Heads or Tails

by zeldris

Juvia, a snarky nobody, crosses paths with Gray, an attractive athlete who can't take a hint. /gruvia highschool au/

14. Stranger Things

omg

i cant believe i did this...ive been out for a while and my friends know that i was away from technology for a few weeks due to some personal health problems...and ive been steering clear of social networking like skype and tumblr but overall writing is super therapeutic for me ,, so i finally finished this godawful chapter...

here it is, the final chapter of heads or tails before the epilogue :) and the epilogue is going to be the realistic ending, or the original ending, as so many of you suggested and i ultimately felt would fit the story best.

thanks for all of your support! ESPECIALLY from my closest friends, you guys know who you are ;)

(and yes, i DID shamelessly reference both stranger things and smallville. kill me.)

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stranger things

gray fullbuster p.o.v.

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Sometimes it was hard to tell between fact and fiction.

I went to prom with Meredy. Fact.

Lyon was born with a tail. Fiction.

Juvia kissed me at prom. Fiction. And…fact.

I wasn't sure, really. I think the reason it was so hazy was because the concept itself was just so bizarre – about as plausible as the sun spontaneously turning purple and my hair miraculously turning orange.

I just remembered warmth and confusion and a rush of swirling emotions like someone kicking down a dam behind my brain, and then she blasted the fuck away like she won the lottery and wherever THAT was, it was a half million miles away from me.

I felt like my brain was static and there was a brief lag in my motion, like my entire body had horrible internet connection and I just stood there, buffering.

Fact, or fiction?

What the fuck just happened?

I didn't have much else to do other than stand there, computing. It took me only 30 seconds to realize that this was an equation even the smartest computer couldn't solve, let alone me, a dumb guy in a suit.

So, I ran after her.

Because somewhere among the confusion, I figured I'd never get a straight answer unless I asked her, directly. Because what the fuck-

My eyes flickered as I watched the shape of her dress change as she ran – she was a good deal ahead of me, and she could run like a fucking bandit, but I knew I'd catch up to her, even if I had to run her into a ditch. Her heels clicked against the ground rhythmically until I watched her and her stark dark blue dress disappear through the doors of the school, and into the outdoors.

What was she running from? Me? Was I imagining things? Had she really kissed me, or had my punch been spiked with some crazy LSD that makes you see the weirdest shit your brain can concoct?

"Juvia!" I called her name the second I stepped outside, the night air stealing the breath from my lungs in a cruel greeting. I couldn't see her, and I wasn't surprised. With that dress, she could probably melt into the night itself and I'd never even know.

I called her name again. The night swallowed up my voice once more.

The parking lot was full, she was taller than most cars, but I didn't see her familiar twisty blue hair over the hoods of darkness. I had lost the cacophony of her heels slapping against pavement. She was gone.

I might've yelled her name a few more times, I don't know. I just kept thinking about that kiss – by now I was sure I hadn't imagined it – there were too many details, I could recall every scent and taste and texture like it was the back of my own hand.

But just…why?

Why did she run?

"….Just…fuck..." I mumbled into the palm of my hand. I already knew Juvia was beyond frustrating. Hell, I'm pretty sure everyone in Magnolia knew that Juvia was a frustrating piece of work. But something was wrong. This wasn't Juvia just being a difficult self-preserving weirdo who refused outside help. This was serious, and I was doing a fucking shitty job of evaluating what was wrong.

I dragged my hand through my hair angrily after thoroughly searching the bigass parking lot – not once – but twice. Not a single blue head of hair to be found. She had faded away into the night and I was left in the crashing wake of whatever the fuck just happened.

She had kissed me. Probably. I think. And I had let her get away.

Just…fuck.

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"Hey, have you seen-"

"Woooooooooowwww," Sting rasped, his hand suddenly lurched forward and grasped my collar, I stepped back in surprised, because good fuck was he drunk. And in so little time. I had only been able to question 5 of Juvia's friends in the time since she had run off – none of them knew her whereabouts, and none of them seemed to care.

Not that I blamed them, of course. When telling the tale I glossed over some important details, such as her disappearance being outdoors and me being the reason of her disappearance.

However. Sting had been my ultimate goal of the night, and I had finally found him, slouched against Rogue Cheney on the dance floor, swaying back and forth like a drunken zombie.

"You," Sting drawled, bending the crook of his index finger onto my tie and tightening his grip on my collar, "look flustered."

Trying to keep my cool, I straightened and gently pried his hand away from my collar. "I am actually, and I need your help-"

"My help?" Sting asked, elated. "The great Gray Fullbus-"

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his jaw, painfully sick of people making fun of the fact that I was – well, to put it lightly – well known around our school. I just wanted to cut to the fucking chase and find Juvia. She couldn't have escaped on her own, she got a ride from someone.

"Where is Juvia?" My voice cut close to cracking, but I contained the entirety of my emotions into a thin grimace. Sting blinked slowly, like his eyelids were made of lead.

"Joovia?" Her name spilled from his lips like broken china. "I don't? I don't know-"

I couldn't contain my groan. He was too crocked to discern what I wanted, plus it looked like he'd been with Rogue for a majority of the evening.

"Nevermind." I, regrettably, pushed Sting away kind of harshly and walked away. I'd admit that in hindsight, it was pretty rude and uncalled for, but in my defense, I was just pissed about Juvia. I needed to see her, I needed to hear her voice – to tell me that I had imagined everything and she was still my best friend.

Fuck. Okay, scratch that. She was not my best friend – she had other friends, and just because I needed her more than she needed me didn't mean I got to call her my best friend.

That was a fresh scoop of reality for me, to be honest. Realizing that I wanted Juvia to be my friend more than she wanted to be mine. I liked her so damn much, she was funny, easy to be around, and just…real. But whenever I talked to her, I could see it. the glaze over her eyes, the way she looked, almost as if whenever I spoke to her it was like she was having a better, more interesting conversation with herself. She was a fucking strange ass girl, and I wanted her to be a part of my life, much more than I was willing to admit.

And I'd fucked up.

At least…I think I did…

After what seemed like hours of interrogation, I had given up. My back leaned against the horribly painted gym walls as the back of my head clunked against the corner. I didn't even flinch, I was too invested in my own thoughts. Juvia. A kiss. Why. Running. The echoing sound of her heels against the floor. Click clack. I couldn't get the sound out of my head. It was like the Call Me Maybe of my brain. No matter what radio frequency I switched to, it was always playing.

The music was like a dull lullaby in the background, nursing my ache to get the hell out of the school and go home, maybe look for Juvia out in the parking lot again. She had to have gone somewhere. But then again, by now she could be all the way to Canada and I wouldn't have even seen it coming.

I felt an angry twist in my gut, what if something bad happened to her? It was dark out, late, she was slow in her heels and her dress would surely prevent her from moving too quickly. What if someone couldn't see her right and hit her with their car? What is someone kidnapped her? What if she got stabbed in an alleyway?

My mind shuddered at the thought and I clung to the hope that Juvia would kick anyone's ass who tried to stab her. But then again, she wasn't superman.

I felt someone grab my forearm and I barely recognized it as Meredy.

"For fuck's sake," she grumbled as she hoisted my arm over her shoulder and began to haul me out of the gymnasium, as if I were drunk off my ass and not just dazed and confused.

By the time we were outside again, Meredy shoved me against the wall and got directly in my face, flaunting her dangerously tall heels with conviction.

"What the hell were you doing in there? You look like a fucking zombie! Did you pop a tab of molly in there? Where is Juvia? I figured at least she could take care of you-"

"Meredy," I pressed my hand to her mouth, sick of the screeching noise she emitted when she was upset. "Juvia is gone."

Meredy's mouth formed an 'o', before she recoiled.

"You…what? Gone? But how? Gray, you don't just lose a human being, you-"

To express my frustration, I only rubbed the sides of my temples and let my hands slide up and through my hair, fisting a few clumps as they passed. Useless.

Meredy sighed, sensing my discomforts she raised a matronly hand to my forehead, as if to feel for a temperature.

"Come on, let's get you home. You look like shit." She pulled up her dress a tiny bit and hooked her arm around mine, pulling me through the parking lot with authority.

"I can't leave…" I heard myself mumble, but it was like watching someone else move in my body. I couldn't fully stop myself from walking, and I couldn't fully keep myself upright. Was this what it was like being drunk? Or was I just confused because of stupid Juvia and her stupid heels-

"Yes, you can. God, it's like hauling a million potatoes, move, dumbass." Meredy pulled harder and I stumbled forward ungracefully.

"So, how did you lose Juvia? Is this like a metaphorical lose, where you finally realized at the end of the little adorable 80s sitcom you've got going on that she's the girl for you and you've been dicking around the whole time? Or did you physically lose her in that shitpile of people back there?" Meredy joked as she pulled me deeper into the parking lot. Her words were like alphabet soup, only some letters really sticking in my mind, lose, Juvia, people, nothing fully made sense.

