"3…2…1…GO"

Juvia dove into the pool and her vision was filled with the faded blue of the water. She felt the familiar buzzing in her ears and the warm water on her skin.

She had done this so many times by now.

Water was her element. Not many could surpass her in speed and duration while in the water. That's why she had so many medals at home.

She had done this so many times.

Juvia didn't know how much more she could stand doing a sport she disliked. Oh, yes. A professional swimmer and many times gold medalist who disliked swimming. What a great combination!

Well… it wasn't that she disliked swimming in general. It was mostly the competitions and endless practicing that bored her out of her mind.

Juvia touched the wall of the pool and pushed her body on the opposite direction.

Since she was a little girl and her parents discovered her talent for swimming she had been dragged from competition to competition and practices every day to become who she is now. It didn't help that both of her parents were famous gold medalists in international swimming competitions. That meant even more pressure for her to follow their footsteps.

Juvia touched the wall of the other side of the pool and stopped. She looked up to see an arm extended towards her. She took it and she pushed herself out of the pool.

Her coach smiled at her and gave her a towel. Juvia took it and pulled off the protective googles to wipe her face of the pool water. That thing was really starting to disgust her.

"Great time Lockser! I swear you're getting faster every day! You're going for the gold once more this year! As expected from the Lockser family."

There it is again. She was always being compared to them.

"Juvia will try her best!" She tried to sound excited but it came out so forced and fake. She just couldn't be excited for things like this anymore.

"Atta girl! You're free to go now, that's enough practice for today."

"Juvia will be off then. Goodbye!" she turned to leave the room.

"Bye kid!" she heard from behind her.

Juvia was glad it was finally over. These days practicing felt even more like a chore she had to do. Needless to say she wasn't enjoying it at all. Not anymore.

She loved being in the water, she really did, but not on a competitive level. She could spend hours in the sea just floating in the water or diving and exploring the seabed. There she could be free! There were no medals to win, no chlorine in her skin and no expectations to meet. She could just be herself, something that she found hard to be these days.

Juvia desperately wanted to quit everything. She wanted to stop going to practice almost every day of the week and just stay home or go outside. She would prefer anything but going to the pool again.

But she couldn't do that. Her parents, her coach everyone expected her to continue her career and keep placing first, follow her parent's footsteps. And she would just do that. It wasn't like she had another alternative.

The blue haired swimmer opened the door of her apartment. She hadn't realized when she arrived being lost in her thoughts. The apartment was pretty close to the pool where she trained so it was a quick walk from there.

"Juvia is back!" she shouted as she closed the door and locked it.

A tall man with long black hair and piercings all over his face poked his head from a room. "Hey rain woman! How was practice?" he asked

"It was ok… just like every other one."

The man stared at her "You know you don't have to lie to me. If something is wrong you can talk to me about it."

"Everything is fine, really! Juvia promises."

Gajeel knew her better than anyone. He had been her best friend since middle school. Their personalities were complete opposites and no one expected them to become friends but it had strangely worked out and they had managed to form a strong bond. He was like the brother she never had.

After 'Phantom Lord' Juvia's previous training center had been shut down due to the manager's debts, she was forced to move to another city with a suitable pool. Her coach and parents decided that Magnolia was the right place for that.

Gajeel decided to follow her to study in a workshop as a mechanic. That way she wasn't alone on a new city and she had someone to share the rent with.

He sighed "Fine, if you say so. I'll have you know that I'm not convinced though."

"How is your project going?" Juvia tried to redirect the subject

Her friend's eyes sparkled. He was always excited to talk about his work. "I'm almost finished. I'll probably have it done by tomorrow." said her roommate proudly.

"That's great! Juvia will leave you to finish then."

"And you should go get some rest."

"Juvia's not a child! She can take care of herself."

"Yeah right! If I leave you alone you'll just overwork yourself. Do you want me to remind you what happened the last time?" he grinned

"That's in the past, Juvia is older and wiser now."

"It was 6 months ago!"

"Exactly, in the past." She smiled sheepishly.

"Seriously though promise me you'll be careful."

"Yes, yes." She said as she went into her bedroom. Juvia opened the lights of her small room and let her bag slide off her shoulder to fall on the floor. The room was quite simple. It consisted of a small bed, a TV, an office desk and a closet. The walls had a light blue colour and were almost completely covered by posters. The posters varied in size and some of them even seemed handmade but every one of them had the same person depicted on them. All of them were of the same black haired man whether he was alone or in a group picture.

