Author's Note: Hey all! I'm pretty new to this (not the fanfic writing but the Gruvia writing) I hope it's a good read. I've always want to do a story about my favourite Couple in Fairy Tail but I never had a clear idea. Until a wonderful person gave me this prompt on tumblr.

Thanks you much for taking the time out to read this! Much love to you all!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or the character, this is purely for entertainment.

Summary: Nymph Au. Juvia had fought alongside Gray in the war between their species. Now that it's over, she doesn't know where she belongs, but she knows where she longs to be. Or is that even possible now?

Juvia never expected to go back.

She won't call it home, it was never that to her, it was filled with the very worst of her kind, hating her for being different, an abomination and in turn she slowly started to hate herself.

It wasn't her fault that she could not only control humans but the very water her people came from. But that never seemed to matter to them and while they sang and danced to the music of the trees, Juvia tended to hide behind them.

Alone, always, painfully alone and ignored.

Until him of course.

Their meeting was fate, she always knew it had to be fate that brought him into her life. She loved him so much that it could be nothing else.

When her gaze first landed on him she felt such strong emotions that were previously foreign to her. Juvia didn't even know his name, but she instantly fell in love.

He was a fierce warrior, trying to protect his friends from her own people who were singing a song of beauty to ensnare them in their powerful magic.

(She never figured out how he resisted their song, while everyone she had ever met got trapped by it. The war was all about their magic and how dangerous they were, and her very precious Gray-sama led the army because he could resist it. He had always been so strong.)

She didn't even hesitate to call on her own power when she saw the losing battle he was fighting. She swept them away with a single wave of her arm, swept away everything she had ever known.

Juvia hadn't regretted a single second. Not when he had been so kind and flashed a small smile at her while offering a hand out of the water.

She never looked back and from that day on, she had left the meadow and joined the resistance of Fairy Tail. It was easy, she had never liked what her species did in anger and cruelty to humans, it turned out Juvia wasn't the only one who didn't. And after many battles beside the man she loved, she met people of her own who agreed to help them fight.

Now the war was over, with Fairy Tail the obvious winner, (she had to smile at that, who would have ever bet against the rag tag bunch, they were filled with passion and love, of course they would win)

Juvia was back here, in the meadow she had always felt weak in, this time she wasn't here to run away, oh no if there was a choice in this, she'd run as far and as fast as her legs would carry her. But there wasn't, and the tears came to her suddenly, the very ones she had been trying to keep at bay.

She was going back and Juvia honestly thought she might break like porcelain with that horrible knowledge.

The sky opened up and in her misery she wondered if she could control the weather as well, it seemed fitting that the rain matched her depression. Maybe it would follow her for the rest of her life.

Leaving Fairy Tail, leaving her Gray-sama honestly felt like a wound that would never heal, it would fester and grow, leaving a hollow mass where surely her heart would have been.

But it had to be done, she wasn't human, she had no business staying in the only place she had felt safe and loved. She was dangerous. While they fought with weapons, she fought with magic and now that their battle had finally come to an end and she wasn't needed, they would realize what they brought into their lives. An abomination.

She wasn't ready to face that, the look of fear and anger in their eyes. In Gray-sama's eyes she only had ever wanted to see love shining back at her. He didn't love her but how she wished he did, it was her only wish, for him to adore her like Juvia adored him.

But if he distrusted her? If he grew wary and afraid, if that fear turned into hate? Death would be better than that pain.

So she left like a thief in the night and ended back here, where maybe she wasn't wanted, but she knew what to expect and that was good enough for Juvia.

No, it really wasn't, but she was trying to make sure she believe it, she needed that faith, even though she was sobbing in the rain and walking into the lake her beloved had saved her from. (He would argue she saved him, but she knew the truth, he gave her everything she had always wanted and never knew how to ask for.)

The storm raged around her and she had comfort in that, that something was just as out of control as she was.

She took a step into the water, something that used to feel like second nature to her, now felt cold and wrong, so very very wrong.

"Oi! What hell are you doing Juvia?!" A achingly familiar voice shouted in vicious anger.

Juvia whipped around so fast she had to steady herself from falling straight on her knees. Her very heart was trying to rip out her ribcage as she watched in astonishment as her Gray-sama stomped out of the trees until he was at the edge of the water just a few steps away from her.

