Day 3! Just a short little one for today. This was the prompt I had the most troubles with so it'll be smooth sailing from here on out right? XD

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :D


~Like a flower sprinkled by rain, she'd bloomed since she'd met him.~


Day 3 – Bloom

Had she taken the advice of nearly anyone around her, she wouldn't have been still pining after Gray. They loved him, of course, her guildmates. He was a staple to the Fairy Tail family, but that didn't stop them from subtly hinting to her to give up on him.

Lucy, who'd been her love rival and perhaps still was, had taken her aside, put a hand on each shoulder and told her upfront that she deserved someone who would treat her right. Lucy loved Gray as a friend deeply but she also loved Juvia that way. And she'd told her it was because she loved her that she would suggest moving on.

Lucy wasn't the only one. Erza had dropped hints, Levy had given her looks across the guild, Gajeel had said in his rough way that she didn't deserve Gray if he just shoved her away and made her feel bad about herself.

But they didn't understand.

He didn't make her feel bad about herself. He didn't treat her badly. He wasn't the stoic and distant person they thought he was, and she couldn't move on.

Not only because she was in love with him, but also because she was indebted. It wasn't a voluntary thing like they thought. They thought she'd fallen in love and was so blinded by it that she couldn't see the truths. That wasn't true. She could see them.

She knew when he would roll his eyes even if she pretended not to notice. She knew when he avoided her purposefully. She knew, but she didn't care. And it was out of love, yes, but she wasn't blinded by it.

Not only could she not move on, she wouldn't move on, because quite frankly, she didn't want to.

Maybe he wasn't Prince Charming to other girls. Maybe from the outside it looked like they had one really messed up one-sided relationship, but it was more than that.

She knew he felt something for her. Maybe it was in the times he sat quietly next to her, the times when he'd help her out but never admit it, or even in the small nibbles he'd take of her cooking, trying to pretend like he didn't want any of it. He wasn't completely cold. It would just take a little while to warm him up all the way.

But even if she had thought he didn't love her, she still wouldn't have given up.

She could hardly remember her life before him, mainly because it'd been one long drab sentence of seemingly one never-ending dark day. She looked at her days before him as if she'd been in some other world because honestly, that's how it'd felt.

A horrible world where she wished for sunshine but instead received clouds. A world where sometimes she wished it would all end. A world where she'd been ostracized and unknowingly used. It was a world that'd felt like a nightmare.

And then him, in all his glory, had somehow made the rain go away. She'd begged for the rain to stop but had never been able to succeed, and in one fell swoop, one battle, a few words, he'd successfully banished it. Like some magical spell had been lifted from her by simply being in his presence.

She was eternally grateful for that. Not only that he'd shown up, the love of her life, but also because he got the rain to stop. He got the nightmare to stop and led her into an entirely different world. One she thought couldn't possibly exist outside of storybooks.

Because of him she found a new life. She could look up into the sun and smile. She was absolutely positive had she not been led out of the rain and into the Fairies' grasp that she would only be a shallow and empty shell of the self she was now.

She was stronger. Her magic had grown and thrived in the rainless and nurturing environment. She'd grown stronger and learned to come out of her shell. They accepted her for who she was. She wasn't a dreary rain woman, she was Juvia, the water mage who was exuberant about showing the ones around her how she felt.

Including him.

She wouldn't have gone to any of the places she'd seen, been through the struggles, and sighed in relief as the victories came, even if she was dead-tired and absolutely positive she couldn't move another step, she had the strength to smile.

So when they told her to move on, that he wasn't worth her time, she'd just smile and knowingly shake her head.

Because she didn't love him just because he'd made the rain go away, not just because she was sure he was her soul mate, and not because it was love at first sight. She loved him because he'd brought out the best in her. Maybe he didn't feel the same way yet, but it was enough for her. The least she could do for him was to be patient and persistent.

Rain makes flowers bloom. It falls and nourishes them from the ground up, building them up to their full potential and allowing them to stand tall in the sun, showing themselves off in all of their beauty. All it took for her was a little less rain to bloom, a little less of the daily drowning, and a hand held out, shining down like the sun, beckoning her into the life she'd always dreamed of having.


Just a little thing about their relationship. I'm actually quite excited for tomorrow's prompt.

Also there are some absolutely amazing fics for Gruvia week out! I hope you're reading them all! :D And thanks so much for the reviews and whatnot, they are just so amazing I can't handle it. XD

~Foxtail-chan