Chapter 3

When they arrived at the North Castle Juvia's mother had immediately ran to her in tears. Hugging the princess to her chest in relief. Neither Juvia nor Natsu knew how to react to the situation. Queen Naida rarely ever showed emotion, and had trained Juvia to do the same.

So, after the strange reunion and being shown to her new sleeping quarters, Juvia decided to explore the palace which would become her home until Naida said otherwise.

The palace's inner looked a lot more cosy than the cold exterior. The burgundy walls were lined with silver and almost all the furniture was made with dark brown wood. It truly looked like a home, unlike Juvia's cold blue palace.

She then heard a giggle up ahead and walked slightly faster to check it out.

"As beautiful as your laugh is you need to keep it down incase we're caught," a voice sounded. Juvia couldn't tell who was speaking as she had never heard the voice before.

She noticed two figures on the balcony at the end of the corridor. One was tall and broad, and slightly hunched as though to be closer to the petite and almost frail figure next to them.

Upon closer inspection, she could tell that the two giggling strangers were Prince Lyon and the girl Prince Gray had told her about, Lyon's beloved Meredy.

"Sorry Lyon," the maid caressed his jaw, and Juvia watched as the Prince's facial expression formed a soft smile as he looked at the smiling girl. "You haven't been shaved in a while, you're face feels like toothpicks."

"I have a flooded palace to investigate," Juvia's ears perked up. "I haven't had time for such trivial matters. Plus, I think I look rather manly."

Meredy scoffed, "manly, my butt. You're the biggest softie I know!"

"Only for you, my dear," he pressed his lips to her forehead and nuzzled his nose into her hair.

Juvia felt as though she was intruding, even if it was an accident, the two forbidden lovers deserved their alone time in her opinion. Despite the fact her mother wanted her to snatch one of them. Smiling once more towards to snuggling couple, she turned to make way back down the corridor.

Only for her vision to be blocked by a naked chest.

"This doesn't look like your chambers," the deep voice of Prince Gray said teasingly.

Juvia blinked up at him in confusion. He was smirking down at her and had a playful look in his eye.

"OH, um, Juvia was trying… She wanted, ah," not wanting to admit to spying she spluttered out random words while thinking of a valid excuse to being out of her room.

"Still on your sex quest, huh?" Gray nodded towards the balcony to where he knew Lyon was. "Told ya he had his eyes her."

"He has more than just eyes on her, Gray-Sama. Juvia can see his heart is set on her," bowing her head slightly she then whispered, "and it's not a sex quest."

He simply shrugged and offered her his arm. When she accepted he lead her to a room that had a huge window which overlooked the entire Northern Kingdom. The landscape was almost completely white, with random puffs of grey smoke, dark brown wooden edges of houses, and moving dots of the townsfolk going about their daily lives.

"Your kingdom is beautiful," Juvia whispered and let one her fingers touch the windows glass.

"Thanks," Gray took a seat on the sofa nearest to where Juvia was standing. "I would say the same to you but I've never been to the Marina."

Juvia smiled and thought back to her home. "It rains a lot."

"Is that how it flooded?" Juvia looked at Gray and shrugged sadly. His eyebrow raising in question.

"I was asleep when the palace flooded. Natsu saved me in the middle of the night," she took her hand off the window and took a place beside Gray on the sofa.

She looked at him once again and was reminded of the fact that he was half naked and alone with her in a strange room in a strange palace.

"Um, why are you naked?" Juvia blushed and focused on one of the houses she could see out the window.

He simply chuckled and grabbed her chin to look at him again, "don't worry I won't try anything. I just like being cold."

"Oh," Juvia smiled at him. "I forgot you had Lucy, for a second."

"I don't really have her. I think Lyon just ordered me to be with her because he can't marry the girl of his dreams," Gray shook his head and rolled his eyes. "He thinks I'll take 'the perfect bride' away from him when in reality he's just pissed off."

"But wouldn't Lucy be perfect for you considering you're best friends?" Juvia asked in confusion. "You obviously get along well, and I know you care for each other…"

"Nah, that'd be like you and Natsu getting hitched. Weird," Gray smirked at her and took in her stare at his chest. "Lyon still wants to meet you, though."

"What, why?!" Juvia's gaze snapped back up his face and saw his smirk, "what would he want with Juvia?"

Gray looked at her with knowing eyes and stated, "you are his guest, remember?"

Juvia made a noise of recognition and looked away in embarrassment. She got so caught up in her mother's (probably fake) emotions to realise that she hadn't spoke to Lyon, the King of the region and palace she was residing in.

"Also, I don't think your mother likes me very much," Juvia laughed a little at his statement, remembering the argument between her mother and herself.

"She thinks I tried to seduce you instead of Lyon on the night of the ball," she explained through giggles. Gray looked truly shocked but grinned all the same.

"See, I knew you had good taste in guys," he winked at her which made her blush a little and bite her lip. "Didn't think you would go wasting your affections on a Vastia."

"Juvia always makes sure her affections are deserved, Gray-sama," she tried to flirt back. The grumpy Prince Gray she met at the party was almost a distant memory compared to what she was seeing now, a light-hearted and charming man.

"That's good to know," he smiled at her and stood up to stretch his back. "Do you wanna come round to the market with me and Lucy tomorrow? You can bring Natsu if you want."

Juvia couldn't tell if he was being polite or low-key asking her out after their short flirting session. But of course her answer would be-

"Yes, that sounds like fun," because he was so kind and handsome. And he was lending her his home for the indefinite future.

Bring on tomorrow.

A/N: As you can see I love using dialogue lmao apologies if that aint your thing. I decided to make chaps 2 and 3 a double upload as nothing particularly interesting happens in chap 2 imo

Also can i just thank: Celestial Iris, BubblySweets, ShizukaPamela, Star197, chocolatecatsconfusion, and the guests who reviewed on chapter 1! You are all so sweet and lovely and i want to hug you all! I really wasn't sure if anyone would want to read this kinda shit and you have no idea how heartwarmed and relieved i was to see you all liked it !:D

-hashtagjuvia