A/N: 'Storm in a teacup' is a saying for when something small has been exaggerated out of proportion. Kind of like the saying 'a mountain out of a molehill', if that makes more sense. Nieve is Spanish for snow (like Lluvia aka Juvia is Spanish for rain).

I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter Five - Mean Girls (Part One)

I was officially on cloud nine. I felt like skipping down the hall and probably would have if Cana hadn't been hauling on my arm so hard. We made our way down the hall, Cana grumbling under her breath the whole way. A few steps from our first class, World History, she noticed my great mood.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Juvia is so happy. Gray-sama likes Juvia!"

She forced me to stop walking, her expression serious. "Juvia, look, don't take what I said to heart. Gray does act like an idiot around you but the truth is, I was angry and said all that to annoy him. I didn't mean to get your hopes up. Sorry, I should have thought about your feelings before I spoke."

"But Cana said..."

"Yeah, I know. I do think he likes you more than he admits but Gray is still Gray. He's not going to suddenly become your dream boyfriend and whisk you away on his white horse to live happily ever after. Especially if you keep acting like such a..."

"A what?"

"Never mind. Point is, you could wait forever and he wouldn't change. He's not cut out for serious relationships so don't get too excited."

I bit my lip. Some of the exuberance I'd been feeling trickled away, even as butterflies continued to float around in my stomach. "This weekend..." Cana looked at me expectantly but I hesitated. She'd probably say I was overreacting, or imagining things. What had happened on Saturday night had been so far from the usual even I felt like it might have only been a hazy dream. Still I couldn't help but want to continuing believing that those moments on the balcony had meant something. It probably wasn't her intention to rain on my parade yet that was exactly what would happen if I told Cana I thought Gray-sama really did like me a little. So I held my tongue and simply nodded instead.

During class, I put on my best attentive face and thankfully, the teacher never called on me. She no doubt thought I was busy writing revision notes on the mottled past of the various royal dynasties. Instead my notebook was covered with love hearts and my favourite phrase, Mrs. Juvia Fullbuster. The other girls couldn't understand the way I felt about Gray-sama. Sometimes I think they thought it was just a schoolgirl crush. I knew better. I'd never felt this way about any other guy before and I was willing to overlook so many of the negative aspects of my relationship with Gray-sama because I loved him.

After the disaster that was my first relationship, and the massive fallout triggered by that bad breakup, I'd moved on with my life and dated another guy. To be fair, that other relationship had been doomed to fail from the start because my heart was never truly in it. I'd put up an invisible shield, a protective wall around my heart that made sure I didn't get hurt again but also never let anyone too close. A shield that expanded to everyone except Gajeel-kun and even with him I'd only ever been myself when we were alone.

Oak Town High and Phantom Lord had been a perfect fit for the old me, my reputation another layer to keep people at bay. Truth be told, what I'd thought of as a shield, had been nothing more than a hiding place. From my past, my parents, my feelings, my real self. To everyone else I probably seemed really bad ass but I'd been nothing more than a coward, hiding behind a mask of cold indifference. Putting my heart out there, knowing it could be broken, was ten times braver than any of the fights I'd been in with my old gang.

I sighed. It'd been over a year since I walked away from that life. I'd changed so much, made so much progress. That girl standing in the February snow last year was unrecognisable from the me of today. Still, I didn't hate my old self. After all, when offered a way out by a complete stranger on that freezing cold day, she'd made the absolute right decision. I could remember how it felt, shivering in that dark driveway with Gajeel-kun, feeling surprised that this tiny man wasn't intimidated by us at all.

"You've got two choices. You can carry on with what you're doing, I'll call the police and the two of you can stay on the path you're on which will end with you either dead or in prison wondering when exactly you threw your life away. Or... You can come in from the cold, I'll make us some hot chocolate and we'll talk about how we can get you out of this mess you made for yourselves and maybe make something of your lives instead."

We chose the hot chocolate.

