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*
*DEDICATED TO YUKI13 WHO JUST TURNED 15 ON APRIL 13! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART…ONCE AGAIN. ALSO TO YUMITE FOR WHOM I DECIDED TO POST THIS A DAY EARLIER*
(A/N: And just as promised, here's like a part two for this week. Hope this satisfying enough! Special thanks to all my readers, reviewers, followers and allow me to say 'favorite-ers' for all the support that has gotten D2L this far Now let's go on then…)
Previously on D2L: "Happy Birthday Luce" He whispered to her as he hugged her from behind, making her breathing halt and her eyes widen. The lights came on immediately and the Fairy Tail gang emerged, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY!" They said together. Lucy felt her mouth hang open in shock…
'…February…9th…' She thought her mind squirming in realization…today was her birthday…
Continue:
She looked around her to find that not a single member of the gang was missing! But…how did they know? She wondered.
"H-how?" She asked in a small voice showing how entirely overwhelmed she was by the gesture.
"Gray planned it all" Mirajane replied, winking at Lucy, making Lucy blush slightly, knowing fully well what the said silver-head was trying to point out. She turned her head a bit to face the raven head with teary eyes that showed appreciation. Gray ruffled her golden locks in reply, smiling at her a small but dreamy smile.
"I heard you don't celebrate this day but…it's a special day and your first birthday with us. It's time for change Luce" He said to her with a serious tone. His words made Lucy's heart move a bit. Did she really deserve so much, she wondered.
"C'mon. It's 9pm! Let's start cutting the cake before it's curfew!" Erza said in her usual authority-filled tone and surely no one questioned her.
Levy brought out the humongous cake with vanilla icing and chocolate base. Written on it was, 'Happy B'day Luce!' and just from the term 'Luce' she could tell who'd ordered it. Exactly WHEN had he gotten so much time? How did he know in the first place? She had so many thoughts crossing her mind but more than it all, she felt this connection…with him…with Gray.
She felt herself smile slightly, she really had it bad for him and she knew.
"Ok now, let's get to business" Natsu said drooling and Gray hit him on his head, "That cake's not for you idiot"
"Cut it out you two! Lu-chan, c'mon…blow the candles and make a wish" Levy said in a cheerful tone. Lucy did as she was told – she blew the candles and then smiled again…
'I guess there is nothing I wish more strongly for…' she thought and after making her wish she began cutting the cake as the others began singing the birthday song.
"Lucy's FINALLY seventeen!" Lisanna cheered.
"Hmm…but she's still younger than Gray" Mirajane said trying feign innocence but failing miserably. Lucy blushed heavily...She cut out a piece of the cake and turning around, she found herself smiling. She walked straight to the one person she wanted to give the first bite – Gray. She held the piece awkwardly as she stood in front of him and began shifting her legs nervously as she averted her eyes. Gray looked at her with amusement while the others began smiling knowingly except Natsu who was seriously jealous about why Gray gets to eat the cake first…yeah, the guy totally misses the point here.
Gray smiled as he bent a bit so he was at the same height as her and took her hand slowly as he took a bite from the vanilla cake. Lucy blushed even harder… Then Gray took the piece from her and fed her from it too. One by one everyone came and fed her a piece.
"By the way Luce, have you ever heard of the Fairy Tail birthday tradition?" Gray asked smirking evilly and Lucy felt the color of her face drain away – this DIDN'T sound good. Gray walked closer to her, his hands hidden behind his back. Lucy kept walking farther and farther back until her back was facing a wall, she blushed slightly and the next thing she knew, Gray rubbed cream all over her cheeks and soon, every single one of them were doing it!
"I think I officially got a vanilla facial" Lucy, covered in cream, sighed as she said and Gray burst out laughing, a pouting Lucy looked at him and then burst out laughing too and of course soon, everyone joint in. Lucy began to look nervously at her fingers when Gray walked over to her and she didn't even realize it when he had gotten so close… She felt him wipe the cream off her cheeks, her pulse rate getting more and more rapid by the minute. He didn't leave her gaze as he wiped away all traces of cream from her face and then handed her another tissue to wipe her hands.
Lucy averted her eyes… if she stayed looking into those midnight blues, she'd probably never be able to look away again!
"Thanks…" She said softly earning a heart-melting wink in return.
"Okay now, it's time for the gifts!" Ultear said excitedly.
