Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail
It was nearing the end of Autumn, Earthland is feeling colder than before. Yet, it's just the beginning. Loretta is now learning under a Sound Magician, Juvia has high hopes for her, Loretta learned the advance foundations of magic faster than Juvia expected. During this time, Juvia has tried to follow Mira's advice and confess to Natsu. Five times, all of them failed without Juvia even opening her mouth. One time the mood wasn't right, the other time, Loretta asked Juvia for advice, once, Juvia was too embarrassed and walked away. In similar fashion, all five of Juvia's attempts has failed. So, Juvia has finally decided to ask Lucy for help. Hence, Juvia is walking on the chilly Magnolia streets on a cloudy day, wearing a warm, grey coat and having a black scarfed wrapped around Juvia's neck.
The river than ran along Magnolia Town has leaves sprinkled throughout the canal, bending with the brick pathway. Juvia followed this same river when tailing Natsu, who would've thought than this river is also near Lucy's house? Juvia's boots clicked loudly on the stone roads as she looked at the houses that lined up uniformly.
Reaching the house Lucy lives in, Juvia took a deep breath and knocked the door. 'Coming!' came from behind the door with the shuffling of feet and banging of furniture. If Juvia has Natsu's hearing, maybe Juvia could hear cries of pain when Lucy banged against a cupboard of something. The door opened, Lucy looked surprised to find out who her visitor was.
"Juvia! What are you doing here so early?"
"May Juvia come inside first? It's quite cold out here." Juvia's words reminded Lucy that she was still wearing pajamas, making her shiver at the Autumn winds. Lucy ushered Juvia inside and closed the door along with a sigh of relief once Juvia was indoors.
"So, what's up?"
"Juva wants your help with Natsu…"
"You finally became honest with yourself!" Lucy got behind Juvia and pushed her upstairs and into a couch; prepared some tea for the both of us; sat down with the vigor of a kid. "Hurry up and give me the details!"
"Juvia tried five times, all of them failed, one way or the other."
"So, you want my help."
"Please."
"Alright, I'll go on a job with Gray and we'll convince Erza to go with Loretta on her first job that's she's planning to go soon. That way, you have a chance to ask Natsu out for a job. There you can confess without any interference, it'll all depend on your ability though."
"Juvia should manage."
"What do you like about Natsu anyway? Every girl is curious."
"Well…ummm…he's loyal and kind. Also...he's cute at times, sometimes cool…" Juvia's head probably scolding about now, Juvia's heart is beating faster and louder. "but all of the time he's…handsome." All the while, Lucy was looking at Juvia in a way that someone would do when looking at a child.
"Aww!"
"P—please don't tell Mira! Or Cana! If possible, no one else!"
"You know that's not happening." Lucy watched Juvia squirm on her seat while giggling uncontrollably. "Let's do this next week, Loretta did say that's when she's going on her first job, you can leave the rest up to us, you just practice your confession."
"Yes! Thank You for your help!"
"Well then, I'll go to Gray's place and tell him what we're doing next week, we'll try to convince Erza to help Loretta on her job." Lucy went to her wardrobe and pulled out a winter coat and other warm clothing. Lucy frowned after putting on her clothes, she then took them off and sat back down. "Gray is still sleeping, but I don't want to wake him up, he's cranky if he doesn't get enough sleep you see. But, I guess you already know that from you know…"
"It is still early, has your cooking improved since our sleepover?"
"Good idea! I'll show you my training results since then!" Lucy got fired up and opened her fridge before she got to cooking.
After a satisfying meal, Lucy took off to Gray-san's house, so Juvia went to the guild, Loretta should be there already, let's see how much progress she has made since Juvia last saw her.
"Juvia! Just perfect, me and Mira was about to perform for the guild, so you want to join?" Loretta and Mira were up on stage, with the former sitting at a grand piano and the latter holding her guitar, microphones were set up to amplify Mira's voice and the instrument's melody.
"It should be fun, Juvia will join you. But, what's the occasion?"
"We're testing out Loretta's Sound Magic that she learned, she still has a long way to go but, her teacher said she should be able to give sound a visible form at this stage, you can't touch it but, it sounds lovely and romantic doesn't it?"
"Also, Master said that if I do well, he will let me perform at the Christmas show, I've always wanted to make people happy with music so, this seems like a perfect way to start."
"Are you two fine with Juvia's voice?"
