Hi Guys! Snow here and this time A.Z. Erins and I are writing a joint fic on Fairy Tail! YAY! Okay, so the way this works is, she posts one chapter and I see it for the first time when she posts it and without talking about the plot with her, I write the next chapter and post it on my account along with her's. This way, we are seeing each other's chapters the same time you guys are and everything is a surprise to us. We will be building on each other's chapters. Anyways, go to her account to read her note if you wish. Chapter one (this chapter) is written by her and then I wrote the next one which I also posted already so go look at it. That's all for now, Enjoy
Ciao!
Snow
Disclaimer: We do not own Fairy Tail
It was raining that day. Juvia was always happiest when it rained. While the other girls mourned the loss of blue sky and yellow luminescence, Juvia relished the feel of cool drops of water pelting her forearms under blankets of gray. While the other girls hurried inside with their hands held over their heads to block the mischievous beads of moisture, Juvia luxuriated in the sensation of chilled streams running from her hairline and down her neck. Rain was liberating, and she had long come to terms with her insane love of it. Truly, nothing was as refreshing as rain. Nothing as poetic or romantic. She pushed herself off of the softened mud, just barely missing catching her bare arms on the barbed wire, brought the gun parallel with eye level, and fired. Twice.
"Aw, Juvia! You're tracking mud into the hall!" Lucy cried out in horror. She scurried over to where Juvia had entered the room, grabbing a mop that had been propped along the wall from previous use and viciously scrubbed at the mud marks staining the wooden floor.
"And you're late. Honestly. I don't know why you train in the rain. It's muddy out and gross!" Lucy stopped scrubbing for a moment and glanced at Juvia in awe. Her eyes widened fractionally and she chuckled lightly.
"Your hair's dripping and you have mud on your cheeks," she said, reaching out to touch. Juvia jerked away before Lucy's fingers could make contact. Lucy's mouth formed a quiet little "o" in surprise.
"Ah...sorry." Juvia quickly corrected herself and edged back towards the blonde girl. "Go ahead."
Lucy waited a moment, then smiled warmly. Juvia held still while the blonde rubbed at the caked mud on her cheek. "Er...It's hardened a bit. Wait here! I'll be back with a wet towel," she exclaimed, turning and walking briskly away with the intent of returning in a moment. J
uvia watched her go. Becoming friends Lucy Heartfilia had sort of just happened. Or at least...Lucy said they were friends. Friends were kind of a new thing for Juvia. She wasn't used to having people rely on her to provide smiles or having them care about if she was hurt or not. It was slightly disorientating and at first, Juvia had tried to ignore it as much as possible. Juvia had always been a loner. To be honest, she didn't even know herself if she had chosen to be a loner or if it had just happened. She had grown into her teenage years on her own. Then everything had changed. Somehow she had ended up here. Where was here? Here was where blonde girls named Lucy Heartfilia wormed their way through Juvia's protective layers like fish through water. But it wasn't really a bad thing. Juvia sort of liked Lucy. Well...she sort of liked it here. Lucy was sweet. Lots of the girls here were sweet. Juvia could be found actually be found smiling from time to time, with more frequency and sincerity with each passing day. And yeah...Juvia had friends here. And that was...nice. Nicer than she could have imagined.
"Cana! You get your drunken self out of that corner and start hanging those streamers or I swear, I'll come over there and sober you up myself!"
"Bite me."
"Arrghhh!"
"Lucy-chan!"
"What, Levy?"
"I think I broke-"
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence."
Juvia found a lazy smile on her face as she took in the scene unfolding in front of her. She hastily scrubbed at the mud on her cheek, realizing that the promised towel was not coming anytime soon and ran off to join Erza Scarlet at the photobooth.
"Lucy-chan!"
"Agh! Natsu, get off of me! What are you doing here." The pink-haired boy fixed his black eyes on her brown ones.
"Professor Dreyer gave me a fucking detention!" He threw his hands up into the air in desperation before meeting Lucy's eyes again.
