Summary: New mornings bring new thoughts.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Dedication: my bro. my oldest friend. all the things we can remember. and the idiots we are and the stupid things we do.
Things to say: Ignore the awkward sentencing...the weird parentheses and all the awkward moments, OOC moments...and...just look for the moments that are worth reading and read those.
enjoy
She wakes up every morning to the same gray walls.
The light from the sunrise soaks into them - and they glow with some sort of ethereal light but none of it ever actually gets into her room. The color of sunlight is just a pale yellow yet the walls of her apartment still glow gray.
She wishes she had enough money to paint the walls blue, but really, all her savings right now are enough to get a small bucket of paint that could cover about half of one wall. Her OCD won't let her do that, so she waits and saves (you know they say, "A penny a day keeps the debt collector away.").
Okay, so not all her savings. More like what she can afford to spend on paint of all things.
Anyways, she might end up mooching off Gajeel cause...cause he's her best friend and that's what best friends are there for.
He has a whole shit load of paint anyways...dunno why, but she highly suspects it's cause he likes going around and giving cars a new paint job. ("it's not vandalizing, it's community service," he says) He's also a part time mechanic...and she doesn't know why, but she associates paint with mechanical stuff that she doesn't really get anyways. It's nice to have some sort of free service when her heater breaks or her car just stops working. She always ends up giving him some sorta tip but she's gonna be stealing like a million buckets of blue paint from him so it all works out.
And if it doesn't, she'll demand her money back. It's win-win.
Oh, and if he doesn't feel like giving her back the money...well...she already has a whole collection of ripped out stud piercings. She can always rip out more. ("Juvia hates doing this," she always says sweetly, like it'll dull the pain. "It's just...just...well, it's necessary.") He doesn't complain after that. Also, she only wears her crimson nail polish for some reason when she decides he needs some reminding who's really boss around here (like, come on, Gajeel's this huuuuuge softie. have you ever seen him baby his cat, Pantherlily?) and now he's scared shitless whenever she puts that particular color on.
In some ways, Gajeel is pretty scary...like...that time...he scared off her boyfriend. She laughs cause it's hilarious and also cause Gray's still half-traumatized by Gajeel's red eye contacts (and don't forget that Gajeel has this long, spiky mane of rough black hair that coats him like fur). And Gray's accusing look after she introduces him as her best friend. That was funny too.
Speak of the devil. He's here now. She pulls open the door and brandishes her crimson fingernails in his face. He shrinks backwards, but even so, he's a head taller than her. "What did I do, ya rain woman?" he asks warily, hoping the childhood nickname will placate her.
"Nothing...not yet," she replies, an evil smirk twisting her face.
He sighs, "So what's yer crazy plan again?"
"Juvia wants to paint her walls blue!"
"...go on?"
"Juvia thinks the gray looks boring~!"
"Go on." ("wait not the guy the wall color right, right?")
"And..."
"Go on."
"Juvia has no money..."
"...Go on..." ("I don't like where this is going...")
"And she really really wants to paint the walls..."
"Go...on..."
"SoJuviawantstoknowifGajeelwilllendhersomepaint?"
"Back up."
"So...Juvia...wants to know...if Gajeel will...lendhersomepaint?"
"The last part again."
"...will Gajeel lend Juvia some paint?" she peeks out 'neath her lashes, clasping her hands together but really just trying to show off the crimson paint that will undoubtedly make him break under her power... ("mwahahahaha juvia wins again," her inner thinks)
Gajeel contemplates it for a second, looking at the gray walls (he's not avoiding Juvia's puppy dog face...or her *shudder* fingernails...but the gray painted walls...are just...really interesting!) and running a hand along it. "The paint is chipped off," he mused. "Okay. Ya can have a lil' bit. But I'm painting Shrimp's car blue next Saturday so ya can't have tha' much."
"Thank you, Gajeel!" Juvia says with gratitude, hugging a stiff Gajeel around the middle. Her slender arms barely fit around his barrel torso. "Juvia knew Gajeel would come through."
"Well, I'm Gajeel, o' course," Gajeel announces with pride, unable to let that comment pass through his ego. "I always come through."
