Work Text:
“[Y/N]? [Y/N], wake up.”
[Y/N]’s eyes opened suddenly and she sat up startled, her heart pounding and scars pulsing with phantom pain.
A cool hand was on her shoulder and she leaned closer before she had quite registered who it was.
“[Y/N]?”
It was Gray.
[Y/N] inhaled a deep breath and released it with a shudder.
“Um . . . I’m fine. Just a nightmare. A—uh—bad dream, really.”
Gray watched her with an expression of stone. His eyes were hung with stormclouds. “What do you need?” he asked.
A request for solitude was on her tongue by default, but when she parted her lips to use it, she was silent. It occurred to her that she had never been asked that particular question before, though many friends had certainly tried to console her after a nightmare.
What do I need? [Y/N] wondered. Many things. A warmer blanket—it was cold—or a drink. A happier childhood?
She was terrified by the dark night, even with their fire still burning brightly. It had been a fear ever since she’d left the dark place where she was raised; ever since she had discovered what light was.
“You,” [Y/N] said before she realized she was speaking. She blushed immediately.
Gray’s face was already shadowed and warm from the light of the fire, but she thought his cheeks darkened. “I just . . . ” she bit her lip as she tried to come up with an explanation. There wasn’t one, though, because what she needed was Gray. His presence to protect her from the dark and the nightmares. For him to look at her like he cared. Maybe even hold her. “I just need you,” she said finally. “I don’t want to be alone and . . . ”
I’m scared , she thought but hesitated to say it. To Gray. She remembered the way she had wanted to comfort him after Galuna. He had a darkness in him. A past; tortured, like hers. A sadness, grief, and responsibility he carried with him everywhere he went. It dawned on her that Gray understood.
He knew.
He’d known to ask her what she needed. Not to ask if she was okay. He knew she wasn’t, but would be given a little time.
“I’m scared,” she admitted aloud.
Gray looked at her for a few seconds which felt like an eternity, then he nodded. Slowly yet deliberately, he eased out of his crouch and she made room for him on her sleeping mat as he slipped to her side. [Y/N] offered him the limited warmth of her thin blanket, but he shook his head and chuckled.
“I don’t get cold,” he said and wrapped the blanket tighter around her before pulling her into his arms. After no time at all, they were settled, [Y/N]’s back against Gray’s chest as he held her tightly in a bundle of blanket and Light mage.
[Y/N] faced the fire. Gray made sure she would and she was grateful. She wanted to see the fire and assure herself that nothing in the darkness beyond was coming for her.
One of Gray’s arms was wrapped around her shoulder, his fingers wove in and out of her hair. The strands closest to her neck and temples were damp from her fear, but Gray smoothed them out anyway. His other arm was tucked under and around her waist, his cool fingers tugged her blanket tighter around her.
Even as her heart pounded away at the fear of her memories, [Y/N] felt safe in Gray’s arms. Safe and comfortable and surprisingly warm, even though every time his skin brushed her ear, a cold tingle skipped down her spine. And most surprising of all was the fact that it all just felt so right.
“If you don’t slow your breathing, you’re going to hyperventilate,” Gray’s breath tickled her ear. “Just breathe, [Y/N]. I’ve got you. I’m not letting anything get near you.”
The promise—because that’s what it was—soothed over the tremors that she hadn’t even noticed were wracking her body. She inhaled as deeply as she could, and once again the breath left her as a shudder. Gray tightened his hold on her and stole one of her hands. He pulled her fingers up behind her and to the crook of his neck, under his chin which rested on top of her head.
His pulse was steady, if a little quick, though by far much slower than her own. His skin was cool and he tightly held her hand to his heartbeat. “Breathe, [Y/N],” he said softly.
[Y/N] focused on the shifting of his chest behind her, trying to sync her own breaths to his. Breathing in and out and focusing on the pounding of Gray’s heart instead of worrying about the pace of her own.
It took so much longer than she would have liked. They stayed that way while she tried to calm herself for at least half an hour, if not longer. Maybe for an eternity. But finally, her breathing evened out and she got oxygen into her lungs.
Gray gently shifted his hand from hers to wrap around her shoulders again, pulling her even closer to him.
The contact startled [Y/N] briefly, but she immediately found herself leaning into him more.
No more words were said for a while. It was just Gray holding her tight as she watched the fire and breathed. The remnants of her nightmare slowly began to trickle away. After a while, [Y/N] began to fully realize the situation she was in.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that Gray had lost his clothes. She thought, perhaps, he had been wearing them when everyone had gone to bed. But he was bare-chested now. And she was just in her pajamas—a thin, long sleeve, slip dress . . . no bra—and a thin blanket. They were the only things separating her skin from his. His arms wrapped across her body.
Even as her cheeks began to flush and she fought the urge to squirm a little, she found that she desperately didn’t want to be anywhere else. She didn’t want to be away from him. She didn’t want to be alone.
“I . . . ” Her words got stuck in her throat. She didn’t know what she wanted to say first. That she was thankful. That she was sorry. That she was okay now, he could go. That she never wanted him to leave her. “I’m . . . ”
“It’s okay,” Gray whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”
[Y/N] swallowed stiffly. Once again, he knew. And he understood. The fear, exhaustion, relief, and appreciation overwhelmed her and formed tears in her eyes. She bit her lip and slid her hand up into his hair, gripping tightly. Her other hand grasped his wrist on her shoulder in an attempt to make him feel closer to her.
“[Y/N]?” he asked, a little bewildered. “What is it?”
[Y/N] clutched him even tighter. Her throat was getting stiff from trying to keep back the tears, but eventually, they stole away from her eyes and she choked on a sob to keep it quiet.
