AN: My faith in Fairy Tail was restored with chapter 294. Sorry that this chapter is kind of angst, but that's what I had here, guys!
Special thanks to Ulcaasi, who pretty much beta-ed this chapter by pointing out my mistakes!
Life Without You – Part Two
Gray woke up and looked to the pillow that wasn't supposed to be empty and frowned, knowing very well that his girlfriend was supposed to be there with him. Blinking with the light coming from the window, he sat and looked around and then he finally listened to the water running inside the bathroom.
Stark naked, as he always ended up in the mornings, Gray walked over the bathroom and passing his hand through his face, he spoke to the woman showering.
"Why are you such a morning riser?" He groaned the question and heard her giggle from inside the tube.
"Juvia already went for a walk and came back, while Gray-sama was still asleep." She said and he rolled his eyes. "And we need to be at work in an hour."
"Yeah, yeah." Gray's cellphone rang and he walked towards the sound. It was a text from his secretary, saying that he needed to check his e-mail before going to the firm. He sighed. "Juvia, can I use your laptop? This cell's letters are too freaking small for me to read this early in the morning."
"Sure, Gray-sama." The answer from the bathroom came and he put his boxers on, while looking around the bedroom for the pink laptop that had many heart stickers on it, which was by her bedside.
He settled himself on the bed and opened it, typing the password "JuviaandGraysamaforever", smirking as he did so. She really should change it. And when he was about to open the internet browser to check on his e-mail, he noticed that it was already open, so he clicked on it, and was surprised to see that it was an website about apartments for rent. Why would she be looking for an apartment?
At that moment, the water from the bathroom stopped running, so he asked, speaking loudly so she could hear.
"Hey, Juvia. Why are you looking for an apartment?" Gray was frowning and noticed that she had more tabs on the browser for, what he supposed, were her favorites.
"Oh, yeah." She said, entering the room, with a towel wrapped around her and another in her hair. "The landlord sold this one and Juvia need to go in a month". She said sadly. "So, Juvia's searching for another one. Didn't I tell you?"
"Nope." Gray was still looking over her choices and they were… fine. Very far away, but fine.
"Oh, sorry. He only said it to me three days ago." She started to dry her hair with the towel. "Juvia will find a place soon. And I would appreciate very much if you helped me move." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and walked over to her closet to see what she was going to wear that day. "I just need to find an apartment." She laughed.
"Or you could just move in with me." The words came out of his mouth before he could even think through.
"You are wrong. You saw wrong." Gajeel was the only one speaking at that point, while everyone else looked to the crying Gray, who had a hand over his face. "No. You saw it wrong."
"I didn't see wrong." Gray kept telling himself. "It wasn't her. I didn't see wrong."
Everyone was now staring at Gray, surprised with his words; after all, with his tears, they assumed that Juvia was indeed gone.
"What are you saying, Gray?" Erza stepped closer to her friend.
"The person I saw… wasn't Juvia." He said trying to stop his tears from falling without success.
Silence took over the room.
"It wasn't Juvia." He said stronger this time.
Gray stepped into the morgue, taking a deep breath before entering it. There were some bodies covered in white sheets, but he knew which one he was supposed to identify, because there was a man standing closer to it, looking straight at Gray, with a serious face, but had pity in his eyes.
Gray needed to hold it together; this was going to be tough.
"Mr. Fullbuster." He said. "Whenever you're ready."
Gray stared to the white sheet covering the body of the woman he loved. The woman he was supposed to live the rest of his life with. The woman that made his days brighter.
He gulped and nodded, signalizing that he was ready to see her; but he wasn't. He would never be ready to see Juvia lifeless. Just a few hours before, she had kissed him and told how much she loved him.
Juvia would never be lifeless to him.
The doctor stepped closer to the table and removed the white sheet covering her face and the first thing Gray noticed was the blue hair, as always. He didn't tell anyone, but he really liked the deep blue of it, he always remembers the sea when stares at it. But the woman he was looking at, she had a lighter tone of hair.
Gray frowned, looking to the pretty woman lying on the table. Her hair was short: it stopped a little bit above her shoulders. Her nose was a little larger than Juvia's.
It wasn't her.
"Mr. Fullbuster?" The doctor frowned. "What you mean this isn't her?"
Had he spoken loud? It didn't matter. "This is not Juvia." Gray managed to say.
"Sir, I know this is a shock, but…" The doctor tried, but Gray interrupted him.
"This isn't her!"
"We have her documents. She was holding a purse when they found her with the documents of Juvia Loxar." The doctor said with compassion, thinking that Gray was in denial, but he knew he wasn't.
"This is not my girlfriend!" Gray said with emphasis.
"Why you say that?" The man gave in.
"Juvia… her hair is longer now. She cut it when she moved to Magnolia and she renewed her documents when she came to live here, but now, she is too busy at the firm to go take new photos." He pointed at the woman's hair. "And her hair color is deeper than this one."
