***Sorry, not a new chapter! Just had to fix a few grammatical errors that I forgot about!***
Hello again :) Yep, somehow I'm back with another chapter *already*... I'm not sure how great it is but I laughed while I was writing it.
Figured I needed to clear up some Gray/Am/Laxus triangle (can you call it that?) crap so this is the result... I figured I'd make her do something relatable - like spiral a little and get drunk with the girls. I'm sure everyone's done it. Not sure about the Gray POV but meh. It's midnight and I have work in the morning so I can fix it later if I feel the need.
Thanks to ImpracticalDemon for your review, and to everyone following xx
Anywho, goodnight people! Hope you enjoy!
P.S Hiro Mashima owns FT (obviously)
Chapter 37. (or "Cobra plays babysitter")
Gray was roused from his fitful sleep by someone banging at the front door.
"What the hell?" he muttered sleepily, glancing at the lacrima. It's dull green glow read seven minutes past three in the morning. He'd only been asleep for two hours.
He silently counted to ten, hoping Silver would take care of the late night intruders, but when the door across the hall failed to open he dragged himself out of the bed. He pulled on a pair of boxers and made his way down the stairs.
This had better be good…
"Hurry the fuck up!" A male voice barked from his doorstep as they bashed at the timber door again.
The Ice Make mage pulled the door open without bothering to check the peep hole to find the tanned Poison Slayer standing there.
He had Lucy propped up under one arm and Amalie supported with the other.
"I believe this belongs to you," Cobra told him dryly, releasing the grip he had on the copper haired girl.
The Ice Make mage was still too half asleep to react as she stumbled forward and tripped over the inch high lip of the doorframe, face planting at Gray's feet with a metallic clank and an undignified, "Fuck."
She lay there bonelessly under the pile of weaponry she had strapped to her back. Her soft snores were barely audible.
"So...?" It was really too early, or late, for Gray to be dealing with this. He really needed his sleep and the taller man just stood there like he was waiting for him to say something. "Thanks?"
"Queenie and Jugs and the crazy red head drank a fair bit. Nearly as much as that drunk used to drink by herself."
Cana wasn't drinking? Weird... And Erza? She wouldn't…
"Oh, yes she would," Cobra argued. "No idea where the fuck she went, though, but I pity the poor bastard who finds her naked ass in the morning. And that shit with the Lightning fucker… I know you're pissed about it but just fucking talk to her."
Gray had had a similar conversation with Lucy earlier, but the blonde clearly had much less of a detailed insight into the crazy that was the princess' life than the Slayer did.
"I'm not…" he trailed off, finishing the thought in his head. Entirely sure what to do in this situation. Goddamn it! Why did Silver have to come back? And why did she have to be with that stupid fucking blonde egotist first?
"Calm your farm, popsicle," Cobra's voice cut through his rapidly angering thoughts. His amethyst eye regarded him thoughtfully. "It was like a year and a half ago. Her sleeping with the blonde egotist. Or him fucking her. Whatever way you wanna look at it."
"Not. Helping," Gray seethed. He hated feeling so ignorant to what looked like a blatantly obvious truth.
Amalie had slept with Laxus.
He should have known from the Lightning Slayer's obsessive behaviour and her obvious familiarity with him. And it was probably a couple of times, too, because it took more than one bite to 'mark' someone. He knew that much. Being around so many Slayers meant you learnt things about their magic.
Even that poison prick knows about that shit! They all kept it from me! Probably fucking laughing about it behind my back!
"Wrong." Again the Poison Slayer pulled him from his own furious thoughts, and he glared up at him.
"Explain."
The maroon haired man gave him a wolfish grin. "Depends on the intent behind the mark as to how many times it needs to be done."
"What?" That new information confused the Ice Make mage. It went completely against what he'd been told by Gajeel and Natsu. "Intention matters?"
"Yep, but I've gotta get Jugs home before she vomits on my shoes."
The blonde in his arms mumbled something and groaned. Her hand swung useless at him in a weak attempt of a slap and the Poison Slayer chuckled as he tweaked her nose.
The last time Gray had seen her that drunk, she'd been rubbing against Natsu and purring like she was a kitten before passing out in the bath at Christmas.
