AN: I'm so sorry about the lateness of this update, but I was highly blocked about how I was going to use the GMG in the story and you guys have no idea how hard it was to try to make things as believable as I could. You will also notice I skipped some parts because I just couldn't fit them, but I tried to mention it as my prime focus is Gray and Juvia's relationship. Other things will seem rushed because, well, they are. Too many important things happened during the arc and just some of them regarded Gruvia.
Anyway, thanks for understanding and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
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Guns 'N Buttercups
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Chapter 09
"Your Love Is A Killer"
#
After Juvia's admission about her feelings towards Gray, she would catch him looking at her with a pensive stare and something else she couldn't put her finger on. Every time she caught him doing it, he was quick to look away and try to appear very busy. It became so frequent Juvia stopped noticing, choosing to just smile at him instead. It wasn't as if she minded him watching her.
Two months after Juvia's birthday, she arrived at FT after being away for almost a week in a mission and a day lazing around at her apartment, when Cana told her Makarov wanted to see her as soon as she arrived.
The blunette frowned at the request, but did as was told and rode the elevator to the top floor in search for their boss. During the time she spent going up, Juvia thought about all the bad things she had done the past few months and all of them were done during a mission and for a reason.
Well, most of them.
Once she arrived, Lisanna had smiled to her and told her to get in, they were waiting for her. It confused her even more, but the blunette followed her friend when she opened the door to Makarov's office and told her to come in.
To say she was surprised to see who was there, was an understatement: Laxus was seated on the couch looking bored, Mirajane by his side as bubbly as always and Gajeel sat on the white haired woman's other side, arms crossed over his chest
"Oh, Juvia-chan. Good, now we are only waiting for one." Makarov said, earning Juvia's attention, as she looked his way. He smiled kindly at her and pointed to a chair next to where the other three were and, dumbly, she went to sit.
"What… what is happening?" She asked and both Laxus and Gajeel shrugged while Mirajane just smiled knowingly.
"You'll know in a bit. I'll go get the last person." Makarov went outside his office, leaving them alone.
A few moments later, Laxus said in a low voice: "I don't know why the secrecy, but if the old man is behind this and got all of us together, it's going to be a pain in the ass."
"Don't speak like that." Mirajane slapped his arm and pouted. "Master has a lot of good ideas."
The moment Mirajane closed her mouth, Master returned to his office with someone right behind him, his face hidden behind some cloth, only the eyes were visible. Juvia could see none of the other three recognized the men by the way they also frowned.
Makarov closed the door and went to sit on his chair behind his desk, leaving the unknown man standing a few feet away. Master cleared his throat and looked to where his grandson and the others were. "What I am about to tell you, cannot leave this room until it is time." He looked to the man. "Mystogan, you may take the scarf off now." Juvia glanced to said man (Mystogan?) and the moment he took off the cloth away from his face, Juvia's eyes widen as she recognized the blue hair and the tattoo on his face from a picture she had seen from his files.
"Jellal?" Juvia got up from her chair, feeling a bit hostile: after all, he had been helping Zeref less than a year before and it was a bit of his fault that awful man Vivaldas had drugged her. Plus, he had broken Erza's heart. "What…? Weren't you in jail?"
Seeing her reaction, both Gajeel and Laxus got up as well and seemed to recognize the name. Neither seemed too pleased with the revelation.
From her place on the couch, Mirajane said: "Alright, maybe he has some crazy ideas sometimes."
#
It took a little convincing, but Makarov was able to make everyone sit down again and listen to him. Juvia dropped her guard a bit when Master vouched for Jellal – Mystogan – and make the blue haired man sit down farther away from the other four.
"For all purposes, Jellal escaped prison and his whereabouts are unknown, yes, but this is his twin brother." Makarov said. "We have all the paperwork proving they were separated when they were born, they went to foster care and as far as everyone knows, he has nothing to do with Jellal Fernandes." He looked to his grandson. "In fact, I believe Laxus and Mirajane remember when Mystogan here was one of the recruits who were with him when he joined the army."
Laxus stared at his grandfather for long seconds, they were communicating without words. "Now that you mentioned, pops… He does look familiar. Doesn't he, Mirajane?"
The white haired woman nodded and hummed in agreement. "I sure remember the blue hair."
"Will that work?" Gajeel asked with no finesse.
"Everyone else who got in with them is dead. A bit of photo manipulation and we have the evidence Mystogan was there while Jellal was miles away." Makarov said. "And our records show he has been working with us for the past two years."
Juvia looked at Gajeel and they were the ones having a silent conversation that time. It wasn't as if they had been doing nice things when they ran into Fairy Tail and if Master Makarov wanted to give Jellal a second chance, they trusted him.
"Yes, Juvia remembers seeing you when she started here. How long has it, Gajeel-kun?"
"Ten, eleven months?" Gajeel shrugged and looked towards the blue haired man. "It's coming back to me too, seeing you there."
The tension that was clearly all over Jellal, softened with the words from the four people in front of him and he let out a puff of air. "Thank you." He was able to mutter.
"Now that all of our memories are back," Makarov said pointedly with a thankfully smile "we acquired information about a small contest. This contest is for the King's amusement; he likes action and he especially likes to see people competing about it. Usually is something small, just little groups for the money." Everyone was paying attention to the old man's story. "This year, it's different. Lots of firms like ours are going, many skilled people are going there. People who would never lower themselves to just being an attraction to the King. And Jellal have told me that Zeref's people are interested in that event. Maybe Zeref himself."
Juvia grabbed the armrest tight remembering her meeting with Zeref and how it made her feel scared and hopeless.
"We are entering the contest. The teams are usually mixed with people from all the staff to make it, and I quote the king here, 'more fun to watch', so" Makarov said "I already briefed Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy and Lucy. They will be our first team. The first three are the muscle, Wendy the medical support and Lucy the brain. Anyone who sees them will see just our contestants and even though I have faith in them, we can't afford to something happen and we are not in the finals." The old man took a moment to look at each person in the room. "That's why I am sending a second group: the five of you."
"Why us?" Juvia asked.
Makarov didn't hesitate to answer. "Because even though we have some great people, you are the best. You complete the mission, no matter what and no matter the consequences, and this one is to go as further up in the competition as we can get." He stayed in silence for a moment. "There's another reason as well: I got word my… son is going to be there and I really need you to keep an eye on him." Juvia bit her lower lip, knowing about the rocky history between all the Dreyar men; by the corner of her eye, she saw Laxus tense. "My son is… not a very good man and if he's there, something is bound do come up."
"What do you want us to do, Master?" Mirajane asked.
"Don' tell anyone about the second team, please." The old man said. "It would make me feel better if this came up as a surprise to everyone." When the four people nodded, Makarov did the same. "Thank you. I will send the relevant files to your e-mails and more details about it."
Taking it as a dismissal, the younger people got up from their places, leaving only Laxus – who was still staring fixed at his grandfather – and Makarov as they exited the room.
"Well, that's fucked up." Gajeel said once they were out.
"What's fucked up?" Lisanna asked, coming their direction and her sister was quick to put a smile on her face.
"Nothing." Mirajane met Lisanna halfway and put an arm around her shoulder. "Come on, Lisanna, you owe me lunch and I heard someone has a hot date tomorrow."
"Mira-nee…" Lisanna whined, but let herself be taken away by her sister.
Juvia passed a hand through her hair and thought about what Makarov asked and how she was supposed to keep it from Gray – thank goodness he was supposed to leave for a mission the next day, she hated omitting things from him.
"Thank you." She heard the whisper from her right and she saw 'Mystogan' with the scarf already covering his face, only his eyes could be seen and Juvia noticed he was looking down. "For… joining this crazy idea."
