Ch2- Going Edo
Juvia rushed out of her bed, throwing the bright blue blanket off of her. She tripped a couple times as she hastily stumbled to her closet. Yes, this was it, the perfect way to get Gray to like her the way Edo-Gray liked Edo-Juvia.
Juvia through open the closet doors and surveyed her clothes. Edo-Gray's behavior very much resembled Juvia's, and Edo-Juvia's very much resembled Gray's, and Juvia knew she had to take this into account.
What was it they said Edo-Juvia-chan was always saying to Edo-Gray-sama? Juvia wondered. Was it "shed a few layers and then talk to me?" or something like that? It was. If Edo-Juvia could give Edo-Gray a chance after he strips a bit, that's just what Juvia would have to do.
She was going Edo.
Juvia ripped her dark blue outfit out of the closet, and with scissors in hand, she stood back for just a second to look at it. She took her brown, thigh-high boots from where they stood next to the door and set them beside the navy dress and shawl. She wanted to use the length of the boots to her advantage: after all, she'd heard thigh-highs were sexy. She didn't even know in detail what Edo-Juvia wore, just a vague idea, but that was enough for her.
The water mage saw the outfit come together in her head. Perfect! Juvia and her scissors descended onto the thick, dark outfit, ready to dismantle and remake it as something Gray would notice.
Her light blue hair flying, she worked over the fabric, disregarding most of the dress, which would become useless. She cut the skirt of the dress apart from the body and used the fabric to make shorts., adding a couple of the brass buttons from the top. The shawl, she liked, so she took the off-white fur trim off of the top half of it with her seam-cutter to save for later. Finding the spot where she'd normally clasp it shut with her Fairy Tail brooch or Teru Teru Bozu (who now lived on her bed), she cut straight across and reattached the fur trim. There wasn't quite enough, but she borrowed some from the sleeves she didn't need anymore.
She brushed her now curled hair and changed out of her pajamas and into this new outfit and looked in the mirror. Her sky blue Fairy Tail mark, which was on the side of her left thigh, was mostly visible, but she decided to reach down and open the side seam of her brown left boot and cut it a bit to make the mark completely shown.
Admiring her new self in the mirror, she thought, Yes, Gray-sama will definitely notice this…
Slinging her pink, heart-patterned umbrella over her shoulder, she walked out of the apartment, down the hall and out the door of Fairy Hills, and to the guild building.
Gray sat at the bar of the guild, his hands clutching a hot cup of the Azure tea. He'd gone back to the tea shop first thing in the morning to buy a tin of the bags, because when he drank it, it reminded him of Juvia, who was really starting to grow on him. He liked how much she loved him. It was abnormal and some would say creepy or insane, but he thought it was cute. He now understood what the tea merchant mage was talking about with the honey and vinegar and the butterfly, and he was prepared to start giving her honey. He mixed a few tablespoons of the stuff in with the tea, steeped it, and took a long sip that tasted like a beautiful, rainy spring.
"Hey, Gray!" Macao shouted in his ear, thumping him on the back. "You never told me Juvia could sew!"
"What do you mean?" Gray asked, spinning around.
"Oh, you'll see," Macao winked and walked away to where Cana sat, laughing.
Gray checked the windows even though he could hear it wasn't raining, just to be sure. So, nothing bad had happened, at least. He scanned the room for Juvia and saw the back of her head and upper back, as she was sitting at a table with Levy, facing away from him.
There was something odd about her that Gray couldn't quite place. She wasn't wearing the hat that normally went with that outfit, and was her shawl a bit askew? He tilted his head, and Gajeel sat down next to him, staring at Levy.
"Have you seem Juvia yet?" Gajeel wondered motioning for Mira to set him up with a drink.
"Just what I can see of her from here," Gray told the iron dragon. "I didn't even see her come in."
"Well, you're in for a surprise," Gajeel muttered and sipped his drink, thanking Mira, who leaned over the counter on her elbows.
"I saw Juvia come in," Mira told them. "I don't know what that girl's thinking."
Gray's face fell, trying to imagine what it is that Juvia did that would cause all this gossip. "What the heck did she do?"
Mira and Gajeel averted their eyes from Gray, wanting him to find out for himself what Juvia's bright idea was.
Gray saw Natsu snickering at him out of the corner of his eye, so he marched over and grabbed him by the scarf. "What?"
Natsu stopped laughing and looked at Gray with a serious expression. "I'm sorry for laughing, Gray. This is between you and Juvia. Honestly, I don't know any more of it than you do. It was just funny seeing you get teased by everyone at the bar."
"Ugh," Gray rolled his eyes and released Natsu's scarf. "What, exactly, is between me and Juvia?" he asked.
