CLOUDBURST

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by xoxoPigTails

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Chapter 03

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"We can wait until it stops raining." Juvia twirled her umbrella, idly watching water drip off the lace accents on its edges.

"You kidding?" Gajeel huffed, already starting to get wet as he stepped out of his truck into the rain. "With your luck, it'll rain all day. Let's just get it done."

Juvia couldn't argue with Gajeel. She knew he was just being honest. Very few days had gone by in their town that it hadn't rained, and even when she and Gajeel had gone on an impromptu vacation together over the summer, rain clouds had dotted the horizon almost every day of their trip.

Where Juvia went, so did the rain.

She waited until Gajeel had mostly taken the refrigerator out of his truck before finally closing her umbrella and reaching out to help him lift it. It was not an easy task; it weighed a lot, and even though Juvia and Gajeel were physically fit, both of them being athletes on scholarships to the university, it put quite a strain on their muscles to lug the thing from the parking lot, up the stairs, and into her dorm room. (Juvia almost dropped it on the stairwell, and it was only thanks to Gajeel that it didn't come crashing down onto her toes.)

Once they were done, Juvia grabbed two water bottles and handed one to Gajeel, who accepted without a word. He sat down on the floor, and Juvia took her place on the edge of her bed, boots sliding back and forth against the wooden floor until she'd settled down. Gajeel wasn't a very talkative person by nature, so they sat in relative silence, drinking their water until Juvia couldn't possibly deal with the quiet any longer.

And besides, she had a lot to talk about.

"Juvia met her idol today," she said, none too dully. Gajeel looked up, his black hair soaked from the rain and plastered against his skin, and raised a studded eyebrow.

"The guy from that over-hyped boy band?"

Juvia huffed. "Fairy Tail isn't over-hyped," she replied. "We've argued about this before."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, but knew better than to pursue that line of conversation with Juvia. "What about him?"

Juvia leaned forward, eyes gleaming excitedly. "Juvia gave him a car ride!"

Gajeel's reaction was less excited than Juvia had hoped for.

"And?"

She leaned back.

"And Juvia got to talk to him," she said. She smiled, in spite of herself, remembering his final wave as he walked away in the rain. "Gray said Juvia was kind! Well, only after Juvia called him kind first, but still."

"Good for you." Gajeel stood up. "Have you gone to see your classes yet?"

Juvia was about to launch into a more in-depth description of her incredible morning, but she paused.

Gajeel sighed. He knew what her hesitance meant.

"Come on." She protested, complaining that they had only just gotten upstairs, but he paid her no mind, heading out the door. Juvia let out a sigh of frustration, but stood and followed him anyways.

"Do you even know where your classes are?" she asked Gajeel as she caught up to him right before they reached the stairwell.

"Unlike you, I think ahead long enough to plan things out," he replied, pulling out a folded paper from his pocket.

"Juvia does plan things out!" Juvia protested. They took the stairs two at a time, neither of them in a mood to waste time taking extra steps. "Juvia just sometimes forgets, is all." Gajeel smirked, and Juvia rolled her eyes. "Besides, the schedules are online. Juvia can pull it up on her phone."

"You do that," Gajeel said in reply. They stepped outside her dorm building to find the rain falling lightly. Gajeel let out a sniff to indicate his dislike of the weather; Juvia simply opened her umbrella and offered it to share, to which Gajeel reluctantly accepted.

The two friends trekked out into the mud and rain, hurrying across campus to the nearest classroom on their schedules: Juvia's Intro to Meteorology. The room was large, and Juvia wondered with wide eyes how she would possibly be able to hear the professor from the back of the room if it was going to be packed with over a hundred students. Some of the classrooms were not so large, though; her matching lab class couldn't hold more than twenty kids at a time, same as some of Gajeel's classes.

College was much, much different than high school. Juvia was beginning to realize more and more that she was in for a totally different way of life.

She couldn't wait for the semester to really start.

xoxoxox

Lucy Heartfilia arrived at exactly six forty-two, twelve minutes later than she said she would be getting to the dorms. This was perfectly fine with Juvia, but Gajeel made it no secret that it irritated him.

When she came in, it was with a resounding bang.

Literally.

The door swung open so quickly that when it smashed into the wall, Juvia let out a squeak of surprise. Gajeel fared only slightly better, slipping from his comfortable position sprawled lazily on the floor to a somewhat threatening, somewhat silly-looking crouch.

"I am so sorry I'm late!" Lucy said, rushing in with a backpack and a suitcase. "I had to go pick up a friend, and then since he doesn't have a car I had to take him all the way to where he's staying, and then his friends wouldn't let me leave, and when I finally did get away, there was loads of traffic – I forgot it was rush hour this time of day – and I am just so, so sorry for making you wait!"

Lucy was blonde with big brown eyes and a well-endowed body, and she looked thoroughly flustered.

Juvia took pity on her.

"We weren't waiting long," Juvia said placatingly. "We can leave when you're ready, if you want to freshen up first."

Lucy took a deep breath, and then grinned. "Sounds good." Lucy gestured to the restroom they shared. "Just give me a minute!"

It really only did take a minute; then Lucy stepped out, some of her hair pulled neatly up in a blue ribbon on the side of her head.

"Okay, let's go!" she declared. "My treat. I'll drive!"

Lucy took them to a hole-in-the-wall place. It looked more like a bar than a restaurant, but Juvia kept her thoughts to herself. Gajeel perked up significantly at the prospect of some alcohol. The building had two levels, but the top floor looked (from what Juvia could see) like it was used for a purpose other than serving customers food and drink.

