Note: I heard FRIENDS by Marshmello and Anne-Marie by accident a while back and at first thought it was kind of weird, but then I was like, "Oh my gosh, it's Gruvia!" and so a story was born XD It's an awesomely savage song that can sound kind of mean until you get the realization that there really are crazy people who won't take no for an answer and leave you alone, and sometimes you've just gotta stand up to them. Also, honorable mentions to Take a Hint by Victoria Justice and Elizabeth Gillies and U + Ur Hand by P!nk. Just because those are the songs that Gruvia reminds me of XD (The latter a little less than the former, but there are certain parts that ring true.) No girl (or guy) should be expected to tolerate unwanted attention like that at the expense of their own desires and comfort.

F-R-I-E-N-D-S

Gray finally spells it out for Juvia. Juvia can't spell to save her life.

Gray sighed and dropped his head forward until his forehead hit the desk with a resounding thunk. His eyes were aching and sore from lack of sleep, and he let them drift shut.

But his goddamn brain wouldn't shut off.

Bouts of insomnia were nothing new, but it felt like he hadn't slept in days now. Not even the soothing patter of the rain on the windowpanes could lull him to sleep. He was tired of staring up at the ceiling in the dark and had thought maybe he could take advantage of his sleepless nights to actually get something done, but his eyes hurt too much and he felt like a zombie and his brain might be too awake to sleep but it wasn't awake enough to actually do anything productive.

Maybe it was time to give up and turn the lights back out and hope he could actually fall asleep this time around. At this rate, he might have to brave Porlyusica's lair and ask if she could make him some kind of sleeping potion or something.

Gray pushed the chair away from the desk and squinted against the light as he dragged himself to his feet. Yeah, the light definitely needed to go off.

His hand was hovering over the light switch when a loud knock broke the silence. He stilled and stared blankly at the wall. Maybe his sleep-deprived brain was imagining things?

Another knock followed as if to convince him otherwise, and he drifted to the front door. He was pretty sure that no one should be knocking at his door this late, but he might as well double-check or his brain would latch on to it as another reason to stay awake wondering.

He unlocked the door and pulled it open, and the staccato rhythm of the rain got exponentially louder. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the rectangle of light that slashed across his doorstep revealed, instead of the empty walk that he expected, Juvia standing there.

"J-Juvia?" he stammered, convinced he was hallucinating things. "What are you doing here?"

Juvia smiled. Her hair was limp and matted from the rain, but neither that nor the intermittent bouts of lightning and thunder seemed to bother her. Her eyes were bright and seemed much too awake for this late hour.

"Gray-sama's light has been on all night, and Juvia wanted to make sure he was alright. And if he can't sleep, then he can hang out with Juvia!"

Gray stared at her. Did this woman have no shame? Did she really not realize how insane she sounded?

"Juvia… It's two o'clock in the morning. It's pouring rain. And now you want to hang out?"

She wasn't even ashamed to admit that she'd been stalking him and staking out his apartment! Wasn't it already bad enough that she felt it necessary to follow him around everywhere no matter how hard he tried to shake her off?

"Yes? But Gray-sama is still awake, and so is Juvia!" She swayed forward and flung her arms around him. "Juvia and Gray-sama can spend the night together!"

Gray shook her off roughly and shoved her back a step. "Get your hands off me," he growled.

He had the sudden, ungentlemanly desire to slap her in an attempt to get it through her head that he wasn't interested and she had no right to be touching him, but he swallowed it back both because he would feel horrible for doing something so cruel and because he knew it would be in vain. Juvia sniffled pathetically, eyes glistening with moisture, but Gray hardened his heart. He closed his eyes and counted to three in the hope that she'd magically disappear, but she was still there when he opened them again.

"…Why are you here?"

"Well, Juvia loves Gray-sama and she–"

"Here we go again," Gray groaned. He leaned heavily against the doorframe and pressed his fingertips to his eyes. He was too tired and cranky to deal with this bullshit right now. "It drives me crazy when you say shit like that. I can't handle this right now. Please go and don't mess with me tonight."

