"Here looks like the perfect spot to set up camp! Hey Juvia, let's stop here!"
The two mages had gone back to Yato to give him back the book to which he cheered. He had paid them so well for getting the book back in one day, as opposed to the one week that he had thought it would take.
"You guys are incredible! I was thinking that sending two young mages who are in love would slow the job right down, but you guys put your love aside for the job and did what was expected of you! I'm proud of you guys!"
He made the two of them blush as they were trying to explain that they were definitely not in love with each other, but the old man wasn't having it. He had just laughed at their supposed denial, waving his hand dismissively at them both as they blushed and left his house with their money.
"It is a very nice clearing. It's easy to set up the tents here."
"Yeah exactly! Plus, now we're back in Magnolia, my house is only like 3 miles that way and there's a stream nearby so that we can go fishing!"
Natsu was practically bouncing around in joy as Juvia laughed and pulled out two seals. She threw Natsu one and kept one for herself as it held their tents.
"I can imagine fishing with you right now. Oh man, why did I never think to bring you along on a fishing trip?! Fishing with a water mage is way easier! I can't wait to tell Happy that we..."
Juvia looked over her shoulder and at Natsu when she heard him cut himself off. He was staring down at the tent that he had just released with a face of sadness and loneliness. It reminded Juvia of how she used to look back when she was younger and if there was one person in the world who shouldn't have that look, it should be Natsu.
She ditched her tent on the floor and walked up to Natsu before putting her arms around him and pushing her front up against his back. Her touch seemed to bring him back to reality as he raised his hand to touch hers that had crossed over his chest. He could feel her water moving near him, as if to wash his worries away. Even though she was a water mage, he felt like she was the one warming him up, bringing him back to how he should be. He smiled a little at her actions.
"Thank you..."
Juvia slowly released her arms from around him with a big grin.
"Remember that Juvia is here. If Natsu needs to talk, Juvia is all ears. For now, let's see who can set up their tent the fastest."
Juvia ran back over to her tent and Natsu smirked. "Oh please, this will be your first tent that you're putting up and you think you can beat me?"
Juvia was silent as she had already started putting hers up and Natsu cursed under his breath, surprised that she actually knew what she was doing. He quickly turned to his, setting it up as fast as he could, worried that Juvia might beat him, but when he turned around, he grinned. She wasn't finished!
He snuck up behind her, noticing her little problem and laughed out loud when the tent actually fell on her head. He heard her huff from underneath it as she tried to find her way out of the material. He still had tears in eyes from him laughing too hard at her predicament.
"Hey, I got it."
He lifted it up so easily from off of her head and when she stood up, she didn't realise how close she would standing in front of him as they found themselves staring into each other's eyes. They both stood still, gazing into one another's eyes, not knowing how and when to pull away.
"Er, I can set your tent up for you. Just make sure you watch this time around because next time, you're doing it by yourself, got it?"
Natsu quickly looked away and Juvia shook herself out of her thoughts about Natsu's eyes and tried to concentrate on what Natsu was doing in front of her. She knew that he was rambling on due to the awkward moment that they had just experienced, but if she knew Natsu, she knew that the awkwardness would pass on soon anyway and they would go back to normal. It was just so easy with him.
"Although Natsu's eyes are black, they have the strangest tint of green in them. He has really pretty eyes. Juvia is jealous."
She watched how her tent stood up and she pouted. Natsu was too good at this camping stuff. Well she guessed that this was something that he had been doing since he was a kid, so if he wasn't good, that would be quite worrying. At least she could say that she was the better cook.
As if on cue, Natsu's stomach started talking in ways that all Natsu could do was stand there, scratch the back of his head and look sheepish. It was Juvia's turn to burst out laughing as she went through her jacket, looking for their dinner seal. Natsu started getting excited when the seal was out in front of him.
"Wait, wait! Can I open it?!"
