AN: Hi there! I hope you like this chapter!
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Someone Else's Life
By: BonneyQ
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Chapter 02
Three days later after waking up eight years 'in the future', the doctors still had no idea why Gray couldn't remember almost a decade of his life and boy did they test the Ice Mage. The man in question was beginning to get more and more frustrated each day with the situation. It didn't help that he could get visitors and all of his friends looked very different from what he remembered.
The dark haired man looked to where Juvia was sitting, reading a book while waiting for Gray to get discharged from the hospital, and he immediately blushed as he remembered that they were married and he would go 'home' with her, wherever home was, and then meet his own four-year-old son, whom he had no recollection of. With Juvia was kind of easier: he knew her in x793, his son Ur, he didn't.
He had asked his wife – it was so weird to call her that – why she didn't just bring Ur at the hospital so he could meet the kid. Patiently, Juvia explained that they decided to not let their son traumatized of hospitals, so, he would only go there for his own appointments or if her or Gray were really in a bad shape and needed to say good-bye. Gray nodded, it seemed like his older self was a good parent.
"Where is this guy?" Gray asked to no one in particular, but Juvia looked up from her book and answered.
"The doctor will be here soon, Gray-sama. Be patient."
"I've been patient for three days while they poked me around; I need to learn more about my new life, dammit." The Ice Mage groaned and put his hands over his face. "He told us that could help get my memory back if I was in a known environment and I can't think of better place than my house and the Guild."
"That's true." The blunette agreed. "But we have to wait. Juvia's not busting you out again. We did that seven years ago and you ended up returning here a couple of hours later with undone stiches."
"You helped to sneak me out of the Hospital?" Gray raised an eyebrow, moving his hands away from his eyes.
"Yes." The woman giggled and unconsciously put a hand over her stomach, making Gray pale a little – three days later and they hadn't talk about the child she was expecting, just about the little boy waiting for him; Gray would take a step at time and apparently he had a few months before facing the baby – as he stared at her belly and then returning his gaze to the ceiling. "We had just started dating, Juvia was silly in love and you used your charm to trick her into it."
"I used charm?" Gray scoffed. "Really?"
"It works on Juvia." The blunette shrugged. "You used to get your way all the time because of it."
"'Used to?' It doesn't work anymore?" The Ice Mage asked, but Juvia's response was to giggle and return her eyes to the book.
Gray analyzed the woman once more (he had been doing it a lot for the past few days), and even though she received the news about his amnesia as a shock, he was surprised to see how fast she wrapped her mind around it and just went along with the flow. The day after he woke up, she arrived at the hospital – Lucy had taken her home that night to make sure the Water Mage wouldn't get more stressed –, and told him, with watery eyes and shaking voice: "When we got married we promised to be together until death do us apart; health and sickness. You don't remember it, but Juvia does and she meant every word… And even though you might never recall it, we were happy."
And he believed her; he had no idea why, but he had this feeling that he did have a pretty nice life with the blue haired woman.
Juvia proceeded by telling him about the new additions to their family, such as who married who, who had children and such. As it turns out, Erza had a daughter with her boyfriend Jellal, named Simone, who was six-years-old and looked like a little Erza Scarlet. Lucy informed him about her own children, but Juvia told about Igor and Julei once again; the twins had pink hair and personalities like their father, but their mother's eyes. Gray learned that his son and the Dragneel boys were inseparable, which the Ice Mage found odd, but didn't say it.
Levy and Gajeel also got married a couple of years later than Gray and Juvia and now they had a son, Steele, who was two-years-old and was a little copy of his father, but (so far) he had been a little angel. Mirajane had a son with Freed, Luke, seven years before, which was a surprise for everyone, since they were seeing each other in secret. Elfman and Evergreen decided to try and have their own children after four years of marriage. Cana and Laxus were still pretending they weren't together, but it was clear that they were.
As Juvia talked about their married/parents friends, Gray felt bad for not remembering things that were important. He knew nothing about their relationships and didn't even remember his own wedding or his son. Once again he cursed his amnesia.
The doctor finally arrived to check on Gray one last time before discharging the man so he could go home and try to remember his life. The Ice Mage snapped out of his thoughts and paid attention to the older man.
