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Ubiquitous

existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time; omnipresent

Juvia is everywhere. Gray would at least like a safe place to sleep, but she always seems to find him. He has one last option that he would only consider if he was utterly desperate. ...He's utterly desperate.

Juvia was everywhere. Every time Gray turned his head, it seemed like he caught a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye or she would be standing right there staring at him.

She followed him home and around on jobs so frequently that he didn't trust she wasn't there even if he didn't spot that telltale flash of blue. If he spotted her and made a hasty escape, he'd turn a corner only to come face to face with her again. She approached him over and over again in the guild, asking to go on jobs or go on dates or have him eat food she'd made. One time he had woken up, walked into his kitchen, and found that she had invited herself in and was making something that could be loosely termed 'breakfast'.

It was kind of creepy. Scratch that, it was extremely creepy.

Gray couldn't even sleep anymore, afraid that Juvia would take the chance to jump his bones. Since even his own apartment wasn't safe anymore, he began searching for alternatives. Unfortunately, Juvia stalked him closely enough to find him most everywhere he went. Sometimes he swore she was in more than one place at once.

He tried hanging out at Lucy's place more frequently, but, aside from annoying Lucy, it only caused Juvia to pitch a fit about her love rival. For the sake of Lucy's health and sanity, Gray stopped going over to her place. Staying with Erza was also problematic, because she lived in the girls' dorm. This engendered two equally disastrous problems: Erza was strict about following the dormitory's rule of no men allowed to stay over, and Juvia also lived there. The last thing Gray wanted to do was move closer to his stalker.

…Not that she must be there very frequently, given that she was always following him around.

That left one last option, one that Gray would have to be utterly desperate to even entertain.

…He was utterly desperate.

"I'm staying over with you tonight, flame brain," he said, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder and crossing his arms over his chest as he scowled at Natsu.

"Uh…" Natsu blinked at him in stunned bemusement and then exchanged a look with Happy, who was also hovering in the doorway. "Why the hell would I want you to stay here?"

"Doesn't matter. Let me in. I'm trying to escape Juvia. You know I woke up and she was in my apartment? Hopefully she won't dare come in here."

"She was in your apartment?" Happy asked. "That's kind of…creepy."

"You don't say."

"Well, come on in, then. You can have the couch."

"Wait," Natsu interrupted. "Don't tell him he can stay. I pay for this place, so I get to decide who stays."

Happy leveled an unimpressed look at him. "I'll have you know that I help you on all those jobs, so I get a say too. Anyway, would you like it if someone was breaking into your house all the time? Just let him in."

Natsu grumbled to himself but stepped aside. "Don't mess anything up, ice princess. You owe me."

"Actually, I owe Happy," Gray said breezily as he brushed past and began setting up camp on the couch without preamble. "You didn't want to let me stay."

"Doesn't matter what I want," Natsu muttered. "You would have invited yourself in anyway."

"But at least I tell you I'm doing it instead of sneaking up on you."

Natsu snorted but didn't comment. He knew that Gray would have backed down if it was really that big of a deal, he just had to put up a show of bitching about it.

Gray slept better that night than he had in ages. Surely, Juvia wouldn't be so brazen as to break into Natsu's house. Anyway, Natsu was sleeping in the other room, and he had sharp hearing. He was also a heavy sleeper, but hopefully he would realize if someone was trespassing.

So Gray was feeling pretty good, lighter than he had in ages, when he woke up and headed for the bathroom to get ready.

And then he spotted a flash of blue around the corner and froze.

No way.

White-hot anger exploded in his chest, wiping out the panic as quickly as it had come. That was enough. He was tired of running away, trying to avoid Juvia. She had crossed a line by following him here. Enough was enough, and it was about time he stopped trying to be nice and gave that girl a piece of his mind.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" he demanded, storming forward and whipping around the corner. "You–" He stopped and blinked blankly. Happy turned and blinked back, confusion written all over his face. "Oh."

"Gray? Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Sorry." Gray dropped his face into his hands and took a deep breath. "I thought you were Juvia. Geez, I'm getting paranoid." A new thought occurred to him and he perked up. "Hey, maybe sometimes I'm really seeing you around and I'm just being paranoid and assuming it's Juvia."

"No," Happy said flatly, "that's definitely Juvia."

"…You're right. Oh well. Sorry about that."

"It's okay."

Gray shook his head and turned away, already laughing at himself. He had gotten so ridiculous. It was just Happy—nothing to worry about.

His stomach rumbled and he headed for the kitchen, fully intending to raid Natsu's fridge. He didn't make it far before freezing in the doorway.

Juvia turned away from the stove and beamed at him. "Good morning, Gray-sama! Juvia made breakfast!"

And that was the moment Gray decided he was never going to sleep again.

Note: I took it more the humor route, but you know I still think Juvia's stalking is creepy as hell.

PSA: If you like someone irl, please do not treat them like Juvia treats Gray. They will not think it's cute or romantic. They will think you are a psycho for not being able to take no for an answer and might actually start researching restraining orders. Please use common sense and respect other people X)

emmahoshi: Uh... It's exactly what it sounds like :P Juvia invaded Natsu's house too. I don't know where you got the dream thing, unless you're poking fun at me for the most recent chapter of "Recon" and my perennial love of ambiguity XD Lol that's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll try it sometime. Yeah, it's amazing how much the narrative can warp your view. Even with really horrible MCs, you can be "brainwashed" into halfway rooting for them even though you know they're crazy. It's a useful tool in the author's toolkit, but it can be abused. And yeah, I don't think it's (always) wrong to show unhealthy or wrong behavior, necessarily, it's just that it's bad when media normalizes it and makes it seem like it's okay or romantic or something. I could sympathize with Juvia for being in love with someone who obviously doesn't love her back, but her ridiculous behavior makes it so that I don't feel sorry for her anymore either. I feel sorry for Gray for having to deal with her. I still don't get why people think her behavior is cute or romantic. It's really not.