Juvia gave Natsu a skeptical look. So she may have forgotten the first time to tell Natsu that in order to release the items from a seal, you don't need a lot of magic. Natsu ended up burning one of the blankets that Juvia had put inside of the seal. Luckily she was an organised person who brought a few supplies, not just one.
"Well, okay. JUST DON'T BURN THE FOOD!"
Natsu nodded, sweating bullets. He wanted to show Juvia that he could do it, but at the same time, he was doubting himself. This was food he was dealing with! If he ruined it now, what would happen next? Well, Juvia had loads more dinner seals, but that was besides the point. He couldn't let her down now.
He concentrated so hard on the seal and his wave of magic. The magic that he usually felt floating around his body took a detour to his hand as he let out the smallest little dribble pour into the seal, ultimately opening it up. He closed his eyes in shock, not wanting to see what the food will come out looking like. Juvia's cry or cheer would indicate to him just how well he's done anyway.
"Well done! It came out perfectly, thank Kami!"
He opened his eyes to see the little feast in front of him and he jumped and down, cheering for his life that he was able to open up one of the seals he handed it back to Juvia who placed it in her pocket as she grabbed a plate of ramen.
They both sat there, eating and talking, laughing and joking about things. They could both feel their hearts getting lighter, but the pain and heartache was still there. Of course it wasn't something that would go away over night, they just had to find ways to distract themselves before they were fully over it.
When they finished eating, Juvia used her water to wash out all of the plates that they used. Natsu smiled happily after being fed. He honestly couldn't get over how good her food was! He gathered that if she wasn't a mage, Juvia would hands down own the best restaurant in all of Magnolia-no! Fiore!
"So what does Natsu usually do to pass time? Juvia's never really been camping and seeing as there isn't anything run by lacryma here, how does Natsu pass time?" She didn't really want to admit to him that she was getting bored. This was something that he loved to do.
"Usually I fish, do some training and believe it or not, meditate. Okay, so my concentration to meditate isn't that great, but I still try! When I camp, it's mostly to do some training though."
Juvia nodded her head and looked really thoughtful. She needed to get a lot of training time done as she had been slacking lately. Plus, it was such a bonus to train with Natsu and seeing as their elements were the exact polar opposites, it would be good to train with him.
"So can Juvia train with Natsu then? Juvia would love to get in a lot of training time this week, it would help a lot. Juvia understands if Natsu doesn't want to though." She didn't want to impose herself on his training and maybe he might see her as too weak, but all her doubts were washed away when she saw the genuine excitement light up his face.
"No, no, that's PERFECT! Aww man, this is gonna be so sweet, fighting against a water mage! I've never done that before! It's risky, I could evaporate your water or you can completely drown out my fire! Why have we never thought about this before? Also, you're super strong. I'm all fired up now!"
Just to show how fired up he was, he let a stream of fire fly out of his mouth which in turn made Juvia laugh at his childish excitement. You honestly couldn't stay sad for long when you're around Natsu, he just wouldn't let you be.
"Okay, seeing as we've still got a bit of time left and we just had lunch, why don't we train until dinner time?"
Natsu nodded in agreement, enjoying this idea. He got easily bored when he had to train by himself. Sure it was helpful to do so, but it was just super boring after a while. Here, he can try and make up new spells while actually getting to try it in a fighting situation, against his elemental weakness as well. It was perfect.
"Okay, let's head over to the nearest clearing away from this one. Can't have our stuff being destroyed can we?"
Juvia nodded her head before placing all the seals into a bag in her tent. She knew that Natsu fought hard and tough, she wasn't about to have all the seals destroyed on her persons. She followed Natsu, but because he was so excited, she was literally running after him. She was happy that she was always constantly working on her stamina. Natsu could have been really hard to keep up with.
He came to a halt and Juvia stopped next to him, looking around. It was a good sized clearing, no trees in the way, but they still had areas of ambush and to hide if need be. "This is perfect," she breathed. Natsu grinned before taking off to the other side as Juvia turned to face the direction he had gone in.
"Two rules. No killing and we end the fight by saying 'I'm tired.' Got it?"
