Okay I know I'm late again... oops. I think it's fair to say that this schedule for this fic has gone straight out the window. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail
The battle with Tartarus had affected everyone, there was no denying that. Lucy had lost one of her most precious friends and strongest zodiac key. All of the Dragon Slayers had their Dragon parents reappear before them only to watch them fade away. So much had happened that Gray didn't feel much need to add fuel to the fire with his pathetic life, so before anyone could ask any questions, he ran. Deep into the Eastern Forest he fled, in hopes of never being found. Blood, sweat and tears still coated his skin and every step sent an agonising pain flaring through his open wounds and broken bones. Surely no one would notice his absence. Everyone was still so caught up over their own lives – not to mention their ruined guild hall – that no one would spare a thought for the newly found Devil Slayer. That was another issue entirely. He was going to have to tell someone about his new magic eventually, and it was only a matter of time before people started asking questions. That was another reason why he ran. He saw it in Natsu's face from the moment Memento Mori was dispelled. Gajeel had given him a funny look too. People were definitely suspicious and Gray couldn't bring himself to offer up an explanation without breaking down in front of his guild. And there was NO WAY he was going to do that. He had a reputation to live up to. Gray was the ice cold wizard with an ice cold personality to go with it. No one – bar Natsu – had ever seen Gray in such a pathetic and broken place before and he planned on keep it that way.
It had been a good half an hour since he'd turned and fled from his guild members. His blood now dried and cracked, coating his pallor complexion. Gray had been sat up against a random tree in the Eastern Forest staring down at his arm for the majority of the time. Something about his magic felt... Off. Suddenly having a Lost Magic at his disposal would definitely take some getting used to. He was curious as to how long it might have taken his father to master the techniques, and just how strong would the Devil Slayer magic be compared to his usual Ice-Make?
"The hell you doing out here Ice Prick?"
Gray silently cursed the Fire Dragon. God, he really hated that guy's timing. The raven closed his eyes and prayed that if he ignored his rival for long enough, he'd just give up and leave. Of course, he had no such luck.
"Don't worry," Natsu stated with an oddly soothing voice. "I'm not here to get some kind of explanation out of you."
When Gray didn't respond for a second time, Natsu cautiously approached the beaten Ice Wizard and slumped himself down by his side.
"You should really get those wounds looked at," he pointed out, wincing at the sheer amount of blood and bruises littering his friend's skin. "For once, Porlyusica isn't actually complaining about human contact so I'd get her to give you a check-up before she reverts back to her usual self."
"I'm fine."
"Well then clearly we have two different definitions of the word 'fine.'" Natsu chuckled ever so slightly, but when he once again was given no response he decided it would be wise to drop the sarcasm... At least for now. "I'm serious Gray; there could be side effects to Mard Gear's magic that we don't know about. We wouldn't want you to keel over at any random moment."
Gray's form tensed slightly.
"The others have spread out to help the citizens of Magnolia so you don't have to worry about anyone badgering you for answers... Gramps does want to talk to you though. He's worried."
"Tell him I'm fine."
"Quit lying Gray!" Natsu scowled. "No one can possibly go through all the crap and say that all is well and good. You're not the only one who went through hell today. Everyone's feeling the effects of this battle."
"I know but..." Gray tried.
"Talk to me Gray."
Of course Natsu had an ulterior motive. There was no way in hell the pinkette would have come down here just to remind Gray to go for a check up. "What happened to not being here to get some kind of explanation out of me?"
"Hey, I never specified what we should talk about," Natsu protested, frowning. He remained silent and waited a good while for his rival to initiate some kind of conversation, but when that annoying voice never came, he took matters into his own hands. "I watched my Dad die today."
"Natsu."
"No let me finish," he insisted. "I've gotta vent my anger out to someone and seeing as we're both far too injured for a fight... This is the next best thing."
Gray huffed in both annoyance and acceptance. "Go on."
"Igneel and the other Dragons have been living inside of us for the past seven – no, fourteen years. This whole time I've been running all over Fiore searching for him and he was right here the whole time... And to top it all off I just watched him die." The Dragon Slayer rapidly blinked the tears away from his eyes. This talk wasn't about him right now.
