The Tale of Tales

Chapter 25

Juvia begged Gray not to tell Gajeel and the others about how she was almost assaulted because she knew how protective they were and if they found out about something like this they would never let her go out alone again. Gray told her that he wouldn't tell because he didn't really care much to her relief. When they returned to the cottage the dwarfs decided that now that Gray's foot didn't hurt as much as it used to, he needed to give Romeo back his bed. Juvia made him a cot in the living room for him to sleep on. She had asked Gajeel to make Gray a proper bed but according to him there wasn't enough material.

Gray, Gajeel, Elfman, and Romeo went to bed after dinner but Juvia stayed up just a little bit longer to finish up on her needlework. She was mending up one of Gajeel's shirts because he had torn it while working in the mines the other day. She had just finished it when suddenly she heard a noise that disturbed her. It sounded like whimpering.

She lit a candlestick, stepped out of her room, and quietly crept downstairs into the living room where the noise was coming from. It was Gray who appeared to be in a very troubled sleep. He was tossing and turning on his cot while sweating, shaking, and whimpering in his sleep. She walked closer to him and the light of the candlestick allowed her to see him better and she saw two things that surprised her. One was the fact that Gray didn't have a shirt on exposing his very strong and well built chest which made her blush hard but her shyness quickly faded when she saw the second thing that shocked her.

When Gray turned to the left in his sleep Juvia saw his back and it was covered in scars. She recognized what kind of scars they were, they were the kind that came from hard lashings and whippings. She put her hand over her heart when she saw them and she began to imagine the horrible acts that had been done to Gray that left those scars. She kneeled down and carefully moved her hand toward his back. Her fingers had just barely touched one of his scars when suddenly Gray's hand grabbed her wrist and he sat up awake.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He asked her.

"I'm sorry." She said. "You...You looked like you were having a bad dream so I tried to wake you up. Are you okay?"

He released her hand and then looked away from her. After a moment of silence that seemed to last for much longer Juvia spoke.

"Where did you get those scars on your back?"

He tensed before answering.

"It's none of your business."

"You were beaten weren't you?" She deduced. "I know those scars, you only get them if you've been whipped and lashed. Someone lashed you with a whip didn't they?"

Once again he looked away from her, tensed up, and was quiet for the longest time. Juvia was just about to leave when he started to speak again.

"I was eight years old when I got them." He said still not facing her. "They said my parents were devils because they took in a man for the night who happened to be a wolf of the cursed race. They forced me to watch my mother and father hang and then they strapped me down and whipped me for hours because they thought it would cleanse my soul. The Reverend said that he was doing God's work but would God really want a man and a woman to die for helping someone? Would God want a child to be tortured because of the paranoia of others? They called my parents devils but they were the real devils."

Gray turned to look at Juvia and he saw that she was crying.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked.

"That's awful." She sobbed. "How could they do that to you? To kill your family and then put you through that kind of torture. I'm never heard of anything so horrible and sad in all my life. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that they hurt you. No one should have to go through that horror."

She embraced him comfortingly. Gray was stunned. He thought back to the day he had been tortured. As he was strapped down to that platform and suffered beating after beating, he screamed and cried like any other eight year old boy would but when it finally stopped and he had collapsed from the pain he had searched the crowd of people watching him to see if any of them felt any remorse, sympathy, comfort, or compassion for him. If any of them would shed tears for him but none of them wept. They only laughed or gave him looks of disgust or judgement. They didn't care if he lived or died.

But Juvia shed tears for him. She was comforting him. What had happened to him ten years ago had hurt her, she felt compassion for him. But why? Why would she cry for him? Why would she comfort him? Why would she be so kind to him? He felt his heart skip another beat and it worried him.

"Hey it's no big deal." He said gently pushing her away. "I got over it years ago. Listen I'm sorry if I woke you up. It won't happen again now if you'll excuse me I think I'm going to get some air before I go back to sleep."

She was about to ask him if that was a good idea but he was already gone.

"Poor guy. I didn't know he had it that bad." Juvia was startled by the sudden appearance of Gajeel.

"Gajeel you scared me. What are you doing up?"

"Same reason you're up. I heard him whimpering and went to see what was up. You got here first so I decided to just watch."

"I can't believe that happened to him. How could anyone be so cruel?"

"They are people out there like that Juvia, it's sucks but it's the truth."

"Seeing him suffering like that hurts my heart. I wish he didn't suffer so."

"Oh no. Juvia don't tell me you're falling for him."

"What?" She said blushing. "What...What would give you that idea?"

"Oh please everytime you're around him your face basically turns into a tomato. I got eyes sister."

"Well I must admit I do feel something for him but is it really love?"

"I can't tell you that because I don't feel for him like you do thank God. But I wouldn't be so quick to dive into love if I were you."

"Why is that?"

"Because as great as love is it hurts worse than anything else in the world. There's no pain on earth greater."

"Gajeel have you ever been in love before?"

He tensed up and went silent for awhile like Gray did but also like Gray he eventually answered her question.

"Once. It was years ago, before I met Elfman and Romeo. I was living by myself back then because well I'm not exactly that good looking, you'd be surprised how many people mistook me for a troll. Anyway I had been charged with guarding a book of dark magic and witchcraft because everyone was afraid of me, everyone except her. I had it pretty bad. She was as beautiful as a fairy and she actually cared for me."

"What happened to her?"

"After spending a year together we decided to get married. I had mined a special diamond that I was going to propose to her with and I built this cottage so we could live here together. Last time we met she wanted me to give her the book because she said that she had found a safer place for it then told me to meet her at the edge of the kingdom at night but she never came."

"Never?"

"I waited for a month but nothing. She had left me, she used me to get the book. But I should've known better, after all how could anyone love someone as ugly as me?"

"I love you Gajeel." She said hugging him and kissing his cheek. "You're one of my best friends in the whole world and you're not ugly. Not in my eyes."

"Thanks Juvia. I love you too. You're pretty much the little sister I never had."

"It's late. I think we all should go back to bed."

"I hear ya. Goodnight Juvia."

"Goodnight Gajeel."

Juvia went back upstairs to her room while Gajeel returned to the room he shared with Elfman and Romeo. Before going to bed he opened one of his private drawers and pulled out a small portrait of of beautiful girl dressed in yellow with short blue hair.

"Oh Levy." He sighed while gently running his fingers down the girl's face in portrait. "Was I really too ugly for you to love?"