Mask of Love
Prince Gray Fullbuster never liked his own title.
To have endless amount of people constantly praising him, another princesses throwing themselves at him only for marriage and not true love, it all disgusted him to no ends.
Now, of course he wanted to get married and have children someday, he just had yet to find that someone to spend the rest of his life with.
And of course he wasn't a fan of those love stories his mother used to tell him as bedtime tales, he just…
He didn't even know.
It was just that, after seeing how his stupid friend of the Fire Kingdom finally proposed to the love of his life, Lucy Heartfilia of the Celestial Kingdom, Gray realized the lack of romantic love in his own life.
But that still wasn't a valid reason for his parents, the king and queen of Ice Kingdom, to throw a masquerade on their castle to find him a good wife.
Because they said he'd grow up old and still be single if it were for him and his motivation.
"You'll find someone good enough," his mother Mika was telling him at the same time she held his face with her hands, her blue eyes gazing adorably at his grumpy ones. "You'll live happily ever after, just like your father and I."
"There was no need for this," Gray still argued, trying to ignore the curious maids at the room.
"You father wanted to make things… a little faster, you know how he is," Mika giggled, finally releasing him from her grip.
Her skin was as pale as a porcelain doll, with her soft blue eyes and the wrinkles around her always smiling face, and her black hair tied up on a delicate bun above her head, and his mother was just simply beautiful.
"I'm just twenty one," Gray rolled his eyes. "I'm good."
Mika raised her eyebrows sympathetically, "You father and I…"
"Got married when you were still eighteen. I know that already," Gray finished for her. The tale of their own lives was his mother's favorite, and he couldn't help but memorize it when he was still young and wild.
"The recent proposal of Natsu to Princess Lucy got him over the edge," Mika reminded him. "You know how competitive he is with King Igneel."
"That's none of my bussiness," Gray argued stubbornly.
Of course it alarmed him too. The fact that Natsu had won in one of their many competitions was enough to wake him up.
"But who knows," Mika said, her voice as soft and amused as ever, "You may find someone here for you."
"I highly doubt that." Gray sighed. "What was the point of making it a masquerade ball if I'm supposed to find a woman?"
"I do not think your father has thought of it this way, but," Mika shrugged. "Maybe you can fall in love with something deeper than the girl's face, and the other way around."
Gray blinked at her words, but she left sooner than he could come up with a reply.
"Prince Fullbuster," a maid said to his left. "Here is your mask."
In her hands she held a small mask, enough to cover up his eyes and nose. The color was deep blue, with golden intrications marking the contour of it. It wouldn't do much to cover up his face, but it was better than some big ugly mask.
He grabbed it and put it over his face, sighing long and deep.
"Okay, time to finish this off."
The moment he stepped onto the big, golden and white marble room, with the royal people dancing to the tune of the orchestra's music and drinking champagne, Gray was glad his father didn't prepare a big annunciation for his entrance.
It was full of women and men as well, presumably to cover up the fact that the ball had a secret meaning.
Most of them were unrecognizable with their masks, others, he didn't know who they were, but some were as loud as always and probably everyone knew who it was.
Like his pink haired friend, that came running to him and yelling, with a piece of meat on his hand, and that big grin of his that Lucy seemed to love. He wore a red, scaly mask that made him look like those dragons he always spoke about with his father.
"Yo!" he said, once he was close enough not to shout again.
Gray rolled his eyes at his antics, "What do you want?"
Natsu scoffed, "You party pooper." he spat.
"What did you say?" Gray inquired, his left eyebrow raised.
Natsu looked to his left before shivering and looking back at him.
"What's wrong with you?" Gray asked. He thought he'd be all up for a fight -both of them hated fancy events like this.
"Lucy threatened me not to get into fights or she wouldn't kiss me for a week…"
Gray laughed at his troubled face, "Nice fianceé you got there,"
"Lucy's the best, but she's scary sometimes…" Natsu gulped. "Anyways, what's this ball for? And why do we need to wear these things?" he asked, pointing at his mask.
Ashamed to say the truth, Gray muttered, "No idea."
"How come you don't know?" Natsu frowned. "Your dad did this."
He was pushing further than he always did, so Gray decided to change the subject to something Natsu loved to talk about. Or rub on his face, for that matter.
"Where's Lucy now?" Gray asked.
