#graylucy

“Of course not! If I’d have known it would’ve done anything to Natsu, I wouldn’t have tried in the first place!” Good… He’s cooled down, then. Lucy’s eyes flickered down to his right arm, currently swathed in bandages, and remembered the writhing, swirling bands of demon-slayer magic that he had obtained from his father Silver—the magic that came with the will to destroy E.N.D. Overtaken by that power and rage, Gray had nearly succeeded—even though it would’ve meant killing Natsu. Erza had stopped him then, and then it had taken Lucy to stop him from destroying the book and nearly killing Natsu again. Gray doesn’t want to hurt Natsu. I know that. He wants to save him as much as I do. Still, after seeing him so distorted, she couldn’t help but be a little uneasy. Suddenly, she leaned over to press her face into the crook of Gray’s shoulder, and she felt him tense up. Lucy was exhausted, so she righteously didn’t care about pretenses or propriety. Her emotions were boiling at the surface, threatening to spill over.

“Gray… Don’t lose yourself, okay?” She expected an angry retort or a “What the hell are you talking about?” but Gray knew exactly what she meant. She felt his body relax as he exhaled deeply.

“Yeah. I know, Lucy.” She was oddly quite contented with just staying like that, resting her head against his sturdy shoulder, but there were matters to be dealt with. With a small, sad frown, she raised her head and looked down at the worn, leather-bound tome containing Natsu’s doom or salvation. The First’s riddle echoed in her mind. “That’s when you will have to save Natsu! Use the power of your friendship to do it!”

“I think we should open the book! I think I get what the first master was talking about!” Happy quipped from her feet with his little furry eyebrows narrowed. As Lucy stared resolutely down at the book, she thought that maybe she was beginning to understand a little what Mavis had meant, too. The key to saving Natsu is in this book, no doubt about it. Lucy steeled her determination and gripped the leather binding of the book tightly.

“Yes!”

As Lucy set the book on her lap and prepared to open it, the universe seemed to draw in its breath; the wind died, and the only sound was the gurgling of a fountain across the plaza. She felt Gray’s tense muscles, his arms crossed, as he pressed a little closer to her and leaned over her shoulder to watch. Despite the gravity of the moment, a blush tainted Lucy’s cheeks. Now’s not the time for that… she reminded herself before taking a deep breath and opening the cover of the book. There was a moment of nothing but tension and silence, the breath she was holding feeling like a bubble in her chest ready to burst, and then everything exploded at once. She released the breath in the form of an alarmed gasp as light burst from the book, so forceful that her pigtails fluttered about her shoulders and her bangs waved in her face, and she could literally feel it, like cool water flowing over her chest and body. Then words began to spill from the pages, swirling in the air around the two of them and the space above their heads.

“Th-the letters…” She looked at Gray to find him wearing a similarly awed and shocked face, his dark hair glowing a bluish hue in the ephemeral light. In yet another inappropriate moment of lunacy, Lucy thought that he looked beautiful cast in the light like that. When a stream of the inked words flew by her face, she was reminded of the task at hand, and she looked above her head at the spherical mass of paragraphs and sentences whirling above them.

“Look at all of them! Are they really all about Natsu?” she wondered aloud. Her eyebrows furrowed as her brown eyes expertly followed the stream of words, and a slow realization dawned on her. “Wait a minute… These…” Before she could finish the thought, the world heaved, and the book snapped shut as she and Gray were flung from the bench and into the air. As the world rumbled below, the air vibrated with the shockwaves, shaking Lucy’s already battered body violently. She did her best to cling to the book as the rumbling began to cease, and she plummeted back toward Earth. As she curled around it, expecting a rough impact, she suddenly felt someone grab her in midair. A second later, she felt they hit the ground, but Lucy was cushioned by Gray’s embrace rather than unforgiving earth. Momentarily forgetting the book, she pushed herself up and looked down at him in alarm. “Gray! Are you okay? Why did you do that? You shouldn’t be worried about me when you’re all beat up!” she insisted wildly. It was then that she noticed she was basically straddling him, one knee between his legs and the other at his hip, his arms around her waist while her reddening face hovered above his. He cracked an eye open to grimace at her.

