Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
It had started to rain.
The weather was crystal clear that morning, but now clouds curl ominously toward the guild and block out even the tiniest rays of sunlight in the sky. To add to the dreary backdrop, the look Mirajane kept shooting him from across the bar was unnecessary.
Her eyes gleamed with that one command: fix it.
The day's weather change was obviously care of Juvia. Gajeel had his mouth drawn tight and the repeated, restless rolling of his shoulders confirmed it, foretelling trouble for someone. And everyone had decided that it was him. Always him. How was he supposed to fix something when he didn't even know what he did? Better still, how was he supposed to fix this supposed crime if she wasn't at the guild in the first place? He wasn't about to waltz up to Fairy Hills, setting off every charm and enchantment to keep away any male company or intruders without solid evidence it was something he did.
Thinking back, Gray is sure he hasn't done anything since they'd gotten back from the royal city and she had seemed perfectly fine then.
Yet, the air is heavy and taut with humidity and mixed with the bated breath of any guild member sitting within five feet of his hunched figure.
These people are going to drive him crazy and into an early grave.
A creak shatters the silence and Juvia's prim silhouette appears outlined in the guild's double doors. She hadn't uttered a word, but the drip drip drop hung in the quiet air like a promise for melancholic torture. It causes the iciest shiver to interrupt his stony front, he's pretty sure he hears a rush of breath pass through Gajeel's clenched teeth. A condemning sentence to his person if he'd ever heard one.
Juvia elegantly twists her wrist to lower the pink umbrella, closing it with the softest whoosh of fabric and shuddering raindrops at her command. Her heels click past the threshold and up to Mirajane's bar counter, her voice quiet as she requests something warm to drink. As always, she's welcomed with the warmest of smiles and a gentle flick of one white curl over the demon take over mage's slender shoulder.
Wakaba and Macao carefully test the waters first, greeting her and inquiring about whether she had any trouble getting in today. Gray manages to catch her voice this time, a forlorn sigh of thanks and hello and Juvia hadn't noticed the weather until she'd halfway reached the guild. Romeo lazily stretches out on a bench beside his dad during the exchange, talking to Juvia about school and training and how his summer was going only when she turns her attention to the boy.
There's a good possibility that whatever Mirajane was preparing for Juvia has been dropped because a distinct crash and soft curse reach his ears after Romeo carelessly remarks on the depressing weather. At the back of the guild hall, Gajeel drops his head into a hand and mutters his own string of inspired curses. Wakaba chokes on a drag from his cigarette, an incident that hadn't occurred since his youth. Juvia doesn't say anything, she merely offers the kid a tense smile and measuredly turns on her heel as Mirajane emerges from the kitchen with her steaming tea.
She moves along like a weighted shadow, the clicks of her heels louder and sharper in her sour mood.
His friends are a bunch of cowardly traitors, leaving him alone at their usual table the second she had come in. Lucy had flounced off to discuss her novel with Levy and Natsu conveniently remembered a valid reason for instigating the iron dragon into today's fight. Erza had left with Wendy and Carla for the sweets shop half an hour ago, he was sure they knew of the tension brewing way beforehand. At least they got a warning.
"Juvia wishes to speak with Gray-sama."
He jumps at her voice and sudden proximity; the moment stewing in self-pity left him completely open to be approached by her and effectively cutting off any chance of a getaway with cheap excuses. Her polite request was swallowed up in her old monotone, the voice of Phantom Lord's rain woman. Flashes of her unbridled anger and water slicers swell in his mind and stall his bravado. Gray draws in a breath and hopes he hadn't done anything too bad.
"Uhm, sure, Juvia. What's on your mind?" Gray looks up from his shoes to his drink, to her hands clutched to the umbrella handle before meeting her empty gaze.
"Privately, please." Her eyes come back to life only long enough to dart a glance toward the second floor and back to him.
Damn. There goes his hope for witnesses.
Or at least any aid Gajeel might give if things neared out-of-hand. The dragon slayer pretended to be a cold-hearted bastard that enjoyed watching others get fried, but his actions of familiarity and experience when it came to Juvia broke the illusion. Gray had watched Gajeel deter misguided comments about rain and clouds more than enough times to know he looks out for his old guild mate and has some foresight to protect his new ones to an extent.
He decides to play it cool, innocent until proven guilty. Which he was! Innocent, that is.
At least, he thinks.
Gray scratches the back of his head and murmurs a 'sure,' reaching for his glass and following her up the stairs. Just as they get to the top, he shoots an icy stare of his own down to the occupants of the dining hall for good measure. It was enough to serve as a catalyst to stop them from openly ogling and to start chatting, gossiping, amongst themselves once again.
The second story is dimly lit since it wasn't being used for the afternoon, half of the members were still at home or out on missions for the week. It was a small relief in knowing there was no one up here to eavesdrop on them. Not that there aren't two very capable dragon slaying idiots already tuned in from the floor below. Gray furrows his brows and irritably rakes his hand through his hair as Juvia blithely moves around the maze of tables and chair legs. He still can't fathom what he could possibly do to make her this livid.
