Chapter 1

Juvia wouldn't usually let herself get so behind on her daily schedule, but the entire day just happened to be one of those days. One full of all the tiny things bound to ruin anyone's mood. It started with sleeping through all her alarms, running out of cheese for her breakfast omelette, then being scolded by the bus driver for reaching the bus stop just late enough for it to have to wait out a red light.

Worse of all, she misread her coupons wrong and missed the sales by a day, putting a huge dent in her monthly budget. And it wasn't like she could just put all those supplies back when she's been holding up a huge line a half hour from closing with the gigantic haul she's been planning for weeks.

Her hectic day was drawing to an end, all she needed to do now was get inside her apartment, drink a nice cup of tea, soak in a bath for a few hours, and hopefully finish up the painting she promised her mom she'd get done by the end of the week. If only she could find her damn keys.

Just then her phone beeped from her purse and she almost jumped from the sudden noise.

"Geez" She huffed out loud while struggling with her purse. Setting her numerous bags on the floor, she quickly grabbed the phone out of her bag and silenced the ongoing beeps. (So that's why her loudest 6:30 alarm didn't ring that morning. It was set to PM.) She threw all the other contents in her purse around, but her house keys couldn't be found buried under the usual piles of receipts and expired makeup.

"Did I forgot my keys this morning. No way." She muttered. Digging more frantically now, she was suddenly hit with the memory of rushing out this morning and grabbing her coffee mug, phone, and buss pass. But not her damn keys.

"No no no no no no no." She whispered, forcefully grabbing at the unmoving knobs and pushing against the door. Realizing how loud she was alone in the empty halls, she stopped pulling and gathered all her stuff in her hands again. The halls were empty and she had no idea who any of her neighbours were. Not that they even had a way of letting her in anyways.

"Locked out?" A voice from behind her called. It belonged to Lyon, a friendly upstairs neighbour. His arms were also full of shopping supplies from a different art store, and he wore a friendly, albeit teasing smile. Juvia felt her ears turn a bit red before pulling her lips in a slight pout. His voice was always so gallant and his hair was messed up so perfectly, it really was such a nice sight to see, especially compared to her barely put together appearance this morning.

His eyes were lit with obvious amusement.

She nodded a bit gravelly, and stared enviously at the key ring hanging from his pinky finger.

"Any idea of what you're going to do?" He asked.

"I'll probably ask my friend who has a key to let me, hopefully he's not too busy today." But Juvia grimaced as she said that because she knew Gajeel was just as busy today as he always is, overworked and underpaid in that slump of a metal workshop.

"Oh Gajeel? But didn't he live kinda far away?" Lyon questioned lightly. Juvia couldn't say she was surprised he remembered Gajeel since Lyon only met him for a few moments when he was helping her move in.

Juvia nodded gravely again, realizing she didn't have any idea of what she could do now.

"You know, I have an extra bedroom which is quite clean and just got a bunch of take out." Lyon said."I totally wouldn't mind letting you stay the night if you have nowhere to go."

Surprised by his offer, she wanted to say yes right away since she was already imagining the 3 hour bus ride to her home city to get her key, but a bit of panic rode through her. She had projects for school lined back to back, not to mention her first ever commission piece still needed a lot of work, spending an entire night doing nothing would really put her even more behind schedule. But she didn't want to ride the bus for any longer than she already did today, and it hurt her heart picturing poor Gajeel having to do that after his even more tiring day.

"If you really don't mind, that would literally save my ass." She answered gratefully.

"Yeah, no problem at all, come on let's go. Your arms must be killing you cause mine are killing me." Lyon said.

Juvia followed him into the dingy staircase at the end of the hall and when they reached his door, he grabbed her bags from her hands while she took her shoes off. She looked around the room and took in how beautifully decorated it was. The walls were perfectly white, with pastel colored paintings hung sparsely but smartly throughout the living room and up the stairs until they disappeared around the corner. It looked like an aristocrat lived here, but then she realized that Lyon must've been pretty rich to afford such a place himself.

