Cold Love (Gray Fullbuster x female reader)

Chapter 9 - Lisanna

(You're POV, 9 months later)

I find myself on the street of my guildhall, one that I used to walk on every single day, one that I haven't seen in almost a year. I missed it here. I'm nervous for my second return, as it was a bit longer than my last journey, but I have much less explaining to do this time. Gray knew that I'd left. Everyone else must have known immediately that I was off to find my parents once again. I don't care to do all of the explaining again, so I'm even more excited to see everyone than I was the last time. It's midday and the sun blazes down on me. I burst through the doors of the guildhall.

"Guess who's back!!" I exclaim so everyone can hear. Everyone turns towards the door and immediately bursts out in chaos. Glasses are clinking, people are smiling and hugging, everyone waving and welcoming. Sometimes I forget how much everyone cares for one another in this guild, and even its it's just one gone for no matter how long, there was always a celebration because the family was whole again.

I closed the doors behind me and the moment I turned back around I was embraced by a hug. A cold one. "(Y/N) you're back!! I missed you so much!" Gray exclaimed.

I immediately wrapped my arms around him and my body shivered, not from the cold radiating off of his body, but because of how much I missed the embrace of someone. Because of how much I missed Gray.

After a few more moments of hugging, we pulled away and he immediately started questioning me as he scanned over my body.

"Are you hurt? Did you make any progress? Why come home now?" I didn't get the chance to answer a single one before Mirajane walked over to greet me. As I turned to her, my jaw was on the floor. She looked completely different from the last time I saw her. She was wearing a beautiful dress and she finally let her hair down. She spoke softly in a very sweet, kind voice. This was not a chosen difference. Something changed Mira.

"(Y/N), I am so happy to see you." She said with a small smile and a tear forming under her eye. She took a step forward and pulled me into a very tight hug. After a few moments I opened my eyes and glanced over at Gray, whose expression changed from excitement to something I couldn't quite make out. Sadness? Uneasiness? Sympathy?

After a few more long moments of embrace, Mira pulled away. Even though I couldn't hear her cry, her face was now drenched in tears. Something's wrong.

"Why don't you come sit at a table with me and Gray." She suggested as she glanced at Gray and he nodded. I looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion. The moment I hit the chair I have a realization.

Where is Lisanna?

"There is something I need to tell you." Mira said looking straight at me, her voice weak. "A few months ago, while you were gone, Elfman, Lisanna and I went on a job together. We were struggling badly. We didn't have many options left. So Elfman tried to use his take over magic, but he lost control. Lisanna tried to help him... She believed she could stop him; That he could hear her. But..." She paused. I sat expressionless. I refused to allow myself to believe what I think she's going to say next. Because it cannot be real and it did not happen.

"It didn't work." The moment she says it, it feels like a sword striking through my chest as the words sink deep inside of me.

Lisanna is dead.

I'm holding my breath. Not on purpose. Momentarily, I've forgotten how to breathe. The room is spinning. No, I am spinning. Are we both spinning? My ears ring so loud I can't hear anything else around me. I feel as if I'm about to faint when I feel a cold hand on my arm and almost immediately I fall against his chest.

"I should have listened to you Gray. I shouldn't have left. I should have been there to protect her. I could have been and I wasn't and she's dead and I can't tell her how sorry I am for not protecting her. Gray, why did I go? Why did she die? What am I supposed to do??" The words fall out of my mouth at the speed of light and he doesn't have a chance to respond to most of it before I say something new. He wraps his arms around me and allows me to rest against him. It's so cold and I feel so safe, as safe as I can while my body feels like it's on the verge of combusting.

"She was like a sister to me and I couldn't save her. What kind of person does that make me?" I ask him in an extremely hushed voice. He glanced over at Mira, who sits quietly, letting me take it all in however I need.

"Nobody could have known. It's not anybody's fault. It's called an accident for a reason. You can't beat yourself up about something you could have never even imagined happening." He tries to help but we both know at this moment no words could help. I feel like a part of me is missing in ways I've never felt before, despite losing my parents. Parent loss feels different than someone who is close enough to be a sister without being interlinked by blood.

But it feels just as irreplaceable.

We all knew writing Lisanna into our stories comes with having to kill her off for some time :(