This is a 'MY GOD, I WANNA MURDER HIRO MASHIMA, BUT I AM OVER 1K MILES PLUS AN OCEAN AWAY SO I'LL JUST RAVE THROUGH A STORY WHILE SIMILTANIOUSLY LISTENING TO SAO REMIXES ON REPEAT ON FULL BLAST UNTIL MY PARENTS WAKE UP, FREAK OUT, AND GO TO BED AGAIN, AND I'LL GET UP AGAIN AND CONTINUE THIS ANYWAY SO LEMME JUST GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH' fic. I legit cried writing this. Several times. If Mashima does this, he will be in for a rude awakening.
Confused? Me too. Let's go.
No…
Not after everything that they had gone through. As she whipped around, all she could feel was fear.
Hadn't they suffered enough?
Couldn't Zeref let it go now that he was finally dead?
Did he really have to take her best friend with him?!
Couldn't he…?
Couldn't her best friend…?
… stay?
She wanted to see him smile again, his impossibly endearing grin making her say yes, she would go on just one more job with him.
What she would give to be dragged along on another job with him.
What she wouldn't give to see his face again.
It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
She grabbed at thin air, willing her fingers to find purchase in any evidence that he was there, he was only invisible, or his hand to fall on her shoulder, and have her turn, only to see him again, safe and there.
But the only hand that fell on her shoulder was Gray's.
And as she spun around, she saw Happy, openly sobbing, and Gray's mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear it; she was in her own desolate, terrifying dream world.
Dream.
That was the only way that he could be gone.
Right?
Yes, that absolutely had to be it.
No world could be complete without his smile.
His laugh.
Him.
This had to be a lie.