A/N: I'm sooooo sorry this took so long! I've been experiencing huge writers block. I have a spark of inspiration, so I'm going to try to write the next chapter now so it'll be there for next time.
Next to Update: Bleeding Mascara
Please review!
It was early morning when everyone finally returned back to Magnolia. Layla needed to be at the hospital for another week, so they all went home. Ur and Kyle promised to bring Lucy back after a couple days to see her mother again.
Lucy was sound asleep when the car pulled into Gray's driveway. She had been leaning against him, so when he suddenly got out of the car she fell. He managed to catch her enough, though. She thanked him and stood up, dusting herself off.
"Where are you going?" she asked him. He was walking down the driveway.
"Don't worry about it," he replied curtly, shoving his hands into his pocket.
Lucy looked back behind her. Everyone else had already went inside. She looked to Gray, who was already walking down the sidewalk to the right. She quickly ran to catch up to him. "Wait!" she called. She gripped the sleeve of his hoodie, making him jerk back.
"Don't touch me," he snapped. "Why are you even following me?"
"I don't know." She shrugged, proving her point. He groaned and started walking again, his blonde shadow behind him.
The two walked into town. They ended up in a tobacco shop. Gray went right up to the counter and asked for two packs of cigarettes. The guy at the counter gave them to him without asking for an ID. "Aren't you only seventeen?" she asked innocently.
The man behind the counter laughed. "He's eighteen," he said, a wide smirk on his face. He looked to Gray. "I got a fresh shipment the other night. Do you want some?'
Gray shrugged, pulling out forty dollars. The man behind the counter, who looked about nineteen, put something in Gray's hand, which Lucy couldn't quite see. She heard it crinkle as it was put away in his pocket, though.
And just like that they were walking again. The next time they stopped they were at a park. Gray went to the very edge by a large maple tree, using one hand to swing up onto a branch. Lucy had trouble getting up, but she managed, with the help of Gray. She sat down beside him, looking at him with interest. He pulled out a lighter and one of his new packs of cigarettes, pulling one out.
"Isn't that really bad for you?" she asked. "Smoking can cause cancer, you know."
Gray chortled and lit the stick, stuffing the lighter back into his pocket afterwards. "I don't care, honestly." He was just happy that his nerves were finally calming. He had been on-edge since he saw Layla in the hospital.
Lucy stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. "What did you get from that guy?"
"You're quite nosy," he sighed. He pulled a small bag from his pocket with crushed green leaves. "Just some weed. Nothing serious."
"Nothing serious!" she gasped. "That's illegal! How can it not be serious?"
She received an eye roll. "Why do you care so much? You shouldn't waste your breath on me." He had already finished his cigarette, so he flicked it to the ground and began to light another one.
Lucy watched him while he smoked his second one. He was such a mystery to her. There were so many rumors about him going around school. People were saying they caught him smoking weed and she watched him buy some. Were other rumors about him true? Did he snort crack and take pills? Did he cut himself? Just about every time she touched him he jerked away. If everything else was true, did that mean he did?
"Gray?" she asked, slightly surprised that he was already lighting a third. She wasn't sure if it was because of the cigarette or her, but he hummed. She took that as a sign to continue. "Do you cut yourself?" She just had to ask.
Gray winced slightly at the question. "What kind of question is that?"
"A valid one," she pointed out. "People say that you do. And you're always wearing some sort of sleeves or bracelets or something."
"If I answer will you shut up?" he asked, annoyance clear in his voice. After receiving a nod, he set his cigarette beside him, then proceeded to take off his hoodie.
Lucy blushed slightly when she saw that he was only wearing a tight muscle shirt underneath, showing how muscular his arms were. She remembered why he took his hoodie off in the first place and looked a little closer. For one thing, he was covered in bruises. She reached out to touch a fairly large on, making him wince. "Where did things all come from?"
"Fights," he replied effortlessly. "Well, most of them."
She nodded, not bothering to ask where the rest came from. She rolled his arm over to look at the other side. She noticed a few small burn marks and, after a quick glance at his right arm, realized they were only only his left side. "What about these?"
