After one too many stalking attempts, illegal love potion purchases and even a case of breaking in and entering property, the Fairy Tail guild decided that it was time to stage an intervention. An intervention regarding Juvia's obsession with Gray. That was why, on a Sunday afternoon, the entire guild had gathered around the table Juvia was sitting that day. Since the blue haired water mage had quite the volatile temper regarding her precious Gray-sama, the guild had specially planned the whole speech in order to prevent anyone from lashing out.
One of the more controversial aspects of the plan was that Gray was not to be present during the intervention. Some said it was for the best, as his presence would distract Juvia from the true objective, while others argued that the girl would not take anyone but the ice mage seriously. So they took a vote, and it was later decided that Gray would be exiled to a short fishing trip (with Happy to keep him company). While it sounded a bit harsh, Gray himself had been quite keen to leave the guild too.
"After all, no matter how many times I try to tell her, she doesn't get it," he explained ruefully to Lucy and Gajeel who had simply thought he was running away from his responsibilities. "Maybe it'll be better if I'm not there," it hadn't entirely convinced them, but once Erza backed him up, no one dared to contradict him.
"Juvia-san," Wendy begun timidly (while the others hovered in the background), due to the fact that she was one of the few people in the guild that Juvia knew well, and was not considered a love rival. Besides, Wendy was the least likely to get beat up if Juvia took the discussion the wrong way. "Is this a good time to talk?"
Juvia's eyes flitted around the building as if looking for something. "Apologies, Wendy-san, for Juvia has a previous engagement. You see, Gray-sama has not shown up to the guild today, and-"
"Actually," Charle said sharply. "That's precisely what we want to talk to you about," Charle was nominated the best person to break the news because of her blunt nature and the fact that she wasn't a love rival either.
Juvia narrowed her eyes, but didn't make any motion for Charle and Wendy to go away, so the pair along with Natsu, Erza, Lucy, Mirajane and Gajeel slid into the opposite bench. It turned out that there wasn't nearly enough space for all of them, so after much pushing and shoving, Gajeel and Erza sat next to Juvia.
"This is an intervention," Charle stated. "It is about your unhealthy obsession with Gray."
Juvia's face turned into a blotchy red shade. "Unhealthy obsession?" she hissed. "What do you mean unhealthy? My darling and I are very much in love, thank you!"
"Let's back it up a little," Lucy said hurriedly, sensing a potential fight. It was time to change the plan (which wasn't very good to begin with in her opinion) "Juvia, could you describe your daily routine for us?" the others gave her odd looks, but no one said anything.
Juvia glared at the blonde, muttering something along the lines of 'love rival', but complied. "Every morning, I reach the guild at six am precisely, so I can be there when my darling shows up. Then I wait at the guild for him, and keep an eye on him so no love rival steals his attention, while making my Gray-sama merchandise."
"Oh…" Mirajane said, looking a little concerned. "Juvia, do you eat breakfast at all?"
"Juvia tries to if she gets to the guild before Gray-sama," the girl said. "Otherwise, Juvia does without."
Mira made a muffled groaning sound, but Erza pressed forward. "But what do you do when Gray goes on jobs?"
Juvia scoffed, as if the answer was obvious. "I follow him of-course. With five love rivals on the team with him, I have to make sure that no one takes advantage of him."
Natsu turned green. "You stalk our team?"
Gajeel groaned. "And five love rivals? Which one of them aren't you counting?"
"Happy of-course," Juvia said. Lucy was suddenly very glad that it was Happy that was keeping Gray company, and not Wendy as they originally planned. If it were possible, Natsu turned even greener.
"Me and the stripper? No way…"
Everyone ignored him, and there was an uncomfortable silence until Erza spoke up again.
"Well, you should stop," she said bluntly. "Stalking is harassment, and it is not fair on Gray and the rest of our team when you do it."
"Also," Gajeel grunted. "I don't care about that stripper. What I care about is you not ending up evicted because you couldn't pay the rent because you were stalking some naked idiot."
"I pay the rent!" Juvia said. "And Juvia doesn't believe one word of this! You are all love rivals! All of you are!"
