Hello fanfictioners! I have had this fic idea for a while now, and I just had to write a bit of it. It's still in the works, so you'll have to excuse me for my terrible updating schedule. I'm already really bad about updating my existing stories, so... eek. I began this story against my better judgement, but I couldn't help myself. Consider this chapter the teaser chapter/trial run. I will update when I have time (no promises as to when that could be, sorry!). Any feedback is appreciated, thanks! Enjoy!

Note: This story pertains to blindness, so if that's a sensitive subject for you, please don't read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. It's all property of Hiro Mashima.

Prelude

Anacrusis

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{A "pick-up" note that leads into the first beat of the first measure in a piece of music.}

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If anybody asked Gray what his most vivid memory from before the accident was, he would awkwardly rub the back of his head and fall silent. Despite what it looked like, he wasn't exactly embarrassed by the memory itself. Rather, it was just the sheer randomness and seeming insignificance of it that made him unwilling to say it aloud. The average person simply wouldn't understand the real importance. However, if Gray ever got over his nervousness, the story went something as follows.

It was the spring of his junior year of college. Gray's car broke down, so he was carpooling with his friend Natsu. Of course, since he was technically the freeloader in the situation, Gray had to accompany Natsu on whatever errands he had to run before going home, and today's was a quick stop at the music store to buy saxophone reeds. To Gray, that was the worst part of being friends with an avid musician, especially if you weren't the most musically-inclined person to walk the earth. The musical friend practically lived at the music store, and the poor hitchhiker whose car broke down had to accompany him through the abyss of sheet music books in order to get home.

Obviously, Gray was not a musician. He never really got into it when his parents forced him to learn piano as a kid along with pretty much every other child in the country. Needless to say, he wasn't really enjoying his detour with Natsu. As the pink-haired boy rushed off to find the perfect reeds, Gray stood awkwardly in front of a rack full of what appeared to be thin green rubber noodles with holes along the sides*. He saw a violin on the packaging, and his eyebrows shot up in amazement. The heck? He thought, Where on a violin does that thing even go?

He felt very much lost in the shop and wandered over to a few of the shinier brass instruments. A clerk came over to try and sell him something, but Gray shot him down with a disgruntled "I'm good, thanks." The brass and woodwind sections bored him out relatively quickly considering he didn't know half those instruments existed, let alone how to play them.

Wandering over to the piano section, he played a middle C and realized he couldn't remember anything beyond the C-major scale. Frustrated and thoroughly bored, Gray sat down on the piano bench to silently observe the store instead. He could see a few people in the store, nothing the clerks couldn't easily handle. Natsu was near the woodwinds looking through boxes of reeds. There was a young woman getting a flute fixed. One of the store employees walked over to the strings area, picked up a cello, and tried tuning the strings. Gray absently wondered if those things were heavy. A little boy at a neighboring piano played a piece of classical music with more talent in his pinky finger than Gray had in his whole body. However, there was one customer there who really caught Gray's eye that day.

It was a girl, around his age, standing about ten feet to his right with her back to him. She was staring intently at the violin display. She seemed ordinary enough, except for her hair. It was the most interesting shade of blue Gray had ever seen. The azure waves fell around her shoulders like water. A blue fur-lined Cossack hat sat atop her head. She stood still as a statue, a hand cupping her chin in thought. A moment later, she picked up two of the violins and walked over to the employee who was still struggling to tune the cello. Gray absently stared after her and saw her standing awkwardly by the checkout counter as she waited for the employee to finish his job. The girl stayed for a couple of minutes before giving up, returning back to the display. Setting the instruments back on the display case and leaning her back against the counter, the she pretended to occupy herself with a music book on a nearby shelf.

Gray felt a twinge of sympathy as he watched the blunette suffer through her awkwardness. Opening his mouth, he tried to come up with some light conversation to pass the time. "How long have you been playing?" He asked after some significant struggling, trying to appear nonchalant.

The girl gave a startled little jump and whirled around to face him. A pair of deep blue eyes met his dark gray ones. The girl seemed a little flustered as she looked away suddenly with a blush spreading across her cheeks. "Oh, um, about twelve years," she replied softly, eyes staring everywhere but at him. There was a drawn out pause before the girl said in barely more than a whisper, "What about you? Do you play anything?"

