i'm sooooo sorry: this took waaaay too long bc exams and other stress. but exams are over now, i didn't pass and writer's block is (finally) gone. so leggo.

disclaimer: ft isn't my property

the last dance

two | see you tomorrow

That night, Juvia just couldn't fall asleep. Thoughts about Gray Fullbuster were roaming through her head, and her mind was just too busy with it. Too busy with the boy she had gotten to know a little bit yesterday in the hospital.

She didn't know what to think of him. He was cute; yes, absolutely. He had gotten rid of his shirt while she was having her appointment — when she walked out of the consulting room, he was shirtless — and hadn't minded the cool air that was hanging in the waiting room. He didn't even have goose bumps running over his body, while it wasn't warm at all inside!

The only thing that struck and bugged her mind for almost more than the half of the night was his disease. According to Lucy, he would be suffering from the same disease as her. Knowing that, Juvia had studied him a little when they were walking to the waiting room, and concluded that he didn't really look like it. Like someone who was suffering.

After seven years of hospitalization, you would say Juvia knew a thing or two about ill people's faces and body language and their posture. However, that wasn't the case here.

She thought about their conversation before and after their appointments. It had been different. Juvia wasn't really a people's person, and the only one she could talk normally to, was Lucy. Cana and Levy could do too, but less. She mostly felt comfortable when Lucy was around too. But Lucy wasn't there - Juvia quickly checked her clock - yesterday. Neither had Levy or Cana. It had been just her and Gray.

And even though they hadn't talked for long, she hadn't felt uncomfortable at all. Not even once. She only felt at ease. It was as if... As if they already knew each other for centuries.

Had he thought about the same?

That night, Juvia wondered about many things. And that night slowly turned into a morning: a morning in which she overslept and woke up at twenty minutes to nine. Twenty minutes until her first period of the day would start.

She slowly got out of bed and strolled to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. After that, she got dressed, brushed her teeth, put on a little make-up and was ready to go to school.

On her way, snowflakes started to fall down, on her head and on the ground. It didn't last long before the streets were covered with a small layer of snow. She pulled her hood over her head so it would stay dry. She didn't think of bringing along another headscarf; her blue one was still wet from washing it yesterday; her colored one was nowhere to be found; she only had this black one.

People who were passing her murmured about the snowfall. Juvia questioned herself why some people hate snow; she loved the snow and almost felt sad that she couldn't share it with the people who hated it.

School came into sight and she felt relieved that she had arrived. Sure, she liked to walk, but not the distance from her house to school. That still was a little exhausting.

"Good morning, Juvia," sang someone to her right.

Juvia looked at the calling person, and saw a bright smiling Lucy. "Good morning to you too, Lucy!" Juvia studied Lucy's face for a moment when she started to walk next to her. She noticed that her blonde friend just couldn't stop smiling. "Well someone is awfully happy?"

Some people said hi to them, naming to Juvia, what Juvia returned.

Lucy started to blush. "Can't I just be happy?" Juvia sent her a meaningful glance. "Okay, Natsu asked me to come over tonight," she confessed with a sigh.

"That is so cute," Juvia cooed.

"He did it in a text, though," Lucy sighed, disappointment in her voice.

Juvia sighed. "Ouch. That's a little sad. But Lucy, don't let it get to your head. You know how Natsu is, and if more than anything, he's terrible with words," she said, encouraging Lucy as they walked into their English Literature class. It was already pretty filled with students when they set foot in it, and Juvia couldn't help it; as she roamed her eyes through the classroom, her breath hitched a little.

There was Gray, talking with Natsu, sitting on his table with his back turned facing her. Natsu noticed them, and Juvia's eyes flew from Gray's head and back to Natsu's when he moved.

"Heya, Lucy!" his chirped when he got them in his vision. Juvia giggled shortly. Scratch them, more like Natsu hadn't even seen Juvia at all. His eyes were all on Lucy. It didn't last long though, before Natsu noticed Lucy wasn't alone. "And hi, Juvia," he grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Morning," Lucy and Juvia laughed in unison.

