Hello!
As a Gruvia fan, after the chapter 322 I felt the urge to do something for these two. I drew a comic (see /art/Fairy-Tail-322-mini-comic-358441004 on deviantart) and I based this story on it.
Hope you like it!
"The winner of the Grand Magic Games is... Fairy Tail!"
When they heard that, they were proud.
Proud of their guild, of their efforts, of themselves.
They stood tall and proud.
A certain Ice Mage named Gray heard those words and smiled to himself. He looked right, where a water mage, who certainly helped him to win their points, was standing with a bright smile on her face.
He faintly remembered on someone pointing out that it was thanks to him that she could smile like that. Maybe he actually overheard the girl saying that he showed her a cloudless sky for the first time in her life, that he had shown the most wonderful guild in the world for her, thus making her feel glad for living - something like that. He also remembered himself pondering about how bad her life must have been until she saw a clear sky for the first time.
And now he concluded that it was thanks to him that she was standing tall and proud, smiling bright and strong.
He thanked himself.
And after the small seconds that he found himself thinking about this, he had little time to register in his brain that the girl was getting closer and closer, until she was close enough to embrace him in her arms.
"Damn, Juvia", he mumbled, embarrassed. It has been some time since he got rather used to her affectionate gestures, and it has been little time since he realized he actually liked some of them.
This fact really bothered him, since he was quite proud of being called 'Ice Mage' and of having an equally cold reputation for his heart. And he was even more bothered by the fact that he was starting to ignore this pride of his and actually realizing that the Water Mage was slowly, but permanently, melting his barrier.
Her melting was so effective that he noticed his raising arms to hug her back. His pride, though, spoke louder than it should again, making him push Juvia from him (not that it really pestered her - she kept saying something about 'how happy she was for making team with her Gray-sama' and 'how that Unison Raid worked well').
The ice mage knew he'd eventually have to face his feelings head front - he started to notice them after Lyon started to hit on the girl (and unhappily he also noticed he felt overly jealous, thus trying to hide it). But because of some reason he wasn't interested to know, he had been postponing this moment for a large amount of time.
He thought he wouldn't need to face them really soon - but he only thought.
After the victory of the Grand Magic Games, they went back to the guild's headquarters to get news about Lucy. Worried about the rescue team that hadn't come back yet, they went after the castle. They spent some time looking for a way in and for their friends, and when they found them, Gray heard what he thought to be the most catastrophic thing he'd ever heard in life.
Apparently, there was going to happen a great accident involving some game called Eclipse, but they used its second version, which make an even bigger accident happen - ten thousand dragons unleashed to destroy Fiore. Many people would die - including great part of their guild - and the only way it could be avoided was to use the first gate to go back to the past. That's how a hooded girl, who was shown as a Lucy counterpart from the future, went back to the past to try avoiding this bad future.
What they should do to avoid it? - She didn't know. But they would try to avoid using both gates of Eclipse, and maybe try to destroy them. Happily, luck was again on their side. They successfully destroyed both gates - an incredible act, since they sucked out all magic it could.
However, a curious event happened after they were destroyed. Since Eclipse was a gate that consumed magic to fulfill its purpose on transcending time, it released all the magic it had in the shape of the memories that the catastrophic future would reserve to them. Due to that, many people had something similar of Charle's precognition, but unlike the cat's magic, the visions were extremely detailed. It was like they were living the memories of their future selves.
Gray was so focused in his duty to destroy the gate that he wasn't waiting for the consequences of this, including the flash-forward magic release of the gate. The Ice Mage, as well as everyone whose future had been affected by the gate's actions, had such a sudden burst of information on their brains that he, at first, wouldn't even recognize that he was in a dream state.
In a second he was smirking at the fact that they were successful at destroying the damned gate.
In the following second, he found himself at the middle of a war.
He jumped in shock, and began to run between the wreckage of a place he'd not recognize at first. Rocks were falling from everywhere, there were a huge amount of explosions around him and there was no one around. Looking around for a sign of whatever the heck was going on; some flying animals entered his eyesight. Stopping, he gazed at the sky and let out a startled shout.
Dragons, he thought.
A huge shitload of them.
He started to run again, dodging the rocks, the explosions and now, the dragons' attacks while his brain was practically collapsing. The Ice Mage could feel cold sweat starting to run down his body and his heart beating nervously fast.