"We weren't always on the good side of things." Gajeel shrugged. "But it is a crazy idea. You are wanted by, well, everyone."
"We went farther with less." Juvia reminded him gently and her friend snorted in agreement. She looked at Mystogan for a moment. "If you are honest about being Mystogan and leave what Jellal did, behind, this is the place for you to be. Just don't break Erza's heart again, or we will come after you." She said, venom on her tone and he wisely took a step back, nodding in agreement. "Good." The blunette smiled. "See you later."
#
Juvia was eating ice cream while watching TV with Snowball on her lap when Gray used his key to get inside her apartment, making the dog jump from its owner's lap to bark in excitement around the man, who bent over to take her from the floor for a moment, letting his duffel bag fall.
"Hey." Juvia grinned when she saw him putting Snowball back down. "I thought you were going to stay at your place tonight."
"I was, but then I realized a shirt I wanted to take was here so I decided to just spend the night." He shrugged and sat by her side, putting an arm around her shoulder and kissing her lips. "Or am I not allowed to stay here? Expecting company?" He raised an eyebrow and she giggled.
"Oh yeah. My other boyfriends were supposed to come over so we could have a freaky orgy." She told him in the most serious tone she could muster.
Gray snorted and took the ice-cream bucket away from her. "Please, you are such a jealous person you'd never go to an orgy. Or even have a threesome." He ate a mouthful of ice cream, but her next words make him cough.
"Not if it was to share someone; myself is another matter entirely. Young Juvia had a wild phase after her broken heart." She shrugged and got up from the couch, giving him a peck on the lips. "Now, which shirt was it? The one you were looking for."
He looked a little dazed. "Uh… the light blue one with white stripes." Juvia nodded and went to her bedroom, Gray following her, still looking confused. "And what do you mean wild phase?"
Juvia shrugged, going straight for her closet, where she had put the clothes Gray had forgotten there and she washed. "Juvia told you: after she got her heart broken, Juvia took charge of her sexuality."
"Come on: the orgy or the threesome?" Gray asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She winked over her shoulder and smiled when he huffed in annoyance. Locating the shirt he was after, Juvia carefully took from the pile and turned around to show it to him. "Is this the one?"
"Yes, thanks." He stood next to her and grabbed two more before they came out of the closet, Gray throwing them on her bed. "Now I'm all set."
Juvia hummed in agreement, stepping next to him and putting her arms around his waist. She looked up to him, her chin propped on his chest. "You know, most of your clothes are here."
"What? They are not." He frowned.
"Uh, yes they are." She told him. "When you were packing, you looked around and… how many shirts, pants and underwear did you see there?" Juvia could see his frown deepen. "Exactly, about eighty per cent are here."
"I just… I thought they were at the laundry basket."
"They were." Juvia smirked. "My laundry basket, but a laundry basket nonetheless. I just wash them and leave them there," she pointed to her closet "so you can get them home when you want to."
He cleared his throat. "I'll take them back when I return from my mission."
"Juvia doesn't mind." She tiptoed and kissed him. "It was just a piece of information about how much time you spend here."
"Well, you do keep your fridge stocked all the time and you have a cute dog for me to play with." Gray said with a chuckle and she rolled her eyes, slapping his stomach playfully. "Plus, I kind of like it when you wear my shirts." Juvia blinked and looked down at herself; she had forgotten she was wearing one of his shirts and suddenly her cheeks grew warmer.
"Uh…" She tried. "Sorry?"
"Don't be." Gray smiled, pulling her closer. "I do like it." He kissed her lips and then a path down the neck while she giggled and he fumbled with the hem of the shirt to pull it away from her, she raised her arms to help him do it.
"What about the 'no sex before missions' rule?" Juvia asked as soon as he lied her down on the bed.
"I don't even know why we have that rule." Gray mouthed on her neck.
"You created that rule." Juvia bit down a moan. "You said you needed focus."
Gray let go of her long enough to take off his shirt. "I'm a very stupid man sometimes." He kissed her again, but stopped to mutter a question: "Come on you have to tell me: orgy or threesome?" Juvia couldn't help it but to laugh out loud before pulling him back on top of her.
#
A few weeks later, at Crocas, the Capital of The Fiore Kingdom, Juvia grabbed her suitcase and chose something nice to wear. It was the day before the Great Games and just like every other team, she was sharing the room with her four teammates and they also seem to be making plans of their own. After going in the bathroom and changing her jeans to a long white skirt with a dark blue shirt that showed a large portion of her cleavage, Juvia checked herself on the mirror once again before thinking the result was good enough. After saying good-bye to the remaining people there: Mystogan and Laxus, telling she was going to be back before 12, as ordered, she left in search of Gray.
She called Lucy to narrow down where Gray could've been, she went at the direction of the restaurant district, as the blonde told her Gray said he was hungry.
Finding him wasn't as hard as she thought it would be as he was in the middle of the pavement – it seemed the whole street was closed up for cars and there were benches all over the way and he stood there, looking at some kind of map. Juvia smiled: she would surprise him.
"Gray-sama!" Juvia called and she watched in amusement as Gray looked around until he spotted her, immediately smiling, leaving the map behind and stepping closer to her.
"Juvia… Why are you…?" He tried to ask, but she threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed him, while he put his own around her waist.
"Well, I came to cheer for everyone in the guild, of course." She said and his answer was to hum in agreement. "Would you like to get something to eat?" She draw the lines of the X on his shirt with her finger. "Alone, with me." Juvia kissed his cheek.
"If you let this be counted as this month's date…" Gray smirked and she rolled her eyes with the predicable question – he asked it almost every time they went out and her answer was rarely positive, but that time she would make an exception: he would have a surprise the next day and not one he would like much. When Juvia nodded his smile widened. "If so, now that you mention it, I'm getting pretty hungry."
"Well, in that case there's some pretty good restaurants in this town." They heard a familiar voice coming from behind them and they almost jumped away from each other.
"Lyon!" Gray let go of her in annoyance and Lyon used it to his advantage by putting an arm around Juvia's shoulder and leading her away from the dark haired man.
"How about we go check out the aquarium?" Lyon was all smiles when he asked her that.
"Huh…? Err… Umm…" Juvia tried to form a sentence, but couldn't, already predicting the fight between brothers that was about to break and sure enough, Gray's angry voice could be heard.
"You bastard! What did I tell you about taking what's mine?" Juvia felt Lyon's arm being lifted from her shoulder and then she was being pulled back to Gray's side.
"You're going to be competing in the Games, right, Gray?" Lyon asked and Gray's answer was a grunt while he put himself in front of Juvia. "Oh, well… We, of the Bureau, will be the ones winning."
"Don't forget we have Erza and she's like a monster." Gray all but growled.
"Why don't we make a bet?" Lyon's smirk was predatory – as much Juvia could see. "If we win, Juvia will come to work for us."
Juvia's eyes widened at the same time Gray said loudly: "What the hell?" But what surprised her, was his next question. "A-and if we win?"
"We'll give Juvia back to you." Lyon said simply.
"She was ours to begin with!" Gray was exasperated.
"This is a promise from man to man. Don't forget it, Gray."
The dark haired man groaned in exasperation. "What kind of bet is that supposed to be? Quit messing around."
Juvia opened her mouth to object, but Lyon's next words made her stop. "You afraid of losing?"
The whole atmosphere around them changed as Gray said, between gritted teeth: "What did you say?"
Deciding it was best to diffuse the mood before she had a repeat of the performance they made a few months ago in front of her building, Juvia decided to intervene and put herself between them, pushing Gray away from his brother. "Gray-sama! Who is it you really want? Me or Lyon-sama? Tell me the truth."
