This is one of those fics that my scumbag brain dreamed up on a weekend when I have three projects and two power point presentations due, so I've spent the last three-ish hours writing fic instead of writing a PHP assignment. Thanks, scumbag brain.
Gray never meant to ignore Juvia.
It was just his personality. He spent so much of his life learning to focus on the task at hand - to filter out all distractions, to pursue the goal, to complete the objective in front of him no matter what the cost or the odds. His habit of stripping his clothes unconsciously was an unfortunate side effect of that training; when one is supposed to battle impossible forces, one must make oneself as comfortable and remove as many distractions as possible. Clothing is a distraction. It prevents him from feeling the ice.
So unless Juvia caught him at a time when he wasn't focused on something else, there was a good possibility that what she said would go in one ear and out the other. That was also the case for all of the guildmates at Fairy Tail - they would say something that would later turn out to be important, but Gray tuned it out completely at the time because it was just there, background noise, not important.
Juvia was his background noise.
He was vaguely aware of the crush she had on him, but it wasn't until Lyon tried to horn in on his territory that he started to think of her as more than just the crazy stalker water mage. She clearly cared for him, for reasons he couldn't really fathom, but she was always there, thinking of him, anticipating his needs.
If he was hot, she was there with a glass of ice water. If he was feeling unmotivated, she was there to cheer him on. If he'd accidentally stripped down to his boxers (or worse) she was there to gently tap him on the shoulder (although not before getting a happy eyeful in a few cases, he'd learned.) That was Juvia.
Like water and his clothes, he took Juvia for granted.
He was sitting at the guild table, his current mission in life to once again defeat Natsu for good in a fair fight. Unfortunately, Natsu wasn't up to playing today; he was busy arguing with Lucy because she'd scribbled all over his face with a magic marker while he was asleep. Happy hadn't escaped unscathed either.
"That's what you get for climbing into my bed without permission!" Lucy hissed, but she had clearly enjoyed the nocturnal decoration.
Natsu's face had been drawn to look like Macao, scrabby beard and all.
"But did you have to use a permanent marker?" Natsu wailed. "I can't even burn it off!" He lit himself on fire a few times to prove his point. He'd managed to burn or scrub off most of it, but the ghost of her artwork remained on his face.
Happy had demanded that Lucy summon Cancer to trim the excess ink off his fur, marking the first time in his short life that the Exceed had ever had a haircut.
"Gray-sama," a gentle voice said from behind him. He turned to see it was Juvia, and then turned back to the fight between Lucy and Natsu.
"Hi Juvia," he said, ignoring the distraction.
"Gray-sama, Juvia will be going on a long mission," the water mage said shyly in his ear. "Juvia was wondering if Gray-sama would like to join her."
Gray's one-track mind only picked out the word "long mission" and he shook his head. "Naw, I've got a few missions of my own that I need to take care of." Suddenly, he saw his opening when Lucy stomped off in a huff and Natsu turned up his own internal heat to maximum levels, his red flames tinging to blue. The last of the ink burned off his skin.
"Ahaha! Victorious!" Natsu cried, his triumph apparent.
"Ice-make: Snowball." Gray smirked and through the ball of snow directly at Natsu's now clean face.
He didn't hear the sigh from behind him, nor notice the gentle squeeze on his arm, or catch the impact of Juvia's words.
"Then Juvia will go on alone. Goodbye, Gray-sama," Juvia said with formality, and left the guild.
Gray was too busy fighting with Natsu to think too much about her words.
It was a few days later that Erza confronted him.
"Gray, did Juvia say anything to you before she left?"
He wracked his brain, trying to recall the conversation he'd only half paid attention to. "She said something about a long mission, and then she told me goodbye," he said, hoping that he was remembering right.
Erza sighed. "That's what I was afraid of. I think this is the mission she undertook." She handed him a sheet of paper, and several other guild members peered over his shoulder, interested in what it said.
"Save our Island!" was written at the very top. There was a picture of a volcanic island erupting, and a small cluster of figures at the base of the island. A foreign language subtitled the picture.
Levy read the caption. "Islanders performing a sacrifice," she explained, pointing out each character in turn.
Gray felt his blood run cold.
"We are in need of a Water Mage to act as a sacrifice to the Water Gods, to bring bountiful harvests and plentiful rainfall to our island. Reward: One million jewels."
"Surely she wouldn't undertake a job that required her to commit suicide, or be killed," Lucy pointed out objectively. "There's got to be more to it than just this."
Erza shook her head. "I don't trust island missions any more. Remember Galuna Island?" Those who had been involved in that incident shuddered. "And... well, if you want to end your life, taking a mission that requires suicide is probably the best way to do it."
With that, everyone glared at Gray.
"Whoa, whoa," he said, holding out his hands and backing up. "I guess she did ask me if I wanted to come along and I said no, but surely she wouldn't be suicidal over such a thing."
"She does love Gray dearly," Levy said softly.
"And Gray refused to come with her on a dangerous mission," Erza added.
"How unmanly!"
It was Natsu who pointed out the obvious. "Maybe if Gray goes after her, she'll stop this crazy sacrificial mission."
Everyone started nodding affirmatively. Gray felt himself sweating and took off his shirt out of instinct.
"All right, all right! I'll go after her!" he said loudly, earning him an approving smirk from Erza. "Jeez. You're acting like I TOLD her to go kill herself or something."
"No," Erza said, and thwapped him on the head with the mission sheet. "We're acting like you broke her heart, which you probably did. You take her for granted. You lead her on, never accepting her love, but never rejecting it either."
"That's..." And here Gray felt himself losing the argument, and slipped off his pants in frustration. "I don't know how to handle it, okay?" he shouted. "Now can we please stop discussing this in the middle of the guild?"
Erza handed him his shirt and his newly liberated pants, wordlessly.
"You can reach the island by ferry on the southern tip of Fiore," Levy said helpfully. "Don't forget your passport."
And so it was that Gray Fullbuster found himself traveling by train, then by foot, then by boat over the course of several days, to the tropical islands of Hu'Wei.
As he stood on the railings wearing nothing but his swimsuit (the captain had politely asked him to put at least something on), he reflected on his treatment of Juvia.
He didn't mean to ignore her. He didn't mean to take her for granted. She was a guildmate, a companion, a friend... but the thought of not having her around caused a painful tightening in his chest.
She didn't seem like the type to commit suicide. She'd lived most of her life in a state of depression and hadn't killed herself all that time.
But, she'd never been rejected in love during that time either.
Had he rejected her? Erza seemed to think so, but there was a huge realm of difference between "I don't want to go on a long mission with you" and "I don't like you."
Did he like her?
Okay, she was attractive. But Fairy Tail was full of some rather attractive women and it was sort of a survival skill for the men in the guild to develop some immunity to large bosoms, swaying hips, and exposed flesh. Hell, there was some aversion therapy too if you accidentally ogled Erza the wrong way and she was in a cranky mood.
Juvia was kind. She wanted to protect her guildmates, with her life if necessary, but all Fairy Tail mages were that way. She was sweet and shy and very powerful in her own right. She had been abused as a child but had somehow grown up to be a (somewhat) normal adult despite it all.
And she was madly, madly in love with Gray.
"Shit," he said aloud, staring at the endless water on the horizon. He wracked his hand through his hair, greatly annoyed with himself all of a sudden. "Shit, shit, shit."
Okay. He'd find her first, rescue her from certain death, and then he'd deal with his own feelings toward her.
He just hoped he wasn't too late.
Okay, this is in at least two parts, so here's the question, without spoilers: How naughty do you want this to be? I can do naughty or I can do sweet and Disney. Let me know your vote in a review!