He Will Be Loved

It's Not Always Rainbows and Butterflies

Gratsu Weekend 2019

Day 3 Prompt: Soft and Destiny

It's Not Always Rainbows and Butterflies

Gray woke up to an insistent tapping on his window. He knew it wasn't Natsu because he'd given up on locking his window a long time ago, just left it unlocked for his friend to crawl through when he needed to.

He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and quickly got out of bed to see who was visiting him so late. Wendy Dragneel was standing outside his window, and she looked terrified. There was blood on her clothes and she was crying, her body shaking as the sobs escaped her.

"Wendy!" Gray quickly opened the window, "What's wrong?"

"You need to help him, please!" Wendy wailed, "Something's wrong, he can't get up."

Gray grabbed a pair of sweatpants off the floor and found some shoes. His heart was racing, and his chest felt like there was a tremendous weight on it, but he kept moving, trying hard not to think about what he might find.

Please God, let him be alright. I promise if you just get him out of this in one piece I will get him help, even if he hates me for it.

He felt a strange calm descend upon him, "Is your uncle awake?"

Wendy shook her head, "I waited until he passed out to come get you."

"Where's Natsu?"

"He's in my room," Wendy sobbed, "My uncle was trying to... and Natsu he-- I begged him to stop but..."

"Shh, you know he can't do that," Gray leaned out his window to pic her up and pull her through, setting her on his bed. He hugged her hoping to give her some comfort, although he knew she was too worried for it to do much good. "Everything's going to be alright. Just stay here, I'll be right back. If my dad comes in..."

He paused for a moment to think about what he wanted to say. "Tell him everything."

Gray was done fucking around. It's not that he believed in destiny or anything like that but having Wendy be the one to come get him felt like a sign that things had gone far enough.

He exited out his window and began to run as fast as he could. Natsu had come to him in some pretty bad states over the years, to have Wendy say he couldn't get up was scaring Gray shitless. He struggled to control his racing thoughts, to just focus on getting to Natsu's house as quickly as possible. The distance between their houses had never seemed so far. He pushed himself to run even faster, driven by his ever-growing worry.

He finally reached the house, immediately noticing it had fallen into disrepair. It saddened him to see it, Igneel had loved his home and his family with all his heart, he would be devastated if he knew what had become of both.

Gray peered into all the windows, but when he finally found Wendy's, it was locked. He saw Natsu lying on the floor in a small pool of blood and immediately became frantic.

He ran over to the front door, praying it was unlocked although he'd happily break it down if he had to. He worried Natsu's uncle might have awoken and part of him wished for it, he would love any excuse to unleash his anger on the person responsible for putting Natsu through so much.

Gray had to fight every single instinct he possessed to keep from rushing in, he knew he had to go in smart. He paused to take some deep breaths before turning the knob slowly, opening the door as quietly as he was able. He stood still, waiting for his eyes to get used to the dark before hurrying to Wendy's room. Her bedroom door stood open, and he rushed to Natsu's side.