Lucy walked into the direction of her almost-boyfriend and sat down on Natsu's table. Juvia hadn't moved an inch since Natsu said her name, though.

The very reason behind that frozen state of Juvia was only explainable with one answer: when Natsu had called her name, a certain someone had turned around and started to stare at her. She was kind of feeling uneasy and unpleasant with the deep stare the boy was giving her.

All of a sudden, he started to smile, and Juvia was shocked and left with an unknown feeling at the same time. Not knowing what else to do, she tried to smile back naturally — which was a little difficult because of that sensation — and walked towards Lucy, Natsu and then of course Gray as well.

She saw that he was following her with his eyes when she walked to them, and he was curving the edges of his mouth in a small smile at her when she sat down on a table to the left behind him. From the corners of her eyes, she could see Lucy sending her a questionable smile, what she returned with a small smile herself.

When the teacher walked inside the classroom, sat behind his desk, Lucy hopped off the table and sat down behind Juvia. She leant over and hissed, "What was that all about, Gray smiling at you? I thought you didn't know each other?"

Juvia turned around and leant closer to Lucy as well. "Nothing really," she whispered back. "Juvia bumped into him, yesterday at the hospital, and we talked a little after our appointments."

"Ah okay— wait." Lucy narrowed her eyes and muttered, "You and Gray had an actual conversation?"

"Yeah, Gray and Juvia did... What is strange about that?" Juvia didn't understand were this was going to. What was weird about them having a conversation?

"Gray doesn't usually 'converse' with people he doesn't know," she explained.

Juvia only furrowed her brows more after hearing that. "It didn't look like that at all," she whispered back.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know why. Natsu just told me once."

The teacher called for silence in the classroom, and Juvia took that as a sign to turn around and start paying attention. Although, it was harder than she thought. She, again, thought about Gray.

So he didn't like to talk to people he just met? She couldn't sense that from him at all. He was sitting in front of her; she only had to twist her head a little to the right before getting a perfect glimpse of his smooth back — yeah, she had already noticed yesterday that he had a nice well-trained back.

A weird feeling made her belly twist. Only looking at him, at his back, was making her head foggy. She only knew him since yesterday! But... he couldn't stop coming back into her mind.

Juvia's breath hitched. Gray's body had moved a little, as if he had noticed someone was staring at him! What if he had noticed... Juvia quickly looked at her textbook, pretending to find the letters she couldn't even decipher with that foggy mind really interesting.

She wasn't looking. She occupied herself with the textbook, scribbling down something. Notes, maybe?

Gray quickly returned his sneaky view from her to the front of the classroom. He had made sure it wouldn't seem too suspicious, so he had looked at her from out of the corners of his eyes and over his shoulder.

She looked cute today. Maybe it was just the lighting from the classroom mixed with outside's, because her clothes were simply the school's uniform. Nevertheless, she looked cute.

His thoughts almost shocked himself. This was the first time since a long time that he had found a girl cute. Ever since he saw her last Friday, she was in his thoughts. His mind wouldn't usually be this occupied by some girl.

But she wasn't just some girl, his mind screamed.

Yeah right, he barely knew her. Jumping to conclusions would be a dumb thing to do.

Hours ticked by and before he knew it, it was the end of another day of school. Even though he had had three classes with her, in every single class he couldn't stop thinking about her.

What could she be doing right now? For the first time since... a very long time, he had wondered about what a girl was doing at the same moment as him.

Shaking his head, he swung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the school. Snow was melting from the January sun, turning into muddy goo.

"Gray!" her voice called. He immediately stopped and turned around to see Juvia coming at him, running and waving. "Gray, wait up!"

What was she doing? Why was she calling out for him? Didn't she always go in the other direction?

(How did he even know that?)

She reached him, huffed from the running, mumbled, "Oh crap, Juvia, you haven't trained in forever," and stretched her back. "Hi," she sheepishly grinned.

"What's up?" he asked her when she caught her breath again.

