OK~ I have been working on this for a while, and I'm super pumped that I finished it, but I have to say it's a tad unoriginal.
For this is a Batman AU
(because who the fuck doesn't like Batman)
and the main pairing is Gruvia but eventually I Will include the following ships:
Nalu
Gajevy
Jerza
Miraxus
(minor ships are Bixanna, Kinabra, Stinerva, Rouge (not really sure who to pair this guy with…) etc…basic ships.
Summary: Gray is a wealthy heir who has a dark secret-by night, he becomes Batman, defender of Gotham. But an underground crime society is always two steps ahead of him, and they're planning something big. Juvia is a struggling waitress who makes the decision to become a criminal, and she is unknowingly recruited by quite possibly the worlds most dangerous crime society. Unfortunately for her, she gets in too deep, and perhaps there's only one man who can help her out.
Onward!
.
.
.
Gray Fullbuster had many secrets.
One of which that may concern you, is the fact that by day, he was a wealthy businessman who owned and managed his own company.
But by night, he became a very different person.
.
.
.
"Mr. Fullbuster!"
Damn.
Gray turned around to the sound of his name being called, foot tapping to emphasize his hatred of being called upon.
"Mr. Fullbuster, I hate to bother you but I just wanted to make sure that you remembered your promise, to the orphanage, of course." The young assistant reminded, for the fourth time. She was new to Fullbuster Enterprises, but Gray held no ill will towards her.
"Of course. A promise is a promise." He droned back to her, causing her to split into a relieved grin.
"Good. Great. I've organized your wardrobe, speech, and-"
"Thank you." Gray cut her off mid-sentence, his gaze flickering back and forth. "For all of your help, but I really, really must be off so if you'll excuse me,"
She looked stunned, and a bit hurt. Gray felt like he may have come off a bit too condescending, but he really didn't have time to worry about that now.
He skirted around her with precise agility, and one would probably estimate he'd done this many a time before. Avoiding things was one of Gray's profuse talents, including making important decisions in a short amount of time, dealing with annoying attorneys, and fighting off dangerous criminals from the city of Gotham.
He was one busy man.
Gray slipped inside the library, closing the door firmly to reassure that no eyes would see what he was about to do.
Against the corner of the west wing, was a sturdy grand piano, aged from years of neglect but it still held a sort of nostalgic majesty, which is why most employees figured it had stayed.
The truth was, if it didn't hold such a vital purpose Gray would've rid himself of it years ago.
He sidled up to it, dragging his calloused fingers across the smooth surface of the piano. It simply reverberated memories, childlike laughter as a father would strike up a tune, the smell of warm Christmas cookies and the sound of exuberant Christmas carols being sung across the room.
The piano keys were a faded dull cream color, the kind of color you get when years of dust settle upon stark white, wearing the color and disfiguring it.
Gray pressed a single key, a ping sound echoing throughout the empty library.
Ping.
The second key was a much lower note, and Gray continued to move down the piano.
Ping.
The final key rang out longer than the rest, and for a specific reason.
Slowly, a bookcase shifted to the side, revealing the hidden passageway it contained behind it.
Gray Fullbuster had many secrets, and being Batman was one of them.
.
.
.
Juvia Lockser had many secrets.
Juvia's mother died delivering her sister, and Juvia's father was killed in a tragic maintenance accident.
By day, Juvia was a substitute mother and a low-class citizen, scraping by on the earns of her waitressing job at a popular restaurant.
But by night, Juvia became a very different person, because times were changing, and so was her very way of life.
.
.
.
"Juvia! My lunch!" Levy wailed, pulling heavy objects off of counters in a frantic scrounge to get ready for another hectic school day.
"I got it, I got it!" Juvia rushed in with a wilting brown paper bag in her white-knuckled hand, thrusting it in Levy's face as she too got ready for a chaotic day at work.
"Thanks. Do you have everything?" Levy, Juvia's young sister of sixteen years, inquired as she pressed the lunch bag into her stuffed backpack.
"Yes, yes. Now hurry up, I don't want you to be late!" Juvia ushered Levy out the door in a frantic shaking of her hands, to which Levy happily complied.
"Bye Juvia! See you tomorrow!" Levy bid as she hurried out the door to her bus stop.
That's right, with Juvia's pressing work hours and nighttime 'projects', Levy only got to see her sister on certain days and mornings.
