Meredy looks at her friends, noticing how Juvia's face is getting paler when the man came in. Although she doesn't know what's going on between them, the pink head comes to her side, almost shielding her away from him the same way Gajeel is doing right now.
Juvia bites her bottom lips, holding the violin closer as a sign of defense. The bluenette thought to herself how she should be happy, happy for seeing the person she has wished to meet for such a long time. But this sudden encounter scares her, not only for her own safety but for his as well.
If that man is here, then that person must be here as well. Does he know about this? Does he know about his participation? Does he know about Juvia's participation? How could she be so stupid, joining this event with a simplistic mind and not even once, considering that he might attend it as well?
"This is Jellal, a friend of mine. He will perform for the event as well." Erza smiles "I ask him to come here so I can introduce him to you guys."
The man, although smiling and waving at all her friends, hasn't taken his eyes away from a certain bluenette. Gray notices this, how those forest green eyes bore into his neighbor, making her uncomfortable to the point that Gajeel and Meredy have to shield her away. He turns to Gajeel, who gives him a look before motioning him to get closer.
When the raven head finally stands by Juvia's side, he is shocked at her vulnerable sight. She looks exactly like a damsel in distress, with both arms wrap themselves around her body, bringing the violin case as close as possible. He notices the way she squirms uncomfortably in her seat, the small shoulders jump slightly whenever the name 'Jellal' is mentioned. Her face is paler than before as cold sweat starts to form on her skin.
"Juvia?"
Gray kneels down and lowers his voice so that only Juvia can hear it. She jumps a bit and turns her attention to him, blue eyes full of confusion, fear and despair.
"Is something wrong?"
She bites her bottom lips, shaking her head in response but Gray doesn't buy it, not when he sees the tears start to form in the corner of her eyes.
"Gray, I heard that Juvia is also participating, right?" the red-haired woman asks "Come and introduce her to Jellal."
Erza doesn't mean any harm, in her mind, she thought that by introducing Juvia to Jellal then maybe he can aid the young girl in the near future as they study the same major. Gray looks at her then turns to Juvia, hesitating as he doesn't know what to do. Juvia doesn't seem to welcome the young man but Erza insists that they should at least know each other face.
"I'm sorry but Juvia is not feeling well, I think I will take her home." said Gray when he sees how fragile the bluenette is.
"What? Juvia is sick?"
Erza walks towards them, behind her is Jellal with a complex expression on his face. When they finally get closer to her, Juvia's whole body tensed, knowing those green eyes are on her. She tries to clear her mind by ignoring the elephant in the room and focusing on her own breathing, the tactic works, as her shoulders start to relax and her stomach hurt less than a few minutes ago.
"Are you okay?"
"Juvia is fine, she's sorry for worrying everyone."
Come on Juvia, stay calm. It's your beloved brother, the one who loves you dearly...
She tries to remind herself of how kind and gentle her brother is, how he always stands by her side and supports her no matter what, how he always protects her from everything. He is her beloved brother, after all.
"Jellal-n..." Juvia stops herself a bit and continues "Jellal-san, it's her pleasure to meet you."
"Y-yeah."
Lucy walks in to inform everyone that the show will start in 10 minutes and asks Natsu to come with her. Erza and Gray notice the tension between the two bluenettes, with Gray standing by Juvia's again and offering to escort the young girl to the stage. She slightly nods her head and follows him out of the room, knowing those green eyes are gluing on her back.
The red-haired woman looks at her juniors and then turns her attention to Jellal, who looks confused at what happened.
"Jellal, do you know Juvia?" she asks.
"I...I do..." sighing, the young man nods his head "Let's go, I'll tell you about this after the event."
***********************************************************************************************
Gray hasn't mentioned or even asked the bluenette what happened. He stays silent, allowing her to have a moment of peace. Juvia still holds the case tightly in her arms like it's the only thing that will shield her from all the danger that she's going to face.