"Absolutely!" "Of course!" the two gave Juvia a bright smile full of encouragement, convincing Juvia to climb up on stage, one reason why Juvia was more willing to come up on stage was because it's still early so not much people has arrived at the guild yet. Sadly, Natsu is never a morning person.
"We'll be playing 'The Dance of Leaves', are you familiar with this one Juvia?"
"That's a jolly, fast piece isn't it? Juvia does know it but, not very well." Since Juvia was alone for a long time, Juvia is more familiar with solo pieces.
"Don't worry, we have the sheets for it." Mira handed Juvia a copy of the musical composition. One problem, Juvia doesn't know how to read the sheet. Mira noticed Juvia, pained expression and walked over along with her setup. "I'll help you jump in. the blue lyrics are for you, and the red are for me, Loretta was planning to sing the blue parts but, since you're here, it'll let Loretta concentrate on her magic."
"Then what are the black ones?"
"Those, we sing together, when your turn is coming up, I'll tap my feet. After a second you start singing, is that alright?"
"Yes!"
"Then, we'll start." Mira nodded at Loretta, and fast-pace music reverberated throughout the guild.
As we began our performance, musical notes appeared and bounced to the tune, turning into orange leaves as their dance escalated with the music, spiraling into a tornado made of leaves. Mira's guitar joined in, shifting the colour of the leaves into the colours of Autumn: yellow, orange and red. After Juvia and Mira started to sing, the tornado scattered into two distinct piles of leaves, one for each of the singers. When Mira's verse came, her pile swirled and expanded. Then once Juvia's turn came up, her pile copied Mira's pile, as if communicating with each other.
For once, there was only one type of sound in the guild, everyone else was silent, all of them looking intently at us with awe. This trance-like state everyone was in stayed for a few seconds after the final note whimpered into air. Loud cheering broke the serene tranquility, claps and whistles got swallowed by the roars.
One unlucky dragon slayer with pink hair was clamping his hands to his ears like a vice, giving off the most pained expression Juvia has ever seen, Juvia wanted to run down the stage and comfort him. However, Juvia doesn't really know what Juvia can do about the noise, so Juvia powerlessly watched Natsu suffer until the ovation stopped. However, the cheering was longer than Juvia expected, so Juvia rushed down the stage and held her hands against Natsu's. Juvia has no idea if it helped deafen the noise or not because the cheering quickly stopped after the crowd saw Natsu in pain. Apologetic looks crowned the guild member's face. Natsu pointed at his head repeatedly, then to the infirmary door.
"Does your ears still hurt?" Sitting on a chair while holding his forehead, Natsu hissed in pain. Juvia was sitting next to him, just putting down a cup of water.
"No…I just have a headache…never mind, my ears are ringing." Juvia reached out and massaged Natsu's temple softly.
"Is this better?" Juvia whispered, not wanting to strain his ears even further.
"A little…" Natsu groaned.
"Do you want to lie down?"
"Yes…" Natsu rested in head on Juvia's lap.
"Ehh? U—umm…Natsu, there's a bed…you…umm should rest there."
"It hurts too much to move. Sorry…but, please bear with it for a while."
"N—no it's okay, you just surprised me." Juvia's hand found their way back to Natsu's temple and started the same circular motion as before.
"Thanks."
"Sorry that Juvia didn't help earlier, Juvia thought that maybe that everyone would quiet down quickly."
"It's fine, you guys did great."
"Thank You…" Once Natsu recovered, he hopped off his seat and was back to this usual self. Natsu lit his hands on fire and rushed out. Is he getting revenge? Screams of suffering and requests for mercy answered Juvia's questions.
Now that Loretta is off on her first job, Lucy and Gray used that as their cue to leave on a job as well, it's been a day since then. Juvia remembers Lucy giving Juvia a wink before setting off. Juvia is looking at the guild notice board for any long jobs Juvia can go on with Natsu. Aha! Juvia tore off a paper that interests her. 'Help wanted in finding and acquiring mushrooms found in Lockwild Island.' Reward: three hundred thousand Jewels. Juvia has never heard of that place, maybe Master would know. Taking the paper with Juvia, Juvia tried to find Master but decided to settle with Levy since she's closer.
"Hey Levy, this job says to find a mushroom found in Lockwild Island, do you know what kind of place that is?"
"Uhh…if I recall…it should be south of Earthland, it's a island famous for a mushroom that is said to have great medicinal value, with the right combination of ingredients, I heard that you can cure almost anything with it.
