Celestial Heart (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 23: Vanished Sunlight

He obeyed without hesitation, forming the crystal weapon that jetted at Juvia at high speeds, an action to which she did nothing. Confident in her skills and powers. How foolish of her.

Time slowed down, became as tangible as the rain shattering across my cheeks, dripping languidly from my slick skin. I moved through space as I might through a tub of gelatin. Everything came into sharp focus; the individual drops of melancholic rain, frozen in their own time frame; the low-hanging clouds that littered the sky above us; Gray's stupefied expression as I plunged my knife through his side - a neat laceration, not to shallow, not to deep, that further irritated his already gushing battle scar he'd taken care to ignore up until this point.

He choked, letting loose a gut-wrenching sound akin to one losing the contents of their stomach after a fit of nausea, and he collapsed, hands flying to the his side, pressing hard as they could, trying to staunch the rapidly increasing blood flow. His eyes widened in what I could only recognize as betrayal; I looked away from it.

I'd gotten just what I wanted: A hysterical caterwaul from Juvia as she proclaimed me to be the archenemy of her precious Gray-sama. I took advantage of it - still slipping through time at a snail's loathsome pace - and made a miraculous leap onto the still-soaring Ice Lance. Just as before, the Lance slipped through her, but I was ready.

Just as my foot began to tread through the murky waters of her abdomen, I gathered my sliver of remaining magical energy into my fingertips and struck out at Juvia's unprotected neck - just the barest touch of skin against melting skin was enough.

Juvia froze, her face articulately blank, her cries silenced.

I allowed the Ice Lance to slither from beneath my feet and dropped lithely to the ground, my chest heaving, head throbbing, vision all but thawed into a inky blackness that ripped the strength from my knees and stole the breath from my dying lungs.

Juvia didn't move.

"Gray," I hissed, wrenching around to see him, "Gray, you need to encase her in ice. Her hysteria is pushing me to my limits of control; she'll break free in seconds and continue on her rampage."

"Che." His lips fell into a heavy scowl. "So that was your damned plan... What the hell was I? Bait?"

"The trap itself, it a more acurate description," I corrected him. "Now if you please... We can discuss the terms of my punishment at a later date."

"Punishment?" Gray struggled to his knees, heaved himself to his feet. He took a few wobbling steps, then - having realized he could walk upright for a bit longer - shuffled over to where I crouched. He positioned a hand, palm facing Juvia, just in front of her, icy crystals glittering around his fingers, frosting nearby raindrops into perfectly round spheres of ice that drip, drip dropped to the ground and shattered. 

He flashed me a cheeky smirk. "Hell of a plan, kid. Be happy it worked." And with that, he used his free hand to smack the back of my heard, pitching me into the ground, and formed an icry prison around Juvia, just as my spell lost its hold and the mark disappeared from her throat.

"Gray-sama?" Bewildered, her hooded eyes darted around, latching onto me, then onto the blood still trickling from Gray's wound. She made a move to attack - preferrably me - but stiffened as she realized movement was impossible for her at the moment. Her stare returned to Gray. "Gray-sama!" she practically wailed. "If only you'd just given up Lucy Heartfilia, then you wouldn't have been injured so terribly!"

"Shut up," he muttered, rubbing absently at his tainted bandages. "Fairy Tail would never give up one of its members that easily. I'll protect Lucy to the death if I have to."

Heat crept into Juvia's cheeks, and from the fragmented look of her eyes, I guessed she was repeating to herself just what Gray had promised.

One willing to protect another until death parted them.... It did have the ring of a love confession. But only a disillusioned moron would take it that way.

"So it's true then?" I asked; Gray's brow rose in response, prompting me to elaborate. "Only Lucy was targeted during this raid? Not Winter?"

"No." I was difficult to miss the balling of his fists, the way his expression hardened into something akin to steel. "Not Winter," he agreed. "But I'll sure as hell protect her, too, because I'm sure she'll do something reckless to help out her sister."

"I'm willing to bet she's already done it."

He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, released it after a hesitant moment. His wounds. Perhaps I'd gone overboard? But there was nothing else I could do, seeing as how Gray's own magic was worthless in this fight and I hadn't been able to approach her without fearing for my life. 

"JUVIA HAS TWO LOVE RIVALS?!"

I flinched, surprised by the water woman's abrupt change in temperament. Her hysteria was returning, bringing with it a wave of blistering heat that threaded its way through her liquid body, beginning to melt the ice holding her still. Growling a curse to myself, I unsteadily rose to my feet and pressed the heel of my hand to her feverish forehead, forcing my way into her mind for a sliver of a second - enough to overpower her (she was rather uncooridanted when infused with this much rage) and leave her limp and lifeless in her cocoon of ice.

The rain stopped.

Gray glanced skywards, shading his eyes against the sudden glare of the sun peeking out from between dissipating clouds. "Now that's what I call a view," he murmured, a slight smile touching his lips.

And - though I caught only the barest of glimpses - I was certain a very similar smile tugged at Juvia's unresponsive mouth, even while unconscious. 

What devotion she had for this mage.

I tore my gaze away from her at the sound of dozens of gasps filling the air simultaneously, forming one expressive exhale. I nearly let my own slip into the fold before I caught myself.

The seal had been broken, disentegrated. The giant's hand hovered, motionless, high above the euphoric Fairies cheering to their hearts' content.

"Looks like that dumbass and Elfman finished up their fights, too," Gray grunted.

"So it would seem..."

But what was this uneasy feeling plaguing my stomach, tying unwelcome knots among my vital organs? Abyss Break was stopped; Jupiter hadn't fired successfully. Celebrations were in order.

So why, pray tell, was I only thinking of how effortlessly Winter found herself in trouble?