Gray swore.
"Gray-sama?"
"I have to go to the bathroom..." He looked around, as if expecting a sign that saying, "BATHROOM: THIS WAY:" to appear in front of him. "Damn. I have no clue where it is."
Gray thought. "Maybe if we keep walking, we'll find a room and we can ask the bartender!"
"Juvia thinks that is a great idea! Juvia's Gray-sama is so smart!"
Gray rolled his eyes and started down the hall.
"Would it really be so detrimental to their budget to add some goddamn lights?!" Gray said irritably when Juvia bumped into him.
"Juvia does not mind the dark if she can touch her Gray-sama in it..."
(A/N I know what you're thinking, you pervs... And she did NOT mean it that way)
"Juvia, you take that side and I'll take this side. Rub the wall until you feel a door or something."
Juvia nodded, and then realized that Gray-sama probably couldn't see her in the dark, so said, "Yes, Gray-sama."
They felt along the wall for a while, Gray muttering, "This place is huge..." and wondering what kind of spell had obviously been cast on it to make it so, until Juvia said,
"Gray-sama? Over here."
They rubbed the wall until Gray found the handle and they opened the door.
They blinked.
Everything in the room had been painted a shade of gold. The walls, the tables, the glasses and utensils were all gilded, varying from light to dark to almost yellow colored. If it was classified as yellow or gold, it was here. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but when Gray and Juvia's eyes adjusted, they realized it was a clever idea and that it didn't look too bad.
They glanced at the bar.
The barmaid was pretty and had dark gold hair, yellow eyes, and a long, full, strapless gold dress made of satin and taffeta.
She must have been perfect for the job, with everything so gilded about her... Gray thought.
He blushed. She was very pretty.
Gray began to sweat. Had he done his hair? No, damn it, it had just been a fake date with Juvia, he hadn't bothered with anything.
The barmaid noticed them (Well, Gray anyways) and walked over to them.
"Hello, my name is Sharlene."
She let out a giggle.
"Welcome to the Gold Room!"
Giggle.
She leaned in close to Gray's face and brought her hand up to his face to gently caress it.
"And who might you be...?" she whispered seductively.
Gray gulped. Having a really, really hot girl this close to him did not increase his comfort level at all, both physically and mentally. "G- Gray Fullbuster... Sharlene..."
She giggled like something was funny and then seemed to notice Juvia for the first time. She raised her eyebrows and said, "And you are?"
Juvia's evil aura flared up. "Juvia Locker, who will one day be Juvia Fullbuster, so don't you lay a hand on Juvia's Gray-sama, Sharlene-san." She added the honorific reluctantly, and for the first time, didn't ask Gray-sama's permission before dragging him away.
"Wait."
Sharlene grabbed Gray's arm.
"Why do you want to go with that wench? You and I, you know, we could have a little fun, in the back room maybe?"
If Gray was going to be honest with himself, there was some temptation to abandon Juvia and go to "have some fun". But that would be wrong, a douchy thing to do, and he couldn't and didn't want to even imagine Erza's rage at him doing that.
"Erm, nah, let's go Juvia..."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Okay, next door."
They opened it up and voila, the red room. It was similar to the gold room, only with, well, red.
"Let's not talk to ANYONE and just go sit down before someone picks a fight." Gray muttered to Juvia, who nodded in agreement.
They sat down in a booth. At first it was awkward.
"So... Um... Juvia. Do you have any parents?"
"Juvia's parents are dead."
Gray didn't want to press the matter, as her voice had become tight and she looked a little sad.
"A lot of people in Fairy Tail don't have parents." Gray said. "I mean, Cana has Gildarts, but that's about it."
They both considered this dark topic and wallowed in sadness.
A waitress came soon after to take their orders, but otherwise, it was silent at their table, Gray thinking about Deliora, and Juvia thinking about the fire that had taken her parents. It was grim, but at the same time, there was a kind of bonding, mutual understanding about what it was like to feel a loss of a parent.
It was understanding.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Natsu, it's really dark in here."
"What? I can see fine."
Lucy rolled her eyes in exasperation. Natsu's dragon vision allowed him to see really well in the dark.
"It may seem light to YOU, but I can't see a thing in here!"
Natsu sighed. "Just feel the walls."
They continued for a while until they reached the red room.
"Here's my favorite room!"
Lucy blinked.
"Wow Natsu..." Lucy had no words. "It's really, um, cool. And bright."
Then she noticed.
"Omigosh Natsu, that's Gray and Juvia sitting over there!"
"What?! Ice head and water girl?"
"C'mon Natsu, let's go say hi." Lucy smiled. "Maybe we can eat with them. After all, it's not like they KNOW we're following them. Or were."
"Fine..." Natsu grumbled.