Gray thought back to his piano lessons as a kid and couldn't hold back a snort. The blunette before him seemed a bit startled, concerned, and confused at his reaction. Deciding to clarify, Gray said, "Learned the C scale on the piano as a five-year-old. That's about the extent of my training." The girl giggled slightly but fell silent again. Before Gray could think of another way to break the awkwardness, Natsu's screech came from the exit, "Hey, Ice Princess! If you don't get your butt over here in the next five seconds, I'm leaving without ya!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming," Gray grumbled. He glanced back at the girl at the counter and was surprised to find her blue eyes staring straight back. Gray felt his face flush, and he muttered a quick, "It was nice meeting you. See you around." Then he quickly followed Natsu out of the shop.

Acciaccatura

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{"Crushing." A really fast grace note that is "crushed" against the note it's attached to so that the acciaccatura doesn't take up note value in the measure.}

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The campfire crackled merrily as it ate away at the logs. Gray stared into the depths of the flames, completely lost in thought. His gun sat next to him in the dirt, ready to be picked up at a moment's notice. All around him, his military comrades chatted and laughed, letting go of their worries for a while. In that instant, they wouldn't have looked like a military squadron at all, much less the King of Fiore's elite force, if it weren't for the camouflage tents, ATVs, and various men in uniform hanging around camp.

After college, Gray had joined the military, following in his older brother Lyon's footsteps. Now, after three years of service, he had been put in the elite squadron and was on his first major mission. They had been called in to stop a rebellion in the northern territories. Gray didn't realize just how much resentment there really was toward the king until he got there. He had done a scouting trip into a nearby town a few days earlier, dressed as a traveler. As soon as he set foot within the town's heavily armed walls, Gray knew this wouldn't be as easy as he had thought.

As the soldiers unwound after another long day, Gray couldn't bring himself to join them. He felt uneasy, and his gut instinct was not something to scoff at. As the fire slowly burned out, Gray heard a soft metallic click. He was up in a instant, senses on high alert. His eyes scanned the surrounding plains, and his breath caught as he saw a man dressed from head to toe in black standing at the edge of their camp. He was holding something in his hand, and Gray's eyes widened as he heard a strange hiss. "Everybody, arm yourselves! Get up!" he roared as he grabbed his assault rifle.

The next thing he knew, a sea of rebel forces flooded their camp. Everything was in chaos. The sounds of gunfire penetrated the air as Gray's troops and the rebels clashed. Gray knocked out an opponent with the butt of his gun, when a flash in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned and spotted a glinting metal object flying toward one of his comrades. Without a second thought, he forced himself into a sprint and got there right in time to push the soldier out of the way of the projectile. The metal object scored a direct hit on Gray's chest and exploded in his face.

Small pieces of shrapnel tore through his chest, face, and arms, but the worst part was the stinging pain he felt in his eyes and nose. It was one of the worst pains he had ever felt. Tear gas, he realized. A coughing fit overtook him, but Gray managed to choke out to his troops, "Clo-Close your eyes! Plug y-your noses! Get away from this area!"

"Gray!" he heard someone yell, but Gray half roared half coughed, "G-Go! NOW!" The pain in his eyes was killing him. He scrambled to his hands and knees, reaching blindly for his weapon. Tears were streaming down his face, and he coughed uncontrollably as the gas did its magic. The sound of boots and a gas mask reached his ears. A moment later, he heard the click of a gun being loaded. Gray braced himself for the end, wondering if this was really how he would die.

There was a bang and a thump as a body hit the ground. Five seconds passed, then ten, and Gray realized he was still alive. "Gray!" he heard a voice cough out as its owner entered the cloud of tear gas. Gray sensed the person crouch beside him and felt his arm getting draped across the newcomer's shoulder.

"L-Lyon, what are you doing? Get out of here!"

"I saved your life," Lyon wheezed out, "At least be a little grateful." Gray grunted, but fell silent, letting his brother tow him to the rest of the troops. They surrounded their friend and formed a sort of protective shell around him.

The fighting lasted for five hours as Gray's comrades struggled to regroup after the surprise attack. As the smoke cleared, the Fiore squadron had emerged victorious, but they also suffered heavy losses. As soon as the battle ended, Gray was carried to the infirmary tent to be treated for his injuries along with the others. The army doctor bandaged his wounds and worked on flushing out his eyes. He told Gray not to worry about the blindness as it was only temporary.