"She ran," I managed to blurt out, before Meredy suddenly stopped in front of a silvery car. "She ran, and I…my fault, I mean-"

Meredy's eyes adjusted on me for a moment, as if she were attempting to decipher is my ramblings were those of a mad man, or just out of distraught.

"Oh, Gray." She mumbled as she leaned up and kissed my cheek. "It'll be ok."

For once, those words didn't seem so hollow.

"Ok." I echoed emotionlessly. "Ok…she…she's fine." Better off, even.

"That's the spirit…" Meredy mumbled. "I'm sure Juvia's off having a great time at the dance, right?"

The dance…yeah…she probably went back…

"Right." I felt myself agree. "The dance."

"Yeah we get it, you love her, now shut up and get in the car." Meredy insisted, pushing my forward into the passenger seat. "If Lyon finds out I let you flirt tonight he'll kill me."

"Lyon can piss off," I fired back, probably the first intelligent thing I'd said after Juvia's untimely disappearance.

Meredy laughed, and then started the car. The details of Juvia's disappearance lingered on my tongue. Should I tell Meredy that she kissed me? Was it some girl code that I was supposed to do something after that?

I decided against the details while Meredy turned the radio up. Juvia would be fine, just a minor lapse. She might've kissed me by accident, if anything.

My lips stung and I touched them subconsciously. An accident.

This would all be over by Monday. All I had to do was smile, tease her, and she'd laugh and forgive me.

Haha. Right.

I might not have known Juvia for more than a few weeks now, but I knew one thing about her – things didn't just wave away like they would in the movies. And things definitely weren't going to be easy. I had no choice but to rip it off like a bandaid. Nice, quick, and stubbornly painful.

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Two things.

One – the Monday after prom is perhaps the most unconventional, most mundane day to ever exist. I imagined that it had to be something like the day after a bachelor party, or the day before your mother's funeral.

Two – Juvia was not at school.

I mean, I guess I could understand why. Maybe she was embarrassed. Juvia was a woman constructed by her pride, she almost let herself get pushed off a fucking cliff by Evergreen and her goonies just because she wanted to deal with that whole situation all by herself, a knight in shining armor.

So yeah. Maybe she was embarrassed that she had kissed me, but it wasn't like it meant anything, right?

It certainly felt like something to me in the moment, but I was willing to sweep that aside for the sake of our friendship. I was no stranger to pretending something never happened, so why would it be any different with her?

I felt my heartbeat in my lips all of a sudden – that tended to happen whenever I thought too hard about the kiss, I couldn't be sure why. Probably some nervous psychology shit.

Nonetheless, I was completely alone with my thoughts in Physics. Too stubborn to text her and ask where she was – ask what was wrong, why she ran from me – but too curious to completely ignore it.

My fingers had been tapping against my desk for ten minutes too long – I couldn't stop anxiously tap-tap-tapping, like the stupid repetitive sound of her heels in the school hallway, which had been haunting me all weekend.

"Could you stop with that annoying sound?" Natsu snarled, noticing my habit picking up tempo on the side of my desk. The more I thought about Juvia, the more nervous I got. Which made for a not-so-healthy combination when responding to Natsu.

"Shut the fuck up." I replied without a beat in between, my eyes still fixed on my fingers.

"Whoa. Someone's wound pretty tight. Did you make some unforgettable mistakes on prom night?" He asked sweetly. I fought the urge to growl, and would've said something unappealing about his time at prom, before I remembered that he had gone with Lucy, whom I respected. And I didn't need another reason to make Juvia upset with me, badmouthing Lucy would put me pretty high on her kill list. Assuming I wasn't already public enemy #1.

"Why don't you turn around and pay attention? For once?" I suggested bitterly, keeping my voice to a low groan so the teacher wouldn't sense I wanted Natsu to be vaporized on the spot.

"Okay, jeez." I heard him turn around and I breathed out in relief. Natsu was my friend, don't get me wrong. But I could only take so much of him in one day, you know? And today happened to be zero tolerance day in Gray-land.

Today apparently was zero tolerance day for everyone. I spent the rest of my classes biting everyone's head off, chewing them up, and spitting them out, even if all they were asking for was a pencil to borrow. I was just not having it. My mind was too busily occupied with thoughts of Juvia and anxiety.

"Hey," this girl, Sherry, from my math class, leaned onto her desk and poked me in the arm. "Are you okay? You seem down."

She pouted and her orange-y lips looked like they were coated in a layer of sap. That was…lip gloss, I think. One time Ultear gave me a class on makeup and everything they did, but that was like an entire different world to me. Sherry's was distracting, nonetheless. And whenever she talked to me, she blinked like she had something caught in her eyelash. She was also kind of fake. Almost as fake as her electric pink hair.

"I'm fine." I grumbled, shifting my arm over to the side of the desk that she was leaning on to form a metaphorical wall between us.

She pouted, her soggy bottom lip protruding out. That couldn't be comfortable, could it? How could you wear that goop on your lips without licking it off a millisecond later?

Either this girl had the world's best self control, or she just liked to be tortured.

Probably why I didn't have a lot of female friends, actually. Just Meredy and Juvia, sometimes Kinana, but I had the feeling she didn't actually like me per se, she was just nice to everybody.

I didn't have a lot of friends in general. Probably because there's only a handful of qualities I can physically handle every day.

Sherry gave up on trying to press me for details a minute later, probably distracted by something in her nails, which were covered in this glittery shit that looked like it had been scooped off of a strip club floor.

I couldn't stop thinking. About Juvia, I mean. Had she done this on purpose? Just so she'd consume my every waking thought?

It was annoying. Usually my thoughts ranged from hockey, to food, and maybe occasionally to Juvia, but nothing of this magnitude. And the fact that she'd ditched school was only making me more curious.

Juvia always was secretive, but there was something distinctly different about this. And I wasn't about to sit around again. If I'd sat around last time, maybe Evergreen would've succeeded in blackmailing her and pushing her into the ocean.

I wasn't about to let Juvia win this game.

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Juvia's house was just as normal as I remembered it. For some reason, I kept picturing it in my head, covered in police tape, or burnt to the ground, like the only reason Juvia would run away from me was because of some separate issue. But I was wrong, of course, and everything appeared to be in place.

I walked up to her door, my keys jingling anxiously in my hands, and I hoped that it would be her to answer the door when I knocked. My plan was to lure her out of the house by offering to buy her coffee, and then she'd get in my car and I'd drive her there, inevitably forcing her to talk to me.

I froze. After I replayed my plan in my head, it became much, much creepier.

I shook my head. Forget the plan. Just talk to Juvia.

Of course, she wasn't the one to answer the door. Instead, her father appeared, tall and young as ever, except for the fact that he was donned in a pink crewneck sweater that said Lucky Bachelorette and had a kazoo in his hand.

That was different. Although I suspected that nothing near normal was on the daily agenda in the Lockser household.

Her father's eyes almost burst in surprise.

"Gray Fullbuster!" He greeted excitedly, almost forgetting that he was dressed like a crazy aunt with 15 cats. I suppose it was good that he remembered me, I could imagine the stories Juvia might tell them at the dinner table. Maybe something along the lines of 'hey! My friend from school kidnaps me sometimes and buys me coffee! How neat is that?'

I cringed at my own thoughts, aside from the fact that I was stalling, I could never seriously imagine Juvia saying the word "neat" without being immediately followed by one of her signature baby-bird-killing scowls.

"Uh…Mr. Lockser…" I sputtered, unsure of what else I was supposed to say.

He waved it away. "Please, call me Mark. Mr. Lockser is my father. And he's a total ass." He blinked, remembering that he was in the presence of one of his daughter's friends and not his own. "What are you…?" He trailed off, regaining his senses, before a look of realization passed his face.

"Okay…Mark. What's with the…" My eyes traipsed his outfit and he laughed.

"Sorry about this…Juvia just got her acceptance letter to her dream school." He said, and I would have to be deaf to miss the pride in his voice. I felt a stab of jealousy and Mark put the kazoo in his mouth and made a festive noise before looking back at me. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Uh…right. Can I speak with Juvia?" I asked, trying to sound as respectful as possible. I'd heard stories of the fathers being the hardest to deal with, even though I knew I shouldn't have any problems with Mark, at the moment it seemed like I was an outsider instead of friend.

His frown was an immediate bad sign. "Listen, Gray. You're a great kid."

There was a but somewhere, I could sense it. Just what was going on?

"But…my daughter always comes first." He affirmed, looking back into his home. I felt empty. I didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but something told me that on prom night, I had done something terribly wrong.

"I'm sorry." He apologized again, even though he didn't sound sorry. His eyes kept flickering back into his house, excited to get back to the small celebration.