"What the hell? Wasn't I in Mercurius' a while ago?! What am I doing here? And did our plan fail? Don't tell me... There are actually ten thousand dragons outside here?!", he shouted at no one but himself. He needed to hear something besides the crumbling constructions and explosions. He needed to hear a human voice, even if it was his own.
Hiding behind a huge pile of rocks to try to evade the attacks, he fell on his knees, trying to breathe properly and calm himself down, but his brain couldn't stop asking questions.
Where were his friends? Where was everybody? Where was the castle? What if they were all dead-?
A rock fell from the sky, landing exactly where he was.
His brain could only see it seconds before the impact, and the only thing he could do was close his eyes.
However, he didn't feel anything at all. In fact, he was not even covered in the dirt from the dust. He looked at himself and let out another shout.
His body was traversing through the rock.
He stepped forward to confirm if he was actually becoming insane, and he concluded that he was. He just passed through the rock like it was thin air. Shaking the hand through it, he gave it a perplexed look.
"What the hell".
Smaller rocks could be seen falling towards him, and they passed through him.
Oh, he thought. It wasn't like the rocks' mass was made of air. He was the one whose body was now apparently made of air. And again, he pondered what the heck was happening, while starting to walk (and not even bothering to dodge anything now that he found out he had a superpower).
- Gray-sama! - He heard a very familiar voice shout in concern.
He jumped in shock for the dozenth time after the weird thing started to happen and looked around, finding Juvia running towards the area he was in. He thought he could never been gladder in hearing her voice again.
- Juvia. - He breathed, eased, while saying his name and realized he had been holding his air. - I'm here, are you okay?
She passed in front of him and didn't even look at his face, gazing around frantically. Gray felt actually offended.
- Um... Juvia? I'm here. - He repeated a bit annoyed. Not that he wasn't expecting her to do this, but wouldn't she look at him with the bright smile she gave him earlier and-
Wait, his brain was starting to wander again.
- Gray-sama, where are you?! - Juvia quaked, looking exactly where he was standing.
- I'm here, can't you-?
He was going to start ranting at her when she suddenly approached him. Gray felt his shoulders stiffen at what seemed to be the gesture he thought she was going to do and stepped back, startled, until the water mage ran through him to stand next to the rock that had fallen before.
"What the heck", he thought for the millionth time. "She can't see me or hear me? What am I, a freaking ghost?"
He heard her letting out a gasp. Turning his body to face her, she saw her running towards a body in the ground he hadn't seen before. He ran after her, getting nervous again. Would that be a dead friend?
Well, not exactly.
He saw his own body lying on the ground.
- What, I am dead?! - He screamed in disbelief and anger at himself - When did I die? Did a freaking rock fall on me? What the heck-
Tears started to roll on Juvia's face as she shook the laying body of the Ice Mage. The standing one had shut himself up when he heard her sobbing.
- Gray-sama. - She sobbed, hugging the laying body - Don't die on Juvia, Gray-sama. She doesn't know what she will do if you're dead.
He, watching the scene, couldn't bring himself to say anything. He could keep cursing himself during hours if he hadn't heard the Lockser cry. He hoped his body would just rise up and start talking or walking or doing anything to stop looking dead. He wanted Juvia to stop crying; was that rain that was starting to pour? The ice mage felt really useless. Heck, he couldn't even comfort her in this state!
Then, Gray felt his all body ache, like he had received many wounds, or sprained muscles, or like he had been enduring the whole war all along.
His body opened its eyes.
- Juvia?... - it muttered weakly, trying to rise up, unsuccessfully.
- Gray-sama! - She beamed, moving away from him, her tears still falling. The sky was clear again.
She helped his body to sit while the standing Gray was entering his startled state again. If he had died and this body was his spirit, it would have made some sense, but now... He was alive?
Now that he looked more carefully, the body of the Gray lying on the ground seemed a lot more beaten up than his currently-air-made-body. Also, he noticed Juvia was more beaten up as well. There were dragons in the sky... The whole town was in pieces... He was out of his body...
Suddenly, the reality became clearer.
"I'm seeing the future."
Gray mentally hit himself for not realizing earlier. Gosh, it was really obvious, he thought. Maybe I'm in this state because the gates made something weird happen.
Well, I'll just wait till I come back to reality.
He wondered if he was going to see his future counterpart's own death. Well, it wasn't really bad. At least it wasn't humiliating, and dying in Juvia's arms would certainly not be a bad death, he thought.
But again, he only thought.
