It was a sunny day, good, good. No sign of rain, no illnesses or deaths, everything would go smoothly. Gray breathed in deeply and exhaled, trying to calm his nerves. No such luck. His glass was shaky in his hand as he sat in the guild. Gray had a feeling he was going to drop it on his foot and have to be sent to the emergency room.
"So, Gray, what was it you needed?" Erza came over and sat next to him. Finally! Gray and been waiting all day for her to get back, so Erza could help him. And he definitely needed help.
"Um, so, um, Erza, um, I, um, need your, um, help with, um, something," Gray stuttered.
Erza glared at him. Just what Gray needed when he was this nervous. "Spit it out!"
Gray inhaled and exhaled. He leaned in and whispered in Erza's ear.
"I'm proposing to Juvia. Will you help me?"
Erza listened to what he had to say, and went bright red. Steam poofed out her ears, and she fell off her seat. A grin stretched a mile wide across her face. "Yes!"
Gray grimaced. He stood in the center of Magnolia, a blueprint in hand. Gray looked over at Erza, whose smile still hadn't left.
"I dunno, Erza. It still seems a little much," Gray turned the map around.
"What's too much?" Erza waved her arms around.
"Well," Gray squinted. "You have written here we're gonna have the entire population of Magnolia surrounding us, our faces projected on a jumbotron, huge ice sculptures depicting important moments in our relationship, a 20 minute fireworks show, and a play reenacting our meeting, and that's before I even get down on one knee."
Erza gasped. "But how are you supposed to propose to someone you've rejected like 20 million times, who has loved you forever and you just shrugged off? How are you supposed to tell Juvia you love her and you mean it?"
Gray blushed.
"Exactly!" Erza continued, "Go big or go home buddy. And I don't know the meaning of go home! Everyone in Fairy Tail has waited too damn long for you two to get together, let alone tie the knot. We are making this special!"
Gray looked confusingly at Erza. "Everyone's been waiting for us?"
"Of course!" Erza was screaming by now. "Everyone in Fairy Tail has fucking shipped you guys forever! If you too didn't get married, settle down, and have enough children to repopulate an island, we were all going to fucking pull our hair out! We have to make this memorable!"
Gray sighed at the map. "It still seems way too much though. Maybe I should just slip her a Taco Bell sauce packet and call it a day."
Erza turned to glare at him in full battle armor. "What did you just say, Gray?"
Gray checked his bow tie one last time. He was decked in a full suit and his hair had recently been styled by Cancer. Gray checked his pocket. The ring was still there. He checked his lungs. Gray was still breathing.
Gray still couldn't believe he had gone through with it. Everyone in Magnolia, as well as many other wizard guilds were dressed in their finest attire and looking at him. The actors were set up for the reenactment. The fireworks were a-go at any moment. The ice statues were perfect (they should be, Gray had made them). His face was even already projected.
Lucy ran up to him, decked in a long red dress. "Juvia's coming. Gajeel will be back with her in any moment."
Gray nodded. That was all he could do. Suddenly, Warren's voice filled his head.
The blue-umbrella is rounding the corner. I repeat, the blue-umbrella is rounding the corner.
Gray scowled. "I thought we weren't doing codenames.
Shut up, procrastinating-Elsa.
The audience instantly closed their mouths and stood straight, and Gray felt his heart beat wildly. Lyon even shot him a thumbs-up from the crowd.
Blue-umbrella has rounded the corner. Procrastinating-Elsa is in view of blue-umbrella. No picking your nose.
Juvia. Compared to Gray in his tux, she was a train wreck. Juvia was wearing her same clothes from earlier when she was fighting mud-slugs for a job. Juvia's hair was ratty and snarly, and her boots made a suck, splat, suck, splat, noise from the mud. But in Gray's mind, she was perfect. The Juliet to his Romeo (hopefully without all the dying).
Juvia was confused. She kept twisting her head to see the crowd in fancy attire and ice sculptures and actors and jumbotron. Gajeel had to push her forward in order to keep her from stopping.
"Gray-sama," Juvia said as she approached him, "what's- what's going on?"
"Juvia," Gray breathed. A loud explosion interrupted him. The fireworks were already exploding overhead. There were hearts and cliché "Gray & Juvia 4evr" stuff splattered all over the stars.
