Sometimes life throws a curveball,
Sometimes life throws a bomb,
Sometimes life throws a literal glob of shit…
Care to guess which one it threw at me recently? Because I really wish it wouldn't.
Let's read!
:::-((x))-:::
(2 days later)
Vali huffed, shifting as his body screamed at him to stop moving."You really need to work on your bedside manner."
The trip to the hospital was long, but simple. To his relief, the bullet wasn't magical nor had it hit anything important – besides his flesh – but the bed rest was going to be a nightmare. The disinfectant stung and the bandaging was uncomfortable, like having a hive full of bugs constantly pressed up against his skin. The sharp jolt of pain that rudely interrupted his shifting made him grunt a little, if the bandages were the bugs then the wound felt like the bugs pissing in that particular spot.
He looked up after another bout of the sharp needle-like sensation and saw that Gray was still looking at him with annoyance.
"What?"
It was a clear question, one that was easily answered, but Gray didn't answer.
"Ehh, if you're going to keep staring at me like that then I'm going to try and rest, doctors orders after all." He forced out a laugh, feeling a pressing sourness compressing him.
His eyes travelled away from Gray and scoured the room for literally anything else, he had never known that the walls had little squiggly line embedded in them. The stringing and curly patterns almost made him go cross-eyed, but it was better than paying attention to his half-blind friends stare.
He still hadn't said anything…
Why wasn't he saying anything? Vali squirmed, awkwardly fumbling with the edge of the blanket like it was play-dough in his fingers, desperately rummaging through his brain to try and think of anything remotely witty. Humour always broke the ice – though he doubted that it would do much – he wanted, no, needed the comfort of something familiar.
He would have preferred a punch or even being slammed against a wall, maybe even Gray suddenly stripping if it took his attention away from him. He just wanted to sleep, he was getting tired… Or did he just want to be tired? He was always tired, but he didn't usually want to be tired. It didn't feel right.
"Don't do that again..."
'What?'
He looked up at the Devil Slayer, whose face blankly bored straight into his own, reminding him of himself in a way that creeped him out to no end.
"Specify…?"
He didn't have much need for it, but he'd ignored most things for long enough to be good at it.
He almost snickered at Gray's teeth gritting, enraging the Ice Mage always brought a modicum of joy. He had anger issues, that was for certain and it was utterly hilarious.
"You know what i'm talking about, you bastard."
"Maybe, but it is nice to know you care." He smirked, locking eyes with the younger boy. "Love you too."
"Fuck you!"
It happened too fast…
One moment he was holding back laughter at his hollow victory, watching as that small vein on his forehead pop out, showing clear signs of his anger. But then his grin turned into a look of frozen shock as he felt his shirt tighten as Gray yanked him up by the collar with one hand, his fist cocked back and ready to strike.
The smouldering look was impossible to describe. The burning hatred that was shining within that dark pool held stories of pain that were difficult to ignore. Like something Gray had been holding in for a long time had burst out and finally taken him hostage in his own body.
It would leave him soon enough…
In his opinion at least…
He had expected the hit to come swiftly after, but through the heavy, ragged breaths and tension within the boys body… it never came.
He didn't realise it right away, but Vali had squeezed his eyes shut in an effort of protection, but when he opened them he felt his apprehension slowly begin to exit his body.
He caught himself before he chuckled… He had flinched, flinched hard enough to dizzy himself for a second. And it must have been that innate self-preservation that had stopped Gray in his tracks. Like whatever demon that had taken him over suddenly left just as fast as his own panic. The eye that held that raw emotion had dissolved into its natural onyx again, no difference, but there was. It was no more complicated than the simplest form of emotion known to him… It felt weird, almost foreign.
God, did life love to remind him of himself that much?
'What do I say?' Try as he might, Vali found himself to flummoxed to even say anything. He tried, but his mind only drew blanks everytime he looked at the intimidating figure of his friend.
"Gr – "
"You knew what he was doing..." Gray started, and something told Vali that it wasn't a question, but a statement.
He felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead…
"Gray, wh-"
"Shut. Up!" The sheer amount of anger felt in his voice froze the Earth Mage into a stasis. He couldn't find it within himself to interrupt any further.