She walked towards her closet, took a change of clothes and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. She had taken a shower in the pool but it wasn't enough. She let the hot water take away the feeling of chlorine in her skin and relax her muscles. After finishing she headed to her room again and collapsed into her bed.

Juvia felt something crumple under her cheek. She sat up and pulled a flyer from her pillow. She had forgotten about it. The flyer had Fairy Tail written in bright colors and sparks all over it. It definitely caught her attention.

Fairy Tail was Magnolia's local ice skating rink and possibly the most popular in Fiore. Juvia had picked up the flyer in hopes of visiting the rink. She checked the time on her phone, 19:30. It wasn't too late and she didn't feel tired. Maybe a visit to the ice rink would clear her head.

Juvia had never been into ice skating before. It wasn't that she hated it, she just didn't know much about it and had never tried it before. She didn't have time for other hobbies after all, she had to focus on her swimming. She respected the sport but never felt the need to try it. However, as much impossible as she thought it was, ice skating or more accurately figure skating became a big part of her life.

It all started when the figure skating nationals were broadcasted live on TV. Juvia didn't have anything better to do and the other channels weren't showing anything interesting so she decided to give a chance to the figure skating sport. It could turn out interesting.

Apparently, it was the turn of the man who placed first in the previous competition, Juvia didn't catch his name. He was tall, with spiky jet black hair and what seemed like a toned figure. He was admittedly handsome but at the moment he didn't seem very special.

And as it seemed he wasn't very professional either. He looked like he was arguing with a pink haired man and they were butting heads. A red haired woman had to come and hit them both in their heads to separate them. They immediately hugged and pretended to make up while still hitting each other behind their backs.

Juvia chuckled. How could they be so childish and carefree? They were in the middle of a competition. Though she had to admit they were a bit amusing.

She was tempted to close the TV or change the channel at that point but the black haired man skated into the middle of the ice. What was his name again? Gary…no, that's not it… Maybe Gabe! No that didn't seem right at all, well it didn't matter anyway. It wasn't like she would see him again.

However, when the camera zoomed on the skater Juvia was taken aback. A few seconds ago he was goofing off with his friends but now he was completely focused and his gaze was cold and serious. He was like a different person.

Then the music started playing and Juvia's world was turned upside down. The choreography was beautiful and each movement was in sync with the song. The skater's movements were fluid and each and every one of them was precise and calculated. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Juvia's eyes were glued to the screen. It was like a magic spell had been cast upon her making her a prisoner of this skating routine. When the music stopped and the skater took his final pose it was like the spell had been broken and she woke up from her daze.

The audience started clapping wildly and throwing roses on the ice. The man grinned and waved at them satisfied with his performance. He then got off the ice and headed to a small area with someone that Juvia guessed was his coach.

The judges announced his score and Juvia finally learned his name. Gray Fullbuster.

She searched videos of his old programs and watched him perform for hours, not even one of them failing her expectations. She researched figure skating so she could understand the point system and the competitions better and she ended up learning the rules by heart. As Juvia got involved more and more into the ice skating world she realized she had fallen in love with the sport.

She begun watching other skaters and kept track of the competitions and their scores. All of their programs were beautiful but in her eyes no one could surpass Gray Fullbuster. Some of them came pretty close though.

At some point, the girl decided to try skating herself at her local ice rink. She was terrible at it at first. She kept clinging on the sidebars for the whole visit and she moved at a snail's pace. It wasn't as easy as she thought after all.

Then she decided to go visit again. This time Juvia bravely let go of the bars on the sides of the rink and tried skating out in the open. She fell right on her first try. The swimmer soon found out it was hard to keep her balance on the ice.

She couldn't count the times she slipped and fell right on her butt. Her knees just kept shaking and she would end up on the ice yet again. Then she decided to try to gain some speed so that way she wouldn't stay on one spot and fall over and over again. That was an admittedly bad decision. Once she started moving she couldn't stop and she hit many innocent people on her way only to bump face first into the sidebars. That… was an interesting experience.

But she didn't give up and she went again and again on the small ice rink in her free time, slowly and steady she got the hang of it. She even got protective gear to guard her from her numerous falls. She even tried some of her favourite programs, of course with significantly less difficulty. She couldn't jump right into the hard moves but she could manage the beginner ones. She had watched the programs so many times she had almost memorized them in her mind so is with watching a lot of tutorials and practicing whenever she had time she could sloppily skate to some of them. At least she didn't fall on the ice that often anymore.

