ⓘⓣ ⓦⓐⓢ ⓝⓘⓒⓔ ⓦⓗⓘⓛⓔ ⓘⓣ ⓛⓐⓢⓣⓔⓓ
trigger warning, mention of suicide
I swear I only do this for fiction.
p/s: I love you okay?
"Cheers to Rae King!"
Everyone was enjoying their boozes and meals. Seemed like they want to get drunk in the daylight, let's not talk about Cana who had already dunked five barrels. She could go for ten if she wanted to. Rae was concerned about her kidneys but it looked like the brown haired girl had gotten used to it. Rae was sitting at a table, trying to enjoy her strawberry cake in the middle of loud ruckuses happened behind her back—Erza was kind enough to give her a slice after Ciel bribed her with more cakes. Lucy was busy getting something from the kitchen, said she wanted to make something for her and Haruka was singing on the stage.
It only had been ten minutes since the party started however, the condition of the guildhall was already reaching its point. Natsu and Gajeel breaking the stairs and walls as the Fire Dragon Slayer had attacked the other guy to prevent Gajeel from singing on the stage. Elfman was shouting something about man at the back, Mirajane turning into monsters for some reason, everything was chaotic. Freed be providing everything Laxus needed and Evergreen was doing some kind of cosplay for the boys.
"Rae-chan, here is your favorite!" A girl with short purple hair came with a drink in her hand.
Silver eyes eyed the drink carefully. "Ah, thank you Kinana." It was a beer served with mint and ginger. Rae pondered over the combination of that drink, she didn't think she adored the smell of alcoholic drink now but she guessed she liked it before. Kinana, that girl smiled widely and was about to say something to her however, Macao and Wakaba had begun to call her name non-stop, saying they missed her. No doubt, they were definitely drunk already.
At the corner of the room, the Ice Mage stared at the figure of Dark Enchantress with a curiosity. He didn't intend to look at her that intense but her strange behavior had caught his eyes. Usually, she would join others to have drinks but now, she seemed to be secluded herself from crowd. At first, he merely thought it was because of her not really well condition but she barely reacted when Kinana served her favourite drink. Rae King would have chugged it.
"Mama!" Haruka called for her mother from the stage and the blonde girl waved her hand.
Gray sighed frustratedly. "What am I thinking? It's obvious she's real. I need to cool my head down." Perhaps, he was still petty and hurt over whatever happened the other day at Sabertooth. Of course, he would feel hurt, after all, he felt as if he was played by her. His hand unconsciously played with his cross like necklace. Her words lingered in his head, he still remembered she's telling him that his necklace was her reason to survive. He couldn't believe it. If Rae stayed at Sabertooth right after they lost in Mystic Forest, then why didn't she come home? Unless there's more to it.
"Gray-sama! What do you think of this? Do you think Rae-sama will like my present?"
Gray rolled his eyes. "What is it, Juvi—" Poor guy almost lost his stability on his legs when Juvia shoved a body pillow that had her picture in bikini on it. Smokes were coming out of his ears as she kept waving it on his face, asking for his comment. She had made it special for Rae and she could make one more if Gray wanted to have one as well. Three of them could be matching! Ah, the thought of both Rae and Gray hugging her body pillow just made Juvia drool unladylike. "Get this out of my face!"
"Kya~ Gray-sama, don't be too rough!" Juvia whimpered loudly when Gray pushed her to run away from there.
"Don't make such sound, you idiot!" Gray yelled with a red face, catching Rae's attention.
The Dark Enchantress who had been talking to Bella and Haruka turned her head towards those two, wondering what was the noise about. Her eyes witnessed them being so familiar and friendly to each other and she was glad for Gray. It would be best if he can forget Rae King and move on with Juvia. At the very least, she wouldn't develop guilt and feel bad for him anymore. As far as she knew, Juvia did have a feeling for him and also her. That made Rae sigh. "What did you do to have many people in love with you?"
"What was that, Rae?" Bella asked as her cheeks were stretched because of apples. She was sharing plates with Haruka. "Where's Lu-chan anyway?" With her voice muffled, the bat tried to fly up to search for the other blonde girl, soon found her in the crowd struggling to hold a cake and make sure it didn't fall. The center was swarmed by men trying to have fun and play around with barrels. Natsu was sliding on one and eventually had a motion sickness at the end.
