I'm a week late! Sorry!

But this chapter is pretty long, so I hope it makes up for the lateness! There's going to be a January 1st part 2, since I didn't want this chapter to be too long.

It's a little bit unorganized (like me!) and rambling, I know, so bear with me please! I wrote it over a period of two weeks. Thanks so much to everyone who followed/faved/reviewed! I love you guys in a strictly platonic way!

Okay, I should shut up now ahaha.

-KingRadish

Two Halves Make a Whole

Chapter 4- January 1st

Note: Ecstasy often comes on candy necklaces, I heard, and is supposed to look like one of those little candy things. Correct me if I'm embarrassingly wrong.

As he pulled the bed covers over her frail body, Gray thought about how nice it was to be loved.

He was a strange child growing up, always angry, always violent. His mother had died in front of his eyes when he was three.

She was a loving woman, filled to the brim with life and passion and living with the mentality that her own life was worthless. So, of course, when she'd seen a little white-haired boy wandering the streets, she'd leapt out to save him from the incoming truck. But it had snowed earlier that day, and the icy roads were hard to brake on.

The kind woman was hit, and the life and passion that she was filled with exploded all over the sidewalk and her son.

After Mika died, Silver-Dad was too familial a word to call that man-became an alcoholic. They moved from their nice house into a condo, then from the condo into an apartment, then from the apartment onto the streets.

Even when he was three, he'd known that he wasn't wanted.

Gray remembered the way Silver would look at him, eyes clouded with the devil's brew. Those were eyes full of disgust, of scorn. Gray was a scorned child, unwelcome in the life of his father.

Silver used to bring women home, sometimes dressed and sometimes not, and throw Gray out the door so they could fuck in peace.

He'd been five or six then.

When he was eleven, the money Silver got for selling the house was all used up. It was a hard life, and Gray hated it. Gray hated everyone, and most of all his father, who drank what little money they had away and slept with the landlady four times a week until he stole her wallet and she kicked the both of them out.

When Gray was thirteen, Silver was in a financial ditch that he couldn't crawl out of. The apartment rent was overdue, and no matter how many hours Gray worked at the McDonald's down the street, there never seemed to be enough money. They had fights then, and lots of them. Sometimes they came to blows, and Silver would beat his son black and blue then send him off to work the day after without so much as an apology.

In a desperate grab for some cash, Silver got with some of the bar regulars and robbed a jewelry store.

Gray never saw his father again after that. When the child services people came for him a few days later, he crawled out his bedroom window and ran away.

ჱ

"Juvia, I know you want this."

"No, stop! Stop it! Juvia's begging you! Bora!"

"Shut up, whining bitch! You're mine, so I get to do whatever the fuck I want."

"Bora—" Her head snapped to the side and her cheek flamed. And…

It must have been the drugs, because getting slapped couldn't possibly feel so good. And yet it did. The hot tingle of her cheek was pleasant, and almost pleasurable. She wanted him to do it again, and again, but the sane part of her resisted.

Maybe she really was a masochist.

"Shut up when I tell you to, bitch." His voice was so harsh, like the growl of a wild animal. "You're worthless."

She knew. Of course she knew that.

Juvia was a dirty pebble on the side of the street, a whore that no one would ever give a second look to, until Bora came along and gave her love. She deserved anything that he did to her.

Even this.

But somehow she couldn't stop the tears that flowed from her eyes, hot in her eyes and cool against her skin as the needle pierced her skin. It didn't hurt as much as she thought, and the little pain that was there felt good.

She wanted to leave the relationship. She wanted to leave him, because he'd spent what little love there was between them. He didn't love her, she knew, but he always said that he did and that made everything so much harder for her.

He was a pillar of stability to her at first, and his sweet words lured her into his trap.

She didn't complain when he first hit her. She didn't complain when he hit her again. And again. And again. She was used to it.

She knew it was wrong, and it was time to stop now. She couldn't remember how many times he'd hit her, nor could she remember how many times he'd hurt her. It was called abuse, but what did she know?

She was worthless.

Juvia opened her mouth to call out to him again, but her mouth wouldn't form his name. Instead, what came out was, "Gray—"

ჱ

He'd watched the fireworks by the ocean from his bedroom window as he called Natsu again.

"Happy New Year, dude!" Natsu was laughing when he picked up the phone. Lucy was singing Christmas carols in the background. "I was just gonna call you too!"

"Natsu…" Gray couldn't help but feel like shit. He couldn't think of another way to describe the feeling. "I don't know what to do."

