It had been 3 years since Gray Fullbuster had last seen Juvia at the Fairy Tail guild.
"Juvia?" Asked Gray, "Are you sure you want to go on this mission... alone?" Gray was worried about his girlfriend after she had shown him the S-Class mission. Juvia looked down nervously at her watch.
"Oh!" She said suddenly,"It's time to go!" She swooped down and planted a gentle kiss on Gray's cheek, causing a small smile, and stood up.
"Don't worry, Gray-sama," said Juvia as she walked out of the guild, "Juvia will return in a week time!" A wave of her small hand and she was gone.
His fingers fumbled on the buttons on his blazer. Even though he didn't feel sad every day now, he also imagined he had seen a flash of blue hair peeking from behind him. Although, when he turned around it disappeared. It was as if her presence followed him around, but, no, that isn't a good way to put it. That's what you say when people are dead. And surely. Surely. Juvia wasn't dead.
The guild was in it's usual state.
"Gray," said Erza, pulling his head into her hard armour, "It's time to go on a mission."
"Aaah... okay," Fairy Tail's strongest team even found S-Class tasks easy. Except for Lucy and Happy who detested putting their lives at risk.
The sudden, quiet knock on the door was barely heard over the guild's loud chattering. "Jet!" Commanded Master Makarov, "Open the door!" Master's cheeks were slightly pink as he had been drinking.
Jet bolted to the door and pulled open the massive wooden doors. There stood a small, hooded figure.
It was easy to tell that the person wasn't in a good state. They dragged their left foot and their shoulders sagged down. But worst of all was the blood. The horrible trail of dark, crimson blood.
As soon as the guild noticed the trail of blood following her, she fell to the ground like a rag doll.
Wendy ran over to the injured figure lying on the floor. She turned the person over and gently pulled back the hood.
"Juvia?!" Yelled Wendy loudly. She could hardly recognize her blazing blue hair that was now dyed crimson with blood. Where her cheerful smile was, was replaced with a cold, emotionless face. "G-g-get Mrs Poryluscia... It's Juvia... She's badly injured." Gray's eyes widened and before he knew it, he had ran to Juvia's lifeless body. He gasped.
Covering her arms and legs were long whip lashes. Her clothes were ripped apart and replaced with servant's rags. Her face was covered in cuts and her hands were raw.
But what shocked him most was her guild crest on her thigh. It was gone. Instead of the guild mark was a circular burn mark.
"I have to see if she had more injuries on the back..." Murmured Wendy, "Help me flip her over, Gray." Gray placed his shaking hands underneath Juvia and flipped her over gently. Wendy peeled back the blood matted cloak and Gray's heart broke into two. It was worse than he thought. Much worse.
Covering her back were large lash marks and cuts. Underneath the wounds were scars. Possibly of more lash marks.
"Everybody, move aside!" Yelled Mrs Poryluscia as she charged into the guild, "Oh my..." She stared at Juvia's body, "Take her to the infirmary! Wendy, start basic healing spells, immediately!" Gray scooped up Juvia's body and rushed to the infirmary.
"Wendy!" Yelled Gray, "Do the spells! Just do the healing spells!" Gray was agitated because he was worried for Juvia. Of course anyone would feel worried for her. Wendy's lips quivered. She was scared by Gray's outburst.
"N-Natsu. Please take Gray outside..." Wendy said and began to cast the healing spells.
Natsu grabbed Gray from behind, but no matter what the ice mage did, Natsu held on tightly and forced him outside. "Gray," Natsu said seriously, "Yelling will not help Wendy heal Juvia..." Gray's eyes filled with tears.
"I just have missed her... For so long..." He said between sobs, "I don't want to... lose her." Natsu looked at his old friend. Even though they had their ups and downs, it was hard for Natsu to watch Gray in the state he was in.
Mrs Poryluscia arrived with various spell books and potions. Silently, she began to cast spells across Juvia's limp body and skillfully wrap bandages across her wounds.
Finally, after 3 painful hours of waiting Mrs Poryluscia went to talk to the anxious guild.
"Juvia will never make a full recovery," Mrs Poryluscia said gravely, "She will need constant care, for the rest of her life. I do not know the cause of her injuries, but they are quite severe and it's a miracle that she made it to the guild. She will suffer internal injuries around her lungs, but fortunately she will survive. She is currently awake, but is under strong anti-pain enchantments. I did not want to question her myself, but Makarov may choose people close to her and try to find out who did this to her."
Master Makarov walked to the front of the guild, "Gray, Natsu, Lucy and Gajeel. Follow me." He said without any other further explanation. Before stepping into the infirmary Master Makarov warned the 4 mages to be careful. "You four," barked Master Makarov, "Juvia is in a fragile state. Please do not cause her any emotional discomfort."
Before stepping into the infirmary Master Makarov warned the 4 mages to be careful. "You four," barked Master Makarov, "Juvia is in a fragile state. Please do not cause her any emotional discomfort."
