Hey guys! This is my first Fairy Tail fanfiction so all criticism is welcome. Also this is just a side project so don't expect constant updates and please be patient.

I'll only do this once. I don't own anything!

The story is based off an image from deviantart

art/Gruvion-In-Wonderland-380696986

And the cover image

art/Time-for-Decisions-353770071

Both of which I do not own!

The rain had finally let up. It had almost been raining non-stop for a week now and it had temporarily raised Juvia Lockser's spirits for the first time since her father's passing. The muddy road sloshed under the wheels of the rolling carriage and Juvia prayed to every higher power possible that the carriage would be bogged and her mother be forced to trounce through the mud. Juvia wouldn't have minded if she too had to walk through the mud, as long as it was back towards her own small family estate instead of their current destination, the grand estate of Duke Loke Leorke.

Ever since the death of her father, Viscount Ecor Lockser, the Lockser family were losing in the game of politics. Two women alone held no power in this world, they possibly held even less influence than the few wizard guilds that dotted the kingdom of Fiore. No, they hadn't dropped that low yet, they still had the name Lockser, and for the time being they still held most of the Fiore trading company that was slowly being bought out from under them.

Juvia's mother, Belno Lockser had done her best to convince Juvia that they weren't going to go into poverty, but Juvia didn't care about that and she cared even less for Duke Leorke. At the thought of the Duke Juvia angrily pulled at the tight blue curl her hair had been looped into.

"Juvia, would you please refrain from playing with your hair. I spent a good hour making sure it was perfect. You are the daughter of a Viscount and I will not have you looking like some rouge wizard." Her mother Belno scolded from across Juvia.

"Don't you mean the maids?" Juvia mumbled under her breath.

"What was that dear?" Her mother sounded kind, but Juvia knew there was a threatening tone in her voice, "Please do not mumble before the Duke as you do for me. It is quite rude." The carriage suddenly jerked on a hole in the road and Belno was flung forward in her seat but she quickly regained her composure after sending a scowl across her shoulder to the driver who sat outside the carriage. She growled, "These roads should be much better quality."

Juvia bowed her head politely, mostly to hide her grin, "Yes mother." She apologized before her gazed turned back out the window. Not too far in the distance she saw the Leorke estate.

Too late for a walk in the mud now she thought to herself.

Belno was the first to step out from the carriage, poised and perfect as always with the assistance of the footman. Juvia followed, and her left foot splashed straight into a puddle of mud. She winced visibly as the cold combination of water and dirt dotted the underside of her uncomfortable heels and her left leg. She mostly winced because she was waiting for a scolding from her mother about being more careful, but it never came. The Viscountess had already begun to make her way over to the elegant garden party.

Stepping out of the puddle, and quite ungracefully Juvia shook her left leg to try and clear it of any mud.

The sound of giggling made Juvia stop. Her head snapped around to behind the carriage where she swore she heard the giggling. There wasn't anyone there. A fair sized rabbit however had begun to hop away almost as soon as Juvia saw it.

Wait was that rabbit giggling? And was it wearing clothes?

"Juvia!" Her mother scolded once she noticed her daughter wasn't following her. Quickly Juvia caught up, "Honestly girl you need to get your head out of the clouds."

"I am sorry mother." Juvia bowed her head slightly as she walked half a step behind Belno.

As they joined the party, Juvia's head was still bowed slightly. "A lady with such a beautiful smile should never look down to the ground." The voice shot chills up Juvia's spine. Loke Leorke, the Duke of the Western Fiore Duchy, took Juvia's hand and lightly kissed it.

"You flatter me Your Grace." Juvia politely replied.

It couldn't be argued, the Duke was an attractive man. He had inherited the Duchy at a young from his father, so he had only a few years to mature. From the meetings that he and Juvia had held in the past year Juvia had learned that Loke was a very flirtatious man, she had thought it was just something that he was going to grow out of once he had matured, however at the age of twenty-seven Juvia supposed it wasn't going to change.

Even before the death of her father, Belno had been pushing Juvia towards the Duke in hope that the Lockser family would move up in the world. Now, they were losing money and needed the Duke more than ever, and he seemed more than happy to oblige.

"If I may, my lady." Loke very gently lowered Juvia's hand as he addressed her mother, "But might I steal your daughter away from you for the moment."

"Please do, Your Grace." Belno accepted for Juvia, "I know my daughter is in good hands with you." And with that it was just Juvia and Loke.

"You grow more beautiful with each meeting Lady Juvia." Loke complimented offering Juvia his arm, "May I escort you in a stroll around the gardens my lady? The cherry blossoms today are quite magnificent."

Juvia couldn't do anything but accept. She took Loke's arm and he guided her into the maze of hedges that was the part of the Leorke estate. Despite a significant age gap between the two, a ten year gap to be exact, the moment Juvia could run from her mother, Loke would bring her to hide in the gardens. Provided she could only achieve that while her parents were visiting the Leorke estate, which if she thought about it was quite a lot. So Loke knew this was one of her favourite places.

The conversation was very one-sided. Consisting of Loke asking Juvia how she had been since their last meeting, then when she gave the shortest response possible, he began to rattle off in great detail every little thing he had done since she last saw him, and how he had felt.

Then he moved onto a game Juvia liked to call 'remember when' because that is how each statement would start.

"Remember when you were five, and you pulled me down into the gardens to play hide and seek."

Or,

"Remember when you were eight and declared that one day you were going to be my wife? Ah the look on our mothers faces."