She felt as if she had just prevented a very big fight in the middle of the town as Gray's shoulders lost its tension. "You have no idea what's going on… do you?"
'More than you do' Juvia scoffed inside her mind.
Seeing both of them had calmed down, she gently suggested: "Well, since Lyon-sama is here with us, we should all go have something to eat. In peace." She added when both men growled at each other. "Without fighting, please."
Lyon was the first to break, smiling at her with a flirty smile. "Anything for you, Juvia-chan."
"Fine." Gray didn't sound too thrilled with the development, but she knew he wouldn't let her alone with his brother. Lyon mentioned a good restaurant near-by and walked a few steps in front of the couple when Gray whispered to her: "I take it back, don't consider this a date. Never consider anything with him a date."
"Deal."
#
The dinner was filled with a heavy aura and the men were absolutely sulking for being at the same table, and Juvia was feeling uncomfortable. The minute they arrived at their booth, Gray sat in one side and Lyon on the other and Juvia didn't even think when she sat next to Gray, but she did notice the ridiculous smirk of satisfaction Gray sent his brother.
'How do men walk with all the testosterone dripping from them?' The blunette thought.
"So, how's work?" Juvia asked Lyon when their food arrived.
"Taking bad guys out, saving the country. You know the drill." He winked and Juvia couldn't help but to smile at his flirt.
"Yes we do, we have the same line of work."
"Well, you get paid tons of money for those. I am a humble public employee." He frowned lightly. "I shouldn't say that if I am trying to get you to come to the Bureau."
"Yeah, why are you so obsessed with that?" Gray asked his brother, eyes narrowed.
"The information she helped me get those months ago are still putting people behind bars. I told my boss about Juvia-chan here," he smiled at her "and he looked over her file and was impressed. Asked me to try to steal you to us."
Juvia felt pride dwell inside her; after all she didn't work that hard her whole life to not be acknowledged for it. "Thank you, but FT is Juvia's home now. She doesn't want to leave any time soon."
Lyon sighed. "Pity."
"But" she said and both men looked at her in surprise "Juvia would be more than happy to be employed from time to time."
"Now that sounds promising." Lyon leaned over the table and smirked. "I'm sure we could work something out."
"Good." Juvia nodded and pretended not to notice Gray's waves of anger coming from her side. "Now," she said happily and trying to diffuse the tension "let's eat, shall we?"
#
They arrived in front of the Honey Bone Inn, Gray had been quiet after they left the restaurant until Lyon said his goodbyes to the couple in front of the small building, promising Gray he would see him the next day and win – Juvia had to put herself between them otherwise they would go at it again. The blunette smiled and said good-bye to the white haired man.
Gray waited until Lyon was out of earshot before he turned to Juvia, not in his best mood. "Juvia…"
The blunette sighed, already prepared for his bad mood as he always did after a meeting with his brother. "Everything is the same now as it was two hours ago." Juvia told him, putting her hands on his shoulders.
"You didn't have to offer yourself to work with him." Gray muttered, sulking.
"You know that we can't afford to lose you didn't have to make a bet." She raised an eyebrow making him look down, guiltily.
"Sorry. He just knows how to tick me off when it comes to you. When it's just us we are kind of friends, but he starts to pawing you and it makes me want to shoot him."
Juvia snorted. "Well, welcome to jealousy-land. That's pretty much what Juvia thinks when you are friendly with any woman."
Gray grimaced. "That's not a good feeling." The blunette nodded and he kissed her. "Don't worry, I'll win."
Oh, he had another thing coming if he thought he would win; not with the team she was in, he was not. "Sure." She smiled and tilted her head towards the Inn. "Shall we come in?"
"Yes." He looked to the watch on his wrist. "I need to go back to the room; we need to be there by 12."
"Alright. Good luck tomorrow." Juvia kissed him and both entered the Inn, hand in hand.
#
The room was actually very cozy with the five of them seated on their beds and while Mirajane hummed a song, the other four waited for midnight – it was weird enough the organizers made them return to their lodges at a determinate time, so they had a hunch something was going to happen.
The moment the clock turned to midnight, the five of them got up from their beds when an annoying voice with a ridiculous music came from speakers on the ceiling. "To all firms here for the Great Tournament! Good morning! In order to reduce the participating teams from 40 down to 8, we will now begin a 'Preliminary Event'!" They looked at each other, eyebrows raised. "Every year, more and more firms come! That's a sign this event was starting to be taken too lightly. This year, we've brought the number of final competing teams down to 8." There was a knock on the door and, as the one closest to the door, Juvia went to answer it.
Outside their room, there were three men in dark suits and impassive expressions. "You will all now compete with each other! The goal is the event grounds, Domus Flau."
"We are here to take you there." One of the men in the suit said.
After a silent conversation between them, the participants nodded and stepped outside the bedroom, where the men handed them black hoods to put it over their heads.
"Really?" Gajeel asked, annoyed.
"It's a rule, sir. You cannot see where we are going to take you."
"Just put the damn thing." Laxus said, putting his own hood over his head. "It's going to be quicker that way and the sooner we finish this, the better.
Juvia put her on and after that she could identify when they went down the stairs of the Inn in complete silence until the cold wind from outside hit her and they were told they were about to enter a car and to not take the bag yet.
"Is everyone here?" Laxus asked once the door closed. When the answer was positive, they relaxed a bit more, but the ride was silent.
It took no longer than fifteen minutes for the annoying voice come up once again from the speakers in the car:
"The first 8 teams to make it will participate in the event. Feel free to use force, there are no restrictions besides fire guns. As long as you're one of the first 8 teams to make it. But if all 5 of your members don't make it there, you still lose. And… one more thing: we take no responsibility for anyone who loses their life in the labyrinth."
"You may take off the hood." A man said and when their eyes got used to the dim light, they saw a large wall and a small entrance, and a door ready to be closed.
"The Great Tournament's Preliminary Event: Labyrinth has begun!" They heard from the speakers.
One by one they got out of the car and took in their surroundings: the suited men were everywhere alongside the long and tall wall. "I guess we have to get to the other side as the eight first." Mirajane said and the others nodded their agreement. "Well, then. Shall we?" She clapped her hands in excitement, but it didn't fool Juvia one bit: Mirajane had assessed the whole situation before Juvia could even wrap her mind around the fact they were going to be thrown in a maze.
Once they entered the maze, a heavy metal door closed behind them. "I assume we will run into some people here, so have your guards up." Laxus said. "Try to memorize the way we are going so we won't get lost." When the other four nodded, they started to move as silently as they could and as the quietest one, Mirajane was ahead.
For the first ten minutes they just walked around until Mirajane raised her hand and closed it as a fist, making the others even more alert: there was another group on the corner and they were not being too silent.
"Five men, we should be able to take care of them without effort." She said.
"Let's do this." Gajeel cracked his knuckles and stepped around the corners and the smile he offered the poor guys was absolutely evil. "Hello, fellas. Poor luck to have run into us." Laxus and Jellal stepped behind Gajeel and Juvia could hear the other men shriek.
"Men." Mirajane sighed while she leaned on the wall, watching their teammates beat the five other.
"Right?" Juvia sighed. "Wanna have a go at the next ones we find?"
"Oh yes." Mirajane smiled.
#
They were back at their dorm by three a.m. as the second group to complete the task, their place was guaranteed. Everyone was in a good mood, after all they had a good excuse for being slightly more violent than normal and it was so familiar to all of them to have a crew and work with them.
After they cleaned up, they went to sleep, knowing the next day would be filled with surprises from all sides.
