When she arrived after their long train ride, Lucy and Erza excessively apologized to Juvia about having to bring Natsu home immediately to take care of him and how they couldn't be there for the first few hours of her settling in, and then repeated it in an evil mocking tone to Gray. Who now has to single handedly tell Makarov that the guild's commission from that mission had be completely taken up by Lucy who got the remaining money after paying off the town damages to pay her rent.
Gray glared at their backs as they walked away, even at Natsu's as he was propped against lucy's shoulder, struggling to walk.
"So before I tell Makarov about the whole money thing, you're going to need to show him your cool water body form thing. That'll probably put him in a better mood." Gray muttered.
"Am I going to Fairy Tail right now?" Juvia exclaimed. She didn't even have a place to stay, where else could she go! oh my gosh how could this be happening she thought to herself in a momentary state of panic, which she forcefully stopped before it elevated any further.
"Of course? You don't even have a place he stay." Gray said, mirroring her thoughts.
"Am I staying at the guild?" Juvia asked.
"Nope, I believe all the rooms there are currently taken up, so we can find someone to put you up there. Or Lucy can. She should be at the guild later."
"Oh that'd be perfect." Juvia said with a smile. "Lucy's so nice."
Gray laughed "Watch out, she's a demon in the mornings though."
"What do you mean?"
Gray chuckled. "Like when she just wakes up and you try to talk to her she just screeches at you until you get out of her room or shuts up." He shook his head. "I was just asking where she keeps her cereal."
"Do you two.. Live together?" Juvia asked for clarification.
Gray chuckled again. "Oh no, we just like bugging her in the morning for breakfast and stuff. And her house is the closest to the station so we sleepover there whenever we have to leave early. She's used to company like us, so I'm pretty sure she won't mind you for a few nights. You can begin apartment hunting tomorrow. Or there's Fairy Hill's a dorm room for the girl residents. But,.. I think they're full right now too."
Juvia considered for a bit. She hasn't lived anywhere except in that tiny house with her grandma for the most part of her life. Sure she and her parents lived in a house before her dad had run off on them, and her mother died, but she was so young when it happened it brought no memories to her. It's going to be so exciting living alone, Juvia decided.
"Yeah, I should look into that tomorrow."
"I have no work lined, so I can help you." Gray offered. "And we can go on a job together soon, since it's your first one you shouldn't go alone. We can ask Lucy too. Natsu's a bit...crazy so let's leave him out of this one." Gray said. Juvia was unsure if he was joking or not.
"Natsu- san seems like a lot of fun, though." Juvia said.
"Yeah he is." Gray agreed. "I'm joking about leaving him out because he's crazy, it's just usually tradition to go on first jobs in pairs or smaller groups."
"It is?" Juvia asked.
Gray shrugged. "I went on my first real job outside of the city with only Loke, despite already being in Natsu's team already. It was actually both our first jobs outside of the city, and it was pretty awesome. He's taking a long job right now though so you won't be able to meet him. But yeah, like if I went with you I would just help you get the feel of one, especially since you haven't really used much magic before."
"That would be..nice." Juvia said. Her heart quickened a bit at the idea of going on an actual job so soon. Usually she would be revising magic history into a lesson plan all day on Sundays if she were still at home.
The two were continuing their walk to the guild when an extremely important thought popped into her head.
"Wait, how do I become a member of Fairy Tail?" She asked, realizing she hadn't even thought of the joining a guild process. "Do i have to pass some magical tests?"
"Nope, it's quite simple actually. Just tell Makarov your magic type and why you want to join the guild." Gray said.
"There's no formal recruitment process?"
"Well, there usually is for mages that show up out of the blue and have no background information, but you're with us. As in 3 official members see the potential in your magical abilities, and that's good enough for Makaron. That's how Lucy joined. Natsu brought her back while he was out on a solo trip."
"Wow.. am I even worthy of such a title so easily?" Juvia asked, thinking.