"…Alright. I'll see you later…Mark." I spoke, trying not to sound prickly. It wasn't his fault, he was just protecting Juvia, regardless of how he felt about me. I would've done the same.

He shut the door and there I was again. Answer-less, and alone. It felt like prom night again, the sound of Juvia's heels disappearing into the hall like a passing train.

I lingered on the front doorstep for a moment or so, trying to figure out what my next move was. Obviously she was going to have to come to school at some point. But even then, would she refuse to speak with me there? I didn't doubt she had an unlimited number of tricks up her sleeve when it came to holding a grudge.

My problem was, what the fuck was she holding a grudge over?

I took a few steps back, admiring the view. It was weird to think that I'd only been there once before. That was a story for another time, I supposed. Still. If I made my way around the back, maybe I could get a glimpse inside…

Whoa. I blinked hazily. I needed to get out of here, that was a little too felonious for my tastes.

I needed a second opinion. And soon.

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"Kidnap her."

I rolled my eyes. "I thought I said we were steering clear of illegal activities."

Ultear gave me an eye roll that rivaled my own. "Well, then, I'm afraid I can't help you."

"Christ." I groaned. Why had I even come to her for advice? Oh yeah, that's right. She was the only member of my family who wasn't my parents and whom Juvia didn't despise.

Ultear held up a blue and pink popsicle stick and pressed it to her nails, and then began to move it back and forth, making a horrible grinding sound as she progressed.

"I'm telling you Gray," She repeated, "I can't help you if you won't tell me what you did."

"I didn't do anything." I reiterated, for what felt like the billionth time despite her being the only one I'd sorta confided in.

Which…now that I think about it…was a terrible plan…trusting Ultear? I must be so far beyond desperate I've transcended to complete lunacy.

Ultear laughed, loud and shrill. "Oh yes, you definitely did."

I sat up off of her frilly bedspread. "I'm telling you I didn't. Don't you trust me, Ul?"

She shook her head at my bitter sarcasm, but still dignified a response.

"Gray, 'Via isn't the Joker. She wouldn't do something for no reason, just because she felt like being an unpredictable asshole. You did something, and it was something big, and bad." She explained, blowing on her nails once she finished grinding them.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Since when do you call her 'Via?" The nickname was unfamiliar to me, I don't know why it ticked me off, it just did.

Ultear huffed. "Seriously? That's what you picked out from that?"

I shrugged, before sighing. I felt like going to sleep for an eternity. Maybe I'd wake up when mind reading was a thing and I'd finally be able to figure out what the hell was going on in Juvia's head.

"How do I fix this?" I decided on asking, seeing how we weren't getting anywhere in decoding the mysteries.

Ultear smiled, sickeningly sweet, making me regret I asked in an instant.

"I am so glad you asked."

"Whatever you're thinking, I'm not gonna do that." I said, not caring whatever harebrained scheme she was cooking up in her tiny little head.

"I didn't even say anything! Besides, I've seen, like, a gajillion rom-coms. I'm skilled when it comes to winning your girl back." She told me, shuffling forward on her knees like she was about to beg me to let her help me.

"She's not my girl." I scoffed. "I just need a quick remedy." What was it with people and assuming Juvia and I were a couple? We weren't like that. I mean, until, prom night. I think. I hope.

Ugh. I hated this awful confusion. I wish I could just know exactly how she felt, and maybe even exactly how I felt.

It was her turn to scoff. "Quick remedies don't exist in romance, Gray."

I glared at her cheeky little smile. She was eating this shit up.

"It's not romance. Juvia and I are strictly-"

"Friends? Colleagues? Acquaintances? Please, Gray. Spare me your pathetic 'I'm-an-emotionless-boy' act. Because that's probably reason number one why Juvia dumped your ass on the sidewalk like yesterday's Juicy Couture." She glowered, leaning forward so that her elbows were resting on my bent knees.

"That's-"

She held a hand up, effectively silencing me. God, why was I listening to her? How old was she, like 13? She was such a brat it made me bite my cheeks to keep from cursing her out.

"Don't bother trying to defend yourself. We all know you bottle up your emotions and sink them to the bottom of the sea instead of, you know, talking to your friends and family." Ultear averted her eyes for a second, and I could swear I caught a glimpse of anger, or maybe pain in her eyes. But it was wiped away in a matter of seconds as she continued. "You need to be honest and open with yourself as well as everyone around you. That's step one. And if you can't even get past step one, then maybe you don't deserve to have Juvia back."

I blinked. She said all of that in only a few seconds. I was puzzled.

"What do you mean by-"

She held her hand up again. "I think you need to be asking yourself these questions, Gray. Not me."

I blinked again. Since when did my 13 year old bratty sister offer sage, counseling-worthy advice?

At least, I think that's what all that was.

She smirked, satisfied with what she'd done.

"I only take cash, by the way." She informed me greedily. I gave her the side-eye. I may have appreciated her words, but there was no way in hell I was paying her for it.

"Do you have any ideas, or not?" I asked gruffly. She patted her hair – which was conveniently tucked away in an intricate Juvia-like fashion – and sat down next to me on her bed.

"One question. Have you ever seen The Notebook?"

"No kissing in the rain."

"You're killing me Gray. Really, honestly, killing me."

"Next." I clarified. She really was getting into the idea of these rom-com movies.

"How about…Sixteen Candles?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No."

"Oh, that was mean…no wonder Juvia hates you…"

I flicked her neck in annoyance. She yelped and rubbed her neck, like I had shot her instead of merely flicked. She had a knack for overreacting. Even though I loved her, she sure knew how to push my buttons.

"Alright, alright. What about…Say Anything?"

I sighed, loud and long, unable to believe I had been compromised in this position.

"I'm listening."

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I figured that before I did anything truly outrageous to attempt Juvia's attention, I'd see if she actually showed up at school after three straight absences. She couldn't keep away forever, not if she wanted to keep that acceptance letter.

Ultear told me that this was a bad idea – that if she really wanted to talk to me, she would've done it already, and that approaching her in a public setting could be dangerous – but I promptly ignored her. Just because she was my little sister didn't mean I was going to let her take the reigns full time, you know.

I eyed her government class carefully. I hardly knew anyone in the class – maybe this was a hazard of being an "antisocial douchebag" as Meredy so kindly referred to me as whenever she was pissed. Or maybe it was just full of kids I didn't know.

Speaking of kids I didn't know. Erza Scarlet and Jellal Fernandes pulled up to the classroom simultaneously, too absorbed into their own conversation to notice me lurking by the door. Maybe this was for the best. Or…maybe not.

It's funny how even after going to the same school for four years straight, you could really find yourself knowing nothing about someone who may have sat directly across from you for an entire year. Erza Scarlet may have had the reputation of an Amazon in the gymnasium, but I had spoken to her personally, maybe twice. Her rumors spoke for her, it seemed.

But I knew for a fact she was close with Juvia. They had arrived to the prom party together. Jellal was actually a nice guy, I recognized him from the occasional gymnastics meet. They were a power couple, from what I'd heard.

Not that it mattered to me. I had a strict agenda.

I forced myself to move in front of them, blocking the entrance to the classroom. From the looks of surprise on both of their faces, this was probably a rude move, which hadn't been my intention. Oh well.

"Hey." I said, trying to be friendly, although even I couldn't fool myself this time. The hostility was evident and it came out as more of a gruff demand than a kind greeting.

Erza's thin, brown eyes narrowed. She really knew how to be intimidating, but I didn't really have anything to lose.

"Can we help you?" She asked sharply, making it seem like even if I replied with a "yes" her services wouldn't be made available.

"Maybe," I answered instead. "Can you tell me where Juvia is?"

Erza looked at Jellal, as if silently communicating "get a load of this guy" in their very own couple's language. Jellal sighed and shrugged at her.

"Who wants to know?" Erza questioned. My eyebrows furrowed.

"Me. Pretty sure I made that clear." Yikes. I could feel myself slipping into frustration, and taking it out on Juvia's friends wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had taken a wrong turn into no man's land.

"Listen." Erza said harshly, suddenly inches away from me. She was tall, in a reeling sort of way, she hung just below my eyes and yet she seemed to be as high as a skyscraper. Jellal watched silently, hanging behind with a slight dip in his eyes, a look of disappointment. Was that directed at me? Did they know something I didn't?

"You might think you have noble intentions," Erza continued. Right. She was talking to me. I met her glaring gaze and took the storm on headfirst. "But I know trouble when I see it. Stay away from her, if you know what's good for you."

Erza spun around, her red-velvet ponytail slapping me in the chin as she did so. I closed my eyes and let out a breath. That wasn't how I saw that going, at all.

Still. The exit of Jellal and Erza into the classroom left the hallway open for a potential Juvia run-in.

Yup. Like I was actually going to follow the advice of a scary gymnast.

