Juvia had to hold onto her mouth to stop herself from sobbing out loud. She was on her knees, staring forwards into the darkness and shivering like a leaf. It took everything within her not to scream out loud. Hearing steps outside of the storage cupboard she hid inside of she pushed her hand closer to her face, biting into her own skin to stop herself from crying out of making a single noise. She could taste blood against her teeth but she didn't care, closing her eyes tightly and thankful that they couldn't hear tears alone.
They were going through the whole guild, she realised in a panic. More tears flowed down her cheeks as she cursed herself, knowing that it had been a stupid mistake to run left when Gray was on the right side of the building. She couldn't believe that even for a brief moment of panic and explosions she had forgotten her number one priority, stupidly opting to save her own life instead of running to her would-be-lover and taking him to safety. Not that she knew how she would have done that, but at least if she had been with him they could have tried to barricade the doors and buy themselves more time. It would have been no contest against the magic that had even destroyed the enchantments over the door but even if the explosion had killed them both, they would have been together.
Fresh tears were leaking out of her eyes. She was terrified but not only for her own life. She could feel her Fairy Tail guildmark burning into her, telling her to stand on her shaking legs and to fight the enemy that dared step inside their halls. This place was supposed to be fun, it was supposed to be full of laughter and joy and friendship, but now she was cowering in a small storage unit and waiting for the next henchman to throw open the door and slaughter her. She shivered visibly. How was she supposed to move when crippled with fear like this? How was she supposed to stand against an entire guilds worth of cruelty.
Because Gray was on the other side of the building. The words rung so true to herself that she was momentarily able to drop her hand, able to see through her tears just for the smallest of moments. She had made the wrong decision before and gone left when she should have gone right. But that wasn't an excuse for her to not go right now. Still shaking she pulled herself to her feet, ignoring the bloody mark she left on the floor as she pushed herself up. She wasn't going to die in some food cupboard, she hopefully wasn't going to die at all but if she was then it would be by Gray's side, defending him to the last moment. There was no way that Fairy Tail would walk in the morning and wonder why she had been anywhere but beside him.
Determination rested in her eyes now. It rested in her heart. More than just her lover's life was at stake here, it was the entire reputation of the guild, and somewhere along the lines of her own life. For everyone, for everything she cared about, she put her hand on the handle and opened the door, staring straight into the eyes of Gray himself standing in front of her.
Light and dark whispered around each other as if two creatures playing gently. The darkness was powerful and strange but the light excepted it gratefully and offered its own radiance and joy. None of it made sense but they bounced off each other without caring, toying and fluctuating over the winner.
Both the light and dark bowed in grace as dainty bare feet touched gently against them. The two twisted and danced around her, the shadows twisting and turning under their ripples. They moved up the sinken white dress, around thin and childlike hands and quickly touched the waterfall of bright and golden hair. Waves upon waves of it that made even the light shiver in envy rolling past the figures knees. And then the darkness touched the soft skin, the light knocked against the tip of her nose. The girl wrinkled her nose and gave a loving smile, looking back at the light and darkness kindly and taking them both into her hands.
She stepped forwards, her smile dropping with each step she took. The world seemed to ripple at each footfall, escaping to an endless void. She stopped only when she was close, a troubled look now on her face and a serious glint in her eyes. The eyes were older than her young form, brightness and joy shining but a deep darkness flickering inside. "The guild is in danger" words echoed around the master, rippling through the shadows. "It's time to wake up."
Juvia looked up in wide-eyed wonder, not knowing just how long she had been tongue-tied. She had studied this face in detail for so long it was impossible to mistake. There was not a single difference in him, not a single hair seemed out of place, and every part of him was a beautiful harmony of hope and handsomeness. "Gray-sama!" she gasped, her knees now weak for an entirely different reason.
"Shh…" he reminded her, pointedly looking around himself before stepping forwards into the cupboard.
She blushed, an irrational joy growing inside herself. "Gray-sama wants to be alone in the storage closet with Juvia?" she said, her heart suddenly racing inside of her chest and forgetting every fear she had for their safety. "Juvia doesn't know if she's ready…" she mumbled, but deep down knew that yes, of course she was ready, she was ready and incredibly impatient.