They really looked like they were having a good time. They were talking and Gray was smiling, Lucy noted.
Natsu and Lucy walked over to the booth.
"Hey, Gray, Juvia!" Lucy smiled politely at them.
Gray looked up in surprise. "Oh hey."
Why were they here, on his outing with Juvia?
"We came to see if you were doing the dare or not."
"Natsu..." Lucy hissed. "We weren't supposed to tell him about that, idiot."
"Well I am. So why are you still bothering me?"
Natsu shrugged. "We thought you might wuss out on us."
"I'm wouldn't wuss out! Erza would KILL me."
Lucy rolled her eyes and looked at Juvia.
Something was very wrong with her.
She looked back and forth, from Gray to Natsu. Her eyes were wide and glistening.
"Were you ENJOYING yourself, Gray?" Natsu said teasingly.
"Shut up! I only did it because it was a stupid dare! I didn't care about Juvia at all!"
Lucy was the first one to realize it.
"Guys..." She growled, "Shut up..."
But it was too late.
"Gray-sama... Doesn't care about Juvia at all?"
She tried as hard as she could to keep herself composed, but her lip trembled slightly.
Gray looked over at her like a deer in headlights. forth, from Gray to Natsu. Her eyes were wide and glistening.
"Were you ENJOYING yourself, Gray?" Natsu said teasingly.
"Shut up! I only did it because it was a stupid dare! I didn't care about Juvia at all!"
Lucy was the first one to realize it.
"Guys..." She growled, "Shut up..."
But it was too late.
"Gray-sama... Doesn't care about Juvia at all?"
She tried as hard as she could to keep herself composed, but her lip trembled slightly.
Gray looked over at her like a deer in headlights.
"No... Juvia, that's not it!"
"Juvia..." Gray called weakly, his argument with Natsu forgotten.
He felt something wet on his hand. It was a single tear from Juvia, and as he watched, it evaporated, leaving only a bitter memory in its wake.
NOTE: This is combining the behind the scenes for this chapter and the last.
Alright, that was unexpected! This was part of the concept story I (kinda) planned out. My concept story was actually quite different from the published one. I just had an image of a lake, with Juvia and Gray sitting by it. And I wondered how that would come to be, thus creating the sleepover and the dare. Later, perhaps after I wrote chapter 2 or 3, I thought about how Gray kind of took Juvia for granted, and I thought of Gray having to earn her back. So that's kind of what I'm following now, I actually don't have a specific direction now, I'm just going to watch Gray do what he'll do, and hope for the best... The original concept story didn't include Natsu or Lucy at ALL, but I felt that Juvia had to learn that it was all a dare after all. So I had Natsu come in. And after realizing the NaLu-ness of the story, I plopped her in, because I knew that I could write a sweet NaLu moment and also because, well, it's just a lot of fun to write Lucy! :D Sharlene was REALLY spur of the moment, I had to make her character unique and I just wrote her in as a situation to make Gray a little snippy and ticked for the climax, and also bring out my inner "Angel of Chaos" (Black Butler reference, anyone?) in writing, and to add a little Gruvia before next chapter which will hopefully be Gruvia heaven. I actually don't know, I normally release chapters as soon as I write them, unless, for some reason, I have no access to the Internet through my iPhone, which is where I write this shit, and then I email it to myself so I can upload on my computer, which is way easier to upload on then a mobile device.
When Lucy summons Hologoriam, I'm sorry if I got the name wrong, I know, I suck for that, it kinda pisses me off when other people do that, but I'm just as bad... So for my next fanfic, I was thinking I could write a spin-off of this fanfic, only it'll be a NaLu. What do you think? Will you read that?
Thanks for waiting, my interest in the story kind of waned a little... Did you know that I've never actually finished a story before? I've always stopped halfway. My dad did that with art. I love to draw as well as write, and I always finish my drawings, but I can never seem to manage to do that with my stories. But I'm determined to make this my first one.
Hey, about the whole Lucy-hates-thunder thing, I have recently been rewatching Ouran High School Host Club, and I wanted a sweet moment between Natsu and Lucy, even though this story isn't supposed to be about them. And if you're wondering why I never do Juvia's POV (which you probably aren't), it's for 2 reasons. A) I am bad enough at writing Juvia already, I can't possibly know what she thinks, beyond the usual fantasy, and B) Do you really want to know? I might do her POV on the future, though, give her some depth and all, but it just hasn't really been advantageous so far.
You know, I really enjoy writing this "behind the scenes" segment of my stories. Do you like it, or even read it? I hope you do. Is it pointless to write this?
As always, just your views and reviews make me a very happy girl! And your favorites and follows make me happy too!
-iHelen
P.S. Sorry if characters seem a bit OOC.