It felt like I stood there for the entirety of the day. In reality, it only totaled up to about 20 minutes, and that was only because I had arrived at school particularly early due to Lyon trying to catch some breakfast deal at McDonald's at the crack of dawn. I managed to hitch a ride only after I promised not to tell Mom and Dad that he had a bottle of Jack Daniel's nursed away under his bed for times of trouble.

That was beside the point. There were only three minutes until class officially began when I started to lose hope.

Of course, in times of dire hope is when the miracles begin.

I saw her from across the hall, headed my way. She looked just as I remembered her, which made a ton of sense considering I'd only been on Juvia-withdrawal for less than a week.

She was wearing a faded navy t-shirt with a white insignia of a boat anchor, and matching white lace print shorts that hugged her thighs like lotion to skin. Her soft dark blue hair was pulled up into a rough ponytail, and she was looking down at her shoes like she was counting the steps it took to get to class. I was suddenly struck with the memory of her forgetting to wear shoes to school. I felt myself smile, before I pulled my lips back down into a thin line. It was time to get serious. This was my chance to finally get some answers.

"Juvia." I called, surprising myself with the quiet calm of my own voice. It sounded rehearsed. She looked up, doe-eyes startled like I'd honked at her from my car.

Her hands instinctively flew to her backpack straps, she was only 20 feet away from me, but I could see the flurry of emotion in her eyes.

Now I knew Juvia wasn't exactly a master of subtlety. But what she did next was so obvious it was criminal.

In one second, she wheeled around, facing the opposite direction, and speed-walked away.

I blinked. Hard. What the fuck?

Shaking my head, I took off to follow her, moving fast enough that I knew I would catch up in about 15 seconds. I turned the corner and froze. She was gone. A-fucking-gain.

I pressed my hands to the sides of my eyes. She couldn't have been far, she was just here, she was hiding from me, but why?

"Hey! Kid!" An adult voice boomed from behind me. I turned around, almost zombie-like. My one goal of the day had been foiled, I didn't have much else to work for. It might also be that ever-so-rumored senior slide affecting me.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" The freshmen year math teacher asked me, almost giddy that he had caught me in the act of almost skipping. Class hadn't even technically started, this guy must be beyond dead inside to be this excited over busting me for not really doing anything.

"Shouldn't you be teaching?" I retorted, the bite in my voice absent. It was like talking through a pipe, I just didn't have any energy to deal with this guy. He looked like he'd been through enough. His floppy brown hair was thinning and sad-looking, and his glasses rested messily on the tip of his nose. I don't even want to talk about the state of his clothing.

The teacher's eyes narrowed at me, upset that his authority had been challenged by a punk kid who happened to be a good three inches taller than him. Then again, I was taller than most of my teachers. Maybe this guy just wasn't used to it, busy teaching five foot nothing freshmen.

I should probably give him a break. Everyone was tired, school was almost over, I shouldn't even bother being an asshole. We're all just trying to make it through the day.

"Young man," he began, already leaving a sour taste in my mouth. "I suggest you find your way to class before I give you detention."

I don't get it. All teachers threaten detention like it's five years in Alcatraz. All it is, is an hour of peace and quiet I wouldn't get at my own home. Not all that bad.

Plus, the way he called me "young man" kind of pissed me off. I got it. He was older than me. Who really gave a fuck.

"I suggest you close your fly." I replied coolly, relying on my earlier observation that in his messy teaching outfit he'd forgotten to zip up his own pants.

His jaw opened and closed, before looking down to see that I was indeed correct. He kind of turned red, like a cherry jolly rancher in the sun. I lifted my eyebrows, embarrassed for him that he was losing a minor battle with a half-asleep teen.

"Didn't anyone teach you to respect your elders?" He asked through gritted teeth while zipping up his fly.

I shrugged, unsure why I was wasting my time with this guy.

"Sure. They also taught me to zip after I put my pants on, but I suppose your parents skipped that step, didn't they?" I implied, lightly shaking my head like it couldn't be helped.

"That's it." He said, now he was fuming. I wasn't sure who exactly got his panties in a twist, but it was safe to say that they had been knotted boyscout-style long before I decided to fuck with him. A dick move on my part, but could you blame me? I was pissed. Juvia was blatantly ignoring me, and Ultear sucked at plans, and I couldn't talk to anyone else about my frustrations. Might as well vent out my anger on an uptight teacher. "I'm giving you detention."

Hooray. An hour of contented silence, maybe accompanied by Natsu. Less hooray.

"Sure thing." I muttered out of disinterest.

He cocked an eyebrow, confused that I wasn't cowering in fear like his limp little freshmen.

"If you're that happy about it, better make it a week of detention." He sniffed.

I knew very well that he was out of step, but I shrugged again. "Knock yourself out, man."

His lip twitched awkwardly, like a caterpillar that had fallen from its tree. "Fine." He spat, before retreating into his classroom, most likely to get me my detention slips.

The school bell rang, informing me that I was officially late, no thanks to me being a major asshole.

Nice move Gray. At this rate, I'd be arrested before I even took one more step in Juvia's direction.

.

.

.

Physics was a different story. Juvia couldn't run from me in there, the closed classroom confinement ought to bring her to her senses.

Then again. We were talking about Juvia here.

I sighed loudly and rolled my bag onto the floor next to my desk. I felt like strategizing on how I would approach her would be overkill, but she seemed flat out determined to pretend that I didn't exist. Something I didn't take too kindly too.

I didn't want to feel it, but I was getting pissed off. The last thing I wanted was to confront her with bitterness, but it was getting to that point. Keeping my emotions in check when Juvia was around was like trying to hold onto a swarm of bees. It just wasn't possible. She had that way with people, a way of bringing out the most of every emotion. It was both terrifying and honorable.

My eyes stayed glued on Lucy Heartfilia and Levy Mcgarden, two girls whom I had minimal experience talking too. They were both pretty girls, in their own respective ways, and nice enough. I just didn't get around to that much socializing.

I knew they were Juvia's friends, though. That and Natsu was obsessed with Lucy. In the weirdest way, too. He always managed to wriggle Lucy into every conversation despite me and the rest of his friends trying our best to stop him from doing so. It was a talent. Like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with Lucy. For example, a conversation revolving around homework. Homework was on paper. Paper came from trees. Trees were outdoors. The sun was outdoors. The sun was yellow. Lucy's hair was yellow. Lucy.

It was exhausting, really.

Levy looked at the clock on the wall and shook her head, mentioning the name Lisanna Strauss. That girl could barely keep her head on straight let alone arrive to class on time or without books flying out of her hands in every direction. It was actually kind of funny seeing how she would arrive every day, and in what shape.

I tapped my hands on my desk and watched the door, waiting for her to walk in so I could make my move.

Yikes. Again with the context. It seemed like no matter how I phrased what I was about to do, it always got a murderer-vibe.

Then, she made her appearance.

Half of her hair had fallen out of her ponytail, like she'd wandered through a hurricane on her way to class. Clumps of curly blue hair framed her face and despite it all, I still thought she looked pretty good. Sue me - I had eyes. Even if Juvia was my friend, I could admit that she was clearly a 10/10 even when she looked like a drunken sloth.

Her eyes flickered across the classroom. They lingered on me, and for a moment we made clear eye contact, for the second time that day. She yanked her eyes elsewhere, like she had been staring directly into the sun. Motherfucker.

I stood up, my chair making an unpleasant groaning noise at the unexpected force and speed of my departure. I saw Juvia's eyes bulge at the sound, they were wide and blue like a whirlpool and she jerked away so fast her hair swung around.

It didn't matter. She couldn't ignore me forever.

"Juvia." I said, sending my hand forward to lightly grab her forearm. It was a little direct, but I really needed to get my point across.

She looked around for an escape, but I had cornered her at the classroom door. She was too far away from her seat in the back to slip past me. I pulled her out of the classroom so we could avoid an audience for what I was sure was going to be a spectacle.

When I stopped pulling her, she swallowed and bit the inside of her cheek. Why was she acting like this? Like I had murdered her hamster and thrown it to the wolves. She remained silent.

"Why won't you talk to me?" I demanded, wishing I could've sounded more calm and collected.

She tilted her head and breathed out, still refusing to meet my eyes stubbornly. She was starting to really piss me off.

"Is this about what happened at prom night? Because-"

Her head snapped up like I had awakened her from a decade of slumber.

"Nothing happened!" She said quickly, the words jumbled and frantic. Her eyes were pleading, almost sad. Maybe I had misjudged the situation.

"Okay," I said, breathing a sigh of relief and releasing her arm, which I had begun to squeeze a good bit too tightly. She looked away, a shaken, shameful story written on her face.

I really had misjudged this. This whole time, I thought she was mad. Now she just looks…sad.

"You know," she started, rubbing the spot where I'd grabbed her arm. I felt a pang of regret, but she continued without meeting my gaze asking for forgiveness. "You don't have to pretend to be my friend anymore."

Now that was something I wasn't expecting.

