for her part smiled sheepishly.
Erza, oblivious to the machinations of the group, simply smiled “No it’s fine, I can answer both questions. First I wouldn’t mind Phantom Lord reforming as long as Jose isn’t the master” she then turned to ‘Kagura’ “As for Juvia, I would support what she chooses, but she’d obviously never leave Fairy Tail, isn’t that right Gray?”
Gray, who was watching the group like a hawk, jumped at the mention of his name “Yeah…yes of course, she’d never leave, those folks should know this more than anyone”
Phantom girl and ‘Kagura’ exchanged disappointed looks, Gray smirked. They will not have as easy time interrogating Erza as they did him.
Next was ‘Juvia’’s turn. She, very suspiciously, eyed Gray before asking her question. Did she expect him to interrupt their grand conspiracy again? Come to think of it, why were the other girls also watching him
“What do you plan to wear to Juvia-chan and Gray-San’s wedding?” she asked.
Gray groaned, of course, they did this to embarrass him so they can then write a full-page essay about the shade of his blushing face!
Yes, he’d read their write up of their last meeting…and some of their other club publications, so he was curious, big deal!
Erza actually laughed at the question. She too looked at him to see his reaction which did not help. One shade darker to write about!
“Oh Gray may not know this so maybe I shouldn’t say” Said Erza in a low conspiratorial voice, though it was loud enough for him to hear. The group leaned in, begging her to tell them. Gray was curious himself so he pretended to be nonchalant about it, shrugging instead of begging her not to get into his personal business.
“Juvia has already made detailed plans of what everyone is going to wear on their wedding day, I’m going to be her maid of honor, and she wants me wearing a yellow sleeveless dress, I’ve seen the design she has in mind, it’s gorgeous”
Oh..maybe he should have begged!
Gray buried his face with his hands. They have had enough of his embarrassing reaction for a full issue by now. But once he hid his face from the gossiping onlookers, he found himself smiling. Of course, Juvia had thought of all these things, they were going to have the best wedding in the guild for sure! In your face Natsu!
The group asked few more questions about his future wedding, Erza unfortunately -or fortunately?- didn’t know all the details, like who the wedding photographer was going to be? Or would Elfman and Evergreen attend as a couple? How could anyone know that?
Well, Juvia probably knew but she hadn’t told him or Erza!
Eventually the conversation died down, and it was ‘Elfman’s turn to ask a question.
“What’s your favorite armor?” He asked. It didn’t look ;ike he was close enough with the group to be included in the scheming. For the others seemed bored with his question.
Erza blinked “Favorite armor? I usually use the one most suited for the situation, I have no favorites”
There were a few ‘told you so’s from the group, Phantom girl dramatically flopped on the table, as if dying from boredom, the move was very in line with the women she was cosplaying that Gray considered it might be part of the act . He raised an eyebrow at her.
“He’s a newcomer…don’t mind him” she said, faking a yawn.
“Hmmm the new wave of fans isn’t working out for your fan club, is it?” Gray asked.
Phantom girl finally sat back up, pouting. “I preferred the group when it was smaller, easier to navigate” she sighed then smiled mischievously “Anyway, how did you know about the new wave of recruits?”
Uh oh….he can not under any circumstances admit to having read their newsletter. So he pretended to be paying attention to the next question awaiting Erza.
It was ‘Kagura’s turn, Gray did notice her arguing quietly with ‘Juvia’ and Fake Gray, it seemed their coordination efforts weren’t always smooth. It did not escape Gray that Erza never stipulated they get one question each, but it seems they were all too intimidated around her and hadn’t thought to push that boundary.
To Gray’s surprise, ‘Kagura’ pulled out a pen and a sheet of paper, she started drawing a diagram and talking about physics concepts like mass and gravity in relation to Erza’s reequip magic. Gray completely lost track of the conversation around the 2nd equation, though Erza at least appeared invested and went on long explanations of her own, even taking the pen to sketch herself at one point. The rest of the group seemed to be following along just fine, or at least pretending to, ‘Juvia’ did look to be doodling in her notebook instead of writing notes.
Gray glanced at the clock tower, only 30 minutes left until the event, so they should probably wrap this up. Thankfully, ‘Kagura’ seemed satisfied with the physics lecture she had received, she held the paper with Erza’s writing like it’s the most precious thing in the world, and her eyes glinted with unshed tears.
It was finally time for Fake Gray to ask her question. Gray remembered her being the not so enthusiastic tag along, who asked a benign question about Juvia’s favorite food, so the words that came next were most unexpected.
“What is your relationship status to this mysterious guy named Jellal?” Asked Fake Gray in a calm calculated manner, she was good at controlling her features, her friends though had all broken into giggles and hushed conversations. ‘Elfman’ looked very scandalized.
Erza’s face had turned into a deeper shade of red than her hair. She struggled to put any words together. Gray briefly considered rescuing her by reminding fake Gray that personal questions were off the table, but then he remembered how she had reveled at his own humiliation just minutes ago, so he kept quiet, watching with some delight as she scrambled for words.
“It’s not…there is…there is nothing…I don’t even know who that is!” she finally managed to scrape together a lie so brazen that it fell flat even in a group of her adoring fans, few of whom even rolled their eyes…at Erza!.
Gray narrowed his eyes, watching the girls exchange very specific looks, he suspected they were communicating a new line of attack, wondering if they could force the information out of the flustered Erza. How did these gossip peddlers even know who Jellal was?! It’s not like Erza was ever seen in public with him!?
“Hey” Gray said, getting Fake Gray’s attention “Where did you even hear that name?”
“I have my sources” Fake Gray answered, smiling sheepishly.
“And they are?” he insisted, using his most threatening tone.
Fake Gray seemed taken back by his reaction, she sat a little straighter and looked quite nervous.
“So last year..I – we - worked on a project interviewing Mermaid heel’s members, and she- “ she pointed towards ‘Kagura’ “ was able to get Milliana-chan to tell her all she knows about Erza-chan..that’s where…where we got the name”
Erza stood up and glared at ‘Kagura’ “What. Exactly. Did. She. Tell. you?”
Gray watched as her threating aura drained the blood from the faces of everyone around the table. Erza did have that effect on people, he almost felt bad for them…almost!
‘Kagura’ stammered saying some vague jumbled things about how they only spoke for few minutes and that Milliana wouldn’t talk of their childhood. From what Gray could piece together Milliana must have simply mentioned the name Jellal and they had seized on it, arriving at a theory of there being something between him and Erza, how lucky for them Erza all but confirmed it with her reaction !
Gray decided that was enough fun for the day, so he got up and picked up his jacket and shirt which had somehow ended up under the table God knows when. “Alright, she’d answered your questions, can we get the tickets now?”
Erza still looked pissed off, but his words appeared to calm her down and get her back on mission.
A chorus of grumbles and murmurs of “not yet” went through the group but eventually they relented and agreed to honor the deal, not before insisting on taking few photos, which ‘Loke’ was very methodical about setting up, before finally handing over the tickets.
Soon after, Gray and Erza headed towards the event hall with their newly acquired tickets. That day they would go on to fight some evil wizard wanting to steal the costume contest prize money. Erza would win the best Erza costume prize after using her reequip magic, which clearly should have been against the rules! Gray did not participate in the best Gray costume contest, he suspected he’d lose fake Gray and never be able to live it down! They would end up taking countless photos with cosplayers who did not even know they were the real thing! Through it all, Gray and Erza had a silent agreement, they would never ever tell a soul what transpired between them and the Margaret town chapter of the Juvia fan club.