While future-Gray was being helped to stand by Juvia, who lent him her shoulder, his present self was feeling all the pain that had been inflicted in his counterpart's body. They both started walking as Juvia kept trying to state to Future Gray that 'it was all going to be okay' and 'they would certainly survive this small fight'.
She was so wrong.
A dragon was nearby - not really nearby, in fact, but seeing at its point of view hence his big body and high hearing capacities, it would be nearby - and it heard Juvia's cry for Gray. It let out a long and threatening roar.
Both mages gasped and started to run as fast as they could - Gray could feel his future counterpart's effort to run. His legs were aching so much that he thought cutting them off would be less painful.
The creature was now in sight. The fear from the two people was almost palpable. Even the ice mage in his no-matter-state was rather frightened by him. Heck, it was a dragon. They couldn't have a chance to survive.
It let out another roar at the sight of its two new preys.
Future-Gray tripped.
Juvia screamed.
The dragon was now about to let out a roar of whatever it was his element. The water mage, instead of running away or helping Gray's counterpart to rise up, chose to open her arms and step in front of the ice mage in a protective kind of way. The actual ice mage, who was watching the whole scene, understood straight away what she was doing.
- Please, don't! - Juvia boomed while attempting to shield him - Juvia knows you can understand her! She also knows you won't talk to her, but- but please, ignore us! Let us run away...
Gray was gaping. "Did Juvia just step in front of a dragon? Also, was she asking the dragon a favor? Was she out of her mind?! She'd certainly die this way!"
Besides those words, he could feel many more stuck on his throat. Some were begging for her to run away and leave him there. Others were simply emphasizing she was the most reckless, careless, senseless, complex, stupid, fool, amazing, imbecile, strong, idiotic, brave and bright mage he had ever known. Others were shouting at him for not having enough strength to rise up on his own; the rest of the words were merely silent screams.
And if he felt this hysterical just by watching the scene, he didn't even want to imagine how his counterpart was feeling.
- Imprudent human, - the dragon responded - both of you are my prey now. Your race wouldn't stop betraying us. You think we dragons would let you do as you wish now?
Juvia gulped. Gray could see she was frightened. She was trembling in horror, sweating, breathing irregularly. He remembered what happened with Acnologia and shivered.
"No way, Juvia", he thought, gulping as well, "that you will die protecting me".
The Water Mage assumed a fighting stance and both Grays' eyes widened in horror. She took a deep breath.
She's going to die.
- So Juvia'll have to fight you. - She stated determinedly, while she was trembling. Even in fear, her eyes were as strict as Erza's in that moment. She could not leave Gray when he was facing certain death, and she would not even think of it while alive. He had saved her so many times she had already lost count. No matter what the danger was, she would at least try to protect him.
- Juvia, stop! - Future-Gray screamed his lungs out, horrified; Gray felt his pain in his own. He never thought he'd have such a desperate look in his own face after Ur died. - Stop that, you'll die!
The arrogant dragon let out a sound that remembered a ferocious and mortifying laugh.
- You're both going to die either way, humans – it roared. And both of the future counterparts knew that.
If only they had more time… If only they could go back in time and prevent all this to happen…
The dragon gazed at Juvia, waiting for her resolve to tremble. A human's resolve was so easy to break, it thought. He had broken it countless times that day, and especially enjoyed breaking a boy's one. The boy screamed for its name, and the dragon wondered how such a small creature would know it. Deciding to kill the girl beside the boy there, he raised a paw and let out his claws. The boy screamed again, shouting the girl's name and begging for her to run, and saying 'the dragon was his father' and 'it should snap out of it already'. The dragon decided to kill the boy midway and he did it by strangling him with his white scarf. The stupid girl wouldn't stop screaming his name taking out a key, but she could do nothing... The boy had already died.
And now the dragon decided to shake another human's resolve, patiently waiting for the girl to despair. It would be pleasantly enjoyable to see this particular human, who stood up against him, the mighty fire dragon, break in pieces, start screaming, trembling and other weak actions humans always did in times of trouble.
She didn't.
This bluenette didn't even blink.
The dragon laughed again; this woman seemed to be a bit more courageous than the average human. The creature started imagining that her resolution would be a bit harder to break and an interesting idea filled his mind. He could try to break the man's resolve instead.
- You're interesting, human. You seem to be a little more fun that the other cowards out there. How about we play a game?
Juvia nodded, agreeing to the dragon's suggestion, with a piercing gaze.