Natsu's eyes widened in shock, and he pointed over Gray's bare shoulder to where Juvia and Levy sat. "Th-that."
Gray spun around to see Juvia, having gotten up from the table, walking through the guild with her pink umbrella resting on her shoulder. Her shawl was narrower now, so instead of reaching up to her jaw, the fur trim hung off her smooth shoulders, exposing her neck and collar bone area as well as the very top of her chest. Under the shawl, she wore a dark blue bandeau, which together, hardly constituted a shirt. Her dark blue shorts had brass buttons running up the side seam on the left side and were so short, he couldn't say with confidence that they weren't just fancy underwear. With the shorts, she wore her brown belt. But instead of being tight around the bottom of her waist, it was hanging loose around her hips and angling to the right. She also wore her tall brown boots that reached up to her Fairy Tail mark and would partially cover it if the top if the left boot hadn't been cut and opened to make the light blue mark visible.
Was this really Juvia? Gray thought. She'd done a good job with the sewing, and admittedly, it did look good on her, but it just wasn't her. No, this is not Juvia. Not the Juvia I know.
"She looks like Edo-Juvia!" Natsu gasped. "No, you know, she may even be more… like that… than Edo-Juvia."
Gray gulped, very glad he still had his pants on. He'd met Edo-Juvia very briefly in Edolas when their Fairy Tail came to help them and the exceeds fight against the royal army. She wore a tiny top hat, a white blouse with gold trim tied up to show her middle, a red tie, white gloves, a short, tight, blue skirt, dark tights, and simple shoes. Edo-Gray had been in a state of shock when he heard of the dynamic between their Earthland counterparts, but Gray couldn't take anyone who looked so much like him but wore so many layers and got along with Natsu seriously.
Now, he watched Juvia walk through the guild with a sinking feeling. Surely, she didn't think he'd start treating her like Edo-Gray treated Edo-Juvia just if she acted like her?
Juvia was walking over to the bar to let Erza know she'd be going on a request to investigate strange noises coming from a forest near a small town a significant distance form Magnolia. Gray's eyes on her didn't go unnoticed. It's working! Juvia squealed in her head excitedly. At this rate, I'll have Gray-sama's passionate gaze in no time! The way Gray was staring at Juvia wasn't quite passionate, but it was getting there.
"Be careful on this request, Juvia!" Mira called after her as she walked away.
Gray saw Juvia leaving for this dangerous request and just had to go with her. What if something happened, and it was all because she was too focused on her new image to do the job correctly? He had to be there to help.
"Juvia, wait!" he shouted. Juvia's heart nearly stopped. Going Edo was working better than she'd ever hoped, for her Gray was already acting a bit like Edo-Gray, but still wasn't wearing a shirt! He was perfect, and it had all been due to her bright idea! "Let me go with you. This request is dangerous, and you don't seem… yourself."
Juvia knew that what she had in front of her was part of what she'd always wanted, but she felt it would slip away if she broke character now. True, Edo-Juvia would accept Edo-Gray if he lost a few layers, and the Gray in front of her was shirtless, but Juvia felt she had to keep the personality of her Edo-self despite this detail. "Sorry, Gray," she told him, and he was taken aback. Had she just turned him down? And where'd the –sama go? "Juvia can do this on her own, but she'd be happy to hang out with Gray later." Juvia hoped this would be enough to keep consistent with Edo-Juvia, who she thought was so attractive also because of how well she played hard-to-get.
"O-okay then," Gray stammered. "We can talk when you get back."
Juvia gave him a friendly smile. "Bye, then."
When Juvia was far enough away, Gray slipped into the shadows beside the road and followed her, bent on making sure she was okay.
Juvia sat on the train, staring at the beautiful landscape that passed by her window with her heart filled with joy. Everything was going exactly as she wanted it to. Gray couldn't possibly understand this, which is why he thought he could follow her undetected, but as a stalker, Juvia could know when she was being followed within minutes. Stalkers were the best at knowing when they ere being stalked.
Gray-sama is following Juvia! she thought, falling to pieces in her mind due to the sheer joy that filled her, but she kept her face neutral and controlled.
Gray watched her from the compartment across the aisle, pretending to read a newspaper and wearing a hat and shirt and a disguise. It disgusted him how many people had looked at her with lustful eyes as he followed her through the train station. When he caught them staring at her, the first thing that crossed his mind was the fact that they were after someone who was his, and that made them his love rivals. He couldn't believe himself. Here he was, following Juvia around, seeing almost everyone else around them as love rivals. He was becoming her, and with the way she was dressed and acted, she was well on her way to becoming him. At least she isn't naked, Gray laughed to himself, thinking about how he sometimes strips down to nothing if no one warns him when get gets to just his boxers.
