=Chapter 6
Please Enjoy =)
Lucy diligently took the lecture notes being written on the board , however the groans resonating from the back of the classroom continuously broke her concentration. Turning her head she immediately searched for the source. She could have sworn the groaning was coming from Natsu but he was sleeping. Searching further she saw Gray slumped over his chair, his posture screamed that his body was in agony.
During free time, Lucy woke Natsu up and head over towards Gray. He didn't even notice when the duo walked over to his desk, he was that out of it.
"Uh, Gray. You okay?" Lucy asked grasping his attention somewhat.
"Please, I'm sure the ice-prick is fine Luce." Natsu interjected.
"Really, Natsu. Look at him, he looks a wreck." Lucy pointed at Gray's still not responding figure.
Natsu bent forward and stared directly at Gray's worn out face, taking in all his features.
"Naw, he looks the same to me." Natsu smiled.
"Natsu's right for once," Gray finally spoke up. "I'm fine, just a little fatigued. Juvia's training schedule for the swim meet coming up soon is really hectic."
Getting up from his seat Gray stretched his arms out, trying to relax every one of his aching muscles.
"Ahh, so that's it." Natsu slightly grinned. "You're tired of the 'Queen' making you her lap dog."
"Are you sure your okay Gray?" Lucy said lightly putting her hand on Gray's shoulder.
Gray shrugged off Lucy's hand. "I said I'm good, and Juvia's not even like all the rumors floating around."
"Really!? Well, what's she like?" Lucy asked.
Gray thought about it for a second, bringing his hand to ruffle the back of his hair. "Well, she's really hard to explain-"
"Then why don't we just meet her." Natsu interrupted
Since Gray couldn't shake Natsu and Lucy's persistent questions of Juvia no matter how hard he tried to change the subject, it would always end up back at the 'Juvia' topic. So after the school bell rang Natsu and Lucy tailed Gray on his way to Juvia's. However about half-way to Juvia's house, Gray attempted to shake them off his trail. He went through back ally's, bushes and shrubs, even through a restaurant, however they eventually caught up to him.
While Natsu stopped to tie his shoe, Lucy sped up to walk with Gray. A scowl was present on his face, but she just giggled and brushed his sour attitude off. Lucy's mind then began to wonder, she had heard many rumors of the supposed 'Queen' of their high school, but from what Gray told Natsu and her the 'Queen' was just an ordinary person. At that point, Lucy was now determined to make Juvia her new friend.
When Juvia's house came into view Gray quickly paused, he didn't know why but he was hesitant to let Natsu and Lucy meet Juvia. After all, she was his 'special friend', and knowing Natsu he'd probably do something that would scare Juvia that would make her withdraw from the opposite gender even more.
Finally reaching Juvia's front porch, Gray bent down to get the key from under the front door mat.
"Wait Gray,what are you doing!" Lucy quickly interjected
"What," Gray sighed. "I'm opening the door, what's it look like?"
"Can't you be a little more civilized and knock on the door?" Lucy questioned.
"Why?" Gray turned towards Lucy. "Juvia's on crutches, why make her walk unnecessarily."
"Yeah, but-"
Lucy's rebuttal was interrupted with the sudden sound of the front door opening.
Gray turned around to see Juvia peeking out of the corner of the door.
"Gray-san, what are you doing here?" Juvia whispered from the door.
"Well-" Gray ruffled the back of his hair in and bashful manner."Uh, I had some friends that wanted to meet you."
Juvia still peered silently from the door staring at Lucy.
Trying to change the awkward air around the conversation, Lucy decided to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you, Gray's told us a lot about you." Lucy said with the friendly smile that she could muster.
Juvia slightly opened the door, looking between Gray and Lucy.
"Are you Gray-san's girlfriend?" Juvia asked quietly.
"What,no!" Gray interjected, flabbergasted that Juvia would even come to that conclusion.
"N-no, no." Lucy quickly denied. "Were just friends, actually I already have someone that I lik-"
"Hey, why didn't you guys wait?" Natsu suddenly yelled, running to meet up with them. When he stopped he stood right in front of Juvia with his hand outstretched to shake Juvia's hand with a goofy grin plastered on his face."Hey, I'm Natsu."