The coroner sighed.
"We're gonna need something more than that, sir. She really looks like the picture of her ID." He thought for a moment. " Is there anything else that can tell us that this is not Juvia Loxar? A scar, a birthmark, a tattoo…"
Gray perked himself.
"She has a birthmark! In her left thigh. It looks like a water drop! She doesn't like it."
The doctor lifted the sheet and sighed while Gray looked at him with expectation.
"No mark."
Gray felt relieved. That woman was not Juvia. And even though that was good, there was another question raised:
"If this woman isn't Juvia, where is she?" He asked the other man, who seemed to get paler and scared. "I'm asking: where's she?" Gray yelled and the man retracted in fear, and he should be afraid: An enraged Gray Fullbuster was a dangerous thing.
"I... I have to find my superior, sir." The man went to a phone that was on the wall and dialed some numbers and then started to talk in whispers.
Gray stared at the woman lying on the inox table and felt bad for feeling relief because she was the one dead, instead of Juvia. What kind of human being does that? He was a better man than that.
"Sir?" Gray turned to look to the now, frightened man. "My superior said that we're trying our best to find Miss Loxar."
"You better. Otherwise, I'll fuckin' tear this place apart to find her, do you hear me?" His voice was low and threatening and the man had certain that he was going to do exactly that.
Gray turned around and got out the morgue, heart pounding in his chest, his eyes stung and his breath quickened.
'She may be alive.' His mind kept telling him. 'You may see her again.'
When he met up with the others, he was so filled with hope that he let his tears flow. There was a possibility, a chance that Juvia was alive.
And a chance was all she needed.
Gray knew Juvia. She was a fighter: if there was a chance, she would grab it with all her strength and she was one strong girl.
Gray dried his tears as much as he could, but the others already saw them, so there wasn't a point hiding it now; not that anyone would make fun of him about it. For hours, they all thought Juvia was dead and suffered too.
"They don't know where she is?" Erza asked and Gray nodded. "That's outrageous! I'm going to make sure they find her right now!"
She went away and Gray stood there, again without the slightest idea of what to do. What if she was dead somewhere else? That hope he had since he found out that the woman wasn't Juvia, would destroy him, it truly would. He lost her once, he couldn't lose her again.
"I told ya all!" Gajeel said in triumph and the people in the room looked at him. "Juvia is not dead."
"Calm down, Gajeel." Levy told him gently. "We don't know where she is."
"It doesn't matter." He shrugged. "Titania is scary as shit, she'll make them find her and Juvia will be fine." The long haired man looked to Gray, who was still looking to the ground, probably in shock. "Move your ass, Fullbuster. Go find her."
Gray looked up and saw that everyone was expecting him to do something and he didn't know what.
"Are you sure that this is alright, Gray-sama?" Juvia asked for the hundriedth time that afternoon and Gray rolled his eyes and put the box on the floor, while grabbing his keys to open the door of his apartament.
"Yes, Juvia."
"Are you sure that Juvia's not intruding?" She asked and Gray turned his head to look at her. The blue haired woman had a suitcase on the floor that had wheels and she looked aprehensive; some people would think that she would die with excitement because he offered to move in with him, right?
Except that she didn't.
She kept going on and on about invading his privacy (yeah, that boat sailed a long time ago), and he needing his space; he thought that she didn't want to move in with him. He managed to convince her, because Juvia didn't find a good apartment during that time (Gray had gone with her and found every single thing that was wrong with the places), so, she had no other choice but to go stay with Gray.
The man gave up opening his door and turned all his body around to look to his girlfriend.
"Okay, I thought that you would be happy to move in with me." He said. "You don't seem happy."
She looked down to the floor.
"Oh, there's something you haven't told me." Gray narrowed his eyes and pointed at her. "What is it?" She didn't say a thing. "Was it something I did?" She shook her head. "Was it something you did?" She shook her head again. "Tell me, Juvia. We are about to live together. Say what's on your mind."
The woman hesitated for a moment and Gray waited with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't going to let her keep secrets from him.
"It's just..." She started and Gray stepped closer to hear her better. "Juvia has this feeling that Gray-sama offered his house because of an obligation."
"I'm sorry, what?" Gray heard her wrong. He must've heard her wrong. "Did you just say that you think that I asked you to move in with me because I have an obligation?" Juvia nodded and Gray stared at her in disbelief for a few seconds.
He should've seen that coming. Of course that Juvia would twist whatever he did. He was the fool for believing that she understood what he meant.