She looked back to the door with the intents of giving them as much privacy as possible and even before Gray could reply to how ridiculous her request was her eyes fell on Mavis, the small girl looking at her intently and carefully as she stepped inside the cupboard with the two of them. "Please, close the door, Juvia," Mavis warned her, making a point that she couldn't possibly as she ran her spiritual hand through the shelves around them.
Juvia quickly obeyed but there was a sudden moment of disappointment as she realised that no, her and her beloved were not going to spend a few luxury moments alone. A girl could dream after all. She looked back at them both, her eyes wide the haunting situation finally started to sink into her. There was much more clarity than there had been before, with the idea of her dying in her lover's arms still a very real possibility but suddenly not such a terrible one. Mavis being here would make everything all that little more awkward, however, and she did have really no intention of dying. Before any of that, however, she had her own burning questions. "You woke up…? Without Juvia…?" she said, and the truth of that hit her hard. Gray had woken up the moment she'd gone. However thankful she was that he was awake, the moment of him opening his eyes and staring into hers had gone and that was crushing.
"Mavis woke me," he told her quickly, though notably keeping his voice lower than she had in an attempt to remind her to do so as well. "The guild is in danger and we need to warn the others."
Juvia looked at Mavis, trying to make sense of the strange look she had on her face. She didn't know the First Master very well, and exactly how well could you know a spirit? She had, however, never seen an expression like that on her face before and placed it down to worry. After all, someone had broken into the guild hall that she had lovingly created which was a huge sacrilege in itself, not to mention threatening the members that made Fairy Tail a true home for so many. Juvia found herself bowing to the First Master, having to admit that although she would have preferred to be there she was glad that Gray was saved. "Juvia thanks Mavis-san. But how do we get out of here? There are so many of them…" she asked looking to the both of them, unwilling to admit she'd done nothing but hide.
"Don't worry about that," Mavis reassured her, taking on a more innocent smile as she tilted her head. "I made this guild with lots of escape routes just in case anything like this happened." Juvia looked amazed, wondering how the late master could have possibly realised that over a hundred years later the guild may be taken over by an enemy guild leaving their few members trapped inside. Mavis saw the expression on her face and let out a small laugh. "I'm a very good tactician," she reminded her, "I like to think of every possibility before it happens."
Gray's hands sunk deep into his pockets, looking back at Mavis and accepting her explanation moved on quickly to the important task ahead. "So where is the nearest escape route?" he asked her simply.
"In here, of course!" Mavis said proudly. The two of her looked at her as if she was mad, as this was quite simply one of the most non-descript and dull rooms of the entire guild. That had, of course, been the exact reason that she had chosen it she went on to explain. While in a panic it would always make the most sense for frightened people to try and go to small rooms; they were easily defendable with only one entry point and no windows and also giving the enemy the false sense of security that they had the upper hand.
While she said that, however, the sounds of voices could be clearly heard outside of the door. Juvia and Gray tensed, hearing more than one male voice booming and seeming to come down the hallway with some purpose. Mavis looked to Juvia intently, quickly instructing her to check the far corner that was covered in potatoes. Nodding Juvia rushed to its corner while Gray leaned against the side of the doorway, his hands poised together ready to flicker his ice magic to the first person who walked through their doorways. The area around him grew cold in anticipation.
Juvia heaved and pulled on the sack, trying her best not to make a noise but as she did she quickly knew that would be impossible. Right now it was better to be fast than quiet, she decided, feeling oddly safer if a battle came now that she had Gray by her side. She yanked and pulled, moving it as it scraped along the floor and potatoes heavily rolled down. The noise seemed to catch the attention of those outside, she realised in a blind panic, as they suddenly stopped in their steps and gave muffled instructions to one another. All she could make out was 'has anyone checked in here?' Her face went pale, but as she looked back to the floorboards that she had cleared she saw a small metal ringpull on the ground. Her eyes lit brightly with hope and she quickly yanked it open. "Gray-sama! Mavis! Juvia found the tunnel!"
