Disclaimer: Fairy Tail does not and sadly will never belong to me but this plot does! I'll sue you if you attempt to steal it haha ^w^ *LOL*

(A/N: Welcome back! We are now on chapter 13 of D2L! A huge thanks to all my readers who have followed all the way to this day and to the other writers on this site from whom I have received lots and lots of inspiration! This chapter is a day late but… since my third term of school has just started, I'm a bit busy. Let's move then!)

Previously on D2L: "Gray! Wait…there are 2 Grays…" Lucy began to mumble and laugh. Gray then grabbed her hand and began to drag her to the exit.

Continue:

"H-hey! I don't wanna go home" Lucy began to whine like a little child.

"Well, too bad." Gray replied, a bit too harsh and quickly lifted her on his back and began giving her a piggy back ride out of the Strauss mansion and into the car. Throughout the journey there Lucy was a bit too silent for someone who just gulped down more than half a bottle. Gray made her sit on the passenger's seat and took a seat in the driver's before igniting the engine and zooming off.

Suddenly Lucy began crying animatedly and Gray, startled, quickly stopped the car on a corner.

"L-Luce? What's wrong?" He began to ask her while putting a hand on her shoulder.

"G-gray was m-mean to Lucy" She wailed hysterically. My, my… a drunk Lucy was really going to be a difficult one.

Continue:

xXx At the party xXx

"Now do you believe me?" Cana asked with her nose held high in pride at how she was right about Lucy being jealous. Erza sighed and shook her head in disapproval.

"I admit you were right but what happened wasn't good. Lucy doesn't drink and for her to drink that much could really take a toll on her…" Erza replied.

"Don't worry about that Erza. Gray's there with her so we don't really have to worry… I really think those two have something going on, you know…"

"Something like what…?" Erza asked and Cana face-palmed at how clueless the red-head was turning out to be.

xXx Back to Lucy and Gray! xXx

Lucy out of the blue opened the car door and began walking in the distance.

"Luce, where're you going?!" Gray called out to her but she didn't stop, instead she climbed onto the railing of the bridge that was just above a river and surely Gray began to panic. Just a few millimeters and she would be drowning in the depths of the cold water below… What a handful huh?

"L-Luce please get down" He begged as he stood just below her. His voice shaking, he tried to be as careful as possible so that the blonde who was of course not in her senses wouldn't take a wrong move.

"NO! Gray doesn't like Lucy! Gray is mean to Lucy! Lucy will stay here!" She replied in a childish tone. But cuter than that, he thought, was how she was now referring to herself in the third-person.

"What're you saying? Of course I like you…You're a really important person to me Luce…" He began to convince her but the seriousness of his tone was inevitably noticeable. He just felt the need to make her believe that he cared…though he didn't get why… and surely the fact that she was standing on a bridge's railing, on the verge to fall was not exactly the main reason.

"Really?" She began to blush.

"Really Luce, so please get down" He held out a hand to her. She looked at him with narrow eyes as though not believing him just yet.

"Really, really?" She asked again and this time he laughed.

"Yeah… really, really" He felt like he was dealing with a child now but no doubt, it was cute. He hadn't yet seen this side of Lucy.

"A Gray-Lucy promise?" She again asked and he gave a confused look.

"What's that?" He asked, completely forgetting that she was on the verge of falling into a river. Where did the seriousness of the situation go?

"Lucy only trusts Gray that's why if it's a Gray-Lucy promise then Lucy can believe it even with her eyes closed" She replied. How long has it been since Gray last blushed? Well no matter that, after quite some time, Gray was feeling heat climb up to his cheeks.

"Yeah… it's a 'Gray-Lucy promise'." He said in a nervous but serious tone. Just then, the thing he feared most happened, just half a millimeter…just that much and Lucy slipped… She closed her eyes out of reflex but instead of falling backwards and into the river, she felt herself being pulled forward and finally when the fall refused to come for another two minutes she opened her eyes to find that she was no longer on the railing – Gray had managed to pull her down before the fall. Tears began to form on the brim of her lids…and in a swift motion, she wrapped her arms around his muscular torso and held on tight, her head resting on his chest.