She chooses the farthest corner, conveniently also the darkest. Just his luck.
Juvia settled herself into the chair facing away from the stairs, leaving him to the chair opposite her, tucked into the corner. Warning bells shrill in his head, she was keeping up an air of distant business that was strange to him. He deduces that this must be how she carried herself in Phantom Lord, a side of herself strictly assigned to specific parties. Gray recalls catching a similar attitude from her during the Grand Magic Games. While then it had been cool and mysterious, it is terrifying now.
He fidgets in the hard chair once, twice before circling back to his plan, self preservation through indifferent innocence, and slumping casually in the chair. Juvia seems satisfied with his cooperative stillness and clears her throat.
"Gray-sama is the stupidest man Juvia has ever met. She hates him for his ignorant decisions in the throes of battle."
Just like that, a proverbial switch flips and Gray's resolve is broken before he gets even one word in because her eyes are colder than any tundra Ul had dragged him through in his underwear; they shine and spark with an anger he knows is unmatched. The water mage could easily give Mirajane's feared Satan Soul a run for its money with the sheer force.
Juvia's slender fingers lace menacingly together in front of her, set lightly on the table as she continued, "If Gray-sama ever decides to act this way again, Juvia will-"
His mind kickstarts at the sight of her twitching hands that are growing paler with her rising temper and the too even tone of her voice. "Hold on a second, Juvia."
Gray spits her name out like a curse. Where does she get off making threats and belittling his capabilities in a fight? He swears if this has anything to do with those senseless brawls everyone in the guild takes part in, he's going to be dragging everyone else's asses up here to get the same cold-blooded lecture and dose of insults. "Just what the hell did I do?"
The audacity to square his shoulders and bite back with his own clipped sentences doesn't worry him. If she was enraged with him to begin with, then his manner wouldn't have factored in his fate once she was done chewing him out like a child. It's obvious she was going to pin him the second she made up her mind to talk with him.
If push came to shove, Wendy could always revive what was left of his sorry carcass.
"Do you not remember?" Juvia's eyes narrow even more and a sliver of admiration slips into his consciousness over her calculated precision in handing out bottled fear to her prey.
"Remember what?!"
"Keep your voice low, Gray-sama. I distinctly recall asking for this to be a private conversation. There would be no point if you insist on throwing such tantrums."
His chair screeches with the force of his weight shifting forward so fast, "If you've got something to say, say it. I've got better things to do than deal with this talking-in-circles crap."
"Surely you remember?!" This time her voice does raise and there's a split second of hurt racing through her glittering eyes for his apparent memory loss. The high pitched plea rings out in the guild, making him flinch. The sounds of silverware and conversation abruptly cease with the disruption.
Juvia takes a calming breath and Gray notices that the pounding he thought to be the beginnings of a headache had subsided to a soft pitter, patter. In her burst of emotion, the rain had picked up into a torrential downpour against the guild. Things settle once more, conversation picking up where it had previously lulled.
She scoffs at his lost expression and heaving shoulders from his growing frustration, "Yes, Juvia supposes Gray-sama wouldn't."
Her cool disappointment settles like a rock in his throat and he tries to swallow it down, "Okay, okay. What- Juvia, you've gotta to be more specific, what did I forget? What did I do?"
Gray's sigh and compromise in irritation quells some of her own hurt and fury enough to soothe her rattled nerves, for now. "One second, in battle. I-I saw into the future, or maybe it was just a nightmare, but I saw…" Juvia steels herself, the last visage of anger still clinging to her like those wretched rain clouds. "Gray….You died."
"Oh. Yeah...," He scratches the back of his head again and somberly falls back in his chair, "That."
There's a reason he couldn't immediately remember just why she would have a bone to pick with him. This didn't really register as a wrong done to her and Gray had since spent countless nights trying to erase the bitter taste of blood, death, and her scream from his senses. The days and weeks following that battle had blurred, everything passing in a rush of multiplying mission requests and a night of glittering chandeliers. Gray had naively hoped it wouldn't be a big deal or even fully understood since it happened so fast. It'd probably be the wrong time to admit he would do it again and again.
Then, there was Ultear. What she had done…and for only one redo minute? God, he was still angry at her most days for it. That crazy chick was her mother's daughter through the thick of it. It was frustrating and any time the reality started to sink in, it sucked the breath out of him.
"Listen, it's no big deal. It was just one split second that didn't happen at the end of it all. There's no need to get worked up about it. We're all still here, so no worries. Besides, no measly beam is gonna take m-"
"Gray, you do not throw your life away so carelessly. It was absolutely foolish-"
The different use of his name felt like a shower of ice washing down his back, stifling him and nearly overshadowing the unimaginable irritation at being back at square one with this conversation.