Juvia tilted her head to one side, a little confused. "Why are we saying 'I'm tired'?"
Natsu shrugged his shoulders. "I hate the sound of I gave up. We're members of Fairy Tail, we don't give up, we keep on trying."
Juvia smiled softly, enjoying his reasoning. It was a very sound reason and she liked the sound of that. She nodded once more before they slipped into their respective stances. Juvia watched as Natsu wore a smirk on his face and she couldn't help but wear one of her own.
"Fire dragon's claw!"
His feet came swiping up to Juvia who was quick enough to duck under his foot. He was quick that's for sure, but so was Juvia. For her dropped stance and how close he was, one attack came to mind where she was sure she would make contact with his body.
"Water cane!"
Just as she thought, she smacked the side of the body as she heard him yell out. He went flying away from her own form, but he skidded on the floor to stop himself from going too far. Before she could even have any time to praise herself mentally, Natsu was running back towards her with his hands on fire.
"Fire dragon's iron fist!"
Juvia smirked as she let his attack run right through her body where the water engulfed the flames and they died. Natsu's jaw dropped in shock and as Juvia was ready to knock him away from her, he smirked.
"Lightning fire dragon's firing hammer!"
It was Juvia's turn for her eyes to widen as the attack smacked her into a tree. She felt rough and annoyed. She knew that lightning from anywhere. It was Laxus', meaning that Natsu had eaten Laxus' fire at some point. She was lucky for her body to be made of water otherwise that attack would actually have left some devastating effects. Natsu must have seen her ability as high end for him to use such an attack against her.
"Fire dragon's brilliant flame!"
Juvia heard the call and looked up to see that Natsu had actually jumped into the air and was ready for the attack to knock her right out. She didn't really have any time to move, so her hands shot out and she quickly called her own spell so that while he was still in the middle of the air, there was no way for him to move.
"Water nebula!"
A helix of water came rushing out at Natsu and hit him in the chest where he was thrown to the floor. It gave Juvia enough time to stand up to plan her next attack. Water lock was too soon into a fight to do, so that was out of it.
"Water cyclone!"
"Fire dragon's roar!"
Natsu knew it wouldn't be as effective as it should be as he hadn't ingested any fire in a while. He was right as it literally did nothing, making him curse. He didn't know that Juvia's water had been strong enough to just lick out his flames to his roar like that.
Juvia frowned. His roar hadn't even put up a fight before she remembered that he hadn't eaten any fire. Well, she needed him at full power for this training session to make any sense. She felt a lighter lying around in her pocket and thrust it towards him.
"Eat the flames."
He didn't even need to be told twice as he wrapped his mouth around the flames. He felt the fire ignite in his body and he smiled.
"Here I come!"
He lit up his hands once more and Juvia did the same, only with water. They jabbed and swiped, kicked and punched each other in the gut, face and back. They were both smiling through the pain that they were giving each other, not having had this much fun in a while, especially ever since the ones they loved announced that they were going out with one another.
They went on for the next 3 hours, getting tired. Juvia was feeling the effects of the fight more than Natsu, but that was to be expected. Natsu was a war machine who literally had no end, while Juvia thought herself to be human. It had gone from light to dark and Juvia was wondering if she actually was human.
"Water lock!"
She was going to make this last move, she had no more energy. She didn't even think she wanted to eat dinner, just wash up and go the hell to sleep.
For a while, juvia watched Natsu struggle. He was so easy to try and suffocate, it was actually hilarious. When she thought of letting him go, she saw his lips move, meaning he had another attack up his sleeve. Juvia prepared herself for this one.
She didn't get to know what it was, but it was lightning based as there was a flash of yellow and she sent herself into the sierra form to try and dodge it. She was still hit, but she took Natsu down with her, panting heavily. She was lying back on her solid form on the floor a little away from Natsu who hadn't been expecting her to withstand his attack to then still be able to attack him.
"Natsu?"
"Hmm?"
"Juvia is tired."