Although she isn't in distress anymore, the young girl still wears a sad and miserable expression on her face. He thinks about what happened in the room, how shocked and terrified Juvia was, how confused and baffled Jellal was, they both looked as though they'd seen a ghost. He noticed how tense Jellal was when he got close to Juvia, forest green eyes observed his every single movement and Gray felt like he was being evaluated.
His assessment of the situation leaves Gray with several questions: What is his relationship with Juvia? Why the bluenette was so frightened when she saw him? Does Gajeel know something that he doesn't?
The raven head doesn't want to bother Juvia with his question, afraid that he might make her upset again. However, her mood seems to be lightened up with her body starts to relax as she lets out a sigh. Should he do something to cheer her up? Gray looks at her again as he puts both of his hands in his pocket, searching for something. His lips curl up into a smirk when he finally has the thing in his hand.
"Juvia..."
"Yes, Gray-sa-?!"
Juvia is surprised when she tastes something sweet with a hint of bitterness on her tongue. She covers her mouth immediately with one hand, staring at Gray as he grins, showing his white teeth playfully. That thing in her mouth is coffee candy, the sweet that he carries a lot in his pocket, a habit that he has adopted from his sister, Ultear.
"You like sweets, Gray-sama?"
"Not really, but the candies help me get rid of my smoking habit."
"Smoking? Gray-sama smokes?"
"Used to, yeah..."
Gray scratches the back of his head, admitting his bad habit of smoking. He used to smoke a lot a few years ago as a way to cope with his stress. However, as the price of tobacco rises, the raven head has tried many ways to quit smoking, one of which is eating candy. He doesn't smoke regularly anymore and only turns to tobacco whenever he's really stressed out.
Juvia giggles, such a caring man her beloved Gray-sama is, everything single action of him just melts her heart. She sometimes wonders if he shows this side to other women as well, she really wishes he doesn't, because it would be very troublesome for her to hunt down those love rivals that dare to steal him away from her.
When Juvia and Gray reach the stage, many people are sitting and patiently waiting for the show to start. There are children from the foster home, the employees of the Heartfilia publisher, many popular faces in the literacy industry and even elders from the nearby nursing home. She sees Lucy talking to a brunette who seems to be a few ages older than her, the woman is smiling at Lucy's stories with a glass bottle in her hand.
Wait...is that alcohol Juvia just saw?
"Ah, Cana-san is here..." Gray sweatdrops "Better get away from her, Juvia. Or else she's gonna drunk you with that bottle of wine."
"Uhm, s-she brings alcohol here?" Juvia startles "Isn't that illegal?"
"If you tell the authorities or the police." he sighs "But then again, Cana-san doesn't really care about that. And it's not like she drinks in front of the kids."
As Gray talks more about the brunette, a loud voice interrupts their conversation.
"Gray~"
The man sighs in defeat as he spots Cana slowly heading toward them. The brunette puts one hand on her hips, the other is still holding her precious alcohol while giving them a teasing smile. She averts her gaze onto Juvia, who unconsciously moves closer to Gray as she tries to make herself look friendly.
"Heh, is this the infamous Juvia that everyone is talking about?"
"E-eh?"
The bluenette jumps when she feels an arm wrap around her shoulder and her body meets Cana's. She scrunches her nose, feeling uncomfortable at the smell of alcohol. She doesn't stay in the brunette's arms for long as Gray separates them immediately, shielding her from the alcoholic woman. Cana is baffled at first before she laughs out loud, wiping the tears in her eyes with one hand.
"Don't act like Juvia is your girlfriend, Gray boy!"
"S-shut it. And stop it with the alcohol, damn woman!"
Cana laughs it off, ignoring Gray's demand and Juvia's flustered face. She turns to Lucy, who gives her a thumbs-up for successfully teasing the young couple. While the raven head is trying to find something to retort back, Juvia stays quiet with one hand cupping her face, letting herself dive into her own theatre of delusion.