He set his bags on the floor next to the couch and told her to follow him to the guest bedroom which was at the very end of the hall.

"Well this is it. La maison de Lyon. I'll leave your bags by the bed, and I'll make some tea if you want a cup. Get comfortable, I'll bring some clothes over you can use as pajamas."

"Tea would be great!" Juvia exclaimed happily.

"The owners before me were sort of crazy rich, so this apartment's pretty well furnished." Lyon said when he walked back in the room with 2 fancy cups of Earl Grey tea and a set of crisp silk pajamas. "As luck would turn out, the guy actually fell in love with my stepsister and let me rent it for pretty cheap."

He went to a door and opened it to a pretty big ensuite washroom with a full sized bathtub.

"Oh wow," Juvia said.

"Yeah hopefully you can feel comfortable here. You can give me a copy of your key by the way, so your friend doesn't have to always come down here if you forget it again." He offered.

Juvia took the cup of tea graciously and gulped it. "Would you mind, Lyon?"She asked.

"Not at all." He answered, "So I'll leave you here, I'll heat up dinner soon and call you?"

Juvia nodded.

It looked like Lyon had more to say, when his phone rang. He looked a bit surprised and picked it up.

"It's my stepbrother." He claimed, sorta surprised.

"Hey dumbass, what's up. What, really? No way. Yeah, I'm home, yeah I'm not busy. Yeah, yeah, I can come get you right now. Union station?. Alright see ya soon."

"Well I didn't mention that my step brother was visiting me for a week since he was supposed to arrive tomorrow morning, but he just got in now cause his friend wanted to visit the city and he took the day off work to bus over a day early." Lyon looked at Juvia with concern. "It doesn't bother you right? He'll just sleep in the living room which is what he used to do when my roommate lived here, and he won't bother you."

"Oh no I don't mind at all, I didn't know you had other guest. Sorry for intruding!" Juvia exclaimed.

Lyon chuckled. "Nah, it's completely fine. If anything, he's the one intruding. Besides you would've been bored if it was just me since I don't do much in the evenings. My brother's name is Gray and he's going into first year for engineering at my school. He's moving here at the end of summer and our mom thought I'd be a good idea to have him familiarized with the city before he officially moves in so I'm going to show him around the city for a few days. Do you want to rest, or come with me to pick him up?"

Juvia looked at her phone and realized it was almost 7pm and she hardly had a bite to eat.

"We won't be doing much other than grab dinner, we'll be home before 11." Lyon assured.

"That actually sounds good then. I'm starving. " She said.

"Take a few minutes to get ready, he probably won't be at the station for another 30 minutes." Lyon said.

Lyon took the empty cup from her and Juvia let her hair down from its messy bun and smiled at her reflection.

Living alone in a new city with endless hours of work and classes was so close to draining all the optimism she had left in her, but Lyon was always there to brighten her day in those rare chances she saw him in the halls or when they caught each other at the bus station. He really was the kind of guy who just did all these nice deeds for people who were practically strangers. At that thought, Juvia blushed.

They left the apartment when Lyon knocked on the door, now wearing a baseball hat and a small backpack. They reached the station a fast 20 minutes walk later. Juvia called Gajeel on the way to let him know her situation, and ask if he could make an extra key for Lyon. Gajeel said would be there to open the door tomorrow morning, and would spend the day there to Juvia's delight since he was free Saturday mornings.

Although it didn't seem very smart for the only other person with a copy of Juvia's key to live hours away, they were set to be roommates if Gajeel got off the waiting list for the Mechanical engineer program he was placed on. They're still waiting for the reply and during this time Gajeel decided to stay in their hometown to help manage his uncle's dying metal shop. Juvia was completely sure Gajeel's was going to get in so she refused to take the key back.

When they got to one of the entrances, Lyon called his brother.