He let out a sigh in relief. Honestly, so was he. He could only fight for so long. He knew that Juvia was strong, but because he had never fought with her, he didn't know how strong. Just like him, she also had a very big bank of spells, calling out ones that were the perfect counter against his own. Most of the fight, he was honestly in awe of her.
"Same here."
They grinned at each other before groaning when they tried to sit up. Natsu had an idea.
"Hey, why don't we go to the lake over there and turn it into an onsen? I need the heat to make me feel a little better."
Juvia liked the sound of that. She didn't know that the forest had so many outlets of water. There was a stream, a river and a lake. The good thing about the lake was that it was one confined area and didn't flow, meaning it would be where they would be drinking from and catching fish from.
Her face then turned red as she realised what that meant. She was going to be alone with Natsu, naked in the same place. She didn't think she could cope with that knowledge. She barely felt comfortable sharing an onsen with other females, but with Natsu?! Someone should just shoot her here and now!
"O-oh, Juvia w-would b-but she's super tired now."
She was stuttering over her words and Natsu turned to look at her confused. From what he had heard, she enjoyed a good onsen, so why was she declining? He then also remembered that she's painfully shy and only enjoyed an onsen if she were alone.
"Oooooh, I geddit, you're shy because I'll be there right?"
Juvia jumped and nodded as he hit the nail on the head. She didn't know that he knew, but she guessed that Lucy and Erza had complained a lot about her shy nature many times for it to be stuck i Natsu's head.
"Okay, so why don't we make a lot of steam to the point where he can only see shadows of each other then? I'll heat up the water and you can make instant steam, right?"
Juvia was going to shake her head and say no when she paused. She had never thought to do that before. At least this way, they could still be together and not separate.
"Okay fine! Let's go and get out stuff then."
She huffed with a blush on her face and Natsu 'yippied' next to her, happy that she saw it his way. She rolled her eyes with a smile, enjoying his fresh young and innocent behaviour. She didn't know why she let Natsu convince her so easily.
They got their towels and their spare change of clothes before heading down to where the lake was. Juvia started to get nervous. She wasn't as beautiful as the other girls of Fairy Tail. She was definitely no Mira, Erza or Evergreen with their perfect toned figures, and she was definitely no Cana or Lucy who used their sex appeal to their advantage as well has having big breasts. She wasn't cute like Levy, she was just Juvia. Plain Juvia.
"Juvia will go over to this side where Natsu won't be able to see Juvia at all. Juvia won't look, Natsu can get in and heat up the water, then Juvia will create the steam before getting in, okay?"
Natsu nodded even though he wasn't sure why Juvia would hide herself. It's not like he was here to judge. Besides, she was actually really pretty. Still, he respected her wishes and did everything she said. He watched as she bent over to touch the water and as soon as her hand came in contact with it, the steam flew up. It was almost like fog, only it was just around the lake. He was amazed.
When he turned his head back to look at Juvia, he found himself blushing. Although he couldn't see her, he could still see her silhouette through the steam. He saw the way she pulled her dress over her head and how she was folding it. He saw her figure, she was curvy in all the right places. Her legs looked deliciously long, only he couldn't see every feature on her body as it just looked like he was looking right at a shadow.
She slipped into the water and Natsu had to make his voice wasn't shaky when he was calling out to her. He couldn't let her know that he could see her silhouette through all the steam and that she was more beautiful than she thought. No, that would make her run out of the water and that was the last thing he wanted to do.
The week had gone by quicker than Juvia would have thought. If she were to camp with anyone else, she was definitely going to be bored, but because it was with Natsu, he was just spontaneous and so much fun! He made everything fresh and they did things Juvia had never thought of doing.
They walked back to the guild, chatting and laughing. Natsu had taught Juvia how to build up her stamina and strength and in turn, Juvia had been the calm and soothing voice that made Natsu concentrate more on his meditation. He never was good at it, but with Juvia there to push him every step of the way, he was getting better at it.
