"Gray~Sama!" Juvia Lockser bursted through the doors of the Fairy Tail guild suddenly, sending icy chills down Gray Fullbuster's back as his eyes widened. Getting chills was unusual for Gray, but they were starting to happen to him frequently and only when Juvia was around. It was the same effect Erza had on him, except, he didn't know what he was fearing.
Maybe it was the fact that he had left her for 6 months after half a year of living together without an explanation and the strange fact she just let him off so easily. But that's just the kind of person Juvia was.
He regretted not telling Juvia why he left. He still held a tiny grudge against Erza for not letting him tell her. Why couldn't they trust Juvia? He didn't even want to imagine how hurt she must have been. But alas, he already had imagined it and was terrified whenever he saw her. This all would have never happened if he had just been allowed to tell Juvia where he was disappearing off to.
Juvia skipped towards the dark haired ice mage and smiled widely. "Gray~Sama!!! Juvia wants to go on a job today! Juvia wants to test out that move we never got to fully complete in training when you, uh, left." She said looking down and playing with her fingers nervously, hoping he wouldn't reject such a sudden request. Juvia had something very important to say to him today. She was sure that it would make him very happy, especially with the way he had been acting with her recently. It made Juvia realize something. And that something was what she was going to explain to him after they complete the mission, if he agreed to it.
"Uh, sure, I guess?" Gray replied curiously and got up to move towards the request board.
"Oh no need, Juvia already picked one out, you see?" She said and pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him. Gray took it and unfolded it and sighed heavily once he saw what the request was. "Juvia was thinking, since it does use fire, we could extinguish it right?" She grinned with a tinge of red covering her cheeks, naming the move they had come up with, extinguisher.
"Yeah, I guess this should be fine. I don't think it'll be that much of a challenge at all though. And the pay isn't much either." He said and handed the paper back to her. Juvia shrugged.
"Well it is just to test it out, right? And if Juvia and Gray~Sama's extinguisher doesn't work out then it isn't that tough of a monster to beat and we can successfully take it down and help out the animals from the surrounding forest!" Gray nodded at her reasoning and hid a smile.
"Alright, let's go then. Are you ready?" He asked and rolled his shoulders back a few times.
Juvia nodded in anticipation. "Yes."
Erza Scarlet sat at the bar counter with Cana Alberona. The lovely light haired server, Mirajane Strauss, placed yet another beer down in front of the card mage and smiled brightly at the two.
"My little Juvia is growing up!" Erza sniffled and wiped away a tear as she watched Gray and Juvia walk out the guild.
"Ehh? Are they finally together? Fufu~" Cana snickered and chugged down her glass of beer, the blush clear on her cheeks.
"If only that were the case Cana." Mira frowned slightly and picked up the empty beer glass, already making her way to get another one.
"What do you mean?" Cana asked and banged her fist against the counter.
"Juvia has decided that she will no longer wait. She's going to let him go." Erza's eyes watered and she had to turn away from Cana.
"It really is a shame that Gray didn't come around in the end, I thought for sure they would be a couple. Juvia is such a nice girl, how many more years does she deserve to wait for Gray to finally say something? Zero." Mira stated, placing another glass in front of Cana.
"Keep 'em coming Mira, I'm going to need a hell of a lot more with this new information."
-------
The train ride to the next town over was silent. Juvia wasn't sure of her feelings at the moment and wasn't in the mood to talk to Gray, which was extremely rare. Gray sat there staring out the window wondering why she wasn't talking. It actually worried him. He was so used to her voice filling in the silence.
"Hey, are you okay?" Gray couldn't take it anymore and had to ask.
"Who, Juvia? Juvia is fine, don't you worry about Juvia, Gray~Sama." She glanced at the man she loved and then back to the ground where she was originally looking. She heard Gray sigh lightly.
The train stopped and the two filed out along with a couple other people. They began walking to the requester's home while exchanging very few words along the way.
"Did I do something?" Gray asked, seriously paranoid now. It was really bothering him that Juvia was acting this way. He wanted her usual cheery self.
"No, no Gray~Sama." It's what you didn't do...
Gray began to wonder if he had forgotten anything important that meant something to her. He came up with absolutely nothing and mentally groaned at the stress this situation was causing him.
