Lyon's car was extremely quiet on the ride back to Gray's apartment, he glanced into the rearview mirror to see Gray and Juvia dozing in the back seat, Gray's head lulling gently against Juvia's shoulder, her hand rested on his knee, Lyon smirked at his brother before looking back to the road.
Pulling up to the building Lyon raised his voice to call back to the sleeping pair, "wake up, we're back, get out of my car," Meredy swatted his arm and watched as Gray stretched and opened the door, standing he turned around and lightly pulled Juvia to her feet, she wobbled slightly and he steadied her. Lyon looked back out the open door and said, "goodnight lovebirds," before stretching into and reaching back and pulling the door closed and speeding away.
"What in the beck is that supposed to mean?" Gray shouted at the retreating car. Juvia looked puzzled as she looked between Gray and the car wondering if he was offended or annoyed to be connected with her in that manner. She tried to shake the nervous disappointment that settled into the pit of her stomach, but she was surprisingly hurt by his reaction. She turned quickly and entered the building without Gray, she decided in that moment that she would stay in her own place that night, suddenly feeling unsure of her accommodations with him.
Hurrying up the stairs she pulled her keys from her bag and unlocked her door, disappearing inside before Gray had reached their floor, he went to her door knocking lightly before his phone buzzed with a text message Just going to stay here tonight, give us both some space, thanks for everything -J
He leaned against her door wondering what had gotten into her, he'd thought their day out had gone well until she stepped out of Lyon's car and bolted inside, "Are you sure?" he asked through the door.
Yes. Talk later. Gray frowned at his phone and reluctantly walked to his own door, glancing back before unlocking his apartment a tension settled in his shoulders as he dug leftovers out of the fridge, and he had an uneasiness in his chest that he couldn't explain. Once he finished dinner he was still unable to shake the sensation and decided to take a shower to relax, he stayed under the stream of the shower for longer than he had intended and he anticipated the temperature growing cold at any moment but his phone pulled his attention from his thoughts. Jerking the shower curtain open he threw a towel around his waist and grabbed his phone from the countertop and shoved it to his ear.
"What now Lyon?" he snapped.
"What did you do?" His brother's words shot back.
Gray stared at his reflection in the mirror thinking, what did I do? He had no clue what that meant. "I didn't do anything, what are you even talking about?"
"Meredy called Juvia to tell her that she found her jacket in my car and she said we could drop it by her place, or she'd get it later, what is she doing back at her place? I thought she was staying with you?" Lyon inquired.
"She was, but I didn't do anything, the real question is what were you thinking making your stupid comments?"
"Why are you mad?" Lyon retorted, "you guys were awfully cozy—wait – did you react like this when I drove off?"
"What—why?" Gray paused, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"You did. There it is, that is why she left, you are such an idiot." Lyon's voice carried obvious frustration.
"Because of me?" Gray ask exasperated.
"Yes. It's because of you, stupid. She probably thinks you don't like her."
"Wait, what makes you think that I like her?"
"You are completely dense man, regardless of whether you like her or not you probably hurt her feelings," Lyon explained.
"Don't act like you know everything," Gray shouted angrily into the phone ending the call and tossing the phone on the countertop causing it to collide with all of his toiletries sending cans and bottles clattering the floor is disarray.
Gray's thoughts swirled How could Lyon think that was the reason she left, I don't not like her, but does he have to say I do like it is a fact? I just don't want her getting hurt by her ex-boyfriend but beyond that I don't know, letting her in leaves me feeling rattled. Gray decided he needed to blow off some stem throwing on some shorts he turned on his video game and joined an online server. A few rounds in Gray was fully immersed in his shooter when something crashed against the wall he shared with Juvia's apartment, the controller dropped from his hands and his feet moved his body on pure instinct, he threw his apartment door open to find her door ajar and the lights off in her place.
A large figure moved in the dark and Gray lunged forward taking the person to the ground, a hard fist connected with his jaw and he saw stars, shaking his head he did his best to regain his footing. Gray looked toward the figure as he crossed a beam of light cutting across the room through the curtains and he saw the face of an angered Bora snarling as he dove at him.
A thought burst through the chaos in his brain JUVIA where was she? His eyes darted around the darkness as he fought off Bora's punches, his heart skipped a beat when he saw slender fingertips in the moonlight on the floor, but the rest of her body laid in the darkness beyond, he couldn't tell how badly she was hurt. Bora pressed is weight against gray and something hard pushed into his stomach, the coolness took him off guard, but he was suddenly able to identify the metal object between them, it was the barrel of a gun.
Panic set in, if Bora had a gun, did he shoot Juvia? NO.logic pushed its way past the fear, there was no gunshot, Bora's grasp was firm on the gun but grabbing it Gray was able to tell Bora's finger had slipped from the trigger, the gun slid from his hand and clattered to the floor Gray managed to dive onto it but was struggling to get it into his grip correctly, Bora again pushed into him trying to wrestle the firearm back. Gray's back hit the island hard snapping his head back violently, a shot fired, and time stood still for Gray. Bora called out in pain falling to the floor he sat back against the cabinets and Gray hurried to keep him from fleeing and pulled his phone from the pocked of his shorts dialing the police s she restrained Bora in the darkness as he struggled against him cursing and spitting in rage.
Gray was worried about Juvia but was also scared of what he would find when he could get to her, minutes seemed to draw out into hours before the sound of feet thundering up the stairs and down the hall finally broke through his tortured thoughts, Gray released Bora to an officer ignoring questions being asked of him he flew to Juvia's side, the lights now on showed her laying on the cool tile of the dining room with a nasty bruise and blood on her temple, but she was not waking. Medics assured Gray her vitals were good, they allowed him to ride along in the ambulance and he stumbled along in a daze behind the medics as Juvia was loaded into the ambulance. Gray felt his nerves grow weary as her body jostled and jerked as the vehicle made the trip to the hospital. He looked down and realized the phone he held in his hands was not his own he must have set his down and picked Juvia's up at some point, the screen had been shattered, running his thumb over the cracked glass the phone unlocked. She's too trusting he thought to himself before flicking through her contacts to the one labelled Big Brother and pressed the call button, Gajeel picked up sounding groggy and irritated.