"Oof, mama close your eyes!" Haruka giggled as she stood behind her mother to put her hands over Rae's eyes. The mother only obeyed her words and placed her hands on top of her small ones. The young girl bounced on her feet and nodded her head excitedly to her aunt that was carrying a huge cake. Rae wasn't sure what was the commotion all about but when Bella started to count three, the crowd noises suddenly faded out and by three, Haruka moved her hand.
Rae opened her eyes to see a young fair woman with wavy dark blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes standing beside Lucy. That unfamiliar woman was crying and Rae could only guess she's another close relative of Rae King. Rae was too stunned when that young woman suddenly jumped into her arms an hugged her tightly, her face held a thousand questions of her real identity. "Rae-neesan, I miss you." Sister? Yukino didn't tell me about me having another sister. As she was holding her too tight, Rae accidentally groaned when her hand pressed her lower abdomen.
"Ah, my apologies! I'm so sorry!" The woman quickly let her go and bowed repeatedly while cursing at herself for being reckless with Rae especially when she clearly knew Rae's situation. Lucy had filled her in everything. Feeling bad for the girl, Rae put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile, saying it's okay. It just surprised her and she's glad to finally see her again, acting familiar with her. Seemed like her acting was believable, they immediately hit it off. Looked like that woman was the surprise. And that cake, made special by Lucy.
The Celestial Spirit Mage ushered that woman to a chair and cut some slices of that cake. "Gonzales, how's your store?"
Ah, so her name was Gonzales.
"Everything's doing great!" She spoke with such gracefulness and Rae found herself smiling as well. Gonzales met her eyes with her silver ones and out of the blue, she began to cry again. Rae had her body jumped in surprise when that girl bawled her eyes out. "Uwah, Rae-neesan, why did you do that? Why did you revive me and leave us alone here?! Why did you use your magic to bring me back? I've caused all of you more than harm! I'm supposed to be punished!"
Revive and use what magic now?
Lucy flicked Gonzales's forehead. "Watch your mouth. It's all in the past now." She then spoke about how she was completely shocked to see Gonzales in flesh, instead of a doll.
Rae almost spoiled herself at that moment. Did Lucy just mention Gonzales was a doll? And she revived and bring her back to live as a human? She did that? Just how powerful I was before? "I—I'm happy everything's alright now. Our family is complete now." Rae put both of her hands on top of their heads and her ears became a little bit warmer when two of them turned their faces slightly to rub their cheeks against her palms. "You both are my beloved sisters, of course I would do anything to protect you."
"Ha! I'm Rae-chan's beloved sister also!" Lisanna shrieked from afar and ran all the way to them, almost knocking Ciel out of his chair on her way.
Lucy glared at her. "Go to your own sister then."
Lisanna smiled cheekily. "There's nothing wrong with having more than one sister."
"Oh my my." Mirajane covered her mouth, watching the drama play in front of her meanwhile Elfman was crying at the corner, said he didn't want to lose his cute little sister.
"Then, shall we do a match to see who's worthy to be my mama's sister?"
Everyone cheered to Haruka's announcement and that's how Fairy Tail end up having another Miss Fairy Tail contest. Rae relaxed her posture and observed her surroundings while enjoying her cake. All the girls except her and Haruka joined the competition, but the real competition was between Lucy and Lisanna. The others just wanted to have fun. Rae still hadn't touched her 'favourite drink' yet. She didn't think she favored alcoholic drink in this lifetime. It just smelled so wrong to her nose. Actually, she did try to take a small sip of it but she ended up coughing. The taste was too strong and she can't swallow it.
"I'm going to toilet for a moment." Rae told Bella and Haruka and made her way upstairs. Now, she knew the toilet was upstairs but there were too many rooms and hallways. She's going to get lost. Obviously she couldn't ask them the direction and a part in her heart held a small ego as well. Her face began to scrunch for tenth time now. She had ended up walking back to the center again. "Why does this guild have to be so big? And what's the pool even for?!" The girl groaned loudly, stomping her feet anxiously. She just needed to fix her bandages for a moment.
Rae held back the urge to pull her own hair. "Maybe, maybe this one!" Her hand held the doorknob and once she opened it, her eyes met a shirtless man in a toilet. The Dark Enchantress quickly let out a scream and pulled the door to close it immediately. Her face flushed with warmth, he wasn't wearing any shirt and he's only in his shorts. Too caught in her second hand embarrassment, Rae King failed to realize that the man he just saw inside earlier was none other than Gray Fullbuster. However, that moment didn't stay long as Gray twisted the doorknob from inside, making Rae grew panic.
