CLOUDBURST
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by xoxoPigTails
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Chapter 02
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"G-Gray," she managed to stutter out. "Gray Fullbuster!"
The boy let out a sound of annoyance. His dark eyes glared into the rain, presumably toward the girls who he's been running from. (It made sense now; he must have run into those fangirls, and needed to escape.) He had a rumbling baritone, and it reminded Juvia of the quiet thunder that rolled gently right before a storm calmed.
"Just get going, before they see us."
Juvia tore her gaze away from his (absolutely perfect) face and nodded, pulling out of the lot and onto the street.
Two emotions overtook her as she drove in the general direction of the bookstore: excitement (she was sitting next to GRAY FULLBUSTER) and nervousness (she was sitting next to GRAY FULLBUSTER). Her thoughts were running a mile a minute, and she was struggling to keep her eyes fixed on the road rather than her passenger's (incredibly toned) chest.
How can Juvia leave a good impression? she thought. Juvia could make him lunch - but Juvia doesn't have a kitchen in her dorm, that won't work. Maybe he likes textbooks? Juvia doesn't have much money, but maybe Juvia can buy him something at the bookstore! The daydreams she'd allowed herself to delude in from time to time, the ones she fell asleep to each night, were suddenly very real possibilities, and they swam through her mind, begging to be more than just her wildest fantasies.
She was so lost in her own rampaging imagination that she didn't hear Gray's words the first time he addressed her.
But his voice did call her back to reality.
"Wh-what?"
"I asked where the heck you were takin' me."
"Oh." Juvia mentally shook herself; now was not the time to become distracted. If her inattention caused harm to Gray, she would never forgive herself, especially since he had put his trust in her, a complete stranger pulling out of the parking lot at the right time. She focused on the street ahead, doing her best to keep her imagination in check. "Juvia is headed for the bookstore."
Gray let out a sigh; Juvia just barely contained the shiver she felt threatening to shoot up her spine.
"There'll be more kids there who recognize me, probably," he mumbled; it seemed to Juvia that he was talking more to himself than her. "Guess it can't be helped. Hope they have hoodies or something."
"Juvia thinks they have ponchos," she offered.
"Yuck." Gray made a face, but then sighed again. "But I'll take what I can get, at this point."
"Juvia can go inside and get it for you." Her heart sped up. Would he accept her offer? He'd been the one to approach her first, so he had to have placed some sort of trust in her. It made no sense for him to have trusted her so completely, but he must have seen something in her that made him believe in her.
"Nah, it's fine. I owe you, so I'll help out with your books, if you want."
Juvia was flattered. It was an honest gesture, and gentlemanly, too, and it checked off all the boxes in her Knight in Shining Armor list. Besides that, she was a broke college student, as broke as they came, and two hundred bucks less spent on textbooks was two hundred bucks more she got to keep in her pocket.
"Thank you!" She couldn't help but gush, just a bit. After all, Gray Gullbuster was handsome and talented (and chivalrous, too, apparently) and he was going to PAY FOR HER TEXTBOOKS. One of the most popular men in the whole world was taking time out of his day to repay her for a favor. Juvia had to express her gratitude somehow. "Juvia is very happy!"
For a moment, it looked like Gray intended to say something back to her. But instead, he turned to face the window, looking out at the gloomy sky. They fell into a relaxed silence, and Juvia's mind was able to calm down.
"Does it rain a lot in Magnolia?" he asked after a few minutes. Juvia was so startled by him that she nearly missed the turn into the textbook's parking lot.
"Oh. Uhm, Juvia doesn't think so." A little flustered, Juvia nonetheless composed herself quickly, pulling neatly into a spot right by the shop entrance. "Juvia isn't from here, so she isn't sure."
Actually, she'd looked up the weather patterns extensively, and knew rain was definitely NOT a common occurrence in sunny Magnolia, but her response was the best she could come up with off the top of her head without looking like a complete and total weirdo. Not many people were obsessed with rain patterns the way she was, and Juvia was all too familiar with being thought of as odd for her association with poor weather.
She hoped Gray wouldn't associate her with poor weather. That would be awful. Totally, utterly awful. He would think she was weird, and then she could kiss her daydreams goodbye and flush them down the toilet. No, no, that wouldn't do. Juvia kept her mouth shut tight, and didn't comment on the weather.
Gray opened his door, and Juvia also hopped out of the car. The rain wasn't so bad here, and she decided to forego her umbrella and instead to just hurry inside the store. Gray had already made it to the door, and he held it open for her.
She blushed and stopped where she was, eyes lingering on his bare chest.
"Uh, G-Gray..." She felt her face heating up. "Y-Your... Shirt..." She averted her gaze at last, vision swimming.
Get ahold of yourself! she urged inwardly. Juvia will embarrass Gray if she just stares like a creeper!
"What?" Gray looked down and was legitimately surprised to find himself without a top. "Oh." He sucked in a breath, glanced at Juvia's reddening face, and then traipsed back to her car, grabbing his soaked shirt and pulling it roughly back onto his shoulders.
"That's better," he said in a way that suggested it wasn't.
"Y-Yeah..." Mind still recovering from its hormonal overdrive a few moments ago, she glided inside the bookstore, acutely aware of Gray's proximity to her as she weaved through the aisles to pick up her books.