They way Natsu's green eyes lit up at her mention made him a little… jealous, but it was not like he would ever said that aloud. He still had some dignity left on him.
"She's with the orchestra playing the violin!" Natsu said enthusiastically. "She said she'd help for a while before coming back."
"Why would-"
"Because she loves playing music!" Natsu grinned. "She's wonderful at doing it too."
"I… I see," Gray said. Who would have thought that seeing him in love would be so annoying?
"Anyways, see you around." Natsu said, before disappearing again between the maze of fluffy dresses, masks, and large coats.
He'd left Gray alone again, and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew he'd get bored between a few minutes, if not right now. Gray never had the chance to befriends more of the princes and princesses of other kingdoms due to the war going on around the whole continent. Only the friendship between Igneel and Silver had made him get to know Natsu, and by him he'd got to know Lucy too.
The fact made him feel a little lonely, specially since the proposal of eternal love between his two friends.
Hence another reason why everyone wanted him to marry someone already. It seemed he'd been a could of negativeness walking around in the castle.
Scowling, Gray turned around -only to throw a drink over the cleavage of a young lady and her light blue dress.
Resisting the urge to curse, Gray immediately apologized. "I'm so sorry for being distracted and ruining your dress and- oh shit."
He locked eyes with a pair of shining blue ones, who looked back at him widely. She wore a matching hat over her wavy hair, and her mask was pretty and turquoise, and she gave off that soothing aura of waves and ocean and water. Refreshing and unpredictable.
"No, Juvia is the one that is sorry, oh my, you have champagne over your clothes too." she said, taking a napkin of the closest table and quickly trying to clean him up.
Gray felt stupid for standing there awkwardly as she rubbed paper on him, but, what else could he do?
He grabbed her wrist and stopped her motion, forcing her to look at him.
"It's okay, don't worry… Juvia?" he said hesitantly, as he remembered from her weird way of speaking.
"Yes, the name's Juvia, sir." she said.
"I'm Gray," he said bluntly, without thinking. Since when did he speak before thinking?
Her eyes widened with shock, her little mouth opening and closing without muttering a word.
"Prince Gray?" she said. "Juvia is sorry for being so rude, please forgive Juvia's-"
"Hey, you weren't rude at all!" Gray grabbed her shoulders. "What are you talking about?"
"B-But…"
"I'm fine," Gray assured her, but he couldn't find the reason why he sounded so eager to do it. "Perfectly fine."
Juvia stood there awkwardly, the pale skin of her face slowly turning pink. Gray found himself staring, which probably made her all the more uncomfortable, and he cursed himself for it.
"Want to go… outside?" he asked, again, without thinking.
Her eyes fixed on with surprise and a bit of… hope? Maybe. Who knew.
"Of course, Juvia would love to." she smiled, taking his breath away.
Gulping down, he lead her outside the castle, to the green garden that looked like a maze, but was very beautiful too. There were lights leading the way towards the coral gazebo, with nice decorations too.
Gray had no idea why they ended up there. It was not like him to do that kind of stuff, especially when a girl was involved, but Juvia's eyes scanned the whole thing with an adoring gaze, and he no longer seeked for answers he would not get.
"This is beautiful," Juvia said, her voice trembling with emotion.
"Glad you like it," Gray said, looking around.
When his eyes landed on her again, the urge to see her whole face came too much for him, and sputtering he said;
"H-Hey, want to take the masks off? It's uncomfortable with them…" his voice died out, realizing how stupid he sounded. He scratched the back of his neck, awkward.
Juvia smiled. "Juvia would love to."
They took it off on unison, both gasping at the full view of each other. Not like it made a huge difference, but…
Gray gazed her porcelain face again, her eyes bigger and softer than he thought, her cheeks red.
Juvia stared at his handsome face, her face heating up and her heart beating faster and faster as his dark eyes pierced right into her soul. She was in love.
Gray's own face reddened at her sight. He cursed his parents for making this up, but he also was kind of grateful, he didn't even know already.
The orchestra started to play a slow melody, and it took all in Gray to extend his hand towards her. It was long ago, the last time he felt so coward towards someone.
"May I have this dance?" he asked.
The smile on Juvia's face was brighter than any lights the maids may have put around the gazebo.
"Juvia would love to."
Word Count= 1786. For grays-frozen-ass on Tumblr! Thanks for reading :3