- STOP THAT! - Future-Gray screamed again. He was certain she was going to die. Whatever the stupid game the dragon wanted to play was, it couldn't be any good news. Their situation was bad enough already - GET OUT OF HERE, JUVIA!
The dragon looked at future-Gray, its eyes demanding his silence. He closed his fists, insanely angry. Gosh, this dragon could be planning something really dangerous and Juvia was merely agreeing with it.
- Let's see... What is this game you humans like to play when you're even smaller? Hide-and-seek? Yeah, it could be that. I give you two minutes to hide, humans, and I'll try to find you. And when I do... - The dragon let out another laugh.
It sent shivers down Gray's spine. This dragon was not kidding.
- Juvia accepts your challenge. - She answered, still determined.
She turned her back to the creature to help Gray's counterpart to stand on his feet again. He was just staring at her with the most incredulous look in the eyes, while she only looked at his face, serious. She was trying to silently tell him something. Gazing deeper on her eyes, he understood.
Juvia was buying the two of them some time.
She had just talked with a dragon and got two minutes. She talked. With. A freaking. Dragon. Somehow, she gave them both two more minutes to live. Gray was too worried with her to notice that; he was still mad at her, however, for risking her life like this.
- You're unbelievable, Juvia. - That was all future-Gray could say. She only smiled lightly to his statement. At a normal situation she would start blushing and squeal about how the ice mage had just praised her; for a second, Gray thought she was going to do that. Seeing her so abnormally calm, though, remembered him of their condition. She was really serious.
The dragon started to move its wings to fly, generating a strong gust of wind run all around the area, thus making light rocks fall from some ruins. The gale remembered both counterparts of Wendy and they silently hoped she was ok.
- I'll fly for two minutes. You have this amount of time to do whatever you want until I come back here and end your lives - it commanded, arrogantly. Their death was certain; they couldn't escape it.
Future-Gray and Juvia nodded and the dragon disappeared from their sight. Both started running, and Gray run along with them - he wanted to know what was going to happen with him if they hadn't stopped the gate. Even if he knew his counterpart would die, he wanted to know what would happen to the water mage – thought it was obvious enough.
- Juvia, I hope you have a plan - his counterpart snapped while clumsily running; his limbs were hurting as hell and he was under the impression he would trip on his feet - because I don't really have one besides to run as fast as we can.
- Juvia doesn't have one, - she answered, smiling sadly – There's no hope anymore.
His counterpart, panting, clenched his teeth. Gray could understand his counterpart's frustration; the dragon would get back in little time and they had no chance against him. There was nothing that could be done besides running – or there was?
The ice mage's counterpart started pondering on things he would have wanted to do before he died.
Future-Gray suddenly stopped running, making him slightly stumble. Juvia, a few meters distant, stopped as well and looked back at him.
- Gray-sama doesn't want to run anymore? - She inquired in a surprisingly normal tone.
- It's- It's not that. I want to run as fast as I can - he panted. - But I can't speak while running anymore, I'm really done here.
Gray could feel that what his counterpart was saying. He could feel his own lungs burning. His body was so tired he could fall right there and die on that moment.
It was a bit scary, actually. To see his own death.
- Does Gray-sama want to be carried? - Juvia asked, raising both her hands as she approached Gray to pick him up. Future-Gray looked at her like she was going insane.
He started to laugh, making the water mage confused. In between his laughs, he'd start to make pained faces, but kept laughing nonetheless.
- What? No, of course not. - He said, still snickering and feeling a mix between guilt and amusement for laughing at those circumstances.
- Then what does Gray-sama wants? The time is... almost over.
Future-Gray immediatly stopped laughing at the statement and looked at her face with what his past counterpart believed to be the most serious look at his face.
- I didn't think I'd have to say this right now. It's kind of soon, but it's also too late to say that...
Gray blushed, knowing what would come next. Wow, that was really dramatic. Confessing before dying? He could have done that way before.
Juvia suddenly screamed. Gray looked above and saw a bunch of rocks falling towards his counterpart.
Now he was certain that he'd say farewell to his counterpart's existence.
But he was wrong again.
He saw Juvia running towards him.
And Gray, for a moment, forgot that he was just seeing a projection, an illusion, a dream, a flash-forward or whatever it could be. He ran for her.
He tried to stop that freaking bunch of rocks.
Juvia pushed his counterpart and the rocks fell upon her.