She tried to persuade Gajeel to go skate with her once but he repeatedly refused. He said he didn't trust anything but the ground under his feet. However, he did turn up on the ice rink a couple of times to watch her skate.

It was like a whole world had been opened up in front of her and Gray Fullbuster was the one that showed her the way. He may not even know her, but she was grateful to him for bringing ice skating into her life, for bringing color in her dull world.

Needless to say she was devastated when she saw his accident on the last figure skating nationals. It really hurt her to see her longtime idol falling apart.

That day Juvia had called Gajeel in the middle of the night crying and he scolded her for hours after that for making him worry. Juvia was never one to contain her strong emotions. She just wished her Gray would get better soon.

The blue haired girl felt so lucky that the area her coach decided to move her team was in Magnolia. Not only did it have Fairy Tail but it was the hometown of none other than Gray.

Sometimes she daydreamed about actually meeting the man. He would fall in love at first sight with her and ask her on a date and it would be the most romantic thing ever and and…

Juvia always stopped herself. Everyone dreamt about meeting their idol but that didn't mean it might actually happen. She didn't even know if he had been completely healed yet to go to the ice again. Well… nobody knew anything about the matter, she researched a lot. He and his coach were being really secretive about it.

/ - / - / - /

Juvia stared at the building complex in front of her. It was huge! She did expect Fairy Tail to have big facilities but that was beyond what she was used to, compared to the small and decadent rink she first used. The leaflet said the complex was constructed of 3 ice rinks, a small gym for warming up and it even has an open area with benches and a small cafeteria for the visitors to relax. It even had a lake there! The lake was frozen in the winter and apparently it was used as another public ice rink.

It was the place of her dreams! She hoped there wouldn't be many people visiting at this hour so she could have more space for herself. It was a little difficult to practice with a lot of people around her.

She walked inside through the automatic glass doors and looked for the reception. She spotted the receptionist in a small desk a few meters away and approached her. The woman had white hair and blue eyes and she had familiar characteristics. Juvia couldn't figure it out but she was almost sure she had seen the receptionist somewhere before.

Once the woman noticed Juvia she smiled kindly at her "Hello, welcome to Fairy Tail! How can I help you?"

"Hi… umm… Juvia is looking for the ice rinks."

"Of course! Have you booked a rink?"

"No Juvia is just visiting."

"I see… you can go to rink 2V. Is it your first time here?"

"Yes."

"Well I hope you will enjoy your stay! Go to the room right there to pick up your skates if you don't have your own."

"Thank you." Juvia headed to the direction the woman pointed her and choose a pair of skates in her size. Then she went out to find her ice rink.

As she was walking down the corridor she passed in front of the private rinks. One of them had the door slightly opened and she could faintly see movement from that little gap. Juvia would lie if she said she wasn't curious to see the person skating. She hadn't had the opportunity to watch a professional skater up close so naturally she wanted to take a peek at the skater.

She knew it wasn't nice to peek on strangers but if they didn't see her there would be no harm. She would just take a quick look and then leave, she promised herself.

Juvia slowly opened the door a little wider, just enough that she could see clearly, careful as not to make any noise. Then she saw him.

She couldn't figure out his characteristics clearly as he was too far away. All the detail she could make out was his spiky black hair. The man moved elegantly in the ice like it was second nature to him. He danced with no music on but Juvia felt like she could hear the song through his movements.

He was amazing! Juvia wondered if he was someone she knew.

The man moved on to do a sit spin lowering his body down. In the middle of the spin his leg wobbled and he fell ungracefully to the ice.

Juvia winced. She expected him to get up and continue skating. That's what everyone does when they fall on the ice from what Juvia had seen. It wasn't uncommon even for the top skaters. However, seconds went by and the man was still on the ice looking almost defeated.

Without a second thought Juvia quickly put on her skates and approached the fallen man. "Umm… are you alright?" she carefully asked

The man got startled and turned around to look at the source of the voice and for the first time Juvia could see his characteristics. She let out a small gasp in realization. No way, it couldn't be. She must have been dreaming. Yeah, that's it. She went home from practice and collapsed in her bed falling asleep instantly. Everything was fine, it was just a dream. She dreamt about meeting him all the time.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

The man's voice brought her out of her thoughts. It wasn't a dream! She was actually in front of her idol. Who probably thought she was pretty weird after interrupting his practice and silently staring at him. Awesome…

Quick, she had to say something "Huh?" Great job Juvia! You made it so much better!

Now Gray was starting to look a little irritated "I asked what you are doing here. This is a private practice area. Did you come into the wrong rink?"

