Magnolia had always been a lovely place. Flowers bloom everywhere, and the streets buzzed with people's laughter and children's happy squeal. The town was always full of life. But lately, a little weather change dampened the mood of the citizens. Recently, light drizzle would suddenly fall, and some other days people will be stuck in their homes because of heavy rain out of nowhere. And on terrible days, there would be thunder and lightning too.
More or less, everyone knew that climate change had nothing to do with the weird changing weather. No one was saying it out loud, but most people already guessed who caused the rain.
Some were wondering why the resident water mage of Fairy Tail was making it rain, but those who knew a thing or two about Juvia Lockser and the story of her rain were guessing that the young woman must be sad, thus making them more forgiving and lenient. What they could not understand was the cause of the thunder and lightning.
Had the water mage developed new magic that can cause thunder and lightning when she brings forth the rain?
Well, those were what outsiders guessed. Members of Fairy Tail knew what exactly was happening. Certainly, Juvia caused the rain. But not only because she was sad but also because the water mage was distraught. She had been coming to the guild all distracted and immersed in her little world. Usually, if Juvia is not in a trance, it will not rain. But once she started getting lost in whatever was in her mind, the rain would slowly fall.
At first, Fairy Tail members also assumed that Juvia was sad because she might be missing Gray so much that she lost control of her magic and just let the rain fall. But days of observation told them it was not simply about Gray because the rain gets heavier when a certain blond dragon slayer comes around.
Whenever Laxus came to the guild, the rain would go out of control, especially when the two shared secret glances they thought no one noticed. What was more surprising was when their covert staring contest got too intense, lightning would intensify the rainy weather.
It seemed like Juvia and Laxus had this mental agreement that they would make Magnolia the center of a storm in the middle of summer!
"Man! This is getting out of hand!" A random mage hanging out in the guild hall commented when a sudden thunderclap boomed as the rain outside poured heavier.
A dozen pairs of eyes searched the hall until they landed on a blue-haired mage in the corner being lectured by a long-haired dragon slayer. No one could hear what Gajeel was telling Juvia, but when they shifted their gazes, they saw Laxus was also staring at the pair with a darkened face.
Ah, that must be the cause of the sudden lightning that cracked the skies, followed by the loud boom of thunder.
"Can anyone please explain why the hell is Laxus throwing lighting in the storm?" another mage asked. "I understand Juvia because of the way her water magic works. But since when did Laxus' lighting become affected by his mood?"
"If you don't want to get electrocuted, just shut up!" another mage chimed in.
The mages kept talking about the weather and the reason for it, and at the far end of the hall, the Thunder Legion Tribe members were shaking their heads.
"What was wrong with the two of them?" Ever whined as she harshly fanned herself with her fan. "What? Are they communicating through rain and lightning? Why can't they just sit down and talk it out like normal people?"
"There's your answer," Bickslow grinned. "They're not normal."
Evergreen glared at her teammate but did not argue. "This is just too much," she just huffed.
"Well, this weather is kind of interesting. Partly Laxus with a lot of Juvia," the masked man joked.
On his side, Freed was seriously problematic. "At this rate, if Gray suddenly comes back, we will probably have flurries of Gray with a lot of Juvia and a chance of Laxus."
"Don't even think about having Gray here right now!" Evergreen hissed. She could only imagine how troublesome it would be if the ice mage suddenly showed up and make things worse.
It's not that the stone-eyes mage was being biased. If anything, Evergreen was more worried about Juvia. They live in the same dorm, and she did interact with the water mage. She noticed how agitated and troubled she was.
No one needed to be a genius to guess that the bluenette was having love problems, and it seemed like she had no idea how to deal with her feelings. Many people knew how vocal the water mage was about her emotions and thoughts. Recently there was no random declaration of love and longing for Gray coming from her, no one noticed at first, but eventually, people in the guild realized Juvia's sudden change.
And there was Laxus too. The Lightning mage never verbally admitted that he had feelings for the water mage, but it is obvious, and they won't be Laxus' guards if they never noticed it!
Laxus seemed to be not affected by whatever was going on. He was still the same as usual. He could still be seen on his spot on the second floor most of the time, but if one was to observe, his eyes were always staring in one direction for weeks. He was always looking at wherever spot Juvia was sitting.
The two mages were not talking to each other, but how they stole glances at each other said more than enough.
And their secret staring competition was not only noticeable to Laxus' team, but it was also irking another resident dragon slayer. Gajeel noticed the changes from the very beginning. He wanted to ask Juvia, but since she refused to talk about it, he ignored the sudden shift between the two and waited for the bluenette to say something.
The iron dragon slayer was not a patient man, so when it started to randomly rain, he asked her, and she said everything was okay. But who was she trying to fool?
Then again, he stayed quiet about it. He waited for his friend to come and tell him what was wrong, but Juvia was one tough nut to crack. She is determined to keep whatever she is going through to herself, but Gajeel would not have it.
When he went to the guild during one of Juvia's ameonna moments and lighting mixed with it, he went straight to Laxus. As expected, the older mage ignored his fellow dragon slayer to Gajeel's exasperation.
Days and weeks of seeing the two and what they were doing with Magnolia's weather finally snapped Gajeel's patience.