Juvia simply sent him a smile back. "Juvia just wanted to walk a little before heading to her friend. Plus, she saw Gray, so she decided that going in this direction was a good first choice." Another smile.

Unexplainable things were happening inside of him.

He noticed that every time she send him a smile, that happened. Unexplainable things, what felt like some sort of goo messing up his stomach. Weird things that made him feel weird.

He shook it off and started to walk. She followed. "A friend?"

Juvia nodded happily. "Hm-mm! Gray probably doesn't know him, but he and Juvia are pretty close."

He.

...

(What the hell dude. What was that?)

"We have known each other since elementary," she had put her hands together, on her back, he noticed, "we both were... we didn't really fit in, let's phrase it like that, yeah. And our friendship hasn't withered since! We also haven't seen each other in a long time, so Juvia is really excited." He looked at her face. A genuine laugh made its way onto her face, and it made her look like she had never been terribly diseased at all. It was cute.

...

He really should stop saying these kinds of things.

Gray recognized this street. "I have to go in here. Dunno if you're coming with?" Why was he even asking? He actually really just wanted to be alone and be mentally preparing for yet another trip to hell. Hospital. Nah, same thing. But somewhere in the back of that mess they called a mind, he didn't mind her presence next to him. It was kind of comforting, really.

"Juvia has to go left, so we'll be parting ways," she said, gesturing her hand to the left. "Will she be seeing you tomorrow again?"

Gray snickered. Why did she even care? Okay, maybe deep, deep down there he thought it was nice. "Depends on whether the hospital will let me go or not," he mumbled, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "You know how they are."

That's right... She knew it better than everyone else he had met before.

"Ah, well, Juvia is certain they will let Gray go," she said, looking at the ground.

"Hopefully."

She laughed at his comment, hiding it behind her small hand. Gray thought it was kind of sweet and adorable. What. "Of course they will." Juvia folded her hands together at her back and stared up at the sky. "They would need a very good reason to keep Gray at the hospital."

It was weird how at ease he felt while talking to her. Yeah, he only knew her since yesterday; he kept on repeating that to himself as well.

He checked his phone. "My bus will be at the stop soon, so I really got to go now," he stated. Juvia looked up and at him. And she didn't look away. It was like she wanted to say something, but couldn't get it over her lips. It got him kind of nervous, so he looked away.

"Ah," was her only reply. Out of the corners of his eyes he looked at her; she was fidgeting with the straps of her bag. "So… See you tomorrow?" she said softly, smiling a little; crooking the corner of her lip a little.

Gray couldn't help but letting out a short laugh, what made her look back at him. "Yeah, see you tomorrow," he grinned.

Her small smile turned into a heartwarming one. "That's better."

He turned around and put his hand up in a wave. "Have fun with that friend of yours."

"Thank you," she replied. He didn't know if she already turned around or not, but he was battling with himself if he should look around or not.

Nope, he didn't do it. He was certain she had already turned around.

After he had turned around, Juvia could – finally – freely let her cheeks heat up.

She pressed her lips together and turned around as well. She exhaled deeply while firmly pressing her fingernails into her palms when she wanted to – figuratively speaking – strangle her bag.

"Oh my," she whispered to herself, "Juvia's heart is racing like crazy."

Scratching her right cheek with her right hand, she thought. She knew she shouldn't make any rash observations and decisions… Juvia had never experienced something like this before, she had only read about these kinds of things… But…

"Could it be…" she kept her voice low, in case someone would hear her, "Could it be what the books called 'love'?"

thanks again for reading, and sorry again that this update took so long! it certainly wasn't my intention :| that's why i finished it just now and didn't want to wait until upcoming friday bc i would simply forget to do it anyway.

reviews~

BlueKoalaBear: thank you so much! hope you enjoyed this chapter as well ;)
Baby pink 'n Baby blue: ah thanks a lot! updates now absolutely will come on fridays, soooo
Guest: thanks guest! well i hope you enjoyed this chapter as well

Please leave a review, and see you next update! (probably this friday already, but we'll see!)

~ pherion