Valentine's Day
This fic take place in the same Neighbors AU when they're juniors in high school. Gray's car is a Mustang Coupe 2013.
Gray checked the time on his phone and pulled his scarf tighter around his neck. 4:02. Juvia was supposed to meet him out in the school parking lot by his car, like she always does, and he would drive them home. If she was going to miss a day she would normally tell him.
Gray glanced around for Juvia. All he saw were couples walking about, some with balloons, others with candy and cards. Hell, some girls had the privilege a lugging around a two ton stuffed animal.
I wasn't that Gray hated Valentine's Day, he received and gave his share of valentines as well, it was just the annoyances that came with it. The girls worrying about valentines, the pink and red that covered all in sight, but most of all it was the rise in candy prices. Between Februarys first and thirteenth you couldn't buy a lick of chocolate without paying double for it.
Gray checked his phone again. 4:05. He sighed. I wonder what's taking Juvia so long, Gray thought to himself.
He was contemplating calling her when he heard his name being called in the distance.
"Open the trunk Gray!" yelled Erza.
He looked her way to see her carrying a ginormous teddy bear and two small stuffed dogs. To her right Lucy was holding for gift bags filled with candy and there were seven boxes of cookies stacked in her arms. To the left of Erza was Juvia, who had her hands filled with cards and a variety of flower bouquets.
"What the-"
"Open the damn trunk Gray! Do you realize how hard it is to walk all the way across the school while carrying this much stuff in heels! And it's freezing!" Lucy yelled, sounding completely exasperated.
Gray opened his trunk and watched as the three girls dumped all the Valentine's gifts into his trunk and sighed in relief.
"Who's Valentines stuff is that anyway?" Gray asked. Erza and Lucy normally get a lot of Valentines, from both friends and random people, but this is way more than usual.
"They're all Juvi's," Lucy said, whipping out her phone and shoving it in Gray's face. "The front of her locker was plastered with cards and gifts, and people were still giving her presents throughout the day!"
Lucy swiped through multiple pictures of Juvia's locker and even some of people giving her Valentines in person.
"Our Juvia is really popular this year," Erza said with a smirk. "Looks like you have some competition this year Gray."
"Shut up Erza," Gray muttered.
"Juvia doesn't need all this stuff anyway," Juvia said. "Thanks again Erza-san and Lucy-san for the help. She will see you all next week."(A/N: Its Friday).
"You're not coming to Mira's party tonight?" Lucy asked.
Gray completely forgot about that. It really shouldn't be that much of a surprise that Mira was throwing a party. She would throw a party if someone got their driver's license, much less for one of her favorite holidays.
"Juvia was just going to stay home tonight. Juvia had so much work to do this week, she would just like to relax this weekend and the party scene isn't really the best place for that," Juvia answered.
They all knew Juvia had more work than them since she was in AP Bio and AP Lit (well besides Erza who took her share of advanced classes, and Levy who had just about AP everything). She was also on the varsity swim team, so they let her rest whenever she requested of it.
"What about you Gray?" Erza asked.
He could go, but what would there be for him to do if Juvia wasn't there. Plus this would be a great time to spend some alone time with her. All of their friends knew about his monster crush on Juvia, so they would probably question his motives for not wanting to go.
"Nah, I wasn't planning on going," he tried to state as casually as possible. "Hey, maybe we could hang out tonight Juvia?"
"Sure Gray-sama!" Juvia said with a smile.
Before he could hear Lucy or Erza say anything about his crush on Juvia, he pushed her into the passenger's seat and shut the door.
"Wow Gray, treat your girlfriend with care," he heard Lucy chuckle.
"This is exactly why I put her in the car," Gray mumbled, trying to hide his blush. He rounded the car and slid into the driver's seat. He could hear Erza and Lucy's muffled comments and laughter outside the car.
He looked at Juvia to see her stifling a laugh behind her hand.
"Gray-sama is cute when he blushes," Juvia said, letting out some giggles.
