A Glitch

"Juvia, I want to be with you."

"Sorry, what did you say, Gray-sama?" She really tried to focus on the conversation, but her brain just wasn't in it - obviously Gray-sama must have said something else than what she heard.

He licked his lips. "I said I wanted to be with you."

Juvia shook her head, feeling more and more ashamed. "Um, Juvia is sorry, but... Could you repeat once more?"

Gray-sama sighed with irritation. "Am I not speaking loud enough or - "

"No, no, it's just... Juvia cannot focus properly..."

"I said," he grasped her arms and squeezed them, and for some reason his hands seemed to be slightly shaking. She raised her head to look in his eyes. "I wanted to be with you."

Juvia hid her face in her hands. "Juvia is so sorry," she moaned. "Juvia really wants to hear what Gray-sama has to say, but she is unable to."

"Listen, if you don't want it, you can just say normally." He looked sideways, crossing his arms on his chest.

"No!" Juvia raised her hands in protest. Did she offend him? "It's not that Juvia doesn't want to, she really doesn't know what this is about... She listens, but her mind produces nonsense instead of Gray-sama's words."

"Like, what nonsense?"

She felt her face getting very warm. "Ah... Um..." She fixed her eyes on Gray-sama's boots, somehow still staying on his feet today. "Juvia would rather not say."

"You're not going to make this any easier for me, do you."

"Juvia would love to, whatever it is, but... She is sorry."

He sighed deeply. "Okay," he said. "Let's try another way. I will write it down for you, maybe it would be easier to comprehend."

He produced a notebook and a pen, scribbled something and gave her the sheet.

Juvia took a deep breath, praying for her sanity to come back and spare her more embarrassment, and risked a look.

I said I wanted to be with you.

She blinked, shut her eyes tight, silently counted to three and opened her eyes again.

I said I wanted to be with you.

Juvia bit her lip, looking through the window for a moment, then she glanced at Gray-sama, turned away from him and read once more:

I said I wanted to be with you.

She groaned in irritation.

"Juvia is hopeless today..." She turned back to him and smiled apologetically. "She still cannot get it. She is so sorry..."

He stared at her for a moment, and she had a hard time interpreting his expression. It was disappointed and irritated, yes, but then, there seemed to be something warm in it still, and something unsure.

"It's okay," he looked away from her and massaged his shoulder. "It's not like it's a very pressing matter or anything."

"No?"

"No, it can wait all right," his deep dark eyes met hers, and they didn't seem to be condemning. Such was his kindness, even for someone like her. "Maybe you just sleep with it, and you can look at the paper again in the morning."

"Yes," Juvia felt a little bit better. "It might help."

He nodded. "So, you will tell me how it went tomorrow," he said. "See ya."

Walking back to the dorm, she looked at the paper under each streetlight – her head should cool down a bit now that Gray-sama wasn't in her vicinity – but it was still saying the same.

I said I wanted to be with you.

"No, no, no, no," Juvia told it. "Please show Juvia what is really there."

She looked at it just before lying down to sleep, squinting at the letters, but they didn't even tried to change shape.

She took a hairpin and traced the lines with it:

I

said

I

wanted

to

be

with

you.

Just how delusional her mind has became?

She growled in frustration and stuck Gray-sama's note under the pillow.


Next morning, she rose and stretched and went to make herself a coffee, and only then she risked pulling the paper out. She looked at it suspiciously: on one hand, she liked what it seemed to be saying; on the other, she needed to get the truth out of it, otherwise she would irritate her Gray-sama again.

She sat with it on the window sill, as the light was the best there, took a minute to calm herself, and carefully opened the note. Then she looked down.

And looked again -

And again.

I said I wanted to be with you.

I said I wanted to be with you.

I said I wanted to be with you.

Juvia put a fist in her mouth to muffle a frustrated scream.

But then... She read it so many times now, and it was the same what she had heard yesterday. So there was this slight possibility that it was - it was - what was really written there.

I said I wanted to be with you.

What if Gray-sama really wanted to be with Juvia... to go places with her... to hug her... to hold her hand, to kiss her, and other... other things...

To love her, and have a life with her, and a wedding, and a house, and five children, or six, or ten, or twenty three, and grandchildren, and then she would die in his arms on a bed full of flowers...

"No!" She clutched her stupid head. It wasn't truth. So many times she had thought things like that, and she had been only making a fool of herself because of it, and embarrassing him. Nothing good could come out of those delusions.

She had to do something with it.

After quickly putting some clothes on, she ran straight to Porlyusica's house.

"Porlyusica-san!" she knocked on the door.

"What again?" The older woman opened it rapidly. "Didn't I tell you people not to bother me in this month?"

"Yes... Juvia is sorry, but..."

"Goodbye," Porlyusica made a move as to close the door, but Juvia managed to sneak her foot in there.

"But something is wrong with Juvia! She is getting crazy!"

"Now that's a surprise, isn't it?"

"Juvia's eyes don't work properly! And ears!"

"Yes, I've noticed about ears already." Porlyusica looked at her doubtfully – and also as if she were regarding some exceptionally appalling bug. Then she sighed. "So what's wrong with your eyes?" She said with resignation.

"Juvia cannot read what's written here," she produced Gray-sama's note from her pocket. "She sees different words than the ones that are there."

"Yes..." Porlyusica gave the paper a long look. "So what do you think it says?"

"Um..." She felt ashamed of herself again. "All the time Juvia looks at it, it says I said I wanted to be with you."

"I see," Porlyusica's eyes drilled holes in her. "And what is it supposed to say?"

"Juvia doesn't know," she looked at the other woman hopefully. "Maybe Porlyusica-san could tell Juvia what it says? She would be so grateful - "

"It says the same as you see."

"What?" Juvia must have misheard again.

"I said I wanted to be with you."

"Gyah!" Juvia hid her face in her hands. "Something is really wrong with Juvia! She cannot hear the words even if Porlyusica-san is saying them..."

"Okay, listen, girl," the woman touched her arm and she looked up, only to squirm under her cold look. "Here is your note. Carrots are good for eyes." Her face looked as inviting as glass of sour milk. "And as of what your real problem is, I'm not this kind of doctor," she mumbled before shutting the doors.

Juvia blinked at them a few times.

"Carrots," she repeated, turning to go back to the guild.


Thanks for reading! If you can, leave me a review.

Check out on Friday to see if Gray will manage to sort this mess -_o