He smiled slightly because of her innocent curiosity. She seemed more concerned that he was hurt instead of why each mark got there. "Sometimes I'll be smoking and I have to put the cigarette out real quick. That mostly happens in school."
That surprised her. She couldn't imagine burning her skin like that. If it kept him out of trouble, though, it was a good thing, she supposed.
Before Lucy could look any closer, Gray pulled him arm away from her, looking off to the side in shame. "Come on, let me see," she whined, trying to pull his arm back. She sighed and let her look. Her eyes widened when she saw four curved scars on his wrist. Flipping his arm over, she saw one curved scar on the other side. "Are these nail marks?" She saw him clench his jaw. "Is this what you're always hiding?"
"I'm not explaining them," he said with sadness laced into his words. "Are you done?"
Lucy was memorized by the marks. Someone must have grabbed him very hard to get those scars. There was no way he could have done that himself. She felt awful that rumors went around about him cutting himself, when he was really just hiding something horrible from his past. "How did you parents die?"
He didn't lash out at her like she had expected him to. He just looked down at his lap, biting his lip for a moment before he spoke. "They were killed five years ago." He looked up and saw that she was looking at him with an encouraging smile, wanting him to continue. "Actually, my mother was the only one killed. I've never told anyone that, though. I just said that they were both killed." He stopped to calm his breathing. "I came home to see my father beating my mother right in the living room. I had seen her with bruises before, but I never..."
"Gray," Lucy whispered, putting a hand on his thigh. "You don't have to keep talking." She was near tears herself, knowing exactly what it was like to have an abusive father. At least her's was only verbal rather than physical.
"I had ran forward to stop him. He just grabbed my hand hard and told me that if I said anything he would come kill me. He threw me to the side, then went for my mom. He had a knife in his pocket. He stabbed her in the leg and I ran forward." He gripped his shirt, right over his right side. "He had cut me, too. Twice."
Lucy knew that one hit was the scar above his eye. The other must have been on his stomach.
"He had killed my mother, then ran out of the house. I was at my mother's side, trying to help her. I couldn't. She was dying. Before I knew it the house was burning. She screamed at me to leave, and I did. The fireman managed to get her out, and she was in the hospital for a couple days before she died. I had told them that my father never got out of the house, so they pronounced him dead. I haven't seen him since then.
"I had went to Fairy Tail all my life, but after that I was passed around for a year, going to different families and schools. I was starting to get into trouble, making a name for myself. All the families would kick me out, then most wouldn't even take me. I was at an adoption center for almost a month before Ur and Kyle found me. They lived on the other side of Fiore and were moving to Magnolia, but stopped in Clover to visit family. Ur's mother actually owned the adoption center that I was staying at, so Ur and Kyle were there for a full day, just playing with all the kids. I guess Ur did that a lot when she was younger, too. Well they found me just sulking in the corner, not talking to anyone. Ur asked about me, and her mother didn't have a lot of good things to say. She had heard about me; the thirteen-year-old who had tried almost everything illegal. Ur and Kyle adopted me anyways.
"I ended up back in Fairy Tail. All my old friends tried to talk to me, and for a while I played along, but eventually I had enough. Lyon and Ultear had made friends with them by hanging around, so they had somewhere to go when I left. I don't really hang around them anymore."
Lucy was crying when he finished. She wanted to go scream at everyone who had said bad things about him, and do the same for anyone in the future. She never thought that he could have been through so much.
She realized something, though, that he left out. "What about ice skating?"
He sighed, knowing she would ask about that. "Ur and Kyle opened up the rink when they first moved here. Instead of me running off to somewhere they didn't know, they would lock me in there. It was only natural that I entertained myself. I figured out pretty quickly that I was good at it."
She hugged him tightly around the waist, trying to stop her tears. "You don't have to be alone anymore." She laughed. "I'm not going anywhere, so you might as well just get used to me being here."
Gray sighed. He knew that she was being completely serious.