Gray was shocked, but relieved to see Juvia looking better and close to her normal self. Her blue hair had been cleaned and tied up loosely into a ponytail. She was smiling, but Gray could see she was frightened behind the smile.
"What happened, Juvia? I've missed you..." He said softly as he sat down by her side.
"I-I-It was horrible..." Juvia said shaking. Gray wrapped his right arm around her firmly. "Juvia was on her way to her job, w-when she encountered Amalia..."
"Amalia!" Cried Gajeel, "Amalia from Phantom Lord?!" Lucy cupped her hands around her mouth in shock.
Juvia nodded sadly. "When she noticed the Fairy Tail guild crest on me she grabbed me from behind. She wasn't the only one from Phantom L-L-Lord there... They brought Juvia to the construction sight of the new Phantom Lord guild. A-A-And... They tortured Juvia. They used Juvia's body for entertainment... I was tortured for fun. They did this for me for 3 years until they all left to a pub one day. They thought Juvia was too injured to escape, " Juvia's eyes filled with tears, "Juvia is not part of Fairy Tail anymore. Th-They burned off Juvia's guild crest..."
Natsu, Gajeel, Lucy and Gray peered at the gruesome burn mark on Juvia's right thigh. "Oh. My. God!" Lucy said in shock.
"Juvia shouldn't be here... Juvia isn't a member of Fairy Tail anymore..." Juvia sobbed. Gray's grip around her tightened.
"Juvia," said Master Makarov as he appeared behind Natsu, "Guild mark or not, you will always be a member of Fairy Tail!"
Juvia smiled as tears poured down her face. It felt so great to feel safe again after 3 long years of hardship.
As Juvia drifted off to sleep, only Gray and Mrs Poryluscia sat in the room.
"She will live a shorter life than most people, Gray," said Mrs Poryluscia after a long silence, "You must know that by now."
"I want to live with her," Gray said firmly, "For the rest of our lives."
"Will you keep her happy?" Mrs Poryluscia asked, "Will you make her happy? I want you to make her think she is living a normal life. Just like everybody else, but there will always be restrictions..."
"I'll be there for her, Mrs Poryluscia," said Gray determinedly, "No matter what."
3 months later
"This is quite exciting, Gray-sama," said Juvia as they walked into their new bungalow, that was next to the guild.
"Finally, Juvia, you move out of the guild dorms," sighed Gray, "Well, welcome to our new house!" Juvia, already tired from carrying a light bag inside the house, slumped onto the couch and coughed a little bit of blood into a handkerchief. The blood made the delicate, floral handkerchief look like a murder site.
"Oh my," Juvia said once she had recovered and Gray had rushed to her, "Juvia's alright now... Juvia just... Juvia just want to live normally..." This was actually the first time Gray heard her say this. Juvia was a remarkably strong woman. She barely complained. She barely showed the pain she was going through.
"You are living normally, Juvia," said Gray, "What is missing from this life?" He caressed her blue hair gently.
"J-J-Juvia wants a child..." Juvia said nervously. Gray's eyes widened. He had never thought of having children, but it wasn't like he had a problem about having kids.
"Really?!" Gray said in surprise, "We can talk to Mrs Poryluscia about having children." Gray wrapped his arms around Juvia, "You should've told me this earlier..."
Juvia smiled, "Well, you know now Gray-sama." The happy couple were feeling ecstatic.
10 Years Later
Juvia and Gray both kissed their two children lovingly on their heads. Juvia hugged onto Ameko and Yuki. "I'll miss you both," she sighed.
"Bye, mommy!" Cried both of the children as they walked into the blossoming sunset.
"Don't worry, Juvia," said Gray as he held his wife's hand, "It's only a 2-day mission. Plus, they have Natsu and I know Natsu will make sure nothing happens to them."
Juvia nuzzled her head into Gray's chest. "It's been over 10 years, Gray-sama..."
Gray wrapped his hand around Juvia and the couple gazed at the mesmerizing sunset. "Life couldn't be any better, huh?" Gray said after a long pause.
Juvia looked up to him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"I love you."
A/N : Oh my god! I literally just SWOONED over this beautiful couple as I wrote this story. I'm sorry if you hardcore Juvia fans felt pretty sad when you heard about the ordeal she went through, but I just wanted to show that there will always be a rainbow after a storm. I didn't post this story in chapters because that would make me tempted to write over a long period of time and eventually I would forget about this beautiful story. This has been a long-term project and I'm hoping to write another story like this. I've been getting reviews for Natsu + Lucy, I'm less of a fangirl for Nalu rather than Gruvia, but I'll try my best!
Spell-check was EXTREMELY helpful throughout writing this story because I've never been the best at speliing and it's a bit embarrassing to make spelling errors!
I hope you all LOVED this story and please support this story by dropping by a review, favourite-ing(?!) or following.
Love you guys!
- xFairyTailFangirl