If only it was.

Down Beat

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{An accented beat, usually the first beat in a bar of music.}

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When his friend Lucy asked, or rather ordered, him to attend the local symphony orchestra's Christmas concert, Gray didn't know what to expect. He didn't particularly enjoy Christmas music. Plus there was the fact that he couldn't even remember the last time he had gone out in public since he found out the temporary blindness was actually permanent. He always knew that blindness did not work well with the flow of day-to-day life. However, it wasn't until after he lost his vision that Gray noticed just how poorly the two truly meshed. Tasks as simple as walking out his front door suddenly became a hazard, and driving was completely out of the question. As a result, he had been dutifully avoiding the outside world for the past several months like there was a plague.

So when his blonde friend extended the invitation, his initial instinct was to refuse with the full force of the Fullbusters' stubbornness. He had crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, fully prepared to bluntly shoot down the offer. But before he could say a word against her, Lucy turned away briskly and began walking back down his driveway with a cheeky "Great! Pick you up at seven!" Gray tried to protest, but the woman simply ignored him. A minute later, he heard the starting of a car engine and realized resistance was futile.

That was how he found himself sitting in the front row of the Magnolia Performing Arts Center's concert hall, waiting for the much-anticipated Fairy Tail Symphony concert to begin. He fiddled impatiently with the tie Lucy had picked out for him as his boredom slowly increased. The blonde herself was gawking in wonder at all the supposedly marvelous decorations and describing them in excruciating detail. Gray was just about to tell her that her running commentary was not helping, when a hush fell over the packed room.

The fluorescent stage lights hummed to life, and some sort of mechanism below the stage began cranking. A moment later, awed whispers started shooting through the room. Lucy gasped in wonder, and Gray, feeling rather left out of the loop, hissed exasperatedly, "What?"

He felt Lucy lean toward his ear and whisper, "They did this really amazing thing where a platform with the orchestra on it is raised out of the stage. There are so many musicians! Oh, there's Natsu!"

Gray simply rolled his eyes at the blonde's excitement at spotting her boyfriend, the first chair saxophonist. Sitting back, he heard the musicians on stage playing random notes as they tried to tune their instruments. It had been a long time since Gray had heard any sort of music, so the sudden onslaught of somewhat dissonant sound decimated his eardrums. He gripped his ears in pain, remembering that they were in the front row and would be hearing things at this volume for the rest of the concert. He groaned at the thought and clamped his hands a little tighter over his ears.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the orchestra's tuning, or screeching in Gray's opinion, stopped. The musicians onstage zeroed their focus in on the conductor as he set the tempo for the piece. Gray held his breath, knowing what was coming for his ears. However, the sound he heard was not what he expected. It was purely musical with no dissonance whatsoever. Gray slowly began to relax, sitting back in his seat and unblocking his ears as he allowed the dream-like strains of "O Holy Night" to wash over him.

As he listened, he noticed that the orchestra was not playing the traditional version of the song. Rather, there was a certain improvised flare to it that Gray rather enjoyed. The strings section was directly above him, so he could hear every legato, crisp, plucked, or bowed note they played with extreme acuity. The one instrument he could pick out most clearly from the group was the first violin. As the piece swelled and dipped, the violinist's distinctive part flourished around him. Gray leaned forward a little, completely entranced by the beauty of the sound. He barely registered the rest of the instruments, for all he could hear was the gentle vibrato of the stringed instrument. He was never much of a musician himself, nor was he one to judge a person's ability, but in that moment, he felt himself in the presence of a master.

As the wisps of the song's melancholy last chord faded into oblivion, the hall burst into applause. Gray's ears were ringing from Lucy's riotous cheering, but he didn't care. All he could think about was listening to the violinist play again. As the cheering subsided and the conductor set a new tempo, he inched forward in his seat once more, hoping to hear more of the talented instrumentalist before him.

