Rain had always been her least favourite weather growing up. It always followed her around and people had always called it 'gloomy' or 'depressing'. Now it only rained when she was upset or lonely and it was raining harder than ever, causing rain drops to mingle with the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. Everyone else had left over an hour ago, leaving the bluenette staring down at the stone slab wedged into the ground in disbelief. She rubbed her eyes, hoping that when she looked again, the name would be different or this would all be a bad dream or something and she would be sat with him in a fancy restaurant. She sighed as she read the exact same name as she did just moments ago. She ran her right hand over his name before turning around and leaving the grave behind her, but not the name. The name continued to eat away at the back of her mind like an itch she couldn't scratch. Of all the jobs he could have decided to take alone, why did he have to take that one. Juvia always told him that she could go with him on any of his jobs, she'd made the offer so many times she had lost count and he had always turned her down. This time he should have let her go with him or she should have pushed him further until he let her come with him, then she could have done something to prevent this. Now there was a grave stone with the name Gray Fullbuster on it.
She pushed through the large double doors of the guild and headed straight towards the bar. Usually she sat in the corner with a cup of tea, staring at the ice mage and fantasising about any situation her active imagination put the two of them in. The water mage almost started crying all over again as she realised that she wouldn't be able to do that any more since he was now in a pine box under six feet of dirt. Juvia nearly broke the legs of the stool as she simply fell onto it, not bothering to take care with how she sat down. The bar maid headed towards Juvia, looking different from how she usually did. Her lips weren't curled into that warm friendly smile like it usually was.
"Same as always?" Juvia shook her head, declining the offer of tea. She simply pointed up at the top shelf behind the bar.
"I'll have something from the top shelf". Mira looked at Juvia.
"Juvia..."
"Top. Shelf." The water mage cut her off before she had any time to say anything else. Mira reached up and grabbed a random bottle. Juvia hadn't specified any particular drink so she just took a bottle from the middle of the shelf and set it down in front of the water mage along with an empty shot glass before walking away. Juvia poured some of the brown liquid from the bottle into the glass before pouring the shot into her throat. It burned more than she though it would but that didn't stop her from pouring herself another drink. Then another one, and then another one.
It took about two hours for Juvia to drink the whole bottle. She looked plainly at the bottle for a couple of moments before reaching into her pocket and placing a small bag of jewels onto the bar next to the empty glass. She pushed herself up off of her stool, almost falling over as she did so. Juvia propped herself up on her umbrella, using it like a walking stick to steady herself as she made her way over to the large double wooden doors leading out of the guild and into the night.
The bluenette stumbled through the door to her apartment, slamming the door behind her. It was late and Juvia was too tired, too drunk and too distraught over what had happened today so she didn't bother changing into her pyjamas, instead she just flopped down onto her bed, rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes. The alcohol kept most of the things that happened that day a mystery to her as she slowly fell asleep.
Juvia woke up at around ten the next morning. As she opened her eyes, she remembered most of yesterday, mainly the grave and the tombstone with Gray's name on it. She changed into a new outfit and left her apartment, heading for the guild. She usually walked to Fairy Tail with such enthusiasm since she always had the sight of a particular ice mage to keep her in high spirits, but that wasn't something she could look forward to, not any more. She leaned into the large doors of the guild, pushing them open. Then she froze. She stood there motionless, not even blinking. She was fixated on one of the stools at the bar. The water mage rubbed her eyes and then looked again. It was still the same sight so she figured it must be real. She didn't know how and she didn't really care. Sat at the bar was an all too familiar shirtless, raven haired ice mage. She wandered over, never taking her eyes off him as if he'd simply disappear if she did. Juvia wasted no time wrapping her arms around Gray's waist when she finally reached him after what seemed like an eternity of walking across the guild hall, earning an exclamation of surprise from him. He quickly pushed her off before going back to his drink.
"Even for you, that's quite a hello you just gave him". The bar maid was stood on the other side of the bar, smiling warmly at Juvia.
"Juvia is just really glad to see that Gray-sama is ok after yesterday". Gray span around on his stool and then he and Mira looked at her questioningly.
"Yesterday? Juvia, nothing happened yesterday, in fact you weren't even at the guild yesterday. We thought you were sick". Juvia's face contorted into a look of confusion before her mind showed her what reallyb happened last night. She'd woken up late, took a shower, went out for lunch and spent the rest of her day relaxing in her bed before falling asleep in the clothes she was wearing. Everything that she thought had happened yesterday was either a really bad daydream or a nightmare that she had in the middle of the night. Either way none of it had actually happened. She sighed before wrapping her arms around the ice mage again, causing him to nearly choke on his drink as he tried to yell at her, causing Mira to chuckle at them as she walked away, leaving Juvia to cling onto him for all she was worth.