【 ❆ ℂ𝔸ℕ𝔸。】ᵘˣᶰᵐᵉᶤ

                                           “He’s a great guy..”

           She admitted perhaps a little too quickly; causing her words to come to a sudden halt as the last had been spoken in merely a whisper. Lips dried as a lump in her throat was forced down with a hard swallow. Her gaze was averted from his own dark orbs as she couldn’t bring herself too look at him at the current time. The situation, was a difficult one for her to discus. You see Cana and Gray had that kind of friendship where they both knew when something was wrong. Yet hardly any words would be spoken between them. This is why this had become so difficult for the card mage.

          Sigh parted her lips as she pondered for a moment. Unsure on how to bring up the next part of the conversation she wanted to discuss with him. “Heh I need a drink” she joked to attempt to try and lighten the mood. But she knew this would become all to serious all to quickly.

      “—ya see. I had a think about the conversation we had a couple weeks ago. And I want                                                       you to know I put our friendship above all.
                                       I mightn’t show it but you mean a lot to me Gray…”

          Okay so she was starting to mumble now. But he needed to know how much she cared for him. How heavily she had taken the query and even know noticing his expression change and the hurt that hid behind the smile she so forcefully put on. He could hide behind a fake facade. Cana knew him better. Unfortunate for him.

          “I’ve stopped seeing him. We were only ever friends. And I don’t want you getting the wrong idea.”Done. Now that wasn’t so hard now was it? Even if she may have shed only a single tear that she quickly wiped away.

█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ  THE DISCERNING GAZE was heavy against his brazen skin. To most, he is unreadable: it was a facade he’d carefully fostered,  building up an impenetrable mask of ice to separate who he is and who he wants the WORLD to see. To everyone else, he is Gray Fullbuster.  Stoic, nonchalance, cold.

            But to Cana, he is a BOY.

       ( broken, confused, &&. afraid )
                             … just as she was. 

⠀

          The revelation was so FORWARD and horrifically brisk that Gray cannot presently manage to be baffled.  He was shell-shocked,  sporting a thousand-yard stare that burrowed through Cana, through her undivided gaze,  through their corporeal world that suddenly seemed too despairing to bear.  His perceptions are usually keen &&.  nearly instinctive with Cana and yet he felt BLINDSIDED,  thrust into a stupor of bewilderment with traces of inadequacy infringing on his typically unflappable stoicism. 

          Then,  all of the sudden,  presently more IRKED than he was hurt, Gray’s posture grew rigid as he stood before his estranged companion;  stepping forward in confrontation, his incisors bared. 

         ❛  Friends? Friend don’t look at each other like that, Cana!  ❜

          I’ve stopped seeing him? We were only ever friends?  Her tone may have been BRISK,  but there was a certain hollowness to it that was not lost on Gray. 

                                                        ❛  You … you don’t fucking mean that. 
                                                 You can’t — do that to Lyon.   ❜

          The Ice-Mage felt his eyes BURN;  however, these were molten rivulets of anger threatening instead of distraught tributaries.  More so at himself than anyone else;  Gray suffered a pang of guilt – and it encumbered him.  Lyon &&. Cana…  jeopardizing their current relationship wasn’t something he anticipated.  It wasn’t something he desired.

          He LOVES Cana,  unconditionally,  and was more than sentient of the way that she prioritized their friendship above all.  Yet Gray knew that this was both Cana &&.  Lyon’s HAPPINESS at stake and despite his own whirling storm of personal insecurities,  he’d like to see his them happy more than anything.

   ❛  —You can’t .. hurt him like that. ❜

                                               You can’t hurt yourself like that.

 ❛ It … doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends, doesn’t it, Cana?
              You know I’ll always support you– in WHATEVER endeavours, right?  ❜

   Idiot, idiot, idiot.