"Another glass of champagne, miss?" A waiter swooped over with a balancing act of intricate glasses filled with the bubbling liquid.
"Yes, please." Juvia accepted, she couldn't remember the last time she'd drank anything remotely fancy. Yes, taking care of Levy had occupied most of her fancy drink time over the years.
She swirled the champagne in her glass, keeping a tame eye on her target. He had spent the night bumbling around like a fool, complaining about the drink sizes and waiters and anything that came to his mind. With all the complaining he'd done, she didn't believe he'd once said something nice.
Juvia could think of plenty of things that were nice about this place, but she didn't exactly have time to make a bulleted list.
A swarm of women in tight cocktail dresses suddenly poured past her, all whispering and giggling in unison. It frightened her a bit that they were so in sync, almost as if they were just a bunch of rich clones with expensive hair dye and dress tastes.
She looked down at her own dress and realized she probably looked exactly like them. Curves flaring out at all angles and breasts practically making a grand entrance of their own. She wished she would've had the mind to steal a dress from a woman with similar cup size, but it was far too late now.
Tugging her dress upwards in an uncultured manner, she wobbled over to the food table to be closer to the target.
"-nestly Margaret, this event gets worse every single year. We see less and less of the Fullbuster boy, and even less of his so called 'fortune'."
The woman he was talking to, Margaret, evidently, laughed quite like a donkey. Juvia choked down her own laughter with her champagne.
Maybe I'll steal some of those baby sandwiches for Levy, Juvia thought, before shutting the idea down because she had nowhere to put them, in all her rush she had forgotten to bring a purse.
A tornado of voices surrounded the food table, and Juvia had trouble tuning in on just her target's. There was an especially loud woman towards the end of the table (who probably had one too many glasses of champagne) was complaining about how her husband never looks at her anymore, and her consoling friend, who was equally, if not more loud, drowned out all other voices seemingly in the entire ballroom.
"-swear to almighty Christ, if one more person tells me I look exactly like my father, I'm going to lose it."
"Keep it down, Gray. You'll attract attention."
"I hope I do, you know, that one redhead has been following me around the whole night, I wouldn't be surprised if she knows more about me than I know about myself!"
"You're acting childish…no, no, don't have another drink-"
"To the pit with it, Makarov, I need this."
Juvia trained her ears on the two unfamiliar voices, curious to where their conversation was going. The whole night, besides her target, she hadn't heard a single negative voice among the crowd.
Juvia turned to make sure the target hadn't left. Good, he was still distracted by the hors d'oeuvres.
"Your phone is going off."
"Ah, yes. I'm sure that's just the bloody bank being robbed, you see what I'm missing due to this…charade?"
"Quiet! Honestly boy, you're so loud…"
Juvia squished in between a pair of people wandering towards the food aimlessly to get closer to the voices, despite her conscious telling her to back off, she was inevitably curious as to whom these people were. Odds are she wouldn't recognize them, but maybe-
"Ooh," she breathed out, having tripped (cursed heels) into another person's body. How elegant.
"I'm so, so sorry!" she mumbled apologetically, these were the type of people who were to hold grudges, and the last thing she needed right now was a rich person's vendetta.
"It's alright." The person said, taking her hand and gently guiding her to her feet. How ironic, the very voice she was following she crashed into. Brilliant, really.
"I'm not used to these heels," she admitted, before covering her mouth unexpectedly. Christ, she was a horrible criminal if she couldn't keep her mouth shut.
The man looked at her quizzically. He had dark, onyx hair sweeping over his forehead like a tidal wave, it was gorgeous, and she found herself envying the color, as dark as the night. His eyes were similar, a dark, almost black colored brown. He wore a clean suit, looking sinfully handsome, yet uncomfortable at the same time.
He sent her shoes a look, then back at her once more. He was clearly unimpressed, her heels were like toddlers compared to what some of the women here sported.
"Uh…" distract him, give him your name, "I'm Ju-" Not your real name, you idiot! "-lia. Julia." She finished awkwardly, lifting up her dress in a makeshift curtsy. Do people even do that anymore?
