So I'm back again with loads of crap to bore you all. Well, doesn't really matter since FFN doesn't lumme' anymore. No one wants me... *broods in a corner*
It's my attempt at... well, something, at least.
PROLOGUE
It's not 'cause he ever cared. It's not 'cause he never cries. It's not 'cause he's empty.
It's 'cause he's dying -with every moment that passes, with every breath he takes, with every shard of hope falling slowly down.
He's turned into a ruthless, invincible machine.
"Are you really sure about this, Erza? Perhaps looking twice into the matter can help..."
The redhead frowns, squinting her eyes hard at the salmon haired male. After a moment of contemplating, she suddenly shakes her head and mutters, "No."
"No?" Lucy asks, her hope dribbling down breathlessly.
"No." Erza nods, and then continues with sharp activeness, "Don't let either Jay or Natsu know a single thing 'bout our motive. This is for Natsu's happiness, and you are very well aware how the last option left is Jay."
"Who's Jay, Erza?" Juvia looks up at both the female mages, her wide eyes tired and mature after five painfully long years of wasted waiting.
After another pitiful sigh, the redhead replies, "Gray's look-alike."
"Thank you so much for letting me join this guild!"
"My pleasure, darling. Erza, sweetheart, won't you show him around and introduce him to certain members?" Mirajane smiles again, and the long-washed away glint in her eyes illuminate like stars in the milky way.
The redhead nods and smiles politely at Jay, "Sure. You'll love it here in Fiore, Jay."
"I know, right? This is already such a great place! Much greater than the high-class thingy called guild I was stuck with for the past seventeen worthless years of my life!" Erza smiles at the overly-cheery personality of the boy. After five years of lonesome unity and dark light, this Jay character has not only brought back Gray's face with him, but carried along with it the hope everyone has lost.
"So, Jay, how old are you?"
"Oh, um, me? I'm nineteen." Jay replies while peeking through the holes in his camera like device.
"Huh? So, you joined your guild... at two?" Erza looks at him questioningly.
Chuckling, the raven haired teenager shakes his head, "Oh, nah. I was born in that guild. You see, the guildmaster was my grandfather -so everyone automatically predicted my future as a spoiled brat. I left the guild in blind rage and sent the last two years practicing my photographic magic."
"Oh, so you share Laxus' life-history..."
"Who's that?" Jay asks as they continue walking through the halls towards the redhead's salmon-headed aim.
Erza points a finger at the slouched blond figure in the corner of the guild, surrounded by a few men.
"That bad-ass looking guy there is Laxus."
Jay frowns, his cobalt blue eyes suddenly widening from recognition by the next instant, and he shouts, "Hey! I know that man -he called me Gray!"
The guild suddenly freezes in stunned silence, and every face turns expectantly in Natsu's direction, mentally preparing themselves for a blast caused by the familiar ringing of the forbidden name. Including Master Makarov's.
The silence greeting the guild members is intimidating, but the dark aura ripping through Fairy Tail's cheery mood is even more terrifying.
Jay eyes everyone with confusion, and follows everyone's gaze, locking his eyes with a tanned and tall frame standing up.
Natsu stands up, straightening his very muscled back, and turns around to face the criminal who had the stupidity to utter his name with such unpardonable mockery. Familiar beautiful face greets him, with foreign curiosity wide in cobalt pools and spiked up raven locks. And clad in an orange jacket and white pants, stands in front of him a boy who shares his face with his long-lost love. Natsu freezes for a moment, but then decides that no one has the right to possess his face and voice and be so nonchalant about the matter.
Erza gulps down the lump forming in her throat. The big moment is here -it all depends on Natsu's reaction of Jay's arrival.
Quite contrary to the fluffy and happy imagery she had formed in her mind, Natsu's enraged steps thudding over the wooden floor like thunder booms disappoint her thoroughly -and in quite sincere secrecy, they scare the shits out of her.
"Who the fuck are you?" Natsu's nostrils snare as he glares down at the two years junior in front of him.
"Uh, hey."
Those words alone send a fire brizzling throughout the guild, initiating a chain of dreadful murmurs.
"I repeat: Who the fuck are you?"
Please say Gray Fullbuster... please, please, please. I beg you. Please say Gray Fullbuster!
"Jay Rochester. I'm the newest member of Fairy Tail. You must be-
"Who I am, is none of your goddamn fucking concern. You're a newbie, so I'll just warn you 'bout one thing -do not say his name ever again in the guild."
"His name?" Jay frowns.
With his lips curling up into a cruel smirk, he replies, "Yes, his name. Just 'cause you got his looks, you don't automatically have the right to do any such thing which no member does in this guild."
And then the blazing fire Jay saw flickering in the man's eyes vanishes, leaving behind cold sternness.
Walking away, Natsu warns threateningly over his shoulder, throwing Jay's body in frightened shivers, "And Jay Rochester? If I ever hear of you trying to get closey-wosey with my team, I'll rip you apart."
As the doors slam shut, three seconds tick in suppressed silence. And then hell goes loose.
"Why's everyone cheering?" Jay asks, still quite shocked and startled with his 'introduction' with the guild's resident bad boy.
A blonde quickly wraps her arms around him, and sobs in his ear, "Thank goodness you're here! I can see everything getting right now!"
"Uh-
"Thank you!" And then suddenly, Jay's eyes widen as a blue cat with white wings smash with his pale face, it's tail squishing his neck.
"I don't get what's happening-
"Good job there, buddy!" Cana slaps his back.
Choking, Jay wonders what in heaven got them all so worked up.
As if answering to his internal queries, the master speaks, his voice booming throughout the guildhall, "Fairy Tail will now rejoice, my children! For the arrival of our new member who has brought life once again with him, and for seeing the tiniest bit of hope flare for our dear Natsu who has reacted after five long years! We heartily engulf Jay Rochester in our arms, welcoming him as one of our long-awaited children!"
While booze and cats fly across the hall, cobalt eyes stare incredulously at everything unfamiliar to them.
Smiling at him, Erza pats his shoulder.
"Erza, what happened?" He asks in a daze.
The redhead says, "Five years ago we lost a dear someone, and along with that the light of the life of Fairy Tail." She glances happily at the closed doors, and grins at him with tears brimming her chocolate eyes, "Guess now that you've come, we just got back what we lost long ago."