"Okay." He took a deep breath, and then another to calm himself down. "Okay. Listen, Juvia. You're my girlfriend, right? And you have been for almost two years. We sleep at each other's apartments 6 nights a week, you have clothes here in my place and I had in yours. I think that moving in together was the next step anyways. And by now you must know that I don't do anything I don't want to." He stared into her eyes. "Sorry if it wasn't like the novels you read and the guys are so sweet that you want to barf." Juvia giggled and Gray smiled. "But I do want you here. If I didn't, I would've told you to take apartment number 3."
"You said that it had terrible structure." Juvia frowned.
"I lied. That apartment is awesome." Gray's smile widened. "But I am not lying about wanting you here with me, okay?" She nodded. "Really, Juvia. Did you get it?"
"Yes." The woman smiled and kissed him on the lips.
"Maybe we should look again that apartment." Gray said putting his hands on her hips. "So we can get our place? How does that sounds?"
Juvia grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Sounds like you want Juvia around."
Gray snapped out of his numbness. He had to find Juvia. If the woman who died had her documents, it means that his girlfriend was there and he was going to find her.
"We think we found her, Mr. Fullbuster." The old nurse who comforted him when they told him that Juvia died said. Gray turned to her, and she was serious, his heart dropping a bit.
'Oh, god, no.'
Gray swallowed. "Really?"
"Yes. She fits the description and she has the mark on her thigh." She said gently.
Everyone was silent, and Lucy asked what everyone wanted to know. "Is... Is she alright?"
The nurse sighed. "That's the thing, darling." She looked to everyone and stopped to stare at Gray. "This girl is unconscious since the accident. She had been since then. She has a good chance of waking up and getting better." Gray nodded. "You have to go and see her, sweetheart." He frowned.
"Y-yeah. Sure." Gray said without certain.
"I'll go arrange it. Give me a minute." She said and went to speak with other two nurses; while Gray trembled and his friends talked all in the same time.
Erza watched as her childhood friend struggled with himself. She was about to talk to him, but the nurse came back and took him to the unconscious girl that they hoped was Juvia.
Gray felt the weight that rested on his chest disappear and he frowned in his light sleep. It was so good, why was it gone? And even though he prefers to be cold, the warmth of it felt so good.
And he knew exactly what it was.
"It's early." He said without opening his eyes, but knowing that the woman rose with the sun. "Come back."
Gray heard her giggle. "We have to order this apartment, Gray-sama. Yesterday we didn't do a good job."
"Yeah. Someone teased me after 30 minutes we started to clean things." He smirked remembering exactly how she started to make a strip-tease for him while he was cleaning some plates or something. Once he saw her shirt gone, he almost let the damn plate fall. After very little resistance from his part, they christened the living room, then the bedroom. Twice.
"You didn't complain then." Gray could hear the smirk on her face and opened his eyes to stare at her. She was sitting, her knees close to her chest, while she rested her head above one arm, and the other was holding the sheets in front of her breasts. Her hair was wavy and loose, falling over her naked back. The light that was entering the room made her look even more beautiful.
How come she never seemed more beautiful to him than that moment, when they had slept on a mattress on the floor and she had her hair down, no make-up and covered only with a simple sheet; than when she spend hours doing her hair, painting her face and choosing the perfect dress. Not that he didn't like it, but he preferred her like that.
"Morning." She smiled and he couldn't help but smile back.
"Yeah, whatever." Juvia giggled with his usual response, knowing that inside he was saying back to her. "Come back here."
"We have to put our things into their places, Gray-sama." She pointed out and he groaned.
"Not now. This is the first morning in our place. We can do whatever we want and I don't want to mop the floor and push furniture around until after lunch." He sat and before she could understand what was going on, he grabbed her and made her lie on her back while he put himself over her.
"Gray-sama!" She tried to sound mad, but it came out more like a series of giggles.
"Juvia!" He said in the same tone. The blue haired woman put a hand on his cheek, smiling.
"We have our own apartment." She said.
"Yeap." He nodded.
She stayed in silence for a few seconds. "Tadaima, Gray-sama."
"You only say that when you arrive home." The man pointed out.
"Gray-sama is Juvia's home." She smiled softly and something inside Gray snapped. He was in love with her, that was clear to everyone, but that moment, he understood that he really loved her, because she had become his home too. Of course, for both of them, Fairy Tail and its members would always be their family; but at that moment, he understood that there were two different types of home and he was lucky enough to have found both.
"Okaeri, then, Juvia." He grinned and lowered his head to kiss her with everything he got.
It was her. Gray saw from the big window that the hospital room had. Her hair had the length, the skin had the same tone, the nose was right and that time, he knew that the woman lying in that bed was Juvia, no turning back now.
"It's her." He said and the nurse nodded.
"I'm gonna tell your friends, sweetheart." She said and Gray nodded, not moving his eyes away from Juvia.
She had her eyes closed, there was a tube down her throat, her head had bandages all over it, and so did her arm and he guessed that her legs were also covered with them. She was so hurt. So, so hurt and his heart got smaller by the second as he looked at her.