Gray was too stunned to give a reaction. He could feel his heartbeat quicken… why was he reacting like this? He really wanted to know… He patted her head affectionately and Lucy relaxed.

Lucy let go and slowly sat on the pavement. Her bangs covering her chocolate brown eyes and her arms holding on to her knees tightly. Gray's expression softened slightly… it was that same look that she had always had before. Maybe today was the day he'd find out the reason for her melancholy? Maybe being drunk has its own plus points then…because as they say, a lot of secrets come out when one isn't in their senses… one never lies when they are drunk…

He took a seat beside her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Um, Luce, can I ask you a question?" He asked her seriously but suddenly all the sadness in her drifted away and Lucy began to laugh and he gave her a puzzled look. Seems like being drunk can lead to some serious hairpin mood swings huh?

"But you already did!" She laughed hysterically and Gray sweat-dropped…

"Ok 2 questions then?" He repeated and she began laughing again, "Now what?" he asked.

"You already did!" She said again and he was really feeling out of place now…then he suddenly felt her hands ruffling his hair. He looked at her with perplexity and noticed how she was really engrossed in what she was doing.

"Wow…Lucy thought Gray's hair would be hard and spiky, spiky! But it's so soft!" She began to say and from the way she was saying it, it sounded like she was pretty much speaking to herself. Gray chuckled and shook his head.

"How did it end up like this?" He wondered aloud. Lucy began to smile brightly but still, Gray felt as though there was more to that smile and so he tried again, "Luce, I wanted to ask you…why do you find it so hard to trust people?" At that question, Lucy's smile immediately faded away and the melancholy was once more visible in those chocolate orbs. Gray waited expectantly though he felt his heart clench at the way she was now… it seemed as if that question had triggered something painful.

"Gray…you'll never hurt me right?" She asked innocently and this one question was the question that Gray wanted to avoid most…His eyes widened slightly in response… he knew he would someday do exactly that… He remained silent…

"That day…the day 'he' broke my heart…he never even thought once about how I'd feel… he just crushed it, my heart. He betrayed me. He never cared. B-but you… you're different Gray. You're not like him right? You're different right?" She asked him desperately, her grip tightening on his shirt, tears flowing endlessly from her eyes.

"After that, I had promised myself that I'd never trust another male again…that I'd never let it all happen again…but then, you came and somehow, I'm willing to take that risk all over again because it's you. Ne Gray? Why can't I avoid you? Why, after rejecting so many guys after that time so easily, I wasn't able to avoid you? I don't understand! I don't…" She stopped and her vision got blurred from the tears forming.

He could feel her pain… he could feel her loneliness… But that wasn't all. He could also see how much she believed in him. He looked into her tear-filled eyes and he felt his heart ache. She looked so…helpless. He wanted to hold onto her, to console her and tell her it would all be alright and that he was there. He wanted to protect her from all the pains.

"You'd never hurt me the way they did…you wouldn't right?" She began to ask again desperately. He didn't answer, "You wouldn't right?" She asked again, more urgently. This time he nodded. How could he not? Tears began forming in his eyes too, but he didn't realize it himself.

"You would never leave me like they did… you wouldn't right? B-because…you're special. You are right?" She asked again, her voice cracking because of her urge to cry. He nodded again, a few tears escaping his midnight blue orbs. His heart felt like it was on the verge of breaking… He cared so much, he knew. He could feel his affection for her. He didn't want to see her this way. Why did she have to trust him so much when he clearly didn't deserve it, he thought.

They looked into each other's eyes and slowly and slowly they came closer and closer… Just as their lips were about to meet, Gray changed course and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

'Not this way Luce…' He thought, 'not when you're not even in your senses'

And this time he knew. He finally knew the reason…the reason why he had felt jealous those times. The reason why he cared so much for her. The reason why he couldn't bring himself to move away all those times they almost kissed. The reason why he wanted so much to protect her. In the course of making her fall for him, he himself had lost his heart to her.