"Of course. We wouldn't go around inviting every mage we run into on missions to our guild. We still gotta keep our namesake." Gray joked. He placed a hand on her head, in a slight teasing manner. "And you'll get stronger really fast here, even if your magical abilities aren't at the level of the other mages there. Trust me, you're going to need to if you want to survive even hanging out in the guild." He shuddered, and Juvia pouted, suddenly pictureing when Erza drew her sword just to end Natsu and Gray's little spat over the map. But with like 50 other mages who were just as powerful.
Another thought sprung into her head.
"Also I totally forgot to mention this, but I think I met a father and son from Fairy Tail. If i recall, the little boy's name was Romeo?'
"Oh! Right, I think Natsu mentioned that 2 nights ago. You sold them the keychains. I hope they'll remember you, too." Gray said earnestly.
Juvia blushed. That was a really kind thing to say about someone who had only been doing her job. He had removed his hand from her head right after, but she had been surprised when he did that. In fact, she was surprised he was such a genuinely nice person, especially since her first impression of him was grouchy, and blunt, and tired. But it had been almost midnight at the time, and he had just finished up a huge fight (she presumed). This was probably what he was really like, she decided.
Also, Juvia would like to point out to herself that he was probably one of the best looking guys she's ever seen in her life. Certainly now, when they've been walking so close for the past few minutes, and he was, huh. Shirtless all of a sudden.
"Your shirt!" Juvia squeaked, taking a few steps back in surprise. When did he take it off?
"Oh shit!" Gray yelled, his hands on the waistband of his jeans. "This stripping habit just takes control of my limbs from time to time. I'm sorry."
"It's..okay." She finished, lamely, unable to deny to herself that he certainly had a really nice physic. And that his Fairy Tail insignia looked amazing stamped on his chest.
Gray laughed out loud at how flustered she was. Her entire face was red, and hidden behind her hands. "I'll try to keep it under control tomorrow at least. No one's going to sell a house to a girl walking with a guy half clothed."
Juvia brought her hands down and willed her face to cool down by slightly fanning herself. "If i can't get a house because i'm associated with a pervert, I'm breaking into Lucy's house with you guys." Juvia pouted.
"You will be greatly welcomed by our grade a Breaking and Entering team. We needed someone to subdue that Plue thing she keeps as a pet dog." Gray said. They walked a few more steps in comfortable silence, when.
"Well, here we are." Gray announced. He spread his arms open to display what was a multistory building with the sign Fairy Tail written beautiful on a gold plaque above it's double doors. A flag with their insignia hung proudly from the 3rd floor and Juvia could barely believe her eyes. It was such calm looking building, and somehow it radiated warmth and energy just in it's tall stature.
"It's even a beautiful building." Juvia breathed.
"Sure is." Gray agreed. "C'mon. Let's go in." He pushed the doors open and immediately formed an ice shield as a barrel hurled towards them.
Juvia stepped back, shocked. Was there a fight going on?
"Hey, I'm bringing a new face in, can you try not to throw barrels right at the door please." Gray shouted but completely unfazed by what just happened.
"Hey sorry man, was just trying to aim at Cana." a huge tall man shouted back, already holding another barrel ready above his head.
"Missed me!" A girl with long brown hair, sporting only a bra shouted as she darted by the 2. "Oh hey Gray." She called out. "Elfman is pissed that i took this high paying job from him."
"Damn right i am!" Elfman roared, and flung the barrel at full force at Cana again. This time hitting the wall beside the door and being much closer to his target than the last attempt. No one else was paying close attention to the fight however, as Juvia noticed that everyone at the guild had begun shouting and launching their own choice of weapon at each other. There were no distinct sides, just a mess of food and broken crates everywhere.
"Um. Yeah this is normal. And the walls are magically sound proof as to not cause worry to our town" Gray explained. He protectively placed an arm over her shoulder. "And unfortunately Makarov's room is at the back." They scaled through the fight along the walls, Gray pressing her against it, while he occasionally threw up shields at flying debris.
"Hey Gray, who's this?" A pretty girl with flowing white hair who was behind the bar asked. They made it thru the guild safely, but with a couple of close calls. Wiping away at 2 already pristine looking glasses, seeming oblivious to what was happening in front of her, the bartender offered a kind smile Juvia's way. Surprisingly no debris flew close to the bar area.
