Chapter Text
Gray scoffed and wiped away the tears from his face. His letter was covered in his tears and unreadable.
This was stupid, Gray rolled his eyes, going back to his previous belief of this assignment.
Gray crumpled up the paper and threw it at the trash can near his kitchen counter and stomped over to his window. Gray sat down on the windowsill after opening it and climbed inside. His left leg hung down over the three floors from the ground. His downstairs neighbors would probably call his landlord again, but Gray didn’t care.
Gray dug around in his pants pocket and pulled out a lighter and he opened his cigarette pack. He was nearly out of his pack, only three left.
Loke and Cana hated it when he smoked, told him it was an unhealthy coping mechanism he picked up from Wakaba. Erza would probably lecture him about his health and Natsu would make some smart-ass comment.
Whatever, he could hear them bitch about it tomorrow.
Gray took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he inhaled his cigarette.
Eventually, someone had found Gray. He had been crawling towards civilization for hours when a old man and his son found him in the snow.
When he heard them say they would take him to a hospital, he fell asleep in their arms.
Gray woke up in a hospital with a huge cast on his leg. The doctors had explained what was wrong with him, but it was everything Ur had told him already. Plus the injuries Lyon had given him.
When he was about ready to be cleared, Gray overheard the nurses talking outside his room. They knew who he was, at least, they knew that his parents had died. He heard that they were going to take him to the closest orphanage.
No, no, he couldn't let them take him to an orphanage. Ur's last wish was for him to become a great wizard alongside Lyon. While Lyon was long gone, Gray wasn't going to let her entire dream go down the drain. She said Fiore had tons of strong wizards, right? Then he needed to get to Fiore.
Once the nurses had made their rounds, Gray snuck over to the window and broke the glass. He had to move fast, even with his bed barricading the door, it wouldn't be long until the staff checked in on him again. He assumed the Ice Make stance with a deep breath and closed his eyes. Ur had taught him the basics of making his own spell, but he hadn't tried before now.
"Picture what you need in your mind, Gray. Recall it's shape and it's weight."
Easier said than done. Gray had a hard time picturing anything in his head, let alone something he had to build from magic.
Instead, Gray just recited the same thing he had been using since he summoned his first spell. In his head, the only word Gray thought was slide, slide, slide, slide... Ice Make: Slide!
A slide connected from his hospital window to the ground below. It wasn't the sturdiest, but it was the best he was going to get.
Gray quickly learned no body was going to help a little mute boy cross international boarders without his parents. Everyone he tried to get to help him had tried to take him to the police but he always managed to sneak away. It took a couple weeks, but Gray was able to cross from Isvan into Fiore without being taken in.
He was fishing food out of a trash can when he heard a fight break out. Gray gripped the bread he had in his hand and followed the crowd to see what was happening.
A man with a brown pompadour was fighting two other men. Though outnumbered, this man didn’t seem to be bothered.
When one of the men charged him, the brown-haired man’s cigar lit up in a green magic circle and produced a pink colored smoke that formed fists. Said fists pummeled the attackers and left them unconscious before Gray could process what happened.
”Think about what you’re gettin’ into before trying to mug a Fairy Tail wizard.” The man smirked before walking away.
Gray didn’t understand any of his words except for one, wizard. This guy was a wizard!
What Gray had gathered from the murmur of the crowd that ‘Fairy Tail’ was a powerful wizard guild, apparently one of the best, if not the best.
Ur had told Gray about guilds, it was like a business where many wizards could work together and take jobs that demanded magic to solve. Ur was a freelance wizard, like most wizards in Isvan because of the limited number of wizards from his home country.
If this guy really was from the best guild in Fiore, than that’s where Gray needed to go. He wouldn’t let Ur’s dream die.
Wakaba had noticed the magic source following him for hours. At first, he had written it off as a non-wizard with a stronger than average magic energy. Everyone had magic inside them, even if not everyone practiced magic. Over time, non-wizards’s internal magic would fade, so if his first thought was correct, it had to come from a child.
Perhaps a family was on the same train he was, Wakaba reasoned. Though, part of him couldn’t ignore the magic signal. Whoever it belonged to, Wakaba’s interest had been spiked.
So when he heard a ruckus from further down his train car near the energy source, Wakaba got to his feet to investigate.
A young child, no older than ten, if that, was pressed up against the window of their train compartment, a train worker standing over them.
”C’mon kid, where are your parents?”
The kid didn’t reply and just hugged their legs, their head in their lap.
This was the kid, Wakaba realized. This kid had an amazing about of magical energy radiating from their small body. It was honestly impressive. Wakaba couldn't ignore its presence any more, this kid was powerful. Like that Cana kid who showed up a couple years back.
"Hey, kiddo," Wakaba cleared his throat, "Did'ja get lost from comin' back from the bathroom?"
The kid and worker looked up at him as he stalked over to the two.
Wakaba wormed his way around the man and sat on the seat next to the kid. "Sorry, my nephew here got lost. Kids, am I right?"
"You, uhh, know this man, kid?" The worker asked, eyeing Wakaba.
The kid sat up and nodded. For added showmanship, they leaned against Wakaba and faked a yawn.
The worker shrugged and walked away.
Immediately, the kid got off of Wakaba and looked away.
"Spill it, kid," Wakaba lit his cigar, "Why you followin' me?"
The kid frowned and pointed to his mouth and made a small 'X' with his hands.
"Can't talk huh?"
They nodded and held out the palm of their right hand and made a writing movement with his left.
Wakaba sighed and walked back over to his seat. He grabbed his bag and sat back with the kid. "You're lucky I'm curious." Wakaba grumbled digging around for his mission notebook and a pen. He hated kids.
The kid wrote out their reasoning. I know you're a wizard.
"So?"
I want to join your gild.
Wakaba snickered at the kid's misspellings, "You want to join Fairy Tail?"
The kid nodded.
"You know only wizards are allowed to join, right?"
I'm a wizard! They sat down the notebook and pen and placed their left fist in their palm. A small, light blue magic circle revealed a small key made completely out of ice.
"Hmm." Wakaba hummed. "I guess I'll let you tag along with me, but don't get your hopes up. Fairy Tail is pretty exclusive." That was a lie, Master Makarov wouldn't kick a kid out on the street, wizard or not. "Where's your parents?"
The kid frowned and wrote, Gone.
"Sorry, what's your name?"
Gray.