"Gray is coming over in five so Juvia will have to show you out but bring over all your blue paint tomorrow, 'kay?" Juvia more like stated, as she pushed Gajeel out the door.
Gajeel snorted as he got pushed out the door. "That wimp? Wait - wait, hey!" the door slammed in his face. "I didn't say ya could have all the paint; I said a lil' bit! Ya deaf, woman?"
"So-rry~" Juvia sang as she dabbed on some make-up for Gray. "Juvia is meeting Gray soon. Juvia has to ask you to leave."
"OPEN THE DOOR, WOMAN!" Gajeel roared. "I'M ONLY BRINGING ENOUGH PAINT FER THE WALLS. SHRIMP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YA."
"JUVIA HAS CRIMSON NAIL POLISH ON!" Juvia yelled back.
"YA CAN'T GET ME THROUGH THE DOOR," Gajeel taunted. He tapped his fingers on the door. "OPEN IT AND WE'LL MAKE A DEAL."
The door swung open and Juvia brandished her fingers. Gajeel shrunk back. "THIS BETTER BE QUICK OR JUVIA WILL HURT YOU FOR TAKING AWAY JUVIA'S TIME WITH GRAY."
Gajeel quickly got down to business. "I'll give ya just enough paint to finish those walls of yers and one extra bucket. I only have one shade of blue so ya don't hafta pick."
"Gajeel will help Juvia paint."
"Flame-head said we could go eat burgers tomorrow..." Gajeel whined.
"GAJEEL WILL HELP JUVIA PAINT."
"Calm down rain woman...no, not the fingernails! STOP! Okay, I'll help ya paint. Jeez...but ya owe me burgers now!"
Juvia smiled sweetly and leaned against door frame, staring up at Gajeel, who was glowering in all his glory. "Okay! Now shoo, Juvia can hear Gray's footsteps."
The next day, early morning (what it's like four in the morning or something), Juvia's door is banged open. She sits up in her bed and screams. "JUVIA IS CALLING THE POLICE!" she shrieks in her half awake voice, hands clutching her cellphone.
"Calm down," the blurred face speaks. "It's me, Gajeel."
"Oh," she says dumbly.
"Oh," Gajeel repeats, not sure what to say. "Ah, the paint's outside yer door if ya want me ta get it."
Juvia nods, "Juvia would be grateful."
After the paint is lugged in and Juvia gets dressed ("I'm not looking at ya, I swear! I got my Shrimp, remember?"), they begin work. Slowly, the gray morphs into an icy sky blue. Juvia lays her palms flat on the dried walls after they are done and closes her eyes. "It smells like the ocean," she whispers, thinking of her hometown.
"It does, doesn't it?" Gajeel gruffly replies, sitting on the ground and chipping at his blue covered hands. "It smells like the saltwater that bastard Sol used to pour all over Aria."
"Juvia misses them," she whispers. "They...were not nice...but they knew Juvia the best."
"I don't," Gajeel retorts. "Jose was nasty. Sol was some weird twisty dude that only knew how to say, 'Non, non, non!'. And...I guess...I guess Aria was okay. He ain't as bad as the others."
They sat in awkward silence, until Juvia turned around and clapped her hands sharply. "It's okay, Juvia has Gray now and Gajeel has Levy!" she patted the sitting Gajeel on the head.
"Hey, I'm not a kid. I don't need yer comforting," Gajeel protested, smoothing out his mane of black. "But...I suppose it's a pretty happy life we're living now, ain't it?"
"Juvia thinks so too," she replies, sitting down comfortably near him. "Look, the sun's coming over the mountains."
The light from the sunrise soaks into her new blue walls and illuminates them with all sixty three shades of blue - and one more.
Happiness.
(after all, this new morning brought one more new thought.)
fin
I...that ending was cheesy, wasn't it? Just...just...I just wasn't satisfied with the way this turned out...I couldn't get either one of their characters, and much less the hang of Gajeel's accent.
And it wasn't supposed to turn out this way, but hey, it's done. I'm done with it. YAY.
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