“Stop yelling. You’re spitting in my face,” he grumbled as he slipped one arm from her body to rub the back of his head. “Ow… What the hell was that?” Gray seemed perfectly unaware of how embarrassing their current situation was, while Lucy was just blank, her mind misfiring as it attempted to process.

“It came from the guild!” Happy groaned while sitting up. As Lucy finally began to come to her senses, Gray grabbed her by the hips to hold her steady while he sat up, bringing her body with his. Feeling his hands against the bare skin of her waist (as she had, of course, lost her shirt in the conflict like she always did) made her nerve blaze like Laxus had struck her with lightning. She could only dumbly sit there holding the book, practically in his lap, while he peered in her face.

“You okay, Lucy?”

“Oh! Yes! I’m fine!” she squeaked. She finally had the wherewithal to make her body move and hastily disentangled herself from him to sit beside him. If she didn’t know better, he looked disappointed. “What were all those flying letters?” That question snapped Lucy back to attention. She pushed aside all the embarrassing hugging and holding and looked down at the book. It hadn’t changed.

“It looks like the words are still in the book… This is really high-level Organic Link magic.” She was sure of it after reading them in the air as they swirled about. “I think that’s how the book is connected to Natsu. In other words, if we could rewrite the words…” she trailed off as she stared hard down at it, riddling out what she needed to do to save Natsu’s life.

“What? Rewrite all of that?” Gray exclaimed as he looked over her shoulder down at the unassuming volume. She was too absorbed in her problem-solving to bark at him for yelling in her ear. “We opened one page, and look how much came out of it! That’s only a small fraction—"

“We don’t have to rewrite it all,” she interrupted as she ran a hand over the cover. It was rough, and torn, and scratched up. Imperfect. A smile came to her lips. Just like Natsu. Just like Gray. Just like her and everyone else in the guild. She looked up at Gray, her expression growing serious. “I’m sure there’s a page in here that can save Natsu! We have to find it! I’m certain that is what the First Master meant!” Judging from the force of that tremor and blast, Natsu was fighting his hardest. That meant that they had to fight their hardest to save him, too. Lucy opened the book again, and once more, the letters began to float off the pages and careen through the air around them.

Except for this time, something was different.

Lucy’s eyes widened as the letters began to literally pop out of existence, disappearing from the links of letters with continuous blam, blam, blams!

“Did something happen to Natsu?!” Gray cried, his head swiveling about as the letters continued to disappear one by one. Lucy was silent for a moment, analyzing the continuously moving text and memorizing the vanishing letters because she knew it was important until she realized just what had happened. Her face grew pale and her eyes wide in horror.

“It’s a part of his body! He’s hurt very badly somewhere!” Reigning in her emotions, she took her magic pen and sat up on her knees, preparing to re-ink the words. Her mouth twitched a little as Gray grabbed her by the hips again to steady her as she wobbled slightly from exertion. Focus, Lucy.

“Do you know how to rewrite it?” he asked. Completely oblivious to how this looks… Just deal with it. Natsu is in danger!

“I’m only going to rewrite the missing letters right now. I memorized them,” she answered and began filling in the gaps in the stream of letters, her brown eyes flicking from one hole to the next while her hand scrawled in the missing text. In a matter of seconds, she had replaced all the missing characters, and she was confident that she had avoided Natsu’s death.

“Amazing, Lucy!” Hearing Gray gush in praise, especially so close to her, admittedly made her flush with a mixture of joy and unease. Before she could say or do anything, though, she felt every cell in her body pulse, and her head twitched back as she felt magic power flooding into her arm, pulsing up her veins to begin spreading through her face and neck. I-I… It hurts… I can’t move! Sweat began to pour from her body as she struggled to remain in control of herself, and her consciousness began slipping away. Her mind crystallized on one thought.