The shorter, elderly man that he had been talking to gave the younger man a knowing look. "I'll catch up with you later, Gray." He said before taking his leave.
And now, she was left with the attractive man, the conversation (if it could've even been called that) chiseled from the atmosphere.
The music suddenly became louder. Maybe she was just focusing on other things to keep her distracted, she didn't quite know.
"Uh…" Gray uttered, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "Do you want to, uh…do you want to dance?"
Shocked, Juvia's gaze flicked from her target and back to Gray. He was still eating sandwiches. And one dance couldn't hurt.
"I…I guess, although I'm afraid I might fall over with these shoes," she admitted. He smiled, just in the tiniest bit.
"I'll lead."
Juvia chewed the inside of her mouth nervously as his hand gripped her waist and his other hand took hers. It had been ages since she'd been flustered by a man before, perhaps even high school was the last time she'd been interested in someone. And that was just sad.
"So, Julia," he began skeptically, "what do you do for a living?"
And, shit. Not only was her doubting her name, but he was doubting her status as well! Damn it all to hell – hopefully he wasn't anybody of importance.
"I do contract work for Fullbuster Enterprises," she lied, hoping that she didn't sound like a cornered mouse.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? I haven't seen you around."
Around? What in god's name did that mean?
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean." She admitted as he twirled her around. It was hard to focus on anything but him as she danced, he really was annoyingly handsome.
He was surprised once more. "You don't recognize me?"
Shit. Was she supposed to know who he was? His first name was Gray…Gray…Christian Gray? No, that was a book…
"I'm not very good with faces," she laughed lamely.
A corner of his mouth tugged into a smile. Whether it was a happy smile, or a ha-I've-caught-you-in-your-lie smile, she'd just have to wait and see.
"How long have you worked there?" He asked casually, hypnotizing eyes boring into her own menacingly. He was quite a character, this…Gray…
Oh, it sounds so familiar…why can't I just remember who this guy is…
"Not long, actually. I used to work at Hammer Tech, but I transferred here earlier this year." She lied smoothly. The trick is in the details.
"Hm," he mused, "Hammer Tech, how was that?"
Juvia huffed quietly. "Er, not to change the subject, but…I haven't hear anything about you. Tell me a little bit about yourself, Gray." She requested impatiently.
A wry smile appeared on his sexy lips. "You should know all about me."
Was that…condescending? She scanned his face for malice. None detected. Was he being sarcastic?
"I…" she began, but then she remembered her target. In a frenzy, she scanned the dining area for him – but he was gone. Damn it!
"I have to go!" She yelled awkwardly, jumping away from Gray like he was made of lightning and hurrying towards the last place she'd seen him.
"Eh…?" She heard him mumble as she disentangled her body from his. He'd have to wait, she'd figure out who he was later…
Her obnoxious heels clacked every time she took a feverous step, she felt the urge to rip them off and chuck them at the nearest rich old widow.
"Wait…!" She looked aback to see Gray following her. Drat. She'd have to lose him soon…
She turned sharply, invading a throng of people and squeezing through a lot of warm bodies. Her eyes flickered, and then she saw her target.
Her eyes widened in surprise and she squeezed through the last column of people and followed him subtly.
She looked behind her to see how far away Gray was. She would've surely lost him in that bundle of people.
…Yet there he was, only a few feet behind her, scanning the crowd for her blue hair.
How the hell did he do that? Juvia wondered, ducking quickly and cursing his height advantage. He'd definitely find her soon if she didn't find an escape…
Her eyes followed her target keenly…he looked…distressed…
Juvia narrowed her eyes in confusion and felt an arm clamp down on her wrist. She yelped in surprise and almost fell backwards, but she was caught by a pair of arms and hefted up quickly.
"You don't work here," Gray accused, keeping a firm grip on her wrist. She tugged back experimentally, but no movement came. He was wicked strong…she'd need to think of something fast…
"That's rude," she commented playfully, but let her eyes wander back to her target. He was pacing back in forth in front of a pair of large wooden doors, probably off limits.