Loke walks up to Cana to give her a high five. The glassed man has witnessed the whole scene and finds it funny at the similar expression his friends are giving. Gray swings his arm around his shoulder and ruffles the orange hair aggressively like he's threatening to make his friend bald if Loke doesn't stop laughing. His best friend doesn't give in and even gives him a smug look that causes Gray to lose his cool even more.
When the MC walks up onto the stage and proceeds to talk about the history of the event, Juvia is getting ready for her performance. She takes out her violin and carefully checks the strings, putting extra care into her favorite instrument. Meredy then comes to her to talk about their performance one last time before they go on stage and the bluenette nods her head every few seconds as her friend goes through the steps.
"Well, that's all I have to say. We've been practicing this song many times so it should be fine!"
"Yes, Juvia believes that we'll be great!"
The pink head looks at her friend again, searching for any sign of nervousness or discomfort but the bluenette just smiles to reassure her that she's okay.
"Are you sure that everything is fine?" when Meredy receives a nod from her, she sighs "Well, just tell me if you need anything, okay?"
"Meredy is such a great friend!"
The compliment flatters Meredy as she smiles proudly, she then turns to her boyfriend to spend some time with him before the performance. It has been a ritual between them as Lyon whispers encouraging words into her ear and she laughs softly, a faint blush appears on her cheek.
Juvia admires the scene, thinking to herself the day Gray will do the same thing to her. She really looks forward to that future, one where the raven head will hold her hands tightly and shower her with love and affection. And even if he's shy and only told her to 'Do your best', Juvia knows that those words will melt her heart.
When the MC announces her performance, Juvia takes a deep breath and exhales, her body becomes relaxed as she slowly walks onto the stage with Meredy, holding the precious violin in her hand. Gray, who is talking with Loke, turns to see the bluenette who is standing with Meredy, ready to go on stage.
Gajeel walks behind him, sending Loke a silent message and the cassanova smirks. They unanimously nod their head, pushing the raven head towards her so that he's a few steps closer to her. Gray sends them a glare, only to meet Gajeel's signature 'Gihi' and Loke's wiggling eyebrow as he points at the bluenette. Cana stands by their side, making a kissing gesture with her face while Lucy and Natsu laugh as their friend's face goes crimson.
"Go on, lover boy!"
"Shut up!" said Gray as he walks towards the young girl, nervously calling her name.
Juvia looks at him, smiling and asking him if he needs something from her. The raven head scratches the back of his head, his vocabulary slowly escaping his brain as he tries to find the right way to tell her without making a fool of himself.
"Gray-sama?" she tilts her head slightly
"Y-yeah...I, uhm...I..." he stumbles on his words for a bit before regaining back his cool "Good luck, Juvia..."
Her face beams at his words, her smile slowly turns to a wide grin as joy overflows her mind. Her darling has wished her good luck, his kind words are so beautiful Juvia thought that her heart might explode. Meredy sweatdrops at the sight of her friend walking into her own La la land, she also wants to laugh at Gray's blushing and sweating face, looking like he just lifts a weight off his chest.
"Thank you so much, Gray-sama!"
"Y-yeah..."
When he finally retreats back to his friends, the pink head gives her a sly smile, wink-wink-nudge-nudge at her friend's blissful expression.
"Oh Meredy, Juvia feels like she's walking on cloud nine." the bluenette exclaims "She thinks that this will be her best performance yet!"
"That's a good thing, right?" she chuckles, amused at her friend's words.
When Juvia and Meredy start to walk on stage, the bluenette is face-to-face with him, who looks at her with nervous fills those forest-green eyes. The pink head stops walking, looking over Juvia who seems to finally regain back her cool as she anxiously looks at him. Holding onto her violin tightly, Juvia lowers her head and tries to walk past the man until he grabs onto her wrist, stopping the poor girl on her track.
"I-uhm...Good luck, Juvia."
Her breath hitched in a good way as she relaxed in his hold, exhaling before returning his wish with a small thankful smile on her face.
"Thank you, nii-san..."