Her hands gripped the doorknob in return, preventing him from getting out. She didn't know why did she do that but she swore it's completely her body reflex. Her hands just moved on their own. She didn't know why she didn't want to see him. But her actions only resulted in him getting angrier to her. "Rae, open the door!" He pulled it hard but she kept holding on to the doorknob nervously, as if her life depended on it. She didn't care if the door's going to break—as long as she could escape from him. That's fine. She was confused. Her heart wasn't beating this hard when she saw him earlier downstairs and they managed to walk pass each other without saying anything but now, she was scared.
The memories of him shouting to her face frightened her a lot.
"Rae, I swear if you don't open this—"
She shook her head. "No—please—" She didn't know where did her confidence fly as she really needed it at this moment.
Gray clenched his teeth then he decided to freeze the door. Once he heard a yelp from her, he slammed his body against the door and there he found her on the floor. Her face was showing a sign of fear towards him and that just made Gray 'hate' her even more. "What do you think you're—" Before he could finish his sentence, Rae jolted up and forced her legs to run away from him. She was afraid. She was afraid to look at him in the eyes. After all, she's the person that he hated the most. It's their first time seeing each other again alone.
"Why are you running away from me?! Ha??"
Rae closed her eyes and ran ahead, hands hurriedly opened any door she could find to hide from him.
"Running away is the only you're good at right? So keep doing that! I wanna see how much more you can run away from me, Rae." His voice cracked at the end but she didn't care about that. Finally, she could open a door and before she could close it, his hand sneaked inside and held the door with force. Rae screamed and immediately backed away from the door. Gray swallowed his breaths shakily, his eyes were glistening with tears. "Do you despise me that much? Do you hate me that much until the point you need to run away from me again?"
"S—stay away from me—" Rae held a hand out defensively. "Don't t—take even o—one step closer!" Her feet stepped back cowardly.
Gray messed his hair in anger. "God damn it, Rae! Why are you acting like this?! Why are you crying so much now?! Natsu and I even promised to never make you cry—" His palm rubbed his face frustratedly, his tears kept falling on the wooden floor drop by drop. "Why are you so far away from me, Rae?! What did I do wrong?! Tell me, what is my flaw? I want to give you my world, Rae but you're hurting me so much—we used to be closer than this, Rae. Where did we go wrong?"
You should just close your eyes.
You're on level 2, falling from here will promise a peaceful d̶e̶a̶t̶h̶, there's a pole with sharp tip down there.
Just let go and everything will be alright.
The voices were back.
"Shut up. I don't want to die." Rae took a few steps back, her palms covered both her ears. "Just go away—don't talk anymore!"
Noticing her strange behavior of talking to herself, Gray dropped his guard and called her name softly. "Rae? Rae, do you hear me?"
He wants to kill you.
"Why do you keep calling me by that name? I'm not her!"
"Rae, what are you talking about?!"
She shook her head. Her body was now getting closer to the balcony. Her silver puffy eyes looked at him with madness inside. "I'm not who you think of. I don't even know who am I actually. I don't remember any of this Rae King! I don't know why I have this stupid mark on my hand!" She tore the bandage around her palm and scratched the insignia of the guild. "I only pretend to be your Rae King because I don't want to hurt any of you! All of you are too kind to a stranger like me. I don't even know you. I don't even know why the hell are you angry with me! I don't even know why the voices in my head kept telling me to die!"
Gray had his face losing its color. He swore his heart stopped. His eyes looked down on her legs that were two inches away from the edge of the balcony. "No—no, don't—don't do this, Rae!" Oh God, he knew he's not brave to witness the same thing all over again. "Please, listen to me, you are our Rae King. You are my Rae King. Please don't do this to me, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I raised my voice to you. I'm sorry I didn't even try to understand your situation. I'm sorry for being too selfish. I should have been happier with you coming home—"
Just what are you waiting for?
Fall.
Just fall.
"I'm sorry for hurting you and I don't deserve your kindness. It was nice while it lasted." Rae smiled sadly and closed her eyes, her body then disappeared from his sight.
25/4/22
well, at least, Gray knew she lost her memories. sigh, I should be kind to Rae and Gray.