"This is Juvia. Juvia, this is Mirajane. Our guild's prized possession, and best cook in the city." Gray introduced. Juvia stuck out her hand for a hand shake.
"Lovely! A new recruit? Shall I get the master?" Mirajane asked in an angelic voice, paired perfectly with her angelic smile.
"Yes please. And 2 burgers please. We're starving."
"Of course, 1 master and 2 burgers coming right up."
"She's like the only person at the guild whos not insane." Gray explained. He gestured for Juvia to sit.
"This is a lot like the 1st grade classroom I teach in sometimes." Juvia stated, "except they only had erasers and sharpeners to throw." She winced, watching when a barrel finally made contact with Cana. But Cana just took the hit, fell over, promptly stood up, and flung it right back at Elfman. The barrel shattered at his chest and shrapnel flew, hitting a table of people calmly talking. They joined the fight too.
"Great comparison for what this guild is, actually." A voice called from beneath her. Juvia looked down. Standing beside her, a small old man who's height barely reached her waist, and he held out an outstretched hand.
"Master Makaron. Nice to meet you. I heard you wanted to join the guild." He had a toothy smile and a firm handshake.
"Yes, that would be such an honor, Master Makarov." Juvia said, with a large bow.
"Haha, you are quiet a polite one to be brought in by our grouchy old Gray." Makarov teased.
"Che" Gray scoffed.
"Oh no, Gray-sama has been very nice to me!" Juvia defended.
"Sama?" Mirajane said, with a chuckle.
Juvia nodded vigorously.
Makarov chuckled too. He waved his hand and a stamp appeared.
"Alright girl, lets see where you want the stamp."
Juvia didn't realize she hadn't made this decision yet. He hadn't even asked her what kind of mage she where should she get the stamp? Her hands? Her arms? No her grandma said those places who the general public could see should remain spotless.
Juvia hiked up the hem of her dress.
"Here please." She said.
"Lovely." Makarov said, and stamped the marking on her left thigh. "You have beautiful legs." he remarked.
"ehh?" Juvia said after he finished the brand, flushing slightly.
"Perverted old man." Gray muttered under his breath. No one could tell but his cheeks had momentarily flushed red when she called him -sama just now.
"Well that'll be all then." He said. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my nap. Gray, hand over the guilds commission from the job to Mirajane." With that Makarov wandered off to behind the bar again, not evening asking for any further information on the new mage. His trust in Gray's taste for mages must be really high, Juvia subsciously noted.
"About that.." Gray started sheepishly, turning to Mira.
He had explained his situation to Mirajane during dinner, giving a full report of the job and trying to explain why it was necessary that Natsu had to punch down an entire bridge to drown the robber when he could have just subdued him with a blast of fire, or just simply tackling him. Mira nodded as if she fully believed his excuses, but had let him go, making "no commission" on a sheet of paper that she had grabbed from the poach that hung on her hip. They ended their conversation discussing Juvia. He explained how they ran into her 3 times during their stay at Atha, and how she showed them this amazing trick she could do, that prompted her invite to the guild.
"Oh right I totally forgot to mention this amazing trick she showed us. We've never seen anything like it!"
"What's the trick?" Mira exclaimed.
"Come on, show her." Gray urged.
Juvia blushed, still not used to having to show her magic around other people.
"Just watch," Gray instructed, and offered Juvia an encouraging smile.
Juvia summoned her magic again, and instantly became a body of water.
"Wow!" Mira exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
Gray shrugged and answered for her. "How do you turn into demons, how does Natsu eat fire for a living."
Juvia blushed again and sat down, finding it hard to meet Mira's genuinely amazed eyes.
"That's a really cool trick. And you haven't been studying water magic for that long right?"
"I haven't been training my magic, but I've been studying all types of magic history." Juvia explained. "I read about the first water mage who learned his trick and thought it was the one worth learning first.'
"Oh you showed them the water body?" Lucy asked, bounding up to the bar.