"Juvia is going to go and say a quick hello to Gajeel-kun, okay? She hasn't seen him in a while."
Natsu nodded his head and watched her walk off to her best friend. At least she still had her best friend. His was only into Gray these days. He sighed and was about to head over to his team. It had been a while since he hung out with them, seeing as he was on a mission with Juvia then spent the last week or so camping with her.
"Hey Natsu!"
Mira called out to him and he made his way over to the bar instead. "What's up?"
"Ah, like a day or two ago, your client Yato came by here. He said that he needs you and Juvia to transport the book over to his distant relatives where they can seal the book away properly. It was kind of urgent, he was fretting when he didn't see you here. He left you this flyer."
Mira handed it to him and he frowned, thinking that they were done with the job. Unless those bounty hunters caught wind of who took the book. The dark guild was definitely going to be after the book. Mira had gone to the other end of the bar to serve the others and Natsu noticed Juvia coming towards him. She must have been wondering what was in his hands.
As he was about to meet her halfway, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He frowned and turned around to see who it might be. His eyes widened as they fell onto the form of the girl he loved. Still loves even. It was hard to let a love go after you had been in love with them for a long time.
"Hey Natsu!" She was bright eyes as usual with a smile on her face as she addressed him. She didn't know of the heartbreak she had caused him. To her, they were just best friends, she didn't know that he was in love with her. In fact, she will never know that he was in love with her.
"H-hey L-Luce." He can't believe he just stuttered. That wasn't like him at all! Luckily, Lucy hadn't noticed that slip up, and instead was peering at the sheet in his hand. It was a job. She looked a little worried.
"Are you going on a mission alone?"
Natsu was still surprised that Lucy was talking to him, was still stuttering when he tried to reply.
"N-no, I'm going with Ju-"
"I mean, I'll be more than happy to come!" She grinned up at him with that grin that he oh so loved and he found himself gawking. Wasn't she going to listen to a word he was saying? Why is she cutting him off for? He tried again. This wasn't like him.
"No I said I'm going with-"
Natsu was just about to rectify things when a certain redhead interrupted him. He felt like groaning, but he bit it back once more.
"What's this? Are you going on a job Natsu? Let us join you and I shall take the lead." She was followed by Happy and Natsu's anger as slowly starting to build up. He was getting frustrated with these constant interruptions and in a minute, he was going to use his fire to interrupt them if they weren't careful.
"If you would let me finish, you would hear that I'm saying I'm already going with-"
"Oi flame brain, you tryna go on a job?! Count me in!" He had ditched his shirt somewhere in the hall, but he didn't care. He joined the others and threw a wink at Lucy who was blushing like crazy. They hadn't exactly made their relationship exclusive yet, but it was going to happen pretty soon, everyone was just waiting any day now.
Natsu rolled his eyes and bit back a growl. They were now talking about a job they didn't even know about without him, when it was all his idea. He glared at their backs. There was no way that he was going to go on a mission with those three, not after he had made good friends with Juvia. She knew the pain that he felt and he would damned if she felt that way again.
He turned around to see where Juvia was and he felt his heart plummet when he saw her eyebrows wrinkle into a frown before the sadness settled in. She turned her back on him and with his enhanced hearing, he heard a soft, sad and disappointed sigh.
Juvia felt like her heart was being ripped right out of her chest yet again, gloomy at the fact that she was being forgotten. First it had been with Gray, the man she loved, now Natsu was going to forget her as well. She had come to enjoy his company and could almost lump his friendship onto the same level as Gajeel's. She could feel the storm clouds outside gathering as she tried to hold her feelings in, so that the rain wouldn't pour.
Something inside of Natsu snapped as soon as he saw her walking away. Maybe it was the way her head was hung low, or maybe it was because he was looking at her back. Either way, he would rather hang out with Juvia than his supposed teammates.
"Come on Natsu, let's go on that job!" Lucy was grabbing his arm to grab his attention which made his frustrated.
