Gruvia Stories

Stuck on Christmas

The noise that she was making by typing on her computer was easily overruled by the sound of her friend and roommate's heavy footsteps pacing around their room. Juvia was calmly seated on her well made bed, finishing some work while Lucy was all over the place, making her suitcase so she could leave in an hour to go spend the holidays with her family. Maybe she would have been less agitated if this wasn't the Christmas she chose to introduce her boyfriend to her father whom she knows will disapprove. It wasn't helping that one of her closest friend had nowhere to go to celebrate. It made her feel sad and guilty to know she'll have to leave Juvia here alone for the holidays. One that was a family holiday above all else. She couldn't stand the fact that she'll have to stay here at the university dorms, without a decorated tree nor a good meal or gifts.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with one of us?" Lucy proposed either way, knowing fully well that she couldn't have someone else at her house witnessing the mess she would create by bringing Natsu with her.

"Lucy-san, Juvia will be fine. You are all busy with personal stuff and that is okay. Juvia doesn't want to be in your way, you focus on making Natsu presentable, Gajeel needs to focus on making himself presentable for Levy's parents and even if everyone else has proposed to invite me in their house for Christmas, Juvia kindly declined all of them because Juvia is fine on her own."

"You keep saying that but we all know you are not."

Juvia rolled her eyes but the corner of her mouth betrayed a smirk. They all knew her so well. For years she had spent Christmas with Gajeel because it was just the two of them. Even after they met the band, although each time one of them joined the small party, Gajeel and Juvia had kept their little ritual. Only the year before everyone ditched their families and they had rented a small place together so they could eat, drink, play fun games and sleep in the same room and it had been so fun and nice. It still was to this day, her happiest Christmas of all time. All of her friends were there and it was the best gift they could have given her. This year she knew it couldn't be the same, she had heard the quiet talks of introducing the girlfriends and boyfriends to the parents and which other perfect time than Christmas to do so. As the great friend that she was, she encouraged them all to do it and at the end, that is what they had chosen to do. She was happy that the ones that were single had asked her to come celebrate Christmas with them and their family, and in other circumstances, she would have agreed to go. But here was the thing, she didn't feel the need to. She felt good knowing they'll have a great time and that they'll come back and tell her all about it. She was looking forward to the end of the holidays to hear all of their amazing stories, even if they weren't even gone yet.

"Juvia feels at peace, she'll feel just fine and have her own little private Christmas. It'll be great. Stop worrying about me and start worrying about Natsu who'll have the worst Christmas of his life."

"I know, don't remind me. But we need to go through this. If we're together, we'll be alright."

"Aw, you two are so cute. Juvia's so jealous."

Lucy chuckled at the remark because she loved hearing people say her and Natsu were cute and adorable and so in love it made people want to puke. She was so happy she needed everyone to know and to be envious. She believed it was her little evil side that made her like all that so much, although she was only laughing about it because in reality she couldn't care less about other people's opinions on her relationship, even her friend's ones.

But Juvia was different, Juvia was in love, but she wasn't happy. At least not as happy as Lucy, only because the man she loved didn't love her back. Or didn't think he loved her back. Yet Lucy knew better than to believe that, she knew them both so well, she couldn't ignore what she was seeing every day, what she was hearing and above all, what Natsu had told her. So when Juvia was telling her that she was jealous of her and Natsu's relationship, she had to control herself so as not to spill the tea even though her heart was aching for both of her friends. She kept on folding her clothes into her suitcase silently before taking a small box hidden underneath her covers once she was finished. She took the ribbon between her fingers and pulled gently on it before taking a breath and turning towards Juvia who was still writing something on her computer.