NONMAGIC AU.
After all the crack skits I've been writing for Fairy Tail (Excluding These Three Rules), I've finally decided to settle down a little and write something a bit more serious. This idea came to me this morning, and after running it by my boyfriend (who didn't like it, but at least pretended to), I decided I would write it. I'm not sure if this is something that's been done before, I'm hoping it's not but it seems a bit like it would be.
*Shameless self promotion* If you enjoy my writing style and you're interested in the relations between a witch, a drug dealer, and a demon, hit me up to read The Orange Room, an original short-story written by me, myself, and I.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
After spending a few days out of town on business, he was finally returning home. He watched the trees pass in a blur of greens, sometimes breaking to allow mountains to peek through. He had watched this landscape pass too many times and yet the familiarity still seemed calming. Few thoughts rattled around in his head; what he would eat for dinner, his friends' reactions to him coming home, the weekend ahead.
The train-car swung this way and that, even if only slightly. He could hear the squeaking of the train's wheels as they rolled over the tracks, and the faint murmur of conversation a few aisles away. Everything else was silent.
He sat with his shirt unbuttoned out of habit, having gone through the day buttoning and unbuttoning and repeating, repeating, repeating the process as he did every day. He might even go to say that stripping was his nervous tick, though it happened subconsciously no matter the presence of nerves or lack thereof. His life was beginning to feel repetitive, as if he performed the same routine every week. In a way, he did. The man sighed, resting his back against the thin cushion of the train seat and trying to relax.
His eye caught a bright wave of blue adjacent to him, his gaze pulling toward it as if it was a magnet. A woman was sitting next to him, her skin alarmingly pale and her eyes focused forward. Her posture was rigid, but her bright blue hair fell down her back and around her shoulders in loose waves. He didn't remember hearing the car doors open, nor had the train stopped in quite some time. Where had she come from? Furthermore, there were plenty of empty seats besides the one directly next to him. He was curious, to say the least, about what she was doing there.
"Drip, drip, drop." She muttered, seemingly lost in thought. Her voice was dull and monotonous, paralleling her clothes which were very modest and monochromatic. Everything was blue, her mood included.
"Did you say something?" He asked her, his voice cool and reserved.
Her calculating gaze swiveled towards his, seeming to stare directly through him. "Drip, drip, drop." She repeated, hollowness flowing from her lips. Her head titled as her eyes pointed out of the window. "Juvia comes when the rain comes."
His brows notched in confusion, but he chose to follow her line of sight outside anyway. It hadn't been raining before, but now it was pouring. Lightning struck in the distance, dark clouds hanging over and blocking out the sun that had been beating down mercilessly only moments prior. The faint roar of thunder met his ears to accompany the storm. His dark eyes narrowed as he turned back to the woman, who stared at him expectantly. Unsure of what to say, he simply asked, "Where are you headed?"
"Juvia is going to Magnolia." She answered easily, her face void of emotion.
Even expressionless, he couldn't help that he found her to be rather attractive. Her pale skin gave the illusion of porcelain while her bright cerulean hair fell to frame her face and accentuate her features- especially her striking navy eyes, almost as dark as his own. "That's where I'm going too." He replied, relaxing into his seat once more.
"What is your name?" Juvia asked him, quickly tacking on, "Juvia's name is Juvia."
He allowed a small smile, "My name is Gray."
"Gray." She echoed, testing out the name before turning her attention back to the front of the train, stoic as she had been since he discovered her sitting next to him.
He turned to look out of the window again, noticing that the rain was beginning to taper off. The sun came out again a few long moments before the train finally reached its screeching halt. Juvia stepped out and allowed Gray to go before her while she gathered her bag, for which he politely thanked her and made for his exit. Before he stepped off of the train and into Magnolia, he turned to her one last time, "Hey, Ju...via..." His words died in his throat as he realized she was gone.
Gray shrugged, focusing his attention back on his personal matters. She probably just went through a different door.
The walk from the train station to Fairy Tail, the guild he belonged to and admittedly spent most of his time at, was long and disinteresting. Somewhere along the way he had discarded his shirt, not that it mattered much to him. His hands were shoved loosely into his pockets as he took long strides down the street, nodding to civilians that passed him and gave more than a moment's glance.
The breeze was much appreciated when it decided to roll through, momentarily saving him from the relentless heat of the sun. He hated the heat, he had always preferred the cold. Well, maybe not always. His foster mother had certainly gotten him accustomed to the cold when he was just a kid. He changed his course of thought, unwilling to delve into that particular part of his heart at that moment.