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"Hm… Isn't it too soon for me to meet him?" Gray asked Juvia once they were in front of – what it seemed to be – their house. "I mean… What do I know about kids?"
"If you need more time, Gray-sama, Juvia is sure that some of our friends would like to take you in until you think you are ready." Juvia put a hand on his forearm and squeezed gently and Gray found the gesture comforting.
After walking together for fifteen minutes when they left the hospital, the couple finally arrived and that's when finally started to doubt himself. Magnolia looked a lot different than he remembered, bigger and with more people and it made him uneasy to know that it was the town he lived for a decade, two if he counted the years he couldn't remember.
The house he shared with Juvia seemed to be big enough for a small family such as theirs and was located close to the Guild, thankfully. Juvia told him that they could go there soon.
Gray needed to meet his son first and that thought scared him.
"Juvia can tell Ur-chan that you couldn't come home today. It's alright." The blue haired woman said kindly. "This must be weird for you."
"Yeah." The Ice Mage whispered and stared at the door that could lead him inside. "But… the boy doesn't need me to be weird."
"Gray-sama…"
"I can do this." The man nodded to himself and turned to look at Juvia. "You said that Ur is a nice boy, right?" The blunette nodded. "I am not just leaving him waiting and then not appearing."
"Thank you." Juvia smiled and opened the door.
As he expected, the living room was cozy, not too big but not small enough to make Gray claustrophobic. The woman looked at him expectantly, waiting to see if he remembered anything about the place.
Gray shook his head, answering her silent question; even though he felt at ease from the moment he entered the house, no memories came to him.
"Juvia will call Ur-chan." The woman said and the Ice Mage nodded, looking to the many photos in frames. There was one of Gray and Juvia when they were much younger: Both of them were smiling brightly. She was wearing a pink sleeveless dress and hugging him by the waist, while Gray had an arm around her shoulder and wore no shirt. The other one seemed like it was taken on their wedding day: neither was staring at the camera, too busy looking at each other's eyes. Gray took a moment to stare at that particular photo a little longer.
Juvia's dress was white, of course, but surprisingly much simpler than he thought she would choose if they ever got married while the man was wearing a tux and, the current Gray could notice, that he looked at the blue haired woman with fondness and something else he couldn't place what exactly it was.
Shaking his head a little, Gray looked to the photo next to that and it was one of Juvia sitting on a bed with Gray next to her and a small bundle in his arms. After a moment, he put two and two together and realized that the photo was probably taken when Ur was born. Before he could take a better look at the picture, he was interrupted.
"Gray-sama?" The Ice Mage turned around and stared at the scene in front of him with his mouth opened.
In Juvia's arms, there was a boy; his tiny legs around Juvia's waist – the slightly larger stomach not at all bothering the child –, while his arms were wrapped around her neck.
"Hi dad!" The boy, Ur, said excited, his dark eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Hey." The older man looked fascinated at the boy. Ur looked, indeed, like a younger version of Gray, but instead of raven colored locks like his father, he had azure curls like his mother, and boy, that kid had hair! Gray never complained about lacking hair and the child did look like would never complain about it either.
"Mom told me you were at the hospital. All better?" The child asked.
"Baby," Juvia interjected quickly looking down to her son, who looked up to stare at her. "your father is better, but remember what we talked about last night? Your dad is a little forgetful because he was hurt in the head. You'll have to be patient and to repeat some important things."
The little boy nodded, his face in a cute frown. "Okay."
"Do you remember that we talked about you sleeping with me for a while?" The boy nodded and his curls bounced. "Dad will be staying in your room and you'll sleep in the big bed with me."
Gray appreciated what Juvia was doing; even though they hadn't talk about the sleeping agreements she sensed that he would be uncomfortable sharing a bed so early. Maybe when he got used to the fact that he was older, married and with children it became different.
"Thanks."
"Don't worry. Juvia knows you. If your mind is really twenty again, you are still shy around her. It took awhile for you to spend a whole night by my side, oh boy, that took a long time." The man rolled his eyes at her response, which actually made sense: he never was the touchy feely type.
"Is it alright for you to carry him?" Gray asked, looking to the woman and then to her stomach.
"He asked." She shrugged and the man smirked, feeling looser in their presence.