Lucy walked straight up to the counter, sitting down and waving Gajeel and Juvia over to join her, while the bartender moved to give them her attention. Juvia was taken aback by her dazzlingly white hair and an equally eye-catching maroon dress that showed an abundance of skin. She looked only a few years older than them, and carried a friendly air enhanced by a bright smile.

"Lucy!" she said warmly, her voice much higher in pitch than Juvia had expected. "I haven't seen you all summer!"

"Well, I've been busy," Lucy laughed. "Anyways, school's about to start." She turned to direct the bartender's attention to her two guests, who had situated themselved in the chairs to Lucy's right. "This is my roommate and her friend."

Juvia figured Gajeel wouldn't be likely to introduce himself, even if given such an obvious cue as Lucy had, so she stepped up to do it instead. "Juvia," she said, indicating herself. "His name is Gajeel."

"Oh, how lovely!" The bartender grinned. "I'm Mirajane. Feel free to stop by any time. Friends of Lucy's are friends of mine, too!"

"Thank you," Juvia replied, returning Mirajane's smile with one of her own.

After taking their orders and preparing their drinks, Mirajane left to attend to other people at the counter. This, in turn, wound up in a somewhat awkward silence settling among the three students; Juvia settle for sipping on her water instead of trying to start up a conversation she wasn't sure any of them would be interested in.

Apparently, though, Lucy didn't appreciate prolonged silences; she launched straight into a spiel about how she had come to know the restaurant through a friend from high school. Juvia tuned most of it out, catching only a few bits about her friends performing at the bar sometimes when they were younger and that they were probably going to be attending Magnolia University as well.

She and Lucy, Juvia realized, didn't have very much in common. Lucy had been born and raised in the urban hub that was Magnolia city's prosperous downtown area. Juvia, by contrast, was from a teeny tiny town in the middle of nowhere, with little to no access to the outside world besides her school trips and swimming competitions. Even their fashion senses were different: Juvia preferred modest but tasteful clothes that only showed as much skin as Juvia was comfortable letting be seen; Lucy's outfits were bold and daring, containing flashy jewelry and eye-catching colors and short, short skirts. The only thing they really shared was a love for a certain popular band, and even then, their favorite members were different.

Juvia tried to tune back into Lucy's chatter, but for the most part, it just wasn't related to things that concerned Juvia.

Then, quite suddenly, the topic turned to something that did interest Juvia. Very much.

"I'm so psyched for Fairy Tail's new album."

Like night and day, Juvia's reservedness vanished, overwhelmed by her own feelings of anticipation and excitement. She hopped right into the conversation, instantly tuning into it and letting a reply slip from her lips before she could fully process it herself.

"Juvia is, too" she agreed fervently. "There's so much hype building around it, it's just incredible!"

"Oh, I know!" Lucy said. Beside Juvia, Gajeel rolled his eyes and stood up, heading away from them; Juvia only paid enough attention to him to figure that he must have decided to explore the upstairs level. The topic she and Lucy had turned to was far more appealing to her than Gajeel's disinterest in being there to watch them fangirl. "It's like, they want us to be totally absorbed with it, but they want to keep us guessing, too."

"Exactly." Maybe they had more in common than Juvia had initially thought. "That's how Juvia feels about it, also." She leaned forward in her seat a bit. "There's so much publicity, but we don't know anything about the album at all, really."

"It's so frustrating," Lucy complained. "It's like they're toying with us or something."

Lucy giggled, and Juvia joined in.

"Juvia just thinks it has more to do with the solos," she said. "After all, Fairy Tail hasn't had many solo songs lately. They've mostly been group choruses, and then the members switching off from verse to verse."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "But you know something? There haven't been any leaked clips, but..." She paused, pursing her lips, and looked around, almost as if she might be afraid of being overheard. Then the blonde leaned forward towards Juvia, her brown eyes glowing with excitement and intensity. "I can definitely tell you that there are gonna be two big solo songs. Like, as in, one guy sings the whole thing, and the others are just backdrop."

Juvia's eyes widened. "You're kidding," she breathed.

"Nope." Lucy shook her head, grinning. "I'm serious." She leaned back, waving her hand in front of her. "Of course, that's just what I heard, so don't take it too seriously."

"Who has the solos?" Juvia wondered aloud. I hope Gray has one, she thought, and her mind wandered back to the wristband sitting on her bookshelf in her new dorm room.

Lucy hesitated before speaking.

"Well, I'm not too sure," she admitted, "But from what I've heard, the solos might revolve ar-"

"NATSU!"

Something loud – it sounded like glass breaking – resounded above them on the second floor, followed by a mischievous laugh.

"Serves ya right, Metal Brains."

Juvia and Lucy hopped out of their seats, eyes widening with instant recognition of that voice.

"He's here?" Lucy turned to glare almost accusingly at Mirajane, who simply shrugged, a sheepish grin on her face as she did so. "Why didn't you tell me he was here?"

"I forgot," Mirajane supplied. "He was being really quiet. Like, really, REALLY quiet. He's never quiet, you know, so-"

In the midst of all of Juvia's confusion, a few things managed to click in her mind:

First: that had definitely been Gajeel's voice she heard screaming that name from the second level of the restaurant.

And second: Lucy Heartfilia – her new roommate for the remainder of the semester – somehow knew Natsu Dragneel, the main vocalist for Fairy Tail.

xoxoxox

A/N: Phew, back to getting the plot rolling! Classes start the next day for Juvia and pals. This is only getting started. :)

Lemme know what you thought in a review! Thanks, and have a good week, y'all.

xoxoPigTails

EDIT: Thanks to Juviaesthetic for catching a typo. Yikes. My brain's been sleepin for 2 years also apparently lmao.