I Leave You, My Pride

Belo and Harto

Gray was a man with a mission now. He gave the news to the guild and stayed only long enough to watch the reactions. Reasonably, Levy broke into tears at hearing the fate of her best friend. Natsu raged furiously until Erza had to hold him before he destroyed the entire house on Strawberry Street. Then the Dragon Slayer ran off to the bathroom with tears in his eyes, screaming that he would somehow get her back. He stayed locked in there for a while, and people just pretended they did not hear Natsu sobbing curses. It hurt even worse when Gray saw Master Makarov slowly turn away, but not before a tear got caught in a wrinkle on the side of the old man's eyes. Then Juvia nearly washed them all away with a sobbing flood.

Gray just stood to the side. He even let Juvia hang onto his arm, not comforting her as she begged—"Please, Gray-sama, hold Juvia."—but not pushing her away either. He could hardly look at anyone, but their reactions, the tears, the shouts and oaths that somehow, someway, Fairy Tail would get Lucy back, reaffirmed in his heart that he had to do his best.

It was Mirajane who had the sense to ask, "Who has Lucy's keys?"

At that, Gray pushed himself off the wall, sliding Juvia's hands off of him, and walked forward. He reached to a leather pouch that now stayed on his side. "She gave them to me. Apparently, I somehow ended up as Lucy's owner."

Juvia shrieked, "Lucy owns Gray-sama? Juvia won't accept that!"

"She doesn't own me," Gray snapped. He growled when he realized he had shouted rather fiercely at the poor woman, and he tried to rein in his emotions. "I have her key." He pulled out the Key to the Gate of the Lion. "Like she explained in her letters, she's the Spirit of the Lion now. Somehow, I ended up contracted with her."

Natsu's mouth dropped. "You own her key? Shit, we're never gonna see Lucy again."

"Hey!" Gray sneered at him. "Do you think I'm gonna leave it at this?"

"You're not a Celestial Spirit wizard, droopy-eyes."

"I know," Gray yelled. "So I'll learn."

Erza looked concerned. "Learning a whole new form of magic? Perhaps it would be better to find a powerful and kind celestial summoner and..."

"No!" Gray shouted. "I'm not giving her up. I'll find someone to teach me. I'll train how to use this key."

Happy laughed softly. "That's only if you can train yourself not to lose your pants and the keys with them."

Gray knew someone would mention that. "There's no way in hell I'd lose her!"

The people standing around looked over in surprise, and Juvia gulped down her sobs.

"I mean ... I mean, lose her key," he corrected softly, but he knew it was useless to hide the emotions that played out on his face. "You'll see. I'll learn, and I'm gonna bring her back."

With that oath, Gray ran out the door and raced back home in tears.

The following day, he left Magnolia. He had research to do, and only a few of Lucy's personal papers to go off of. Unfortunately, she took almost all of her journals with her, but there was a name he found in an address book. He had heard Lucy mention him before. Grandpa Belo: the man who taught Lucy how to perform Celestial Spirit magic. If anyone could train Gray, it was this man.

He went to the address, but Grandpa Belo had moved. He followed some vague guesses which took him north, and then west to the sea. After weeks of traveling, he came to a quaint coastal town reeking of fish and drying seaweed. The streets were filled with salt barrels for the fishing industry that barely supported the town. The docks had a mishmash of tiny boats with tangles of nets hanging anywhere that could be spared, as if hundreds of spiders had spun their webs.