There were mixed reactions from the group. Lucy only huffed exasperatedly since she had been accused multiple times, while Mirajane, Wendy and Charle were all disturbed. After all, Mira had a boyfriend, Wendy was a child, and Charle was a different species altogether. Natsu and Gajeel looked repulsed at the very idea, and spluttered incoherent denials that everyone ignored. Erza on the other hand looked like she was itching to punch Juvia in the face. After all, of all the people at the table, she had known Gray the longest, and felt quite protective of him. Hurting Juvia's feelings (or face) didn't matter very much to her, if Gray was suffering.
"Let's change the topic," Mirajane was the first one to come to her senses. "Juvia, tell us more about your hobbies?"
"My hobbies?" the girl looked quite blank at the thought.
"What do you like to do for fun?" Gajeel translated. He was being surprisingly useful here for once.
"For fun…" the fact the Juvia had to contemplate that really worried the group. "Juvia likes to cook for Gray-sama!"
"That's… nice," Lucy said. "But I thought you liked to knit as well."
"Juvia does," the water mage nodded enthusiastically. "But only for Gray-sama. How else is she supposed to win his love?"
She received horrified looks from the group in response.
"Uh, Juvia-san," Wendy finally said after much 'telepathic' goading from Lucy and Mirajane (Natsu didn't get the hint, and Gajeel and Charle were much more interested in keeping Erza from assaulting someone). "What do you do for yourself?"
"Myself? Not for Gray-sama?"
Gajeel sighed. "Do you do anything in your life that doesn't revolve around Gray?"
Juvia shook her head, and the others gaped (although to be honest, they weren't all that surprised. Why hadn't they staged the intervention earlier? Juvia really needed it). "B-but it's not a bad thing! Juvia is simply dedicated, that's all!" water begun to pool on the guild's floor.
"That's not the point," Lucy interjected soothingly.
"No!" Juvia covered her ears. "Juvia wont listen to love rival!"
"Juvia-san, please-"
"LOVE RIVAL!"
"You're being unreasonable."
"LOVE RIVAL!"
Finally, it was Gajeel who calmed down Juvia. "Let's look at the basic facts here, ok?" he said quietly. "Like what we did in Phantom Lord whenever you were being emotional. Is that ok?"
Juvia didn't look too happy with the idea, but Gajeel raised an eyebrow and she sighed in defeat.
"You love the stripper," Gajeel said.
She nodded.
"But he had never told you that he loves you back."
"No! Juvia and Gray-sama are happy together!"
"He hasn't ever told you that he loves you back," Gajeel stressed. Defeated, Juvia shook her head.
"He has also told you that he doesn't love you," Gajeel said. The looks the others were giving him were priceless. Gajeel not being brash, rude and loud for once? God, the things he did for the guild-
"That's not true!"
"It is actually," Erza spoke up, her voice steely and barely controlled. "For the past month, I have had Lucy keep track of all the times Gray has rejected you. I have a full diary of it."
Juvia glared at Lucy, who may or may not have whimpered a little. Erza was not supposed to have revealed that bit. Now she would have bad plumbing for ages.
Gajeel begun talking again before Juvia tried to tackle the blonde to the ground. "Why do you love him?"
There was silence, filled with tension.
"Gray-sama made Juvia's rain go away," Juvia said. "And there are many reasons more."
"He doesn't love you," Natsu suddenly said, earning multiple cringes from the team, and others who were eavesdropping. "Really. I'd know if he did, trust me."
Juvia's eyes begun to well up with tears. "M-maybe not now. B-but if Juvia keeps trying-"
"It wont make things better," Mira said. "He might become frightened."
Gajeel frowned. Mira really was exaggerating, but it seemed to be working on Juvia, so he didn't complain.
"Hey," Lucy said warmly. "If you love him, then you would give him some space before he figures out his feelings."
"And if he doesn't," Charle continued. "You would be a good friend and accept it."
