Gray heard Lyon shouting to Juvia and Meredy, demanding that they would focus on the battlefield; what he heard were merely vague words, though.
Ever since the dragons busted through the gate, he felt as he needed to tell something to the water mage. He wasn't really sure of what or how he would do it, but he needed to - and later amidst the battles, he realized it wasn't the time to do it. If they didn't pay the right amount of attention to the battlefield, they'd surely die, and dying wasn't exactly a thing that was in the ice mage's plans for that day.
During their fights against Motherglare's minions, though, he couldn't stop not focusing on the battlefield. Of course, Gray did see the enemies, and defended against them, as well as attacked, but he did it automatically - the many years he spent fighting and training weren't in vain. The things that they were focusing on revolved around the safety of his comrades, specially the one who was fighting beside him.
Juvia.
He couldn't count in his fingers the times that she almost got attacked (he'd always get a small heart attack just before she dodged or made her body turn into water), or the times that she, while teaming up with him, delivered a very good blow on them (he smirked a bit every time it worked), or the times that his back lightly rubbed against hers (he was seriously ashamed of his hyper awareness of her presence in the middle of a deadly battlefield).
But the only time he did count was when they switched the party with Lyon and Lamia Scale - Meredy appeared out of the blue and asked Juvia about Ultear. He got a bit worried, since the daughter of his former teacher would seem to always stick together with the pink haired girl, but he had little time to register an unusual movement of one the small dragons, who was pointing towards the two girls.
He thanked his fast reflexes for jumping towards the two and avoiding the magic beam that burst out of the monster's mouth.
And at that moment, he felt in his gut a bad feeling about the recently shown ability of that monster, now frozen by Lyon's ice magic. He took a second to mentally express gratitude to his senior for taking care of the enemy, but he couldn't help to clench his fists as he rose up.
Something really, really bad was about to happen - and he felt almost nauseous at the sudden foreboding. That lead him to decide it was the time to stop trying to focus at the battlefield already and focus only on the raising blue haired girl before him, even for a short moment. Maybe he would pay attention to the real danger after he finally said that.
"Juvia, I need to tell you something."
The face of the young woman went from shocked to visibly happy in a very short amount of time - it wasn't hard to figure out what she was thinking with her face lit up like that. And it wasn't very far from whatever fantasies she was creating - or maybe it was, since those would always twist logic in her best effort.
"W-What is it?!", the woman beamed, not bothering to control her voice the slightest bit. Ok, maybe he shouldn't have risen up her expectations.
"No... It's nothing important, but..." I want to tell you anyways, he wanted to complete the sentence. The girl didn't let him, though.
"It could be important to Juvia!", she beamed even brighter. Well. Of course it was. But before he could even breathe the air he would use to form the words she wished to hear, he heard a very anguished shout coming from Lyon.
Shit.
That bad feeling.
So the other monsters had that ability too.
He didn't think twice before pushing the woman to whichever direction wasn't the one that the oncoming beam was heading to - which was his.
Straight in the right side of his heart.
Gray thought he had already endured many and many injuries in his life, but he concluded that their pain wasn't as excruciating as the one he was feeling right now. The beam pierced his chest - even though his plans for today were all involved in surviving, he realized that the chance of them being fulfilled was less than zero.
He could hear Meredy's and Lyon's horrified gasps, but could never reply. It's alright. I'm weirdly fine with dying this way.
I could save her.
More pain. More holes being blown in his body. He could feel his senses failing already - and was faintly surprised at all the seconds he could endure the beams.
Then, even if his sight was blurred, his mouth could only taste blood, his nose could only smell it and he couldn't feel his body anymore, he could hear one thing.
Juvia's scream.
And even if he could not even dream to see her face again, or taste those Caramade Franks he'd eat with her, or secretly appreciate her stupidly good scent or accidentally rub his back against hers in the middle of the battlefield, it was the last thing he wanted to hear before dying.
It was the most horrified, desperate, sorrow sound that Gray had ever heard coming from her, and was surprised at all the guilt he could feel at the moment. He was happy with his life; he was glad that he had to endure his hard times to end up experiencing all kinds of emotions during his short life - anger, frustration, pride, embarrassment, happiness, accomplishment, and much, much more that he couldn't even think right now.
But what he did not want was to be confused shortly before falling to his death.
He was between acceptance and denial. He was absolutely and utterly fine with dying for the sake of the woman behind him, but could not bear the thought of Juvia going back to her sad, emotionless self because of him. Seeing the man she loved to fall before her eyes was a thing that he hoped with all his strength she would endure.
The Fullbuster felt something piercing his head - but could no longer feel pain or taste and smell blood. He simply knew a final beam had gone through his brain, and knew that he would soon die.
Juvia let out an even worse sound than before.
She cried his name, he noticed, without any honorifics. Without the usual "-sama" she would add.
She was that devastated.
And the sky, previously clear, was about to get cloudy again.
Damn it.
He could only hope that, by chance, they would all survive. That, by some greater force, he would rise up and his deadly injuries would no longer exist, and he would scold Juvia for crying so easily for him.
His last feeling before falling unconscious was something wet falling in his cheeks - and he couldn't find out if that was his or hers fault.
AN: I WASN'T EXPECTING IT AT ALL, OK. I asked for a bit of angst, and a bit of Gruvia, but I DON'T WANT GRAY TO DIE I JUST THRFGHHGHGHRHGHHHG NOPE NOPE NOPE.
I'm half convinced that he will survive, but not really sure on what Mashima is thinking by (seemingly) killing one of the main characters. BUT LET'S JUST TALK ABOUT HOW GRAY SAVED HER NOT ONLY ONCE, BUT TWICE, AND SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR HER.
When Gray said he needed to tell something, I was thinking "OH MY GOSH" both because of Gruvia and because I'm sure that some shit was about to happen AND IT DID. But damn, he got shot in his body, his heart and his head. And I still want him to live somehow. ;u;
Maybe Ultear would revive him by doing some iced-shell-like revival-time magic (I wouldn't like her to die, though). Or maybe Lucy and the others would go back through time again in the gate and succeed in avoiding this future, but I wouldn't like that.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my crappy (four paged) drabble. I'm surprised I wrote this in a day, lol, so forgive me if there are any mistakes. I'm actually interested in making it a two-shot, but not really sure.