Gray arrived at Fairy Tail after a long walk through town, stepping through the building's large wooden doors to greet his friends; his family. There followed a chorus of cheers and the sound of beer sloshing around in glass mugs and spilling on the floor, to which he smiled a genuine smile and took a deep breath of air that was uniquely Fairy Tail. "I'm back!" He announced, grinning as his long time friend came to greet him with a slap of hands.
"Yo, welcome back Ice Boy." The brightsmith with rosy hair greeted, his smile unmatched as he teased, "Did ya' screw it up?"
"You're the one who likes to break any and everything you touch, Natsu." Gray retorted, unable to wipe the smile from his face as they walked towards one of the booths. Gray returned greetings left and right, simply happy to be back home. "Hey Erza, hey Lucy, keeping the pyro in check?"
Lucy, the key holder, laughed as Natsu scowled. "I do my best, but he's not tameable." The blonde answered, ignoring Natsu as he opened his mouth to fire back.
"How was your job, Gray?" Erza, the silver and bladesmith, asked, cutting eyes at Natsu before he could pick a fight with Gray. Natsu slammed his mouth shut on account of the sword Erza held drawn in her hand to clean, instead choosing to pout at the wall and try to burn a hole in it with his eyes.
"Hard labor, as usual. A man's roof caved into his kitchen, so I helped him clean up the area and fixed up his roof for him. Not bad pay though, 200,000 jewels." He replied, reviewing the events of the past few days.
He had hauled out chunk after chunk of poorly installed roofing, which the man tossed into his fire pit to burn up, and then had to do a patch job even after insisting the man let him fix the glaring issue that was the quality of the entire roof to begin with. Once he was finished, Gray gave him his personal card and told him to mail him once the rest of it caved in. The man took it in good humor, though Gray was being serious.
"That's great, Gray." Lucy congratulated, happy to hear that his travel hadn't been wasted.
The guild was a place where skilled artisans gathered to seek jobs, drink, and make merry. There were always plenty of requests posted, ranging from the need of a blacksmith to the need of a muralist and everything in between. Just as the job postings implied, artisans over a range of talents gathered at Fairy Tail. They weren't a guild of uniform work, instead housing a mixture of specialties, which seemed to make them more popular.
"No kidding, that covers the rent for a few months." Gray grinned, proud of himself and his hard work. He deserved his reward and a few days of rest. Speaking of rest; he sighed, rising from his seat and stretching. "I can't stay too long. I just wanted to stop by before I went home." Gray admitted, sealing the deal with a yawn.
"One thing before you go." Erza called as Gray began to make his exit. He turned, giving her his full attention. "Your clothes." She warned, never looking up from where she had been polishing her intricately crafted sword.
He glanced down, only noticing then that he had somehow lost his shirt, while his pants still sat draped over the bench at the booth. "Dammit!" He yelped, hurrying to pull on his drawers and swiftly exit the guild before he could become Erza's newest test subject for her blades.
As he set out on his journey home, he could feel the drastic change in the air from when he had walked in. The wind had picked up, almost carrying a chill with it. It felt moist, as if it were about to rain. He glanced up at the sky, watching the tell-tale dark clouds gathering above him. A drop of rain fell to land on his cheek, rolling slowly down his skin before more droplets dared to follow. Gray cursed under his breath, wondering when Magnolia's weather patterns had adopted such spontaneity. He had assumed the storm on the train to be a fluke, he had been on a moving train, after all. But for another storm to roll in so quickly?
He briskly picked up his pace, wishing to beat the rain before it began to pour. Much to his chagrin, the sky seemed to be completely falling out. He already felt water seeping through his pants, causing them to adhere to his skin. He ran a hand through his dark hair, pushing it back and out of his eyes. He found running rather futile at that point, deciding to merely enjoy the cool water as rivulets formed paths down his chest, back, and arms. His apartment was another ten minutes away, anyhow.
Most civilians had already skittered into their homes or taken shelter elsewhere, so Gray was surprised to see a woman walking through town with an umbrella shielding her from the steadily pouring rain. He caught a flash of brilliant cerulean and stole a look at her again, realizing that she was the same woman that had taken a seat beside him on the train. His brows knitted in confusion, finding it rather odd to see her again after she had disappeared so suddenly before.
"Drip, drip, drop." He could hear her speaking, even with the distance between them. Even over the sound of the rain falling and crashing into the ground. "Juvia comes when the rain comes."
So, a little bit of mysterious activity happening. Jeez, this is a boring first chapter compared to some of the things I write. Also, I wanted to keep the guild aspect, so I'll be using some medieval profession titles, but there will be more modern inventions as well. Namely, the train. Please review, it makes my heart smile.