"Do you ever want to reach straight into a boy's chest cavity and rip his heart out?"
"Not exactly." Juvia replied from her perch on the windowsill. "I've got jail-time planned for my late thirties."
"Oh, doth love I fear is woe." Lucy said, as she theatrically fell back onto the bed with an arm flung over her face.
Juvia got up with a huff and moved to sit on the bed with her melodramatic friend. Oh well, Juvia couldn't blame her. She had probably been like that too when she was crushing on other guys. She inwardly shuddered when she remembered Bora.
But this was Lucy. Smart and beautiful and strong Lucy. And here she was lying on Juvia's blue damasked bed, her tears looking like stars.
"What happened?" She pressed her fingers into Lucy's soft blond hair.
"We were at the bridge on the bench. You know the one with the bench overlooking the river."
Juvia hummed in acknowledgement, her fingers tangling through the blond locks.
"Well we were just talking, and eating the crepes from Mira's bakery, and it was really nice and peaceful."
"Then?"
"Then he kissed me, and it was by the river and he even gave me flowers afterwards, so I actually thought it was genuine." She heaved a breath. "Then I was squirted in the face by a fake flower hidden in the bouquet I think, and do you know what he said?"
Juvia looked closely at Lucy, and what she had thought before was tears that had smudged her makeup, could've actually been water. Well probably both.
"20 points to Natsu. Can you believe it?" She whispered.
Juvia shook her head. "Lucy why don't you just end it?"
The "it" she was referring to was the prank war their group of friends had been playing since fourth grade. The boys used to go particularly hard at it too, but they had all outgrown it by the beginning of eighth grade. Only Lucy and Natsu had kept it alive all those years, and now it was the second semester of Junior year, and the two of them had only made the game more intense when Lucy had kissed him on impulse and played it off as a prank.
"You should tell him why you really kissed him that day, Lucy"
"I can't! This-this is the only way I'll be able to be with him like this. This is the only way."
Juvia didn't say anything and watched her curl up on her side into the fetal position. Lucy had put herself in this situation, and even Natsu could be pitied too, but these were Juvia's friends and damn if she didn't want to get revenge at Droy for growing a flower in her dead bird's carcass and giving it to her for her 11th birthday , so she decided she was going to get Natsu and Lucy together and she was going to avenge Raindrop, her dead bird.
The next Thursday she gathered as many of her friends (excluding Lucy and Natsu) that could be bothered to spare the time, and huddled them all into the auditorium after school.
"I'm thinking of bringing back the prank wars." She announced.
"That is a stupid fucking idea. Do you have any ide-"
She threw her empty water bottle at Gajeel, and rephrased; "Nevermind. Let me say that again. I'm bringing back the prank wars and," she glared at Gajeel. "And that counted as 5 points."
"But why do you even want to do this?" Levy asked from the first row.
"Yeah, don't we have enough going on already? We don't have time to be playing games any more, Juvia." Drawled Laki as she picked at her nails.
"I don't really understand the meaning of this." Mumbled Kinana. "This is a wild idea." Added Droy. And on and on it went. One person's voice drowning out the other, until Juvia's own inability to hear her own thoughts caused her to snap, and make her throw her yellow pencil at Gajeel.
"Why do you keep doing this to me?!" He sputtered, but Juvia ignored him, and shouted, "Have you all stopped thinking about yourselves, and paused to wonder why I'm even returning such an outdated game?"
"You have a point." Rustyrose murmured, hand on his chin, and looking like every megane anime villain in the entire world-well he would have if only he didn't have that god-awful mullet. Who even has a mullet in this day and age, she thought.
"Why have you called us here then, Juvia?" Inquired Erza.
"Well you know we stopped playing that game a long time ago, but there are two people who haven't."
"Natsu and Lucy!" Levy said as the realization of what Juvia was trying to do dawned on her.
"We don't actually have to actively participate. I honestly don't want to be called "Stinky Avocado" for another year. But I do want to get those two idiots to stop hurting each other, so I'm putting Operation-Prank-Wars-Revival-Is-Secretly-Get-Natsu-And-Lucy-To-Bang!" She finished, out of breath.
"Well Mira says she likes the plan," Lissana held her phone up as if Juvia could see their texts from up upon the stage. "She says that youth is so refreshing, and that she will cut off your arms, Juvia, if you try to take her spot as matchmaker."
Cobra just scoffed from beside her, and got up to leave. Whatever, Juvia told herself that she didn't even need him anyways.
"I for one am all for this plan!" Levy shouted and stood up, "I don't want to see Lucy sad anymore."
"I agree." Said Erza. And slowly one by one everyone else voiced their affirmations.
Only Gajeel remained, but Juvia flicked another pencil at him without even blinking, and he finally relented after an indignant "ouch."
As everyone left Juvia picked her bag up from the stage, and proceeded towards the exit, when megane mullet stopped her in her tracks.
"I really think this is a waste of time that's all," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
And as he turned his back towards her, Juvia thought "hey, didn't he graduate two years ago?"
The next day Lucy hurried up to her, and engulfed her in a hug. "Hey I heard that about what you did, and I wanted to thank you for supporting me." She beamed. "But you may want to avoid butter and avocados this time around."
I wrinkled my nose and nodded, remembering the incident, but also wondering if she knew about my secret plan.
"Yeah, so who told you?"
"Oh, levy told me last night, that you were all going to start playing again, to make me feel like I'm not alone. And she told me that you came up with the idea yourself! Thank you. Honestly, Juvia."
I shook my head, "No problem." Glad that Levy hadn't told her the truth.
"Well then see you at lunch!"
Juvia absentmindedly murmured "Bye", and headed off to her first period.
Later in the morning, happy with the success of her plan's fetal stages, Juvia walked on towards to lunch. Even calc homework couldn't bring her mood down. That was, until she stumbled upon the scene in front of her.
Lucy, her arms around Loki's neck, and she was kissing him furiously.
When she broke away from him and saw Natsu standing, like a rigid slab of wood in front of her, she smiled and ran up to him. "Hey Natsu, everyone's playing now. Won't that be even more fun? I wonder how many po-"
But he turned around and walked off before she could finish her sentence.
Juvia would have almost felt bad for Lucy if that wasn't such a dick move. The simmering pot of rage within her stomach also extended to Loki. And she hated the playboy more in that moment than she ever had, even when he'd pushed her off the jungle gym in second grade.
She turned to run after Natsu, feeling incredibly guilty about what happened. "Natsu," She grabbed his shoulder after almost running over a couple of freshman in the school's halls.
"You know what?!" He shouted suddenly turning around to face her, causing her to stumble back a few steps. "I guess I really am glad that Gray is coming back Sunday. Someone I get to beat up." The he left her alone in the hallway.
Juvia felt numb. Gray was coming back?
Hey, so yes, I'm doing a multichap highschool au with all pairings, but chapter two isn't coming out until I get some revieeeeeews!
Can't believe I wrote this in four hours lol.