I think it was a definite case of right place, right time and right person. Gajeel-kun and I were tired of that life, of the hustle, of the fighting, and Makarov-sensei was so down to earth and no nonsense. He didn't treat us like lost causes. He saw something in us no one else did but he didn't take crap from us either. It took a lot of time and effort and it could have backfired in a real bad way but by the time he'd put us through summer school we'd had enough of our rough edges smoothed over that we could blend in with the other kids like normal transfer students. And then of course, Gray-sama had taken a sledgehammer to the wall around my heart and my life would never be the same.

"Juvia!"

I jumped, "Yes!"

Cana was staring down at me, "What are you doing? The bell went like ten hours ago."

I could hardly say I was reminiscing about the time Makarov-sensei caught Gajeel-kun and I trying to hotwire his car in the middle of a snow storm so I mumbled a hasty apology, collected my things and walked with her to our next class.

...You fucking love having Juvia trailing after you...

...Teasing the girl you like...

...You can't admit how you really feel...

...Grow a pair and man up!

I added another angry stoke of black to the canvas. Cana's words kept spinning around and around in my head. She was wrong of course, extremely wrong. I didn't like Juvia. I couldn't think of any girl I liked less than Juvia. I'll admit being attracted to her but Cana made it seem like Juvia was my secret crush of something. No fucking way! I dipped the brush into the cup of water with enough force that I nearly spilled the entire thing.

"Gray..." a timid voice said from the other side of the canvas. I leaned around to see who it was, not bothering to hide my scowl. The girl's eyes went wide, "S-s-sorry!" I forced out a sharp breath and fixed my face. I'd been in an mood all day because of Cana and it was spilling over into my every interaction. I don't know why I couldn't just shrug her stupid opinion off. "What's up Katja?"

"Nothing. Sorry."

I'd scared her. Katja was an incredibly shy freshman. When she joined the art club she'd scarcely said a word to anyone. I'd kind of taken to her. I guess her blue hair and brown eyes reminded me of Wendy and it was hard to dislike a kid that was so kind-hearted and sweet. "No, it's fine. You need some help?"

She nodded, "Can I see yours? I don't even know where to start."

This afternoon, by some quirky twist of fate, the theme we'd chosen was 'strong emotion'. I hadn't even had to search for inspiration, there were plenty of things for me to use in my art. I waved her over and she came to stand next to me.

"Wow. It's amazing."

I relaxed on the stool and had a good look at what I'd created. The edges were still nothing more than the rough sketching but the focus of the canvas was more or less done. A giant teacup took up most of the space. Inside the teacup, an ocean of tea swirled around into a mini whirlpool and a tiny boat complete with two sailors fought to stay afloat. The background was black storm clouds, flashes of lighting and I was contemplating how to add in the illusion of rain.

"Thanks. It's called A Storm in A Teacup."

"It feels really angry and kind of desperate. I wish I could get emotion into my art like that."

Angry and desperate. Why couldn't I get Cana's words out of my head? They were stupid, nothing comments. I shouldn't care about them yet here I was, sitting in the club room, a full eight hours later, still fuming mad. "Let me see what you got."

Katja blushed but flipped her sketchbook open. A rough sketch of a kids bedroom with all the toys hanging out together, kind of like a scene out of Toy Story, with one lonely teddy in the foreground. The teddy had a band aid plastered over where it's heart would be. "I thought I might do loneliness," she said.

Poor kid. I knew she was finding it hard to make friends. "That's a great idea Katja. I can feel plenty of emotion in this. Are you going to use watercolours? It'd be more dramatic if the toys in the back were in bright colours and the bear was faded."

"I was going to use oil pencils and leave the bear black and white... or greyscale..."

"Perfect. You can blend the colours out too. Ask Reedus to show you, if you need help. He's the best at that, well at everything."

Katja shook her head, "Reedus is the best at drawing but I think Gray does the best sculptures."