The next day, the same men from the night before were waiting for them outside their bedroom to escort them to where the first day's contest would be held. Juvia saw they seemed to be going to a soccer stadium, which made sense: it would certainly be big enough to hold the Tournament.
The men in suits showed them what seemed to be a locker room and told them they would be going out in a few minutes, to get prepared.
"I hate being a circus attraction." Gajeel mumbled. "Don't get me wrong I love to kick some ass, but I don't like this."
"Yeah." Laxus nodded. "But Gramps says we need to go to the end, that something's wrong."
"If Master says something is amiss, it is." Mirajane said.
"It is." Jellal told them. "I don't know exactly what is going to happen, but something will."
Juvia felt cold down her spine with the words but shook it off and that moment someone knocked on the door and they were led out, towards the field and told to wait on one of the entrances until their name was called.
Juvia saw that the stadium was almost full and people seemed to be cheering, as if the whole thing was normal. She remembered lessons at school when she was a little girl about a place where its rulers made people fight one against each other as Gladiators.
She could hear the commentators present themselves as Chapati Lola, Yazima-san and Jenny Realight – with the last name, Mirajane giggled and Juvia couldn't ask why because the next moment they were presenting the eight winners, starting from the bottom.
"First off is the preliminary round's 8th place. FT!" Juvia saw Natsu with his fist up, on his left side Lucy and Erza and on his right, Gray and… Elfman? Where was Wendy?
When the crowd started to boo them, everyone could see Natsu's expression of disbelief and Gray's annoyed stance. Juvia suddenly wanted to go out there and shut all of the viewers until she saw, on the second level of the bleachers, a big banner written "FT victory" and all the members of the firm, were there, clearly cheering.
"Awww!" Mirajane cooed while Juvia put a hand over her mouth to hide her laughter. Gajeel, though, couldn't help it but to laugh out loud and it was obvious that behind his mask, Jellal was also smiling.
Laxus scoffed. "Stupid, the lot of them."
Next, the commentators presented the rest of the winners: 7th place was Quatro Cerberus, a group of five men who seemed to have came up from a motorcycle club; 6th was Mermaid Heel, five women who Juvia thought they needed to be aware of. To their surprise, 5th place was Blue Pegasus, a firm FT had worked with and was in friendly terms with. 4th was the FBI group under the name of Lamia Scale and Lyon seemed very proud of himself for beating his brother (Ha, Juvia would see to that in a moment).
The moment the name of the 3rd place echoed in the stadium, Laxus, who was next to Juvia, let out a small growl, as the group was from RT, or Raven Tail: the firm of his father.
"There are just two more teams that made it through the preliminary round!" They heard the commentator say. "Here we go! The team who came in 2nd in the preliminaries is…" a pause; "Well, now, this is definitely unexpected! Could the flapping of their wings really carry them all the way here?" The five winced with the ridiculousness of the words, after all everyone knew the firm's name was really Fairy Tail. "It's the least-expected…. The unbelievable… FT B Team!"
The moment they stepped inside the stadium, people clapped and cheered, but their colleagues' expressions were the better, none of them expected to see the five of them in another team.
Gray's eyes were wide and in Juvia's direction and she couldn't help it but to smirk a bit and she even threw a lock of her hair behind, raising her chin a bit. She remembered the night of the announcement of the S-Class competition when he told her she couldn't take him on. Well, they would see that, wouldn't they?
The commentator Chapati and Yazima-san were explaining to the crowd about the rule that the same firm could enter two teams in the competition that year while Jenny argued if it would be fair when Natsu stepped out from the crowd and yelled: "Don't give me that crap! I'm serious here!" Everyone just shut up with his outburst. The pink haired man turned to Gajeel. "I don't care if we're part of the same firm or not, if we're fighting against each other, we fight with all our strength. Don't you dare hold back! Any team we get matched against is an opponent! I'm not losing to anyone, you bastards!"
Gajeel smirked and leaned until he was face to face to Natsu and said: "Exactly what I was hoping for, Mr. 8th Place Preliminary." Juvia had to hide a smile because of how red Natsu's face became and she looked around to see how the others were doing.
Mirajane was speaking with her brother, Erza and Jellal were also exchanging words until Laxus approached them and put an arm around 'Mystogan's' shoulder. Gray had his arms crossed over his chest, looking at Juvia with eyes narrowed (while she pretend not to notice) and listening to Lucy chatting. Juvia would so need to explain herself later.
"Now, for the last team that made it through the preliminary round… The strongest! The invincible! The complete Dominators! Sabertooth!"
The moment they stepped inside the stadium, Juvia had a bad feeling. The man with short blonde hair had his arms open, bathing on the cheers of the viewers, there was a dark haired man who glared at Gajeel who glared back at him, a woman with short white hair, a man with a long blonde hair and a weird hat while the last one had some wild green hair.
"That makes up all the teams that will be participating!" Chapati said. "The Grand Tournament has been unveiled!" On the big screen above one of the bleachers, there was a schedule going from 'Day 01' to 'Day 05', each of them saying '? + battle', which meant there would be a contest and a battle every day and the first day's contest would be called 'hidden'. "For the contest part, you can select anyone from your group do participate. For the following battle part, the organizers will pair up cards selected from the fans' votes. The battle part's rules are simple. Each team will battle, like so the winning team will receive 10 points, the losing team will receive none. If it's a draw, each team will receive 5 points. Let's begin 'Hidden!' Each team will have 1 participant. After each submit their player, I'll explain the rules."
While the other groups chose their representatives, Lyon stepped away from the Lamia group saying he would do it and Juvia just knew Gray would offer himself and just as she predicted, he took a few steps away from Team A and said: "Let's find out just what kind of Tournament this really is."
The blunette was quick to offer herself; "If they are sending Gray-sama, then I'll go too!"
"Hey!" Gajeel almost yelled. "If you lose on purpose, I'm gonna kick your ass!" Juvia just winked at her friend and hurried to go where the participants were gathered and weirdly enough the person who was supposed to be the mediator was wearing a ridiculous mask of a pumpkin. It made no sense at all, but, well, they had more pressing matters.
Juvia stood with Gray by her right and Lyon by her left. She leaned a bit towards Gray and said in a presumably low voice: "I've gotta tell you I'm sorry, but I don't have any intent to lose here."
He smirked and looked at her "I wouldn't expect anything less."
"Sorry," Lyon said from her other side and the couple looked at his direction "but I'm gonna be going full force as well." He looked at the blunette. "For Juvia."
"Ahm…" Juvia could feel her cheeks warm up.
"Ignore him or you'll catch his stupidity." Gray rolled his eyes and at that moment, the man from Raven Tail, he was called Nullpudding, started to speak.
"Excuse me just a moment, please. We still haven't been informed about what kind of contests we're going to be taking part in today. In fact… All of the contests are being kept secret. But regardless of what it might be, having two comrades competing, FT has a huge advantage, right?"
"What?" Gray sounded so pissed off it took Juvia grabbing him by the wrist so he couldn't go after the man – not that she didn't want to see her Gray-sama kick his ass for his words, but they needed to stay until the end, according to Master.
"That's just how it goes. The fact that two teams from the same firm made it all the way to the finals is nothing short of amazing." Said the contestant from Sabertooth, the pretty boy with long hair (not that Juvia would ever tell a soul she thought he was pretty, Gray-sama was much better looking either way). "I guarantee that having two of you competing… ultimately will not be what you'd call advantageous." The others seemed to agree with it and Nullpudding seemed pissed off.