"Ahh no… ummm… Juvia was just… she just saw you skating and she swears she didn't mean to spy on you or to interrupt your practice! Juvia's really sorry!"

"Whoa slow down… you didn't do anything bad. Just… could you please leave now? I need to go back to practicing."

"Are you alright? Juvia saw you falling down and she thought you were hurt."

"Oh you saw that." Gray rubbed the back of his head. "That was pretty embarrassing, forget about it. I wasn't hurt anyway."

"Ok… are you going to start competing again?" she asked innocently. That question had been bugging her for quite some time now.

Gray pressed his lips together to form a small line "I don't know. Look… I don't want to be rude but could you please leave now?"

Juvia panicked internally. She was so stupid! Why did she have to go and ask that? It was obvious it was a sensitive matter. None of this happened in her fantasies. She should apologize. No, she should ask for an autograph and then leave.

Gray stared at her expectantly. Oh no! Now he was annoyed and tired of her! She should just silently leave and drown in self-pity after. But what if she never saw him again? What if this was a one-time chance and she blew it up? She had to think of something to fix this. She had to find a way to meet him again. So she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"Please, would you be Juvia's coach?"

And that made the situation so less awkward…

/-/-/-/-/

~Bonus~

It was late. Late even to Gajeel's standards, and that was saying something. He should be at his bed right now not at his workshop.

It wasn't his fault! The man had a reputation of losing track of time when working and that is what happened yet again. He wanted to finish the project he had been working on and by the time he looked at his watch it had been 4 am.

He had been scolded many times for this habit mainly from his best friend, Juvia. That was pretty ironic since his friend couldn't even follow her own advice and ended up overexerting herself.

The black haired man tried to repress a yawn failing to do so. He should really get going now. If he stayed anymore there was a high probability of him ending up asleep in his desk and that wasn't a comfortable place to wake up to.

Suddenly, the familiar tune of his ringtone filled the once silent room. Gajeel glared at the small device. Who could it be at this late hour? If it was an advertising company Gajeel was ready to give them a piece of his mind.

He reached for his phone and looked at the caller ID. It was Juvia. He repressed another yawn and accepted the call. "Juvia, do you have any idea what time it is? What is it?"

The other line was silent but he could hear faint sniffling. Now he was a little worried. "Juvia? Are you ok?"

"It's… it's…" now the woman had starting lightly sobbing and Gajeel could only make out bits and pieces from her words.

"Gra…ma… fell and… broken… critical."

Now he was really worried. "Juvia calm down, can you tell me what's going on. Did you get hurt?" he started looking for his coat in case he needed to go to help her.

"N… no Juvia's fine. But… but Gray-sama isn't!"

Gajeel stopped dead at his tracks. "What?"

"Gray-sama was doing his free skate but then he tried to do a quadruple flip but he slipped and fell and he wouldn't get up and then he fainted and they moved him to a hospital and what is going to happen now? What if it's serious? What if he won't skate ever again? What if…"

"Wait, wait." Gajeel cut her off. "Gray as the skater you have been obsessed over with for months?"

"Yes!"

The mechanic took a big breath. "Are you telling me you called me at 4 in the morning crying your heart out all for a stupid skater? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I actually thought you might have gotten hurt! You seriously have been crying for something so stupid?"

There was a moment of silence and Gajeel knew at that moment he had messed up. He didn't want to sound so harsh and he knew his friend was sensitive. In his defense he was sleep-deprived and the woman really worried him for no reason.

So he had managed to make the situation worse and Gajeel spent the next hour trying to calm Juvia down, who had turned into a sobbing mess again. He kept reassuring her that her idiot idol was going to be alright and that he wasn't mad at her, he was just tired.

Gajeel swore that day that if he ever met that 'Gray-sama' he owed him a punch in the face.

/ - / - / - / - /

Hey guys, we hope you enjoyed the new chapter and the little bonus! We look forward to reading your thoughts about it! Thank you for the faves, follows and reviews, we appreciate all of them!

If you noticed we now have a cover for the fic! It was supposed to be put out with the first chapter but something went wrong with the uploading. The lineart was drawn by Ruby and I did the coloring. You can find the full picture in our tumblrs, as well as more fanart for the fic in the tag "break the ice". We also drew a scene from the bonus in this chapter that you can find there too! We turned it into a meme with all the phrases we thought for it.

This chapter was very fun to write especially the bonus! Hmm I wonder how Gray will respond...

See you next chapter!