"Um, Ultear, you know they're not for you right?" Jellal said with a raised eyebrow and Ultear just frowned.
"Of course they're not, silly! But this IS the most fun part of Fairy Tail birthdays" Ultear replied.
"Huh? Another tradition?" Lucy asked in confusion.
"Allow me…" Lyon volunteered, "We like to present our gifts and open them in front everyone. Mostly to see the reaction of the one whose birthday it is but at the same time it has also become a sort of competition between us to see who gave the best gift"
"Though Gray usually gets the titles…" Levy said rolling her eyes when Gray pulled her cheeks with a grumpy look.
"Well it's not as if you didn't like the gift I gave you on YOUR birthday" He said to her smirking with a raised eyebrow.
"He's right. You were AWESTRUCK" Cana laughed.
"OK FOLKS! Time to begin!" Mirajane said happily and everyone began sitting in big circle with Lucy at the center and a pile of gifts.
"I think the idiot forgot to explain the most important part" Gajeel said in an indifferent and rude manner as always, referring to Lyon by pointing.
"Oh yeah…Lucy, you won't be told which gift was given to you by whom, you need to guess it yourself first" Loke explained.
Lucy picked up the first gift she laid eyes on…she began to tear of the beautiful wrapping, revealing three really fat looking books. Lucy's eyes widened in amazement as excitement spread across her features.
"Oh man…not a BOOK! How's that a gift?! It's punishment!" Natsu whined.
"You idiot…" Gajeel glared at him, already aware of who gave the gift.
"I'm dreaming right?!" Lucy tried to confirm with evident jumpiness, "T-this is the trilogy of the 'Fifty Shades' by EL James! That too with the author's autograph! These have been sold out in Fiore for months now! I've wanted them so badly! They'd probably cost a fortune to get since they need to be gotten from overseas!"
"They're THAT rare here?" Jellal asked in wonder.
"They're like EXTINCT in Fiore! It's next to impossible to find one in any of the cities of Fiore" Lucy began to ramble.
"So who got it?" Erza asked.
"It HAS to be Levy-chan! No one else would have been able to have such a great taste of novels!" Lucy finally guessed and of course she was right.
"I KNEW you'd love the 'Fifty shades' trilogy" Levy winked.
"I haven't even read it yet and I'm already in love with Grey!" Lucy said excitedly and for some reason, everyone went silent and a certain raven head was sitting, mouth hanging open, eyes wide in shock.
'I heard wrong' Gray convinced himself, 'I DEFINITELY heard wrong' he said.
"U-um…did I say something wrong?" Lucy asked, nervous from the strange silence.
"Ok…I'm DEFINITELY hallucinating because I'm not sure if I heard that right… did you just say you're in love with Gray?" Loke asked, still trying to process the information.
"Um, yeah?" Lucy said, confused.
"Just LIKE THAT?!" Gajeel wondered aloud, clearly shocked.
"Um, I don't understand…" Lucy replied, shifting nervously and then Levy burst into laughter, everyone turned to stare at her in wonder.
Levy said in between giggles, "Lucy said she's in love with G-R-E-Y not G-R-A-Y. As in Christian Grey, the main male protagonist of the novel I gifted her and NOT the Gray Fullbuster sitting here" Levy clarified still stifling giggles and the next thing you know it, everyone else erupted into laughter too, save for the raven head and blonde in question, who were too busy playing a staring competition as they dwelled into the depths of each other's eyes.
"Next gift!" Ultear announced excitedly.
Lucy picked out a blue gift bag and began to pull off the ribbons on the handle and digging her hands into it, she pulled out the contents and the moment she laid eyes on them, her expression turned dark and in a deadly tone she said, "GAJEEL."
Everyone burst into laughter once again.
"A BUNNY SUIT? Seriously Gajeel?!" Lyon laughed as he said.
"Gajeel's always been like this" Lisanna added.
Gajeel just kept his expression impassive and ignored all the mockery.
Thirty minutes passed and Lucy had only seen about half of the gifts she had received but it was already 10pm and despite them not having any nagging parents, they had the student council's perfectionist president…
"It's 10pm. We have school tomorrow. I won't tolerate even a second of tardiness tomorrow, especially for all those present here, so if you care even a slight bit about your lives, you'd start going home now" Erza said in her stern, bossy and really scary manner and surely everyone obeyed with immediate alacrity. She turned to Lucy with an apologetic look, "Sorry Lucy but since school is tomorrow we'll have to stop the celebration now"
"It should have been a Friday or a Saturday…then we could've celebrated longer and better" Jellal said and everyone couldn't agree more.