"Juvia is fine." She smiled, placing her hand in his arm reassuringly. Gray pushed the thoughts out of his mind and nodded, hoping that what she said was the truth. Fine, I didn't want to know anyway.
The two Fairy Tail mages arrived at the requester's house near the forest and knocked on the door. Almost immediately a woman that looked the age of 30 opened the door and grinned.
"You're here! Oh thank goodness! I was beginning to worry that nobody was going to show up!" She was relieved. "Oh I'm so sorry! Excuse my manners. Hello, my name is Lizbeth, and you two must be wizards from Fairy Tail!"
"Ah, yes. I'm Gray and this is-"
"Juvia." Juvia interrupted him.
"That's right! I remember you from the Grand Magic Games a little more than a year ago!"
"Yes, that would be us." Gray stated blandly.
"Would you two like to come in? I have some refreshments if you'd like to-"
"No, no thank you." Juvia smiled at the kind woman. "Gray~Sama and Juvia just wanted to know a bit more about this 'flame-spewing beast'."
"Ah, yes, of course." Lizbeth said and thought about her word choice for a second. "Well, it appeared 2 weeks ago from underground, almost as if it had dug it's way over to the middle of the meadow in the middle of the forest. I was having a picnic there with my children at the time. Fire and steam started to come out of the many holes on it's shell. It looked like some sort of a tortoise?" She shuddered. "Anyways, I ran away with my children before I could make anymore observations, and I know it's still there because my husband went to check it out a few days ago."
Gray nodded and smiled widely. "Leave it to us. In which direction is this beast?"
"Head north into the forest and once you get to the lake, turn right and head east. You should get there in less than 20 minutes."
"We'll return shortly."
"Thank you very much."
"Of course."
Juvia and Gray began to follow the directions they had gotten from Lizbeth. The walk was nonetheless quiet again. Only the sounds of their feet hitting the ground and the nature around them filled the air. Once they made it to the lake, Gray decided to speak again.
"You know Juvia, I know I've been acting different lately-"
"Juvia noticed, it's completely fine Gray~Sama. Juvia understands." Juvia started walking ahead of him at a faster pace, wanting to avoid the subject until after they defeated the beast together as a team, maybe even the for the last time. Gray frowned and followed after her.
Once they made it to the wide and open meadow, Juvia couldn't help but gape at how beautiful the sky looked, with the sun almost shining directly above them. It was about 12pm. She basked in the sunlight before her attention snapped back down to the field when she heard a snap.
Gray suddenly appeared beside her, ready to take action. "You remember what to do, right?"
"Right." They both stripped and she took her stance, ready for anything coming at her, confident with Gray at her side.
Finally, the beast decided to come out of hiding. They felt the ground shake as a huge 17 foot orange tortoise looking animal came out of the ground, releasing smoke from its shell. It let out a roar as the smoke was soon replaced with fire. It started to charge at them.
"Gray~Sama!!!"
"Right!" Gray brought his hands to the ground and covered the entire meadow in freezing ice. Almost immediately afterwards, Juvia swept a wave of freezing cold water across the ice all the way to the other side of the meadow, creating a misty foggy effect. Gray then sent little hale sized ice shards at the beast through the mist, hoping it would strike him down along with the ice and water.
Juvia and Gray waited for the fog to clear up before making another move. Once it did, they saw that the beast was still standing, but his flames were extinguished.
"Alright! We did it Gray~Sama!" Juvia cheered and smiled brightly up at him. He smirked back at her, finally feeling the return of his cheery Juvia before putting a serious expression back on.
"Let's go!"
"Got it!"
The two ran to opposite sides of the beast, confusing it. The beast tried to ignite more flames but failed. In perfect sync, Gray and Juvia striked the beast with powerful attacks from either side, making it collapse to the ice-covered ground and disappear into dust.
"It worked! It worked!" Juvia cheered excitedly jumping in the air. On her way back down to the floor, her foot slipped and she fell onto the ice. Gray walked over to her and held out a hand for her to take. She grabbed it and he pulled her up and smiled at her. She smiled back, but it soon faded into a small pout.
"What happ-"
"Listen Gray~Sama, Juvia has something to say."
"Go on." He thought that what she had to say may be the reason she was acting in such a way today.
