Ruthless Winds and Raging Seas

Chapter 39

"You heard me. Put your hand on my chest."

"Hey look Gajeel I'm flattered but I don't swing that way and that kind of relationship is against my religion."

"Not like that you moron! Try to find a heart beat on me!"

"Okay."

Gray put his hand over the part of Gajeel's chest where his heart was supposed to be located. But to his shock her felt no pulse. There was no heart beat. None what so ever.

"What the...Your heart's not beating!"

"No it's beating I assure you."

"But I don't feel it beating."

"That's because it's not there."

"Huh?"

"My heart. It's not in my chest. I cut it out."

"Oh my God. So when people would say that you're heartless, they meant literally?"

"Yes."

"But how? How can you have no heart in your body but still be alive?"

"It's called magic. I used an ancient spell to remove my heart."

"Why?"

"It was years ago, long before I met you all. I was a young sailor who spent his days either fishing or playing music by the shore. A simple life but I was content with it, that is until she appeared."

"Who?"

"She was a sea nymph. One who was fascinated with human life so she left her home in the sea and lived on land where she studied the humans. Learning their ways. She was especially fond of their books and other forms of literature. Then one evening after observing a human festival she heard me playing my flute at the beach and she liked the music so much that she came down to the shore to dance to it. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my entire life and she said said that I was the most fascinating creature she had ever seen. She told me stories about the sea and it's creatures and I helped her understand our world better. It wasn't long before she became the most dear thing in my life."

"You loved her?"

"As much as Adam loved Eve. I asked her to be my wife and she accepted, but our love was not meant to be."

"What happened?"

"She was an immortal being. She would forever be young and beautiful while I would eventually grow old and die, leaving her with a broken heart and the knowledge that we would never be together again. She deserved a husband who could spend eternity beside her. So I ended our relationship but I loved her so much I just couldn't leave her so I ripped out my heart and locked it away in a box which I hid. That way I couldn't feel how much I loved her and I wouldn't be tempted to return to her. When she confronted me about I lied to her, I told her that I never loved her and that she was nothing to me. "

"Why?"

"Because if she knew the real reason I ended our relationship she'd never let me go. She'd try to convince me that it didn't matter to her that she was immortal and I was not but I can't put her through that pain. The pain of losing the person you love most and knowing that you can never be with them even in death."

"Don't you think you were being a little unfair to her? You could've at least told her the truth."

"I'm sorry but what exactly made Juvia swim away again? Oh yes you lying about your feelings."

Gray blushed in humiliation.

"Yeah people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Anyway I'm not proud of what I did but it was for the best. You on the other hand are a different story."

"What do you mean?"

"Juvia isn't immortal. She has no soul however she can earn one if a human man loves her enough to marry her. That way part of his soul becomes hers. If you really love her that much and if you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with her then you two have something that I could never have with the woman I loved. A chance to be together in life and death."

"I would have to marry her?"

"Yes but she wants it to be a marriage of love not convenience. In other words she doesn't want you to marry her just to save her from turning to sea foam when she dies. So when this is all over I want you to think about something. How much do you really love her? Do you love her so much that you forget all others except her, that she fills all your thoughts and is the only one who holds your heart, so much so that you would let a priest place your hands in each other's so that you would become man and wife."

"Is that how much you loved that woman you knew?"

"Yes and that's how much Juvia loves you."

"Gajeel hurry up!" Erza called. "Jellal is getting worse!"

"I'm coming!" He then left Gray alone below the deck feeling stunned by everything Gajeel had told him.