Unbeknownst to Gray, Lucy could see her friend's unusually focused state and looked up at who had captured his attention. As her eyes fell upon the pretty violinist, Lucy snickered internally and thought, Oh Gray, you're aiming high there. The subject of Gray's interest was a woman around Lucy's age with wavy blue hair, rather like water. She looked completely in her element as her fingers flew over her instrument's wooden fingerboard, falling perfectly on each pitch. Her bow glided over the strings with practiced ease. Lucy shot one last amused look at Gray before turning her attention back to Natsu. She was barely able to hide a giggle as she noticed her pink-haired boyfriend fidgeting impatiently in his chair, waiting for his part to come up. She knew Natsu was a very talented saxophonist, but his exterior oftentimes spoke otherwise.

Meanwhile, Gray was still listening intently to the violin before him. The high-pitched, yet not unpleasantly shrill, melody seemed to speak to him in a way the other instruments, heck even the other violins, couldn't. There just seemed to be more emotion and personality conveyed within the music. However, at this point the more rational portion of his brain slowly woke from its wonder struck daze, and Gray began to absorb more of the other instruments. A moment later, he noticed he was getting excessively impressed by the one musician and snapped fully out of his trance. Sitting back in his seat, he frowned deeply and crossed his arms once more, wondering how he could have gotten so hooked. He felt a sharp pain in his ribs, and he realized Lucy had elbowed him roughly. "Ow!" He hissed, rubbing the sore spot, "What the heck, Lucy?"

"Stop frowning. You're being impolite," she chided out of the corner of her mouth.

Gray opened his mouth to defend himself, but feeling Lucy's elbow jab him again shut him up. He sat back grumpily in his seat and attempted to refocus on the music. He had to be more careful. He couldn't risk getting too caught up and making a fool of himself in public. Not even a minute passed, and Gray realized just how difficult it was to tune out the violin. It was like taking a test in school: the more you wanted to focus on one thing, the more your brain wandered back to what you didn't want to focus on in the first place.

He was concentrating so hard on blocking out the violinist that Gray barely heard the rest of the concert. Before he knew it, the last piece was over, and the crowd was rising for a standing ovation. Lucy gently pulled on his arm to get him to stand up. Gray clumsily clambered to his feet and clapped half-heartedly as well. He was pretty sure Lucy was glaring at him for his apathy. As the crowd fell into silence once more, the conductor spoke a few words of thanks for everybody's attendance and wished everybody a merry Christmas. With that, the assembly dispersed, heading toward the doors sluggishly. Lucy pulled Gray with the flow of the crowd, but as they reached the doors, Lucy whispered, "Gray, we're heading backstage right now."

"Backstage?" he asked, "Why?"

Lucy hesitated, "Well… I really want to go see Natsu and congratulate him," She stared at Gray who seemed unconvinced, "Ok, also family and friends of the musicians are invited to a reception afterwards, and Natsu invited me. I'm sorry Gray. I know you don't like social gatherings."

"Why would I?" Gray sneered bitterly, pointing toward his eyes. He then sighed, realizing how unfair he was being to Lucy, and said more politely, "I guess I have no choice but to go."

"I'm really sorry, Gray," Lucy apologized miserably, "'I'll try to make it quick."

"No, no, take your time. I'll just find a spot to sit and wait for you," Gray waved off the apology, "I now know why you chose to stuff me into a suit today though." The blonde woman giggled and tugged Gray through the sea of people.

The raven-haired man had no idea where his friend was dragging him, but a moment later, they walked through a doorway into an area with a significantly lower noise level. Gray could hear several muffled thumps and clacks to his left, where he assumed the stage with the packing orchestra was. Lucy led him a couple of steps further before turning left and going through a door.

As soon as the door opened, a roar of noise exploded out into the hall. Yelling, laughing, loud music, and even more yelling issued out as the orchestra partied inside. Gray clapped his hands over his ears and gritted his teeth, wondering how much of this he could take before his eardrums exploded. Lucy squeezed his wrist in comfort, but a moment later, a shout of "Luce!" diverted her attention away. She let go of Gray and squealed as her boyfriend appeared to greet her. Gray assumed she had gone to give Natsu a hug as she started gushing about how wonderful the concert, and more specifically he, was.

While he was happy for the couple, Gray floundered in his spot as his only guide left him. He didn't know where he was, what the terrain looked like, or where the enemy could be hiding because of the ear-splitting noise around him. An unpleasant memory of an air raid he had survived during his time in the military surfaced to the front of his mind. He felt panic slowly begin to well up within him as his past training kicked in, but he stopped as his logical side took over. "God I'm stupid," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and forcing himself to calm down.