"You're…what?" I stammered. A million conversations ran through my mind like a sped up record. Me telling her hundreds of times how much her friendship mattered to me, me buying her coffee, talking to her, alone in a hotel room, alone in my room-

Didn't she fucking realize how much she meant to me?

I blinked a little bit at the severity of my own thoughts before directing my attention back to what it should be on – Juvia.

She scoffed like I was stupid for not knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"Come on Gray. You've got your college. I've got mine. We don't have any use for each other any more." She said icily.

I felt my heart seize up. Why was she doing this to me? Had she always felt this way? I had accused her of using me last week, and she had yelled at me for even suggesting the thought. And now, she was throwing it back in my face?

My mouth went dry, but the words were already falling out. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize our friendship was for commercial benefit only." I said back, just as coldly as she had fired her response. A familiar flame went off behind her eyes and her lip curled. I had provoked the dragon. The problem was, I was more than happy to take the heat. I'd rather have heat than nothing at all.

"Don't act so stupid. You and I both know this could never work out." She said, her voice cracked on the last syllable, and she looked shocked and embarrassed for herself, but only for a moment.

The question was on my lips. But I think I already knew the answer.

"What could never work out? What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, but I felt numb. I knew the answer. I just didn't know why.

She froze up, the word in her mouth. I wanted her to say it. I wanted to hear it in her voice, sharp and beautiful.

Instead, she lowered her eyes, and shook her head, over, and over again, before pushing against me and almost running back to class and to her seat.

I wanted to pretend I hadn't seen the light hit her hidden eyes. I wanted to pretend she wasn't about to cry. But I knew what I saw, and no amount of delusions could make me forget.

I stood in the doorway, my fists clenched, until I felt like there was nothing left I could do. I walked back to my seat, sparing her as many looks as I could. Her back was turned to me, and I could hear her lightly conversing with her friends. They looked shaken, like they had overheard a majority of our less-than-private conversation, if you could even call it a conversation.

"If you want, I'll inject him with my insulin," Lucy's soft voice threatened in a playful, friendly way towards Juvia. I knew they were talking about me. I didn't really care what they thought.

I cared what Juvia thought, though.

"It'll probably only give him low blood sugar, but still…"

"Thanks, Luce. But it's not necessary." Juvia replied quietly.

Can't break what's already broken, I thought miserably. This day was shaping up to be all and all the shittiest day of my high school career.

I just don't understand. Why was she so sad? And why was she pretending that everything was over?

I remembered the answer to my question. What could never work out? It was us. She wanted to say us. I don't know how I knew, but I'd never been more sure of anything else.

The question was, why would she phrase it like that? Us is definitely a word that provoked romantic interest. We were just friends. Why was she worrying about all of that?

That's when the tiny voice in the back of my head began its inquiries. "If you're just friends, then why did she kiss you?"

I didn't know. I just didn't know. Hell, I didn't even know how I felt. I had been so worried about her I didn't even think about what I had thought of the kiss – of everything that had happened.

The physics lecture was all but nonsense in my head. All I could think, see, and hear were my emotions. Anger, raw and red, at myself for the most part. I had done this, undoubtedly. I had hurt her, both her arm and her feelings. I couldn't shake the shine of tears in her eyes as she walked away from me. A stabbing sensation echoed in my gut. My fault. I'd never felt more guilt or anger over someone's feelings like this before. I wanted to make her feel better. I had no fucking idea how, but if I didn't do it soon, I'd lose my mind.

What was it that Ultear had said? "You need to be honest and open with yourself as well as everyone around you. That's step one. And if you can't even get past step one, then maybe you don't deserve to have Juvia back."

Honest and open with myself. If that was the only way to fix this, I'd do it. I had to.

.

.

.

That was it. Detention definitely felt longer when you were running out of time to patch up one of the most meaningful relationships in your life. Or it might've just been me.

I'd only been sitting for four minutes when this epiphany dawned on me. Some saint I was.

There were only three kids there, all junior guys. I recognized them from the basketball team, I think. They were making half-assed comments about me under their breath, something to do with hockey and the state championships. Probably regarding the rumor that I had beat the shit out of some guy on the opposing team for the final matchup. Don't have any idea how that one started, Kinana told me some time ago that it was because sometimes I look kind of "scary and brooding" but I took that with a grain of salt because she saw her boyfriend, Cobra Drake, brooding scary guy extraordinaire, as a giant cuddlebear.

Just then, somebody new arrived. Somebody I recognized.

It was Gajeel Redfox, Juvia's close friend and local walking advertisement for delinquency. Or something like that, I think that's what Natsu called him. He just looked like the kind of guy that would knock your teeth out for looking at him funny, but he went to prom with Levy Mcgarden, so I suppose looks could be deceiving.

Then, an idea struck.

Like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Gajeel. Juvia's friend. Juvia. He knew her. Maybe he had information.

I lifted my head up and carefully watched him take his seat. Then I hauled my shit and went to go sit by him, causing the junior guys to lose their shit and scramble up a new rumor, I could see it now. "Hockey Star Befriends Piercing Mascot, an Unexpected Duo."

And they said girls were gossipy. Stereotyping was so shitty.

Gajeel looked at me like I had lost my marbles. I wanted to tell him that Juvia Lockser had stolen them.

"Pretty boy," he acknowledged my presence. I didn't bother correcting him, what did I care? I was here for strictly business.

"Redfox." I greeted, surprisingly monotone. "Can I talk to you?

"I don't suppose I can stop you." He shrugged, giving me the go-ahead. I was about to start asking him questions at rapid-fire, but he asked me a question instead.

"What brings you here?" He asked, looking out at the whiteboard casually, like he had expected this exchange to happen all along. Puzzled, I barely formed an answer.

"Uh…backtalk." I admitted, semi embarrassed that it wasn't something more badass. He smiled softly. "You?"

"I ate one of the teacher's pet rats." He replied, glancing at his fingernails with pride. I subconsciously scooted my chair back and he laughed.

"Jesus fuck you kids will believe anything." He laughed harder, and I felt myself lean in and almost smile. He had a weird sense of humor, but it was oddly infectious.

"We're the same age." I replied dryly.

"Sure thing kid."

My eyebrows lowered. I got the feeling he enjoyed the benefits of his brutish appearance a little bit too much.

"So, Juvia." He began, without asking me what I wanted to ask him about in the first place. "I hear you've been having some issues on that boulevard?"

I blinked. "Uh…yes. Exactly. And you're close with her, I just need some…insight. Man-to-man." I clarified.

He looked at me like I was the dumbest fuck to ever walk this earth. And the weird thing was, his look was so intense I actually started to believe it.

Then he exhaled, like he was preparing himself for the worse. "Well. Spit it out. What do you want to know?"

I sat back, surprised he had actually given me the time of day instead of just clocking me in the jaw and telling me to stay the fuck away from Juvia, something I would've done if I was in his position, regrettably enough.

"What did I do?" I asked immediately, wishing that he was Juvia herself and not just a messenger.

He sighed, as if to say "it's complicated".

"Nothing, apparently."

I squinted. What the hell did that mean?

Gajeel shook his head. He really must've thought I was a dumbass.

"Nevermind." Gajeel muttered. "Any other questions?"

My jaw dropped and then shut. He didn't even answer it. Well, he kind of did, but it didn't resolve any confusion.

"Did she…did she kiss me?" I asked him, quieter this time. It wasn't that I really doubted we had, I just wanted to hear it from someone else. I wanted the bizarre to become tangible.

He nodded gravely. There's one straight answer.

I stopped for a moment, thinking it over. How exactly did he know all of this stuff?

"Just…how much does Juvia tell you about what goes on in her life?" I asked hollowly.

"Everything." He said, in dead seriousness.

I swallowed, not sure if what I was feeling was jealousy or embarrassments. Of course Juvia had friends she talked to a lot. Just because I met her a few weeks ago and was already attached to her didn't make me number one on her friends list.

"Then…you know our friendship wasn't fake…at least, not to me, right?" I asked him carefully, praying he'd give me the same answer as the one in my head.

He paused for a moment, before nodding. I smiled, feeling relief flood through me. "Thank god I'm not the only one."

"I also know, that your…" he stopped, thinking for a moment, "friendship isn't the normal kind…"

I chewed on that for a minute, not expecting that conclusion. I was so sick of having to question every little thing someone said to me.

"I don't follow."

Gajeel heaved a breath. "Of course you don't."

I snapped. "Look, if you think you can just-"

He waved his hands in front of me. "Alright, alright, relax. Just so you know, Juvia always told me how smart you were. I'm beginning to think she might've been a bit mislead."

I tried not to feel like he had fed me that information just to butter me up. Juvia? Complimenting me behind my back? Sounded like a deleted Twilight Zone episode.

"You might be smart," he breathed out, "but you're as dense as a motherfucking brick."

Dense? That was a word I hadn't heard before.