"What do you need kid, it's late."
"It's Gray-" he gulped, "-Juvia 's on the way to the hospital, Bora was in her apartment."
Gajeel interrupted, "Why isn't she the one calling, why do you have her phone, is she okay?"
"They think she'll be fine once she wakes up, but she's still unconscious."
"Why_" Gajeel began but was quickly cut off.
"Just meet us at the hospital." He ended the call and looked at the sympathetic eyes of the medic across from him, Gray quickly looked at his feet, he'd forgotten to put shoes on in all of the confusion and now he wished he'd gotten dressed in more than his athletic shorts. The ambulance pulled up to the side of the hospital as nurses flooded out the doors, a second ambulance pulled in and Gray stood on the sidewalk as Bora was unloaded and wheeled in behind Juvia. A pair of officers followed Bora and Gray noted there was a pair of handcuffs securing his wrist to the stretcher. Suddenly he was aware that a nurse stood next to him trying to get his attention, "sir, you're bleeding, please come with me, sir can you hear me?"
Nodding he followed her into an area where she drew a curtain closed to create makeshift walls and he felt a pain searing through his muscles, sitting on the stiff chair he tried to relax as the nurse got to work cleaning his bleeding knuckles.
"Excuse me," a male voice came from outside the curtained area, " I need to speak with Mr Fullbuster" the owner of the voice appeared through the opening and Gray was face to face with an officer, " I need to ask you some questions about the events that transpired this evening."
Gray recounted the ordeal, including the fights he heard from next door since the time he moved in. He did his best to avoid swearing but found himself feeling angry and had no idea on Juvia's condition. During the interview he had seen Gajeel enter a room further down the hall and was biding his time until he was free too head that direction himself.
The officer took down his version of the events and stood excusing himself thanking Gray for his cooperation with their investigation. After the nurse finished treating him and filling out paperwork, he raced down the hallway weaving around staff members until he arrived at the doors where he'd seen Gajeel enter earlier. A clipboard hanging outside the door told him that Juvia was in room 19 and he entered without knocking to find himself nearly colliding with Gajeel and the officer he'd spoken with earlier.
"Do you know this young man?" the officer asked Gajeel with a note of concern in his voice.
"This is my sister's neighbor, he's fine to be here." Gajeel said giving Gray a short nod.
"He is the one that got the firearm away from the attacker before it discharged," the officer said, "the bullet struck the suspect in the shoulder which is why he is at this facility as well, he has two officers escorting him everywhere until he is able to be processed at the station, Your sister is very lucky someone heard the commotion and got to her before things had a chance to get worse."
"No." Gajeel said with anger burning through his words, "you're lucky Gray showed up to do your job, that bastard should have been behind bars a long time ago and there's no telling how long he waited for her since she hadn't been staying at her apartment."
"Sir, I assure you my men did their best trying to locate this man before he could harm anyone but sometimes things slip through our grasp." The officer defended.
"If you're done with your excuses you can get out," Gajeel bristled.
The officer slowly turned and exited but before the door could close once more Juvia was wheeled into the room in wheelchair.
"Juvia!" Gray said louder than he had meant to, "are you okay?"
"Yes," she nodded, blushing a bit, "They just won't let me walk because I am supposedly a fall-risk."
"Bastard hit her hard enough to knock her out, "Gajeel told Gray, "I could kill him."
"I bet that's what I heard," he said noticing Gajeel's curious expression he elaborated, "there was a crash and I came over to check it out."
"and then you shot the bastard," Gajeel chuckled trying to make light of the tension in the room.
"not like I meant to, but once I felt the gun I tried to get it."
"Oh Gray," Juvia said, the worry was evident in her voice, "are you hurt?"
"Not really, he's the one who caught the bullet," he said suddenly feeling embarrassed.
"what the hell caused you to stay there anyway?" Gajeel asked sounding annoyed.
"I was a jerk." The blunt response caught everyone by surprise including himself, "I'm sorry Juvia, I was annoyed with Lyon teasing me but I didn't think that I had hurt you, it wasn't what he said, it was…I do like you Juvia."
The silence in the room was deafening, shock hit Juvia and a deep red crept across her cheeks before Gajeel blurted, "I knew there was something going on between you two."
"There isn't," Gray stammered but upon seeing Juvia's reaction he scrambled to correct himself, "There wasn't, but there could be, but um…" he felt like his thoughts were all fighting to come out at once.
"Okay." Juvia's soft voice stopped him, "you said there could be, and I say okay." Her nervous smile made him smirk back. "Okay then."
Gajeel and smiled and growled tugging on his hair, "did that really just happen?" he asked sounding shocked, "you two are so awkward it is unreal." He thought for a moment before continuing, "I need to get some rest before work so before I offer her a place to stay and get shot down again I will just go and you two can go be awkward at his place," Gajeel pointed directly into Gray's face with a warning, "but no funny business, I mean it, she's healing and I will murder you." Gajeel patted Juvia on the head before walking out.
Juvia signed her discharge papers while Gray called a cab, they rode back to his place talking quietly, he told her the whole story of fighting Bora and watched her expressions shift as she listened. Once back inside his apartment Juvia laid down on the bed and Gray crawled in next to her, he didn't bother offering to sleep on the sofa because he knew he'd only be able to sleep if she were safe next to him, as if she belonged there.