“Gray.” His name came out as a silent prayer. Then he rotated her in his arms so she could bury her face into his neck while he shushed her, slowly combing his fingers through her hair again.
It didn’t take so long at all for [Y/N] to get herself under control, but he didn’t let go of her yet, and she didn’t want him to.
“I—I spent fifteen years in the dark,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what light was until I was forced to learn magic. But even with magic, I was never strong enough.”
“Hey,” Gray murmured, “you don’t have to tell me. You don’t have to say anything.”
“I want to,” she replied. “I . . . I need to. I haven’t told anyone else but Gramps. Will you . . . Will you listen?”
“Always.”
“I taught myself. Light magic, heaven magic, anything that could allow me to see. Every year on my birthday, it came. It beat me every time. I always lost. I trained and trained. My . . . My scars built up. But I could never . . . ”
She inhaled a shallow gulp of air to steady her heartbeat again. “I killed it when I was fifteen. I killed it and it was . . . It was m-my father. It . . . He w-was a take-over mage. He had a demon-soul that took him over. After my mother died. I grew up in darkness and when I could finally see, I had killed him. But the darkness doesn’t ever go away.
“When I first saw Gramps, I . . . actually wondered why he didn’t have scars. I did. Do. Dad had them. But none of you really . . . ” she unburied her face from Gray’s skin the slightest amount and wiggled her right hand into view. She was missing a sliver of her middle finger; a little jagged gap right where her nail should’ve been. And the rest of the skin was all raised lumps and clusters of gnarled pale flesh that had never healed as it should’ve. [Y/N] chuckled ruefully, softly. “And I stayed with Cana and then she turned out the lights and I could’ve sworn I woke the whole town screaming.”
Gray tucked her head back under his chin. “You’re afraid of the dark,” he stated coolly.
“Yes,” [Y/N] said.
“So what?” Gray asked, once again catching [Y/N] off guard. “So what if you’re afraid of the dark? We all have something we’re afraid of, [Y/N]. Erza doesn’t ever want to be caged again. Natsu can’t stand his friends getting hurt, and I’m afraid of losing another family. Lucy doesn’t want to be alone. Elfman doesn’t want to be as weak as he was when we thought Lisanna died. Laxus would rather die than fail anyone. Gramps doesn’t want anyone to touch his children.
“We’re all afraid, [Y/N],” he repeated. He gently tugged her head back by her hair so he could look at her. “That doesn’t make you weak. It doesn’t make you worthless or helpless. It just makes you human.”
[Y/N] was rendered speechless and teary-eyed once again as their gazes met. The fire lit up his dark eyes. She saw the sadness there. The storm cloud. But more than that, she saw hope and faith and love.
“Do you understand?”
[Y/N] sniffed. Then she nodded, slowly.
Gray nodded himself. “Good. Now go to sleep, we still have a job to do tomorrow.”
[Y/N] blinked owlishly and he smiled. “I’m not going anywhere. Relax, [Y/N]. I got you.”
[Y/N] believed him. With a heavy blush on her cheeks, she burrowed back into his cool embrace—still somehow warmer than the crack of the fire at her back. And she found that she didn’t care whether or not she could see into the darkness. Because Gray had her. And he wasn’t going to leave.
She fell asleep rapidly to the snap of flames and Gray’s steady heartbeat, slipping into sweet dreams to the rhythm of her new favorite sound.
“Ummm . . . ” Lucy couldn’t keep her eyes off of the sight in front of her. “Should we . . . ?”
Erza firmly shook her head with a smug and delighted smile on her face. “Of course not. Let’s leave them be for a while longer. No need to frighten them. Besides, Mira owes me a strawberry cake now.”
“You . . . You bet on this?” Lucy exclaimed.
“Shhh!” Happy and Erza and Wendy exclaimed at once.
Just beside the dying embers of the fire, Gray and [Y/N] lay entangled with each other, [Y/N]’s blanket draped uselessly over her calves while she was snuggled up in a ball inside Gray’s embrace. They both breathed in perfect synch. Occasionally, Gray dug his nose deeper into her hair, or [Y/N] grasped his shoulder more tightly, but their rhythm never wavered.
“Sorry,” Lucy rubbed the back of her head. “Do you . . . Do you bet on these things a lot?”
Erza’s smirk grew sinister.
Lucy shrunk back with a whimper. “What the heck does that mean?”
Erza didn’t grace her with an answer. Instead, she turned away from the scene and continued to pack up her cart of supplies.
But the peace of the morning only lasted one more minute before Natsu woke up with a leap to his feet and screamed, “ALRIGHT! I’M READY TO FIGHT STUFF, LET’S GO! WAKE UP ICEBL—What the heck is Gray doing with [Y/N]?”
The two in question stirred, now, from Natsu’s ruckus while Happy gleefully declared, “He liiiiiiiiikes her.”
Before Gray or [Y/N] knew what hit them, Natsu leaped onto them. “Hey, you freaking perv, get off [Y/N]! Put some clothes on, leave her alone! There’s a kid here, you loser, what do you think you’re doing?”
Gray was up in an instant arguing right back at Natsu. [Y/N] was thrown to the side and began screaming too.
“They just woke up and they’re already at each others’ throats,” Lucy muttered with a dejected sigh.
“I’m surprised you’re even surprised at this point,” Happy said around a mouth of fish.
“Uh . . . I’m going to go find Carla,” Wendy muttered then speedily slipped away.
Broken from her previous neutrality, Erza leaped into action to break up the fight, and then everyone was shouting and punching, and then magic began to form and . . .
Lucy sighed but had to smile a little, still. “Just another day as a member of the Fairy Tail Guild.”
“Aye!”