"I'm sorry..." Gray mumbled, pulling his knees closer to his chest.
"Erza said I should get advice from someone who knows what it's like to lose their family right in front of their eyes." He hesitated for a moment. "How did you cope with it?"
Gray sighed. If Natsu was going to guilt trip him into talking about his hellish life then he couldn't help but respond. "I didn't."
"What?"
"Natsu I'm probably not the best person to talk about this with," the raven admitted, turning away. "When my parents died I ran after Deliora to get revenge and got Ur killed."
"But surely you pulled yourself through all that somehow... Right?"
"Not exactly... These kinda things aren't something you can just wrap up in a bandage and forget about. Most scars fade with time but these... They never go away."
"But you've seemed perfectly fine all these years?"
"That's just it Natsu. When something traumatic happens to a person they put on a brave face so no one sees how broken you truly are. Eventually you hold up the façade for so long that you convince yourself that you're fine."
"Is that what you're trying to do now?"
"I thought we weren't going to talk about that."
"You're the one who turned this conversation around on yourself, not me."
Gray stiffened in surprise. God dammit this was his plan all along, he screamed in his mind. Natsu was an idiot, but he definitely knew just what to say to ease out a person's hidden emotions.
"It seems that even your subconscious wants someone to talk to."
"Shut up..."
"Gray. Talk to me."
It took a good moment of silence until Gray's mind finally admitted defeat and he let his heart take over.
"My Dad was a member of Tartarus."
Despite the fact that Natsu saw this coming, he still recoiled in surprise. "That Ice Devil Slayer you were fighting... That was him, wasn't it?"
"...Yeah..."
The conversation dulled out yet again. As much as Natsu wanted to speak up, he'd had his moment in the light, now it was Gray's turn.
Gray was far more reluctant to speak. His mind was still fighting hard to keep the ice freezing his heart from breaking, however more and more cracks began forming and in turn, more and more words seemed to tumble from his mouth. "Seventeen years ago... After Deliora rampaged through my village, Tartarus passed through. One of their Demons was a Necromancer and was looking for a mass amount of corpses to use in an experiment. He collected a bunch of the dead villagers from Isvan, including my father. He somehow managed to out-live the other corpses and made his way into the Nine Demon Gates."
"So Tartarus was controlling your father to make him do their bidding?"
"Not exactly," Gray sighed. There was no turning back now. "The experiment was to see how much the Necromancer could make a corpse act like how they were when they were alive. My Dad was the only one to succeed in the experiment. He had full control over what he was doing."
"Okay, you lost me."
Gray gave a dry chuckle. At the end of the day, Natsu was still an idiot.
"My Dad was pretending to be possessed by Deliora so that I would kill him and feel like I was avenging my family."
The Salamander opened his mouth to respond, but all the came out was a slur of mumbles. What was he supposed to say to that?
"It didn't work. Somewhere along the line I realised what he was up to and put an end to it."
"What do you mean 'put an end to it'?"
"Well I... I tried to use Iced Shell, but before you say anything," Gray caught himself before Natsu had a chance to chastise him, "I stopped myself okay. I realised it was a bad idea and I found another way to defeat him. He asked me to kill him... Well more like he begged." Gray's voice was shaking wildly out of control as he fought relentlessly to keep his tears at bay. "I told him I couldn't do it and... That was it really. He disappeared shortly after and before I knew it, I had this." He gestured down to his right arm as his tattoo marking his newly found Devil Slayer Magic sprung to life.
"Well at least you got something out of it," Natsu chuckled awkwardly, he'd wanted to explode at the raven for once again attempted to sacrifice himself for the good of the guild. However, he'd decided to go the more supportive route to get some kind of response from his rival. When he wasn't granted such, the two fell right back into silence.
Neither dared to move the conversation along. Natsu was too worried he'd say the wrong thing and Gray was positive that if he'd say anything else his tears would let loose yet again that evening. It wasn't until the pieces of the puzzle finally clicked in Natsu's mind that he found the right words.