"The island shouldn't get that cold since it's further down. Slightly mutated versions of animals you would find here are all that you can find in that island, so, I don't think you'll run into anything you haven't seen before, maybe a boar with bigger tusks than normal.
"Do you want my team to come with you?" Juvia whispered the reason why she is going on a quest in the first place. "I see! Good luck, I'm expecting good news when you get back."
"Yes!" Juvia ran out the door to find Natsu. This time, there will be no obstacles in Juvia's way! Natsu, you will become Juvia's!
Juvia's first goal is to find Happy and tell him to leave Natsu alone with Juvia on this quest. Hence, Juvia is carrying a bag of fish. Juvia found Happy fishing by a river—without Natsu.
"Happy, I'm going to ask Natsu out on a job but, I don't want you to go with him."
"Why?"
"Well…I umm…want to confess to him…"
"You're actually doing it!?"
"Yes…"
"But Natsu is a moron, you sure you want him?"
"Just don't go with him and I'll give you these fish!" Juvia rushed out those words and thrusted the bag of fish to Happy. The weight in Juvia's hand was lifted instantly by two blue paws.
"You got it!"
"Where is he right now?"
"I think he's bored so he such be training, just follow the explosions and you'll find him easy." With Juvia's first task done, Juvia went to find Natsu by following the most recent explosion Juvia heard.
Juvia followed the noises to the training ground Juvia found Natsu at before, the crater is still there, just not burning and giving off an impressive amount of heat. Natsu wasn't near the crater, he was blasting a rock apart with his magic, making high-velocity shards of stone flying towards Juvia. Even before Juvia's water wall was fully formed, a bellow of flames got rid of the shards.
"Are you hurt Juvia? Sorry I didn't notice you before I blew the rock apart"
"No, it's fine, Juvia was the one that intruded on your training."
"So what's up? You need anything?"
"W—would you like t—to go on a job with…me? Juvia understands if you don't to…you are busy with your—"
"Of course I'll go! I was so bored that I could die! Everyone had to take a job so suddenly. Did you ask Happy as well?"
"Happy said he isn't coming."
"What? He's still mad about the fish I took from him? Who needs that guy anyway, you and me get along just fine! We make a great pair!" Natsu grinned again, but Juvia wasn't taking notice due to what Natsu said. Pair…th—that means couple right!? Ahh! Juvia is so happy! "…Juvia…what is...about…well?" We'll have five cute kids running around the house, Juvia wants them to take after the father, he is the better looking one! And the wedding should be— "Juvia!"
"Y—yes!?"
"Stop spacing out will ya?"
"S—sorry…"
"Sheesh. So, what's the job about?"
"Here it is." Juvia took out the folded job paper and gave it to Natsu.
"Is this mushroom tasty?"
"Is that all that's in your mind? Also, Juvia has no idea."
"Then, let's go!"
"Wait! We need to prepare for the journey, also, we need to meet the client. And…Juvia needs to pick out a swimsuit…"
"What for? Are we going swimming?"
"We're going on an island! An a tropical one at that, it would be a waste not to having a little fun!"
"Alright, alright jeez…girls are so weird."
"But you don't hate weird right?" Natsu grinned cheerfully.
"Nope!"
"Kill meeee…" Nastu groaned once the train started moving.
"Come here." Juvia pushed Natsu's head to Juvia's lap and started to rub Natsu's back, ignoring the jealous stares from passerby's coming Natsu's way.
"Thanks, urck…"
"Stop talking, just rest. If you want, Juvia can sing you to sleep."
"P—please…do." Before long, Juvia gets the joy of brushing the hairs of an unconscious Natsu. It feels so long since Juvia has last done this, but really, it's only been a little over a month. It's still as pleasant as last time. Natsu was sleeping soundly with nothing reasonable that can wake him. His peaceful, cute sleeping face is something that Juvia would never get tired of. His snarf became loose, showing Juvia his scar on his neck. A small one that piqued Juvia's curiosity, Lucy said to not ask about it since it's something traumatizing, which does worry Juvia somewhat, it must've been really scary since even Natsu of all people is traumatized.
After an hour or so, we are close to our destination, soon, Juvia will have the man of her dreams.
Thanks for reading! I hope that I'm not rushing things too much, I do want to wrap this story up after all!
I don't have anything to say this time, just my appreciation of the nice words you guys left me.
I look forward to your feedback! Sadly, not much is there, but, I'm grateful for the people that did comment something.