"I know you were able to avoid that gunshot… But you just stood there and let it happened." The Ice Mage growled, glowering down at the bed-ridden boy. "You easily could have seen that asshole doing anything,."
"And you know this, how?" The implications were clear, Vali felt his body heat rise a little, knowing where Gray was taking this line of dialogue. But he didn't want to hear it, he didn't need the grumpiest kid he had ever known in his colourful life to tell him what he had intended. He would've tried to shift into a sitting position, but pain still flared up in his abdomen so he decided it was better to stay on his back.
But Gray wasn't done with his interrogation, it seemed.
"You are going to sit there and listen. I am done hearing you talk, Vali!" The heat in his voice now matched what Vali felt. But Gray was getting angrier by the second, and Vali could see the battle raging on within him, clearly for his own self control. He – to his own displeasure – was upset, but he could see why he was trying so hard… He HAD been close to socking him straight in the nose a few moments before.
"I have had more than enough people lose there lives around me, I don't nee-" Gray stopped, eye widening. He stood, frozen in place as his brain processed what he had just let slip. He hadn't meant to say that, Vali didn't need to know that in any way… And the way he was now looking at him – like he had just dropped dead before him – suddenly became more focussed than ever before.
The Devil Slayer didn't know when sound had left him, but it had. It was suffocating, absolutely suffocating and he had the urge to just disappear into thin air before Vali could react to the unintended admission in any way.
He had to get out…
The door was just behind him, he could swivel around now and leave him in his room. He could go to the guild and forget about this shit for the next few hours…
"I'm leaving." He gave Vali one last look, ignoring the shocked expression on his friends face as he turned robotically to the door behind him and opened it.
"You know that I am taking that job thing today, i'll be back late. Don't wreck the place, bastard." He said before closing the door behind him, leaving Vali on his own for the first time in a few weeks.
Even after Gray had left, Vali still didn't take his eyes away from where Gray had stood, stunned. His brain ablaze with thoughts and annoying emotions as they crawled through his head like little fire ants. He almost blinked in the belief that Gray would return and explain what he meant by that final statement. But he knew that he didn't need to explain, it was clear enough.
And the emotion the usually stoic boy demonstrated belayed the idea that he was just saying things. Though Gray wasn't one to really speak gibberish… For the most part. But he couldn't shake the image of that steaming anger he had around him like a cloak of red hot fire. He spoke, voice thick with rage and hatred, but for what? He didn't know… Could be his parents? A friend? Himself?
He simply didn't know...
He suddenly wished that he could move, or do anything other than sit and stew in his own pain. Grimacing, he began to trace the walls again, counting the swirling patterns and thinking about the number, because anything was better than what he had to think about regarding Gray or his injury.
"Well, fuck you too..." He forced a laugh out. Losing is place with the counting swirly wall patterns. "Maybe your parents can say hello to mine for me, though."
:::-((x))-:::
Even though it was Summer, even though it was warm… There was not a single ray of sunshine in the sky. And Gray was fine with that…
The temperature felt like it would burn away at his skin with how hot it was, but he didn't pay it no mind. His thoughts trailed and were rattling inside his head like a pair of maracas being shaken inside his skull. Gritting his teeth and snapping his eye shut, he tried to quell the coming wave of anger and hatred. But all he could do was fruitlessly brace for the tidal wave of stormy emotions within him.
"Fuck you, Vali." He growled, focussing on the path in front of him, avoiding the odd looks he got from the locals. He knew the looks by now, the pity, the curiosity and wariness made up for 90% of what he received these days. It wasn't what he wanted, he wasn't to be pitied, he wasn't an alien nor was he a fucking demon. He was just just an idiot, and idiot child…
How did he let that slip? To Vali of all people?!
The prick was going to ask him questions, maybe even interrogate him to spill his past.
He wasn't going to do it… Fuck him.
Growling, he looked up from the ground and saw the guild just three blocks away from him. But the sight didn't really give him anything positive. The guild was loud and annoying with annoying people, Even though he found Cana less annoying than the rest. It was something that he felt wasn't going to change with time. It even took Ur a month and a half to finally get him to begin opening up.