I felt a million more questions pop up into my brain, and before I could start mentally sorting them into a list graded by importance, I knew I really only had one question left.

"How do I make it right?"

He grinned, slowly, like a shark with its eyes on a tasty, unsuspecting scuba diver.

"You're asking the wrong person."

Great. Another cryptic question, just what I needed.

I was about to look him right in his unsettling red eyes and tell him off, but then it hit me.

Ultear's voice, telling me to be honest with myself. My neglect of my own thoughts and feelings. I thought back to prom night – dancing with Juvia, the way she froze up when I talked to her. Her nervousness on the floor and the way she looked at me. The way it felt when she kissed me.

I paused at that memory. What had it felt like? What had I thought of it?

And I wasn't thinking about quality – no, it had nothing to do with that. I was thinking about how it felt to have her that close to me, to be near her after being around her and talking to her that night, her voice, her smiling eyes, her arms…

How had it felt? It wasn't nice, or good.

It just felt…right.

I leaned down, grabbed my bag, and stood up. I was an idiot for taking this long.

"I have to go." I said to no one in particular, and then I left detention, without a single fuck to give left in the bank.

.

.

.

I feel like Ultear warned me about this.

On the drive out of the parking lot from school, like god himself wanted to flip me off one last time before I threw myself into the abyss, it began to rain. Slowly at first, but by the time I actually got into gear and started driving full speed, it was pouring like someone upstairs decided to dump the entirety of the Indian Ocean on top of my car.

Not that I cared. I had been so stupid. I should've just listened to everybody. Including Ultear. She was the one with the thing for dramatics and the rain, after all.

I gripped the steering wheel, tight. This was probably about the stupidest thing I've done since actually go with my gut and try to attend business school. And by stupid, I meant amazing. And by amazing I meant terrifying.

I realized it. And it was fucking Gajeel Mcstuds to help me do so, of all people.

I had been so busy trying to ask everyone else questions, I forgot to ask myself.

And now I knew the answer. At least, I was pretty sure I did. I guess I'd know when I got there.

I drove for ten minutes straight, my eyes glued to the window washers wiping the pounding rain off of my windshield. It barely helped, I could still barely see and had to be guided by the cars ahead of me. But I remembered the way, and I knew it well.

Only five more minutes. The roads turned suburban and the bends got steeper. My mind whirred like a brand new clock that had just found the time. I felt like a clock, too. I could feel the time ticking in my veins, like if I took too long in one place I'd flatline on the spot.

I'd never really been a fan of self-realization, or any of that knowing yourself bullshit, because it had never really mattered until now. I never had anything to lose. Now that I did have something to lose, it seemed like there was a slight possibility I could be too late.

Whatever. I was almost there anyway, and I wasn't just going to let myself sink halfway out to sea.

When I pulled into her driveway is when I began to have second thoughts. They buzzed around my head like unkillable mosquitoes, whispering doubts with conviction. I didn't really have time for them at the moment, so I swatted them away, even though they were all just in my head. The doubts had manifested so much it was almost like they were there, living, breathing, and yelling at me to turn back and that I was making a mistake.

I'd made enough mistakes. This couldn't be one of them.

Juvia's house looked just as alive in the rain as it did in the sun. It was without a doubt her home. It held a piece of her, maybe it was the way the house smelt. Or maybe that was just the rain, which kind of reminded me of her too.

With horrifying gravity, I realized a lot of things reminded me of her. I saw her in things that weren't even relevant.

My hands gripped the steering wheel. That was it, I was scared. And it was the kind of fear that solidifies in your blood, and clogs your throat until the only thing you can do is open and shut your eyes. The kind of fear that's rendering me immobile, sitting in my car like a stunned idiot in front of Juvia's soaking wet house.

There's only two bits of advice I can clearly recall when it comes to paralyzing fear. There was Lyon's voice, telling me to "man up and quit acting like a pussy," words that my father may or may not agree with, and then there was my mother's voice, cool and knowing, telling me to "take a deep breath and jump." She used that advice for a lot of stuff actually. It always gave me the impression that she had tried a lot of stuff in college.

Nevertheless, I felt like my mom's advice was more valuable, and that it was all I could afford to do now.

I opened my car door, pulled my jacket over my head, and ran towards her house.

Only, I didn't stop at her front door,

I looped around the side of her house, dashing past some bushes and plants that had been somewhat neglected in trimming, and had grown past their limitations and crept towards the side windows of the house. I ran past the kitchen window, which was only slightly visible past the sheets of rain that were pouring down relentlessly. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

I kept running, my feet working endlessly like the hands of a clock. Until I was finally in the backyard, that is. I was nearly blind from the amount of rain pooling around my face, my jacket had been cleanly tenderized by the water and had begun leaking already, into my hair, and my shirt. I placed a hand over my eyes as a semi-effective visor and tried to scope out the windows in the backyard, realizing I was probably committing several crimes while I was at it. Invasion of privacy, trespassing, the usual. I searched without avail, identifying only 3 windows with almost no defining features that would give me the ultimate clue. Which one belonged to her.

Until I finally earned a speck of good luck. And I really mean speck.

In the corner of the third window, was a pale blue splotch, like a sticker from the inside. I recognized the shape instantly, little blue angel wings. Holy Angel wings, actually.

In the end. Her obsession with stupid college paraphernalia had betrayed her.

A grin bit at my sopping wet lips. I could barely see, but at the same time, I could see it all.

She'd better be home, or my grand gesture would fall on deaf ears. And I could guarantee that this was going to be the highlight of gestures in my pre-adult life. You only get one of these every couple decades.

I shuffled closer to the house, where a loose ring of stones ran around the border of the house, decorated with violets and peonies in an every-other pattern. I grabbed several small-ish rocks, because if I made even one mistake, not only would Juvia hate my guts, but I would owe her money in property damages.

Once I had what I came for, I stepped back, rain still pounding on my skin and clothing, until I could see her window perfectly. There was a shape of a dresser in the background, one I could barely see due to the rain.

I fingered one rock in my hand, getting a feel for its weight and shape. Yup, this one should do perfectly.

I aimed carefully, and flung it at her window. It hit its target perfectly, ricocheting back into a nearby plant. I paused for a moment. No response. I shrugged and picked out a new rock, slick from being held in my wet hand. I had pretty stellar aim, if I said so myself. The only potential problem with this plan was shattering her window.

I threw the next rock, it hit a little bit off target, smacking against the wooden window frame and bouncing off harmlessly. Again, no response. I was getting a bit discouraged by that point, I was soaking wet and sticky, and my clothes were heavier than my hockey gear. But the third try was always the charm.

I threw the third rock and it hit the window, squarely in the middle, with a surprising little shriek of cracking glass. Shit. I put a little too much effort into that one. I could see it now – Juvia suing my ass in court for being a creepy weirdo who never left her alone.

My heart surged when I saw a familiar pale face appear at the window, twisted in shock, as she pressed her face and hands against the window to try and see past the rain. Her cheeks squished against the glass and she stared at me for a minute. I smiled sheepishly, and she kept staring. Her cheeks looked red, either she was pressing her face against the window really hard or she was blushing. I don't know why she would be blushing though – I was the one in the position of mortification, wet and pathetic in her backyard, throwing rocks at her window to get her attention. If she really was as smart as I thought she was, she was most likely embarrassed for me.

She ripped her face from the window and pulled away from the window, disappearing from my view. I felt myself frown, afraid that she had decided to ignore me even after I put on the show of a lifetime. Then, I was blessed with her presence at the backyard door, made out of sliding glass and leading into what I thought was her living room.

I trudged up to the door, watching her stare at me like I was an alien that had just landed and stopped in for a visit with my favorite abductee. She was wearing light gray sweatpants and a tight navy t-shirt that matched her hair color. Her hair was down. My favorite way, too, naturally wavy, like the sea.

I stood before her, wondering if she was just going to keep looking at me or if she was ever going to actually open the door. She looked lost in her own thoughts, like a full blown conversation was happening in her brain without me. She looked like that sometimes, it was kind of adorable when I'd have to snap her back into reality.

Just like now. I reached up and pressed my hand to the glass, jolting her awake as she tore the door open.

"What the hell?" She asked, just loud enough to be heard over the rain. I shrugged. I didn't have a verbal answer – and I really just wanted her to let me in, it was cold as fuck outside.

"Let me in." I requested monotonously when she continued to stare at me, wide-eyed.

Her lips pursed. Ah yes, her famous bitch face. This meant business.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked dryly. I sighed heavily.

"Juvia, I don't have time for this."

"Unless you're here for a total frontal lobotomy, I don't see why-"

"Let me in." I said again, more firmly. "Please."

She blinked, witty retort dying on her tongue. "Fine." She extended the door enough for me to pass through, dripping water onto the carpet like an untrained puppy.

