When Juvia walks out of her math class, she notices a familiar face leaning against the wall outside of her class.

"Gray-sama, what are you doing here?" she looks at him, eyes open widely "A-are you waiting for Juvia?"

"I, well, I just finished my class and I know that your class ends around this time. Since our classes are quite close, I thought that maybe we could go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat."

It's a lie…

He actually waits for 30 minutes, he's eager to introduce her to his friends, who haven't stopped complaining about why "Gray hasn't introduced her to us".

Juvia blushes various shades of pink, her hands hold tightly onto the bag as she nods her head in response. They walk out of the math and science building to head towards the cafeteria, which is two buildings away.

Juvia, being all chirpy and lively, asks about his morning and how his classes have treated him lately. Gray only responds with a dull face, telling her about the presentation that is coming up next week. He doesn't mind doing exams or tests or even hundreds of pages of application problems, just don't ask him to do a presentation, he will die…

"Gray-sama, it's not that hard." she giggles "One presentation won't kill you."

"Said the girl who enjoys doing presentations almost every week."

"Juvia does not, her classes require her to do presentations!" she exclaims with a pout.

"So it's her classes' faults…" said Gray with a teasing voice "And how is her math quiz today?"

The bluenette startles, thinking about how she did her quiz. Gray helped her with some of the problems, showing her step-by-step on how to do them. Despite his assistant and Juvia's very best effort, her score was still quite low for someone who had studied all night.

"Juvia got an 80 on that quiz."

"That's great!" said Gray "Although, you don't seem to be happy…"

"Juvia thought that she could do better. Gray-sama did spend a whole night trying to help her understand the problems…"

"Well, it's still better than your previous quiz." he smirks "Don't worry about it, an 80 is still better than a 75, right?"

She sighs but still nods her head, agreeing with what he said. Gray then offers to help her fix the problem that she did wrong so she can do it right next time, after all, practice makes perfect. When they reach the cafeteria, nervousness wraps around his mind as he feels like his feet got glued to the ground. His intention is to introduce Juvia to his friends, that's all, why the hell does he feel nervous all of a sudden?

"There they are! Took you long enough, Gray!" said Lucy, who is very excited to meet a new friend.

"Gray hides his girlfriend very well, right Gray?" Loke smirks, a teasing tone in his voice.

"Tks…" the raven glares at his friends and makes a mental note to beat the heck out of them once Juvia goes back to her class "Sorry about that…"

She giggles, her face blushes a faint pink color. Gray doesn't know how happy she is when his friends refer to her as his "girlfriend", just hearing it makes the bluenette walks on cloud nine. Looking at her beaming face, the young man sighs in relief. He's quite nervous about introducing her to his friends, knowing how loud and lively they can be compared to the shy and quiet Juvia Lockser.

"Aw, little Gray-Gray is sh-?!" Loke snickers, earning a punch in his stomach from Gray.

"Shut up, you four-eyed bastard!" scolded Gray as he brings her closer to the group "This is Juvia, my next-door neighbor."

"It's Juvia's honor to meet all of you!" she smiles "She'll be in your care from now on."

Juvia is very nervous about this meeting. She has never been a good socializer and for her to receive such a warm welcome from Gray's friends makes her heart swells in happiness. She is sitting between Gray and Gajeel, who both try their best to make her feel comfortable and welcome as much as possible.

She gets to know about Gajeel's girlfriend, Levy, who is very surprised to learn about their friendship. The tiny bluenette pouts, not happy when her boyfriend hides this information from her, to which Gajeel responds with nothing but incoherent words that make Juvia giggles.

"Levy-san has nothing to worry about. Although Juvia and Gajeel-kun are good friends, she's 100% sure that his heart belongs to you."

"Geh-?! Oi, s-shut up, Juvia!"

"Hm? Did she say something wrong?"

Gajeel shutters a bit while Levy blushes madly at her comment. Natsu laughs out loud at the sight, along with all his other friends. It's rare to see the scary man gets all flustered like this and it's indeed a sight to see. His laugh doesn't sit well with Gajeel and the man grabs him by his collar, saying how he's gonna beat him black and blue.

Natsu, of course, never backs down on a challenge as he declares the same thing, ready to get into a fight. Poor Lucy and Levy have to separate the two idiots from turning the cafeteria into a boxing ring. Juvia then turns her attention to the blonde sitting across the table. Despite complaining about Natsu's loud voice, the bluenette notices how close Lucy is to him, with their shoulders slightly bump in each other a few times.