She was so earnest and forthright, I couldn't help but smile. It was more or less true. Reedus slayed everyone when it came to most art techniques. Oil, acrylic, pencil, every canvas he touched turned into a masterpiece. We hadn't even done our exams and he'd already received full scholarship offers from three different colleges. I had no doubt people would be willing to pay big money for his artwork some day. Hopefully, one day they'd do the same for mine. At least I didn't have to worry about having Reedus for competition. Our favourite mediums were completely different. I practised sketching, painting and all the other traditional art methods but Katja was right. Sculpting was my real passion and what I was best at. It made me feel closer to... someone I still missed every day. "I'll help you get started," I told Katja, hoping it'd help me relax.

I couldn't relax. Gray-sama had been avoiding me all day, even more than usual. I wanted to talk to him so badly. I'd had plenty of time to re-evaluate exactly what happened on the weekend and I thought I had the gist of it. Gray-sama liked me, even though he expressed it in a really weird way. I just had to convert more of his meanness into flirting. Then, instead of it exploding in my face like when he'd walked away with that Enno bitch, I had to find a way to keep him interested in me. I was so close to getting him, I could practically taste it.

I sat on the steps, waiting for Gray-sama to come out of the art room. I used to watch him paint but apparently I was a 'distraction' to everyone and they kicked me out. At least it guaranteed me an uninterrupted hour of homework or revision time every week. So I flicked through my Biology notes and tried to convince myself that Krebs cycle was more interesting than thinking up a plan to entrap Gray-sama.

She caught me. I'd been semi-successful at avoiding Juvia all day, knowing that she'd taken Cana's words to heart but she glued herself to my side the moment I stepped out of the art room. "Gray-sama, let's study together!"

"Let's not."

"Oh Gray-sama, you don't have to act anymore. Juvia understands," she said with a smile and a wink.

I couldn't even begin to put my frustration at her actions into words. Juvia hung onto me all the way to the school gates. She had my arm wedged right against her breasts. Fucking hell. I didn't know how to react. If I was mean to her, Juvia would think I secretly liked her. If I was nice to her, Juvia would still think I liked her...

I was going to murder Cana in her sleep.

Juvia was so caught up in talking to me about revision timetables and the cookies she was planning on baking for me and blah, blah, blah I think she would have walked right into a wall, if not for me watching where we were going. So I don't think she noticed Erza and a girl wearing the Mermaid Heel uniform talking by the gates. I noticed because the girl was hot. "Hey," I called out as we got closer, "Who's this?"

The girl turned towards me and her blank expression turned into the tiniest of frowns before returning to neutral. "This is-" said Erza but the girl cut her short.

"Fullbuster. Do me a favour and keep out of my school."

I laughed, "I've never been in your school. The uniform would look ridiculous on me." I studied her face. She knew my name but I didn't know hers. Her dark hair and hazel eyes did seem a little familiar but I couldn't place her.

She didn't so much as smile, "Keep away from the girls at my school. You're a distraction and an annoyance."

"Funny. That's not what they say."

"Are you an actual idiot? Or are you just trying to irritate me?"

Juvia's grip on my arm tightened, "Gray-sama is not an idiot!"

The girl's eyes flicked from my face to Juvia's. "You're obviously one of his pathetic groupies therefore your opinion is invalid."

Juvia opened her mouth again but I shushed her. "Look princess, I don't know you and whatever you think you know about me is clearly second-hand. Maybe I should take you out, show you a good time, I'm sure your opinion will change."

Her eyes flashed and Erza decided to intervene. "This is Kagura, the student council president from Mermaid Heel."

Ah, that explained a few things. It wasn't unusual for the council members of different schools to have meetings together once in a while and it also made clear why she felt it was her right to demand I stay out of 'her' school. "You look kind of familiar."

"It's Kagura," Erza repeated but she must have noticed the blank look on my face because after a heartbeat she added, "Mikazuchi."

