Gray
That shoddy door scraped against the shoddy floorboards, shaking the shoddy cottage.
The shoddy door handle came flying off in his grip as Gray closed the wooden door behind him.
This place, it was quite shoddy, you see.
"Juvia finds this scent comforting. Sea salt and driftwood."
"Oh, yeah?" Gray muttered absently, not really paying attention. He held up the broken door knob in his fist.
Gray had brought Juvia back to Macarov's cottage, hoping that maybe the old man could make sense of things. If Macarov's tales we're true, he had lived in the area since his birth, -which, judging by his wrinkles, Gray figures must be for centuries- and has given his blessings to every birth the village has ever seen since.
Maybe Macarov will recognise her, and know where to return the delerious girl.
Gray would use the adjective delirious, because, not only was her behaviour strange, but because Juvia seemed completely convinced that Gray was her lover whom she had known for ages.
Or, at least, until Gray reminded her for the fiftieth time that he was, in fact, not her 'darling' and her eyes filled with bitter dissapointment.
Maybe she's a widow, and I look like her husband or something. Poor girl.
Although, Juvia looked to young to really be married.
Juvia raised her eyebrows at the doorknob in Gray's outstretched arm.
"Why do you take that object off the door?" She then squinted as she tapped the wooden thing, fingers tracing the lines in the wood which marked the life span of the tree it once was.
"I didn't. It fell off. This house is practically galling apart." Gray placed the knob on a side table to his right, knocking over a candle with his rough, jerky movements.
Juvia flinched as it came crashing on the floor. "So this is what a man made cave is called, a house? Juvia has never been in one before. She is quite curious."
Oh yes, that is also what makes me want to use the adjective delusional on her.
Although, with how tattered her clothes looked, it wasn't hard to believe that she had spent more than a few nights in the bare elements. She wasn't even in a proper kimono, the custom clothes for the Yubikiri region.
Gray ignored her last question. "Those clothes, they're not from any regions I've travelled to. And I've been all around the continent."
Juvia
Juvia looked down at her short dress, heat crawling up her neck as she noticed how raggedy she looked. The soft grey silk she was swathed in was now wet, dirty, and frayed on all ends. Her bate legs were covered in cuts and bruises from tracking through brush, and dark crescent moons under her eyes emphasized her exhaustion.
Formerly a ruling Goddess, and having been lavished in poetic words about her beauty for many years, she now felt like she was stripped of all pride.
Self-consciously, she gripped the only pretty thing adorning her; an amethyst necklace, ice cold to the touch.
Maybe I can prove my identity this way. If I show him the necklace...
Juvia jumped as she heard a loud creaking noise from above her. Squinting in the dimly lit room, she quickly glanced up, half expecting something to fall from the ceiling of the human cave.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Juvia's heart thumped louder in her chest than the thumping coming closer and louder every second.
She looked over at Gray to see his reaction. He wasn't phased at all. In fact, he perked up, raising his shoulders.
"Darl-Gray?" She widened her eyes in terror as the house shook around her.
"Hmm? Oh, relax. I know this house is rickety and loud, but it won't collapse 'cause the old man's walking down the stairs..." He continued, muttering under his breathe. "...as surprising as that is."
Juvia didn't really understand, but she hugged herself, telling the broken organ in her chest to stop beating. If her darling was calm, she should be, too.
She was surprised when a rough voice reached her. A quite short man appeared from around the corner, tottering step by slow step. Fumbling, Juvia quickly shoved the necklace bound on the leather string underneaths her dress.
"Son? How are the camellias?"
"Fine, Gramps. Growing in multitudes."
"Where are the ones you brought back?"
"I didn't bring any back."
"Why not?"
"Well-"
"Because," Juvia cleared her throat, hand still on her beating heart. Although the scare was over, and it was obvious the noise was just this man's steps, she was just beginning to recover. "If you pick a flower, you are extinguishing it's life so that you can have it's beauty to yourself. But love is not selfish."
Silence.
Then, a soft intake of breathe, a gasp.
Another silence.
"What beautiful blue hair," were the words finally formulated by the old man. "azure, just like our Godess' Ocean waves after a storm."
"Juvia thanks you. However, nothing is as beautiful or can compare to the Ocean's waves." Juvia had to look down at the elder, her voice soft and humming with a lilt.
"Your name is Juvia? You hold a powerful name, my dear." The old man extended a shaky hand out to her, eyes thoughtful.
Juvia nodded, glancing at the old man's hand hesitantly. Was this the same gesture Gray had shown her earlier? A shake of the hand? She slowly raised hers, fingers dancing over the man's wrinkly ones. He pulled hers into his, cupping them gently and holding them still. Not a handshake.
This gesture felt more personal, or nicer than a handshake.
"My name is Macarov. Has Gray brought you here?"
"Found her on Yubikiri mountain's cliff, with the Camellias. You don't know her?" Gray answered from Juvia's right, just in the corner of her vision.
The old man closed his eyes for a moment, mentally detaching himself from the room. "She is not from Yubikiri's village." Macarov opened his eyes, raising his ancient irises to meet Juvia's. Her hands began to feel sweaty in his.
"So you have no idea where she came from? It's dangerous for some one like her to be out on her own. She's not in her right mind. Where's she going to-"
Macarov kept staring up at Juvia, ignoring the beginning of a mini spiel. "You're quite a long ways from home."
He knows.
"Maybe not physically, but Juvia has had to cut all ties emotionally. Juvia has found that humans must kill their minds sometimes to manage."
A pure smile danced across the elder's face, a smile as unchanged as a child's smile. No amount of years changed the simple things in life. "My dear, that is just a bitter reality of life."
Gray coughed in the corner of the little room, snapping Juvia's attention away and back to him. She instinctively pulled her hands out of Macarov's hold.
He looked awkwardly around. "I don't know much about killing your mind and that stuff, but, umm, what's the deal? Do you two know each other?"
Macarov blinked. "I had always thought, that if the Godess of the Juvia Ocean ever cane to visit me and my humble ocean side house, it would be more climatic."
Aquarius,
He's my night sky.
I could close my eyes and connect the dots in it from memory.
A/N.
First off, if you have any suggestions, or if anything is confusing, please feel free to tell me. I want to improve this story any way I can to make it more enjoyable for you.
Secondly, I thank you if you've stuck with my story this far. I've got some great things planned, and I promise it'll get exciting.
I know this chapter was a little short, but I felt like I stopped at the perfect moment.