So what Gray-sama said was true, those two are an item…

She lets out a sigh of relief, which catches Gray's attention. He's worried that his friend might be too loud for the poor girl but when Juvia laughs along with Loke's joke, his tensed shoulders begin to relax. He asks her again if she's okay and Juvia responds with a nod, saying that this liveliness is nothing compared to the dramas that happen behind the red curtains of the theatre club.

"Juvia, you're in the theatre club?"

"Yes, Lucy-san. Although, she's more of a behind-the-scene member who helps the club with the music. She's not very good at acting."

"Music? Does that mean you're good at playing instruments?" asked Lucy, who seems to be very eager to know.

"Yes, Juvia plays the violin quite well. She's been playing it since she was 3."

"That's amazing!"

The blonde leaves her seat and gets closer to Juvia, who is sweating when she grabs onto her hand, brown eyes shine with excitement.

"Ermmm…"

"Say Juvia, would it be possible for me to ask you something?" when she receives a nod from the other person, Luvy continues "Will you attend my family charity event as a violinist?"

"Lucy, stop!" Gray turns his attention to the blonde beauty "She can't say no if you ask her like that."

"Gray is so mean!" she huffs at her friend and looks at the bluenette "What do you say, Juvia? Will you do it? The fundraising event is for the children at the Twinkle Star foster house. And don't worry, all of us are going to be there."

"Oh, that's amazing. Juvia would love to, but she has to ask her fr-?!"

"JUVIA!"

They are both startled by the loud voice behind them. Lucy turns around to face a girl with wavy pink hair, who quietly nods at the blonde before turning her attention to Juvia.

"Hibiki-senpai wants to talk with you about the performance for the 150th birthday event."

"Meredy…" the bluenette smiles softly and looks at Lucy "Lucy-san asks her if she can participate in a charity event at the Twinkle Star foster house. What do you think?"

"I can come, maybe. Just give me a specific time and date so I can check my schedule." said the pink-haired girl "Anyway, when you finish classes, go to Hibiki-senpai, okay? I have to get to my next class now, see ya!"

Juvia waves at her friend as Lucy squeals in excitement. Gray sighs, slightly shaking his head. He brings the bluenette here so she can make new friends, not to let his friend asking her a request upon first meeting.

"Let's share contacts, Juvia. I'll send you the date and time of the event." the blonde gets her phone out "I really hope you guys can make it. The kids are going to be so happy to see you guys."

And not only Lucy, everyone in Gray's friend group asks for her contact. Loke even offers his assistance as 'Gray's best friend and wingman' and adds her into their group chat, which makes Juvia sweatdropped and Gray's vein pops on his forehead. Gajeel shakes his head, feeling the glassed man's actions are unnecessary but when he stumbles onto Juvia's sweet smile and beaming face, he decides to not saying anything and lets her enjoy the moment.

"Are you sure? You can decline if you don't want to." Gray lowers his voice, enough for her to hear.

"Juvia's fine. It'd be bad to let down Lucy-san and Juvia can also get some credit for her future resume!"

"Well, look how realistic your goals are."

"Juvia only learns it from her neighbor!"

Her response makes Gray chuckle. Loke, who is sitting next to him, smirks at the sight. He wink-wink, nudge-nudge his friend with a smug expression on his face. It seems like love is in the air for Gray and Juvia…

"Sorry about what happened at lunch, Juvia."

Gray scratches his head, feeling a bit guilty about Lucy's actions at the cafeteria. They're currently eating dinner at his place, with the bluenette shows him how to make cheese hamburg steak, his favorite dish since childhood.

"It's okay, Gray-sama." she raises her hands " Your friends are very nice, Juvia likes them a lot."

"Yeah, but Lucy…"

"She doesn't mind, not at all. She and Meredy both love doing charity events."

"But you're very busy, right? With the performance for the 150th birthday of Magnolia University event."

"She will be fine. She knows how to handle her schedule very well!" the bluenette looks at him "How's dinner today, Gray-sama?"

"It's very good, as always."

She claps her hands and covers her mouth as she lets out a cute giggle, which makes Gray smile in return. But his smile soon faints when he remembers a small detail about today's lunch, Erza wasn't there with the rest of the group.

Erza is his senior who studies the same major as his. She's one of, if not, the best student of Magnolia university, with perfect grades in every class she takes. The young woman, like his sister Ultear, cares a lot for him. From his schedule to his diet to the scholarships he receives from the administration, Erza is the one who aids him through the process without asking anything in return. She always reminds him how important his studies are, how he should not slack off in class even if he's already good at it and has even tried to beat the heck out of Gray when he decided that skipping class was a good idea.

