Sometimes, when none of them are out on jobs and there's no crisis looming overhead, Juvia brings the rain.
She likes it best when Lucy gives her that sly look that no one else seems to catch (except Gajeel, but he's savvy enough to pretend he didn't see). The rain patters down on the guildhall roof, always soft enough to hear each other's voices, and Juvia loves listening to them, always feels a cozy contentment as she comes to know her guildmates. Her friends.
She listens to Macao and Wakaba tease each other and discuss tobacco; follows the sweet chime of Mirajane's voice as she moves around the hall, distributing food and drinks and jokes and advice; laughs to herself as Fried shows Levi a little trick with a rune and the blue- haired girl masters it in short order, to the resounding cheers of Jet and Droy. Lisanna and Wendy tell each other stories; Lucy laughs at Natsu; Nab mutters to himself at the job board; Gray- sama pokes at Loki for not coming around more; Bixlow makes increasingly lurid suggestions to Evergreen about better ways to spend her time, always involving Elfman, and Laxus just rolls his eyes at the self- proclaimed Fairy Queen's indignant shrieking.
But of course, since they're Fairy Tail, it never takes very long for things to get out of control. The definite plus of Natsu and Gray- sama's shirts coming off (and, in Gray- sama's case, often everything else) always signals a coming brawl… Erza's cake always gets smashed, Cana's barrels of alcohol always get punctured, Elfman's honor is always impugned (if only in his own mind). Juvia infinitely prefers the shouting and projectiles to the dank gloominess and oft- muted tones of Phantom's hall.
Juvia also has come to enjoy those times that Laxus will keep glancing at her. It took her a while to figure it out, but now she just checks the windows and makes sure there's plenty of warning thunder before the downpour starts.
The two of them are always the only ones outside; the lights of the guild shine bright behind them as Laxus takes to the roof, to the highest points he can find, and makes a lightning rod of himself.
With Laxus drawing away the lightning, Juvia doesn't bother finding shelter. She stands in the open, eyes wide, taking it in. There's not much to see- not much that she can see, constantly blinded by the lightning- but Juvia can sense the clouds above, the ways they move, the patterns in pressure and heat and cold. It's so much bigger than her, awe- inspiring, and she cannot dwell on it long.
It's little wonder to Juvia that Laxus once went mad.
Even now she sometimes hears him laugh above the roar of the storm, and it never fails to give her the shivers. Juvia closes her eyes against the harsh lines of his face, that reckless, dangerous light in his eyes, as Laxus catches lightning in his hand and eats it.
His gaze is always steady when he jumps down, though; and even if his eyes are still a little unsettling, his smile is always kind, and the hand that settles on her head in thanks is gentle.
And then there is the rain that Juvia doesn't like at all.
It gets to be too much, sometimes. There are days when Gray- sama is outright cruel in his rejection of her, or a job will go the worst kind of wrong. Sometimes even nightmares are enough to do it, to bring relentless showers that she can't stop, and at first Juvia waits for the same whispers to fill Fairy Tail's bright guildhall that followed her everywhere else. She waits for freak, for curse, for the contemptuous ame- onna.
But Mirajane's smile never dims when Juvia sets her umbrella by the door; Nab never flinches away from her if she wanders over to the job board; Lisanna has not once cringed when Juvia seats herself at her table. And none of them, not even Natsu, say a word if Gajeel- kun settles down beside her, even if Juvia slouches and rests her head on his shoulder.
Days wear by, then weeks and months. Life is not always kind, and the skies over Juvia Loxer are ever changing. But there are enough rainy days for Juvia to realize, with a slow, blooming wonder, that she is finally home.