Understandably, people stared. Juvia heard the excited whispers, and there was no way to miss the way more than one person whipped out a phone to snap a picture of the celebrity walking silently next to her. She did her best to ignore the attention and grabbed her books as quickly as possible.
Of course, the wait in line was unavoidable. Juvia was not the only college student who had put off their textbook shopping til the last minute; freshmen and graduate students alike stood in a queue a mile long, a line that weaved in and out of the book aisles themselves. Even though it was early in the morning, Juvia found herself at the end of a line of bored students that crawled along painfully slowly.
"Juvia is sorry you have to wait." The words slipped out of their own accord, and Juvia looked anxiously at Gray. "Juvia knows you're getting a lot of unwanted attention."
On cue, a giggling group of two boys and two girls walked right by them, stopped, snapped a picture, and then giggled away down the aisle. Gray shot a glare at their retreating forms.
"It can't be helped," he replied. Then he shrugged. "Besides, I owe you."
Juvia felt her lips tug at the corners of her lips. He's such a kind person, she thought. He could have just handed me the cash and left, but he's escorting me through the store. It was a gesture she truly appreciated.
"Thank you."
Gray shrugged again, and that was the end of their conversation. They stood quietly, side-by-side, and Juvia was perfectly content with it. The silence was comfortable, and it left her to her own thoughts, which slowly morphed into a lovely daydream involving her, Gray, and a nice, rainy day spent inside watching movies and cuddling.
She came out of her daydream with a smile as she walked up to the cash register. She plopped her books down happily, and began fishing through her purse for her wallet.
She didn't get far.
"I got it," Gray stepped up beside her, and (very smoothly, in Juvia's opinion) slid his credit card across the counter, along with a navy blue poncho. The cashier, a young woman who obviously recognized Gray, took the card, a little stunned, and nodded.
"It'll be three hundred and twenty five dollars and ninety-five cents."
"W-Wait," Juvia said, snatching her own card from her wallet. "Juvia can pay for-"
"I owe you," Gray said, cutting her off. The cashier nervously looked between them. "Just do it."
Before Juvia could protest again, the cashier had already swiped Gray's card.
"Juvia was supposed to make up the difference!" As the cashier bagged her books and Gray signed his signature on the receipt with a quick flourish of his hand, Juvia couldn't help but feel immensely embarrassed, as though she had somehow wronged her celebrity crush.
"Look," Gray said, turning to face her. "It's the least I could do." With that, he grabbed the two bags holding her textbooks, handed one to Juvia (who took it without complaint) and stalked towards the exit. Juvia quickened her pace to catch up to him.
"Still," Juvia said after catching up to him, "I-It feels as if I took advantage of you! And Juvia really... Juvia doesn't like doing that."
Gray, hand reaching for the door, paused. He glanced back at her, and when their eyes met, Juvia did her best not to blush, and instead met his eyes intensely, hoping her sincerity was clear through her gaze. She held herself just a little taller, straightening her posture and holding her chin up.
"Oh. Sorry. That didn't cross my mind." He broke their gaze, and pushed open the door, again holding it for Juvia as she walked out. They stood just underneath a tiny overhang that kept the rain off of them, and it splashed and collected around their shoes. The gentle sound made Juvia think of floating in a pool, and she relaxed, just a bit.
"It's okay," she said. Then she grinned. "Gray, you're a really kind person."
After a split second of obvious hesitation, Gray smiled back. His was small, more of a tiny curl along one side of his mouth than a wide grin, but it made Juvia's heart do a backflip in her chest.
"So are you." He reached into the bag he held, pulled out the poncho, and opened it, pulling it over his head. "I'm off now." He handed the bag of textbooks to her, and then he raised an arm in farewell. "Thanks, Juvia."
She sucked in a breath. This is how it ends? she wondered. This is how we say goodbye? The rain fell around, much softer than when they'd arrived at the bookstore, and Gray was already walking out into it, rain bouncing lightly off his new poncho.
This was nothing like the fairytales she'd heard as a little girl, where prince charming waltzed into a girl's life and swept her off her feet. Nothing like the fantasies she'd had, where Gray charmed her smoothly into a happy marriage and a happier-ever-after.
It brought back memories of a very different kind of goodbye in rain just as gentle.
I like this goodbye better.
"Thank you, Gray!" she called to him. He didn't turn around, and for a brief moment or two she thought he might not have heard her. But then he waved again, and her smile brightened. She waved to his retreating form, wondering where he was possibly going, but deciding that she would trust him as much as he had trusted her.
Besides, it was almost eleven o'clock, and if she didn't get back to campus soon, Gajeel was definitely going to be mad.
She got into her car, putting the bags carefully on the passenger seat beside her. She sighed dreamily, putting a hand over her racing heart, and looked at her reflection in her rearview mirror.
Her cheeks were flushed, and even with her umbrella covering her, some of her hair had gotten a little wet. She lovingly reached up and brushed the stray water droplets from her locks.
Juvia is never going to forget today, she thought. Never!
It wasn't until she had gotten back to school and was unloading her textbooks that she noticed an armband dropped on the floor of the passenger side. She lifted it, and her eyes widened when she recognized it as a Fairy Tail armband, emblazoned in black with the band's emblem.
It didn't belong to her, but she placed it carefully inside one of her bags nonetheless.
xoxoxoxox
I updated a little early because I'm gonna be gone basically all day this Friday on a college choir trip. Woo~! Have a lovely weekend, lovelies!
xoxoPigTails
