notes: so like, i'm positively sure there's this trope/cliche of gray being a singer and stuff, but. i took the idea and basically just ran with it. or it ran and dragged me along behind it, whatever. same thing. probably gonna be some nalu in here, 'cause everybody knows i ship it so hard. also maybe gale and jerza. we'll see.
dedication: to indigohailstorm and the 1975. and maybe comfortable sweaters.
summary: He plays in bars after the sun goes down, and she just works in a tea shop. He is everything she isn't, and she's in love. (Darling heart, I've loved you from the start.)
disclaimer: own nothing
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{why don't you just figure my heart out?}
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Juvia Lockser watches as the raindrops splatter against the pavement outside. Small droplets of water run down the window, leaving tear trails on the glass panes. It's a dull day—all rain and no sunshine, the kind of day that makes people feel tired and exhausted even before they get out of bed. She should know, she hates the rain.
Business is slow in the shop today, even though today is the type of day that tea was definitely for. All she wants to do is curl up in a chair with a good book and a cup of Earl Grey, but that's bad for business.
Though, it's not like customers were just pouring in through the doors like the sky was pouring outside.
Unfortunately.
She doesn't have many friends, just three or four good ones that she met during high school and college. Well, then there's Gajeel—but he's on a completely different level for many reasons. One, he's her roommate and pays half the rent and the electric bill. Two, he's known her the longest and is probably her best friend. And three, he's kind of an intimidating guy and scares the living daylights out of most people.
She likes him anyway, though.
The blunette runs her finger along the lines in the wood of her desk and sighs. It's a quiet life—except when Gajeel blasts his heavy metal loud enough to wake the dead—but she's not the type of girl that parties hard and long or goes wild anyway. She's too shy, too socially 'inept' for that sort of thing. She doesn't think that she'd like it, either.
She tugs at the sleeves of her oversized sweater, pulling them down over her fingertips. Days like these are cold and the shop has a draft that the owner never seems to fix. That's okay though, because she usually wears clothing that covers her up—sweaters, skirts, boots, leggings, tights, sometimes even dresses. She's not such a big fan of showing a lot of skin.
Compared to most girls—outgoing, social, who make friends easily—her life is a rather mundane one.
But she's okay with that.
The rain starts to come down harder, and she is content just to watch the people outside.
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Juvia looks up from the television when the front door of her shared apartment opens. It's Friday night and she's wrapped up in a couple warm blankets, watching a romantic comedy. The room is almost dark—save for the small golden glow coming from the lamp on the side table—and she can still hear the rain falling outside.
Gajeel grunts and kicks off his boots.
"If this rain doesn't stop soon, there's gonna be a damn flood."
He slips off his coat and hangs it on the rack by the door, mumbling something under his breath. Juvia smiles a little at her gruff roommate as he heads to the bathroom—presumably to get a warm, clean towel and dry off.
Or hopefully take a shower, considering the fact that he worked at an autobody shop and she didn't really want grease and oil all over her brand new indigo towels.
"Juvia made some lasagna earlier and put the leftovers in the refrigerator. Gajeel wasn't home yet so Juvia went ahead and ate without him," she calls softly, then turns back to her movie.
He grunts and reappears about ten minutes later, shirtless and drying his wild hair with a towel. He comes to a stop behind the couch and she turns to glance up at him. It's still kind of dark, but she can see most of his silver piercings glinting in the dim lamplight. She likes to count them sometimes, even if she already knows how many there are.
He raises a brow at her. "Whaddya think you're doing sitting in the dark like this? You'll ruin your eyes. Turn on a damn light."
She smiles and shrugs. "Juvia likes to watch movies in the dark. It's like a home theater."
Gajeel rolls his eyes and turns on the matching lamp on the adjoining table. "If that's what you, I'll just take you to a movie on my next day off. Now, no more of this sittin' in the dark shit, ye hear?"
Juvia nods and hides her wide smile behind the pillow she's clutching to her chest.
No matter how rough and unapproachable he acts, Gajeel Redfox has a kind heart and warm soul. It's just hidden under layers of piercings and muscle and crude demeanor. But the point is, that it exists.
He sighs and heads off into the kitchen in search of the lasagna she'd mentioned earlier, but not two minutes later she hears him swear just before the microwave goes off. She blinks, and then returns to watching her movie once more.
Gajeel's cat—Patherlily—jumps up on the couch beside her and quickly buries himself in her pile of blankets. She giggles lightly and pats him on the head.
He's not very fond of storms or rainy weather. The thunder terrifies him.