Gray raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. So there's something behind this Royal Prince Routine…"
Pretty Boy (Juvia vaguely remembered his name being Rufus) looked in their direction and well, he seemed even prettier up close. "Your comrades can also become your weaknesses." He glanced quickly to where Juvia still held Gray's hand from when she tried to prevent him from going after Nullpudding and released it the fastest she could, but Rufus had already seen it. "Taking hostages, targets to threaten, interrogating for information… There's countless other ways your enemy can use them to create an advantageous situation." He looked Gray in the eye. "You should remember that."
Playing it light, Gray smirked. "How could I forget?"
The host with the pumpkin mask cleared his throat and told them to come closer. "Field open!" He said and just like that, men in suits came from all over and from far away started to pull ropes until a few minutes later the boards on the floor (none of them had given it a second thought) were up, forming a small maze of its own, and kind of big Juvia had to guess.
"What the…?" Gray looked around and Juvia just blinked in surprise, noting there were eight entrances.
Pumpkin Man opened a large chest, that was quite forgotten by the middle of where they were and inside there were eight different paintball guns. "These are fully loaded. The rules of hidden are simple: all of you will be 'it' and be looking for each other mutually. Find each other inside that maze. We are going to be following you with cameras: if contact is made with one of the paintballs, a point is added to the attacker and taken from the victim. Where it is hit doesn't matter."
Each of the eight got one gun, made sure it worked and Juvia noticed they had different colors, hers was pink and Gray's was green.
"Choose an entrance, and go hide." Pumpkin Man said and after a few moments, they were all in front of one. "Now go and hide! The game will start when you hear the gong! Go!"
Then, Juvia run inside the maze.
#
Juvia had found a cupboard to hide after the fiasco of the Hidden Contest. She didn't know what happened, but it seemed everyone was targeting Gray or her and she got just 1 point for her team. Even Lucy had put a better fight than her and she wasn't even trained! To tell the truth, the blonde shouldn't even be participating, but she was stubborn.
When she met her team, once she gathered courage to face them, she apologized profoundly but all they did was to shrug and tell her she at least got a point while Mystogan was just a disaster (to which she noticed his face became red even under the mask).
They went to their room to change and Mirajane suggested for them to go to the Inn's bar, where the rest of their firm certainly was and they agreed.
Of course, they were being their loud selves and Juvia felt a bit better, knowing they were fine losing that first day as long as they were together. Her mood had improved a bit until she heard Levy say "Huh? Lucy-chan and Gray didn't come out?"
"That's right… I don't see them." Jet pointed out.
"Well, after all, both of them lost like that…"
"It must be hard for them to show their faces." Wakaba said.
With her imagination going wild, Juvia thought about Gray trying to comfort Lucy and the blonde taking advantage of her Gray-sama and throwing him on the bed, proclaiming her love for him.
"What'll I do if something like that happens?" Juvia put her hands on her cheeks and her expression was of horror.
"Whatever you are thinking," she heard Gray's voice behind her and she turned to see him with Lucy by his side "no way it would happen."
"As usual, quite the fertile imagination." Lucy didn't even seem surprised about Juvia's thoughts and just went to talk to Levy. Gray asked Lisanna about Wendy and Charle before he sat on the booth next to Juvia, asking a beer to the passing barmaid.
"We talked about your jealousy regarding Lucy." He whispered so she would be the only one to hear. "I thought you were over it."
"Sorry." Juvia looked down in shame. He put an arm on the top rail of her chair, not quite touching her but anyone who watched them knew they were most likely together and it warmed Juvia's heart a bit.
"It's fine. But we need to have a conversation about Team B." He raised an eyebrow and Juvia couldn't help it but to giggle while she nodded.
"Deal."
"Alright! Everyone's gathered, now!" Makarov yelled and got up on top of a chair. "Listen up, brats! Today's defeat is the seed for tomorrow's victory! We'll rise up and show them all, won't we?" Everyone cheered. "We don't know the meaning of giving up! Our goal is #1 in Fiore!"
It was FT needed to start a party.
#
During the next four days, both Teams of FT thrived and the audience seemed to be rooting for them more than at the beginning and they were going up on the ranks steadily, to everyone's happiness. Master Makarov's son, Ivan, had been arrested for tempering with the games and several more charges and the old man had been quite sad for a while, but his strength returned and he focused on the Tournament.
On the fourth day, though, during a contest Juvia was sure she could win, the woman from Sabertooth who had took the place of Yukino, Minerva, managed to take Juvia out of the game and then proceeded to pretty much torture Lucy until she was unconscious.
Of course Juvia felt so guilty she didn't want to speak with anyone for a while, hating herself. It should've been her in there or she could at least done better protecting Lucy.
Rufus' words from the first day echoed inside her mind: "There's countless other ways your enemy can use them to create an advantageous situation." And Minerva had done her best to piss off every member of FT.
The bitch.
After that, they had joined teams and Juvia was not one of the five going in at that afternoon: Erza, Laxus, Gajeel, Natsu and Gray were the ones chosen to represent FT and honestly, Juvia couldn't see them losing.
The fight of Natsu and Gajeel versus Sting and Rogue was something no one would forget in a while: the four of them were magnificent fighters, but Natsu and Gajeel were in another level entirely.
Between that moment and the next day, Lucy had taken prisoner of the King's Army under the accusation of treason, for trading some kind of information to a foreign army.
It was preposterous and ridiculous, of course and someone was clearly setting her up but the Guards wouldn't listen to anything until the Tournament was over, which meant they had to win the damn thing to get attention.
But of course, Natsu wasn't taking lightly his girlfriend's imprisonment and demanded they had a plan to rescue her. He didn't care if they were going to commit treason themselves to take her from the prison, all he wanted was her back.
So, while Natsu, Wendy and Mirajane went to rescue Lucy, the team to perform the next day would be Juvia, Gray, Erza, Laxus and Gajeel.
It was a scary team, Juvia had to admit to herself they would look plenty intimidating, specially with how angry they were about Lucy's imprisonment.
Good. Let them fear FT.
#
While Gajeel had been off somewhere to comfort Levy about her friend, Laxus and Erza were going through some details. Gray had excused himself a few minutes before, allegedly tired and when Juvia finished talking with Cana almost fifteen minutes later, she went to the bedroom she would share with the others that night – apparently the contestants had to spend the night in the same room every night.
Once she entered it and didn't see Gray, she wondered if he had gone somewhere else until she saw light coming from the ensuite. Quietly, she went to take a peek.
Gray was relaxing on the bathtub, arms on its edges and head thrown back, just enjoying the warmth of the water and the quietness of their lodge and she couldn't help it but to smile softly at the sight.
"Do you mind if Juvia joins you?" She said from the threshold of the bathroom; he opened his eyes and smiled.
"Best thing that would happen to me all day." Gray said and watched as Juvia took off her clothes and just to be sure they wouldn't be bothered, she locked the door before she stepped in the bathtub and gently lowered herself into the water and she moaned in happiness when she rested her body against Gray's. The water was so warm and it reached her breasts so her whole body got warm. Gray kissed her temple, but other than that, just kept the same position for long minutes.
Juvia had her hands on his thighs and she caressed them mindlessly, thinking about the next day and what their plan was. She had an awful feeling dropping in her stomach she couldn't shake off no matter what. She just knew something bad was going to happen and all of a sudden she wanted to cry.
Probably noting the shift of her mood, Gray put his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear: "What's wrong? You are so tense."
Juvia swallowed. "Tomorrow." She managed to say.
"It's going to be fine. We are going to win this and get Lucy back."
"I know, I know." She whispered but he didn't believe her one bit, she could tell. "But I have this bad feeling…"
Gray sighed. "Juvia…"
The blunette maneuvered herself so she could straddle him and look him in the eyes and he seemed to enjoy the change a little too much by the way he looked at her body, but she ignored it. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid."