“G-Gray…”

~~~~~~~~~~

Gray jumped forward as Lucy’s body began twitching uncontrollably in his arms, and as she fell back against his chest, he could feel that her body was scorching, and sweat was pouring off of her.

“Lucy! Snap out of it!” As her head flopped back onto his shoulder, her brown eyes stared unseeing up towards the sky filled with the words of Natsu’s fate, and dark magic had filled her veins, dying them a bloody red. Her entire body was shaking violently, and her breath began to come in ragged, labored gasps. He grabbed her by the shoulders to hold her in place, and she immediately recoiled, like his touch caused her immense pain. Suddenly she seemed to return to her senses, and her face scrunched up in pain, and she once more buried her face into the crook of his neck. He could feel the tears spilling from her eyes as they smudged across his skin. “Come on, Lucy! You gotta stay strong!”

“I feel hot…” Her voice was a breathy, agonized whisper. “Something… Something inside me is burning!” She turned into him, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her body against him as if he could cool her. Lucy seemed to be embarrassed about their closeness earlier (which he had blatantly ignored because, well, he wanted to), but in the throes of the magic backfire, she didn’t seem to care anymore. Gray hated seeing her in pain like this, and he tightened his grip around her while at the same time holding her as gently as he could.

“It must be Natsu’s fire,” Happy reasoned as he watched uncomfortably, his tail twitching. Gray’s mouth curled into a frown as he clutched Lucy’s frail, jerking body. The flame of the demon. Lucy faltered into him for a second, then managed to straighten up with a groan, lifting her head to stare back up at the magical words.

“If… If I can understand this magic, maybe I can help Natsu!” Gray knew that if she kept it up, she would be even worse off. Once again, like so many times before, he was absolutely amazed at her strength. “I can rewrite the demon inside him.” She doubled over again, grimacing and holding a hand to her face as she shook violently.

“Lucy, if you keep going, you’ll—"

“I’m fine, Happy,” she huffed, a clear indication she was not fine. Gray knew that she would keep going no matter what, so he did the only thing he knew how to do. He propped his chin on Lucy’s shoulder as he pulled her close, and a writhing white wind began to swirl around them, bringing frost and chill with it. “That’s cold-!” she cried as she shuddered again, but the heat inside her body had dimmed somewhat.

“Let’s save Natsu together. I can’t rewrite those letters… But I can support you while you do.” He didn’t see her smile, but he knew she did, that sweet smile she always gave.

Gray wasn’t sure of the moment he started to love her. He wondered sometimes, but he wasn’t a real sentimental guy, so he didn’t dwell on it. He did love her, though, and knowing that was enough. He probably should have told her sooner, but somehow the moment never called for it; he needed to focus on not dying and keeping everyone else from not dying, and he always told himself he would tell her after. After kept getting further and further away, though. As Lucy clung to him, one arm around his neck and her body against his while she continued to painstakingly, painfully rewrite the script of Natsu’s soul, he promised himself then that he wasn’t going to wait anymore. He closed his eyes, focusing on keeping the air around them as bitterly cold as possible to mitigate Lucy’s suffering. Amongst the swirling wind, something else emerged in the background, faint at first. As he focused on it, it became clearer and louder until it dominated his senses.

A heartbeat. Lucy’s heartbeat.

It was a thumping drum amidst the symphony of icy gales that he had conjured. As he focused on it more, he could feel her heart beating against his chest. It was fast, probably because she was working so hard keeping the demonic magic at bay. Gray didn’t know why it mattered so much at that moment. Maybe because it was because he knew if he could still hear it, Lucy was okay—so he hung onto it, that rhythmic sound, the sound of her heart beating.

Gray wasn’t sure how many minutes passed before she slumped back into him, her arm falling and the magic pen clattering to the ground. He shifted her to her side to look down at the book in her lap, and they watched as the letters began to return to the pages. “You did it, Lucy,” he smiled down at her. She gave him that sweet smile again, and then her face contorted in agony, her back arching as her entire arm pulsed red. She then fell limp, losing consciousness as she was unable to resist the magic any longer. Gray wasn’t worried, though.

“Lucy!” Happy wailed and rushed over to her.

“Don’t worry, Happy. My demon-slayer magic is made for this! I’ll get this magic out of Lucy!” he said as his own magic spread up his arm and over his eye. He grabbed her by the wrist, using his own magic to forcibly draw the virus-like magic out of the girl. It was as if suddenly he had brought her back to life, as she jumped up and began coughing and hacking. Gray held her up as she recovered from the ordeal. “Are you okay now, Lucy?”