Today, was not one of those days.
The second she stepped into her place of work she was swamped with requests and orders. She knew it was condescending to say that her life sucked when there were so many other people out there who had it far worse than her, but her manager, Jose Porla, was Satan.
"Juvia, what do you think you're doing?" He barked as Juvia slipped into the kitchen to pass over an order.
"I'm just giving Mira an order," she explained truthfully.
Mira was the best chef in all of Gotham, which was almost strange because the restaurant was good, but the pay was awful. Mira could be anywhere, an amazing caterer or working at one of those high class gala restaurants, but she stayed here.
But only Mira's closest of friends knew that Jose had some dirt on her and a wealthy business man, Laxus Dreyar, that kept her in the depths of hell, cooking crème brulee until the day she died.
"Alright. I need you here on Friday." He barked gruffly, shooting Mira a glare and Juvia a pointed look.
"I can't, I have to watch my sister," Juvia countered, Jose being very well aware of her situation.
"Well, I suggest you show up unless you want that sister of yours to have to scrub toilets for a living." Jose threatened sharply.
Juvia flinched visibly, but backed down from Jose's furious smirk.
"That's what I thought."
Juvia went back to giving her orders to Mira, a hard look frozen in the depths of her winter blue eyes.
Mira understood, for she too had that same frozen look in the pits of her blue eyes, a sad lonely icicle that had been embedded there by Jose himself, as if smacking a giant stamp on both their foreheads that said property of Jose Porla.
And who knows, maybe it was the freezing cold sensation of that icicle that had finally pushed Juvia over the edge, tumbling down the abyss that she knew all too well exactly what would happen if she got caught in the rocks.
Because five nights ago, Juvia had put her skills to the test.
It started out simple, of course. Someone with heavy pockets and a name brand plastered across the side of their jaded purse had walked by. The only thing Juvia noticed about them was their smile, the dark smile that had read to other successful people, the I-know-something-you-don't smile that was a silent cobra hidden behind the brush; you'd never know it to be a snake until you got too close.
But it had only took a flick of a wrist, a quick fluid motion like the waves of the ocean, drawing back the contents of the purse victoriously, a tidal wave of treasures that would probably go completely unnoticed by the wealthy dowager who simply walked past with her cobra smile and her venomous eyes.
It kept getting worse though, to the point where Juvia simply couldn't stand them, those lucky rattlesnakes with enough to push them through life and beyond, Juvia couldn't believe how blind they all were, completely blind.
Can you believe she had stolen it from a thrift shop? The smooth leathery black material felt like the skin of a snake underneath the pads of her fingers and she knew.
She knew why fate had drawn her to that thrift shop, and she knew how to make those filthy pythons pay for their crimes against the less fortunate.
That night, she robbed someone's home.
It wasn't even a home, not really.
A man had lived there, riches flowing out of his cabinets and drawers. He was with another woman, so Juvia could tell from the conversation she heard in the bedroom.
They couldn't hear her though, not one sound.
With the agility of a cat she took everything that she deserved, every last bill roughly folded into boxes and bins strewn across counter tops and drawers, and she was in and out within three and a half minutes.
She doesn't even feel guilty, not one bit.
Because even snakes can be hunted by felines.
And no snake would be safe from her, not over her dead body.
.
.
.
"Sir, please I insist you stay in tonight."
"Not tonight Makarov. Didn't you hear over the radio? Couple o' lousy thieves are down there, I can't let anything happen." Determination laced in his voice, Gray ran a hand over his dark black mask, protecting the city from the person underneath.
"It's Gotham, of course there's thieves down there! We've practically got them crawling out of the gutters!" Makarov sighed exasperatedly. Although, in Gray's defense, after nearly six months of the same battle every night, he should know by now there was no turning back on Gray's part.
"Exactly now I'm going to perform a full patrol-"
Makarov couldn't help but tune out Gray's usual spiel before going out 'night watching'. He's heard it a hundred times before, but it was his job to worry, he was Gray's guardian, ever since his parents passed so tragically…
"-and that should be all. See you in the morning." Gray said with a small salute, and with a flash of shadow and speed he infuses with the night.
Honestly, he has no idea how that boy does it. Up all night and working all day, only Makarov doesn't turn a blind eye to the little catnaps he'll take in the middle of business meetings.