Gray panicked, knowing that the sound of Juvia's voice wouldn't hold them for long now. He stepped back, hoping that he could dive into the hole in the ground and run as quickly as possible. They needed to make their escape quickly to find the rest of the guild to take out such a formidable force and Juvia couldn't have found the trapdoor a second later. "I'll hold them off," the Fairy Tail master told them, stepping closer to the door. "They can't hurt me but I can trick them into thinking I can hurt them."
Gray grabbed onto the steps, pulling himself down into the tunnels beneath and moving quickly as per the first master's instructions, but Juvia looked back wide-eyed. It felt wrong to leave Mavis after she had been so kind and helped them both escape. "Go, Juvia!" Gray called up to her, the smallest trace of worry in his voice. "She's already dead! They can't hurt her!" Juvia wobbled and finally agreed that although this woman meant so much to the guild, just this once it wouldn't be the worst thing for her to leave her. She quickly stepped down, pulling the trapdoor as long as she did.
"Wait, Juvia…" Gray told her just before she was about to move further down. "I…. I don't have a lot of magic. Could you use your water on the trapdoor so I can seal it shut?" he asked her, looking up to her.
It obviously pained him to be able to make such a request, but she could feel her heart jumping inside of her chest at such a request. She could feel her whole body shivering in anticipation as he lifted himself up closer to her, reaching his arm up to the trapdoor. In her excitement she almost forgot what she was supposed to do, trying to say something though her tongue was suddenly too big for her mouth. Eventually she nodded and looked back at the trapdoor, carefully smoothing it in water as Gray touched it with his hands and froze it shut.
"I don't know how much magic I can use…" he admitted, moving back down the ladders and beginning their long journey back to civilisation and away from their loved guild. Every step was obviously hurting but not in a physical way. This place that they were being pushed away from was their home, their jobs, their entire lives and a symbol of all of the friendships that they had to keep them going. Gray had lost his entire family at a very tender age, and then just as he had found another it had been ripped away. Fairy Tail, with all of its brawls and laughter and danger and being destroyed and reconstructed once more was somehow the most stable home that he'd ever truly experienced. Walking away from it now felt wrong, even if it was to come back with a reasonable force.
"Is Gray-Sama alright…?" Juvia asked slowly, the realness suddenly sinking in. For almost six days she had been watching him sleeping, watching the terrible smelling potions being dripped into his mouth and not even the tiniest bit of food entering him. Yet, somehow, as she stared as him she saw some strength in him. He walked as if nothing had happened, no matter how reluctantly it was. Only the magic was a concern, but they had all been warned that there could be some difficulties with that.
Gray didn't look at her right away, thinking of the best way to answer her. Was he alright? That was a difficult question to answer, flashes of Mavis waking him and warning him the guild was in danger coming to the front of his mind. He didn't feel like he should have been alright at all. "We need to get the guild back," he said sternly. "I don't think I can fight. But I want to help," he explained.
She nodded gently, knowing that she too felt the same way though her weakness was not unusual for her. Though she had huge strength, and certainly could hold her own in a fight if it ever came down to her, she felt weak at the knees and wasn't sure how much she could have done by herself against the entire guild. No doubt she would have fared far better than she could have hoped, especially with saving Gray as a motivation, but the truth was no one alone could have defended the halls. "Juvia is glad that you're awake…" Juvia said out of the blue, though they had been the words dancing on her tongue since she had first seen him. A blush graced her skin, going back to stealing glances instead of just being able to stare.
He didn't respond to her, still fighting against the memories of being suddenly ripped from whatever torment was inside of him. "We should get moving."
Hey everyone! Thanks for reading this far, wow I'm feeling on a roll today! Please don't forget to let me know if you're enjoying this and let me know if you've got any thoughts as I'm going. This is really being posted as soon as its written and while I have an idea of the ending the middle part is probably going to be quite difficult so let me know if you have any ideas! Enjoy :)