Erza also addresses his situation with Juvia. The young woman doesn't mean any harm, she encourages him to go out and have fun but because she has never met Juvia before, she is a bit cautious. This is why Gray wants to introduce Juvia to Erza so that she knows how kind and gentle the bluenette is. If Erza knows Juvia, she would consider the young girl as her little sister and would take care of her like the way she treats all of his friends.

"Juvia would like to meet her, too!" the bluenette smiles when she heard Gray's intention "Maybe next time, Gray-sama will introduce her to Erza-san?"

"Yeah, I will. You will love her, she just like an older sister to all of us."

"She hopes to meet her soon." Juvia says as she begins to put the dishes on the rack "Gray-sama, do you want to watch TV with Juvia. There's a cooking show that she really wants to see."

"Sure, but bring your quiz, too. We'll look over the problems that you got wrong and do it again."

Juvia sweatdrops, she doesn't want to think about math right now, but Gray keeps insisting that she should review it. The bluenette pulls out her quiz paper as he turns on the cooking channel, bringing 2 cups of tea that he just made and takes a seat next to her.

"Here's how you do this problem…"

She nods her head, blue eyes following his finger while he takes out a sheet of paper and writes down the steps of the problem. The bluenette reaches her hand to take the cup of tea, inhaling the soft fruity scent that eases her mind as her eyes silently watch her beloved Gray-sama.

Gosh, he's such a perfect man…

Jet black hair, blue eyes, tall and well-built body. She has lost count of how many times her heart skips a beat when looking at Gray, whether it's intentionally or unintentionally. A smart young man who is calm and collected, always knows how to keep his cool and when it's time to get serious. Lyon once told her that Gray has a rather dry personality who has little to no interest in his surroundings and yet in her eyes, he's the most charming man she has ever met.

"Do you understand Juvia?" Gray turns to her, only to find those sapphire-colored eyes bore into him "J-Juvia? Hey, are you listening?"

"O-oh, she's listening." she nervously laughs.

"Are you?" he looks at her with a skeptical expression.

"O-of course…"

She takes a big sip of her tea, ignoring the scorching hot liquid that threatens to burn her tongue as she turns her attention back to the quiz paper on the table. When Gray's eyes aren't on her anymore, she steals another glance at him and this time, notices a small scar on his forehead. Has it always been there?

"Juvia, if you're not paying attention, I will turn off the TV." he scolds her again for not listening to what he said.

"Gray-sama, what is that on your forehead?" she moves her delicate fingers to point at the faded scar "Is it a scar?"

"Ah, this one…?"

Gray touches his forehead, memories flood back into his mind as he tells Juvia the story behind this scar. This scar is a reminder of his first-ever fight with Loke when he was 12. He and Loke know each other since they were in diapers and have grown up by each other side. Although they sometimes have arguments, they have never fought each other, not after the incident which left Gray and Loke a scar on their body.

The fight happened when they're in 7th grade and Loke just got himself a girlfriend. Although love was innocent as kids had yet to develop a deep understanding of the words 'I love you, to Loke, he naively considered that he and his girlfriend would always love each other. Gray and Loke were in the basketball club and they were chosen to be on the official team of the school.

Around one month before the Winter Cup sport event, Loke and his girlfriend broke up because she didn't like how he prioritized the club activities more than her. The break up affected Loke negatively and he began to slack off and paid no attention to neither his school work nor the basketball club. Gray tried to cheer up his friend many times but the glassed boy only gave him a dull expression and then, one day, Loke told him that he didn't want to involve in basketball anymore. His answer shocked the raven head, which led to the infamous fight between Gray and Loke.

"Gray-sama and Loke-san?"

"Yeah, it was very embarrassing. We got suspended from the club activity for 2 weeks, our family grounded us for 2 weeks and the fight left each one of us with a scar." Gray playfully points at the faded scar "But it did bring Loke to his sense, he was very stupid back then, ya know."

"Uhm…" she looks at him "It must have hurt a lot."

"It did. When I realized there was blood on his hand and my forehead, we cried a lot." he sheepishly scratches his chin "It was our first and only time that we fight."

"But the fight strengthened Gray-sama and Loke-san's friendship, didn't it?"

"Hm…you could say that…" he smiles " So, how about you and Gajeel? How did you guys meet?"