"I won't do anything stupid." Gray said mechanically already aiming to kiss her, but Juvia wasn't having none of it. She cupped his face with her hands and he looked at her, confused.
"Promise me."
"Juvia…"
"Please." Her voice was so small she wasn't sure he heard. She rested her forehead on his. "Please, don't do anything stupid." And against her best efforts, two tears fell from her eyes and Gray seemed alarmed.
"What the-? Juvia?" He sat straighter and Juvia just wrapped her arms around him and hid her face on the crook of his neck. "Juvia, come on. Talk to me. You are scaring me."
"I have this bad feeling and I'm afraid of how much you want to beat Rufus." She wasn't crying per se, but her voice shook.
His arms were around her, then, one on her lower back and the other on her hair. He sighed and with his thumb, started to caress the skin of her lower back just like he knew she liked it. "Juvia, I have no intention of losing tomorrow, or get severely hurt or whatever. I will be careful and I won't do anything stupid."
Only then she stopped hiding her face and looked up at him. "Promise?"
"Yes." He was the one cupping her face, then. "I promise." She felt a bit of the tension she was feeling leave her body, but not enough for her body to relax. "We need to rest, especially you with all that is going through your mind, which I won't even try to begin to understand." She nodded and he kissed her on the mouth for a few moments before she got up and he followed her. "Let's take a proper shower and go to bed."
She hesitated, but, with a voice which sounded a lot like a whisper, she asked: "Can Juvia sleep with you?" It had been almost a week since they had shared a bed and she missed it too much.
Gray looked at her for a second and shrugged. "I can't see why not. If the others are bothered by it, screw them. It's not as if we are going to do it with them sleeping on the next bed."
Juvia smiled a bit, feeling slightly better.
#
The moment Gray won against Rufus, Juvia felt a thousand times better. When she had to fight Chelia, it was hard: the girl was young, but well trained. Besides, Juvia didn't want to go all out on the girl so, when Lyon and Gray stepped into the fight, Juvia knew they were going to go all out; there had been tension between them for months.
Juvia and Gray went through a rough patch when both Chelia and Lyon upped their game and their only option was to take a few steps back and breathe. Juvia fell on the ground, utterly tired and trying to gather up her strength.
That's when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
She knew who it belonged to, she knew that he was trying to somewhat comfort her, tell her 'it's alright' in his own way.
The blunette put her own hand above his, communicating that she was there, that she got the message. They were together and that's what mattered, if they lost and if they won, they were together. She had a small smile on her lips, her heart was beating faster already because of the fight, but it was even faster when he wrapped his hand around hers.
Juvia was looking down, unable to stare to her loved one at the moment; so many feelings rushing inside of her, but he tightened his grip on her hand. "Their weakness is their teamwork." He said and Juvia lifted her head a tiny bit. "If it's us… We can fight together to gain even more power."
"Gray-sama…" When she finally looked up to him and all she could see was determination in his eyes.
"We'll defeat them with our combined techniques!" His eyes, so powerful, so full of pride and determination. His eyes, the eyes of the man she fell in love with. That was her Gray-sama. She offered him a smile and she squeezed his hand.
"Yes!" She said with all her determination. Gray helped her up and offered a smile that said everything was going to be okay. And she believed in him. She was always going to believe in him as long as her heart beat.
Lyon and Chelia were looking at them, still panting hard, it wasn't an easy fight for neither of the couples, but now, the Fairy Tail team had a new motivation and the white haired man and the pink haired young woman were looking at them with curiosity in their eyes.
Once Gray had helped her up, they were only a few inches away from each other. Their eyes met and still smiling, Juvia asked. "Let's do this?"
"Hell yeah." Gray nodded, both looking into each other eyes and then their gaze went to the couple in front of them. Lyon and Chelia took one step back instinctively with the intensity of their eyes and Juvia felt even better with it.
After that, their movements were so synchronized it amazed her, every move seemed like they were doing a rehearsed song, moves she didn't even know she got but with Gray, she was in a roll.
In no time, Lyon and Chelia were down, incapacitated to fight any longer.
They had won.
Juvia finally looked towards him, offering him a smile while he smirked, twining their hands together as they internally enjoyed their victory. After a moment, Gray realized that their hands were still together and a hint of pink flooded to his cheeks as he asked: "When will you let go of my hand?"
It wasn't like he didn't enjoy it, Juvia knew he did, but he didn't like when it was for such long amount of time. Juvia, being Juvia, hugged his arm, put her chin on his shoulder and said, in a very sweet voice.
"Never." And she meant it.
From afar, they could hear the crowd cheering and he sighed. "Do as you wish." He mumbled.
Juvia was about to ask what that meant, when Gray suddenly felt really drained and stumbled a bit. If Juvia hadn't held him, he would've probably had fallen.
"Gray-sama?" The blunette held him in place, but she was concerned. "Are you…?"
"I'm fine." Gray said stubbornly.
"You are not." She said, just as stubborn. "Juvia will help you."
"I don't…" He tried to speak but she didn't let him.
"You fought Rufus, Gray-sama." She said, gently. "Juvia saw it, it was amazing. And then fighting Lyon-sama and Chelia? It's okay to be a little drained." Gray sighed and let himself be supported by her as they walked in the arena. A few moments later, she kissed his cheek.
"What's that for?" Gray asked.
"For not doing anything stupid." She smiled when his only answer was to look away from her.
#
Somehow, after winning the Tournament, all went to shit.
The things they were accusing Lucy about became true as men from mercenary firms from oversees started attacking Crocus with the purpose of killing the royal family and send Fiore in war. Jellal told them it was Zeref's doing: he wanted the best trained people in one place so he could take them out in one go alongside with the royals.
Oh, he had another thing coming.
Instead of going to each other's throats, all the firms united themselves and coordinated a counter-attack with the help of the King's Army. The city was a mess, civilians tried to take cover wherever they could while the professionals handled the situation.
To Juvia's surprise, she met Meredy, the young girl she had met a few months before and had talked her out of killing herself and many other people on Tenrou Island. She had smiled, said she had been working with Jellal and Ultear with getting information about Zeref.
Gray saw Juvia talk to Meredy not far away from where he stood, taking one of the men down. A moment before, the blue haired woman had been in battle-mode by his side, up until the moment she saw Meredy. Juvia, then, turned her back carelessly away from the battle and started to talk to the younger girl.
Her guard was totally down, as if she forgotten where she was and what was happening.
She was careless.
Gray saw one of the mercenaries turn towards the pair and he knew what it meant. Gray ran and just a second before the shots, he got to the girls, knocking them both on the ground.
He was so angry, Juvia could see. Didn't they know to never let your guard down during a battle? Why would they be so carefree? Stupid Juvia, she thought.
"Don't lose your focus! This is a warzone!" Lyon Vastia scolded the girls, he had joined them when the King's Guard was creating groups to fight off the mercenaries. Meredy had the decency to look ashamed and mumbled a small 'sorry', but Juvia… Well, Juvia was being Juvia.
"Ah… Gray-sama and my butt…" He didn't know if she was offering her behind for spanking once again, if he accidentally touched while tackling her on the ground, or even if it hurt when she fell on the floor, whichever case, he couldn't think about it at the moment.
"Juvia… Juvia I need to tell you something." He meant to scold her, but instead Gray spoke in a strong, yet soft voice. Of course, Juvia's mind got insane, her imagination going more than wild.
"W-Wha-What is it?" Oh, god. Would he say something about his feelings? Because if he was going to, she was going to have a complete meltdown, it didn't matter where they were.
"No… It's nothing important, but…" Gray tried to say, but got interrupted by the blunette.
