A/N: I can't believe that I'm uploading so quickly but honestly, seeing all your reviews really motivated me.
Apart from that, I've changed the rating from T to M because I might be exploring themes in the future that may not be appropriate for everybody. This does not refer to lemons (I may or may not consider that in the future), just serious topics. I'm very sorry if this is going to turn you away from my story. :(
Anyway, without further ado, here's Chapter 4!
-X-
CHAPTER 4
Gray was the type of person who, if not in the state of complete exhaustion, would lie on his bed and stare at his ceiling while reviewing his day before indulging in other thoughts. This came handy quite often especially while keeping missions in mind as it permitted him to see where he had gone wrong and all the areas which still required improvement.
Unfortunately, all this careful scrutinizing had gone down the drain in the past few weeks.
Lately all that came to mind was only a certain blunett. His brain refused to allow his thoughts to drift even a foot away from her. But at least all that pondering would culminate in him slipping into dreamland.
However, today his brain had decided to reach its saturation point.
As if the day hadn't been shit enough. Hanging out with a 'concerned' Erza for more than ten minutes was bad enough but spending a whopping two hours together was nothing short of a ticket to Headache Island.
And then of course came the exciting declaration made by the one and only, the woman who seemed to have taken it upon herself to turn Gray's life upside down. Leave the guild? Did he hear her correctly? There was no way she would do that. Anyone who knew her could see that her life, just like all his other guild members', revolved around Fairy Tail. Why would she leave? As far as he knew, everybody loved Juvia and nobody had ever filed any complaints against her (apart from the occasional flooding which were indirectly, more often than not, his own fault).
All this thinking usually guaranteed the ice mage a good night's sleep as he would drift off somewhere in the middle of it all, but today was different. His mind would not shut up and his eyes kept moving between the window and the door, hoping that she would turn up at his doorstep and proceed to explain how everything was just some sort of an act even though chances of that happening were one in a million.
In an attempt to clear his head, he focused on the stars shining bright against the midnight sky outside. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
-X-
Pigeons took to the air in a hurry to get out of Gray's way. Oh Mavis he was late. He hardly overslept so alarms weren't usually necessary but last night his body had seen its chance to ruin its owner's life and grasped it without any hesitation.
It was noon and Juvia was probably already done with whatever announcing she had planned to do.
The guild doors flew open as he strode into the hall. A crowd had formed around the front of the room. Maybe it wasn't over just yet.
That was when he realised, the whole guild was watching his every movement. Every pair of eyes were directed towards him and the more he became conscious of them, more he felt like millions of holes were being drilled through his frame.
Luckily he caught sight of his three friends standing near the edge of the throng and immediately wove his way towards them, trying his hardest to ignore every other person present.
Erza gave him a small nod as he took his place between her and Lucy, who seemed to be at the brink of tears. She reached between them and gave his hand a quick squeeze before letting go and facing forward. Even Natsu was looking at him queerly.
As expected, Juvia was standing in the middle of the group, her back pressed against the wooden counter of the bar. If not for her self-assured expression that she had dawned at the moment, the blunett would have looked very similar to a prey cowering away in its hiding place, afraid that a predator would leap out of thin air at any moment and snap its neck.
She cleared her throat, commanding back the attention that she had previously lost.
'As I was saying,' she began or more fittingly, continued, 'I have decided to leave the guild due to personal reasons.'
The ice mage cocked his head to a side. When exactly had Juvia adopted first person?
'There are matters connected to my past that I have resolved to work out and I believe by staying here in Fairy Tail, I am making no significant progress.' She paused. Her hand reached up and twirled a lock of hair around her fingers.
Gray's mouth popped open in a silent exclamation as it hit him. This was definitely not something Juvia wanted to do. At the very least, she was extremely nervous about it. All the time that he invariably ended up spending with the water mage had taught him a lot about her habits and the one that she had just displayed was characteristic of the times when she was highly unnerved by something. Even the first person switch. It wasn't normal and he doubted she had converted to it permanently. Probably just a manifestation of her anxiety.
Juvia was still speaking and Gray quickly went back to listening to her.
'...appreciated and by no means am I saying that I will forget all of you along with all that you have don-.'
'But Juvia,' a clear voice cut in, 'you still haven't told us what you'll be doing after you leave the guild. I'm sure you wouldn't want all your friends to worry, would you?'
The raven haired man turned in the direction of the speaker and saw Cana lounging on top of one of the bar stools, for once not appearing as though she had been dragged out of a nightclub after drinking five individuals worth of alcohol.
'Yes I was getting to that.' He saw the blunett take a deep breath before carrying on.
'I will be joining Crime Sorcière in my pursuit to redeem myself.'
The guild members collectively gasped as they assimilated the new information she had put forward.
Gray instinctively glanced towards Erza and was met by wide eyes staring in disbelief at the water mage who still seemed to have enough strength to continue looking unfazed. From the corner of his eye he saw Natsu wrap an arm around a trembling Lucy.
'Master,' said Erza looking at Makarov who was perched in his usual place, on top of the bar, 'is this okay with you.'
'It is what she wants so cannot possibly object.'
'Bullshit!' came a roar from the opposite end of the crowd.
Everyone in the hall jerked their heads in the voices direction even though most recognised to whom it belonged to immediately.
'I've had quite enough of this! You can trick them with your crap all you want woman, but you can't lie to me,' raged a very, very angry Gajeel. 'You forget that I've known you all the way back from the days in Phantom Lord and I can assure everybody here that there was no such incident that took place in your past that requires you to take such drastic steps.'