Gajeel startles them both by stomping to his room and slamming the door. The apartment falls into silence—the only sounds being the pitter patter of rain outside and the low murmur of the television. Juvia glances down the hallway, and it's not long before the door bangs against the wall again. The next thing she knows, Gajeel is storming toward the front door, fully dressed and pulling on a clean leather jacket.
"Gajeel-kun, where are you going?" she questions sitting up a little straighter and glancing at the clock.
10:52 pm.
He turns and sends her a glare, though she knows it's not actually aimed at her and instead he's just angry. At what though, is the question.
Gajeel waves his phone around in a wild arch. "Shrimp just texted me saying that no one's able to pick up Bunny Girl from work, and that she's 'concerned about her well-being' since there's apparently some punk on the loose that's roughing women up. So she wants me to fuckin' do it."
Juvia tries hard not to smile—really, really hard—and so she settles for something else instead.
No use in making Gajeel any angrier.
(He's very much smitten with one Levy McGarden though, even if he doesn't know it yet.)
The cornflower-haired girl tosses her blankets off and stands. She's still dressed in what she was earlier—a beige sweater, white-collared shirt, pleated navy skirt, and polka dot tights—so she's okay to go.
"Juvia will accompany you, if you'd like."
Maybe he won't get into any fights, that way.
He stares at her long and hard for what seems like an eternity—so long that she starts to fidget and even begin to think about retracting her offer—but then he grunts.
"Sure, whatever. Just grab your boots and a coat and hurry up. I don't wanna be out in this shit all night."
She smiles, and he pretends not to notice.
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"Hey Bunny Girl. Get your shit so we can leave," is Gajeel's opening statement when they walk into the bar.
Juvia watches as Lucy Heartfilia's smile wavers upon hearing his voice, and when she turns around—hands planted firmly on her hips, golden hair pulled up into a side ponytail, turquoise blouse cut low, but head raised high—she rolls her eyes.
"Hello to you too, Gajeel. And if you didn't notice, I'm still on my shift?"
The blonde smirks slightly when he growls and sits himself down on a stool at the bar she's tending. Lucy's eyes light up when she spots Juvia, and she sends the girl a wide smile. She tucks some dull blue hair behind her ear and gives the blonde barmaid a small smile and a wave.
Juvia takes a seat next to Gajeel, and they wait for Lucy's shift to end at eleven-thirty. She can hear her friend mumbling under his breath, and it makes her smile. If he didn't at least care a little for the blonde, he wouldn't have even bothered coming.
She thinks Lucy knows that too.
There's something she's never quite been able to figure out though, and that's why Gajeel always calls the blonde 'bunny girl' instead of her name. She's asked about it before—because frankly, it was kind of unusual but then there was the fact that he gave all the girls in his life some kind of nickname if he 'didn't mind them'—but all she got from Lucy was an extremely exasperated sigh and the biggest eyeroll she'd ever seen in her life.
It was spectacular, but she still didn't find out what she wanted to know.
And when she questions Gajeel about it, he just starts laughing like it's some private joke between the two.
Lucy is one of her only female friends—one of her only friends—and she likes Lucy. The blonde is funny, smart, and almost always cheerful. She wants to be a writer—but at the present moment she's supporting herself by working at as a waitress during the day and a bartender at night. She wore slightly revealing clothes, but it didn't seem like she ever seemed to mind.
Juvia wishes she could be like that, sometimes.
Truthfully, she's not sure why she even came with Gajeel, other than the fact that she could visit with the blonde and perhaps help Gajeel's attitude a little. It wasn't like she drank—mainly because she didn't.
The sound of guitar strains catches her attention, and she looks over at the small stage in the corner of the bar. Fairy Tail usually had live performances—Gajeel even gave one once, that went well—or bands playing. Except on Thursday night, because Thursday night was karaoke night and there would be blood if someone tried to change it.
But tonight is Friday night, and there's someone on the stage she's never seen before.
It's not like she can get a really good look at him anyway—but she'd most definitely be able to recognize him in the daylight. He's sitting down, but he looks tall. (And kind of muscular, she notes, cheeks stained pink.) He has dark, messy hair and dark eyes. They glint in the dim lighting like Gajeel's piercings.
She's the only one looking his way, and she's enraptured.
Then he starts to sing.
She thinks she might be in love.
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end notes: too lazy to proofread, i'll do it later. ah gajeel, your grace and eloquent vocabulary are such lovely things. by the way, i'm pretty much in love with the idea of gray being this kinda broken-down guy with great undiscovered musical talent, so.