"Lucy!" Juvia exclaimed. "Hey again! How'd Natsu feeling?"
"Oh, he's totally fine. He's sleeping now and I'm just here to bring him some food. I'm staying over at his place tonight cause we're catching the early bus to watch Gajeel's cat symphony, remember." Lucy said to Gray, with a sigh.
"Oh right." Gray said. "That was tomorrow."
"You sure you don't wanna come with us?" Lucy asked, exasperated. "Also Mira can i get 5 burgers to go. Natsu's going to eat me br o k e." She huffed.
"Not at all." Gray said.
"That's what i figured. Sorry I'm so busy on your first few days here." Lucy apologized to Juvia. "But I'll be back in a few days, we can explore the city or go on missions together then?" She suggested.
"I would love that." Juvia said excitedly.
"Hey, show me your mark!"
Juvia pulled up her skirt again to reveal the newly branded dark blue mark on her leg. She admired it proudly herself, and Lucy smiled widely.
"I'm so excited for you! I remember when I got my branding, I really felt like I was starting my life over. For good."
Which is exactly how Juvia felt when she looked at her own mark.
Mira came back with 5 burgers, all placed in a giant take out bag.
"Here you go, tell Natsu I put extra ketchup on all of them."
"Thanks Mira." Lucy said. She pulled out her wallet, and painstakingly handed over 2500 jewels. "That boy better buy my train fare tomorrow." Lucy muttered.
"So you can't take Juvia in for the night?" Gray asked.
Oh right, Juvia had almost forgotten she didn't even have a place to stay.
"Oh right!" Lucy said. "You don't even have a place to stay! No you can totally go to my place, I just won't be there."
"Lucy-san that's so nice, are you sure?" Juvia asked.
"Of course of course, we can't have you homeless. All the rooms are booked in the guild and Fairy Hills right?" She asked Mira.
Mira nodded in confirmation.
"But you might be lonely." Lucy finished, "Crap do you know where Smith street is?"
"I can show her." Gray said. "Or you can just stay with me tonight, since my apartment is so much closer."
"Oh wow Gray, I've literally never heard you offer your apartment up to anyone." Mira said in shock.
"Wait a second, that's right I don't even know anything about where you live." Lucy agreed. "Since you're always at my place."
"I'm not homeless you know!" Gray exclaimed. But he turned to Juvia and in a much nicer tone offered again.
"It's really no hassle for me, since we're going apartment hunting tomorrow anyways."
"Oh.. apartment hunting, together?" Mira said, in a teasing tone, with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
Juvia blushed furiously when she realized when Mira was implying, and Gray glared at her direction. "Lucy, Natsu and Erza are out at Gajeel's cat circus-" "choir" Lucy piped in. "she shouldn't go alone." he explained.
"Whatever you say" Mira said with another eyebrow wiggle.
Lucy laughed. "Well I should really go back. Erza was cooking rice when I last left and I'm kind of scared she's going to burn his whole house down."
She gave Juvia a full hug.
"Lets hang out when I'm back, okay." She said. "And when you're settled in."
"Yes!" Juvia agreed.
As Lucy walked out, she skillfully dodged a chair that nearly grazed her bag of takeout.
"HEY WATCH IT!" She screeched, "If there are less than 5 burgers in this bag, Natsu's going to be complaining the whole night and if i have to deal with that you're going to gET IT from aquarius when i come back." She screamed at the mess of where the chair came from. No one paid her any attention, and it was apparent she also had no idea where that chair came from.
"See, you'll get used to it in no time." Gray said. He went back to telling her about some of the other members, with Mirajane leaning her head on her arms across the bar, listening in. They were joined by a few others occasionally who wanted food, or just to get away from the fighting. They told her about their experiences here to. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people who had joined here on a whim too, and others who had grew up their whole life knowing this is exactly where they wanted and had to end up at. Juvia classified her own experience as something in the middle of these two. She had been dreaming of a place to go to outside her town ever since she was young, but it had not been Fairy Tail until she noticed the distinction from their guild's mages versus the others. And she was definitely invited on a whim than through standard referrals.
