ⓢⓐⓕⓔ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓢⓞⓤⓝⓓ
"Gray-san!"
Rae felt her breath hitched as a flash glimpse of raven hair ran passed her side to take care of the monster ahead and as if time seemed to be slowing down, every tiny movement of his, the heavier her heart got. Although there was another silver haired girl with him, she didn't pay much attention to that, all she was seeing was him. The man whom she had been secretly praying to be met with the girl he had been longing for, the man who had unknowingly confessed that he had fallen for Rae King, the same man that had cried over her in rain, the same man that wished for her to be gone.
"Stay close to me." His hand held her wrist, she could feel the coldness spread on her skin but never once she shivered because of his magic, for some reason, he was warm. Her heart broke for another round as she realized that she wasn't ready to meet them. Her glossy silver eyes stared blankly on his fingers around her wrist, her mind was wondering desperately on what did she do to him till he's wishing for her to disappear. Why did she break his heart? No. How could she break his heart like that? But, she couldn't help it if her old self chose someone else.
It was too much for her obviously but, the situation she's facing right now was more important as they were surrounded by more monsters. Her ears only caught them shouting at each other, struggling to keep her focus but once Gray yanked her hand hard to avoid an attack, Rae immediately pushed all the thoughts away to help them. But before she could do anything, it was all over. Her eyes stared at them unbelievable, were they that strong? They didn't even sweat and that reminded her of Sting, he did boast many times about Fairy Tail being the strongest guild ever.
"Artemis-san, how did you find us so quick?"
"Tracking spell and teleportation." Artemis turned to her and got down on one knee to kiss Rae's hand however, Rae retracted her hand fast to avoid showing her badly wounded hand. Artemis didn't even spare any attention to that as she was deeply worried about her condition, Rae had blood all over clothes. "At your service, Your Majesty. Your humble servant truly apologizes for being late. Are you wounded anywhere, Your Majesty?"
Ah, so that girl was Artemis and if Rae wasn't mistaken, Artemis was a demon spirit under her reign. Saying her thanks to Wendy for calling the name, internally, Rae gathered all of her strength to act and talk like the Dark Enchantress. Her lips smiled. "Nothing too bad, Artemis. It's good now that you're here, I haven't regained my energy yet so it's better for us to head home now. They could be here anytime. It's dangerous for us to be here, there are too many of them." It felt weird to say the word, home, in front of strangers.
Of course, Artemis would feel weird when her Queen said that since the famous Dark Enchantress could take all of them easily with a single strike, they were just lowly creatures. "Of course, Your Majesty." But since she was tired, it's better to head back for now.
Rae nodded. "Come on now—"
"Seriously—" Gray turned his head towards her frustratedly. His eyes showed every emotion he had in his trembling body.
"Gray—" Her lips and body froze when he grabbed both of her forearms harshly, cracking a few bones that were already broken however, she doubted he heard that. "Gray, can we talk—" She knew she couldn't hold on much longer, every inch of her skin was screaming in pain. She didn't think he would have gotten this worked up. But she can't blame him after everything had happened, last year, she killed herself and now she's back, acting like such thing never happened in the first place.
He bit his lip hard until she saw blood slowly dripping down his mouth. "You are seriously going to act like you didn't bleed to death last year? How—how could you play with our—my feelings like that? I am so fucking pissed—"
"Please, not here, Gray." Her voice sternly cut him off, eyes glaring at him, although she was feeling bad but she had to stop him and they had to go away from there before the monsters could notice them running away. Fortunately, there were Carla and Wendy stopping him and eventually, he let go of her forearms, but not the wrist and he demanded a full story from her when they were home. Rae inhaled quickly, calming her mind and hoping no one would notice her hands. But, it was futile as her hands were bleeding too much.
Gray furrowed his eyebrows, mouth cursing at his own carelessness. "Damn it, why didn't you tell me you're injured." Well, one could see it clearly she was bleeding but he was too focused on her after weeks of hardwork. "Wendy, do you think you could do something—" His eyes finally caught her blue fingers with no nails on them. He immediately took her hands in his to inspect, angry wasn't a good look on anyone but for some reason, it felt nice when he seemed to be really furious over her condition. His angry eyes were only glistened with more tears, his brain was in a different model but never once he directed his anger to her.
"Who did this to you?"
Rae took a few steps back, backing away from his touch. "It doesn't even hurt."
Gray felt his heart ached. It's too much for him. "Doesn't even hurt? Rae—" How much did she have to suffer until she can brush this away just like that? His voice was getting smaller. One could sense his heart shattering on every word he spoke. Why can't she just say she's not fine? "What have—you been through all this time, Rae?" Now that he noticed her hands, he finally saw how badly bruises on her skin were. But even so, she kept denying it, saying it didn't hurt her that serious. Said, he was just exaggerating.
Wendy, Carla and Artemis gasped behind them but Rae kept ignoring them as she was only seeing him. His angry eyes—Gray wished Rae could see them clearly, see how much he loved and cared about her until it reached the point where he would destroy the world to make sure no one could hurt her. He wished she would tell him everything—every pain she was suffering, he would be there in any storm but there's one thing, she always had been the type to hide her pain. Gray placed a hand on her face that he now saw how sunken her eyes were.
"You have to let me all the way in. If there are something hurting you, just tell us—tell me. Anything, just anything, just say it! I really, really hate that part of you." He gritted his teeth frustratedly while carrying her in a bridal style, didn't even care how his body got her blood all over it. He told Artemis to teleport them to Fairy Tail immediately but Rae spoke about how she stayed at Sabertooth for a while now and they must be worried about her since she did disappear just like that.