Juvia didn't know why, but she immediately shook his hand. Something about his friendly personality made him instantly likable. She invited them inside, however she secretly eyed Lucy and Gray.
While in the living room, Lucy chatted her up about every possible subject there was. She thinks she accidental agreed to hang out with Lucy somewhere in the conversation. Juvia wasn't use to other females hanging around her but she felt a warmth coming from Lucy that made her comfortable.
Gray and Natsu sat at the other side of the living room, Gray looked at Juvia with pity. Now that Lucy got to her there was no way that she would be able to escape.
"Yo, Ice for brains." Natsu interrupted Gray out of his thoughts."You lied. Juvia's totally normal. To bad though, I kinda liked it when she had the 'Queen' attitude."
"I don't think it was an attitude, she's just shy." Gray said," and her not being comfortable around guys, just spurred on rumors." He added.
"Yea maybe, but one things for sure. She's hiding something."
Gray looked up at Natsu."What makes you say that?"
Natsu sighed." I dunno, she just gives off this sorta vibe. Like there's something behind that smile."
Gray looked across the room at Juvia. For once, Gray thought that Natsu was right.
When Natsu and Lucy left from Juvia's house it was already 7. Gray stayed after to see how Juvia was holding up. Juvia was silent, which was a little unnerving for Gray. Usually she would be bubbly and cheerful, but her soft smile was gradually failing. They headed back inside of the house, and headed towards the living room. Gray started to clean up miscellaneous objects scattered around the floor. Juvia just leaned against the wall, it was a comforting silence. But it was silence none the less.
Suddenly Gray saw Juvia's body jolt up from the corner of his eye, when the house phone began to she didn't move to answer it.
"Ya, gonna answer that." Gray said, interrupting Juvia from her thoughts.
Juvia sat down on a nearby chair and shook her head, while looking down at her hands. Her hands tensed into fists until the phone had stopped ringing.
"Lucy-san and Natsu-san are very nice." Juvia's voice perked up. It was kind of obvious she was trying to divert the subject from what just happened.
"Yea, well glad you liked them."
Silence engulfed the room again.
"By the way," Gray added." Were you going somewhere, cuz when we first came it looked like you were going somewhere."
Juvia look up at him." Juvia was heading to the pool."
"Why?" Gray questioned.
"Because Gray-san, Juvia wanted to look at the water. It calms Juvia." Juvia said matter-o-factly. "Will you take Juvia?"
"Sure, why not." Gray immediately gave in, it looked like Juvia had something on her mind and if he played his cards right she would probably tell him.
When they arrived at the pool, the moon was shining on the pool. Just like the night Juvia had fallen into the pool after her had to admit though, the school pool was much prettier at night, the overhead sky line made it a perfect place for night swimming.
Juvia set her crutches to the side of a bench, and hobbled over next to the side of the pool to sit down. Her view was overlooking the pool while she stared at the shimmer the pool reflected. She desperately wanted to swim, it had been two weeks since she was last in the water. But luckily, she prepared herself for this situation.
Carefully standing up Juvia then started unbuttoning her shirt.
"Gray-san, please don't turn this way." Juvia pleaded.
Not understanding Gray turned his head, only for his cheeks to immediately turn pink.
"Oi, what the hell you doing." He yelled.
Juvia let out a squeak, "Juvia told Gray-san not to look."
"But, why are you-"
"Juvia has her swimsuit underneath, Juvia wants to go for a swim."
"Are you crazy, you can't. Your on crutches!" Gray yelled trying to get Juvia from doing something stupid.
"Juvia's just going to sit on the rail, and it's not like Juvia still has her cast on."
"Yeah, but-" Gray shut his mouth when he saw the plea in Juvia's eyes. He sighed, "Fine, go ahead."
Juvia smiled at him.
"But just to make sure I'm getting in too."
Juvia's smile dropped. "B-but Gray-san doesn't h-have a on a swimsuit." Juvia's cheeks were painted red, she still was not comfortable with the idea of being in the same body of water with a guy. Even if that guy was Gray.
