GRUVIA WEEK 2016
DAY 5: SOUNDS
Modern Neighbors AU
PAIRING: GRAY X JUVIA
SERIES: FAIRY TAIL

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Juvia had been hearing these sounds the last few months.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Followed by some other sounds Juvia's town-girl innocence could only imagine.

Juvia Lockser just moved from a small place called Oak Town. Since the first time she picked up pen and paper, Juvia had always dreamed of making it in the Big City. So after a few months had passed, without looking back, the aspiring writer left everything behind and moved to the City of Dreams.

Well, City of Broken Dreams. And Lights. And Heaters. And Showerheads. And almost every furniture. And now to the city of thin walls too.

The girl with the beautiful blue locks quickly regretted zeroing her bank account for the sublet one-bedroom unit on her very first night in Magnolia. Not only were the lights seldom worked, the thermostat was moody too. The showerhead in her bathroom was so afraid of commitments that it'd detach itself and hit her in the head. She could not even fully flush her toilet. But Juvia stayed. She had no choice. It was the only unit she could afford.

So, even if her next-door neighbor's raucous activities kept her up all night, the bluenette did not complain. She sucked it all up. Juvia was not a whiner. Not even when the previous night's thumping caused her a small bump on the head. She made a mistake of hanging her family photos above her bed's dashboard.

Good thing she had her writing to occupy her.

HIS EXPERT HAND TRAVELLED UP AND INSIDE HER RED TIGHT SKIRT. THE WOMAN IN THE RED HALTER DRESS MOANED AGAINST HIS WARM LIPS. SHE, TOO, LET HER HANDS WANDER. HIS AWESOME BODY

"Awesome?! That's the best you got?" Juvia scolded herself. She deleted the last two words on her computer and searched for something better than 'awesome'.

HIS HOT BODY

"Really? You're going for hot?"

HIS HARDENED BODY

Thump. Thump. Thump.

HIS HARDENED BODY AGAINST

HIS HARDENED BODY AGAINST HER PALM WAS

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Oh that's it!"

Juvia snapped. She just lost her train of thought. Her frustrations for the last few months boiled inside her and exploded. The deadline for her first draft was set the next day and her arse of an editor, a not-so-good and not-so-famous bald old man, was pressuring her to revise and put, in his words, steamy hot F-word scenes in it. The aspiring writer had no idea how to write down a steamy hot… something scenes. She could not even say it!

"I had it with that jerk!"

Juvia marched over to her neighbor's and banged on the door. Making sure he knew she was furious.

No one answered.

The restless bluenette banged on the door again, thrice. She crossed her arms against her chest and tapped her foot against the floor in an impatient tune. Still, no answer. Juvia was about to kick the door open when a devilishly good-looking man popped out behind it. Boy, he did not look happy.

"What?"

Juvia lost her voice. The image in front of her was hard to process. The man stood tall, his lean frame stopping the door behind him to close. His jet-black hair was wet and ruffled; shoulders broad like an athlete's and abs just begging to be worshipped.

Awesome. Hot. Hardened body.

Juvia caught her breath in her throat. He wore nothing but a clean, white towel covering that area. It was only a glance but she was sure there was a bulge.

"Who is it?"

A voice came from behind the young man.

"Oh. Hi!"

Strangely, the owner of the voice was fully-clothed. She stepped over the young man and introduced herself.

"Are you a friend of Gray?"

So, Gray was his name.

It took some time before Juvia found her voice again.

"Ah… I-I'm… I live next door."

"Really? Why don't you come in? Gray, let the beautiful lady in."

"Ahmmm…" There was hesitation. Which earned a quizzical look from Gray's company.

"What?"

"Hello!" Gray said in a tone that sounded like a 'duh', spreading his arms open to present and imply his current condition.

"Put on some clothes." The woman retorted, the 'duh' implied.

Gray raised his hands in surrender and walked back inside the apartment. His lady company followed behind, dragging the confused bluenette with her. Juvia knew it was going to be awkward but the woman was really insistent, leaving her with no choice. So, she sat in the middle of the couch, feeling so small next to the gorgeous dark eyes.

"Sorry about Gray's manners. I guess that's my fault. I dropped him many times when he was a baby. By the way, I'm Ultear."The nice woman offered her hand but it was holding a hammer. Which surprised and slightly intrigued Juvia. What exactly were they doing with a hammer?

"Sorry about that." She casually swapped the tool to her free hand. "I'm Gray's older sister."

Older sister.

It was only then that Juvia noticed her long, jet-black hair.

"Juvia." The bluenette offered her name with a smile.

"So what do you do, Juvia?"

"I-I'm actually a writer."

"Wow. A writer? Anything I might have read?"

"Well, I'm just on my first book."

Ultear leaned closer, all interested.

"Can you tell me what's it about?"

"I can't. I'm sorry." Juvia sheepishly smiled.

"That's okay." Ultear reassured her, tapping a friendly hand on her knee.

"You know, Gray's a journalist."

"Really?" The bluenette was genuinely surprised. She never pegged the man to be a journalist.

"Well, yeah. He's a photo-journalist." The older between the two women cackled. "Ha. That man can't even write a single paragraph."

"You girls bonding?" Gray came out of his room and joined the girls, wearing a sexy v-neck. Drying his hair with a towel.

"At your expense, yes."

The women giggled.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny."

Not.

"So, what brought you here?"

Juvia was such in a hurry to come over next-door that she did not think through what she was going to say.

"Well… it's just…" The bluenette nervously tiptoed around broken glass.

"You see…" She shifted in her seat. "Ah… That's. The reason I..."

"Oh, is it because of this?" Ultear raised the carpentry tool in her hand. "Was I too loud?"

"Well…"

"I was just fixing Gray's bed. I don't know how this guy breaks his bed."

Juvia had an idea.

"Why are you suddenly so red? Did I say something that made you uncomfortable?"

Blue eyes took a peek at the man in question. She got caught staring. Juvia wanted to look away but Gray's intense, dark eyes kept her to where she was, a glint of mischief flickered behind them. Then, she watched his lips curve into a devilish, knowing smile.

"Well, I-I g-g-guess I should go." Juvia quickly stood from the seat and dashed to the door.

Ultear called out for her.

"You come back here later, okay? We're having a party."

"A party?"

"Yes. It's Gray's birthday."

Juvia heard the sound again but it was no longer coming from the other room. It was closer. The drumming sound was coming from inside her chest.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A/N: As promised, here's day 5. :D Like I said, I refuse to not finish Gruvia Week 2016. I know it's not too original but hey I hope you like it! And sexy, half-naked, devilish good-looking neighbor is my weakness.