I began to shed my jacket, which was dripping like a faucet on high, and Juvia grabbed it for me, holding it out in front of her like it contained yellow fever.

"I'll be right back," she mumbled, looking down and taking my jacket with her into the hallway past the kitchen.

I looked around, the living room was dark and empty. Her parents didn't seem to be present, I had lucked out. I looked down at myself, my hair sticking to my forehead and ears in black clumps, like unpleasant leeches. Nice choice, Gray.

Juvia came back with several towels and other fabrics. She dumped them on the floor in front of me, as if saying "here's your crap, don't forget I'm still mad at you."

I looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Get changed, they're my dad's." She said, pointing at the bundle of clothing. "You look freezing."

"What gave it away?" I asked jokingly. She didn't seem to find me funny –or if she did, she was hiding it. She turned away and disappeared down the hall. I followed her, before stopping in front of the bathroom to change like she had instructed me to. This was off to kind of a slow start – I'd admit I had a bit of an unrealistic expectation of her forgiving me instantly when she realized I had thrown rocks at her window. Ultear and her romance movies were overrated.

After I changed, I emerged from the bathroom, feeling damp, and dad-ish. Mark's clothes were close to my size, a tiny bit bigger around the waist, but we were around the same height despite me having an inch or two on him. It was nice of her to even accommodate my stupidity of hanging out in the rain, but still. I had some stuff I needed to clear.

"Juvia?" I called, she had disappeared from the lower level. I heard her footsteps from above and she appeared on the staircase, staring down at me like she was Judge Judy and I was just another one of her idiot plaintiffs.

"You look ravishing." She said in the most monotone voice I'd ever heard. I rolled my eyes, not in the mood for her moody bullshit.

"Come down here." I requested. She placed a hand on her hip defiantly.

"Just because you're wearing the clothes doesn't make you my dad." She sniffed. I gritted my teeth.

"Juvia. We're both eighteen, we can settle this like adults." I insisted, walking towards the base of the steps. I put my hand on the banister to make myself appear taller.

"Settle what?" She asked, playing dumb. It annoyed me. "I wasn't aware we had business together anymore."

"Just get your ass down here." I told her, exhausted and trying not to sound like a growling bear.

"Maybe you should get your ass up here." She replied, strictly to annoy me and sound childish.

"Fine by me," I shrugged, and without hesitation, began climbing the stairs in her direction. She blinked, like panic lights were going off inside her brain.

"Wait! Gray, I meant-"

Too late. I was standing a step below her, and I had my game face on. I wasn't about to let her win a battle I hadn't even consented to.

"Let's talk." I proposed. And this time it wasn't a question.

She blinked, and bit her lip like she was weighing her options. It should've dawned on her by now that she was out of options. She had to talk to me, whether she liked it or not.

"Fine." She grumbled, turning and walking down the hall. I followed her without hesitation. She hung a left through a side door and I slid in behind her, realizing immediately where I was.

Juvia's room wasn't anything like I expected.

It was simple, a bright, mind-numbingly pastel teal stained the walls and her bed lay in a corner adjacent to the widow – which I had indeed cracked – and there was a dresser closer to the door. That, and a closet, made up the essentials. There were posters and other papers lying about – but nothing else that stood out to me as abundant as the rest of the furniture.

Juvia had her arms tucked protectively under her chest, eyes wandering to different landmarks in her room like she was making a mental checklist of everything she owned.

There was a slow, dismal silence between us. I could feel it on my shoulders, like I had been carrying it every day since the night she kissed me – (just referring to it as prom night didn't really cover it anymore) – and it was damn near time I closed that distance.

"It's rattlesnakes." I said coolly, like I had practiced this exchange a million times before. The second I said it, I felt myself easing up, and it felt good. The past few days had been mentally taxing – I just didn't feel like myself. Now, I could feel the comfort of being around Juvia seeping back into my heart, like it had been missing a piece the whole time she'd been ignoring me.

She looked at me. "…What?"

Perfect answer, just what I'd been anticipating. I grinned. "It's my favorite type of snake."

She looked mortified, and her hands twitched. She remembered now. Not that I wasn't going to tease her about it.

"It's what you asked me. Remember? Right before you ki-"

"Right before I left prom. Yeah, I remember." She interrupted hurriedly. I raised my eyebrows. My theory had been correct, then. It was the kiss. That had been the root of our problems – even now, she was desperately trying to avoid the subject.

"No." I said, clearly. I wanted her to look at me, but she wasn't. She was finding every excuse to look away. I wanted her full attention. She needed to see, not just hear me. "It was right before you kissed me." I corrected.

Now she looked at me. She looked embarrassed. And angry. And hurt. Like she thought I had only brought that up to hurt her. I wanted to tell her, right then and there. To skip everything I'd been repeating over and over in my head on the drive over. The look on her face made me sick, I didn't want her to feel the way she felt right now with anyone else, ever again.

And I'd make sure it never happened. Nobody was going to hurt Juvia Lockser on my watch. Not again.

"What do you want?" She asked, her voice gaunt like I'd sucked the life right out of it. She phrased the question like she was expecting me to blackmail her.

A sickening memory arose in the back of my mind. Evergreen. A girl who'd taken advantage of one girl's mistake and held it over her head for years. It made sense that Juvia was afraid of me.

It didn't make me feel any better, though.

How could I answer her in a way that would let her know that I was never going to hurt her, ever again? I was never going to let anything come between us even if I had to kick the grim reaper's ass myself.

This was it. I was a blind man, seeing the light. And this light was dressed in sweatpants.

What do I want?

"You." I answered simply.

My answer hit her like an extremely complex calculus question. Her eyes moved back and forth like she was reading an invisible script, deciphering what I'd just told her.

She squinted, before looking back at me. "Is that a metaphor?" She asked, in blank, true confusion.

I laughed. Really hard. This was the girl I liked. The girl I chose.

I don't know when I realized it. Maybe it was just one of those things – something that was always there but I never found it until I really looked for it. And her little episode of kiss-and-dump left me searching alright, but it was only just now, watching her standing in her own room, gaping at me, when it was really clear to me. So clear, that I really questioned my own well being as to why I didn't see it before.

Ultear was right. I never asked myself enough questions, until finally there was only one left.

"Don't laugh!" Juvia yelled, looking pained and still somewhat confused. I shrugged, I really couldn't help it. She was just too damn ridiculous.

She suddenly covered her ears, like my laugh was the scraping of nails against chalkboard. "I get it, okay? It was ridiculous, I shouldn't have kissed you! I made a mistake!"

I stopped laughing. That wasn't the response I was aiming for.

"Juvia, no-"

She continued, and she didn't appear to be listening to me. "-and it was in the moment, and I wasn't thinking straight, I might have been a little drunk – you know I read this article somewhere that if everyone around you is drunk, you can get drunk by association-"

My eyes strained. What the fuck was she talking about? She looked dazed, like the person she was trying to convince of her accident was herself, and not me.

I recognized her situation immediately. I had done it to myself, incidentally, convincing myself that Juvia was my friend – the more times I told myself it, the more I started to believe it. The more I said it, the more blind I became.

"Juvia, stop." I told her, hoping that I could pull her back into reality. She looked jarred – blinking several times before looking back at me.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" She asked innocently. Ugh. She was going to be the fucking death of me.

I looked up at the ceiling and shook my head. "You're fucking crazy."

One of her eyebrows dipped upwards. "Is this a recent realization? Or…?"

I sighed. Fuck it.

"Can I kiss you?" I asked, impatiently, and my reason for asking being that I didn't feel like I even deserved to kiss her after all the "friendship" bullshit I'd forced her to endure throughout the course of our friendship. This was her call, not mine. And I wanted her to be the one to decide whether or not our first kiss was a mistake.

She took a half step back, eyes bulging and face pale, like I had asked her for a much more gruesome favor than in actuality. My face began to fall. That was a little harsh.

"Is this some sort of a…of a joke to you?" She asked me, her eyes still wide like glimmering sapphire and her voice stripped of humor.

"This isn't a joke!" I insisted, frustrated that she kept referring to everything I said like I was some terrible asshole who was only talking to her so I could bring her further embarrassment. Didn't she have any trust in me?

"Oh my…" she blinked, looking down at her hands, as if to inspect how many fingers she still obtained. "I'm dreaming. Oh my god. That's it."

Fuck's sake. "Juvia, you're not dreaming."

"You can't read in dreams," she informed me while nodding, "that's the trick. Where're my books…"

Holy fuck. She was crazy. I hate her. No, that was a lie. But still.

"You're not dreaming." I affirmed, the annoyance biting into my voice. "Juvia, please, just listen to me."

She stopped. She was looking out the window, watching the rain hit the glass. I had almost forgotten the rain, my hair was still pretty damp. I took that as a sign that she was listening to me, even if she wasn't looking at me, like I had hoped.