"Right," the Ice Make mage replied awkwardly. He still wasn't entirely sure what to do with the Change mage passed out on his doorstep, and on one of his feet, and his conflicted feelings. He crouched down beside her and started unbuckling her sword. First things first, I guess...
"Careful when you take her boots off," Cobra advised over his shoulder after he'd scooped Lucy up and started walking away. He must have picked up on Gray's confusion because he added helpfully, "She hides fucking knives everywhere."
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There was a long list of times when Amalie regretted waking up.
Most of those instances were immediately after she'd been concussed, knocked out or had fought hard the day prior. Only a handful of times were thanks to excessive drinking.
This makes being poisoned yesterday feel like a fucking tea party, she moaned to herself as she curled into an even tighter ball in an attempt to soothe her poor head and stomach. Her shoulder complained loudly at the movement and she groaned out loud.
She'd spiralled yesterday after the confrontation with Laxus. She felt she deserved it having kept it together during both her parents and little brother's deaths. She'd remained strong during countless torture sessions at the hands of Seraphina.
So I totally deserved to get black out drunk and throw away all the fucks I had to give, right?
The look of rejection and sadness on Gray's face had ripped painfully as her soul and as soon as Erik had removed the poison, she'd assumed her place at the bar.
Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately, depending on how everyone else was feeling that day - Erza and Lucy had taken pity on her, although that had evolved into drinking games, brawling and Erza losing her clothes.
Just like she did every time she got drunk.
How the fuck does she even manage that? She's a Requip mage, for Mavis' sake... And I sure as shit didn't see her use her magic. She ripped them off with her bare hands.
She felt a weight settle on the bed beside her and the blanket was tugged gently back. She scrunched her eyes closed in reflex of light assaulting her sensitive eyes but Gray, in his usual considerate way, had left the curtains drawn.
"I got Mira's hangover cure. You smell like a bar," he murmured. There was no residual anger or hurt in his tone.
He just sounds tired.
"Gray..." Amalie's voice rasped as she carefully opened her eyes to see the Ice Make mage. He held a clear glass of something so disgustingly green, it should have been illegal. Gingerly, she reached out for it as she pulled herself up.
"I find it works better if you block your nose and chug it 'cause it tastes worse than it looks," he advised.
She quickly did as he said, dry heaving a little from the aftertaste but managing to keep the contents of her stomach down.
Hazy memories of the previous night greeted her clearing head.
"I'm sorry. Erik insisted on bringing me here. I was going to stay on Lucy's couch but he didn't want to deal with three drunks."
"Two," Gray corrected, with a smirk. "He lost Erza."
Amalie barked out a laugh as she recalled that the redhead had been pretty insistent on going mud wrestling. Both herself and Lucy would have gone along with it if the Poison Slayer hadn't reached his drunk babysitter tolerance and forced them home.
She also seemed to recall high fiving the Fire Slayer in the face and destroying one of Laxus' prized coats in anger.
Eh, I'll deal with that later.
"So..." the Ice Make mage broke the silence. "Wanna... I dunno... Talk about the crazy shit that went down yesterday?"
"Only if you can cope with honesty because I won't lie about whatever it is you ask me," she tried, and failed, to keep her voice from wavering. There were so many bad parts to her past that she was certain he would judge her on.
"The sleeping with the storm cloud thing."
Ouch. Ok, so we're jumping right in there.
"I was going to be sold to my sister's husband's brother and kept in yet another castle filled with magic supressing lacrimas and raped so I would bear him heirs," she gave the brutal answer without making eye contact. "Virginity is a dangerous thing to possess when there's money involved. If you're not pure, then you're not wanted for royal marriage, and you get to live another day."
Gray's face paled considerably at that statement. She was certain he'd never considered that she may have been in the same boat as Lucy when she'd run away to join Fairy Tail.
They'd discussed the brutality of 'being a proper woman' in that fucked up elitist world in some detail the previous evening and both agreed, albeit drunkenly, to watch each other's backs from that moment on.
"But... Why Laxus?"
She took a moment to consider his question. "I was infatuated by him at the time. I thought he could help me escape but he just ended up caging me again because he was gone the next morning when I woke up."
"And now?" Gray dared to question. His voice was barely audible.
"There's nothing. I love you, Gray Fullbuster," she stated with more surety than she'd ever felt in her short life. She met his dark blue eyes confidently. "I'll stay until you make me leave."