"Gray-sama?"
Gray freaked. He looked over at Erza, who was whispering ferociously into the telepathy. Then the actors started.
Fake water and ice exploded all over the makeshift stage, as the two actors began on their mistaken cue. Juvia was even more confused, if that was possible. But the worst came next. The huge ice sculpture of Gray holding Juvia under an ice altar in wedding attire was rising from the trap door. It wasn't scheduled until after Juvia said yes! By now, the crowd was chattering and interacting as to the cause of the mishaps.
Juvia looked up at the wedding ice sculpture. "Gray-sama, what the…"
Gray decided to improv as Fairy Tail was running around trying to stop the play and fireworks and rising ice sculpture. Erza was still whispering ferociously, her face red and eyes deadly determined.
Gray tumbled onto one knee below Juvia. He fumbled with the velvet box in his pocket as he pulled it out and started to stumble on his words.
"Juvia, I um, well, we um, we can um, lets um, how about, Juvia will you um," Gray's eyes darted all over the square. Gray ripped the box apart and held it up in an attempt to display his message. He looked away.
Juvia took one look at the box and Gray on one knee. She fainted. Gray turned back to her. The entire place was silent. The ice sculpture had stopped rising. The fireworks had stopped exploding. The actors had realized they weren't supposed to start yet.
Gray dropped the box and rushed to her side. Juvia lay unconscious on the cobblestone road, and her head, Juvia's head… was liquefied. Juvia's head was no longer there. All that was left was a puddle of clear water.
"Holy shit. Oh my god. Oh my god. ERZA!" Erza was already running and leaning by Juvia's side.
"Damn it! And we were so close." Erza took Juvia's hand and checked her pulse. "She's still breathing. And she was smart to liquefy her head. Of course, it was probably instinct. She should be fine. We just need to wake her up." Erza turned to Gray. "Go on. Slap her or something."
Gray freaked. "How can I slap her face if she doesn't have a face?"
Erza sighed. "We need to move her, but I don't know how we can do it without leaving part of her head behind."
"When she wakes up, she should be fine," Gajeel offered. "She's dissolved her head like this before. Just get a bucket or something and stick it over her neck. The water will stick together. You people overreact too much. Give the rain woman some credit."
Gray stayed by her bed in the back of Fairy Tail all night. When Juvia finally came to, he had been dozing in a wooden chair Mirajane had pulled up.
"JUVIA!" Gray screamed in delight.
Juvia sat up slowly, her head perfectly fine. "Where is Juvia?" Juvia turned her head as she took in the room and when she finally go to Gray, she fell back down again.
"Oy, Juvia!" Gray shook her until she woke up again a minute later.
"Gray-sama… What happened?"
Gray chuckled. "Well, I was trying to propose to you." Juvia gasped. "Don't act to surprised. I've been wanting to for ages. We've been dating forever. But things kinda got out of hand when I let Erza help me. That's why there were fireworks and reenactments and ice sculptures."
Juvia nodded, still in shock. "That's why Juvia was so confused."
Gray's hand touched his shoulder. "Yeah. It got really out of hand. All I really wanted to do was this." With that, Gray dropped down to the floor on one knee. He pulled the velvet box out of his wrinkled jacket pocket.
"Juvia Lockser, will you," Gray flipped open the box. He started to continue, but Juvia interrupted him.
"Gray-sama, there's no ring in the box."
Gray looked in the box. The ring was gone. The ring he had specially crafted and spent his entire extra clothing savings account on. "Are you fucking serious? This proposal is just not going well."
Gray sighed. He grabbed Juvia's hand. "Juvia Lockser, for the last freaking time, will you marry me?"
There were tears in Juvia's eyes. "Yes, Gray." Gray grinned and created a perfect band of ice around his new fiancée's ring finger.
Gray leaned in and whispered, "And you may now kiss the bride." Their lips were almost touching when a huge cheer echoed from outside. The couple turned towards the window. The entire Fairy Tail guild was hiding in the bushes with binoculars.
Erza screamed out at Gray. "What the hell are you waiting for Gray? Kiss her!"
The two laughed, and he did.
The end.