Gray groaned and started the car. This wasn't the first time Juvia had told him that, yet it still made him blush every time.
Gray sped out of the school parking lot and Juvia rolled down his window to yell bye to her friends.
Gray pulled into his driveway, Lyon's car nowhere in sight. Gray smiled to himself. It's not that he hated his brother, it was just that his older brother also had a huge crush on his favorite bluenette. He was the perfect gentleman and charming and all that Disney prince shit. Gray was surprised Juvia didn't fall for him already.
He parked the car and looked over at Juvia. She was on her phone playing some kind of game. Her blue hair came down in elegant waves that went pass her shoulders and framed her face perfectly. She was wearing a gray sweater with skinny jeans and brown boots. Around her neck was a silver necklace engraved with her name. She had her brown coat across her lap and her ocean blue eyes were focused on the game she was playing.
Gray must've been staring for too long because soon she looked over at him, probably wondering why he didn't get out the car yet. He was too slow in looking away, so there they were having a staring contest.
Thinking of a quick yet-not-awkward way of getting out of this situation, Gray wiped his thumb across her cheek.
"There was an eyelash," he lied.
"Oh…," Juvia said, sounding somewhat defeated.
They got out the car and started hauling Juvia's valentines into Gray's basement.
Once they got everything out of Gray's car, Juvia turned on a radio and they started opening the valentines.
"Here's one from Natsu-san," Juvia said. "'I'm not good with rhyming but Lucy said I had to write valentines to all our friends. You're cool Juvia, here's two dollars and some chocolate to keep you from telling Lucy.' Natsu-san is very creative."
"He's not creative, he's just stupid," Gray commented.
"This ones from Loke," he said rolling his eyes. "It says 'you're more beautiful than any star in the sky, will you please be my valentine.' He used that one on every girl in the school."
Gray tossed it into the "Valentines That Are Trashy and Juvia Should Never Look at Again" pile. He came up with the name himself.
Juvia laughed. "Gray-sama has said something negative about every valentine so far."
"It's true though."
"This ones from Cana-san," Juvia said, opening the valentine. "It reads 'I've read the cards and they say you're the one for me, if you were my valentine I'd be as happy as can be.' That one's cute! What do you think Gray-sama?"
"Eh, I could do better," Gray said, stuffing his mouth with one of the cookies Juvia received with her valentines. Mm white chocolate chip.
"Ok then do it. Make up a valentine's poem right now," Juvia challenged.
Gray swallowed the cookie and stared at the ceiling in deep thought. After a few moments he began to speak.
"'If the sun refused to shine, if romance ran out of rhyme, you would still have my heart until the end of time.' How's that?" Gray said with a smirk, biting into another cookie.
Juvia hid her blushing face behind a box of chocolate. "Juvia envies the girl that got a valentine with a poem from Gray-sama in it." With that statement Gray began choking on the cookie.
"Oh shit, Juvia I forgot. Wait one second," Gray said, already half way out the room.
She heard Gray's heavy footsteps as he ran up two flights of stairs to get the level his room was on. Juvia heard things being thrown around and Gray yelling expletives at whatever he was looking for. After a few minutes, she heard him stomping down the stairs back to the basement.
When Gray re-entered he was holding a card and a single white lily.
"I know it's not as extravagant as the other valentines you got, but I can tell you for sure that the poetry is better," he said, handing her the card and lily.
Juvia looked at the card in her hand and back at Gray. He ran his hand through his black hair and was looking at the 'oh so interesting' wall, a faint blush adorning his cheeks.
Juvia looked down at the card again, taking in all the details. It was made of pale purple paper with black lace around the edges and was in the shape of a heart. On the front had 'To: Juvia From: Gray' written in calligraphy.
Juvia forgot how skilled Gray was a literally every fine art. He could dance, draw, write poetry as well as regular stuff, play instruments, and even sing a little. Apparently he could also do arts and crafts. He was like the product of a Greek Muse.
