Red and Gray

Simplicity

"Nurse! Nurse! He's awake!" Red shouted toward the door. Gray winced. 

"Gray! Gray." Carefully, she took his face in her hands. "Don't you dare fall back asleep. Gray?"

He closed his hand over hers, his grip surprisingly strong and gentle. "Erina."

She stiffened. "What?" Something pulsed through her - hope?

"Have you been crying?" he asked, raising his other hand. She pulled back, though gently.

"You were in a coma for five days and you ask if I'd been crying?!" She could almost laugh at how ridiculous it was. 

He took her hand again. "Erina. You have been crying, haven't you? I'm sorry. I would have woken sooner." And he looked at her as though he never wanted to look away again.

Red stopped laughing. The nurses and doctors rushed into the room before she could ask what the hell he meant. The kindly nurse from the front desk led her out of the room gently. "But he's awake now, and he'll be all right," she said, before withdrawing back into the room.

Red/Erina let out a breath she'd been holding in. All at once, the worry and tension and fear left her body in a swift rush. She sobbed loudly, but she was way past giving a fuck.

How long had she wanted him to remember her real name? She'd told him to call her Red, when she first appeared at his school, and she'd even laughed when he forgot her real name. How could anybody just forget someone's name? She hadn't reacted when Gray said it was a  compliment - that she was so amazing on her own that her name didn't matter.

Calling her Red, since it was her favorite color, was simpler.

How did he finally remember, though?

***********

Red drew on the last of her courage and called Gray's mother, bracing herself for a verbal onslaught of how she [Red] was the succubus who ruined Gray's life.

It didn't come. Instead, Mrs. O'Shea hurtled into the hospital, gave her a fierce, long hug and rubbed her arms. "You woke my boy up, Erina," she said fiercely. "I'm not forgetting that." Then she was let into Gray's room, leaving Red alone with her thoughts.

Not for long, though. "Red?"

She looked up. It was the girl who'd told her Gray was in the hospital. Now that Red was looking at her clearly, without the veil of panicked grief, she looked vaguely familiar. 

"Hey," she said cautiously, not knowing her name. She hadn't asked. "Thanks for telling me. And bringing me here."

"Of course," the girl said, sitting next to her. "He'll be okay now, right?"

"Yeah," Red replied mechanically, searching her features. Where had she seen her before?

And then it hit her. She was the girl who'd crawled out of Gray's window that night, two years ago. If Red hadn't been so drained, her hackles would have gone up, her claws would have come out, and her shield would have been up fast.

Thank God she could maintain a poker face. "Gray and I were friends," the girl said. "But then he met you, and - "

Red clenched her teeth.

" - I don't know. It's hard to explain. He was different around you. Like, in a good way. Like, he was way happier with you than he was with us. It's nice to see that you care about each other so much."

This felt like the second great shock of the day. Now all Red could think was, That's it? No catfight? Wait, what? Get a hold on yourself, Erina Collins!

Then she noticed that the girl seemed exhausted, that her tone was wistful and wondering. And that there was no veneer of meanness around her. Jealousy, perhaps, but not meanness.

It wasn't Gray she wanted. It was someone like him.

Erina knew how that felt.

"Thanks," she said, forcing a smile. "If you really meant it."

The girl looked at her in surprise. "Of course I meant it. He was no-filter annoying before he met you. We would never have worked out."

That's better. Erina smiled wider, and for real. "I appreciate that."

The girl grinned. "I'm Grace."

Good. "My real name's Erina. Everyone just calls me Red."

Grace smiled. "Erina sounds better."

"Thanks."

***********