"Juvia. You aren't dreaming, this isn't a joke, I'm fucking serious. I would never do something like that to you and you know it." I reiterated. Every time I spoke I took a step closer to her, and I didn't notice I was doing so until I was close enough to smell vanilla perfume and rain.

She didn't even move. She just stared out the window.

I swallowed. Was this a rejection? I had seen this going a lot better in my head.

Maybe I had misjudged her feelings. Maybe her kissing me really was a mistake. Maybe I'd missed my chance.

"Juvia." I said, struggling to find the words I was searching for. "If you…if you want me to leave, I will."

Just like that, she turned around, her eyes full of confusion. Her lips moved, but no words came out. Then, she dipped her head back and closed her eyes, shaking her head like she couldn't believe she was actually in this situation.

"Gray," she began, meeting my eyes, finally. She was beautiful. Even as I was sure she was about to ask me to leave her alone forever, she really was.

She hesitated before speaking again. "Gray…if you don't kiss me right now I'm going to throw myself out of this window." She tapped one of her nails on her window and looked back at me expectedly.

Oh.

…Oh.

Before I could contain it, a smile broke out. She always did have a habit of surprising me in the end, even if she had to put me through hell to get to her first.

I reached forward and pressed my hands to her cheeks, they were cold at first touch. I remembered seeing them pressed up against the window and wondered if that was why, before realizing that I didn't really care.

Before I could even try to pull her up to kiss me, she jumped forward and pretty much forced a kiss on me – not that I minded – and she smiled as I kissed her, her hands weaving around the back of my neck as a constant, happy reminder that we were actually doing this – us. Juvia had been wrong when she said we'd never work out. We'd both seen stranger things, after all.

I was about to close my eyes and actually kiss her – when she abruptly pulled away, still smiling, and only inches away from my face. I briefly wondered how she managed to come up to my height, when I realized that she was standing on my feet. How very conventional.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, somewhat softly, considering we were still close enough to touch.

Then, she reached up with one of her hands that had been around my neck and slapped my jaw.

It didn't hurt, but it sort of surprised me. "What the hell?" I asked her ludicrously. She was shaking her head.

"Nothing. Just double checking." She replied, before musing, "I owe Gajeel 30 bucks."

I raised my eyebrows. Betting on our first official kiss? I guess I wouldn't put it past her.

I pushed a piece of her curly blue hair behind her ear. It was so long. So pretty.

"But while we're still talking…" Juvia began, not pulling away from our standstill but still implying that she would withhold any kissing before I gave her the information she wanted. "Why are you doing this?"

I breathed out. "I already told you."

"Yeah, but…" she wobbled her head around for a moment, "I want to hear you say it again."

Cheeky asshole. She was going to drive me crazy. More so than usual, and that said a lot because I lived with Lyon.

She was grinning, and it was annoying. I wanted to kiss her and turn that smile into something much different, but the intelligent part of me told me to do what she said.

"Fine." I agreed begrudgingly. "Juvia Lockser. You are the one that I want."

She closed her eyes as her smile extended. "Perfect."

I smiled back. "Do you believe me now?"

She opened her eyes and shrugged. "Kinda."

My eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. "Kinda? That's cold."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Can you blame me? Juvia Lockser and Gray Fullbuster? Who knew?"

I tried not to look taken aback when the answer was already on my lips.

"I did."

She blinked once or twice, before laughing. "Pfft. No way. You are not pulling that love-at-first-sight bullshit on me right now. I was an asshole to you when we first met."

I guess I had to give her that one. It definitely wasn't love at first sight. But it was…something like that. Because the moment I saw her in Physics class, I knew she was something special.

"I can pull whatever bullshit I please after you pulled a disappearing act on me." I retorted, somewhat bitterly. She bit her lip and shrugged, out of partial embarrassment.

"I can't be the only one who thought Juvia Lockser and Gray Fullbuster was a fantasy." She responded.

"Pretty sure you're the only one. Have you ever noticed any of the people trying to constantly push us together?" I noted, thinking back to all of the people who'd ever called us a couple, or at least hinted at it. The list was as long as the list of people I knew, it seemed.

"You can't blame me for feeling out of my league." She pointed out. The hand she had slapped me with returned to its place around the back of my neck and I reached back to hold her hands there, enjoying their warmth as much as I was enjoying myself. My other arm was placed firmly at the small of her back, where I could feel the soft material of her t-shirt in peace.

"Out of your league? I thought you were going to murder me for even coming here!"

"Gray. For the love of god, we can talk later." She suddenly urged, leaning forward so that I could close the distance between us. I ignored the fact that she was the one who had instigated the conversation, and instead decided that now was a perfect opportunity for me to get to an actual kiss with my new girlfriend – one that wasn't interrupted by fear or doubt.

Yeah. That sounded pretty good to me.

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highkey rewrote this chap like 11 times and im still not 100% happy...but this came close...

again, only 1 more chapter after this one! thanks to all of you for sticking with me even after my long hiatuses and issues, and if u ever need to contact me i should be able to get back to you on here (however for tumblr and skype it might still be a while, im currently working things out and im about to be a junior in high school so)

anyways...review responses bc i hate myself :,)

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Missgogatsu: hahah thank you! stuvia brotp is somethingim happy about! and as always sorry for the wait :,( im not a consistent writer lol

GruviaM3: does this count as updating soon? :,)

Purple Pancakes: thank you! im so happy youenjoyed those aspects of the story!

Kiri: love u too

Mimia: HAHAHA sorry for the late update :3

Guest: ;) ;) ;)

fallenstar2013: thank u for this review! i got to practice my spanish bc damn it all went down the drain over the summer ! and sorry gray doesnt swear nearly as much as juvia...and there were much less death puns, and puns in general. you get the picture.

Lili: this review made me laugh ily

LateNightShips: ;) ;) always

oink8: its my loyal duty as an author to torture with feels! hope u liked this chap ;)

umjustjerememe: this is cyberbullying im being CYBERBULLIED on my own account

Laudi14: lmao sometimes shes just as blind as gray haha hoppe u like this chap

muffin-dragon227: this review reminded me that im still SUPER BEHIND on your amazing story and i want :) to :) die :) anyways i love your reviews so MUCH can i DIE and thank u for ur words on meredy i tried SUPER hard with her character...and yeah juvia is definitely pan or bi...she aint hetero for REAL ..also i had so much trouble writing gray. i feel like i fucked it all up and its gross and messy but,, i guess ill just have to live with it. 1 chap out of 14. rip. and you got the five months until i update thing right...yikes my writing time. okay but ILY AND I MISS U SO MUCH I HOPE I CAN COME BACK TO TUMBLR AND SKYPE SOON BC I MISS U!

nattersfluff: LMFAOO your reviews are great and im glad u liked the chap ;) hope u like this one too!

jUsThAvEhOpE: LOVE U

guest: LOVE U AND THANK U!

endingsarenotalwaysbad: asfgf. im crying i. love your reviews.. im so happy u like sting and sorry he wasnt in this chap as much :( but still.. and omg HAHAH if gray went to prom with ultear that wouldve been funny too.. but she had a part to play in this chapter, kinda. and yeah 40 dollar tickes is pretty normal, mine are going to be 50 bucks just for the ticket :,) and yeah i hope i did semi ok writing gray bc it was lowkey hard as fuck i barely understand whats going on in that boys brain...but still I HOPE U LIKED THIS CHAP ILY!

Kori no Koibito: I LOVE YOUR REVIEWS its so neat hearing from a non gruvia shipper abt my story...unique..rogue and sting are so good together its CLASSIC im in love. im glad you like juvia, and oh YEAH when i typed *her girlfriend i actually sort of meant it to be that way...i was ATTEMPTING to apply that rogues date was yukino and she was gay too...it didnt work very well but oh well. LOVE YOU AND THANKS FOR THE REVIEW

merudy: CHEKA SDFGHJ..LOVE U SM...SO GLAD U LIKE MY RATTY CHARACTERS... PS. meredy should shove a caramel up grays ass hes dumb...and ily2 ;)

Leaffeather: :000

Guest: will do ;)

Wolf to the Stars: i know im a RAT AT UPDATING! haha i hope u like this chap despite it being late...as well... oops

Guest: LOVE U

Guest: ;0 ASDFG THANK U FOR STICKING WITH ME THIS LONG...ILY PRECIOUS SOUL

a total fangirl: AHAHAHAH yeah im terrible at this

PeoniesandPoppies: thank youuuu and nice profile pic ;)

Guest: omg. thanks for pointing that out...it was probably just another subplot i had initially planned on doing and then scrapped bc i wanted to focus more on gray and juvia...oops...but heres a gold star for noticing ur a real winner

flawed12 : thank you! i hope u like this chapter too!

Wolf to the Stars: its an authors job to mess with emotions ;/

LateNightShips: IM HERE DW

jadejackson44: i already answered this review but ILY STILL

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until next time ;))