She opened the card and inside (also written in calligraphy) read 'When I was weak, you made me strong, when I had no voice, you gave me a song, when I was blind, you made me see, How special you are to me. Happy Valentine's day Juvia.'
Gray waited to see how Juvia would react to his valentine. He saw her look up at him and open her arms wide for a hug. Gray stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped hers around his back.
"Juvia loves it Gray-sama."
"I would've gave it to you sooner, but I couldn't find it this morning."
After they finished sorting through the valentines, Gray and Juvia decided to watch some movies. By then it was 11:43, and no one had shown up and ruined their peaceful atmosphere. Juvia had gotten a text from Lucy saying 'the party isn't as fun without her there' and a call from Gajeel waring her to 'not let that Stripper convince you to do anything stupid.' Her parents were home, but they were used to Juvia hanging out at Gray's house super late. They were even convinced that her and Gray were secretly dating.
Ur was out of town at the moment and Gray hadn't heard from Lyon since that morning. Based off his snapchat he was at Mira's party having the time of his life. Which was great because that meant he wasn't here with him and Juvia giving Gray a migraine.
They were seated on the couch, Juvia's head on Gray's shoulder and his arm around her back. They had already watched Grease, Titanic, and Mean Girls was going to be over soon. Up next was Pitch Perfect, one of Juvia's all-time favorite movies.
The movie went to commercial and Juvia decided to make a random statement.
"Juvia wants to dance."
Gray eyed her warily. "Juvia the last time we tried that it didn't go well."
"But that was different Gray-sama! Juvia wants to try to slow dance. They do it in all the movies. How hard can it be? And Gray-sama is a very good dancer. He can teach Juvia."
Gray was going to oppose but she did have a very good point. He was a great dancer.
"Alright, then," Gray said, rising to his feet. Juvia smiled with excitement as she got up as well.
Gray looked for a song they could slow dance to on YouTube. When the song started playing he took Juvia by the hands and brought her close. Gray positioned their hands and showed her how to move her feet.
"Like this…no no like this… there we go."
Juvia caught on quickly and soon they were dancing together seamlessly. Gray noticed how close they were and tried to hide his blush.
"Juvia thinks this is fun," she said, her nose almost brushing his.
"Yeah," Gray replied, captivated by her eyes. The music was still playing and the movie was back from commercial, but all that stuff was white noise compared to how loud their hearts were beating.
Gray leaned his head forward while Juvia did the same, her eyes fluttering closed. He could smell the sweet scent of chocolate on her breath and the heat from their proximity lit his whole body on fire.
Just as their lips are going to touch, the basement door is swung open.
"Is this why you didn't want to come to the party! To take advantage of poor Juvia-chan!"
Juvia and Gray pull apart to see Lyon bursting their private bubble. Gray groaned in annoyance and Juvia covered her face in embarrassment.
"Clearly I cannot leave you two alone without proper supervision," Lyon says, stepping deeper into the room.
"Why don't you just go back to wherever the hell you came from? Juvia and I was doing just fine!" Gray yelled.
"Poor Juvia-chan missed such a fun party because of you Gray. Don't worry my dear! The party is not over yet. If we leave now we could still make it. Plus it's more fun than hanging out with boring old Gray."
"Shut up Lyon, I bet the party is super exciting now that you left."
"Ur raised such a rude child, I can't believe were related."
Before Gray could retort Juvia grabbed Gray's arm.
"I'm very sorry Lyon-sama, but Juvia's favorite movie is about to come on and I wouldn't want to miss it," Juvia said smoothly.
"Well if the movie is one of Juvia-chan's favorites then it must be good! I'll watch it with you. That way I can also keep an eye on pervert Gray."
Gray grumbled under his breath and took a bite out of a chocolate bar.
And that's the story of how Gray, Juvia, and Lyon ended up watching Pitch Perfect together on Valentine's Day.
Gray is such a nerd omg. Happy Valentine's Day! ~February 14, 2016