My Ice Incomplete Without Your Rain (Gruvia Fan Fiction)

Chapter 7: Memories

 "Thanks." Natsu smiled.

 "You're welcome." Gray grinned and punched his arm playfully.

 "Haha. Shall we continue our fight?"

 "No, I'm shivering. Give me some of your flames."

 "Now you want my flames. Here." Natsu and Gray crowded around the flames on Natsu's hands and took in the warmth.

 "It's funny. How we are fighting at one moment, and the next we're saving each other." Gray pondered.

 "Yeah...We fight because we're worthy opponents. We fight to beat one another since we are equal in strength. But, I can never beat you and you can never beat me no matter how many times we fight. Yet, the fights keep us close. They bring us together. It's this way we keep our friendship--show our friendship. We have fun like this."

"Yeah. We are comrades. I guess if we never had fights, were not equally strong, we might not have become friends. I could have gone on missions with others in the guild. Maybe I would not have even talked to you. But you came up to me that day when I first entered the guild. You challenged me to a fight, we fought, and we realized that we were equal opponents. One fight led to another, we had longer conversations, and sooner we became closer to one another."

 "Thanks, Gray. For being my friend." Natsu was wiping his eyes.

 "Thank you, Natsu. For approaching me that first day." Gray's face had water droplets on it, and they weren't from the river's water.

 "Let's go to Fairy Tail! And eat ramen. Maybe I'll even fight you once more!" Natsu laughed.

 "Sure thing! Let's do it!" Gray and Natsu smiled at each other, awaiting the future happy memories they would have together. As best friends.

Natsu's eyes formed tears of joy and pain. Lucy remembered the time she first met Gray....

Lucy had gotten the Fairy Tail stamp and was now officially a member of the guild. She smiled at the pink imprint of the guild's symbol on the front of her hand. People crowded around her. Gray was one of them. He stripped his shirt off in front of Lucy. Right then, Lucy freaked out. She thought Gray was a total weirdo. She kept away from him at first but as she got to know him, she realized he wasn't what she thought he was. He was kind and friendly. He just had a stripping problem.

Lucy chuckled and said out loud, "Gray...he always stripped." But it was too much to handle and the tears wouldn't stop. Erza was nostalgic of the times she had with Gray.

 

Erza went up to Gray who was sitting at a bench in the guild. They were both 10.  

She told Gray, "You're weak for sitting around and doing nothing."

Gray replied, "Well, you are like a boy, wearing armor and acting tough."

Erza scoffed, "I am tough. So, don't try to threaten me."

"I was not threatening you. I was simply telling the truth. You are tough like a boy."

"I don't care what you think. If you think I'm a boy. Because I don't care about how you feel."

Gray was astonished at how heartless she was. "I don't think you're a boy--just you seem hard to approach. I don't know why you aren't opening your heart but you shouldn't shut people out. Maybe you went through pain and hardships in your childhood....like I did. Don't try to be tough so that you won't experience the pain you felt before. Acting like you're tough, wearing armor and all, doesn't mean you are. You may look strong on the outside but you are still struggling. You try to keep a strong image so as to feel better and seem strong but it won't remove your feelings deep inside. You have to move forward. and face the challenges that come. You can't keep your feelings buried away and not live your life freely. I shouldn't butt into your personal life, even not knowing what happened. But I'm just assuming and telling you from my own experience. Sorry if I insulted you but what I just told you is what I learnt from myself. From the pain I went through, I had lost hope. I felt like I was alone in the world. I had lost all those precious to me and I couldn't stand to lose anybody else. I was determined to not make any friends....till Natsu changed my world."  

Erza looked surprised. Nobody had told her anything like that. Gray stared at Erza who came to a sudden realization. Shutting her heart out would not bring happiness. Only loneliness.

"Th...Thank you. I never saw it like that. Thank you for telling me how you feel. When I was very young, I was forced to work in a prison with my friends. One of them betrayed me and turned evil. If he had betrayed me, then I couldn't trust anyone. Now, I realize not everyone is bad! Take you for example. I finally came to a realization thanks to you. I guess even if there are times when you feel all is lost and there's darkness, there will always be the light. Even the smallest ray of light will shine through. We just have to believe and try to find it. Eventually, we will. Natsu opened up your path.  And now I will let people come into my life."

"Yup! You already have one person."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Thanks!" Erza realized who it was and she smiled at Gray, who winked back. Erza came back to reality and smiled. Gray had shown her the light and if weren't for him, she might not have even made friends at the guild, let alone joined Team Natsu!

Being in a trance, Erza jumped at what happened next.

"NO!!! We can't be SURE he's dead! After all we didn't check enough! Our friend can't die. We have always survived even in the toughest battles. This guild isn't strong to begin with...so there's no way he's dead. Right?!" Natsu yelled.

"He is dead! We checked his pulse and there wasn't any. The ice was gone too. His stark-white body remained." Lucy answered.

"Let's go back to the guild now. We can't afford to waste time. We have to tell Makarov." Erza commanded.

"What about Juvia?" Riku asked. Riku didn't cry since he had just met Gray. But his heart had dropped, due to the depressing look on Juvia's face.

They went to get her but she was gone. Rain started pouring down outside. Team Natsu guessed she had gone to the guild. They ran to Fairy Tail quickly, hoping to get away from the rain as soon as possible.

It was Juvia's emotions that fueled the rain. Juvia lost control of her powers and in her extreme sadness, the rain began. She went out for a brief moment and came back to sit beside Gray. She noticed Team Natsu had left but she was relieved. She knew she was going to stay beside Gray no matter who tried to tell her to leave. She got up to hug him, and wrapped her arms around him. Juvia was shocked and peered down at the ground with widened eyes.