“Yes… Thank you, Gray.” There’s that smile again… They looked down to see the book glowing faintly and the edges blurring before dissolving in globs of light. “The book is vanishing. Zeref has been defeated.”

“But-! But if the book disappears, so will Natsu!” Happy cried as tears filled his eyes. Lucy grabbed Happy and hugged him to her chest, then put an arm around Gray and buried herself into him, quivering. Gray propped his chin on the top of her head, listening to her frantic, scared heartbeat pounding against his own while he watched the book continue to fade. He didn’t know what was about to happen, and he held his breath as the book faded completely and disappeared in waves of light into the sky. He felt Lucy’s body jerk as she stifled a sob.

They all looked up with a jolt as they heard the soft scrape of sandals against the pavement.

Down the path, staggering like a drunk but very much alive, was Natsu Dragneel.

“Yo!” he grinned at them with a lazy wave. “It’s all over.” Lucy clapped her hands to her mouth as the tears of joy spilled from her eyes, and Happy jumped from her arms to spawn his wings and zoom over to his beloved friend with a cry of glee. Lucy was much too weak to do so, so she just rested comfortably against Gray— not that he was gonna complain. Happy nuzzled Natsu joyfully for a moment until the dragon-slayer settled him down and looked at Lucy and Gray with a serious expression. “Hey… I don’t think the First Master made it.” The joyful atmosphere was obliterated in an instant. “I don’t think she would want us to be sad, though. I have this weird feeling… She wanted it to end this way.”

“That right?” Gray mused. It was definitely a Natsu thing to say.

“Yeah! So,” that big grin of his appeared on his beat-up, bruised face. “Let’s return to the guild with big smiles on our faces, yeah?” They were all in agreement, of course. Natsu turned to start heading back to the guild, and Lucy rose to follow but wobbled precariously.

“Yo, Natsu! Lucy and I will catch up in a sec, okay?” he called after him as he grabbed ahold of her wrist to keep her there, for which she looked down at him quizzically. Natsu didn’t even bother to turn, just signaled that he had heard with another lazy wave. Lucy was still staring at him in confusion as he stood up.

“Huh? Gray, what is it?”

Gray was never really good with words. He was a man of action—so act he did, by grabbing Lucy under the chin to pull her face up and kiss her. He smothered a squeak of alarm and resistance, and she grabbed onto his bandages since his shirt wasn’t there, but her fingers uncurled after a second to spread out over his chest, right over where his heart was beating. Gray held the kiss for a few seconds, and when he pulled back, her eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes opened to reveal brown pools swirling with both happiness and befuddlement.

“You didn’t have to take me by surprise like that,” she pouted.

“I didn’t feel like talking. What? You not like it or something?”

“N-no, it’s… Not that…” She grew flustered and embarrassed, looking down at her feet as she blushed. She’s cute when she does that. “I, um… You too. I mean, I uh… Feel the same…” As she struggled with voicing her emotions, she hid her face in her hands miserably. Gray snorted with laughter and patted her on the head.

“See now why I didn’t say it?” All he got was a begrudging whine, which made him laugh again. While she was distracted with short-circuiting, he decided to keep teasing her and easily scooped her into his arms like a groom would his bride.

“Ack! Gray! Hey! I can walk, y’know?” she protested weakly but fell still after a few kicks of her feet once she realized she was too tired. She looked at him with pursed lips as she curled into him, her slim arm sliding around his neck to fiddle with the ends of his dark hair. “Juvia’s gonna kill me, you know.”

“I can handle her,” he chuckled and began walking after Natsu, who had disappeared into the ruins of the city. She laid her head on his shoulder, eyes drooping as she continued to smile that sweet, sweet smile he loved so damn much.

“Do you think it’s over?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter,” he said and looked down at her with a smirk. “We’ll keep fighting together, no matter what.”

“M-hmm,” she nodded in agreement. She fiddled with his hair continuously, her fingers sliding in and out of the blue-black strands and curling them around her fingertips; his hair was obviously her favorite part about him. He suddenly got an idea. She squeaked as he lifted her a bit to press his ear against her chest. “Gray! Hey!” He could hear it there, that soft flutter and steady drum.

“Shut up. I just wanted to hear your heartbeat a minute.” He couldn’t decide now if he liked that more than her smile.

“… You’re so weird…” He looked up to scowl at her and found her face pink, meaning that she also found it incredibly romantic. He grinned and settled her back into his arms as he strode down the ruined streets of Magnolia, on to an unknown future.

Well, it wasn’t entirely unknown. It would have Lucy in it, for sure.