His was fisting his hands so tightly that she thought his knuckles would crack at the tension. His face looked carved out of granite as he stared at her in fury.

"Answer me!" He yelled against the thunder and she flinched back, she never thought his anger would come so swiftly. She left to avoid this.

A tear escaped her eyes and he immediately softened and with the gentlest voice she had ever heard him use, he said her name again and reached out a hand just like years before. But she knew that if she took that hand again( that everything in her was begging her to do) she's never let go.

So instead she stumbled a step back and choked out in a broken voice, "Juvia has to leave, G-Gray-sama. Juvia is- Juvia is so s-sorry."

And oh his anger was so much better than this, she thought, as a coldness she had never witnessed him wear on anyone but their enemies came over his face.

Like she was a stranger to him, she thought stupidly that her heart was broken before, but this? This was what would destroy her.

"What?" He said in a whisper and if she wasn't intently listening she wouldn't have heard him as the storm grew and drenched them in water.

She opened her mouth to say anything, anything, anything, to get that look off his face. But she couldn't and with no answer given he scoffed in absolute derision at her.

"So after all we've been through, all that blood and sacrifice, that's it? No goodbye, no nothing? You just fucking left and now you're going back to them, just like that? Are you outta your mind?!" He yelled out, fury bleeding into his voice until he seemed to be vibrating with it.

A muscle ticked in his jaw with the force of him grinding his teeth and in any other shituation Juvia might have swooned, although she did feel like fainting at the look of betrayal he gave her. It was everything she never wanted, it was why she left in the first place.

Her knees were buckling and she knew she'd fall soon and get lost in the water where she thought she had always belonged.

"Whatever." He said when she continued to stare at him, why wasn't she saying anything? Why wasn't she fighting to explain, to just tell him?!

"Have a nice fucking life, Juvia." He spat and turned his back but not before she saw the hurt flashing in his gaze, gone so quick but she saw it.

And that's what eventually broke her out of her state, that pain she put in him, she's rather slice open her insides than ever hurt him, and the fact that she did, was an unforgivable sin to Juvia.

"Wait! Gray-sama please wait." She frantically yelled but he wasn't stopping so she ran, almost slipping into the mud around her until finally she caught up to him.

She gripped his arm to stop him, but at her touch he yanked his arm away from her, like her fingers burnt like acid. Then he whirled around and held her shoulders in a vice, his fingers curling into her skin.

"Go! You want to leave then leave damnit!" he snarled out harshly without remorse and she shivered at his touch and the animalistic growl.

"Gray-sama-"

"No, don't Gray-sama me," He mocked the name she had devoted to him and Juvia couldn't stop the tears because of it, "You follow me everywhere, you save my life countless times, you say you love me,"

She was sobbing now, she felt like she wouldn't stop, she would never stop hurting over this man, and it was going to kill her.

"So unless you want to tell me what the hell is going on then I don't want to hear it, just go."

Juvia took a deep breath, because she knew she was going to tell him everything now, she could never deny him. She didn't want to, anything to erase the distress she caused him.

And then she could leave, just as he said, he'd be safe and she would be alone, the world would return to how it always meant to be. She'd love him until the end of her days, she never find another, Juvia knew that in her bones, that he'd be the last, her forever.

But he would find another, and she'd be happy for him, because he would finally find something that she long ago found in him. He'd love and get married, with dark haired children with the color of his wonderful eyes.

It would be perfect because he always deserved it. He deserved every good and pure thing this life had to give him.

It just wouldn't be with her. And that was okay, it had to be okay, because he didn't love her, but she loved him with her whole heart and wanted, needed him to be blissfully happy.

"Juvia is dangerous Gray-sama, she's not human, her powers scare people, you've seen that, you've seen people stare and point at the nymph that walks beside Fairy tail," He narrowed his eyes but before he could interrupt Juvia rushed on.

"They don't like it and one day neither will you, Gray-sama. Juvia owes Fairy Tail so much that she can't stand by and wait for that to happen, so she must leave, don't you see? It's the only way. Juvia will always be thankful to Gray-sama for what you've done, you showed me that love was the safest most wonderful feeling, you gave Juvia a home. But to see you fear me is something I wouldn't ever want to see in your eyes. So thank you Gray-sama." She wringed her hands and bowed to him in extreme gratitude, ignoring the scandalised look he gave her at the action.