He's not bothered with the rain; he is used to it and experienced many of it during his Phantom Lord days. But he could not stand seeing the forlorn aura surrounding his best friend. He could no longer stand her being miserable. That was why he decided to forcefully make her talk because that was the only way he could think of.
That was how Juvia found herself in one of the guild hall corners with determined pair of crimson eyes glaring at her.
"You have two choices, sprinkler," he gruffly told her. "One, you tell me what the hell is going on, or two, I will tell you what I think is going on."
"Gajeel-Kun, Juvia ha—"
"Deny it all you want, Juvia, but no one will believe you!" he blurted out in a loud voice.
"Can you please calm down and lower your voice!" the water mage hissed.
"If you want me to calm down, you better start talking," he scorned. "And whether I scream or whisper, believe me, it won't change anything. Sparky over there can still hear us," he added tilting his head towards the second floor where Laxus was leaning on the baluster. "He's too focused on you that I am pretty sure he can even hear your heartbeat."
Her face flushed as Juvia's hands went to her chest as if trying to stop her heart from beating, which gained a scowl from Gajeel. "What? You think your hands are some sort of noise-canceling device or something?"
"You're so mean!"'
"And you are so dumb!"
Thunder rumbled in the sky, followed by a blinding bolt of lightning, right after the words came out of the iron dragon slayer's mouth. Gajeel's crimson gaze shifted from Juvia to the blond man on the second floor who was glaring back at him. He scowled again before showing Laxus his middle finger and mouthing fuck off.
Juvia frowned but did not say anything. She had no idea how to tell her best friend what was happening to her feelings for the past couple of weeks. If only things were that easy to explain.
Gajeel sighed as he rested his elbows on the table. "Look, I'm just worried about you. What the hell is going on with you? Or should I ask, what the hell is going on with you and Laxus?"
"Juvia doesn't know," she said in a low voice. "If Juvia knows then… I—this is so confusing."
"Confusing? Or maybe you are just refusing to acknowledge your feelings?"
Juvia lowered her head to avoid the knowing look he was giving her. Her hands on her chest fell on her lap. "This feeling is not supposed to be here. Juvia can't accept this."
"Why?" the other mage frowned.
"Because Juvia is supposed to only love Gray-sama!"
"And who told you that?" Gajeel asked again like he was interrogating someone. "You don't owe stripper anything," he added in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Gajeel-Kun, Gray-sama showed Juvia the sun! He stopped Juvia's rain!"
"So?" The dragon slayer's metal brow lifted. "That's not enough reason for you to torment yourself. Sure, he showed you the sun, and you love him wholeheartedly in return. But it's not your obligation to make yourself miserable just because you don't love him anymore."
"I love him!" Juvia hissed dropping her third person. "Gajeel-Kun, Juvia can still feel the love for Gray-sama. It's just that, there's something else in here," she said pointing at her chest where her heart is.
Gajeel looked at his friend with concern written all over his face. He knew Juvia. Of all the people he knew, she's the one who would blame herself for falling in love with someone else while she thinks that she is still in love with another guy.
Explaining things to her would be difficult, but he would try. "Juvia, I'm not sure how is this going to sound, but you have to listen. There are people in this world that you can love, but it doesn't mean that you have to love those people exclusively, I mean, you can still love stripper, but it's not impossible for you to love someone else even more."
Tears started to fall one after the other from the water mage's eyes. She wanted to argue with her friend, but she knew his words were true. "But it feels wrong," she sniffed as she tried to stop herself from crying. "Juvia is supposed to only love Gray-sama. He showed Juvia the sun and—"
"And it would be wrong if you keep making yourself believe that you love him for that reason. Yes, you should be thankful, but do you think Gray would be happy to know that the main reason you're going to be with him is gratitude?" Gajeel's pointed look stopped Juvia from arguing, so he continued. "If you are going to say that what you feel for him is strong and you only want to be with him, we both know that would be a lie. I'm not blind, Sprinkler. I can see the way you look at Sparky. If that growing affection in your heart for him is not stronger than what you feel for stripper, you won't be this stressed. And what's bothering you anyway? You're not yet in a relationship with that asshole."
Well, he's not wrong about what he said. She's not yet in a relationship with Gray. "But how is Juvia going to tell Gray-sama? The last time we saw each other, it was clear that the possibility of being together is high."
"If he just admitted that he felt the same way as you a long time ago, all these won't be happening," Gajeel snorted as he crossed his arms. "I'm no love expert, but I think the insecurity about what you have with him was what led you to fall for someone else. Unconsciously, you were looking for someone who can make you feel loved in the way Gray failed to do so."
"You make it sound like Juvia is just going to use Laxus-san to feel good!" the water mage blurted out which made the dragon slayer smirk. She just confirmed what he told her.
"Now you're defending your feelings." If what she feels for Laxus was just a silly crush or admiration, there would be no way she would be so indignant about his remarks.
But Gajeel's smugness about his discovery was short-lived when he took a deep breath and familiar scents assaulted his nose. The smirk on his face vanished as he worriedly looked at Juvia. Before he could warn her, the guild doors opened.
"Yo!" Natsu's loud voice filled the hall, and everyone fell silent as all heads turned at the entrance. "We're back!"