"Happy Birthday once again Lucy!" they began to say as they left one by one… leaving the blonde and the raven head as the only two remaining, enveloped in silence. The door slammed shut and the next thing they knew, they were again staring.
A smirk spread across Gray's face…"So, you're in love with Grey huh?" He winked and Lucy, just at that moment, forgot what it meant to breathe.
"I never did give you your gift right?" Gray said and began walking out towards his balcony, ushering her to come along. How much more could he give her? She wondered… Then her thoughts began to wander to things she'd never thought of before… Now that she did love him, and if by some miracle he liked her too, was she ready for another commitment? She HAD said that she was willing to take any risks if it was him but was that really how she felt about it? Was she ready to once again?
The balcony was just as beautiful as the rest of the house was… She had been here before but something about the atmosphere was just different. She followed, walking behind him till he stopped at the railing and then turned to face her.
"Um…it's nothing really out of the ordinary…but…" He said, trailing off as he dug his hands into his pockets. Lucy waited in anticipation.
"You know, in most situations the guy would ask the girl to close her eyes so why don't you do that, just so it's appropriate" He said in a joking tone and she obeyed, shutting her eyes close. Then, she felt the coolness of something being placed around her neck and other than that, Gray's scent enveloped her from behind. She loved that scent…it was just so…intoxicating.
'A necklace?' she guessed.
"You can open them now" He announced and she again did as she was told; she opened her eyes to find that a really elegant silver necklace with half a heart and an 'L' engraved in it, was on her neck. She looked at Gray who was holding an identical one with a 'G' on it. He brought the one he was holding close to the one she was wearing and immediately they stuck together, forming a complete heart… So appropriate she thought… they completed each other just the way Gray completed her…
'magnets…' she thought, blushing, eyes wide a bit from the gesture.
"Like a souvenir for today" He said rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish smile.
'WAIT!' Her mind halted, 'Does this mean he's like confessing to me?' Her heart began to beat as fast as ever, heat rushing to her face. Her insides were squirming and her mind in a mess. No, she thought. She was just taking her hopes too high…it was probably just as friends. Gray once again patted her head, like he always did.
"I wish I knew what goes on in this little head of yours" He said in a voice that sounded a million miles away.
"Ne Gray?" Lucy voiced.
"Hm?" He replied.
"How did you know…? That today was my birthday?" Lucy asked. Gray felt his inner self shatter to pieces. How was he supposed to answer that? He couldn't tell her that he went through her text message could he? Then gaining his composure…he is Gray after all… avoiding the topic is his specialty!
"What does that matter…? What matters is if today was special enough for you…" He said, questioning her at the last part. His inner self smirking with pride, 'that's how it's done!' he laughed inwardly.
"Yeah…it was…more than I ever dreamed it could be" She said looking far into the sky. 'How could it not be special Gray? My first birthday in Magnolia and with you…' She thought, smiling slightly.
"Well, that's a relief." He said shifting closer to her, "I had fun too…save for the discovery that you find me weird" He said and her eyes shot up to him.
"Weird?" She questioned.
He raised his eyebrows at her in a 'you know what I'm talking about' manner and then her eyes widened remembering the white, cone-nosed plush he had won for her that was at the moment in his car. Was he still grabbing on to that? Could it be that…he was sulking?!
She took a deep breath…trying to maintain her composure. She didn't know why but she felt the need to tell him this. Or actually, she knew why – he just mattered so freaking much and she'd had enough of not being able to express herself.
"I don't think you're weird Gray…I just think you're…different…" She said.
"…different?" He echoed raising a brow. He watched her as she took a deep breath before answering.
"Different as in special… like a diamond among the rocks" She replied and Gray felt everywhere go quiet… He felt his heart speed up and his eyes widen a bit. 'Special' her words echoed in his mind. He slid his hand over hers as it rested on the railing of the balcony… He noticed the tense feeling in her…she was nervous, he thought.
"So…tell me more…about this OTHER Grey" He asked playfully and in a jiffy, the tense atmosphere was completely light. Lucy felt butterflies in her stomach… But she wasn't going to show her flustering self too long now – that was what she had decided on. She was acting pathetic enough already in front of him, she thought.
