welcome to dullsville
summary; he's always been boring to her, and she's not exactly sure when that changes
They're squashed into a booth in an annoyingly loud restaurant with tacky leather seats and an even tackier looking menu with all the dishes written as if they're living on a cowboy ranch. Why Lucy picked this place for a date night, Juvia doesn't know - especially when she knows Lucy normally has such excellent taste when it comes to eating out.
She's only there because Lucy asked her and, really, there's not much she won't do for Lucy. Still, she sees no need to pretend like she's happy with the situation and settles for glaring at her 'date' over the rim of her wine glass.
He's Natsu's friend from university (or something like that, she doesn't really pay attention when he introduces himself), and she decides right away that he's boring. Boring to look at. Boring to talk to. Boring to even think about. Everything about the man is boring. Welcome to Dullsville, she thinks as she watches him neatly slice a chip (a goddamn chip) into two pieces, population...You.
She turns to glare at Lucy for having the audacity to put her in a situation like this and is unsurprised to see her whispering something that makes the tips of Natsu's ears turn red. A second later, and Lucy is jumping out of her seat, hoisting Natsu up by the arm.
"We'll be right back!" she says brightly, sending Juvia a knowing look, and it takes all Juvia's self control not to chuck her glass of wine all over her best friend. They really don't need to get banned from another restaurant anyway. Instead, she cuts her a pointed glare that says everything she can't voice out loud: "you fuckin' nympho."
Lucy merely winks and trots off, dragging an apologetic looking Natsu behind her. Juvia never knows why Natsu pretends to look so embarrassed whenever they disappear together; she knows he's into it just as much as Lucy. She wonders if it's weird that she's reached a point with her friendship with Lucy and Natsu, that knowing the sordid details of their sex life doesn't bother her anymore. A quick glance up at her very red 'date' tells her it probably is weird.
His cheeks have flared up, and he's staring at Natsu's empty seat with a look of awe and disbelief etched onto his face. Juvia decides that he looks stupid. So he's boring and stupid. Oh God, Lucy is going to owe her big time. She turns back to her 'date' and tries to rack her mind for his name. He's staring at her - literally staring - and she can't help but smirk.
Poor boy, she thinks as she reaches out for an olive and pops it into her mouth, probably can't believe his luck.
"So Juvia-chan," he says and she cringes. His voice is just as boring as, well...everything else about him. She knows she'll forget what he sounds like in about five minutes, "how do you know Lucy and Natsu?"
For a conversation starter, it's the epitome of dullness, but she decides to let it slide. A quick glance at her phone tells her Lucy and Natsu will be gone for at least another ten minutes, and she doesn't really want to sit in silence for that long. So she exhales lightly and leans on the table, cupping her chin with her hand and fixes him with her best, 'I'm a friendly person, I swear' look.
Lucy once told her that look makes her look slightly deranged, and Juvia wonders if that might be true, because her 'date' suddenly raises his eyebrows and begins to look anywhere but at her.
"I've known Lucy forever," she says simply, deciding her 'date' doesn't need to know the details of their friendship. She and Lucy go way back and they haven't always been friends. Juvia scrunches up her nose a little as she can't help but recall the early days of her relationship with Lucy - she doesn't like to think about that.
Instead she clears her throat and continues, "and when she started dating that nerd-"
"Natsu?"
"That's what I said," she frowns, "anyway, when they started dating I just tagged along."
"And the…" he clears his throat and glances towards Natsu's still empty chair, "they do this often?"
Juvia grins and she has to fight down the cackle of laughter that is currently bubbling in her throat. The poor boy looks so embarrassed at the thought of his best friend having sex. Nevermind that the person he's having sex with has been his partner for the last five years and even though there's not a ring on her finger (Juvia secretly thinks there never will be), they might as well be married.
"Do they run off to fuck often?" she asks, enjoying it when he squirms suddenly and practically whimpers, "yep!"
"Oh…" he pales slightly, and she realises he's a prude.
So that's boring, stupid, and a prude. She doesn't know what Natsu or Lucy see in him.
"So Gary," she says, her attention waning, "were you and Natsu roommates or something?"