"So...yeah...I'm here to help with the charity ball for detention!"
The boy's despair seemed to be only momentary because at that moment, he was bouncing on the balls his feet itching for something to do. Lucy had learned the hard way to always a little wary of Natsu as he tended to be slightly...wily. He leaned closer to her waiting to be told what to do, and she inched slightly away.
"Ah...what did you do to get detention, Natsu?" He rocked back on his heels, a strange mix of glee and distaste taking over his features.
"It was this morning. We were just learning about electricity in Dreyer's physics class, ya know, and we doing some experiments and stuff and I'm partnered with Gray, right?" Natsu shot her an earnest glance. Lucy nodded warily.
"And next thing I know," Natsu resumed, "Gray's on fire and-"
"You caught Gray on fire?" Lucy exclaimed incredulously.
"Are you serious? You idiot, I can't believe this! And-and...how does that even happen? Oh my God! Is he okay? I mean-"
"Calm down! He's fine." Natsu's eyes radiated disapproval. "It was just the sleeve of his shirt. That girl...Juvia, yeah, she put it out. Oh!" The boy doubled over as his body was wracked with laughs. "You should've seen his face! She sprayed the fire extinguisher all over him. His face! He was not happy." Lucy glanced at Juvia working on the other side of the room with Erza on the photo booth and felt her shoulders droop as she brought her eyes at Natsu in disbelief. Oh, what was she going to do with this boy. She sighed. "Fine. Go help Levy with the lights." Natsu flashed her a grin and a wink and bounded off to help Levy. Honestly. He was always getting into trouble, Lucy thought, as she oversaw the other students in the room, making little markings on her checklist of things to do before tomorrow night. She blew a couple of blonde strands of hair out of her face before sitting in one of the chairs that had been placed and decorated at the side of the room for guests who would choose to sit during the festivities. At least work was actually being accomplished now. A week ago, Lucy could barely get anyone to listen to her, let alone actually decorate the hall that they had rented. Looking around the room now, she could actually begin to see the setting for tomorrow's charity ball materialize. Thank God. They were raising money for the school and Lucy had naturally volunteered to head the organization committee. Why had she done that again? No sooner had the thought crossed her mind when she heard something explode. Instinctively, her training kicked in and she ducked, blocking her most vulnerable areas and tucking her head behind her hands. Eventually the smoke cleared and it was ascertained that there was no danger. "NATSU!" ***
"Ah, I'm so tired." Lucy collapsed into Erza's lap sleepily and yawned.
"Remember how Natsu fucking blew up some of the lighting fixtures today? Well, he told me that he'd make it up to me somehow and so I told him that I'm signing him up to be one of the bachelors for tomorrow, but you know what the idiot said? He said 'I can't...but I'll get one of my friends to do it for you, Lucy-chan!'" The girl scrunched her face up in distaste. "He better...we're still short a couple bachelors and bachelorettes." The older girl didn't react, remaining still on the bench that she had perched herself upon. Lucy popped back up. "Erza?" No response. "Erz-" "Shh!" Erza's eyebrows were drawn together in intense concentration as she stared across the campus grounds and something in the distance. Lucy whirled around on the bench, still partly in Erza's lap to distinguish what had caught the redhead's attention. "What? I don't see...it's too dark to see any-" "Shh!" Lucy shut up and waited. Without a word, Erza stood up suddenly. Lucy let out an undignified yelp as her rear hit the ground, which was still rather wet from the earlier downpour, rather forcefully. "I'm going to join that." Erza stated matter-of-factly, pivoted on her heel, and stalked off without another glance at Lucy. "Wha-?" Lucy strained her torso a second time to find what Erza had seen. In the distance, she could just barely see a ring of several boys and girls seated on a blanket in the grass in the middle of the campus quad. They had what looked like a telescope propped up in the space between them and were taking turns speaking. "What. The Astronomy Club?" There wasn't an answer.