His counterpart screamed.
Gray's mind went blank. The rocks crushed her. But she couldn't be dead, could she? Juvia had her water magic; she could melt in water, she had always affirmed that she was the rain woman; she would surely have turned into water...
Blood could be seen under the rocks.
No, she didn't melt.
Future-gray frantically moved the rocks that crushed her with an enormous effort; they were really heavy, but luckily, or unluckily, he was successful. And he held his breath at the sight of Juvia's crushed body.
There were bruises all over her. Her ribs were clearly broken and her right feet could no longer be distinguished along the large amount of blood.
His future counterpart screamed her name.
He also screamed her name.
Taking her in his arms, future-Gray held her as she was the most fragile being on the planet. Juvia made a pained face.
- No. No, just no. Juvia. - He groaned - You're NOT going to die here.
The woman coughed blood, and the man gasped. He kept talking about how he was going to call a doctor or scream for anyone who'd be around and she was going to be ok.
His past counterpart could only stand, powerless, watching the scene. He was no longer aware of nothing. He didn't care about nothing anymore. Juvia was dying.
- SOMEONE! ANYONE! COME HERE, QUICKLY... SHE IS GOING TO DIE!... - his counterpart screamed his lungs out once again - ANYONE! DRAGONS, YOU COME HERE TOO! AS LONG AS YOU HELP HER... I DON'T CARE, YOU CAN KILL ME, JUST-
He stopped screaming when he felt her hand above his.
- Gray-sama... Don't. - She muttered, without strength. She looked so delicate, so breakable, almost as she was about to crack in two at the mere action of speaking.
- But Juvia, you... - his voice weakened at the thought. He gulped. - Will die.
The water mage weakly shook her head in acceptance.
Gray could almost touch his own grief. The air was suddenly very heavy – but he couldn't care more. He was completely and utterly focused on the scene before him.
- Don't worry... Juvia is sure... That someone will save us… There's still another gate. Someone… could use it. - she let out a smile, which made her cheeks hurt.
- WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? There's no way someone would go back in time this exact second, Juvia, and if it's not going to happen now, I don't care anymore –
Juvia coughed blood once again and he could feel a lump on his throat.
- Don't... Die here. Don't leave me, Juvia. – He could hear his voice trembling.
- Juvia is happy... that she lived her life. She's also happy... that she could love such a wonderful person... And that her rain stopped...
Future-Gray turned his head up. He was feeling tears in his eyes. He couldn't cry now. If he did, everything would get even worse. He'd suffer more. He'd get sadder. He... would miss her even more.
Tears rolled down his cheeks.
- But... She's... not happy... that she made Gray-sama cry...
The man looked down.
She had closed her eyes.
He started sobbing, embracing her as strong as he could. He was now regretful that he hadn't hugged her back after the victory in the Magic Games. He tightened his grip, ignoring his screaming arms, until all he could feel was Juvia.
He wished that he had died instead of her.
He screamed.
The dragon heard him; two minutes had already passed.
Two claws pierced future-Gray's chest.
Two lives lost.
In one second, Gray was staring at the dead bodies of future counterparts, feeling the excruciating agony of being pierced right through the heart and losing someone he cared about deeply - again.
In the following second, he was back at Mercurius, holding tight his chest, with a few tears rolling down his cheeks and without any physical pain at all.
The ice mage jumped in shock again.
He was back.
That future had been avoided.
Juvia never died.
Gray looked around and found many of his comrades, equally shocked, equally crying. It seemed that they all experienced their own deaths and the magic the gate released stopped at the same time.
Still, he wasn't finding the one he was most worried about. The Fullbuster wanted to make sure she was ok and that he would never again let her do such a sacrifice for him.
Hearing a gasp from his back, he looked on this direction to find a very confused Juvia. There weren't tears on her face – she was so astonished that her brain registered rather slowly the fact that the whole precognition scene was gone. She touched her own stomach, her own foot, her head and everywhere where she thought there would be bruises only to find small wounds from the previous fights.
Now that her puzzlement was decreasing, she looked around for the same reason as Gray – and she gladly sighed, realizing that no one had died. Falling on her knees from weariness (and information overload), she sighed again – this time it was a "finally-it's-all-over" sigh.
Gray was so relieved she looked well, so happy that they were alive, he momentarily forgot about that pride he had and called out Juvia's name.
His eyes and hers met.
