TWO: MELTING THE HEART


A/N: I think this is more than a bluff than a fluff… But ah well… This happened. Sooo… uh, enjoy… I guess?

Kinda like a prequel to the first prompt… I think?


Slowly but Surely

Juvia didn't really know how it happened. She only admired him from afar, always tailing his shadow and making him all sorts of handicrafts and homemade food. She wanted him to notice her efforts, but it seemed that Gray was just irritated by her actions. Whenever she made him something, he rejected it. Whenever she professed her love and admiration for him, he replied with a bored tone and even rejected her once!

But she is persistent, because he is her sunshine, her clear skies.

Her one, true love.

She kept on with her daily routine: greeting him a good morning, baking him bread, assisting him on missions and fighting alongside him.

Before she knew it, Gray was crying to her, hugging her as he muttered "thank you's" and "I'm sorry's" over and over, living with her for six months, sharing good and bad memories with her during the night…

She didn't know what to make of it at first. But in time, she finally understood.

Erza once told her, during their private conversations in Fairy Hills (which mainly concerns Juvia's supposed to be futile efforts into making Gray like her back), that Gray, despite his seemingly easy going and laidback attitude, was closed off. He hides his emotions behind a well-schooled mask of indifference and likes to pretend that he doesn't care too much. He's been through a lot and just like the most of their guild mates, lost his loved ones.

No one in the guild managed to get past his heart, Erza said, not even Cana, who is Gray's closest friend.

And after seeing all sides of Gray during their time together, she saw what Erza meant.

Gray managed to prevent anyone from seeing the "real" him because he built walls around his heart.

Walls made out of tall, thick and indestructible ice.

She tried to break them, of course. But once she managed to crack the surface, Gray builds another one over it.

It frustrated her. It made her want to give up. But she didn't. Instead, she kept on breaking those walls, creating a dent on the surfaces with her love and chipping away the ice.

Until one day, he stood facing her on the remains of the battlefield, all worn out but with a determined look in his eyes, that she heard it.

A crack.

He reached out for her hands and intertwined them with his, giving them a soft yet firm squeeze. He gazed at her eyes and uttered the words that she thought she'll never hear from him.

"I love you, Juvia."

Her eyes widened, tears springing from them until she finally started sobbing. She lunged at him and hugged him hard, never wanting to let go, and he hugged her back just as fiercely, as if he had been waiting for this moment his entire life.

Juvia smiled as she nuzzled her face on his torso, her ears pressed on his chest. She closed her eyes and let the beating of Gray's heart fill her ears, marveling at the fact that the ice walls around it were finally gone.


Er, so it was more like "breaking" than "melting" right? I don't even understand how it became like this. I got extremely carried away. But, it's close right? *hides in the closet*. Thank you for reading!