CLOUDBURST

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by xoxoPigTails

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Chapter 01

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Magnolia was not particularly known for its rain, but Juvia was unsurprised when she woke up and found that it was pouring torrentially outside of her new dorm room.

She'd grown up with the soft pitter-patter of raindrops as her lullabies, so it was comforting to wake up to the sound. She hailed from a Podunk town that was notorious for its nearly-constant rainfall for the past eighteen years, starting the day she was born. Growing up, other children would taunt her, blaming her for the rain; consequently, she had hated it for many, many years, even going so far as to sew teru-teru dolls almost daily in the hopes that it would make the dreadful deluge cease.

Rain had been miserable because she could only ever associate it with misery.

It wasn't until Juvia was older that she had come to really appreciate the rain. (She owed it to a certain fateful encounter.) She came to enjoy the soft drip-drop sounds, and eventually, she came to love water in general. She learned how to swim, joined the swim team, and pushed herself in practices until water became her element, her home away from home, and she brought back a medal from every competition she took part in.

Which was how she'd landed a swimming scholarship to Magnolia University.

Juvia stretched her arms, yawning, and then threw her blankets off of her. She started getting ready for her day, going through the motions as she reminded herself of today's schedule.

It was Sunday, and school was the next morning. She had a few textbooks to pick up still from the bookstore a few miles off campus, so that was her first order of business once she ate breakfast. Then Gajeel would be coming over around noon with her mini-fridge (she didn't want to carry it up to her dorm on her own, since her building had no elevators), so she would have to be back in time for that. And, finally, her roommate - a cheerful blonde named Lucy who seemed, to Juvia, to be quite the airhead- had invited her and Gajeel to eat dinner together with her.

That would leave Juvia just enough time in the evening to get a head start on some of her reading before heading to bed. Confident that she had thoroughly planned out her day, Juvia examined her outfit in the mirror: her favorite blue dress with white accents, the one that hugged her in all the right places, and sturdy knee-high boots that made her legs look nice and long. She slid a cute hair clip into her hair, flipped her blue locks over her shoulder, and grabbed her umbrella and purse before leaving her dorm.

She looked great. Today was going to be a good day.

After grabbing a quick breakfast of eggs and a muffin from the campus cafeteria, Juvia headed through the rain towards the parking lot. The rain picked up when she was about half-way there; she hunkered down beneath her umbrella and quickened her pace, careful to mind her steps as she walked.

She made it safely to the lot and slid gratefully into her car's front seat. She sighed, glancing at her reflection in her rearview mirror. Her hair hadn't frizzed at all (a big plus, in her book) and, for the most part, her clothes were still dry, so she was content with-

A shadow suddenly crossed her view in her mirror. Startled, Juvia turned in her seat to look out her left-side window.

It wasn't a shadow.

It was a person, and they were making their way towards her driver's-side window.

Juvia barely managed to contain the scream that threatened to rip itself free from her throat. She hastily turned her engine on, reaching for her gear shift, but then the figure was suddenly tapping on her window.

It was a male, and in a deep, gruff voice muffled slightly by the closed door, addressed her.

"Hey, can you give me some directions?"

Juvia was no fool.

"No," she called back, "Juvia isn't familiar with this place." Her grip tightened on her steering wheel, and she touched the gear shift, ready to back out if need be.

"Hey, come on, I just need to - holy shit." The boy ducked down, keeping Juvia from getting a decent view of his face (to report to the authorities, naturally). It was obvious he was hiding from something.

Unbridled fear swept through her.

Is he a gang member? she wondered worriedly. Is he running from the mob? Am I going to die because he upset the government and they mistake me as an accomplice? Her mind was quickly overrun with images of blazing metal and rapid gunfire and jail time. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened. But Juvia can't go to jail! She'd lose her scholarship!

In a desperate show of self-preservation, Juvia looked out her rearview mirror to see what the boy was running from.

All she saw was a group of young girls traipsing through the rain. They were dressed well, like most college girls; they certainly didn't look like members of an illegal cartel. They were quite a distance away, and they weren't looking in her direction. In fact, Juvia was pretty sure the only reason she could really make the girls out through the downpour was because of all her years growing up in the rain. She doubted they could clearly make her or the boy out.

"Let me in your car!" hissed the boy from somewhere beneath her window. "Please!"

"Absolutely not!" Horror swept through her. "Juvia doesn't let serial killers into her car! In fact, Juvia was just about leaving!"

"Serial killers? Wha- listen, just-" The boy stumbled to find words. He sounded frustrated, even to Juvia. And somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt she should be noticing something. There was something about his voice... Was it his tone? Had she met someone before who had sounded this desperate? Surely not. She would've remembered... "I'll pay you two hundred bucks! Just... Just get me off campus, okay?"

Juvia was about to shift into reverse and leave him to the mud and his uncertain fate when she paused. She was a poor college student, after all, and the lure of easy money was certainly tempting...

"You're not a serial killer?" she asked, voice trembling just a little in spite of herself.

"No! What the heck, where would you even come up with that?" Not pausing to let Juvia explain, he continued, "Just unlock the car, I'm soaked out here!"

Juvia, after another moment of hesitation, decided to do it. After all, she could use the cash to pay for her textbooks. Plus, it really WAS pouring down outside, and Juvia was beginning to feel sorry for the boy, despite his possible mafia associations. Nobody deserved to be out in rain like that.

"Sit on the passenger side," Juvia said. She unlocked the car, and seconds later, the boy quickly joined her inside the vehicle, roughly slamming the door closed behind him and letting out a string of foul language.

Juvia couldn't help the small gasp that found its way out of her mouth as she drank in his appearance.

He had black, messy hair that was currently plastered to his (positively gorgeous) angular face. He was shifting in the seat beside her, yanking off his soaked, white tee-shirt; Juvia could easily make out his well-toned body from her position beside him. He didn't seem to have heard her gasp over his own dark grumbling, a noise that thrilled Juvia.

The attraction that coursed through her was instantaneous, but it wasn't just because this uninvited guest was dashingly handsome.

No, she recognized this boy.

He was from one of the most popular bands in the whole nation: Fairy Tail. He was the lead guitarist, the boy every teenage girl fell for. Juvia was no exception; she had posters of him on her dorm room walls and had a whole collection of his band's music albums on her bookshelf. One of her selection criteria for a roommate was that she was also a fan of Fairy Tail.

Gray Fullbuster had been Juvia's celebrity crush for two years now.

And he was getting her passenger side seat all wet from the rain.

xoxoxoxox

Hiya, kittens. I've always wanted to write a story like this, so I'm doing it, haha. Lemme know what you think! Love yall!

xoxoPigTails