"Hmm… I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know much about him. Save for the fact that he's got copper black hair…grey eyes… a superhot physique and a killer smile" She began to rant.
"Oh. He does huh?" Gray simply replied, devoid of emotion. Lucy felt a bit shocked at his tone. Was he mad? Was he…jealous? No…she thought. There was no way a guy who had so much variety would be jealous over a girl who'd gotten rejected more than thrice. 'Fifty Shades of Gray…' she thought, 'it fits him' she smiled.
'There's no telling when and where you can get to see a new side of him…' she thought, 'there really are so many shades of Gray…of Gray Fullbuster. To whom, a billion Christian Greys cannot be compared…' she thought, 'DEFINITELY more than fifty shades…' she laughed, though not realizing that she had laughed out loud till it was too late.
Gray on the other hand was thinking about how his own plan just happened to unfortunately back fire on him…
"What's so funny?" He asked with a smirk.
"Nothing." She simply said with a secretive smile.
"You wanted to ask me something today…" She recalled, "I told you – I want to answer it Gray. I want to clarify all your confusions…I want you to understand…I want you to know…" She said, with an expression of longing and of sadness…and loneliness. Gray's lips curled into a small smile.
"But the real question, Luce, is – why? Why do you feel that way? Why don't you want me to have any misconceptions? Why are you willing to tell me anything there is I want to know about you? WHY?" He asked, emphasizing the 'why' each time as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Lucy felt a bit shaken. He was asking for it, she thought. He was trying to compel her into a confession…
She blushed a bit from the contact between his hands and her shoulder, and quickly averted her eyes to hide it. Why… it really was true, she thought. She knew the answers but she couldn't bring herself to say them…But tonight was the day, she thought. Tonight, she wanted to clear away her heart and keep everything on the table. But yet, why wasn't she ready?
"G-gray…I…well…because…I don't know Gray… I mean I KNOW…but –" She pushed herself. She wanted him. She wanted Gray. But was she really ready to get herself into a relationship again? One that she knew through experience was one that could lead to pain? She wanted to trust him – no, she DID trust him…even so, why wasn't she feeling like she was ready? Why was there even a slight bit of hesitation in her after she had decided that he was the one for her? Was it that she was still affected by her past?
"But you're just not ready to do it all again" He completed for her. She looked at him in disbelief… was he reading her mind?!
"Y-you know?… t-that I –" She tried to ask, her entire face red with embarrassment. Did he already know that she was head-over-heels for him? He laughed lightly before flicking her forehead.
"That you what, Luce?" He asked a bit playfully.
"That I…you know…." She began bashfully.
"No I don't know" He replied, folding his arms, his face featuring a coy smile.
"I-I…Gray…I…" She tried but she just couldn't! Tears began to well up in her orbs and her chest felt heavy. She couldn't do it… she couldn't confess again to another guy…she had known from the start that there was no guarantee that her heart wouldn't be broken this time and yet that hadn't bothered her before. Then why was it bothering her now?
She felt Gray pull her head closer so that their foreheads touched. She blushed madly again.
"Tell me Luce… It'll get the load off of you… Release it all tonight. You're entering a new age now. It's time to leave your past behind you. Tell me…what happened all those years ago. You have to share it with someone if you want to get over it." He encouraged her. She looked at him with grateful eyes. He really was the best thing that ever happened to her, she thought.
He was right of course and she knew it. Maybe tonight really was the night… the night to throw away the remnants of her past. The night she can FINALLY let it all go…and maybe, the night she gets a new beginning.
~THE END~
NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW: Remnants of the Past (FINALLY the chapter where all the suspense about Lucy's past will be cleared. There is no suspense really, we all know what happened in her past…but this chapter will go into the details of it all.)
*ALERT! SPOILER!* (Scroll to author's note to skip it… remember to scroll fast so you don't see anything!) LOL
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*ALERT! SPOILER!* Sting will also be seen in this chapter along with a few other Sabertooth members. So for people who have been waiting for Sting, he's finally going to come up. Though only for this chapter. After that he'll probably appear like five chapters later which is when his REAL role will be. People waiting for Wendy will also get a glimpse of her.
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(A/N: Okay then! So how many of you naughty readers read the spoiler? ;)
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Ja'ne~!