But he knew what happened when he did open up.
He didn't need to send more people to their fate.
Every time he opened up, every time he gave people a chance, they died. Hell, even Vali, who he really didn't think highly of – that much at least – almost met his fate at the end of a common gun. He survived with an injury, but when would that luck run out? When was it going to be Gildarts' turn to suffer the brutal treatment of his curse like Ur had, like his dad had, like Jade and little Macbeth had?
No, he didn't need to hurt anyone else…
What he needed was power.
He wanted to scream, cry. He wanted to tear the world in half for the way he had ended up… A disfigured orphan who hid behind a glamour charmed ring.
But most importantly, he wanted to spit in the face of fate…
His mind cast itself back to his father, loving and caring yet superstitious. He probably would have told him to piss fate off. But if he wanted to get that into him so badly he should have not went and got himself killed by a blasted demon of destruction. A thing that left him dead and his son homeless, friendless and with no point in life left.
He was scarred for life, his once normal looking features now leathery and scarred over. Everything he could have possibly wanted was not coming back and he refused to try with the guild members. He didn't want them or anyone else, he didn't want Gildarts, he didn't want Cana and he certainly didn't want Vali… He wanted his father, he wanted Ur.
But they weren't coming back, and all he was angry… As soon as he was able to, he was going to grow as strong as possible, he was going to break that cursed fate of his.
And this job – as mundane and boring it was – would start him down the path… The training could wait today. He had a job to do.
:::-((x))-:::
The guild was as lively as ever…
It was the first thing that Gray noted as he stomped through the guild doors and towards the jobs board. His eye catching the desired job in question, as fun as a boring, overly trivial E-List job could possibly be. Plus the measly amount of jewel earned from the job would likely last for a few weeks or so, especially since he didn't have to pay rent.
"Look out!" Someone called to his side. Looking towards the owner of the voice, his eye almost popped out of his skull when he saw the flying form of Macao quickly closing the distance between them.
Gray reacted out of pure instinct, the treacherous journey to Fairy Tail having instilled a sense of reactionary vigilance within him. His hand shot outward before a startlingly heavy chill flooding the guild as Macao was quickly frozen over and held in place by a jagged, pillar of ice that broke all the momentum of the throw he was subject to.
"Ahh1" The older man wriggled, squealing a little at the biting cold before looking over towards Gray in shock. "Let me out! It's bloody freezing!"
"Whatever..." Gray looked away, allowing his ice to shatter and disappear as quickly as it had appeared. He turned his attention back to the board, not taking notice of the sudden silence that now plagued the guild like an infection.
But it didn't take long for the boy to realised the suddenly different atmosphere. Turning around in annoyance, he saw people looking at him. He couldn't tell just by looking, but it looked like they were slightly shocked. Like he had just committed a feat of magical strength untold by anything that could calculate.
He felt a headache coming, did these people just feel like annoying him? He just wanted to take this job and get away from them all, couldn't they make it a little easier on him?
"What is it?" He snapped, glowering at the nearest person in his sight. Vejeeter didn't notice however and continued to look around at what everyone was staring at. "I am here to take a job, what is so fucking weird about that?"
"Not that, but that was mighty fast." Chuckled Wakaba, giving him a smirk as Macao just flipped the smoker off.
'Huh...'
He almost felt like puffing his chest out, a modicum of pride welling up within him at Wakaba's appraisal. It was about time someone realised what he was capable of. Even if it was just about his speed. Of course that power came with a cost, but he didn't care. He wanted this power – needed it, in fact, – This was what was going to set him apart from the weak. He wasn't going to need anyone, he'd have his own strength to utilise instead of the sidelines.
"Sure." He grumbled, turning back around to swipe the job off the board. All it asked of him was that he helped bring some cats and dogs back to their owners, or if he couldn't find them, then he was to bring them to the compound where the people there start doing their own jobs.
It seemed simple enough. It would be a shitty start, but a start nonetheless…
:::-((x))-:::
So… Yeah, these updates are like Battlefield releases nowadays, they take forever and are barely worth the wait.
