Listening to Heaven while writing this; perfect motivation for sadness! Excellent! A quick question, though; what the hell could you call Gray, in Juvia's point of view? I wrote her crush, but that didn't seem anywhere near what he is to her – words can't describe how much he means to her.
Category: Trip.
Warning: Some feels and character death.
Disclaimer: Me owning Fairy Tail is as likely as me being able to shoot lasers from my eyes – not very.
Summary: They've already joined together before, what's forever to a lifetime without each other?
Pairing: Gruvia.
There was nothing else to be done. Gray had promised – sworn – to never use Iced Shell again to Natsu, and to himself. But it seemed to be impossible to defeat this demon.
It was one of Zeref's demons that had accidentally been released from the amulet it had been sealed into. It had been released in a quaint, seaside town, where no mages lived in due to its low population; so they had sent out a request to several guilds to help them before the monstrous creature destroyed their town and made its way towards other neighbouring towns.
Gray had chosen the job, thinking that it was a regular, small demon extermination job, as the job did not say that it was one of Zeref's – in fact, the seaside town of Port did not know it was one of Zeref's creations as they had no business in magical affairs and was not knowledgeable of such things.
Upon leaving for the trip, Juvia had requested to come along to accompany her love and – surprisingly – Gray had assented and let the girl tag along. So with a wave to their guild members, the two left for the train station, planning to take the train all the way to Port, which would take the entire day.
Upon arriving at the stop before Port, everyone was ordered off the train, as the train tracks ahead were having maintenance performed upon them.
Juvia had expressed her suspicions and vague feelings that something was…off about this whole situation. She had expressed such thoughts as they continued their way to Port on foot, and Gray could only agree; something didn't seem right about the whole atmosphere. It was almost a vague sensation that chilled his spine; much like when he had seen his own death and could feel the phantom pains, even now.
The way that Juvia looked at Gray with utter adoration and devotion in her eyes when Gray reassured her that they would be fine made this odd echo in Gray's chest, making him turn his head away swiftly from her and merely grunt in agreement to whatever she spoke of after that, not really hearing her words, but seeing her face and feeling her emotions as they continued to walk on.
Gray wished that he had said something then, before everything…before everything became this one demon and this singular battle that was bleeding him dry; magical power, determination, and blood.
It was only the knowledge that the demon would continue to destroy towns and people's lives, as well as the fact that Juvia was holding back the monster by herself that Gray pulled himself up off the ground, spat blood to the side, and continued to fight on. It was futile, he knew now, but if Juvia was continuing to fight with that determined gleam in her eyes and pushing her entire being into stopping the demon, then Gray would continue to fight alongside her – if only to delay the inevitable for a while longer.
"Gray-sama's injured," croaked Juvia as she dropped back to stand beside the injured mage, "he shouldn't continue to keep fighting; Juvia will handle the demon. Juvia will not have Gray hurting himself even more if she is too weak to fight."
It was hard not to hear the unspoken words of I will not let you sacrifice yourself when I die that lingered behind Juvia's words, tainting the already morose situation with layers of sadness.
"Juvia," Gray rasped out from his (surely if they hurt this much) broken ribs, "I have to keep fighting – you know this."
"Juvia knows," whispered the girl, her eyes not on Gray as they normally were, but on the towering demon that seemed so large that it surely could not be beaten, "but that doesn't mean that Juvia has to like it. Juvia doesn't want…Juvia wishes…"
"I get it," Gray said quietly, placing a cold and bloodied hand on her scraped and bruised shoulder that peeked through her torn dress.
Juvia looked across at her crush to give him a smile so beautiful that it was heartbreaking. "Juvia wishes that she didn't feel like this, but Juvia's glad that…when Juvia passes, Juvia will have Gray-sama by her side, to ease Juvia's pain."
"Yeah," Gray said uncomfortably, "I'm glad that you're here, too, even if it means that we both die."
Juvia flinched at the word, but quickly pulled up a mask of determination at the roar of the demon as it grew impatient with insignificant beings that had fought him mere moments ago, but were now simply standing at his feet and doing nothing. It let out another roar that would put thunder to shame, and swiped at them with taloned paws that raked the earth and created new valleys.