For sure, he did feel hurt when she said she stayed there intead of going home right away after that incident but nevertheless, he was relieved to know that she's here now. Wendy placed a healing spell on her despite her refusal, however, Rae needed more than that, her healing spell won't be enough to help her. But, it worked for now. Wendy pushed gently a few strand of her blonde hair. "You can rest now, Rae-san. We're here now." Continuing the spell, Rae was slowly drifted into a slumber as her body had lost the strength to hold on at that moment.
"Thank you—" Her head leaned onto his chest.
Wendy smiled. "Welcome home, Rae-san." Haruka-chan would be so happy.
∆∆∆
"Gray!"
His eyes looked ahead, seeing Erza leaning against a pillar and the redhead quickly ran towards him with both her hands clamped over mouth, staring at the girl in his arms in disbelief. She shakily reached her hand out to touch the blonde hair. "I—is this her?" Upon hearing Erza's voice asking that question, Jellal looked up as he was sitting on a chair with Haruka sleeping on his lap. Everyone else stood up instantly and Artemis asked for an asisstance to treat Rae's wounds.
Bella found her puff cheeks trembled and the bat quickly flapped her wings to fly to her. "Rae!"
Jellal had his breath shaken, his hand patted Haruka on her shoulder to wake her up. "H—Haruka, it's her—" He stood up once the little girl woke up with a surprisingly puzzled face. Walking wobbly towards Gray, he punched his legs, scolded himself to run faster and once he got to him, his dark green eyes flickered to Gray and her back and forth, as if he was asking permission from Gray to take her. His arms stretched out and a joy expression was seen on his face when he felt the weight of her. "You're here, you're finally here—"
"Yeay, we found Rae! Happy, we did it!"
"Technically, Gray and Wendy did it."
Gray swallowed his saliva hard, backing away from people, his eyes witnessing Lucy and others surrounded Jellal to see her. Though he was glad and happy, they finally found her but his hands now trembled with some emotions he can't expressed quite well flowing in his veins. "I found her first." He found her first, he was there for her from the beginning. It should have been him holding her. It should have been him that was called papa by Haruka. Not the guy who had turned into a villain and hurt her—
"Thank you—for bringing her home." Gray stopped thinking about whatever he was thinking and looked down as there was a pair of arms hugging him. It was Haruka and she was smiling widely, that was a first after the 'death' of her mother. Tears of joy could be seen in her eyes, guilt tripping Gray from head to toe for being selfish while he should be satisfied with her being home safe and sound. Haruka gave him another squeezy hug before running back to Jellal, he was taking Rae to her room to be treated, Wendy even contacted Porlyusica for help.
The Ice Mage exhaled, feeling exhausted mentally, wondering what was he thinking earlier. "Even if she didn't meet him, she wouldn't have loved me either." He was going to need some air. Passing through Ciel and Erza, his shoulder unknowingly bumped into the redhead and the Titania could sense his melancholic from miles away. Obviously he was still affected by Rae and Jellal. She had found out his feelings for Rae a really long time ago, she had always known that his eyes were only looking at Rae.
Meanwhile, the demon spirits were discussing with each other about what was Surtur's plan, did he only want to kill Rae? But, if that's the case, then why some of his men took Wendy and Carla as well? Eventually, the three of them, Artemis, Ares and Poseidon decided to head back to the Underworld to investigate more and take Surtur down to lock him up since he can't be killed. Fairy Tail and Sabertooth volunteered themselves to help them but the Underworld wasn't a place for humans and Artemis had figured out anyway how to defeat him. The mission was easier now.
Ares transformed into his real form, having a shining red armour on him and a polearm in his hand. "I believe Her Majesty will be safe in your hands." He directed that to everyone in the hall. Poseidon added, if there were any trouble, they can ask Lucy to contact him. Their faces only held hatred and anger towards the enemies after seeing what they had done to Rae. They tortured her, ripping her nails off, stabbing her, beating her up—they won't let them wander around freely.
"Why can't I go with you?!" Natsu stomped his feet childishly as he wanted to have some action as well, it's not fair to let the demon spirits took all the fun. Artemis ignored him and bid her farewell to everyone before chanting a spell. "Man, I really wanna fight too." The Fire Dragon Slayer sulked, grabbing Happy by his head to steal food from the kitchen together, despite being scolded by Rogue and Sting.
Hours later, Porlyusica finally finished her job, Rae was no longer in a critical condition, the elderly woman was surprised to see how much Rae had suppressed her pain in that condition. But then again, that was the Dark Enchantress they were talking about. Although Porlyusica had tried her best, the scars on her body can't be erased and the nails, it will take time to grow back. "Honestly, this girl had never failed to frighten me. She should be dead by now but she was too stubborn even death itself scared of her."
Haruka smiled sheepishly at her bluntness. "Thank you for coming here, grandma—"
"Who are you calling grandma, brat?!"
The little girl squealed as Porlyusica lifted her body up to mess with her pink hair, her lips let out a laugh as she knew, Porlyusica never meant harm and that old woman secretly liked when she called her grandma instead of her name. Lucy smiled at the interaction and glanced back to her sister sleeping on the bed. She made sure their hands tightly intertwined together as a sign of her never wanted to let her sister go anymore. Her left hand softly brushed her dear sister's hair. Her hair was shorter but she was still beautiful than ever.
"I love you, nee-san."
1/1/2022
hi, I'm back once again! >_< also, HAPPY NEW YEAR!