"It could be important to Juvia!" She all but screamed and Gray made a face in response, while Meredy said something for herself with a knowing smile on her lips. The dark haired man opened his mouth so he could speak, Juvia covered her mouth as he did, her eyes shining in happiness as the thought that the man in front of her might confess… Even in those conditions.
"Juvia!" It was Lyon's voice that made Juvia turn, removing her hands from her mouth, it was the despair in his voice that made all of her body suddenly get aware of its surroundings.
They were at war.
The blunette looked to her left side, from where most of the attacks were originated, a teeny tiny confused. One of the mercenaries was there, raising his gun in her direction. Right into her direction. Before her mind could register what was happening, before her feet could move, before she could raise her own gun to protect herself, the man fired.
There was no time to think, but she felt when she was pushed from her left, towards the floor and it hurt a little. Maybe Juvia was hit by the bullet just as a scratch.
But no. The woman had been shoved away from the bullet.
The hand that shoved her away was familiar to Juvia. She had it all over her naked skin so many times and she held it tightly not even two hours before. It was her Gray-sama's hand. He had shoved her away.
Once she hit the ground, Juvia turned to thank him again. She was so careless sometimes! It was a shame that Gray needed to save her so often and-
Juvia stopped as she looked over her shoulder.
Gray didn't just shove her away from the bullet; he had put himself in front of her. There was blood coming from the left side of his back; she couldn't see his face, but she knew where it hit him.
Why wouldn't her body move? Why was she shaking like that? Why her own heart seemed to have been shot away when she knew for sure that it didn't? Why couldn't she…
Juvia barely registered the men make some noises as more bullets were shot. She barely registered anything other than her hands hurting from the fall. She was in shock, shaking and with wide eyes, wishing it were a nightmare.
Then it happened.
Another bullet hit his right arm, then his stomach and chest.
Five times.
He got shot five times.
The despair, the impotence, the fear. Juvia couldn't look away; she couldn't do anything other than stare at what was happening to her loved one. It seemed so unrealistic; they always returned to each other after a fight, a little under the weather sometimes, but never like that.
Such thing as what she was testifying would never happen to them. It was one of those things that only happened to other people.
But it was happening to them.
The blood. The awful smell of blood flooded into Juvia's nostrils and her arms finally moved from the floor as her hands founded her cheeks. Her hands got wet with the thick tears that started to fall without her knowledge.
The blunette wanted to scream, but no sound came out. She wanted to move, but her limbs wouldn't move. All she could do was to watch helplessly as the man she loved more than her own life, lost his.
A last shot echoed through the walls, and in a blink of an eye, Gray was falling back, landing on her side as Juvia finally found her voice.
"GRAY!" Her voice did not sound her own. It was more like a shriek, like she was in unbearable pain.
And she was. Juvia might not be the one who received the bullets, but she sure was dying.
#
Everything after that was a blur. All she could do was to look at Gray's body on the ground, Lyon was yelling at Meredy for her to call an ambulance and then he was by her side, yelling at her: "Juvia, pressure the wounds! Juvia! Listen to me, put pressure on the wounds, dammit!" She felt Lyon put her hands on Gray's chest. "Press it!" She did it so without even thinking about it, eyes still wide with shock.
She was looking at Gray's face. If not for the blood coming out from a wound on his temple, he looked like he was sleeping; he didn't seem like he was in pain. Her mind focused on the fact that he was most likely dead and her heart hurt so much she couldn't breathe right.
Gray was dead.
She didn't even know she said the words out loud until Lyon yelled. "He's not dead! Shut up and press the wounds!" Only then she noticed he was by Gray's other side, also pressing down on his chest. "We need to keep him alive until the ambulance arrives."
Juvia's vision was blurry with tears when she looked at the white haired man. "I love him." She said, dumbly, as if it was some kind of secret and an explanation at the same time – an explanation to what, she didn't know.
Lyon's expression softened a bit. "I know. One more reason to really pressure those wounds, Juvia." He held her gaze. "He is not dead. Trust me."
The blunette nodded and returned to look down to Gray, cheeks getting soaked with how much she was crying. She leaned a bit and whispered to him: "Don't leave me. Please, don't leave me." She sobbed, pressing harder on the wound. "Don't make me live without you. Please."
She didn't know how long it took for the ambulance to get there, but once the paramedics arrived, she vaguely heard Lyon explain the situation and then there were arms around her, pulling her away from Gray. She struggled until she heard Lyon's voice in her ear saying she needed to let them do their jobs, that he was in good hands.
The whole time the paramedics were kneeling next to Gray, she was sobbing.
And then, Gray was being put on a board and then put inside the ambulance. Lyon shoved Juvia inside with them, telling her he would follow. Maybe she heard him telling she was Gray's fiancée and needed to go with them. It didn't matter, because they allowed her to go.
During the drive, the paramedics had to shock his heart into beating again and everything inside Juvia hurt during those seconds his heart had stopped, she was losing him, getting him back just to lose him again.
It hurt so much to see him that way.
Once they arrived at the hospital, she came off the ambulance after they unloaded Gray into a gurney and she followed them, hearing familiar terms being explained to the doctors like 'GSW to the chest' and 'coded during the trip'.
"Miss, you can't go further than this." A woman – a young doctor, Juvia thought – put herself in Juvia's path. "I'll go find you when we are done, but he's going to need surgery and it might take awhile."
"Surgery…?" Juvia understood the word, but couldn't process the meaning of it.
"I have to go." The doctor said. "I'll find you when we are done." She left running towards where they had rolled Gray's gurney, and Juvia was left alone in the middle of the corridor, her whole world falling around her.
Half an hour later, she was seated on one of the E.R.'s chairs when she heard a familiar voice yelling: "Is she going to be alright?" Juvia was on her feet the second she recognized Natsu's frantic voice and arrived just in time to catch someone with blonde hair on a gurney, just like Gray had been and she realized it was Lucy. "Please, tell me if she's going to be alright!" But as they done with Juvia, Natsu was stopped to go any further.
"Natsu!" Juvia called his name and he looked a bit confused to see her there. "Was that Lucy-san?"
He looked lost. "She… she got shot. I wasn't paying attention, they aimed at her… I don't know exactly what happened." Juvia noticed his eyes water and her stomach turned with the thought of her friends in so much pain.
"She's going to be fine." Juvia tried to be cheerful, but under the circumstances, it came out as nothing more than a whisper.
Natsu seemed to finally realize she'd have to be there for a reason and did a quick over with his eyes, they lingered on her bloodied hands for a moment before he looked up back at her. "Why are you here?" Juvia could hear the fear in his voice.
"Gr-" She choked on his name. "Gray-sama got shot too."
"Fuck." Natsu breathed. "Shit!" He said a bit louder that time. "This is so fucked up!" Juvia didn't say anything, because there was nothing to be said, after all, she couldn't refute his words. She just stood next to him, looking at the doors they had rolled in Gray and Lucy; twined their bloodied hands together and Natsu seemed to relax just a tiny bit, squeezing her hand. "They are going to be fine. Both of them."
"I know." Juvia cleared her throat and felt her eyes burn with unshed tears. "There's no other way."
And during that few moments, they shared their pain and just tried to hold on to each other for support.
#
Lucy's surgery finished in two hours and by then, most of their colleagues were at the hospital: either being treated for injuries or waiting for updates. Natsu almost ran to the doctor asking how she was and when the answer was that she was going to be okay, Juvia noticed his knees almost gave in. He asked if he could see her and when the doctor cleared him, Natsu nodded, but before he left, the pink haired man said, looking at Juvia:
"Let me know when Gray's surgery is over?"
"Of course." Juvia tried to smile. "Go, go see her."