"It's Gray."
She blinks, "what?"
"My...my name. It's Gray, not Gary," he says it with a sheepish smile as if he were the one to make the mistake, and Juvia doesn't even bother to hide her eye roll. She's saved from having to respond, or apologise, by the reappearance of Natsu and Lucy - both looking significantly dishevelled. Lucy smells vaguely of smoke and the top button from Natsu's shirt is nowhere to be seen.
"You're both disgusting," Juvia mutters, though she's glad they're back. It means she doesn't have to force conversation with Gary anymore.
Sorry. With Gray.
.
.
.
She had hoped that that evening would be the last time she'd ever have to meet Gray, but now it's ten days later and she's crammed onto a sofa with him in Lucy's apartment.
Lucy is fishing around the fridge, looking for the good beer she swears she bought, and Natsu is downstairs, probably getting conned out of a small fortune in tips from the pizza guy. That leaves her and Gray, sitting on the couch and she's not happy.
Movie night is their weekly tradition and she's a creature of habit and she doesn't appreciate a stranger being invited into their inner circle. It doesn't matter that Gray isn't technically a stranger and that he and Natsu have probably been friends for as long as she and Lucy - she doesn't want him there! Besides, she hasn't forgotten about how boring he is.
Even now, he barely makes any attempt at meaningful conversation. She's tuning him out, but she thinks he's talking about the weather, and the thought makes her want to bash her head on Lucy's coffee table.
"Juvia-chan?"
Oh God, his voice is grating on her nerves and the only reason she doesn't stand up and move pointedly to the other end of the room is because Lucy suddenly looks up from the fridge and fixes her with a pointed stare that so obviously means: 'Play nice.'
So she turns to Gray, not bothering to force a polite smile on her face, and raises one eyebrow in way that very clearly says: "What?"
If he's offended by her attitude, he doesn't let it show. In fact, he smiles wider and brandishes his phone in the air, "have you seen this?"
She squints and looks at the screen before a snort of laughter bursts from her nose and she recoils back, clutching her sides.
He shows her a picture of cat. It's a cat meme. From like 2009. And he thinks it's the very definition of cute or hilarious or maybe a mix of both.
He laughs with her, not understanding that she's laughing at him, "yeah, it's funny right?"
She wants to say that yes, it is funny - funny in the same way you laugh politely when your 50 year old mother starts reposting memes from 2009 on Facebook. She's sure he's at least her age and the fact he finds 'can I haz cheezburger' memes from pretty much the Stone Age doesn't do much to boost her already dwindling opinion of him. But she doesn't say this, because Lucy is coming over now with a case of beer and she really doesn't want her to chuck one at her.
So she leans back into the sofa and shrugs, watching in vague amusement as he scrolls through his phone and shows her more relics from 2009.
.
.
.
It's raining so she's already in a bad mood.
She likes the winter. She likes dark nights, and sitting in a room with the heat cranked up to the maximum temperature. She likes watching the moon and trying to count stars, (though she lives in the city, so that's kind of impossible). But she hates the rain.
She sighs in annoyance as she taps her fingers impatiently on her steering wheel, willing to long line of traffic in front of her to hurry the fuck up. She has places to be! Well, she has a warm bed that's calling her name and a cat to feed, but she thinks that technically counts as 'places to be.'
Her one thought of solace is that at least she's inside her car, and not outside, battling against the torrential downpour of rain like the poor suckers surrounding her on the pavement. She snickers slightly as she watches a woman run down the road with her thin coat hoisted over her head - not that it does her much good. And behind her, there's a teenager trying desperately to stick her umbrella up and behind her there's a man who looks oddly familiar.
Stupid and messy hair. Stupid face. Even stupider sense of style.
She watches curiously as Gray marches down the street trying to get out of the rain. He's doing a terrible job of it and he wonders why at least one of his many coats or jumpers doesn't have a hood. She considers honking at him as she drives by but she decides that even she's not that mean.
So she crawls up beside him and waits for him to notice the creepy car that's driving far too slowly. It takes him a moment or two, but he eventually glances at her and she groans as she watches his frown turn into a smile.
