Stronger Than You (Graylu)

The Week it Started.

GRAYLU GRAYLU GRAYLU. THIS IS A GRAYLU BOOK. PLEASE DONT SEND ME DEATH THREATS BECAUSE IT'S A GRAYLU BOOK. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE COMMENTS SAYING HOW MUCH YOU HATE GRAYLU. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IF YOU DONT LIKE GRAYLU, JUST DONT READ THIS BOOK. IDK HOW I CAN BE ANY MORE CLEAR.

Everyone cheered. All but one. She really must be a horrible person, mustn't she? Gray and Natsu could manage to smile and give Freed a pat on the back. Elfman could muster telling him how manly he was. Levy and Juvia could cheer with the rest. But Cana... she couldn't quite manage it.

She was disappointed, she nearly thought she'd had it. It had been a good year for her after all. She'd beat a wizard saint in the Grand Magic Games, confessed to Gildarts that she was his daughter. She even had enough power to wield Fairy Glitter. She had got her hopes up, thought that the year could get even better. Thought she could make it.

The card mage sighed, a long, drawn out sigh. It was damn hard being crap. Magic, besides drinking, was the thing in the world that she was best at. But she still wasn't good enough.

"Cana..." a tentative voice spoke from beside her. "Are you okay?"

It was Lucy Heartfilia, the girls partner for the S-Class Trails. She figured they had got on pretty well last year, they did make a good team. Not good enough, clearly, but quite good regardless. She had certainly been a lot of help over the course of this years trails. There was no way Cana would have been able to figure out all of those clues in the Idcirco Problema Labyrinth, and she wouldn't have got out of that sticky situation with a monster had it not been for Virgo getting them the hell out of there. Perhaps Lucy should have been the one they were testing, not Cana, she thought bitterly.

The Celestial Mages brown eyes were wide with concern for her friend. She knew that Cana would beat herself up about it.

"I'm fine" The brunette assured her unconvincingly. "I just kinda got my hopes up, y'know?"

"Don't beat yourself up okay? You did brilliant. Next year is your year Cana, I can feel it!" she said smiling cutely. She was a good friend, such a good friend. So positive and nice, she almost gave Cana back some hope.

"Yeah whatever" She said, faking indifference expertly. "Go talk to Gray he's been staring at you for three minutes"

The celestial mage turned to meet the eyes of the black haired ice mage and turned a subtle shade of pink. Not many people in the childish Fairy Tail Guild had notice the clear tension between the two of them, but Cana was certainly one of the ones who did, throwing the pair a teasing look as Lucy scurried off to congratulate him on making it to the final round.

Cana let out another drawn out sigh. Next year will be your year. If only. She took a swig of the bottle  in her hand.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Gray-sama, would you like to  go on a mission with Juvia?"

"Huh?" Gray swiveled around in his bar stool chair to look at Juvia. She was dressed very prettily, exceptionally so, as though she'd made an effort today for some reason. Gray could have guess what that reason was easily. She was a cute girl, Gray knew that, a lot of guys would kill to be in his shoes. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't evoke any romantic feelings for her. He wanted to give her a chance, just to make her happy because Juvia deserved happiness. But he couldn't. It wouldn't be fair on either of them, especially when Gray could only look at someone else the way she wished he'd look at her. 

"Nah, I can't team Natsu are  going on a mission" he said casually, feeling guilt tug on his heart, knowing he should just break it to the water mage, but not sure how. "Maybe another time" The guilt was there again. There wouldn't be another time, at least not until she was 100 percent over him. They both knew it. Yes, Juvia too.

She pretty much knew that it was hopeless now. No, she had not seen the way that Gray had looked at lucy, but she just knew that her feelings were not returned, they were tollerated. He was nice to Juvia, he treated her as you would a friend or your little sister, but she could see how he struggled and resisted whenever she had even implied they take it further than platonic. He'd unknowingly buried a seed of insecurity in her stomach. Why didn't he want her? She had desperately offered herself to him in many ways, but he had always refused. What teenage boy would refuse someone so willing to do anything to keep him. Gray would. She must not be good enough. Not pretty enough, not strong enough.

In reality she was more than enough, she just wasn't right.
She wasn't right for him.

Juvia felt tears make their way into her eyes. She tried to hold them back but loving someone is hard. They came out.Flowing over dramatically until she slowly walked away. She heard Gray sigh out of frustration. 

If I improve my magic, if I become prettier and stronger, maybe Gray-sama will love me. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lucy!" Erza's voice called, panic eating away at the edges. 

The celestial spirit mage had swung my extendable whip around, hitting two people on the backs of their knees so their legs buckled and they fell down, but another one of their mates hit her across the face and in the stomach, effectively sending her sprawling to the ground. 

"Regulus Impact!" Loke called effectively getting rid of a lot of the enemies around the pair, but more and more seems to swarm towards them. Lucy guessed they had pegged her as the weakest target and had the brains to get her out of their way first and get under the others skin. 

"Lucy kick!" she  called weakly, struggling to stand up with exhaustion. The kick did little damage to the target as she tried desperately to do something, anything, that would take him out.  

"I'm sorry" a weak voice behind her said as she turned to see in horror Loke fading away back to the spirit world with a canon ball sized hole going through his stomach. 

"Loke!" Lucy called out hysterically. Of course he would be okay, he would live at least, but seeing your friend in pain is never easy, even if you are certain they will be alright in the end. 

She didn't have enough time to worry though. More and more soldiers surrounded her. She was running on empty. Calling another spirit out wasn't a possibility, yet she was pretty useless without them. It was hopeless. (A/N: this isn't my view on Lucy, I love her to pieces, nor has that been my view on Juvia or Cana, it just reflects how the characters feel about themselves in this book) 

She wasn't worried though. She knew she'd be saved in three, two, one...

"Ice-make, Lance!". Gray came to her rescue, seemingly out of nowhere, just like someone in the group always does. Always the princess, Always the damsel in distress.

"Alright, this is getting boring now" Natsu called cockily. It didn't help to improve Lucy's mood. "Dragon Slayer: Roar!" 

"Requip: Black Wing Armour!"

"Ice-Make: Hammer!" 

The strongest team in Fairy Tail threw attack, after attack, after attack and the number of enemies halved and halved and halved until they were nothing but unconscious bodies on the floor. All the while Lucy sat, next to the bodies, and watched the strong fighters before her do what they did best. 

"You okay there?" Gray asked her confused as to why she hadn't got up yet. "Wait, are you hurt? Wendy?!" he called, a panicked expression finding its way to his face. 

"No, Gray, I'm fine" she sighed, dragging herself to her feet. She didn't know why she hadn't got up yet. She just felt hopeless, unhelpful. Weak. She felt weak. 

"Good then" he said smiling at her playfully. "You need to stop worrying me like that"  

It was supposed to be a sweet statement. She was supposed to look up and him, smile and get a warm fuzzy feeling in her stomach from knowing that he cared about her. But it didn't work she look down at her feet and became worryingly interested in the tiles on the floor. She had taken it the wrong way, and could only think of how she "worried him" far to often. 

I cant keep going on as the easy target, I need to train.