Mikazuchi, as in Simon's little sister. We'd all gone to the same primary school together. I had vague memories of a whiny five year old obsessively clinging to her brother. "Well damn princess. You sure grew up well."

"And you never grew up at all," she said coolly.

I took a moment to check her out again. She must be what, sixteen now? I didn't bother hiding what I was doing and she snapped, "Stop that!"

"Gray." Erza said, a warning.

"Gray-sama..." Juvia said, looking reproachfully at me.

Man, what was it with the women in my life? The sound of running footsteps made us all look back towards the school. Jellal joined our impromptu reunion, bending over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Erza, why didn't you wait for me? I said I'd walk you home," he complained.

His lip was still swollen from the beating he'd taken from Erza earlier. I was pretty sure this was the record for the longest time Jellal and Erza had ever been in a fight. A whole day. They were usually all over each other within five minutes of an argument. He'd really fucked up but none of us guys knew how and the girls weren't telling. He was officially screwed until Erza calmed down.

"I don't need you to walk me home."

"Obviously, but I said I would. We need to talk."

"So now you want to talk? Well too bad. I'm going home with Juvia."

"Eh?" From being dragged away by Cana, to being dragged away by Erza. I just couldn't catch a break today.

"Are you two fighting?" Kagura asked. I'd already decided that I did not like her and was debating adding her to my list of love rivals. To me, all the mean things she said to Gray-sama had sounded like jealousy at being ignored.

"Yes," Jellal replied at the same time that Erza said, "No."

He stared at her, "What the hell Erza?"

"Don't worry Jellal. I got the message okay, so no, we are not fighting."

Jellal looked confused. Gray-sama looked confused. I was definitely confused. Kagura looked... happy? "You broke up? I have to tell my brother about this. Bye," she said with something suspiciously like a smile on her face as she walked away.

Okay, she wasn't my love rival but she might be Erza's. Why else would she look so happy about a fight between Erza and Jellal? "We're leaving," Erza declared, "Don't follow us." And, for the second time today, I was dragged away from a confounded Jellal and a not so shell shocked Gray-sama.

Two days later...

My plan was not working out. It was all but impossible for me to go back to treating Juvia the way I had before. Every time I saw her my eyes wandered from her eyes to her lips, from her breasts to her hips. I caught myself having thoughts about her, in and sometimes out of that blue dress, more and more often. It was pointless. There was no way I could get with her. I couldn't think of a single time I'd ever wanted a girl this much and not pursued her until I got her, especially a girl who would clearly be more than willing to hook up with me. Yet at the same time I knew Juvia would never let me off with a casual fling. So I tried being colder to her but just like I thought, Cana's words meant that the more distant I tried to be, Juvia only clung to me harder. It didn't help that Lyon was constantly texting me, demanding to know why Juvia hadn't called him yet. He thought I was intentionally keeping her away from him and every message he sent only reminded me of how she had looked on Saturday night. How she looked every damn day...

I was stuck. Literally trapped between an intense desire for her gorgeous body and an equally strong desire not to be involved with a girl who defined the term clingy. I had no clue what to do about it. So I did the one thing I knew would keep my mind off Juvia. I filled all my spare time up with other girls. Which was why I was in the back row of the cinema in town with one of the girls I'd met at that ill-fated Saturday night party. My tongue was fully occupied but for some reason my brain wouldn't switch off.

This thing I had going with Juvia was just a storm in a teacup. It'd blow over. I wouldn't keep lusting over a girl I knew I couldn't have. I couldn't keep imaging running my hands over her soft, warm thighs, sucking on her neck, slowly removing her clothes, one teasing layer at a time, sliding so deep inside her...

"What'd you just call me?"

I blinked at the girl. Why the hell weren't we still making out?

"You just called me by another girl's name."

Even the darkness, I could tell she was annoyed. "No, I didn't." Had I? I wasn't sure but I had a sinking feeling what name it might have been.

"What's my name?" She demanded and someone a few rows ahead of us said in a loud whisper "Shut up!"