"Tell me who you are, and why you're here." He demanded, other hand flying to her other wrist. Shit he was strong.
"I…" her brain scrambled for a lie. "You…you're right. You caught me. I was told this was a no press event, but…"
Gray dropped her wrist in disappointment. "Shit."
"Yeah, I know." Juvia agreed, right as she caught her target leaving the ballroom out of the corner of her eye, and into the restricted area. "I'll leave now."
"Wait," he said back, but she was already gone.
Juvia threaded through everyone in front of her, praying she could catch up to the target without Gray noticing that she was breaking party protocol, especially since he thought she was the press now.
Without a word of notice, Juvia slipped behind the door, no admittance plastered onto the handle. She'd done enough rule-breaking, why even hesitate now?
The hallway in the manor was dark, and haunting. Like a house infested with ghosts and spirits of upset rich people.
Paintings hung on the wall and were dimly lit by the moon and stars outside through the massive windows.
Now just where was her target…
She spotted him up, about thirty feet ahead, hobbling while mumbling to himself aimlessly, until he reached a door to the left, where he opened it, and disappeared inside.
Curious, Juvia thought. Perhaps it was a restroom?
She snuck up to the door and looked for a restroom sign. She found none, and slowly, she cracked the door handle open just a hairsbreadth, so she could see what was going on inside.
"-Mr. Johnson, we do sincerely hope you understand why we're doing this." A voice said. Juvia didn't recognize it, meaning that there was something else in there with her target, Mr. Johnson.
"No, you can't do this to me! I've done too much for you…you need me!" Her target declared, voice even more crackly and annoying than usual. He sounded a bit distressed, too.
"Not anymore, we've found…someone else, to finish your job for you." The mysterious voice echoed smugly. "Goodbye, Mr. Johnson. We do hope you understand that no one can know of this."
…Goodbye?
Juvia peeked into the room and almost gasped as a tall, lean man flicked out a knife and sunk it into her target's chest slowly, almost as if…he enjoyed it.
Mr. Johnson let out a pitiful wail as he sunk to the ground. Juvia backed away quietly, knowing full well that if someone knew what she'd just witnessed, she'd end up just like her target, dead, on the floor.
Her only choice was to run – she could report this all to her boss at a later time, all she knew was that he was dead, and if she wanted to stay alive, she'd have to high-tail it out of there like she saw nothing at all.
No one noticed when she snuck back into the gala, she was as faceless as a sphere, pushing past guests expertly until she reached the exit.
With a calm cool gasp of fresh air, Juvia walked away from the party, fear still etched into her eyes.
Although she herself had committed many heinous crimes as of now, she wouldn't forget the gasp of pain and the groan of death resonating from her target. No matter what happened, she knew she could never, ever, kill another human being, no matter how sour or evil they were. She couldn't. She wouldn't allow herself, or forgive herself.
"Goodnight, and thank you for coming to Mr. Gray Fullbuster's annual fundraiser." A butler bid her.
She froze, despite her terrorized mind from what she had just witnessed, that was definitely something she didn't want to hear.
"Gray…" she heard herself echo.
Oh no.
Oh no.
If she wasn't walking fast before, she certainly was now, her heels were in her hands and she was running.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," she whispered to herself, a sickening mantra reminding her that she had just lied to the face of Gray Fullbuster himself, and he knew it, too.
Hopefully he wouldn't go hunting for any 'Julias'…that wouldn't turn out well for either of them.
Juvia snuck into her apartment, shedding the dress faster than anything she could remember and changing into a nice tank top and sweatpants. There would be no stealing tonight, just nice, reassuring sleep.
Juvia crept into their room. She was sound asleep.
Good. Juvia thought, remembering all those late nights with her valedictorian speech and her University starter project. Levy deserved some rest.
"Goodnight Lev," she whispered, before crawling into her own bed and letting herself drift off to sleep.
She could worry about telling her mob boss about her dead target tomorrow.
thanks for reading :)