"I may not know exactly how it feels, but I know what you're going through."
"Oh yeah? How's that?"
"Think about it. Both our father's turn up again after years of being gone only for them to leave us for good this time. I mean sure, I'll never fully understand what you're going through since your dad was already dead, but what happened to us tonight is almost identical... Even down to the Slayer Magic they left behind." Natsu could have sword he'd seen the Ice Wizard's lips curl upwards if only for a second before his usual frown was slapped back on his face. "Gray, running away and hiding from everyone isn't the way to go about this."
"I'm not hiding."
"Of course you're not..." Natsu mumbled. "You need us Gray, and... we need you. This is a two way street ya know?"
"I know I know," Gray huffed again. "It's just... A lot to take in."
"Yeah you can say that again. I only just wrapped my head around the whole Face thing and now we've got the cryptic ass Zeref and E.N.D. to deal with. My brain's working overtime for crying out loud."
"You overestimate yourself Natsu. What brain are you talking about?"
The pinkette's smile broadened at the insult. Sure, it wasn't the most creative thing Gray could have come up with, but he'd take it nonetheless. "I have a pretty big brain thank you very much."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah... It was my idea to use Dragon Force in that last fight," He held his chin up high and folded his arms in satisfaction.
"I'm fairly certain that – as every other time before – going into Dragon Force was out of your jurisdiction."
"Shut up. I was trying to save your ass. You should be grateful."
"Oh okay so that's one save for you and now let's see... How many times did I save you today? Shall we tally them up?"
"That won't be necessary!"
Despite the pain still raw in their eyes, the two rivals laughed. It almost surprised them how they'd both gone from a blubbering mess to their typical stupid arguments... They weren't exactly at their normal standard of fighting, but the verbal abuse was just enough to loosen the tension.
"You still need to get your wounds checked out," Natsu reminded.
"Okay okay. Jeez since when did you care so much?"
"Since you saved my ass by partly turning into a demon," Natsu punched Gray across the arm... Well the arm that was least damaged. "What are you gonna tell everyone?"
"Nothing for now," Gray sighed. "Everyone's got their own crap to be dealing with. I'll give it a few days so the wounds aren't still fresh and I can actually think clearly... You better not say a word to anyone. And by anyone I mean anyone Natsu. Don't go blabbing to Happy."
"Hey my lips are sealed," Natsu raised his hands in defence. "But people are suspicious... And by people I mean Gajeel."
"Yeah he's been giving me looks ever since I saved his ass from the demon that attacked Laxus and the others."
"If he starts asking questions I'll just punch him. That should pose as a good distraction."
"Thanks."
Of course Gray was still one edge, who could blame him? However somewhere inside him he finally gathered up his remaining courage and followed Natsu back to their friends. He still wasn't up for talking but knowing that his long time rival had his back was reassuring to say the least... And it was comforting to know that there was someone else in this messed up group of people he could actually relate to. Though both wizards would try to deny it, they were a lot closer than the guild knew. They would somehow always know exactly what to do to cheer the other up. Whether it was a quick brawl or a private life discussion. It was at this point that it occurred to Gray why Natsu was the only guild member to see him so broken. It was because he felt safe showing his true colours around him. Despite being known for his big mouth, Natsu did keep secrets and very well for that matter. So the two Slayers walked side by side, ready to take on their future, however hard it may be.
So next chapter will be the finale. After that... I have no idea what I'll be doing. Of course I have Mystery Circle that I haven't really touched upon in god knows how long. I really do want to go back to it but (as I said in a previous AN) I kinda lost my inspiration to write for Fairy Tail with the way the Alvarez Arc went. Fortunately I planned that whole fic before it went downhill so when I do eventually go back to it the Alvarez arc will be completely irrelevant. There's also two other fics that I'm working on. Neither of which I know where I'm going with them. I also haven't written in quiet a while so it might take a while to get back into the swing of things. The good thing is that I start studying Creative Writing in September so that should help with the writer's block.
See ya in the next one! ;)