"Okay meet us outside the station, we're at the north entrance next to the Tim Hortons. I'm with a friend. I'm wearing a white shirt and she has bright blue hair."

"Oh yeah I see you guys." Lyon hung up the phone and waved towards a guy with dark black hair and a girl with short blonde hair who had her arm firmly linked with his.

"Gray, Lydia, it's nice to see you 2 again."

"Yeah, I couldn't believe Gray was also going to the city the same time I was, so we decided to surprise you!" The girl said. She spoke so fast Juvia had to actually pay attention to understand what she was saying.

"Hey who's this?" Lydia asked. "I'm Lydia" She said to Juvia and reached out her hand with a huge smile.

"I'm Juvia."

"Hey I'm Gray, nice to meet you." The stepbrother said. He pulled his arm out from Lydia's grasp and gave Juvia a small smile.

"Nice to meet you both!" Juvia said again.

Lyon smiled and put his arm around Juvia is a friendly manner.
"She's staying the night too since she got locked out of her apartment, so you 2 have to sleep in the living room. Sorry for this, but this is what you get for disrupting my friday night." He said to Gray.

"Ruin your friday night watching netflix by yourself, loser?" Gray asked.

Juvia giggled at Lyon teasing Gray. Gray's entire character was gruff and brash while Lyon's was softer with just a touch of light teasing. But she could feel the easy way they acted around each other and the light in Lyon's eyes when he smiled proudly at his brother, who in Juvia's opinion looked a tad emo.
Lydia ignored their bickering and instantly brightened up. "Is there only one couch, Lyon?"

Lyon laughed " How did I know you were going to ask that. Sorry Lydia unfortunately I have 2 couches, depends on if you're willing to share the full size one with Gray or have him squished into the loveseat."

"Well I know which one I want!" Lydia said, to which Gray scoffed at.

"No way am I going to be able to sleep next to these two bickering all night" He winked at Gray and Lydia giggled while she linked her arm through Gray's again. Gray didn't react other than say they really shouldn't be blocking the way anymore.

On their way to finding a restaurant, Lyon and Juvia walking ahead while Lydia walked behind with Gray, chatting her head off. A few minutes of silence later, Lyon leaned into Juvia and whispered "This day probably isn't going the way you expected it at all. Sorry if you just wanted a relaxing night at home, but I promise the walls are really soundproof, you won't actually hear those 2 bickering all night and you can use the washroom in my room."

Juvia blushed. Lyon was so close to her at this point that his lips were basically grazing her ears. He really was so sweet apologizing to her when all he's done was let her stay over and offer to pay for her dinner since she left her wallet back in his bedroom.

"It's not problem. This is really fun, I haven't been out all summer. Your brother and his girlfriend seem really fun." She said back.

"Nah, that's not his girlfriend, and he's usually more cheerful but I think he's tired from the train ride. Anyways for tomorrow, I was wondering if-"

But he was interrupted with Lydia's declaration that they had to eat at the cafe they just passed because of their impressive macaron display. Juvia looked at Lyon and he raised an eyebrow waiting for him to finish his question. He looked at her and smiled. "I'll ask inside."

The sun was just starting to set, the air was getting a bit chilly, now that they stopped walking, Juvia realized she was actually a bit cold in her sweatshirt.

"I don't see why not." Lyon called back to Lydia. To Juvia's surprised, he suddenly removed his jacket and placed it over Juvia's shoulder before grabbing her hand and pulling her back from where they walked.

"This place is actually pretty good" He said. Juvia's heart fluttered beyond her control and she managed to control what was probably the biggest smile she ever smiled before stating that she loved macarons.

Thanks for reading everyone! Look out for Chapter 2!

Omg i edited this chapter and erased the disclamier about how behind i am with FT. I'm like so behind, we're talking like end of first season anime, so like characters might be OOC compared to recent developments, my apologizies! its just I've mooved on from the manga but not from my bby's Gruvia. So yeah! hope it's still readable! love u all and pls leave reviews i love reviews 3