"At least he's not taking that bloody car out this time." Makarov grumbled before heading to the city scanners, where he could safely watch the night's activities unravel.
Goody. Nothing like watching the boy you raised like a son beat the shit out of criminals.
Then again, he supposed there could be worse things. Gray could be a…well he could…
Ah, balderdash. There wasn't much worse than being a secret vigilante by night, was there?
.
.
.
The night was alive, and the streetlight cast a thin shadow adjacent to Juvia's feet, following her every move like an intricate puppet made out of pure darkness.
She tip toed across the edge of the apartment building, each step more silent then the last.
Her destination: Unknown. Any place that had a painted sports car in front of it, she supposed.
And it didn't take long to find, oh no, there were far too many corrupted capitalists in Gotham city.
The house was grand; stretching farther than Juvia could comprehend. Only one light was flicked on, a loner, probably male, was presumably clicking along on his expensive computer program, checking the stocks of his deep-pocketed company.
Juvia couldn't help but snicker, that overfed boa constrictor would soon be nothing but a squeaking mouse, caught dead in her trap.
The windows were sealed, but they were far enough away from the room he is in so that when Juvia popped it off using a crowbar, he heard nothing, silly snake.
Juvia slid in, her lithe flexibility playing as an important factor in the grand scheme of things.
The house was…empty. Not empty of course, but it's as clear as a self portrait that this man lived alone, and had for a while now.
But Juvia could see everything.
Each box, each gem, each crook in the wall, because no matter how fat those snakes get, they still conceal their earnings from the world, afraid that it will snatch it right back.
Well, this was the snake's greatest fear; the world coming back for bittersweet revenge.
Juvia ran her gloved hand against the wall, each bump telling her a tale of the hidden fortunes inside, and with each prying creak, the valuables were graced with a new caretaker, instead of a lying deceitful snake, it was now a quick and graceful cat, who knew exactly what to say, and when to do it.
Four minutes; this time.
She is out, she is even kind enough to shove the glass window right back into place, nothing ever even happened.
And the snake is still left with something, a lot, actually, Juvia was generous with what she would leave, enough to get them through the rest of their life.
And enough to give her life the proper boost it so desperately needed.
And if not her, then her sister. It wasn't for Juvia, not one single dollar would be spent on her, she had promised herself that.
She was an evil, conniving cat, and she would be damned before she used those stolen goods for her own benefit.
But those treasures would go directly to the kind, deserving Levy.
Levy had done nothing evil in her life, she deserved the opposite of what life had given her.
And Juvia would make sure of that.
She hid them in her t-shirt drawer, behind the old shirt she had gotten from Mira as a hand-me-down, and they would never be dug up until Levy needs them.
Just for Levy. Only for Levy.
It's what keeps Juvia sane, she would have no anchor to life without Levy, no reason to keep going on, to keep a hold of her terrible job at Jose's.
She would usually go off to bed, right after. She had work early in the morning, after all.
But regret is for the morning after, and something was undeniably tugging at the back of her mind, telling her to go out, to venture into the depths of the dark city and see what the underbelly of this horrendous city looked like up close.
And I think you've all heard the saying curiosity killed the cat.
Juvia crawled through the city, slinking past each landmark that warned her just how deep she was going, just how much danger she was getting herself into. She couldn't stop, each streetlight beckoning her deeper and deeper into the outskirts of Gotham.
She knew she was in too far when she heard the yelling.
"Come on! Leave us alone, man!"
She heard a few grunts and slamming noises, like the sound of heavy sandbags being slammed against rock solid concrete.
"It was only a couple hundred, no big deal, just please! Let us go, you can take the cash!"
More thumping, which Juvia now knew to be the unmistakable sound of someone getting their ass kicked.
"I don't care, tell me who your employer is!" A rough raspy voice demanded after a few extra thumps.
Juvia slid up against the wall, the leather of her cat suit tightening as she stretched her neck to see what was happening.
Three dark shrouded shapes were positioned at the front of a dirty looking garage, one of whom was up on their feet with a towering hold over the other two figures.
"Don't make me ask again," the voice, who Juvia identified to be the man who was on his feet, said angrily. His voice was so menacing, yet at the same time so confident and strong, the sound itself caused Juvia to shudder.
"We can't tell you, they'll kill us!" One of the cowering men cried out, practically begging for mercy at the taller man's feet.