"Juvia is sorry she hurt you, she never ever wanted to do that, Juvia just thought this was the best thing. But if Gray-sama was hurt because she didn't say goodbye then please take this as one."

Oh she was shattering just like glass under the weight of this, "Please be happy Gray-sama, that's all Juvia has ever wanted, your happiness."

She tried to smile but she figured it looked heartbroken on her lips, but she couldn't see his expression, she turned away before she could, she wasn't brave enough for that.

"Bullshit," His whisper came from right behind her and she gasped and spun around, only to find he was smiling, a real one, not a smirk or a twitch of the lips. A blinding smile she had never seen on his aloof face.

She was so confused that she could only let out a squeak.

"Juvia, you know as well as I do, that you never gave a shit about what people thought, you know that Fairy Tail has your back so the only thing I can think is either you're lying to me or yourself. Maybe both and I think I know what the real reason is." His tone was soft but that didn't stop the raw fear that came over her.

But any sort of thought or emotion she was currently having got lost as he had closed the small distance between them, put his hand behind her neck to lace his fingers in her blue hair, and crashed his lips against her own in a heart stopping move.

Juvia felt as if she was swimming in sensation as her beloved Gray-sama put his other hand on her hip and drew her closer like he was trying to make any space between them non-existent.

She let out a moan as he asked for permission by licking her bottom lip in a smooth warm stoke, she gave it freely and opened her mouth for him to take and he did, with so much intensity. He slid his tongue inside and took possession of her, the hand in her hair tightening as let out a growl from his chest.

She had always been his, Juvia just never for one second thought he would be hers.

This kiss in the pouring rain made Juvia think she had been happily wrong.

He released her from the fierce kiss she had wanted to drown in, and softly pecked her lips before leaning back and cupping her face in both of his strong hands.

"You want to know why I think the Nymphs could never get their song to work on me?" He asked breathlessly, affected by her just as much as she was by him, and she nodded in a daze still recovering from the most amazing kiss of her young life.

Juvia tried to focus on his answer, not realizing or expecting that it would change everything.

"You always said the first time we met was fate, and maybe you're right, maybe the Gods knew one day I'd find a nymph who I'd fall madly in love with, that no other spell could break the hold you would have on me."

"I love you, Juvia" Her breath caught and snagged against her lungs, but he wasn't nearly done with setting her world alight in wonder and hope, with words that shined like the sun, her heart didn't feel gaping open anymore, it felt real and whole.

"The only happiness or future I want is with you. I'm sorry if I waited too long, that you thought leaving would ever be a good idea, and if you ever, and I mean ever do that again Juvia." he brushed the corners of her cheeks and she felt so very cherished by him in this moment that time seemed to be at a standstill.

"There's no corner of the earth that you could hide that I won't find you. I need you to stay right beside me where you belong, where you have always belonged and give me that future, I don't deserve you, I never did. But I want you to feel safe and loved and if you give me a chance, I'm pretty sure I can give that to you." He let out a cocky smirk, one that made her shiver in such a good way, "I have always loved a challenge."

She could do not nothing but throw herself into his chest and wrap her arms around him, her beautiful Gray-sama had just given her the world.

"Juvia loves you so very much Gray-sama, thank you for coming after her, thank you for not giving up and thank you for loving her."

His arms came around her then, pulling her close to his beating heart, the very thing she had always wanted, and now it seems her wishes we're coming true.

"Of course, but I'm gonna need you stop crying Juvia, I hate seeing you cry."

She laughed giddy with the fact that this was real, he wanted her, he loved her. "It's happy tears."

"Still..."He frowned down at her as she giggled, he huffed out a laugh and shook his head, with such adoration shining from his eyes, she couldn't help her matching blinding smile that curved her lips.

"Come on," He lent down to softly kiss her and pulled back only to pull her into his side, wrapping a hand on her waist. "Let's go home, the others we're worried. I practically had to tackle Natsu and Gajeel when they wanted to come along. I said I'd sort it out, but you know those two always..."

Juvia snuggled deeper into his warmth as she listened to him tell the tale of their "idiot friends."

Home, he was taking her home, that she knew, was and had always been, right by his side.