"Do you know how long we've known each other Gray~Sama?"
"Almost 2 years." He answered, sure of himself. She nodded and sighed, looking away from him at the sky.
"Juvia has been thinking this for a while actually. Juvia just never brought herself to finally say how she truly felt about the situation. Does Gray~Sama know how much he means to Juvia?"
Gray's mind crossed over to the fact that he knew she loved him. If this is what she meant, then yes, of course he knew. "Yes."
"Juvia doesn't think so. Does Gray~Sama realize what he has done for Juvia?" Gray shook his head, slightly confused.
"Before Juvia met you, you know Juvia was a rain woman. A cold one. Juvia had no family, only the few comrades at Phantomlord like Gajeel. Juvia had never seen the sun before. Never. Ever since Juvia was a kid, Juvia would only see clouds and rain. Juvia only brought the rain wherever she went. This is why Juvia's family did not like Juvia, why Juvia had no friends. But things changed. Things changed when Juvia met you Gray~Sama." She turned back to him and smiled softly, her eyes were watery.
"How-"
"That day Juvia fought with you, you did something Juvia will never forget. You saved Juvia instead of letting Juvia fall. Even though Juvia was your enemy, you still caught Juvia. You showed Juvia the light. After that, Juvia saw the sun for the first time. Juvia is forever thankful to you for that Gray~Sama. And because of this, Juvia fell in love with you, as you may have already known."
Gray scratched the back of his head and looked down at the ground. He already knew most of this, but the information being repeated was like a refresher. And it made him feel even worse about leaving her.
"Gray~Sama has never really been happy with Juvia's actions, but Juvia had decided to ignore your unhappiness because being with you made Juvia happy. Juvia never really considered how you felt until a long time afterwards. Especially recently. You always seem so jumpy or paranoid when Juvia is around and it makes Juvia very unhappy that you aren't happy with her presence. Juvia has finally realized that you don't want Juvia around to bother you anymore. Juvia forced herself to live with you, you never wanted Juvia there. You only see Juvia as a friend and nothing more. Juvia will now leave you alone." She looked up at the glowing sun as she finished what she had to say. Her own words hurt her. She always told herself that there was no way he didn't want her around. But recently she completely doubted that.
Gray had to stand there and process everything she just said for a few seconds.
No.
No.
"No." Juvia looked at him, questioning his "no".
"Don't." Gray pulled Juvia's hand bringing her closer to him and held her close to him, hugging her tightly.
"Huh?"
"Don't ever say that again."
"Gray~Sama-"
"Don't you ever say that again."
"What?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm such an asshole. I made you feel like you didn't mean anything to me. I pushed you so much that you gave up on me. I'm sorry. You didn't force yourself to live with me, if I really didn't want you there I would have left myself. I don't want you to stop bothering me. I don't want you to leave me alone. You're all I have left. I can't lose anyone else. I can't lose you Juvia. Do you even know how much you mean to me? I know I don't show it, I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't. Don't ever say those things again ok? Don't ever. I don't want to hear those words leave your mouth ever again. I'm such an idiot I didn't realize- I'm so sorry I left without any explanation. I'm sorry I caused you all this pain and confusion. Don't ever think that you have made me unhappy with your presence. I need you here. I need you with me."
"Gray~Sama..."
"Never leave me alone Juvia."
"Gray~Sama." She smiled softly and closed her eyes, hugging him back.
"You hear me?"
"Juvia will never say that again."
"Good."
The sun shined down on them twice as bright in that beautiful meadow covered in ice.
-----
"So how'd it go Juvia?" Erza coughed and waited for her answer the next day, hoping that her dear Juvia was ok.
"It went fine." Juvia sighed.
"Oh no-"
"Oi, Juvia! Let's go!" Gray called out to her from the front of the guild.
"Okay Gray~Sama!" She turned towards Erza, Cana, and Mira. "Juvia will be back later. Coming Gray~Sama!" She got up from her seat and hurried over to Gray's side, attaching herself onto his arm and smiling up at him. Gray huffed and led the way out the guild after grabbing her hand hoping no one would see.
"Did they just-" Cana started.
"They did." Mira said excitedly.
"JUVIAAAAA." Erza shouted with a river of tears streaming down her face. She stood and clapped.