41st: Broken-hearted

Summary: Their hearts had been broken, shattered. Their hope was nothing but an idea which had been trampled on many times. And yet, they walked with their heads held high.

The Club of the Broken-hearted was meeting every Friday evening at the Strauss-café which belonged to Katharina Strauss, Mirajane's mother. There was Gray Fullbuster, an orphaned boy who opened the door first and dragged his best friend and roommate, Cana Alberona, into the cosy café where the others were already waiting. Lyon nearly molested Juvia while Ultear slapped him in intervals of two seconds while Laxus closed his eyes and tried to ignore his so-called friends – he still hated to admit this.

"Welcome back to our newest meeting of the Club of the Broken-hearted," Ultear said as she finally let go of Lyon and beamed at her friends but they knew her a little too well to be tricked by this smile. It was too bright, too perfect – artificial but how was she supposed to smile naturally when the guy she loved always ignored her?

"Juvia is happy that you guys finally came," the blue-haired girl muttered quietly.

"Lyon, leave her alone," Cana ordered strictly as she slipped onto her place next to Laxus.

"Yeah," Gray agreed as he looked at his former friend. "She said no before, remember?"

"Jealous?" Laxus taunted as he opened his left eye and smirked.

"In fact, yes," Gray said as he crossed his arms. "Juvia, be my girlfriend, will you?"

Ultear, Lyon and Juvia stared at him as if he had just revealed that he liked to steal Erza Scarlet's strawberry cake which would be the same as asking for a painful death. Ultear had to hide a smirk and bent over to grab Laxus' headphones to distract everyone from herself. Lyon looked like he wanted to kill the black-haired boy as Juvia looked like she was about to faint.

"Kids," Laxus drawled as he sighed. "Get your act together, will you? You are pathetic."

"I agree," Cana nodded. "Lyon, you should have seen this coming. Juvia, calm the hell down. Ultear, your smirk is disturbing me. And Gray … took you long enough."

The black-haired girl crossed her arms as she emptied her cup of hot cocoa. "I am only happy for once," she said. She had lost her parents in a car crash last summer and ever since then, she lived with Lyon which hadn't benefitted her heartache at all because while she had been crushing on him since freshmen year while he had fallen head over heels for Juvia who was in love with Gray for as long as Cana could remember.

"We should share now," Gray said calmly after fanning Juvia who hadn't fainted which had surprised all of them quite a bit.

"Alright" Laxus said as he bit his lower lip. No one of them had chosen to join this group. Their headmaster who was also his grandfather had decided that they had issues to sort out and since Headmaster Makarov Dreyar refused to meddle with his pupils' private lives, the six of them had been sorted into a care-and-share group.

"It's my turn to share first this time, right?" Cana asked as she looked at her old friend who nodded. "Okay … I am here because of the issue with my father," she begun. "You all know him; I guess … he's Mr Clive, Physics and Chemistry. He and my mom got married years ago … but he had to leave her because of … various reasons."

Juvia patted her hand and smiled friendly. "Did you tell your father, Cana? Juvia thinks that you are torturing yourself a little too much…" the blue-haired girl said softly.

"What could I say? 'Hi, I didn't do my homework and by the way, I am your daughter'?" the brunette sighed. "I have no idea how I should tell him, you see?"

"Well, if you would tell him like this, you would get all of us out of trouble for not doing our homework as well," Gray shrugged. "Alberona, Cana is the first one in the list after all…"

"Juvia thinks that you should simply go up to him and tell me, Cana."

"I would beat him up for you when he's mean to you," Laxus offered with a strangely soft and friendly smile which was pretty strange for him. "We are all the same after all. People broke our hearts, many times, over and over again. The ideals we believed in and our hope was kicked around multiple times … but we are still there, walking with our heads held high because when we look down, we won't see all the chances we get." He looked at Juvia who had to take notes on everything they said so that the headmaster could be sure that they actually worked. "That sounded smart – could you quote me on that?"

Ultear rolled her eyes before she toyed around with her empty cup. "Alright, it's my turn now," she said as she brushed back the strands of her hair. "The reason why I am here … it's a little bit difficult to explain but … between my parents died and Lyon's took me in, the headmaster of Grimoire Academy showed … interest in me … and when the headmaster found out, he decided that I should stay 'on the side of light and justice' to quote him."