Even though she had just experienced death, pain and loss, she gave Gray the brightest smile she could give, like she had just experienced the happiest thing on her life – that would be to find out everyone was alive and well, including Gray.
Said ice mage noticed he was holding his breath once again; he also noticed he no longer stationary, but was running towards her and pulling her to his arms (Juvia gasped in surprise, her face getting rosy – well, she really couldn't help it).
- If you ever do that again, I swear I'll… I'll… - he trembled, breathing on her neck - Heck, I don't know what I'll do. But it's going to be unpleasant, I swear it.
- Juvia will be happy to receive any punishment from Gray-sama – she replied brightly, making the man gasp in embarrassment with the apparently hidden implication. Breaking the hug and giving her a startled gaze, he wondered why the heck she would say something suggestive in that situation. She merely eyed back with a seemingly confusing and innocent look, meaning: she wasn't acting silky, but she was actually talking seriously.
- Uh… No, thanks, I won't actually punish you – he scratched his head, a bit uncomfortable.
- Well, even if Gray-sama doesn't wants to punish Juvia, she will keep risking her life to protect anyone from her guild as long as the situation requires it – the water mage casually remarked.
He huffed, with an annoyed expression. The woman, despite her frequent submissive behavior towards him, was being quite stubborn now. For a second he wished she could follow what he was saying - at least on that moment - and stop being so indifferent at her own life.
- Juvia doesn't mean to look like she doesn't value her life, Gray-sama, but she values her friends' life more that her own – she muttered, surprising the ice mage once more. Could it be that she was able to read thoughts – or were his own too obvious to be unnoticed?
By thinking the previous sentence, the Fullbuster unexpectedly remembered a few words that were craved into his head while seeing the vision of the future; they were the ones his counterpart was about to tell Juvia before the rocks fell upon her. He also remembered how he literally felt his counterpart's urgency to express them before they could die.
And now he was feeling this very same compulsion.
- Erm, Juvia? – He hesitantly began, secretly hoping that he wasn't blushing – you know, before the… rocks fell on you…?
- Yes, what is it? – She simply replied, not bothered by the mention of the incident nor surprised by the sudden change of subject.
- Uhh… About the thing my future self was about to confe- I mean, admit. No, I mean- tell! – He really felt his cheeks heat up; at this rate she would find out before he could actually say it. "Think before you speak, you shithead!", the man mentally scolded himself.
Gray exhaled noisily.
He was getting unnecessarily nervous about that goddamn confession. She was already in love with him, wasn't it? He concluded he was too much of a chicken to admit to himself that someone had melted his ice barrier.
"Ok, I'm beating around the bush. Juvia, what my future self was about to tell your future self is something I've been pondering over for… quite a long time… and I think it should be fair to say to you, so-
"Juvia knows it already", she cut him off, smiling brightly again.
"-What?" he snapped; maybe he didn't heard it right. Juvia already knew it? But why did she kept insistently stalked him, started up conversations and gave him those bright smiles of hers even after the Phantom Lord's loss?
Ah – she was hoping he'd fall in love with her.
It kinda worked, though.
Oh well, who he was fooling?
It certainly worked.
And besides the fact that her hopes were fulfilled, she could even make his ice barrier disappear – gradually, but she did.
"Juvia said she knows it", she repeated. "But she won't force Gray-sama to say anything, since she knows he is quite timid in the matters of love."
Said the word 'love', the blood rushed to the ice mage's face so fast he didn't even had time to process the sudden wave of fondness that rose when he heard her words. She was so kind with him, he thought he didn't even deserve it.
"See?" she giggled and then, without warning, gave him a tight hug and a playful warning: "Buy Juvia won't stop expressing herself even if Gray-sama is not currently able to do it!"
The young man held his breath with the abrupt gesture. She really wasn't making it easy for him – he still had a long time to work his reactions to her affectionate quirks.
"Damn, Juvia", he repeated his words from a day ago. The ice mage didn't felt the need to ignore his own feelings anymore (though it would be really embarrassing for him). He slightly wondered if he could express himself in his own way; there was a possibility that the Lockser would accept anything he'd have to give.
Aside from the déjà vu he felt from her embrace, Gray mentally thanked her from letting him take things on his pace – even with her sudden gestures (not that he disliked them, though).
But this time, he didn't need to search a reason to look like he disliked them. His pride was pulled down.
Also, Gray didn't need to search a reason to avoid hugging her back – and that's why he didn't avoid it.