"Well if you don't tell me, I can't help you." The powerful voice hissed, his cocksure attitude melding with his strengthening stance. Just looking at him might cause someone to bow down involuntarily.
"Look…you're obviously a tough guy," the man who Juvia hadn't heard speak yet uttered, breathing heavily as his lungs adjusted from the beating he just took.
"Yeah, but…you're not tough enough…not for this…" The other man finished, mirroring his partners breathing habits.
The stronger man breathed out, frustrated. It was like he knew, he knew that this was too much for him to handle but he had to.
And for a second, Juvia had understood him. She understood that he needed to take this risk, for whatever reason he may have had, because Juvia herself had just taken that risk, for god's sake she had just robbed someone.
But she was purely entranced by the powerful voice, struggling to balance compassion and mercy.
"I'll be the judge of what I can and can't handle. Now I suggest you talk or you'll have the cops to deal with." The voice said firmly. The two men on the ground paused for a second, like they were waiting for the stronger man to burst out laughing and say 'just kidding!', but the moment never came.
"You…you're serious?" One man sputtered, clearly befuddled that someone as powerful and strong as this would rely on such inferior forces for leverage.
"Dead serious." He answered coolly. Juvia admired him, she admired the way he could stand his ground and still be so strong.
"I would love to go to the cops. Rather them than…" The criminal trailed off and Juvia could almost hear the hero's frown.
"…Alright."
Alright?!
The thieves seem just as surprised as Juvia, their mouths probably agape and catching flies.
"Just as long as you swear never to get involved with them, or anyone like them. Got it?" The man justified, keeping his intimidated stance at a lock down.
"I…you…"
Baffled, the crooks watched as the winner of their impromptu fight pulled out a phone and called the cops.
Juvia had to admit, all that build up had certainly made it seem that there would be a more exciting climax, but the man simply held up his phone to the side of his face impatiently.
"Wait…you're seriously just calling the cops?" One of the criminals voiced Juvia's thoughts, confused and probably a little bit let down.
"Yes, now shut up." The man said, tapping his foot and letting out a sigh of restlessness.
It was about then that Juvia had realized how young the said vigilante was, he stood at about six foot five, and was obviously muscled, without which he probably wouldn't have been able to produce the feat that he had, but his voice did hold an edge of excitement in it, like an eight year old on his birthday.
It was almost…endearing.
Juvia shook her head vigorously. No, she thought, this was no time to find crazy crime fighters attractive.
"Uh…yes. I'd like two report two unconscious men on the corner of West and Marken." He said tersely before forcefully pressing the end button and discarding his phone into a phantom pocket.
One of the criminals made the mistake of questioning him.
"Unconscious?" Thump!
Silence.
Juvia sucked in a breath as the night grew heavy. Afraid to look back, she snuck up the fire escape of the building she had been cowering behind, desperate to get a better glimpse at the vigilante.
When she reached the top of the building, she ducked low and peered over the edge. Only two shapes were visible, the slumped over and defeated criminals.
But no hero.
Juvia felt her blood go icy. Where is he? What if he finds me?
Pressing her fingers over her nose to calm her thoughts, Juvia peeked over the edge again, just to be sure that he truly was gone.
Nobody.
At least, nobody conscious.
But Juvia had the sense to know that it was time to go home, time to head back to her sanctuary.
As she ran back, every memory of what she had witnessed ran through her mind like a reel of film.
So…intriguing…
She'd never heard of any vigilante justice in Gotham on the news before, so either this was a fairly new development, or this guy was good enough to stay on the down lo of things.
And both options terrified her.
If there was somebody new out there, somebody who decided to take the law into their own hands, what would they think of her? What would they think of the amateur cat burglar who stole from the rich and gave to her sister.
Last time Juvia checked, Robin Hood wasn't a blue haired female with a D-cup, and she knew for certain that a Robin Hood status wasn't going to save her from this...law breaker.
And if he truly had enough power to keep his fighting on the down lo, what would become of her? Would he be able to rid the city of her in a second without any judgment whatsoever.
No, Juvia thought, the blood draining out of her face in realization. If I get caught, Levy will have no one.
This complicated things. Juvia certainly hadn't factored that into the equation when she made the split second decision to start stealing for a living.
"Well," Juvia said softly, leaping onto her apartment building from the neighboring one she had been running across. "I guess I just can't get caught, now can I?"
.
.
.