She buried her head in his chest and began to release her tears finally… she wailed and wailed… He held onto her tight, stroking her head, until she stopped crying and fell asleep… He carried her bridal style, back to the car and began driving to her home. It was now 3am… the road had been empty for a long while and so he used the opportunity to move full speed.

Gradually, Lucy's head fell onto his shoulder. He turned to look at her…

'I'll always be your support Luce…' he thought as he pushed away a strand of her golden locks away from her face. He carried the sleeping Luce into her house. The key, of course, he had found in her sling bag. He laid her on her bed and covered her with her quilt.

'It didn't have to be this way…' he thought, 'he couldn't hurt her and he didn't want to either because hurting her would only be hurting himself.' He stroked her head one last time and was just about to walk away when Lucy's hand gripped onto his. For a moment he was a bit shocked but then he turned to see that she was still asleep. Her grip was pretty firm for someone who was fast asleep and he didn't want to disturb her so he decided to just let it be. He slipped into the quilt and laid on the right side of the bed in a somewhat sitting position, his back resting on the bed rest behind. Lucy then cuddled beside him, with her arms around his waist possessively, still in her sleep. Gray felt a bit nervous at first but then soon relaxed. He could actually get used to this, he thought with a smile. But that smile too faded soon enough as he indulged in his thoughts.

'It's no longer just a dare for me Luce… It's the real deal…But if ever you were to know of the dare, I wonder, would you hate me?' he sighed at the thought, 'Maybe that's why you don't have to know about this dare…because from here on, it's all real. I promise.' He decided. She had had enough of heartbreaks anyway…

His eyes caught onto a glove with miniature faces on the finger parts…'wait…isn't that…winky-dinks?' He thought with much interest. The glove was kept right at the center of the room on top of the television set and that too in a glass box that had a fake hand made of…POP? Or something similar… He felt a bit…touched, when he realized it was the first gift he had given her when they had first become friends. Especially the way it was kept so safe as though it were so important…

Suddenly Lucy's phone lit up. It was probably on silent because a message had just arrived. Gray didn't exactly mean to pry but he was just curious about who would send a message at 3:30 am… and there was also the possibility that Cana or Erza or Levy wanted to know if she was okay…come to think of it, if that were to be the case then they would probably contact him instead. Regardless of all that, he checked it.

From: Yukino-chan

To: Me ( 3:33 am)

Lucy-san, gomen-nasai…I lost track of the time! But first of all, Happy, Happy, Happyyy Birthday! I really wish I could celebrate with you like we used to back here at Hargeon. Um…you probably don't want to talk about this now but about 'him'… I hope you've gotten better after what happened. I know you must have been really crushed that time but Lucy-san, heartbreaks shouldn't make you give up… even if it were to be from someone you loved the most.

Happy B'day once again! Please celebrate it this year… I know you stopped celebrating you birthday after what happened to your mom but please... for me?

'It's her birthday…someone you loved the most...huh?' Gray thought to himself. Somehow that statement made him feel a bit jealous and at the same time really annoyed. Who exactly was 'him' or 'he' supposed to be?! But come to think of it, it's better he doesn't know because if he did, that guy would be in his deathbed by now.

That aside, tomorrow was going to be a really important day…it was Lucy's birthday after all and clearly she had no plans on celebrating it. But he sure did.

(A/N: CUT! Hmm… this story would be better as film or an anime… anyway, that's all for this chapter! It's a bit short right? Gomen but as I mentioned earlier, I'm really busy with school at the moment. I've got to prepare a presentation and guess what topic I chose…? Japan ^.^

Anyway, so how did you guys like this chapter where Gray FINALLY gets it too? For Sting fans, Sting's time is almost here! So the wait won't last too long… PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A REVIEW ON YOUR OPINIONS ABOUT THIS CHAPTER!

NEXT CHAPTER: This is a birthday special for Tsumiki-san who is turning seventeen next week! It'll be a GrayLu packed fun chapter! Totally worth the wait!

Until Next week then,

Ja'ne~!