"Wait. Who are you to say I was throwing my life away? I get to choose what I do. You and Meredy were going to die, Juvia. What'd you expect me to do?" He accusingly points a finger in her direction and despite his best attempts at honoring her request, he raises his voice. Gray hates that it seems to sound more and more hoarse with each word.
"I am a rain woman. My body is merely water, nothing can touch me. You do not possess the same-"
"We were all caught off guard. Could you say, with absolute certainty, that you would have been able to liquify in time?"
She had given the possibility great thought, but having that reality figured out by someone else and tossed back at her so quickly took her off guard. The shadow that crosses over his eyes speaks of the time and possibilities he's mulled over the entire ordeal. Juvia flounders with her next move, this wasn't going how she had planned.
But she shouldn't be surprised, after all this was Gray she was talking to and nothing ever went according to plan when the ice make mage was involved.
"I-"
"Exactly. You can't guarantee a reaction that quick. What good are you dead, Juvia?"
"And what good are you? Do you expect Juvia to go on with that on her hands? To go on without y-" Her anger and sorrow collide nastily, tangling her speech and melting the wall she had built up for the fight. Sometime during her outburst, her hands had been thrown up and clenched into fists in front of her.
"Listen, I've already had to sit through more than my fair share of future and living lectures from the flame brain and I'm not really up for this regularly scheduled conversation like I'm incapable of making my own decisions. In spite of the obvious opinion that I'm missing the point, I know I can't throw my life around recklessly or whatever. That rule's not gonna work for me when you're on the line."
Gray is confusing and she's only trying to show him that his death is not worth her. The guild could go on without her, but they couldn't go on without him. She couldn't go on without him. "Juvia is flustered and irritated. Gray-sama is impossible."
He actually laughs, surprising more than just Juvia and one or two dragon slayers. Gray offers her that rakish smirk, "That tends to work both ways," and all of her rage dissolves into a sorry puddle. There's even the lightest dusting of pink on his cheekbones.
Nothing is settled and the conversation had become a petulant game of tug-a-war, but the small crack in tension is more than welcomed. Their shoulders relax and their breathing eases a fraction and Gray swears he can hear the walking weathervane roll his eyes at this exchange.
The moment of good humor between them breaks down the steel resolve she'd learned in her Phantom days. Juvia ducks her chin, her hat sliding down the slightest, as tears spill over her cheeks. She finally relents to shaking shoulders and a guttural sob for only Gray to hear.
He gets it, he really does. If he thought about it for too long, if Ultear hadn't done what she did, it sent him into a spiraling vertigo that drove a spike through his gut. Juvia deserved, needed, to still be around. She was still learning and experiencing a life outside of a tyrant master and murderous guild mates. He reaches out to gently place her hands back on the table, and Gray thinks back to the tipping point progress from protecting her as a guild mate, a friend, to the jumbled titles they were now.
Soon after Juvia joined the guild, she had entered the hall one day in hysterics. Weeping and cursing an illness that had come over her, caterwauling that death was sure to follow soon. The water mage had been absolutely frantic, Levy and Lucy couldn't calm her down, Mira had tried too, and Gajeel didn't stand a chance to decipher the blubbered words that had been tumbling from her mouth at an unreal rate. It had been Gray to catch her wrists and stop her, ordering her to take a deep breath and calmly, calmly, explain what was wrong. She sucked back her tears to mutter about strange spots she couldn't erase from her face, they were blue and she had no idea what to do.
It turned out, the girl who had been raised by rain clouds and a constant drizzle had never felt the sun nor known of its effects. Like the freckles dusting her nose. He'd laughed wholeheartedly, her fear was very real, but she had been terrified of freckles, blue ones no less.
That's why she had to be here, to discover more about the world.
The adrenaline rush pounding out his pulse in his temples causes his words to come out fast and feed the false courage to say what he needed to say. It was a long time coming and his usual evasive maneuver wasn't going to fly with Juvia. He'd rather not get trapped in another water lock.
"I won't throw my life away, but I'm gonna find a couple loopholes or I'm just gonna have to make an exception when you're in danger."
A soft hiccup mixed with a painful squeak cuts off the rest of Gray's finishing argument and he meets her eyes, normal and expressive and so blue. "Y-you chased away the rain, you are important t-to m-m-me." Her shyness rattles a few of her words, but he hears her loud and clear. "I don't want to be the reason you die, even if it is to save- to save Juvia's life."
"Then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, yeah?" Gray stands up and finishes the last remains of his drink.
She stands with him and brushes the wrinkles from the skirt of her coat, nodding her head once. As they near the staircase,the ogling audience in full attendance, she turns back to face him, smiling, "Juvia will bring Gray-sama back to life to water lock him if he throws himself in front of Juvia again."
This guild was impossible and he could never seem to get a thank you, before or after he had his ass handed to him.
A/N: AKA, How Many Water Puns Can I Fit In 164 sentences.
I was hard pressed to label this as romance because there's really only a not-quite confession.