Gray X Reader: My Protector (Wattys2016)

Chapter 37: I don't have to pretend

Your POV

When I wake up my body feels as if it's on fire. A burning sensation fills my skin and I'm in utter agony.

I'm awake but my eyelids are closed. I open them, however it takes a lot of effort to do so as they feel as if bricks are keeping them closed.

When I open my heavy eyelids I don't exactly recognise where I am, although I do recognise the person staring at me. Gray.

He sighs of relief as he looks at me. "I'm glad you're okay." He says. I notice that he's shirtless, it makes me laugh a little reminding me of the first time we met.
"W-What happened?" I ask.

My voice is gruff and feels like the rest of my body, as if it's on fire.
"That weird fox spirit sprinkled some dust stuff on you." He sighed "turns out it was a dust to disintegrate you. Something to do with cosmic... cosmic... I don't know. I never paid attention in physics..." he sighed in an exauhsted tone.
"Where is she?" I ask.
"She's still at the apartment, the others are trying to fight her off." He says his Gray eyes looking at the ground.

I sit up and notice that we're on a boat in the river. Confusion filled my mind as I looked at our surroundings.
"Umm. . . Gray...?" I ask "Why are we on a boat?" I say in complete confusion.
"I had to get you to the water quickly, the dust was burning you." He says as he gently takes hold of my arm to show me the redness of my skin.
"What about you?" I ask "aren't you affected by the dust? Did it touch your skin?" I ask worriedly.
"I'm fine." He chuckled "although the dust did disintegrate my top." He says with a small laugh.
"Oh really?" I say "it surprises me actually, I thought you were just going through one of your many phases a day." I laugh.

He rolls his eyes and chuckles a little. I try and stand up bit fall back on my butt.
"Don't try and move." he says.
"I need to go help the dragon slayers and Erza." I say.
"You're in no fit state to do any of that..." he sighed "you can barely stand up let alone fight a dark key."
"But I can't just leave them to it!" I say truthfully.
"I'm sorry (Y/N), I've had strict orders from that weird Eagle guy to specifically not let you fight. He said he'll try and get hold of Loke after he returns to his gate after his fight with the Ram girl."
"Loke?" I ask.
"Yeah... the guy with the lion ears."
"Oh! You mean Leo!" I laugh slightly.
"Yeah, I know him as Loke." Gray says quietly
"Why's that?" I ask.
"Cut a long story short Lok- I mean Leo was a member of the fairy tail guild alone, something happened causing him to be banished to the human world forever."Gray says.
"But... that can kill a spirit." I say.
"That was the point." Gray said awkwardly.

He's not telling me something. I know it by his tone.

"Who would do a such thing?" I say. There was silence as Gray looked away and down at the flowing water.

Now I understand why.

"It was my father wasn't it?" I say.
"It was a misunderstanding." Gray sighs.
"There's no excuse! Murdering a celestial spirit like that... that's not right! He had no right!" I say angrily.
"He had every right..." he muttered "He's the king, not to mention he had good reasons of thinking to. He thought he broke one of the celestial spirit laws." He said.
"And did he?" I ask
"Indirectly... yes." He sighs "He killed his mage, but not on purpose." He says.
"Was this his abusive one?" I ask.

Gray's eyes widen slightly at me in confusion and shock.
"Yes... how do you know?" He asks.
"I use to call for Leo as a key and his gate would be broken, the only way that happens is if a celestial spirit is protecting someone. My guess was Aries. So when I spoke to him about it he told me everything. I never met the girl.. I wish I did so I could have gave her a peice of my mind." I say angrily.
"She's dead now." Gray says calmly.
"So what happened?" I ask.
"Leo refused to return to his gate, and Karen was too weak to get another spirit so she went on a job desperate for money, she got killed due to her having no magic." He says kind of sadly "I think Loke regrets doing what he did. When he was at the Guild he would get sad sometimes. He'd act like a real flirt in front of most girls, but when you had a one-to-one conversation with him you could see he was down-to-earth."