The situation he was in couldn't possibly be more different from war. He mentally punched himself at his own ridiculousness, realizing that he was in a room full of partying musicians, not in a battle. Plus, Gray couldn't rejoin the army even if he wanted to thanks to his visual impairment. He irately suppressed the traumatic memories of his past and focused on wallowing in his present predicament. There he was, alone, probably in the middle of a room packed with strangers, with no way out. Just great, he thought sarcastically, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

A moment later, Lucy noticed Gray standing completely lost in the doorway and scrambled back over to him. Natsu followed her and broke into a big grin as he saw Gray. "Ice Princess! Long time no see!" he bellowed, clapping the raven-haired man on the back. Lucy gasped at her boyfriend's poor choice of words and punched him. Natsu yelped, "Ow! What was that for?"

"Idiot!" Lucy yelled, "You are the most insensitive person I know! Why do I even -"

"It's fine, Lucy," Gray interjected lazily. He felt her surprised gaze burning into his skull as he turned in the direction of Natsu's voice, "What do you want, Flame Brain?"

"What, I can't say hi to a friend?" Natsu asked somewhat offendedly, "Man, I'm hurt."

Gray rolled his eyes, "Yeah, hi. Whatever."

"Geez, you couldn't even pretend to be happier?" Natsu scoffed, running a hand through his salmon pink hair, "Well, it's good to see you haven't changed much."

Gray simply grunted and whispered to Lucy, "Do you mind taking me over to a chair or something? I don't want to hold you back from your socialization."

"You're not holding me back!" Lucy said angrily, slapping him on the arm, "How could you think that?"

Gray shrugged, "Well, I thought that would be nicer than saying 'I don't want to talk to people right now. Let me go wallow in my misery alone.'"

"Okay," he heard Lucy sigh, "That's fair. I guess I sort of forced you to come in the first place. Come on, Gray. Natsu, stay here. I'll be right back." The woman led him further into the room. As they weaved through the wall of people, Gray's shoulder accidentally clipped somebody else's. There was a snarl, and he suddenly felt himself being dragged around to face whoever he had hit. Instinctively, Gray raised his fists to defend himself.

"What was that for, punk?" growled the man in front of him. The voice was low and gravelly, the kind of voice that just naturally sounded like a growl.

"I'm very sorry," Gray said, raising his hands soothingly, "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Save it," the man said, popping his knuckles threateningly, "I'm not gonna stand here and take your lame excuses." Gray braced himself for a punch that would never come.

A voice a little further in the crowd had gasped, cutting the vengeful man off, "Gajeel-kun! What are you doing?"

Gray's head whipped up in the direction of the voice. There was something oddly familiar about it, but he couldn't quite put his thumb on where he had heard it before. The man in front of Gray muttered grumpily, "What, Juvia? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"You can't go around punching people!" the new-comer cried indignantly, "What did that man do to you?"

"Tch," the so-called Gajeel scoffed, "This asshole ran into me and tried to make some stupid excuse about not seein' me. I'm just teachin' him a lesson."

"That's no reason to punch him!" the woman sighed before addressing Gray, "Juvia is terribly sorry about her friend. He has such a quick temper and reacts so violently that it even takes Juvia by surprise sometimes."

"It's fine," Gray mumbled, not quite sure how to respond to that.

"Let's go, Gajeel-kun," Juvia demanded, "You've caused enough trouble for today." Gajeel tried to protest, but Juvia was already pulling him away. The two disappeared back into the sea of party-goers, leaving Gray and Lucy to blink in confusion at what had just transpired.

After a moment, Lucy snapped out of her shock and brought Gray the rest of the way to his seat. She plopped him down on a ratty leather couch and asked, "You sure you're going to be all right, Gray?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Gray rolled his eyes, "Go have fun. Just don't forget about me when you leave."

Lucy giggled and said, "I'll try not to. Call me if you need anything, okay? See you later." She walked away to find Natsu again. Gray just sighed and pulled his out-of-date flip phone from his pocket, trying to act occupied by something on the screen he couldn't even see. A minute turned into ten, then half an hour had passed. Gray was slowly nodding off to sleep, but a sudden dipping of the couch cushion beside him jostled him awake. His head shot up, eyes darting around out of instinct if not practicality.