Realization seemed to dawn on Juvia. "A good friend… let him go…"
"At the end of the day," Erza murmured, but everyone had gotten so quiet that anyone could hear it, "do you want to make him happy?" she gave Juvia a steely look.
Juvia nodded immediately, and then the nodding paused a little when she realized that making him happy wouldn't make her happy for a long time.
"Hey," Mira squeezed her hand and smiled. "It may hurt for a little time, but you'll learn to make the best of it."
Juvia nodded again. "But what does Juvia do?" that was good. She was willing to listen.
To everyone's surprise, it was Natsu who spoke up. "I'd say back of for now. Be his friend, and try to get to know him better instead of all the obsessing."
Lucy's eyes filled up with tears. "It's so nice to see that you have some brains remaining in your head."
Natsu's face turned the same color as his hair. "Sh-shut up, Luigi."
"Juvia… will do that," she said. "Juvia will try to make him happy."
"Good," Gajeel said. "Remember. No love potions and no stalking."
"Juvia understands," the mage wiped away some tears, but smiled anyway. "Thank you."
.
.
It had been a week, and Juvia hadn't shown up at the guild at all. The intervention team was on edge, worried that they did more harm than good. Eventually, they made Gray come back, as there was no point in keeping him away when Juvia wasn't there. Besides, he needed to pay his rent.
Finally, the next Tuesday, a girl walked into the bar. She looked a bit more tired than usual, but overall looked like a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
"Juvia," Lucy greeted her warmly.
"Lucy-san," Juvia said cordially albeit wearily, and then turned to face her companion. "Gray-san, may I talk to you please?"
The boy raised an eyebrow at the change in honorifics, but complied, desperately hoping that it wouldn't be a declaration of love. Juvia begun to walk outside, and he followed her. Erza shot him a concerned look, but he waved her off with the best reassuring smile he had. Gray had a feeling that this talk would be different.
"You wanted to talk to me?" he said.
"Yes," Juvia fiddled with the hem of her dress absently, as she refused to meet Gray's eyes. "Juvia wanted to let you know that she is sorry for the stalking and the love potions."
"O-oh," how was he supposed to respond to that? He couldn't exactly say that it was ok, because he had hated the love potions and stalking, and would always resent Juvia a little for it. But at the same time, he didn't want to make her feel bad, or god forbid make her cry-
"After Juvia realized that it was hurting Gray-sama, sorry- Gray-san, she decided that she would 'back off' a little bit."
"Juvia," Gray said, unsure of what to do next. "I'm glad of that. Does that mean we can be friends?"
She looked like she desperately wanted to say yes (after all, it was the next best thing to being in love with him), but she caught herself. "Juvia would love that, but doesn't Gray-san think it's a bit sudden after everything that has happened?"
Gray raised his eyebrows. With all the craziness she displayed on a regular basis, he forgot that she could be a logical person. Then he considered her words. Maybe it was a bit sudden. There was no garuntee that Juvia wouldn't relapse into her obsessive love, or do something drastic. But she was a nice person at heart, and Gray would like to be her friend.
"You have a point," he rubbed the back of his neck. "But somehow, I think it's the right thing to do. Let's be friends."
"Would Gray-san like that?" she clarified once more, although the color was returning to her face, the smallest of smiles growing, and the tiredness dissipating.
"I would," he said smiling, and shaking her hand. "To a friendship."
"To a friendship."
.
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How did you like it?
This is not a Gray x Juvia fanfic, nor is this once where I'm bashing her. To clarify, I somewhat like Juvia as a character, but to me, her obsession with Gray is over the top, and rather unhealthy too. In my opinion, the guild should have staged this intervention. While Gray's discomfort with Juvia's advances is played off as a joke, if the genders were switched, everyone would have taken the stalking a lot more seriously, and Juvia would have been arrested. I don't think that it's fair that just because Gray is a guy, he's supposed to be cool with it. That's not how it works in real life.
Do I ship Gray x Juvia, though? Sort of. If she calmed down a little, I think their relationship would be kind of cute. And if he doesn't love her back, I think that they could be friends.
Anyway, tell me what you think.
-SpiderLover