"Hana. I didn't say anything. You think I don't know your name?"

"Yeah, whatever," she said and sat back in the seat with her arms crossed over her chest.

Well, there went my plans for getting any tonight.

I wandered into the dorm, a few minutes after ten. I don't know what happened with Gray-sama and that girl he'd taken to the movies but she'd stormed off as soon as the ending credits hit the screen and he'd gone home alone. Unusual but I was more than happy with that. I paused by the table at the bottom of the stairs and leafed through the mail. A pale pink letter with familiar handwriting leaped out at me. I picked it up and smelled it. Apple blossom. Honestly, she wrote letters to me the same way she wrote them to her boyfriend. I'd never admit it but secretly it made me happy that she considered me worthy of the expensive stationary and the extra effort. I headed for my room, curled up on my bed and started reading.

Dear Juvia,

How is my favourite little sister?

I smiled at the running joke. Nieve always started her letters that way and I always replied that her favourite and only little sister was fine. We were six years apart which in my eyes was perfect. Too far apart to grow up fighting over each other's clothes, yet not so far apart that we couldn't be best friends. Still, it was enough of an age gap that I'd spent most of my childhood looking up to her. When I was twelve, she'd been eighteen, beautiful, confident and everything I could ever wish to be. Everything my parents wanted me to be. Everything I'd failed to be.

I shook my head to clear that thought and went back to the letter. It was four whole pages of nothing but wedding plans. I wouldn't say she'd turned into a bridezilla over the last few months but her looming nuptials did seem to overshadow everything else in her life. As usual there were the subtle reminders that she'd decided on a style for my bridesmaid dress, that I had to come and try said dress on, that she'd also arranged for one of her fiancée's brothers to be my date if I couldn't find one and a reiteration of the wedding date which was... next year. She was definitely overexcited. I couldn't blame her though. She was marrying a great guy.

Reaching into my desk I got out the expensive stationary set she'd brought for me and started crafting a response. No, I didn't think a veil was old fashioned, yes, she'd look fabulous in pearls and, equally as subtle as her hints, I let her know that there was no way I'd be there next year. Our parents would be there so by default I wouldn't. I hadn't been in their presence since I'd walked out of the family home three years ago. They'd thought I was returning to boarding school. I hadn't known where I was going as long as it was far away from them and even further away from my ex-boyfriend. I'd been fifteen. If they wanted to they could have had the police bring me back home. But they didn't and I'd ended up with Phantom Lord instead. They were done with me and I was done with them. Not even my sister's wedding would get me anywhere near them.

I knew it was mean, and a little selfish, to let our mutual hatred spill over onto her wedding day but I couldn't back down on this. So she kept dropping hints that she wanted me there and I kept dropping hints that it wasn't going to happen. Nieve probably expected to wear me down over the next few months. As the day drew closer eventually she'd have no choice but to ask me point blank and I'd have to refuse her. She'd cry and I'd feel like a total bitch. I could only hope that she wouldn't let my absence ruin her big day.

I ran out of things to say about the pros and cons of an ivory dress over a pure white one and wrote two pages about Gray-sama instead. Then, I sat at my desk, twirling my fountain pen around and around, and wondered what Gray-sama was doing right now.

I'd been staring at the same maths problem for the last five minutes. Not because I couldn't do it but because I was too distracted to try. I laid the pen down and gave up. Juvia was on my mind. I'd much rather she was in my bed but that wasn't going to happen. Not unless she had a complete personality change and fell out of love with me. The chances of that were about the same as me having a complete personality change and falling in love with her. Pigs would fly first.

I got up and opened my door. The hallway was dark, the house quiet. Julian and Grace tended to go to bed early and rise early. They never noticed if I disappeared for the night as long as I was back in bed before they got up. I snuck down the stairs and out the house. I had no specific destination in mind but I wasn't surprised to end up standing outside of Enno's dance school. The buildings on either side were shrouded in darkness but light still blazed from the studio windows. I checked the time. 11.14. She told me once that she danced at least five hours a day. With school and homework, I didn't know how she managed it but if Enno was anything, she was driven.