Juvia did remember the last part. Her mother had never been more proud of her daughter, and never again would she be proud until the day Juvia put on the white dress to marry Loke Leorke or anyone of equal or higher rank. That wasn't the face however that scarred the memory into Juvia's brain. It had been the look of Loke's mother, Lilica Leorke's face Juvia loved. The woman was utterly mortified at the idea of her only son marrying the daughter of a Viscount. Like Juvia's own mother, Lilica cared about two things, appearance and status. Juvia overheard one day that she would never let Loke marry of Viscount's daughter, a Marquess' daughter perhaps or even an Earl's daughter, but Viscount was pushing it.

Sadly however, for both Lilica and Juvia, Loke had taken interest in many girls, none of them of any higher birth than Juvia. Loke claimed to be loyal to Juvia and only Juvia, but she couldn't have cared less. If the two were to get married one day, Juvia would let him have his way with as many other girls as he wanted, less attention on her then.

Ever since Juvia's father had died, this is how the two would communicate. A little questioning on each other's wellbeing, a game of 'remember when' and then that was it. Juvia had fulfilled her duty of speaking to Loke. Sometimes he would tell her stories, and she would smile or laugh when required but that was it.

Today, Loke decided to break that chain. "Juvia. Do you remember that day?" He apparently wanted an answer for the day she declared she would be his wife.

Lightly, Juvia nodded, "You promised me that one day you would make it happen, much to your mothers disgust."

Loke laughed as he too nodded, "Yes. Today I hope to begin to ful-"

"Did you hear that?" Someone was giggling again. Juvia looked around Loke and could have sworn to have seen the white tail of a rabbit.

"No?" He looked around quickly and saw nothing, "Now please, today I-" Juvia could tell now they were giggling at her. Ignoring Loke, she stepped around him and followed after the rabbit. Confused, Loke followed.

It didn't take long for Loke to get irritated that he couldn't finish and he snatched Juvia's hand and pulled her towards him, "I apologise my lady." He said quickly when he realised what he had done.

"No harm."

"Good. Now Juvia, I need you to stop chasing Fairy Tail's for just one moment. I need to ask you something important." Afraid she might be distracted if she said anything, Juvia nodded giving him the go-ahead. "Thank you. As I was saying, Today I hope to begin to fulfil that promise I made to you almost ten years ago. It took a lot of convincing of my mother, but she has given us her blessing."

Loke began to confuse Juvia. Blessing? For what?

"Juvia." Glancing around for any mud puddles first, Loke took Juvia's hand and kneeled before her, "Would you please do me the honour of allowing me to fulfil my promise to you, and becoming Duchess Juvia Leorke of the Western Fiore Duchy?"

Of course she thought to herself how could I be so stupid? He's proposing. Wait… He's proposing.

Suddenly the realisation of her stupidity turned into shock, and even a little horror. She had joked about it before, marrying Loke, and she knew her mother would be thrilled, but was this what Juvia really wanted? A new fancy name and title with a husband who loved to frolic with tree women at once?

Not too far away, there was a faint gagging sound followed by the rustle of leaves. It wasn't the gagging sound of someone losing their breath, but a forced gag of disgust.

It caught Juvia's attention and Loke had noticed he had lost hers, "My lady, are you alright?"

"Your Grace." Juvia apologised, "You have caught me off guard, I am sorry. I-" There was a giggling sound again, "I need a moment or two to think this over. You know how I am with big decisions. Please meet me at the gazebo in an hour."

Loke never got a chance to reply. Juvia quickly skipped off into the garden, chasing the giggling that had plagued her since she stepped out of the carriage.

While looking, she found herself actually thinking about the marriage proposal. Other than being very flirty and downright obnoxious at times, Juvia couldn't find a fault within him. He was a cute young boy, and had grown into a very attractive man. Juvia hadn't met many different men in her life around Loke's age, but she knew that among them Loke was thought to be at the top of the most eligible bachelor list in Fiore. She knew that mostly from the gossiping girls she was forced to spend time with when she wasn't with Loke or her mother. He was strong, powerful, attractive and kind, what more could Juvia want? Now, thinking back on it, Juvia realised why her parents, namely her mother, kept close relations with the Leorke family.

She knew the maze of a garden better than the back of her own hand, and soon found her way out the back of the maze. Here she had spent a lot of time in the past just thinking. No one had ever found her here, and she was grateful. This day however didn't seem to be anything below normal. There, at the exit to the maze, was a pure white rabbit.

But it wasn't a normal white rabbit, it wore the strangest thing. It wore a light pink coat and stood on its hind legs. It stood and stared at Juvia for a while, and when she went to step closer to the rabbit, it hopped away.

"Hold up!" Juvia called chasing after the rabbit. She just assumed that dressing up animals was just one of the ladies new way of entertaining themselves.

Every time Juvia lost sight of the rabbit, she always found it again, waiting for her, before it bounded off in another direction. This happened a good ten times at least before it stopped at the base of a tree, watching Juvia curiously.

Cautiously, Juvia attempted an approach again, "Here, bunny, bunny, bunny." She cooed, crouching slightly as she approached the rabbit. She held her hand out before her and the rabbit leaned over and began to sniff.

Juvia found it cute how the rabbit's nose twitched with each sniff. It flinched when it accidentally bumped into her hand and jumped back. Feeling bold, Juvia took one step closer.

That one step Juvia would later come to realise was the cross-roads between one life, and another life. But at that moment, all she saw was black.

Later chapters will be longer I promise. I just wanted to end it here to see how it goes. Review and all that jazz!