Summary: Beauty & The Beast – Fairy Tail rendition; Gray. Lucy.

A/N...I have no excuses what-so-ever. But know that I am sort of back and still writing when I make time! I decided to come back to this fic and try (try!) to push forward. I rewrote the 1st chapter because I was not satisfied.

P.s: a review will make my heart swell 😉 and possibly encourage

Standard disclaimer applied.

The Beginning

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a.

The hostility had begun several hundreds of years ago. An era where demon races were scarce, quickly deteriorating as the neighboring humans—the few that knew of their kind—grew wary of their abilities, immortality, and bewitching beauty. An era where blood was shed…

"Gray get out of here!"

The small child's eyes glistened with unshed tears as he tried reaching out for his mother's hands.

"Please," the child paused at his mother's cry "runaway…don't look back. I need to go help your father, okay?" He watched as tears streamed down his mother's face.

Her soft hands held his face as she placed a chaste kiss on his forehead "Go, we'll find you. I promise."

Gray managed a tearful smile before heeding his mother's words, with one last look he started running towards the opposite direction of their home. And he kept running…. running until his short legs folded underneath him and with them his heart as the ringing in his ears continued from the explosion that went off not too long ago as he fled.

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"Go, we'll find you."

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"I promise."

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"…"

"Shhh…everyone quiet down. We don't want to scare the boy, now do we?"

"He smells kinda funny, right Happy?"

"Aye!"

"Master said to be quiet Natsu!"

"Ehehe…oops…"

A pair of dark blue eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as the whispering ceased to exist. A warm hand was placed on his shoulder. It felt comforting.

How long was he asleep for? …where were his parents?

"It's okay, you're safe now."

Gray stared at the short elderly man smiling down at him. Maybe it was because he knew that he was never going to see his parents again or maybe it was the relief of not needing to be on the run anymore, but whatever it was he had launched himself onto the elderly man's arms and cried.

He was only six years old when he lost his parents.

He was only six years old when he found himself hating humans.

He was only six years old when his life at Fairy Tail began.

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b.

How many years has it been?

It seemed like several life times ago…and yet everything that had happened that day was so fresh in his mind that he was afraid to close his eyes when night approached. Standing here in solitude away from the guild—away from a six-hundred-year-old fire breathing demon who spoke of ridiculous rivalry, away from a spine-chilling red-haired mother hen who tried keeping Natsu and him in line, away from a lovely water demon who would follow him to the ends of hell and back—a frozen landscape was his only solace.

His solitude was broken as he sensed life a few meters away from where he stood. The life of a wretched human. Gray watched with a narrowed gaze as the hunter pointed his weapon at the arctic hare engaged in digging its furrow.

They were loathing specimen. His father, his mother, taken from his grasp in the blink of an eyes from those worthless humans who feared the unknown. Who feared the immortal, feared what was stronger, feared what was different from them.

Without batting an eye, Gray froze the hunter in place until the last breathe he took could not longer be heard. There was no remorse. No pity.

There was hatred.

Hatred that harbored and festered throughout the years earning worried and disapproving glances from his guild-mates and the guild master. Gray didn't understand, why didn't they see what the humans had caused for their kind? Why were they not seething with anger and vengeance? Why were they not grieving…?

Gray scowled darkly before starting towards the guild. But maybe that's what drove him to make a foolish mistake; grief.

Where there once stood a regal, alluring young demon now stood a fear inducing demon with black jagged wings, the tips of his ears encased in ice to form narrow horns along the side of his head, his once smooth hands forged into horrendous claws worthy of inflicting pain and destruction, as the bottom half of his face was veiled with an ice-sculpted skeleton resembling that of the mandible and maxilla.

He was a repulsive monster!

With one last cruel barb at his self-loathing, Gray entered what was now considered home. A home that had been in loud commotion ever since his walk, even in the long distance he heard snippets of what was being exchanged.

"You must take it back from where you found it!"

"Can't you see she is dying?!"

"Aye sir!"

"I have to agree with Natsu, Juvia, we can't abandon the helpless. Remember Master's teachings-"

"Juvia understands Erza, but Gray-sama will not welcome such-"

Gray's dark blue eyes glanced passed the dozen or so occupants littering the guild's common room, sitting on tables or along the bar stools their gazes filled with trepidation as they briefly stole glimpses his way. A spark of dread filled his veins as the voices grew louder behind the nursing station.

A frown marred his features at the idiots arguing within the nursing quarters that had yet to hear him. It wasn't until the knob was turned that the voices silenced.

"G-Gray-sama how nice of you to come, would you like some of Mira-san's shaved ice?" he easily evaded Juvia's meager excuse of a distraction as he turned towards Natsu and Erza's direction.

The room's temperature dropped drastically.

"What are you doing with that wretched human!" a deadly growl flew past his skeletal barrier as he glared down at the human resting within Natsu's arms. Her pale complexion said she had signs of hypothermia, but that did not matter to him, the blonde woman was trash along with those other human scum!

"I'm saving her life! Now disperse your ice before I tear you a new face ice breath!" the pink haired demon threatened as he continued warming the girl.

"Gray calm yourself!"

"Gray-sama…"

"I won't calm myself!" Gray dislodged his arm from Juvia's hold as he stepped forward with a menacing aurora. There was liquid fire rage running through his veins, his body shook Take that wretched thing away from here."

Natsu started to stand with the human "Why you-"

There nursing room's door suddenly slammed open as a short elderly man stormed in sending sharp gazes at the occupants. Master Markarov stood between the ice and fire demon clearing his throat "what seems to be the problem?"

"That" Gray pointed a clawed finger at the still unconscious girl within Natsu's arms "needs to go."

Natsu glared, "She needs help! I found her lying in the forest cold and unmoving, she seemed to be running from something—"

"And that's exactly why we can't keep her here! Humans always bring problems."

Master Markarov silenced both.

Slowly the elderly man walked towards the girl "we cannot abandon the helpless you know that Gray."

"But-!"

"Even if she is human, even if she were our kind we Fairy Tail do not abandon. We care, breed understanding, share and love; that is who we are."

It was in that moment where the demon's keen hearing picked up the first sign of consciousness from the young woman. Gray watched with dark eyes as she opened hers slowly, he watched as Natsu shifted her into a sitting position, watched as confusion and apprehension set in those big brown eyes, and watched as fear sipped in when those eyes of hers landed on him.

Tch.

"Do what you want," he stormed away feeling repulsed with himself because for that single second that her eyes met his, he had thought she was beautiful.