She wasn't expecting me but I didn't have to wait long for the lights to go out and a group of five girls to descend the stairs. I was standing in the shadow of a doorway across the street. They couldn't see me and it would probably scare them if I just appeared from the darkness so I waited for them to go their separate ways. They talked for a few minutes then four of them laughed and walked away. Enno was the only one left.

She was wearing baggy sweatpants and white top that was so loose it had slid off one of her shoulders. Completely casual but I didn't mind. As I pushed off the door I was leaning against, she reached up and let her hair down from the bun it was in. "Enno," I called softly so I didn't freak her out too much. Her head whipped around and I only got a glimpse of her face before she'd thrown her arms around me. Still those few seconds were long enough for me to register the tears in her eyes.

I immediately tensed up. I'd never seen Enno cry. Ever. We weren't friends like that. We had a lot of fun and a lot of sex but anything serious just didn't factor into our relationship. I patted her back awkwardly. What the hell was I supposed to do?

"Can you take me home?"

"Sure," I said, "Did you hurt yourself or something?" I could probably deal with tears caused by a sprained ankle or some other kind of injury.

Enno pulled on the edge of my t-shirt and used it to dry her eyes. "No, I'm just being melodramatic."

I scoffed, "You? Never." I hesitated, because I didn't want to start her off crying again, then asked a loaded question, "What's wrong?"

Her only answer was a kiss. A kiss that went on and on. Her fingers played with my hair and I couldn't stop my hands running down her back, squeezing her ass, pulling her against me. "Take me home," she breathed when we finally pulled apart and I knew she wasn't telling me to walk her to her front door.

I wasn't good with touchy feely emotional crap but if I could sleep with Enno to forget Juvia then she could sleep with me to forget whatever was bothering her. "Okay."

I woke up a little after midnight. My letter to Nieve was spread out over my desk and I had a mark on my face from my pen. I must have fallen asleep while thinking about Gray-sama. I yawned, stretched and heard what must have woken me up. Hushed, excited semi-whispers in the hallway. Peeking out my door, I saw Cana and Erza talking. "What's going on?"

"Sorry, did we wake you up?"

"It's okay," I leaned against my door and they walked over.

"There's a party at Mira-sempai's college on Saturday. I can't go, but do you want to Juvia?" asked Cana.

"Mira-sempai?"

"Oh, I don't think you know her," Erza said, "She's the older sister of Elfman and Lisanna."

"Never mind that," Cana said, her excitement making her voice loud. "Erza's got a surprise for Jellal."

Erza blushed, "Quiet! This is so embarrassing. Everyone is going to know."

"Everyone already thinks you two are doing it so it hardly matters!"

"Cana! Shut the hell up!"

"Girls," Ruchio said from behind them, "It's after midnight on a school night. Go to bed."

"Yes," we all chorused, not wanting to annoy the dorm owner.

Cana and Erza left, arm in arm and I shut my door quietly. It was nice to see Erza back in good spirits. She'd been so down the last few days and it didn't suit her to be unhappy. I had wondered if she'd give up since Jellal had rejected her but of course she wouldn't. Erza never quit anything. I smiled, if she was going to keep trying for the boy she liked then I had no excuse. I wasn't going to let Gray-sama avoid me any more. He'd been so hard to tie down these last few days. It'd been like I was Peter Pan chasing my own shadow. I nodded, my mind made up. The first chance I got I was going to confront Gray-sama about Saturday night. It kept replaying in my head. The way he looked at me, the words he spoke, his hands on my skin... He couldn't almost kiss me and think I would just forget about it.

"Goodnight Gray-sama," I said blowing a kiss at the picture I had of him on my wall. I hoped he was prepared because I was coming for him one hundred and ten percent.