Chapter 4

-A House with no family-

The last thing Juvia remembered was getting up after her nap and that she felt little wobbly. The scene that she was now witnessing was a total shock to her. Her heart was racing a mile a minute; Gray had just saved Juvia from drowning and she found it funny that she almost died from the very thing she loved to do. When she came to she noticed Gray was holding her in his arms bridal style. Juvia had no time to be flattered or even grateful towards him even though he saved her. As soon as those words came out of her mouth she knew that the impossible had already happened. She fell for him; she was in love with Gray. While still in his arms all of her horrible experiences came flooding back into her mind. Juvia went into a sort of catatonic Gray felt that Juvia stopped moving he did the only thing he could do he shook he over and over again however nothing seemed to bring her back the only thing she sort of responded to was Gray saying her name. So he continued.

"Juvia, Ju - Juvia. Stay with me, Juvia please."

His last cry of her name seemed to have woken her up because after that there was a blood curdling scream.

Gray looked down at a screaming Juvia, bewildered he had no idea of what to do. Juvia's body started fidgeting in his arms, and the next thing he knew she jump out of his grasp. She sat there on the floor backing away while still screaming. About a minute later everything was silenced. Juvia's head fell in a side-ward's motion and she collapsed.

Gray sighed to himself again and again, he had no idea what was Juvia's problem. One minute she would be happy, the next minute sad, or even just plain crazy. He had to admit though he did feel sorry for her; from what he overheard when she was sleeping he figured that could be the source of all her weird behavior. All different horrific things were running through his head when he felt Juvia tussle in his arms. He was carrying Juvia home on his back and he just hoped that she did not wake up because if she did there would be more screaming.

He finally arrived to her house; Gray rang the doorbell and waited for Juvia's parents to open the door. However no one answered, after a few moments he rang again. He knew it was almost 10 o'clock but no one should have been sleeping at this time. There was no sound inside the house, after giving it a good thought Gray believed it would be bad to break in and it would be even worse to take Juvia to his place.

Knowing his step-sister Ultear, there was no way she would give him any time to explain. He adjusted Juvia on his back a bit and bent down in front of the welcome mat, he prayed there was an extra key under it like in all the movies heaves seen. There was, he stepped slowly into the house.

"Hello is anyone there."

After the peculiar silence Gray made his way towards the couch and plopped Juvia down, she was still out cold.

He sat down next to her a looked at her she looked so peaceful but he knew there was something there that she wasn't telling him. Gray got up from the couch and started to search for some towels. After all he did just save her from drowning in a pool and it was not like he could wake her and tell her to change so that she wouldn't get a cold. Also there was no way in hell he was going to change her clothes for her.

So when he required just the right amount of towels from various places in the house he wrapped the towels all around her almost creating some sort of cocoon.

Gray laid on the floor exhausted he had done so much today: ran to school, listen to Juvia's lecture, practice, save Juvia, and give her a piggy back ride all the way to her home. He decided the best course of action was to stay there for the night so that he could explain things to Juvia (and hopefully get some answers) also because Juvia's house was the quickest route to get back to school so he could gather all their stuff. He stripped his shirt and on the floor right beside Juvia on the couch he went to sleep.

That was until his phone started buzzing and he realized he forgot one crucial thing.

He texted Ultear that he was at Natsu's house for the night, then he texted Natsu to cover for him and tell Ultear he was staying with him.

Gray got one more text and it was Natsu, saying that he wanted to know what was going on that would make Gray not go home. Gray smirked at the text and wrote back "I'll tell u later, I'm to tired know." With all that done Gray drifted back into a sleep state.

That was until he realized he couldn't sleep, he had too many questions to ask Juvia.

'Where are your parents?'

'Why do you always scream when I'm near you?'

'Do you live alone?'

'I heard you say something while you were sleeping. Has anything happened that I should know about?'

'And for the love of pete why do you speak in third person?'

Gray knew the last one wasn't important but he would still have like to now. These questions kept spinning in his head and before he knew it the sun started to shine through the closed curtains in the living room. He let out another sigh and waited for something else to happen, Gray started figuring out that the next two weeks were not going to go by smoothly.

Juvia groaned feeling a massive headache as she was slowly waking up, she tried to touch her head but her arms were not moving they felt like they were tied up. Quickly Juvia opened her eyes, she look around her taking everything in. 'Why was she home, and more importantly why was she basically wrapped up in a cocoon of towels and blankets. After she struggled to get out of the layers wrapped around her Juvia sat up, Mind was filled with questions. 'How'd she get home? What happened to her last night?, An was she all wet?'

Her thoughts were interrupted when a beautifully delicious smell overwhelmed her nostrils. Juvia face had a curious look, she wanted to get up and investigate however it's not like she could have walked her leg was still healing. So she did the only thing she could do, Juvia slid down the couch and crawled over to the kitchen. When she made it to the kitchen she looked around for any signs of an intruder. To her left she saw a pile of dirty pots and ingredients in every direction. She made it to her dining table when she spotted a nice warm plate of breakfast, it looked delicious but then again Juvia had no idea who did all of this.

After a few seconds of looking at the plated food Juvia heard her front door open, she quickly scurried under the small wooden dining table carrying with her the butter knife the was next to the toast on the table. Moments went by and all she could hear was steps and the sound of wheels. The steps got closer to the kitchen and stopped in front of the table, Juvia's heart beat was beating a mile a minute. Until she heard a chuckle from a voice that she knew all too well.