"I thought something like this would happen eventually, so I make sure to bring my trunks anytime I go to visit you." Gray headed to his bag. "I'm gonna go change. Do Not enter the pool without me!"
While Gray changed into his trunks, Juvia fully shed her clothes to her swimsuit underneath. In all actuality she felt really giddy. The pool had been calling her ever since she got hurt. All this time she had been waiting for the moment were she would melt into the pool so it could wash all of her worries away. Especially after the phone call she got yesterday.
The phone's blazing ringing woke Juvia from her afternoon nap. She had been trying to get as much sleep as she could lately. After all she still had to make Gray a swim star. When she reached the phone she somehow felt sick, like she shouldn't answer the phone. Pushing the feeling aside Juvia answered the phone.
"H-hello." Juvia mentally kicked herself for stuttering, there was no reason to be scared.
"Juvia?" A cold voice called out from the other end of the phone.
"Yes, Who is this?" She didn't really have to ask, she knew just by the sound of his voice.
"Ah, come on darling. How could you forget your Bora-sama's voice. After all-"
Not wanting to spend even another moment on the phone Juvia slammed the phone down. Why of all times did he have to show up. Juvia sat on the floor sobbing into her hands. Trying to dry her tears, Juvia tried to think of the best solution for getting help. Gajeel-kun was working double shifts at the police station, so she really didn't want to trouble him. There was always Gray. She quickly shook her head, she couldn't bring Gray into this situation, worse case scenario would be that he would never speak to her again and she wouldn't be able to handle that.
"Hey, you ready?" Gray asked, bring Juvia out of her thoughts.
Juvia silently nodded. Gray helped her over to the rail, where she slipped her body down into the water. The water felt cool on her skin and to be honest she really missed the smell of the pools chlorine. Sitting on the last step of the rail Juvia was shoulder deep in the pool. She sighed in contempt.
Gray swam by next to her, she admired his form that they worked on during training.
"So Juvia." Gray said in hope of making small talk. "Why'd you join the swim team."
The question did not disturb the peace that was shown on Juvia's face. Gray felt like Juvia was slowly reverting back to her old self. She smiled at him and told him the story of how when she was little she fell into a pond and on instinct she swam out, and ever since then she had been in love with swimming and anything water. Then the conversation soon turned and Juvia learned that Gray was adopted and the woman she met that day at his house was actually his adoptive sister, their mother had past away some years ago.
Feeling his fingers start to prune Gray looked up at the clock hanging over the door, it was almost 10 and he needed to get home soon if he didn't want to bring on the wrath of Ultear.
"Come on Juvia, we should go."
Juvia popped out of her thoughts. "Alright Gray-sama."
At that point Gray had already lifted himself out of the pool and he turned to help Juvia. But he saw her with her hands clasped over her mouth, her eyes growing wide.
Juvia's mind reeled, she called him 'sama' again. How could she do that, give him such a title when he was nothing like...
Gray yelled for Juvia when instead of taking his hand she start to throw her arms out in different directions. Her actions became hysterical showing utter terror.
She slipped from her seat on the rail and her body quickly slipped into the water. Acting quickly Gray grabbed the one hand still on the surface of the water. He pulled her body up and carefully dragged her body out of the pool. Holding her princess style, however unlike the other times where she would freak out with her being in his arms this time she clung to his chest.
Feeling a dripping sensation come in contact with his chest he could tell she was crying. He was now kind of use to her freaking out, he just wished he could help her.
He held Juvia's head in an attempt to calm her, she was wildly shaking her head over and over. Repeating "I'm so sorry, s-so sorry."
It was the first time he heard her not speak in first person, he quickly decided he didn't like it.
A/N: Hopefully this chapter was good, because originally this chapter wasn't working for me. Hope you enjoy, thank you for all the reviews and follows. I mean holy cheese balls over 50 follows, that's way more than I ever expected.
p.s. Sorry for any grammatical errors, for some reason i only get inspiration to write at around 1 am and by the time I'm done writing, editing becomes a chore. Then I'm like F' it, it's fine.