Juvia stood outside the Fairy Tail guild hall and watched the rain fall. Drip, drip, drop, she thought, and then smiled. Being part of Phantom Lord and the Element Four felt like a lifetime ago. So much had happened since then. She shivered as she remembered Tenrou Island and the fierce dragon Acnologia. They'd all been completely powerless to stop the beast, only the reappearance of Mavis Vermillion had saved them. Juvia recalled the dragon's final attack, staring into its jaws and feeling its utter, absolute magic power that had been ready to obliterate them all.
She heard Acnologia's roar in her dreams every night since then and couldn't get it to stop.
"Is something wrong, Juvia?"
She turned and saw Master Makarov looking up at her, concern written on his face.
"Oh, Master Makarov, sorry, yes um I am ok. Just bad dreams. That's all."
The old guildmaster's eyes were kind. He smiled, the lines on his face multiplying as he did so. It made him look older but kinder, and she liked that. He had been so good to her, and Gajeel too, though the brute didn't seem to appreciate it like she did.
Makarov squinted at her. "I may be old but I'm not a fool dear, what's bothering you?"
Juvia leaned back against the cold stone of the hall and looked at her feet. "I hear it, master. The dragon Acnologia. Louder than any waterfall and unrelenting like a storm. It could have killed us all. Why are there such beings in this world? What purpose does it serve? I thought I'd seen the face of evil in Master Jose...but the dragon, it hated with a force that was beyond human."
Makarov looked away, his face lined and troubled. "I agree it is disturbing. What's more is that we never learned what became of Xeref. He's still out there somewhere."
Juvia's eyebrows drew together and the rain began to pour harder, beating the ground like thousands of clenched fists. "What are we going to do? It's going to come back isn't it?"
"Maybe, we just don't know." Makarov's face split into a smile. "So there's nothing to be worried about. Anything that even dares to harm my children I will take full retribution." A brief flash of brilliant yellow and white light surrounded his entire form and then faded.
Juvia maintained her stone expression. Makarov had said that before and he'd failed, only Mavis's intervention had saved them. She knew that when she went to sleep, Acnologia would be there waiting for her. The midnight hide, claws shining and sharp like swords, and the roar of a beast consumed with absolute hatred.
"Gramps, what you doing out here?"
Juvia's heart rocketed into her throat at Gray's voice. The rain outside lessened and became a fine mist.
"Chatting with our lovely Juvia."
"Yeah? What about?" Gray said, hunching his shoulders against the drops of water that a light breeze was blowing.
"Nothing," Juvia said, her cheeks warming. "Just talking."
"Right," said Gray. "Anyways, Gramps I wanted to ask you something before dinner-"
"By the Wizard Saints it's that time already?" Makarov looked horrified and he half ran past Gray towards the guild hall. "I have to get there before Natsu eats everything!"
"Hey, wait," Gray called, but Makarov was gone.
Juvia giggled. "He's wonderful isn't he."
"Not sure I'd say that," Gray said, a frown creasing his face.
Cold as ice as always, she thought, sure of himself. She looked up at Gray's scowling face. So tall too. She dared imagine him wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, her chest burned and she looked away to hide her reddening face.
"You cold? Your face is red," Gray said.
"Oh! No, I'm not. Er, well maybe a little."
"Then lets get inside. Gramps is right, that flame-for-brain is going eat everything."
Gray's voice soothed Juvia's worries about Acnologia and for moment she almost forgot that the dragon was going to invade her dreams again tonight. If only she didn't have to sleep alone...
"Coming?" Gray was already a few steps ahead.
"Yes, yes," Juvia said.
They went inside the new hall. It was a pale shadow of the old one they'd had before Tenrou, but the last seven years hadn't been kind to the Fairy Tail members that left behind. She knew that the physical place didn't make it home, but her guild members.
No, she corrected herself, her friends.
She sat quietly at a table with a passed out Cana and watched Gray jam a finger into Natsu's chest. Salamander's eyes blazed and his pink hair fell across his face as he frowned up at the slightly taller Gray. She loved watching their antics. A stool flew past her head and crashed into the wall, wood splintering. Makarov shouted and Erza stepped in, crashing her gauntleted fists into their heads and pushing them away.
Laughter bubbled out from the other tables and Juvia believed that it could drown out even Acnologia's roar.