What comforts him is the fact that she's doing this because she prefers Edolas to Earthland people, and he saw no one in Edolas who walked around without any clothes at all.
The next morning, the train stopped at the small station of the quiet town that had sent the request. Juvia got off the train and walked into town to meet with the Mayor, who'd written the official request flyer, and Gray followed, hiding behind trees and in shadows.
Juvia was in the forest, taking care of a band of dark goblins who'd made the forest their home. The nocturnal creatures were the ones making the strange sounds at night and keeping the town awake with fear.
"Water Lock!" Juvia trapped the goblin gang in a sphere of water, helpless. "Water Slicer!" The high-powered water jets sliced back and forth, starting at the top and cutting the water sphere down, layer by layer until it reached the bottom and all of the goblins were dead.
Through the whole job, Gray'd been peeping from behind a thick tree, his shirt collar lifted up to his cheekbones and his hat tilted down to hide his face. The entire time, he was fully prepared to leap to her rescue if she ever needed it, but she hadn't. This Juvia was hard and ruthless.
"You can come out now, Gray," she muttered.
Not all that surprised that she'd known he was there, Gray took off his hat, folded his collar back down, and slipped out from behind the tree. "Hey, Juvia."
"You followed me," Juvia stated, her choking happiness slipping through the Edo mask.
"Juvia, what are you doing?" Gray asked simply.
Seeing Gray's disappointed face, Juvia gave up and told him everything. "Juvia wants Gray-sama to see her as Edo-Gray-sama sees Edo-Juvia-chan. Edo-Juvia-chan dresses different, curls her hair, and plays hard-to-get. She rejects Edo-Gray-sama because he wears too much clothes. So, Juvia stopped wearing what she knows was too much for Gray-sama's taste and became more like Edo-Juvia-chan. Juvia had to do something to earn Gray-sama's passionate gaze." Juvia hung her head and buried it in her hands. She must've done something wrong, because the gaze she got from Gray now was not of passion, but sadness.
"Juvia, please," Gray said, putting his hands on her exposed shoulders as the rain fell down on them with a steady pace. "If you want my attention, this," he gestured to her modified outfit, "isn't the way to get it. You've grown on me, and I love you. But I love you, the real you. Definitely not the Edo-Juvia version of you."
"Gray-sama…" she breathed, a tear of joy sliding down her cheek, the only drop in sight. The sun shone down on the couple like a beam of bliss.
"That's more like it," he said through a smile and leaned down to kiss her.
Juvia didn't know how to react. Had she been knocked out? Was this just a dream? Forcing herself to believe the kiss to be real, Juvia let herself fall and drown in her joy, kissing him back passionately.
When they broke apart, Gray slid his shirt off his shoulders and, pulling his arms from the sleeves, handed it to Juvia. She took it and ran behind a tree to take her shawl off and change into the shirt. When she stepped back out, the long shirt nearly covered her shorts, so she looked like she was only wearing it and the boots, but it was all they could do.
Gray had offered his pants as well, but Juvia insisted he keep them on. She didn't want him walking around in just his boxers, because while she thought he looked very good in just boxers, it attracted love rivals. Even just being shirtless was risky to her, but after what Gray said, she saw herself clearly and didn't want to just walk around in her off-the-shoulder shawl anymore. She couldn't imagine how Cana did it, walking around all day in just a bikini top. Juvia felt terribly uncomfortable.
Juvia and Gray walked back into town to collect the seventy-five thousand jewel reward for the request, but Juvia was too nervous. "Juvia and Gray-sama should just forget the reward and go back to the guild," she suggested. "Juvia is too embarrassed about her clothing to go back in."
"Don't worry, Juvia. I'll come with you to get it. Seventy-five thousand jewels is a considerable amount of money, and you deserve it," Gray vowed.
Smiling, Juvia accepted his offer, and he accompanied her to the mayor's office to collect the reward, his shirtlessness drawing a lot of discomforting eyes—which he was used to, but she wasn't—away from Juvia.
When they returned to town, Gray spotted the tea shop where he got the Azure and pulled Juvia in for a glass. The merchant winked at Gray and brought them their ordered teas, Juvia getting Earl Grey and Gray getting Azure even though he had his own tin at home. When they finished, he refused to let her pay and covered the cost himself.
When she protested, saying she had just gotten plenty of money and therefore should pay the cost of the tea, Gray explained, "That's what a guy does on a date."
Juvia's heart fluttered, and after their tea, they walked around in the park until the sun set and even a bit later. Though they were a bit of a spectacle—shirtless Gray carrying her shawl while she wore his shirt over extremely short shorts and high boots—they walked comfortably, hand in hand.
Juvia understood that Edo-Juvia wasn't the Juvia that her Gray wanted, but when she thought about her bright idea, only one thought crossed her mind:
it worked.