His friend was silent for a bit, and when he replied, his tone was somber. "What's up?"

"You know that girl we saved from the bridge?"

"Yeah? What about her? She okay?"

"I don't know. She's here again."

"Oh. She one of those stalker chicks? Then you gotta call the police."

"No, no. Not like that. She left suddenly when she woke up that day, like I told you, and she was really withdrawn. And now she came back in the afternoon and she's high on something. Tell me what to do, Natsu! I'm locked in my bedroom on New Year's, hiding from Juvia!"

"Oi, what's wrong with you?"

"I don't know! What's wrong with me?"

"Why are you asking me what to do? She's a girl, and you're a man! Grow a pair, geez."

"You sound like Elfman."

"Fuck off, stripper. Just go out there and like tell her to leave or something."

"No!"

"Why not- Luce, gimme a sec! Ice princess is bawling his eyes out over a girl!"

"What? No, I'm not!"

There was some wrestling, then Lucy's slurred voice came over the phone. "Grayyyy! Crying 'bout a girl now?"

"Lucy!"

"Naww, don't talk, hon. Just follow your heart and do what you want! If you love her, then take what's yours! Crying is for sissies!" She giggled. "Natsu! Our Gray is finally growing up!"

Gray almost actually cried from how useless this was. "I don't love her! Lucy!"

She stopped giggling. "Then why the fuck are you playing with her, Gray? You douche."

"Wait, don't misunderstand-"

The phone was back to Natsu, with Lucy cussing in the background about how she must have raised him wrong. "Don't play with girls! 'Specially not suicidal chicks. You don't want to be the reason she's back there again."

Gray said nothing and hung up.

ჱ

"Juvia, you need to go home."

Her eyes felt glued together as she wrenched them open. A voice was calling her, and it wasn't particularly kind.

"Gray-sama?"

"Yeah, it's me. You need to go home."

He was standing over her, looking thoughtfully away from where she lay. His face was stony, and his tone harsh. She pulled the bed covers closer to her body as her actions from the night before rushed into her memory.

"Gray-sama… Juvia's really sorry for bothering you again. Juvia… doesn't know what she was thinking." Her words were jumbled, and her limbs unresponsive. She was so tired; fatigue was like a spirit that possessed her body, making her body heavy and her mind stagnant. She couldn't think, couldn't talk, and couldn't form any sort of a decent apology. Her tongue was swollen worm in her mouth, making everything difficult.

"Juvia…" Gray tossed her candy necklace to her, and she caught it with great effort. His expression was hard and full of pity. "Throw that away. It's no good."

Her eyebrows furrowed, then she slowly shook her head as she felt tears welling in the troughs of her eyes. Her hand instinctively tried to crumble the necklace into her fist.

"Ecstasy, isn't it."

She nodded. Her neck was sore from holding her head up for so long, and she felt herself sinking into a hole, straight to Hell, she hoped. Anything was better than facing her angel who looked at her with disappointment. That's all she was.

Disappointment.

"Go to rehab, Juvia. Start a new life. You can do lots—"

"Juvia knows!" She clenched her hands into tight fists, till her knuckles were white and her nails were digging little crescent shapes into the meat of her palms. "She's gone to rehab, and it did help for a while, but things didn't get better! She's tried, really, but Juvia can't deal with the pain." Bitter tears started welling up again, and she thought that she might cry, making this confession even more difficult and shameful.

She felt the shifting of bedsheets as he sat down beside her. "I'll listen if you want to tell me about it. I know we don't know each other well, but I've gone through addictions too, and I'd be glad to help in some way. Any way."

She looked up at him, and he wasn't looking her way. He was nervous, she could tell, from the way his fingers fidgeted and the way his ears turned red at the tips. She thought that was kind of cute.

"Gray-sama?"

"Yeah?"

"Um…"

"Sorry if I was prying—"

"Juvia has a lot of problems, and it might take a while to explain. And, please, promise Juvia, Gray-sama. Don't tell anyone else."

He paused, then smiled. She thought she felt her heart die, because that was a smile beautiful enough to die for. Her breath caught in her chest, and lights danced across her vision. Her head felt light as a feather, and although the heaviness in her chest stayed, it felt as if the rest of her would float away.

Love, she thought. This is love.

"I'll listen, Juvia. I'll be here, and I won't go anywhere. Promise."

She took a deep breath, nodded, and pulled up her shirt.

Then she felt tears trace the contours of her face as that beautiful smile melted off his face.

Mwahaha cliffhanger! Sorry, not sorry! Guesses are welcome. Again, if you like this, please lemme know!