"Let's go Natsuuuu," Happy chanted from behind him. Hearing the voice of his best friend threw in a little bit of sadness to his feelings.
"Let's go already flame brain, stop standing there like you're usual stupid self." Hearing Gray's voice added in a bucket load of anger.
"Natsu, why aren't you listening to us, do you want to be punished?" Hearing that HE was the one who wasn't listening made his blood boil in sync with his magic.
"Oh, FUCK OFF!"
Natsu's voice cut them all off as there was a dark edge hidden within his tone. Everyone in the guild had come to a halt, Juvia included. She turned around with surprise in her eyes while everyone else had shock written all over their expressions. Natsu let the anger wash out from his system as he counted to ten before he spoke.
"Let's get a few things straightened out now shall we? Lucy, Happy, Gray and Erza, I do NOT remember inviting you guys on my job, Lucy only asked and if any of YOU had been listening to ME, you would have understood that there was no way in hell I was taking this job with you guys."
There were a few gasps as Natsu spoke to his team, almost as if he didn't want to be in the team with them. The said people let their faces fall as they were finally listening to every word he was saying.
"Secondly, if you had let me finish, you would have known that I'm not actually going alone, I already have someone I'm going on the job with! This job was given to us specifically because we already helped the guy out before, so don't come barging in on a job that isn't yours! Am I invisible or somethin'?"
Gray took this as an opportunity to try and lighten up the situation. He was being far from malicious when he said, "well with that pink hair of yours, how can you think you're invisible?" He snickered at his own joke before Lucy and Happy joined in with hi giving him a little giggle. Erza could see this wasn't going to end well and took a tiny step forward to stop Natsu from flying at him, only he didn't.
Natsu rolled his eyes, calming down a lot from his rant. "Sorry my hair colour offends you so much, ice princess. Now if you don't mind, Juvia and I have a job to go on."
There it was again, more gasps. Natsu rolled his eyes for the second time, wondering why it was such a surprise that he was going on a job with Juvia. He'd been on jobs with many different people before, so why was this one coming across as such a shock.
Juvia placed a hand on his shoulder with a watery smile. "Natsu didn't have to do that for Juvia, he should go on the job with his team. Besides, Juvia is used to the l-loneliness, this wouldn't have been the first time." She gave him a reassuring smile but he smiled sadly at her.
"Hey, no one should have to be alone, don't get used to that okay? I'm sure as hell not gonna leave you alone, plus Yato asked for the both of us specifically, because we're so awesome!" It was like Natsu was back to his original self again before he was making a stupid pose with Juvia laughing her head off at him. He grinned, happy that he was able to make her laugh while everyone else looked on.
When she sobered up, Natsu then shrugged carelessly. "Besides, they can find a simple job for themselves to go on, seeing as they don't need me anymore, which is actually what they said when they thought I wasn't listening. They forgot I've got dragon's hearing."
Natsu mumbled that last part out to Juvia, but his team still heard, their faces dropping.
"We apologize Natsu, for everything that we've said or done to hurt you. You may hit me if you want."
Natsu turned around and faced Erza with a serious expression on his face, shaking his head almost as if he couldn't believe that she had said such a thing.
"Look, just because you've said some shitty things about me, doesn't mean I'm gonna hit you. You're still my friend you know." Natsu paused before he thought of something. "A fight would be good though. I'll cream you."
Without letting anyone else get a word in, he beckoned for Juvia to follow him as she skipped beside him. "We're gonna go now, see you all later!"
The guild doors shut behind them and it was all silent in the guild until someone said, "what just happened?" No one could even answer that question, because honestly, no one knew.
Only a certain iron dragon slayer who was munching away on some iron knew exactly what was happening. He glared at everyone secretly. "It's their fault for underestimating him, thinking he's stupid all the time and not remembering his dragon senses. Talking shit behind his back wasn't a good move at all."
He glanced back at the guild door where Natsu and Juvia had just walked through and a small smirk passed over his lips.
"Take care of her Salamander. I'm sure you will anyway."