"So we are similar after all," Laxus muttered as he stared down. "I nearly abandoned Saint Fairy for Raven High … for my father's school after I lost to Scarlet."

Cana's hand shot out before she could control it and she rested her hand on top of his. "I always said that you are too freaking proud, Dreyar," she whispered. "You said…"

"I haven't forgotten about my promise, Cana," he said calmly as he nodded at her. "So, the last three are Juvia and the cool guys."

"We are here for the same reason," Gray said. "Lyon and I at least … I don't know about Juvia because she never shared before."

"Can Juvia go first?" the blue-haired girl asked as she looked at her boyfriend of eighteen minutes. "Well, Juvia is here because of her guilt. Juvia is too blame for Gajeel-kun's injuries a year ago … she … she could have tried harder."

"Oh, Juvia," Ultear said as she hugged her carefully as sobs racked the younger girl's body. "I heard from Gajeel-san that he doesn't blame you at all. Neither you nor Wendy or Levy could had stopped him from going against the complete Sabertooth gang all alone."

"Juvia is strong – stronger than Levy-chan or Wendy-nee," the girl muttered. "Juvia should have been able to hold him back … it's only Juvia's fault."

"Oh no, Juvia," Gray said as he hugged her carefully. "It was - Natsu's fault. He was supposed to be Gajeel's backup but the stupid pink-haired nuisance was too busy making out with Lucy to remember that hey, there was another meeting he had to attend."

"Gray's right," Laxus said in agreement. "Elfman ditched the operation because Evergreen dragged him off to the cinema and Mira doesn't do those things anymore. Gajeel wasn't supposed to do this all on his own – hell, I'd helped him if I had known…"

"Even I would have been nice enough to grant him some backup if I had known that all the others had ditched him," Lyon sighed. "Anyway, Juvia, it's really not your fault."

"No one thinks that you are to blame for what happened," Ultear agreed with a smile.

"We are all to blame that we weren't there to help him when the tables turned," Gray nodded as he kissed Juvia's forehead. "But … he recovered from this … accident."

"Anyway," Lyon scoffed. "I will share for both Gray and me, yes? Master Makarov decided that we should join as well so that we would finally sort out or issues and become friends again. Hell, we are probably totally wrong here because we-"

"You are completely right here," Ultear replied softly. "You used to be such great friends a long time ago … and Master Makarov … sometimes I think that he can look straights into our souls. You are both bothered by the loss of this friendship but you won't admit it."

"And furthermore, you have tortured yourselves long enough by scowling at each other whenever you meet," Cana said in agreement. "You are really here to learn how to get along all over again – because you forgot something which is very important."

"Juvia will quote you on that, Cana," the blue-haired girl stated calmly as she looked up from her notes. "This was a great saying you just developed."

"Very well," Ultear said as she checked her watch. "Lyon and I need to leave – his mother cooked and told us to be home early. We will meet up next week again, yes?"

"Of course," Gray sighed as he got up and held out his hand to Juvia. "We should be on our way to – I treat you with cinema, alright? That would be a decent first date, right?"

It was funny how Cana felt as she watched her friends leave. In a way, it felt like they had made progress today but on the other hand, she feared that they had come closer to falling apart as well. But even if this were to happen, she would be there to remember everything. They had shed off their fears today and they had learned to be more honest with their feelings. Ultear had admitted that she liked Lyon and that she had been jealous of Juvia all along. This had allowed them to get rid of the tension which had been there for the last few weeks when Lyon had been obviously courting one girl while another was in love with him. And now, with those unspoken secrets being revealed, they would be maybe able to last – just like they had imagined when they had first formed their group.

She had never felt jealously like this. Maybe this was the reason why she and her friends would always be separated by an invisible wall.

"Cana," Laxus said as he turned around and held out his hand. "Let's go."

Her heart skipped a beat as blood rushed into her head. She knew that they would be heading straight into disaster but she didn't mind as long as he felt the same. This might be the end of their friendship but somehow, she wasn't afraid of this because even if he would play out to be her enemy, she would always wait for him to come around.