The ice mage couldn't help but smile. Unbeknownst to the majority of Fairy Tail, the iron dragon slayer and Juvia were still very close. Not overtly of course. But every so often they would go on missions together, sit by each other and drink or simply talk for a while. He'd felt a little…. weird about it at first but seeing that Levy wasn't objecting, he too began to accept this odd pairing. Wait, why in Mavis' name was he comparing his relationship with the water mage to the bookworm and Gajeel's?!
He grit his teeth. This was not the time to be thinking about these trivialities. Gajeel must be taking this really hard.
As he once again began watching Juvia, he noticed the same look that she had worn the previous day while she roasted him crawl back onto her face. His heart went out to the dragon slayer even before she opened her mouth.
'I'm aware that you were there (at this point Gray couldn't help but cringe. This whole first person thing was really weird) but please remind yourself that I had been in that guild for far longer than you have. What I may have done in the past may not be known to you at all,' she said in a frigid tone.
The whole guild had once again fallen silent. None of them were used to this strange Juvia who spoke so rudely and disrespectfully. Where was the old version of her who used to spend all day mooning over her Gray-sama and talking to all her friends with utmost care and courtesy?
She swept her gaze over everyone present and spoke once again. 'I'm truly sorry about how sudden this is but Crime Sorcière is passing by Magnolia this very minute so I will be leaving tomorrow morning at ten.' She raised her hand as people started to protest loudly. 'I know this is rushed but it's something I want, something I need, so please. Don't make it any more difficult than it already is for me.' And for once her stoic façade slipped and from a distance he saw her bottom lip quiver. Gray had a sudden urge to barrel through the crowd and hold her in his arm, protecting her from all those accusing eyes that were making her so afraid.
'That's all I had to say and now with your leave, I need to go back home and prepare for tomorrow.' She bowed deeply, letting her long hair fall around her face, hiding it for a fraction of a second from everybody before rising and making her way out of the guild.
At that moment, time seemed to slow and he had absolutely no clue as to what came over him but the next thing he knew, he was outside and his fingers were wrapped around a pale wrist of the water mage.
Their eyes met and two shades of dark blue merged into one as a silent conversation only they could fathom took place in the moments in which they stood there like statues made of ice.
'Why?' Gray whispered, his voice cracking from all the emotion that was coursing through him.
For a minute she did not reply, just continued locking eyes with him but then she finally uttered three words.
'Juvia is sorry.'
And then she was gone.
-X-
'How did you agree to this Jellal?' cried out Erza. 'You know how much we care about her!'
The blue haired man did not reply as he sat on her chair with his head in his hands.
'Answer me Jellal!'
He raised his head but refused to meet her eyes. 'You aren't being rational. There's nothing that I have to say to you.'
The redhead let out a roar of frustration and paced around her room for what seemed like hours before she collapsed back onto her bed. 'I'm calm,' she whispered, wringing her hands together. 'Can I please get an explanation now?'
Jellal finally got up and sat down next to her. He placed his hand on top of hers, laced their fingers together and offered her a gentle smile which she returned with full fervour.
'It happened around two weeks back I think. I'm not quite sure about the time exactly but I do remember that Meredy and I were camping near Hargeon during that period. We were wondering around town at night when Juvia approached us. Meredy was ecstatic to see her friend, so we ended up going to a local tavern for a few drinks. Somewhere during that period she asked us if she could join. And no Erza, before you ask, I was not drunk. None of us were for that matter. We aren't a legal guild so I can't afford to be in case something happens.'
'What reason did she give you?'
Jellal sighed. 'Erza, as much as I would love to tell you everything, whatever she has made pubic should satisfy you. Please don't dig any further. I don't want to undermine her privacy.'
'And I can respect that,' the re-quip mage said as she nodded in agreement. 'Let me revise my question. The reason she gave you, was it enough?'
Even though it was phrased poorly, the tattooed man knew what she meant.
'Yes, yes it was.'
'And that is all I need to know.'
-X-
'Gray,' Natsu acknowledged him with a nod as he walked over and stood next to him.
It was a teary farewell. Most girls, including Erza, were on varying degrees of shedding tears, from 'it's just sweat' (words by none other than the resident redhead) to literal waterfalls. Even some of the men were wiping their eyes when they thought no one was looking.
But the two people who should have been most affected were standing straight with expressionless faces.
Natsu did not understand this. Both Gray and Juvia were oozing the scent of sadness but yet neither would show their emotions. The water mage was quietly allowing herself to be embraced by everybody, exchanging a few smiles and words when necessary but other than that, nothing.
Then the dragon slayer appraised the man at his side. Gray hadn't approached her even though it was obvious to someone as dense as himself that they cared about each other more deeply than everybody else. He was motionless, his eyes stuck on the blunett but his gaze seemed to be looking past her, deep in thought. Natsu recognised his need for some distance and remained silent.
As all members of Fairy Tail watched Juvia wave her final goodbye and head off, the salmon haired man continued viewing Gray. His expression never faltered and at the back of his mind Natsu wondered if his friend had even realised the weight of what had just come to pass.
-X-
A/N: Hopefully all that shift in POVs weren't too confusing.
One more thing before I leave, how exactly does Juvia address everybody? Does she still use '-san' and '-kun' or is it only exclusive to Gray? I can't seem to remember...
Thank you, friends. R&R!
-Dusk