"B-but–"

"We're nothing more than friends, Juvia. I appreciate that you care enough to check up on me, but can we drop the game now?"

"It's not a game!" Juvia protested.

"Seriously, can you stop talking like that and following me around and constantly harassing me? You do realize that all that stuff is only pushing me away? I don't mind being friends with you, but I've already told you that I don't love you like that."

"Juvia will win Gray-sama over," Juvia said confidently. "Can she come in? If Gray-sama cannot sleep, then–"

Had he not made it abundantly obvious by now? Had she really managed to overlook all the many times he had asked her to knock it off and said that he wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with her? Did she really have no grip on reality at all?

Gray dropped his hand away from his face and fixed Juvia with a look so hard that the words died in her throat and she shifted nervously. "You really aren't going away without a fight, are you? I've already tried explaining this to you in every way I know how, but you aren't listening and I guess you really can't be reasoned with.

"I've already told you one, two, three, four, five, six thousand times. What about 'no' don't you get? Do I really have to spell it out for you? F-R-I-E-N-D-S. We are friends, Juvia. That's all, okay? Go home. Please leave me alone."

Juvia's eyes widened with hurt. "But–"

Gray was having none of it. "Take a hint. I know you think we should hook up, but I'm not interested. I would like to be your friend, and that is all. This fantasy of yours, it's over before it began. I was fine before you walked into my life and started throwing yourself at me, and I will be fine after you finally realize it was a fool's errand and give up. Goodnight, Juvia."

He shut the door in Juvia's face and slumped over against it with his forehead pressed to the wooden surface. He let his breath out in a sigh and closed his eyes.

Maybe that had been harsh, but she had been resistant to every kind of reasoning he'd tried and he was too tired and miserable and cranky to be polite right now. Especially to someone who had been harassing him nonstop for months and refused to take no for an answer.

He could only hope that she had finally gotten the message. For good measure, he turned out the lights and stumbled back to bed in the dark. Maybe he would regret being so rude later, but the woman was crazy and he was over this shit.

He pulled the pillow over his head and tried to convince his brain to go to sleep.

It didn't work. Or at least not very well. He fell asleep eventually, but only for a couple hours before he started awake again and gave up.

Gray morning light was already filtering through the window, so he tugged on some rumpled clothes and shambled over to the guild like a zombie. He was only a step out the door before finding himself wishing that he could just go back to bed and stay away from the guild today, but he was tired of trying unsuccessfully to sleep and one of his friends might come banging on his door if he didn't show up.

Hiding a yawn behind his hand and squinting his eyes in a vain attempt to alleviate the ache, he dragged himself inside the guild hall.

"Gray-sama!"

Gray forced his eyes back open and blinked blearily at Juvia. She was smiling as she bounced over to him. There was something in her hands that looked like a box of rolls with pictures of his face on them, which was exceedingly creepy.

"Juvia wants to apologize for last night!" she said brightly. "Gray-sama is still uncertain of Juvia's love for him, so she brought a gift to prove it to him!"

She couldn't take a hint, couldn't be reasoned with, and apparently couldn't spell either. She had that look in her eye again as she grinned at him, the one that drove him crazy.

Gray dropped his face into his hands and wished more than anything that he'd stayed in bed. "Here we go again."

Note: Seriously, someone needs to give this chick a hard dose of reality. But poor Gray may never be free :(

emmahoshi: If anyone treated me like Juvia treats Gray, I would've totally freaked out and told them off ages ago X) I'm glad I don't have to deal with it personally, but there are a lot of people who do and it sucks. Especially when the media then tries to normalize and romanticize it. Ha ha, flashback moment. That was the first story I ever wrote for FT. Glad its horribleness has withstood the ravages of time XD [EDIT: Yeah, it disgusts me how many people go along with it. Lol if you really hate it that much, why bother rereading it? :P]