"Juvia!" Gray cried out when the girl lifted him out of the way with her water and took the full force of the attack, dissolving into streams of water that splattered across the ground. Gray knew that she would put herself back together again, but it would take time since she was so spread out.
Growling lowly in his throat, Gray was pulled back to his previous thoughts; he had to use Iced Shell. Ul had used to contain one demon, so he would use it to contain another. His life was done for here anyways, so he might as well put it to good use.
Taking the familiar stance with his arms crossed in front of him, Gray began to channel the last of his magical power throughout his tired and beaten body, hoping that it would be enough to completely freeze the monster.
But the demon would not stay still; it roared and stomped towards Gray every time he took up the position, not letting him pause for even a moment to begin to perform the dangerous technique.
"Damn it!" Gray cursed as he ducked under another swipe of the large paws, "I can't do Iced Shell if this bastard keeps moving!" He attempted to take up the stance again, but was forced to move, less he be squashed by a massive foot. "Damn! Damn! Damn! Stay still, you bastard!"
"Gray-sama!" Juvia called out to the frustrated mage, the last of her bottom half coming together. "Juvia will hold the demon still while Gray-sama uses his attack!" And before Gray could argue against, or agree with the idea, Juvia transformed into water once more and began to wrap herself around the demon's legs, twining herself up its torso and arms.
Juvia's face solidified out of the trembling water mass as the demon thrashed and tried to break free, appearing around eye-level with Gray on the demon's legs. "Hurry, Gray-sama!"
Gray could only stare blankly at her. "Juvia…you know that you'll-"
"Juvia knows that she will be frozen as well," the Rain woman said softly, still audible to the Ice mage through the roars of the demon, "but Juvia doesn't mind. Juvia will be part of Gray-sama forever, and nothing could make Juvia happier." The girl smiled at Gray again, her happy expression so startling in the depressing situation that Gray couldn't help but smile back. "Juvia couldn't imagine Juvia's life without Gray-sama, so Juvia is happy to sacrifice Juvia's own watery body and soul for Gray-sama's attack. Juvia must ask Gray-sama to hurry, though. Juvia doesn't know how much longer she can hold this demon back…"
As testimony to this statement, parts of Juvia's body broke off and splattered against the ground as the demon flexed, but that off-spray quickly slithered its way back to the main part of water and re-joined its efforts to hold the monster back.
"Right!" Gray nodded to Juvia before taking up the Iced Shell stance once more. "Iced Shell…!" His body began to glow with an ethereal light and slowly began to freeze. The demon screeched with anger as frost began to climb up its arm, a mirror image to Gray's own right arm that began to go an icy blue, before cracking harshly up it.
"Gray-sama…" Juvia murmured as the man continued to pour his magic into the attack as he stumbled forwards, right arm completely crumbled away and the other following not too long behind. Juvia could feel the icy burn of the Iced Shell as it ate away at her body, but it was a soothing and numbing feeling, rather than unpleasant. She could only hope that it was as painless for Gray as it was for her.
Making it to the demon's legs, Gray collapsed onto the ground as his left leg gave way, crumbling into softly glowing dust that joined up with the slowly freezing demon. He reached out with his only hand, the one that was disintegrating now, and placed it against Juvia's face, feeling the iciness of her skin as it joined into the rest of the ice covering the demon. "Juvia…" He leant forwards and placed his forehead against her, wishing that some sort of tears would come to his eyes, so that the hot liquid could heat up his frozen face.
The two kept their foreheads against one another as they stared into each other's eyes, ignoring how Gray's body was now disappearing entirely, and Juvia's body was now completely frozen either than her face.
Closing her eyes, Juvia took her last breath and last moment to tilt her head slightly to touch lips with Gray, feeling the last spark of warmth in her flare at the intimate touch that she had dreamt about for so long, before she became part of the ice – the ice that was made up of Gray's entire body and will.
The demon was now a frozen statue that stood guard outside of Port, the last testimony of Gray Fullbuster's and Juvia Lockser's strength – the strength that kept them together forever in an icy embrace that no one could thaw out.
They were one with each other forever and always.
The summary was referencing to how the two had performed Union Raid together, which is the bonding of two mages magic and souls as they perform and attack that is a perfect combination of themselves.