He never saw her so beaten up, even when she almost died by the hands of some nasty people, she was always so strong and looked like it was nothing that when he looked at her lying on that bed, he fully understood how fragile she really was.
"Mr. Fullbuster?" Gray looked to his right, where a tiny and very round man was staring at him. He had a thick moustache, big nose and tiny eyes. He looked like a pig, to tell the truth. "My name is Tyler Hastings and I am the hospital lawyer."
"I don't care." Gray snapped and returned to look to his girlfriend, but the man didn't take the clue.
"Sir, we are very sorry of the… misunderstanding we had today, and we are prepared to pay for all Miss Loxar's expenses while she's with us." Hastings was about to say more, but Gray turned to stare at him with fury in his eyes.
"You're sorry? You don't have to be sorry for me. You have to be sorry for the people that lost the woman I saw down there in the morgue." Every step Gray took towards the tiny man, he stepped back two. "So, don't tell me you're sorry until you feel how hard it is to lose someone you love."
He felt someone grab him from behind and then Erza's voice said, serious. "Gray! Calm down."
Gray struggled and went free from her embrace, walking away from the man and he knew that Erza was following him.
"Don't." He stopped and turned to the red haired woman. "I…" He sighed. "Just don't."
Erza nodded and they stayed in silence for a few minutes, until Gray's breath became normal again.
"That man had the audacity to tell me that he was sorry!" He said. "Like he knew what…" He gasped and stopped for a moment. "I lost her, okay? For hours, I thought I lost her. If I went sooner to identify that... body, I would have known sooner that it wasn't her and they would've found her. I was weak, Erza. I was so weak and pathetic..."
Slap.
"Get over it, Gray." He put his hand where Erza slapped him. "You were in shock, not weak. The woman you love was said to be dead, of course you would be surprised and hurt. I know the pain of losing someone you love. Jellal was also 'dead' to me, but for months, instead of hours. We weren't together, but the pain wasn't any lighter because of it. You were in shock but now you have to snap out of it, because she needs you." Erza said and Gray stared at the floor for some moments.
"I never thought of her as fragile." He said as barely a whisper. "She was always kicking ass, taking guys double of her size back at the gym, and I had this image of her that she was almost invincible. But..."
"She's not." Erza nodded, understanding where he was getting at.
"No. She can just... be gone in a second. I don't know how to deal with that. I already lost too many important people." Gray moved his eyes to look at Erza's. "When can I take a freaking break from this?"
"You can't. There are no breaks, Gray. We are not children anymore; you know that life can vanish in a second, as you said, you lost people, and now, instead of losing another one person you love, and you didn't. So, stop whining: Juvia's alive. Go make sure to have no regrets anymore." She put a hand over his shoulder. "You need to stay with her when she wakes up."
Gray nodded and went to see his girlfriend. He wasn't going to let her down anymore.
AN: Okay, let's get something straight: I am a big sucker for happy endings. I hate when characters dies. I don't freaking care if we have to take a lesson from it: I like and hoot with all my being for the 'happily ever after'. So, the probability of me killing a character is slim. I know that as a writer, I have to, but I'm not in that phase yet; I'm in denial about how life sucks and I'll be for some time. So, sorry if you were expecting a dead Juvia with a (even more) devastated Gray.
Let's all pretend that blue is a common hair color, okay? I mean, in Fairy Tail only we have Juvia, Levy, Jellal/Mystogan, Happy and Wendy!
And I decided to finish this chapter because I almost died. I had a fever, guys... 40,5° celsius. I don't know how to say it in Fahrenheit, but basically, I was expecting death. Anyway... Near-death experiences always make me write, so... after so much time... here we go! :D
By the way, we'll have a third part, because I don't know if you remember, but Gray left Juvia a message back in part one. I think that I'll write what he said when he thought she was gone. :D Besides, I have to explain why another woman had Juvia's purse.
Thanks to: Uchiha Evangeline , Tsanami SaberFairy , PattyPatt, xRainGirl , xJuvia, Shikalein, LittleLiar666 , Yukari Hiwada, MissForgetfulMe, Ushiio , GrayFullbusterfangirl , superduperizee, YamixTeaLover, NekoMaji , Mozzey , Yukistar, Armageddon Angel, ChibiWaruChan , Seirin , Fleur-de-Lys-Chan , Xeylah , FairyTailxoLove, Gray-Mochi and Sarapyon who reviewed! You rock!
Okay, can I say: Chapter 294 was AWESOME. It gave me goose bumps. Mashima is my hero again. And Juvia's hair in that color page was perfect, it looked like Cana's back in chapter I'm-too-lazy-to-go-search-for-it!
Anyway, I'm still sick, so I have to go rest! I hope I didn't ruin 'Life without you' for you guys! Review, alright? ;D