Juvia likes to think when she walks anywhere. She likes to think whether it will be okay if she does her hair this way, or that way, whatever way she wants for the day. Sometimes she thinks of Gray Fullbuster, the broody boy sitting at the corner, always admiring the cherry blossoms at the window.
Sometimes she thinks about whether the society will accept her the way she is, all alone, friendless, and not quite a talker. Sometimes she just wishes she can stay home and help her stepbrother Gajeel at his locksmith shop.
Juvia is not a social person. She is a closed type of girl, the kind that doesn't go to parties, that doesn't date anyone, that never interacts with even the teachers, even though she is newly recognised as one of the top students at her new school. She's just socially awkward.
And adding to that, the rain. The beautiful but horrible rain that has been doing numerous wonderful things to her life, to which sometimes she regrets. Like how her supposed-ex-boyfriend is supposed to help her when he then joins the bullies. She's forgiving, she's able to smile, but she gets hurt inside every time.
No one knows that the quiet Juvia has a loud mind.
"Hey."
Her thoughts stop there just like that as she lifts her head and comes face to face with someone she never expects to see around her.
"Are you okay?" He asks her, eyebrows knitted. "You look terrible."
There are his friends waiting for him at the front. Natsu Dragneel, and his girlfriend Lucy Heartfilia. They're waving at her and she smiles helplessly back.
Natsu and Lucy jog towards her and smile kindly. "We noticed that you were walking alone, so we thought that you'd like someone to talk to," Lucy starts, her eyes watching Gray. "Of course, Gray here noticed you first, and we kinda need to rush, so we'll walk ahead of you." She gives a rushed goodbye and drags a protesting Natsu down the pavement.
Gray looks over his shoulder as the pair disappears down the road, before he shifts his attention back to Juvia. Juvia shyly looks down to her feet and begins walking, Gray silently walking beside her. Juvia eyes the broody boy carefully - secretly - and notices features she hasn't seen before.
His skin is fair, like porcelain, and she can't help it but to notice the six pack quite showing on his shirt. He has a few grey hairs like herself, and she finds his dark eyes resembles the night sky. She finds them intoxicating. When Gray looks at her questioningly, she shakes her head and looks back down to her shoes.
And now she wonders whether he is wondering about her too.
Gray finds it hard to concentrate during recess, when he notices that a certain blue-haired girl is sitting alone at a table in the corner, surrounded by some bimbos of the school that Gray finds he has horribly disapproved of as schoolgirls. He has been watching her being tortured for the past five minutes.
He'll not be just an observer and let it happen for the rest of the year. Heck, even for the rest of her life.
"Hey, dude, calm it down."
"I'm calm, Dragneel."
"You're not. You're having your fists balled and your veins are popping any second."
"Do I look like I care?"
"Gray, your temper therapies--"
"I'm fine, Lucy."
"Don't go crashing someone's head--"
"I know, I know."
But the next thing he knows, he's looking into her blue eyes, pleading him silently to stop, when he slams each of the girls' face into the table. That's when he comes into reality and sinks to the corner, embraced by none other than the girl who's being bullied.