Juvia returned to her seat next to Lyon, who looked as tired as she was. They didn't talk much for the next hours; Gray's surgery was taking a long time and when Juvia mentioned that to him, Lyon tried to coach his face to be impassive. "That's good. It means he's still alive. If they are still doing it, he is alive."
Three hours later, Lyon was pacing around the corridor and told Juvia he was going to get something for them to eat, he needed a bit of air. Juvia just nodded in agreement but had no intention of leaving until she had news about Gray.
Five minutes after Lyon left, someone sat next to her and she wouldn't have given it a second thought if the stranger hadn't spoke.
"Are you alright?" His voice was rough and rich, quite beautiful.
"Excuse me?" Juvia looked up and saw the stranger couldn't be more than fifty years old, had dark hair slicked back, a few days worth of stubble on his jaw, black eyes and a scar above his left eye. He pointed to her bloodied hands and she finally understood what he meant. "Oh. It's… not mine."
"Oh." He said, nodding. Juvia thought the subject was dropped, but the stranger kept talking. "My… my son was brought here. I don't know how he's doing yet." His voice broke a little and she realized the hardness of his jaw and he was quite pale.
He was suffering for someone too.
"Sorry." Juvia said honestly and her theory about him wanting someone to speak with during the time of distress was proved when he asked:
"How about you? Family?"
"Uh…"
"Boyfriend?"
She snorted. "Well, that's the closest thing to define us, I guess." He raised an eyebrow and she explained. "He has bad commitment issues even though he is all but living with me." Juvia said, smiling fondly at the memory of him walking through her apartment as if it were his.
"My wife was the same way." The man chuckled. "It took forever for her to accept to go out with me, and even more time to make her admit she loved me." He looked up to the ceiling. "She broke my nose on our first date because I put my arm around her shoulders during the movies and she thought I was getting 'handsy' with her." He smiled and looked back at Juvia. "She fixed it later, of course, and apologized; but I was a goner then. All I could think was that I had to marry her even if she broke every bone I had."
Juvia thought the story seemed vaguely familiar, but couldn't remember exactly from where. "My boyfriend" the word seeming foreign to her "and I met while shooting at each other and he actually hit me on the shoulder." The man looked somewhat surprised. "It's fine, we worked with the army, it was all a misunderstanding." She waved his concerns away.
"Well, I guess your story is more interesting than mine." He said slowly. "Now I think I had a very boring first date. Thanks for that." And for the first time in hours, Juvia felt like smiling.
"A broken nose is still very interesting." She said. "Your wife must be proud of her feat."
"She was." He smiled sadly and Juvia wondered if she said something wrong. "I lost her twenty years ago."
Juvia's heart broke for him. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"I know; it's alright." He assured her. "It doesn't hurt as much now. Not all the time, anyways." He shrugged. "I choose to remember the times she was breaking my nose and teaching our boy to speak instead of the day I lost her."
"Of course." Juvia nodded and after a moment, she had no idea why the words left her mouth, she opened up to the stranger. "I'm afraid I'll lose him." Her eyes watered. "I'm afraid he's going to die and I'll be left here alone, loving him even so."
"Oh, darling." The man put a hand on her shoulder, just like Gray had done hours before when trying to reassure her. "Don't think that way. I bet he's going to be alright. He seems like a stubborn young man and I doubt he is willing to leave you behind."
"He was shot while protecting me." She told him and his grip on her shoulder lightened a bit and then he squeezed it a bit.
The stranger was in silence for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Well, that speaks volumes about how much he cares for you. If I could, I would've get shot protecting my wife because that's what people in love do."
Juvia laughed through her tears. "He doesn't love me." Maybe she was sounding a little hysterical, but she didn't care.
"I don't think people throw themselves in front of bullets for random people." He pointed out.
"He cares, of course, but… Not love." She shook her head. "Juvia doesn't want to put her hopes too high. And right now all I want is for him to live. He doesn't have to love me, all I'm asking is for him to be alive."
"He will be. He's strong."
Juvia opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Lyon's voice coming from the end of the corridor, saying: "Juvia! The doctor's here!"
Her heart was beating fast inside her chest and she got up from the chair, looking at the man. "I'm sorry, I have to-"
"Go. Don't mind me." He smiled sadly and for a moment she wanted to hug him, but she really needed to talk to Gray's doctor.
"Thanks for talking with me. I hope your son gets well soon." She told him and left in Lyon's direction, heart beating fast inside her chest and if she had looked back to the mystery man, she would've seen the look of longing in his eyes.
#
He looked so frail on the bed but the steady beeping of the machine next to him made her feel better because as long it was beeping, he was alive and it was a miracle, according to the doctor.
Juvia almost fainted once the doctor told them they had controlled the bleeding and even though it had been a mess, no major organs were too severely damaged and he was so surprised Juvia thanked the universe for the gift.
After cleaning up her hands, she was authorized to visit him for a couple of hours. The whole time she sat by his bedside and held his hand and noticed stupid things like how pleasantly warm he was, that he really needed an haircut, that she had to ask where his necklace were otherwise he'd get a fit once he woke up. Plus, he really need to trim his nails, they were getting a bit too long-
A groan cut her thoughts and she immediately looked up and saw him blinking. The relief that washed through her… she couldn't put it in words.
"Gray-sama?" She was on her feet and hovering over him in a blink of an eye. "Gray-sama, can you hear me?"
"Where-?" He managed to ask, a bit confused.
"At the hospital." Juvia answered him, crying all over again but with relief that moment. "You were shot."
Gray blinked a few times, probably trying to understand what was going on. "Oh. That's why it feels as a bull stomped me."
Juvia was glad he was not wearing an oxygen mask, just a breathing cannula, because it means she could kiss him and that's what she did. "You scared me so much." She said between pecks on his lips and he didn't complain even when his face got wet with her tears. "Don't you ever scare me like that again! You promised me you wouldn't do anything stupid."
"Kept my promise." Gray said, tiredly and sighed in contentment when her hand caressed his hair, like he always did, and he closed his eyes; the doctor said he would be a little out of it for a while because of the drugs they gave him.
"How is that?" Juvia asked gently.
"Because keep you alive is not stupid. Can't let you die on me." It was all he said before clearly falling back asleep.
Juvia blinked a few times, trying to process the words and what they meant, but she couldn't – too tired to read too much into it. She was just glad he was alive and hoped to never go through that again.
#
AN: It was pretty obvious who Juvia was speaking to, so… Did you guys like Silver's cameo? *wink wink* I wanted for him to properly meet Juvia.
Before anyone asks: of course Juvia didn't connect the dots about the mystery man and Silver being the same person. He was supposed to be dead, there are files telling exactly that and she never saw a picture of him, so she has no idea whom she was speaking with whatsoever.
And Juvia froze when Gray was shot because we can see at the manga she was in shock seeing him on the floor, while Lyon went for help, she didn't move at all.
The thing with Natsu and Lucy was because the moment Future!Lucy dies really gets to me because of Natsu's reaction and I love a brOTP with him and Juvia. Don't judge me.
Thanks to: Hugs42morgan, qurz058, Guest, majinbuu00, oink8, ottery, orchadeia, Guest, cybercorpsesnake, Frosthsea, wilathewitch, A. Angel, endingsarenotalwaysbad, rebekfanai06, P. FullbusterBelieve, laefa, ILoveSxS, moonfairy014, NelielNyx, Giotto27, Alli and Mushee-chan! Thanks for reviewing, my lovelies! It means a lot!
And, yay! With this chapter, GNB has officially became my longest story: it's even longer than The Baby Problem. I feel so proud of my baby! Thanks to everyone who is seeing this through!
02/24/2016 ~ BonneyQ