"I guess we all know where my 'charm' went." The Ice Mage said and Juvia giggled, putting the boy on the floor. Seeing the boy eyeing carefully, Gray put himself on his knees. Both looking at each other, taking in everything they could.
"Do you remember me, Dad?" The dark haired man thought about that question and heard Juvia take in a strangled breath. The boy was four, of course he couldn't break his heart like that.
"Of course I do." Gray said and smiled. "You'll have to remind me where's your room and show everything you learned about Ice Magic, but of course I remember you, kid."
He had lied to his son, what a nice start. Since the boy had no idea about it, Ur smiled widely. "Do you want to see my magic, dad? I am training every day!" The man was about to say 'yes', when the Water Mage interrupted them.
"Not now, mister." Juvia said and the boy pouted. "Your father needs to rest."
"I am not tired." Gray got up from the floor and then messed his son's hair with a hand. "Besides, I want to see what the kid got."
"Please, mommy. Pleaaaaase." The man watched fascinated as his son put his hands together and pleaded to his mother; eyes getting bigger and sparkling. Yeap, that kid stole his charm.
"You look too much like your father." Juvia sighed. "Fine. But just for an hour. Both of you." She stared to her son and then her husband with a stern look that Gray never thought he would receive from the Water Mage. "Gray-sama, don't use magic. Ur-chan, don't make your father use magic." Both the older man and the boy nodded eagerly. Juvia had changed with motherhood: she could be scary now. "Alright, then. Ur, go change to your training clothes."
"Training clothes?" Gray frowned and the blue haired woman sighed.
"He comes home all dirty after training with you. Juvia doesn't know if he throws them away and randomly strips like you, or if he just rolls in mud like a piglet." The blunette tickled her son, who laughed, saying that he wasn't a piglet and then made a few 'oinc' noises, which made the woman laugh. Gray's heart getting war with the sounds and sight. "In the end, he arrives all dirty and for the son of a Water Mage, this one here doesn't like baths."
Gray chuckled, imagining the boy arriving all dirty with his nice clothes. "So he has special training clothes, which he can get dirty with?"
"Yes." Juvia kissed the boy's cheek. "Go change, baby."
"I'll be right back, dad!" Ur run towards (Gray supposed) his room, his hair bouncing as he ran, leaving the Ice Mage and his wife alone in the living room. Oddly, Gray was having a nice time. When Juvia told him about their son, he pictured a different boy and Ur seemed like an even better child.
"What's up with all that hair and curls?" Gray chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. "If he didn't look exactly like me in everything else I would ask if I should be worried about you having an affair."
Juvia gasped and turned to stare at her husband. "You're still in there."
"What?" The Ice Mage was confused with her words.
"My Gray's still in there." The blunette put a hand on his left cheek, and then smiled. "We always thought that Ur's hair was going to darken as he got older. When we realized that he was going to have blue hair, and much curlier than we expected, you said those exactly words to Juvia."
"I… did?" He frowned.
"Yes." She nodded, a glint of hope in her eyes and Gray felt it too. Maybe his memory was going to return. "Juvia remembers well because she thought you were serious and showed with a calendar how Ur couldn't be anyone's but yours. You laughed a lot that day when finally told Juvia you were kidding."
Gray's frown deepened with the explanation; apparently he started to joke around with her. "That's good, then."
"It is. It means that we can hope." Juvia removed her hand from his cheek and the man immediately felt the loss of contact deeply. "Come on, let's get you settled and reacquainted with your house."
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AN: Here we go! We finally met Ur, I hope you liked the little piglet (my mom used to call me that; I was a bit of a tomboy and arrived home all dirty). LOL
Thanks to: icecreamhyouka12, Ariel Tran, Hayden, LilTimy, Guest, Sarapyon, BrigitteoO, Guest, gruvia92, mgaa, Guest, MrsGooglyBear, YamixTeaLover, otaku03, Mrs Murasaki-sama, ranmachi, raerryy69, superduperizee, NekoMaji, Guest, LyonAndJuviaForecer, Darkhope, ProjXPsyClone, Guest, KHR1427 and Medaka-chan, who reviewed me and are awesome! You are amazing! x3
10/04/2013 ~ BonneyQ