The sun outside had almost completely set, indicating that it was almost 10. Juvia usually was a night owl, but she was undeniably tired from the day she had. The guild hall had only gotten rowdier as people began to drink.
"Wanna call this a day?" Gray whispered to Juvia as she flung her eyes open, unaware she had closed them while listening to Jet, or was it Drop talk about their perfect teammate Levy was but complaining she was out with Gajeel at the cat thing. She interested in what they had to say, but she was also undeniably exhausted. But exhausted in a way where she didn't mind that she could barely keep her eyes open, Because it was exhaustion stemmed from voluntary overexertion of energy. Something she hasn't felt in...quite a while.
"Yes, please." She whispered back, but smiled at Jet's rambling.
"Well we're going to take off." Gray announced, grabbing her backpack off the ground for Juvia. Jet cut off mid sentence, and Juvia jumped off the chair.
"Yes, I'm so sorry but today was so tiring. It was so nice to meet you all, you too Jet."
"I'm Droy!" the one who had been talking to her said. The real Jte burst out laughing.
"Ah, sorry!" Juvia apologized profusely. Gray chuckled.
"She's probably exhausted having come from being a small town shop owner to dealing with this Guild after a train ride of hearing Natsu retch for 3 hours."
Juvia bowed and delicately took her bag back.
"Oh, you two are going together?" Drop said, with an eyebrow wiggle identical to Mirajane's.
"Yes, shut it. She has no place to go and Lucy's out."
"Wow, we've never been invited to your house." Jet said, with a fake pout. "I thought you were homeless."
"Ahh, shut up the lot of you." Gray called. "Lets go." He tapped Juvia's lower back and she promptly followed. Her senses kicked in and she and Gray ducked at the same time at a flying barrel.
"Nice one." He said with a smirk. "See, we're learning already."
"Thanks for inviting me over." Juvia said when they had walked together briefly for a few minutes.
"Hey no problem at all. My house is always open, but I just don't know why Jet and Droy assume I'm just going to randomly invite them over or something."
"Thanks anyways." Juvia said, thinking of how shocked Mira seemed about the invite. The stars were out tonight and they were rather beautiful. In fact every around her at the moment was rather beautiful in her dream like state from exhaustion. "You're really nice."
"S'no problem." he repeated, giving her one last smile before placing his hand on her head again.
"I just hope you had a good day."
AN: okay idk if Gray is OOC here but in my mind, he was always someone who was quiet nice and inviting to new people he meets. I figured he was only like that with Juvia in the anime cause of how they met, and was just reacting to how weirdly she was acting to him. Although i shipped Gruvia since the moment they met, (as in i still found their character dynamic cute at that point, too) hehe this is fanfiction and I wanted to change it up a bit. She'll definitely get more obsessive and vocal about her love as Juvia is, but for now, since they're just meeting for the first time and not established friends yet i wanted to keep them lowkey and show how they grow and change as they get closer to each other. (Also i was going for the 'he was lowkey fliritng cause he found her cute but didn't even realize he was flirting' interaction XD dunno if i pulled it off or he just seemed kinda cr e e py)
As to where this story is going, I'm honestly so bad at writing plot? Like i don't have any ideas for now other than probably an OC just cause i don't think Juvia shouldn't join team Natsu right away and make her own team/friends first. (TBH i used to be so salty that wendy joined team natsu right away but juvia didn't, but realized i liked her dynamic with Gray as guildmates who aren't teammates hehe.) Also does anyone have suggestions for mission ideas XD. all i can think of is catching robbers and being bodyguards. (And i was going to pull a naruto and make Gray trick Juvia into taking a mission about finding a lost cat in the city after hyping it to be a really big deal. Should i do that LOOL, that'll give me a next chapter idea, and it's summer and online classes start on the 10th so all i'm doing is watching netflix dramas anyways. That would be a cute little chapter to write hehe.)
Anyways, i'm rambling. Hope you've all liked the story if you made it this far! Like, comment, subscribe for more! Jks, but reviews, favourites, and follows are all greatly appreciated!
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