"Juvia, what are you doing under the table?"

"Gray-sama?" Juvia asked, but then she went silent. 'Why did she just call him that, she hasn't used that suffix since...

Gray knelt down and moved one of the chairs to the side so he could get a full view of Juvia. He stopped when he noticed the butter knife in her hand.

He chuckled to himself "Juvia, Why are you holding a butter knife?"

There was an uneasy air of silence until she spoke.

"Juvia thought there was an intruder, so she took something to protect herself." Gray couldn't keep it in anymore he burst out laughing.

"It's not funny." Juvia pouted.

Gray stopped laughing when he saw her face, her eyes were kind of shining and the pouty expression she had on made her look kind of... He was about to stop his brain from continuing, but Juvia cut off his train of thought.

"By the way what are you doing in Juvia's house?"

Gray scratched the back of his head timidly, he didn't know if he she tell her all of what happened last night or just some of it. So he decided to go with the later.

"Well after you passed out last night, I had to take you home and well, I couldn't just leave you so i slept on the floor. I tried calling out to your parents but no one was home. I couldn't really sleep so when morning came I decided to go and get our stuff from the school."

Gray kept rambling about what happened last night but Juvia's main focus was the Gray slept over and that she was unconscious. Her mind raced a mile a minute that was until Gray's next sentence snapped her out of her trance.

"By the way, where are your parents?"

Juvia looked down, her body language changed to what appeared to be pure and utter gloom. Gray noticed this and quickly tried to retract his last statement.

"Hey you know you don't have to tell me, umm I was just being nosey."

Juvia shook her head, "its okay Gray-sama." She clasped her hand over her mouth she used that suffix again. What was wrong with her she was sure that Gray had done nothing to her to deserve that suffix. The suffix that brought all these horrible memories to her mind, but she couldn't figure out why she kept calling him that.

Gray stretched his hand out to Juvia who was still under the table.

"You know you don't have to tell me anything." Gray stated. He wanted to ease Juvia's mind but he didn't know how.

Juvia took his hand and hobbled over to the couch on her good leg; she let out a deep sigh and looked over to Gray who was standing across from her.

She whispered lightly, "Juvia doesn't have parents." Even though it was light Gray could still hear her, he moved closer to her and sat on the couch but she scooted away.

"Come on Juvia, everyone has parents." Gray stated

Juvia shook her head, "Not Juvia and if she did they didn't want her. Juvia was left in an orphanage since birth, and the people that did adopt Juvia didn't want her either. They got tired of me and dumped me in this house until I graduate."

Gray was taken aback Juvia started using first person speech, it must be serious. He looked around the house and thought 'this is a nice place to be dumped in, however it must be lonely. 'Well I'm not sure of all the things you have been through but I know you're a strong person and that where ever you go and whoever you meet you'll be fine, because you're a pretty awesome person you know."

Juvia picked her head up and stared at him, she wiped away some of the tears she did not even knew she had shed.

In the heat of the moment Juvia threw her arms around Gray crying her last remaining tears into his shirt.

After the surprising hug from Juvia things became a little awkward, Gray promised to come visit Juvia every two days just to see if she was okay. Juvia also made him promise the he would practice every day for at least two hours.

On his way home Gray mentally checked off the question about Juvia's parents, but the biggest question still remained what happened to her that made her so... He couldn't find the word, but he was sincerely worried about her she had no friends and she was a major introvert, he wanted to do something to change that.

As Gray made his way up the stairs to his front door he heard clanging and thrashing from outside.

'Great Ultear's on one of her rampages' Gray sighed 'I'll just use the backdoor.' He said to himself while turning around. Until, something or rather someone grabbed his ear roughly from behind.

"Gray what a nice surprise, where have you been."

Gray could hear the venom in her voice. "W-What are you talking about Ultear I told you I was staying at Natsu's house for the night!"

"Oh really", Ultear then stepped to her right revealing Natsu, who's ear was also being pinched.

Gray mentally and physically face-palmed.

"Natsu what are you doing here."

Natsu was trying to get out of the grip of Ultear but ultimately failed before explaining.

"Well um yea, this morning I was really bored and I thought I could come over to your house to play some video games. I forgot what you told me, sorry man."

"Yea whatever, pyro it doesn't matter anymore." Gray huffed "It's my fault for trusting you anyway."

"Well now that you two ladies have had a nice chat." Ultear yelled sarcastically "All of us are going to have a little talk."

She dragged Gray and Natsu in the house and began reprimanding both of them, her initial goal was to find out what Gray was doing all day but with all of the anger she was releasing on the two Ultear ended up forgetting.

Natsu went home with and soar ear, and Gray quickly scurried to his room trying to get past the interrogation Ultear was going to soon give him. As Gray laid on his bed all he could think about was Juvia, and how she was alone right now, and how she would never have someone to argue or get mad at with in her life. He felt sorry for her so he decided he would change her world as much as he could, because he knew deep down Juvia had a beautiful smile and he would love to see it.

A/N: Well I haven't updated this story for about 2 months (sorry) you know life (which i don't have), school, and procrastination over took everything. I actually had this chapter done about 2-3 weeks ago however internet problems kept me from updating the story. Oh, and I have absolutely no idea where this story is going I had a layout however I totally went left field form it so if anyone has any idea's for the next upcoming chapters p.s me. I don't usually say this but if you can review please do because i want to know if there are any criticisms out there.