"Oh, Juvia is so sorry to startle you!" The woman from earlier said. Gray, recognizing the voice, relaxed a little and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"It's fine," he said, throwing her a crooked grin, "Thank you for earlier."

"O-oh, it was nothing," the girl sounded somewhat flustered, much to Gray's bewilderment, "Gajeel-kun has trouble controlling his temper sometimes, so Juvia always has to keep an eye on him."

Gray smiled, well more like smirked, slightly but with more happiness than he'd mustered in months. "Well thanks again," he said with genuine gratefulness.

"You're w-welcome...uh." The woman trailed off, leaving an unasked question lingering in the air.

Gray furrowed his brow in confusion before he realized what was being asked, and he replied, "Gray, Gray Fullbuster."

"Juvia Lockser. Nice to meet you… Gray-sama," Juvia hesitated at his name, seemingly testing it out before she said it. Gray felt a little odd at the honorific and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. He failed to notice the anticipating silence that had filled the air until he heard a sad sigh come from Juvia. Gray panicked and immediately straightened, wondering if his uncertain countenance was making her upset.

"What? What is it? Are you all right, Juvia?" He asked worriedly, sensing how hurt she seemed.

"Juvia is fine," she mumbled, "Does Gray-sama not do handshakes?"

Gray's brain stopped dead in its tracks for a moment before he snorted in amusement and embarrassment, "I apologize for my rudeness. I wasn't able to see your hand."

"I'm sorry?" Juvia asked tentatively, unsure of what exactly the man meant.

"I'm blind," Gray said bluntly.

Juvia backtracked immediately as she heard his reason, "Oh dear, Juvia is sorry. She had no idea."

Gray simply waved off her apologies and said, "It's fine. Don't apologize, okay?"

The two descended into a somewhat awkward silence after that. Juvia withstood the discomfort for approximately three minutes before she blurted out, "So, friend or family?"

Gray cocked his head in confusion, "Come again?"

"What Juvia means is," the woman said disjointedly. Gray could hear the uncertainty oozing from her voice, "Are you a family member of one of our orchestra members? Or a friend?"

Gray chuckled and leaned back into the couch cushions, tilting his face up toward the ceiling, "To be honest, neither. I'm more like a friend to his girlfriend and a frenemy to him."

"Oh, who is he?" Juvia asked out of curiosity, "I didn't know any of the men in the group were in relationships."

"Natsu Dragneel," Gray rolled his eyes, "he's the..."

"First chair saxophonist," he and Juvia said simultaneously. Gray lifted an eyebrow amusedly, "I take it you know him, then?"

"Yes," The woman said, "Juvia knows all of the members of the orchestra, since we're not that big of a group and we're all really good friends. Natsu-san is a bit on the… rowdier side."

"Tch," Gray scoffed, "That's the understatement of the century." Juvia giggled. They fell into a more comfortable silence. After a moment, Gray asked, "So, what do you play, Juvia?" She seemed a little surprised that he asked her that, judging by her sharp intake of breath. Gray made a mental note to question her about reaction that someday.

"Violin… first chair," she said shyly, yet with a tinge of pride. She tapped something, which Gray assumed was her violin case, and laughed softly, "But Juvia still has a long way to go."

Gray thought back to the concert, realizing she was the violinist with whom he was so mesmerized. He blushed and snorted at the woman's modesty, "I object to that. I might not be able to see, but I sure as hell could hear what was right in front of me. And you sounded damn good." The violinist seemed to struggle for words for a moment. Gray lifted an eyebrow and turned his head in her direction confusedly, "You good, Juvia?"

She cleared her throat awkwardly and stammered, "Y-Yeah, thank you G-Gray-sama."

Gray furrowed his brow, "Just Gray is fine."

"Well J-Juvia likes 'Gray-sama' better," Juvia replied nervously. She seemed hesitant to argue with him, but she stood her ground. Gray respected that.

"Okay, whatever you like," he sighed, giving in to her request. She had a backbone, even if she was a bit shy and overly modest, "Just don't expect me to call you anything other than Juvia."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Juvia replied. Gray didn't even need to see the smile on her face to know that it was there and that it was bright.

So, how was it? Love it? Hate it? Leave a review and tell me what you think ;). I wrote this over Christmas break, so that's why Gray's going to a Christmas concert. But it's never too late for Christmas, right?