"Juvia-chan!"
Well, she can't hear him because the door is still closed, but she knows that's what he said. She gestures for him to get in and she can't help but think he looks like a drowned puppy as he eagerly jumps into her passenger seat, shaking off his messy (stupid) hair as he does so.
"Try not to get my seats too wet," she mumbles as she pulls away, despite knowing that there's not really anything he can do about that - not when he looks like he's spent the last hour swimming fully clothed.
"I'll try," he says nonetheless, and she knows that he's serious.
She rolls her eyes, but says nothing. They've gotten to know each other a little better now, though she can't say that's intentional. Whenever she goes to meet up with Natsu he seems to be there, trailing after them like a lost puppy or one of those weird meme's he's so fond of.
"Where are you off too, Juvia-chan?"
He's very polite. So polite, it irks her slightly. She's used to spending her time with Lucy who is, quite possibly, the most blunt person in the universe, and Natsu who, albeit a little more reserved, has known her for long enough, he's not afraid to say what's on his mind anymore. So having Gray join their friendship group is a bit weird she finds.
"Home," she says bluntly, "and you?"
"Me too!"
She hums before she realises she doesn't exactly know where he lives, and she's just been driving towards her own apartment building and - oh God, if she has to turn back and drive a million miles in the opposite direction she is going to kill someone.
"Where do you live?"
"Ah," he swivels round in his seat, peering out the window, "just back there!"
Her eye twitches and she feels her grip on the steering wheel tighten a little, "why…" she takes a deep breath, "why did you not say anything?"
Gray at least has the decency to offer her a sheepish smile, "I was enjoying your company."
She snorts and quickly does a (probably illegal) U-turn in the middle of the road.
She doesn't say anything, because she doesn't want to admit that while she can't say she 'enjoys' his company, she does recognise that it's not the worst thing in the world.
.
.
.
"Up."
"Juvia-chan, I was sitting here."
She taps her feet impatiently on the floor, her arms crossed over her chest, as she fixes Gray with her best glare that plainly says: "Boy, don't make me ask again."
Grumbling slightly, Gray gets up and slides to the other end of the sofa and Juvia offers him a rare thank-you smile.
"I don't see what's wrong with the rest of the sofa, though?"
She doesn't answer and instead plops down and curls her feet up underneath her bottom. She's decided that Gray doesn't need to know that one time she let herself in to Natsu's apartment and found him lying completely naked, face down on his sofa. He also doesn't need to know that exactly where he's now sitting is where Natsu's naked, ahem, junk was and that's why she now refuses to sit on his sofa unless she's sitting in her spot.
It's Friday night and they're supposed to be having their weekly movie night, but Natsu and Lucy entered Natsu's bedroom 'to look for DVD's' about twenty minutes ago and Juvia knows they probably won't be leaving for another twenty. She really hates them sometimes, but she decides that it's not all that bad.
She has Gray to keep her company after all.
Woah, that thought invades her mind without her permission and she wonders just when Gray became someone she doesn't mind spending time with? She glances towards him and she's unsurprised to find he's smiling at her.
He's always smiling at her. Even when she rolls her eyes at him and dismisses his weird obsession with memes from years ago. Despite herself, she smiles back a little when he catches her eye.
It's funny, she decides, she distinctly remembers their first meeting. Back at that ridiculously tacky restaurant. He seemed plain and boring and oh, so stupid. She figures her opinion of his hasn't changed that much in the six months she's known him. But, and she has to admit, something has changed because she remembers a time where being alone in a room with Gray would have made her groan and consider leaping out of the nearest window. Now however, she's happy to sit with him, happy to listen to him natter on about God knows what, happy to let him smile at her.
She frowns a little as she realises she's not exactly sure when that change happened. Her frown deepens a little more as she realises that she's kind of glad the change happened.
He's not Lucy, he will never be a replacement for Lucy, and he's not even as cool as Natsu, but right now, Juvia can concede that Gray isn't boring. And for her, that's enough.
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A/N: *wonders how exactly I became obsessed with edo!gruvia within 48 hours*
review pls!