A/N: Hi guys! Welcome to my second Fairy Tail fanfic, Like Ice and Water. Some of you may have read my first Fairy Tail fanfic, New Beginnings. I mentioned Gruvia a little bit there, but since I love them so much, I decided they deserved their own fanfic! While this takes place in the same "world" as New Beginnings—that is, I assume in this story that the events of New Beginnings have taken place—you don't need to read it to understand Like Ice and Water. You're perfectly free to read it if you want to anyway, of course. LoLu are an awesome couple, after all. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you: Chapter 1 of Like Ice and Water! ~artemisfang
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.
"Juvia's body is made of water! Physical attacks cannot harm her," Juvia intoned. She considered the creature before her, wondering if could understand her. It was some kind of jellyfish and centipede hybrid that had been terrorizing a village for almost a month now. They had finally posted a request to guilds to deal with it, and Juvia had accepted it. She always preferred to go on missions with her precious Gray-sama, but sometimes she did need to earn money for living expenses.
Juvia sighed as the creature's leg-like tentacles swept towards, cutting through her again. It was time to end this. "Water Nebula!" The creature let out an odd sound between a roar and a yelp, but it kept standing. "Water Cane!" A blast of water whipped the creature, and it toppled onto its side. Juvia felt a rush of joy as she realized she had defeated her opponent. Each job completely successfully meant the betterment of Fairy Tail's reputation. Juvia always loved being able to help Fairy Tail. If only Gray-sama was here to see her victory! Regardless, she needed to collect her reward and return to the guild. Maybe Gray-sama would be back from his mission by now. Luckily, he had left her love rivals, Lucy and Erza, behind. Love rivals! A purple cloud surrounded Juvia as she marched into the office of town's mayor. He looked at her, wide-eyed and trembling.
"Oh! Juvia is sorry. Juvia defeated the monster," Juvia informed him.
The mayor stopped crouching behind his desk. "Thank you very much! We very much appreciate your kindness. We thought we wouldn't be able to harvest the crops with the creature attacking us every time we got near the fields. Please, accept this as your reward." He handed her an envelope, which Juvia graciously accepted.
Fairy Tail was only half a day's walk from this town, so Juvia set out along the dirt path leading back to Magnolia. She stared up at the sky, a brilliant blue. Clear skies! For so many years, she had believed she would never see clear skies. She had thought that Phantom Lord, which accepted her only because of her strength and would have tossed her out in a moment had she lost a battle, was her only choice. Then she had met Gray-sama, and Fairy Tail, and her life had changed forever. Now she could look at the blue skies and sunlight whenever she wanted.
"You tryin' to figure out what that cloud is shaped like?" A voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Gray-sama!" Juvia turned to look at the shirtless figure to her right, who had just exited a forest. She decided not to point out his loss of clothing.
"Hey. You on your way back from a mission?"
"Mm. Juvia took on a small job at the town back there. She defeated a monster that was plaguing them." Juvia wrinkled her nose. "It had too many tentacles and beady eyes for Juvia's taste."
Gray laughed. "That reminds me of the supposed mole-creature Lucy, Natsu, Erza and I took on. You going back to the guild now? I'll walk back with you."
Ah! It's like a date. Just me and Gray-sama. Alone. Together. Anything could happen! A blush crept onto Juvia's cheeks. "Yes. Juvia would like that very much."
Gray walked with his hands tucked into his pockets, seeming totally at ease. For a while they chatted about light-hearted things: the goings-on at the guild and in Magnolia, and Natsu's latest challenge to Gildarts, in which he had lasted for a record-breaking five minutes. Juvia enjoyed talking to Gray-sama, but there was something weighing on her mind that she had never gotten the opportunity to ask him. "Gray-sama, may I ask you something?"
"Huh?" Gray arched an eyebrow. "Sure, what's up?"
Juvia looked down at the ground. "Why were you so kind to Juvia when you first met her? Juvia was an enemy who was hurting Fairy Tail. But you were never cruel to Juvia, and you never tried to seriously harm her. You accepted Juvia as a member of Fairy Tail so quickly, too. You were the first person to be so kind to Juvia, even though everyone at Fairy Tail is lovely. Why?"
Gray looked at her out of the side of his eyes. "Haven't I told you before? I don't like needlessly hurting people. No one at Fairy Tail does. And we all believe that people deserve a second chance. I could sense that you weren't a bad person."
Juvia's eyes had filled with tears. "Well, Juvia thanks you. You changed Juvia's life for the better, and Juvia will always be grateful."
Gray was taken aback. He had become mostly used to Juvia's obsessiveness, and didn't flinch when she mentioned something about thirty babies or love rivals. It had all become par for course. Seeing Juvia sincere and vulnerable was something else, though. It had a different effect on him, one he couldn't quite place. Gray scratched the back of his head. "It's not a big deal or nothin'. You don't have to cry about it."
"It is a big deal to Juvia," Juvia said solemnly.
"Yeah…well…yeah…" Gray looked away, not sure what to say.
"Soon it will be the anniversary of when Juvia joined Fairy Tail. Would Gray-sama like to celebrate with Juvia?" Juvia tilted her head as she looked at him, her eyes full of hope.
Some heat found its way to Gray's face. "Err, celebrate? Um, how?"
"Juvia thought Juvia and Gray-sama could go out and eat at the new restaurant in Magnolia," Juvia suggested. She had been trying to find a justification for this for months, and one had finally occurred to her.
"Just us? Shouldn't we involve Fairy Tail if we're celebrating you joining?"
"Since it is thanks to you that Juvia joined, Juvia would like to be just us," Juvia confirmed.
Gray looked everywhere but at Juvia. Usually he'd tell her he was busy, or just tell Mira to throw a party and escape it that way—Fairy Tail never turned down a chance to party—but something was stopping him today. He couldn't place his finger on why, but he found himself saying, "Yeah, sure, I guess."
Juvia clapped, a smile brightening her face. "Juvia is so happy to hear that! Juvia cannot wait."
Gray rubbed the back of his neck. "When are we doing this, anyway?"
"Tomorrow night at 6 o'clock would be good, don't you think? Ah! It's a date with Gray-sama!" Juvia's eyes were filled with hearts, and Gray was slightly worried she might pass out from joy in the middle of the path.
"Yeah, sure, whatever, I guess. I'll see you then. Uh, I gotta take care of something though so I uh…gotta go. Bye!" With that Gray fled the scene, still trying to unravel why he had even agreed to their so-called date—not that it was actually a date!—in the first place. Well, it couldn't be too bad, right? He'd just show up, eat some food, talk to Juvia…she could be good company when she wanted to be, so long as she didn't try anything creepy, like wearing clothes with his face sewn onto them. Juvia was a strong mage, tough as nails, yet she had a heart that truly loved her nakama. There was plenty to respect her for. That was all this celebration was about, right? Honoring one of his nakama. Nothing more. Of course it wasn't! But even as Gray distracted himself by ordering Natsu to toe the line, and subsequently getting into a fight with him, he couldn't shake the feeling there was something more at play.