This was done on a first sentence prompt from papalogia. Though it ended up near the end, instead!
Sorry to those of you I told Navia would be posted next – I decided to go with Totovia this time, and upload the Navia one while I'm at con. Because that one happens to be a con setting.
I am definitely gonna turn this into part of a multi-chapter fic someone on down the road. But for now, have this version – I hope everyone likes it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Title: Gelato
Pairing: Totomaru x Juvia
Requester: papalogia
Prompt: "If you help me mark these essays, I'll make you gelato."
A knock on the classroom door made Totomaru glance up in surprise. That was odd. All of his students had gone home for the day already, and the door was therefore locked. Setting his correcting pen down, he stood up. His chair scraped against the wooden floor, in well-worn grooves. Maybe he should get a mat soon… replacing the floor was not in his budget. "Coming!" he called, assuming his visitor to be the parent of one of his students. Probably coming to complain about an unsatisfactory test or essay score. Totomaru quickly ran through his head his list of students, trying to remember if any of them had gotten a poor grade recently.
But when he opened the door, he was shocked to see not the enraged glare of slighted parents, but rather a familiar face indeed.
One he'd thought lost seven years ago.
In the doorway stood a woman dressed in blue, with long hair like a river partially hidden under a hat. She looked up at him, and gave him a trembling, lopsided smile.
Stunned, Totomaru could only stare.
Opening her mouth, at first no sound came from the woman's lips. For a second, she hesitated. Then she swallowed her reticence, and found her voice. A voice he'd long since relegated to a memory. "Juvia... Juvia heard from Romeo-kun that Totomaru-kun worked as a teacher now," she said, still smiling up at him. "Juvia thought... she might come to see how her old friend is doing."
Without warning, Totomaru enveloped his visitor in a hug, eliciting a squeak of surprise from her.
"This is quite forward of Totomaru-kun!" she exclaimed.
A sob came from the man holding her, muffled by his face buried in her cerulean tresses. "You're alive! You're alive! I'm so happy you're okay, Juvia!"
Juvia patted him on the back, touched by his display of emotion. Something like this would have been frowned upon in Phantom Lord. To be honest, she hadn't entirely been sure how Totomaru would react to seeing her, if it was only her own hubris in thinking that he might. They'd been friendly, but… she hadn't quite expected this depth of caring. "Juvia is happy to see you too. Totomaru-kun has changed a lot!"
The teacher pulled back, though tears still shone in his eyes. "Seven years and a teaching license can do that to you!" he joked. "Why don't you come in, and we can do some catching up? If you help me mark these essays, I'll make you gelato. Just like the old days."
Smiling brightly, Juvia nodded, a warm glow spreading through her chest. "Juvia would like that. Juvia would like that very much."
