Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
Title: All I Need's a Little Relief
Prompt: Light
Rating: T, just for the last line.
Word Count: 671
Genre: Is elaborated headcanon a genre?
It is a fact that, when placed in a stressful situation, human beings are apt to succumb to vice. Gray's poison of choice was nicotine.
Since the old man had suggested it, and Gray had no objections, he was taking Juvia on her first mission as an official member of Fairy Tail, showing her the ropes.
And it was not going well.
Their task was to retrieve a kidnapped puppy from a series of pet shops that had been dabbling in some pretty illegal magical modifications, all linking back to the same conglomerate. The problem was that it was a pretty special pooch, perfect for their experimentations, so whenever Gray and Juvia arrived at one store, the dog had been shipped to another and they had to coerce the employees into telling them which. After the third time this happened, Juvia suggested nipping the problem in the bud, leaving Gray with the sneaking suspicion that that had been her plan all along and she had only been deferring to him because of his seniority in the guild. They were now on board a train bound for the company's head office.
But all things considered, the mission was a simple one for mages of their calibre. If anything, he thought it was a waste of their time. He was, however, learning a lot about his new nakama. She had some rough edges, habits picked up from her time with Phantom Lord that gave her combat style a more vindictive bent than Gray was entirely comfortable with, but she was extremely eager to please him and open to suggestions on how to better fulfill the expectated image of a Fairy Tail mage. So, the problem wasn't the mission, or even Juvia. Well, it wasn't exactly Juvia.
It was the staring. Not the staring itself; Gray was used to girls ogling him. He was, after all, kind of famous. But he had never seen eyes like Juvia's before and they bothered him. He could see Future dancing around in those bottomless depths and Gray was still getting used to living in the Present. Just thinking about it made his fingers itch and before he was fully conscious of it, he'd drawn a cigarette from the pack in his bag. He patted around for his lighter for a second before realizing that the shirt he'd put it in this morning was probably laying on the ground at the station they'd departed a good hour ago.
"Hey Juvia," he asked, voice full of vexation over yet another lost lghter, "You got a light?"
"A… sorry, Gray-sama?" She sounded more confused than she should have, but Gray figured she'd been pretty zoned out. He repeated himself, trying not to sound irritated with her. Because he wasn't. Not really. He just really needed a smoke and yeah, it was kind of her fault. But not really.
"A light. I need a smoke."
"Oh. Um. Juvia does not carry such things," the girl muttered, turning her gaze to the magazine she'd only been pretending to read until now.
Why did she have to look so damn uncomfortable? Gray's best guess was that it was because, until recently, any fire-starter in her vicinity would be rendered immediately useless. With this in mind, he kind of felt bad for asking in the first place. But only kind of because thinking about how she held him responsible for stopping her rain made him want a smoke even more. Luckily, another passenger happened to pass through their car a few minutes later and he was happy to obliged. But no sooner was the flame lit than Juvia was out of her seat.
"Juvia is suddenly hungry. She will go to the dining car." She was gone before Gray could mention that he was starting to feel a bit peckish as well.
His cigarette was not as relaxing as usual. The flavour was less bold and the smoke stopped shy of filling him. He put it out after his fourth drag and waited, a little impatiently, for Juvia to return, slightly and irrationally blaming her for the pleasure denied him.
When she did, she'd brought him one of each kind of sandwich, just in case he was hungry.
This banked his irritation a bit, but he could still tell something was up and he wasn't going to let Juvia get away with it. He decided to be subtle.
"Did you notice anything suspicious about that guy who gave me a light?" he queried, keeping a blank face.
Juvia pondered for a minute. "No, Juvia cannot think of anything. Why does Gray-sama ask?"
"Well, you kind of bolted is all." He started to regret bringing it up when he noticed that Juvia was looking uncomfortable again, this time with a healthy share of embarrassed thrown in for good measure. Usually when girl's were embarrassed, it was something Gray wanted no part in. "Look, it's no big deal, if it's some sort of girl thing or something, forget I…"
"It was the smoke…" she blurted, "it… Juvia supposes it is a pollutant. It congests Juvia, like a cold but everywhere. Because of Juvia's water body."
Gray hadn't thought of that. It was a pretty unique skill and he hadn't realised there were drawbacks to it. "Well if it screws you up so bad, you should've just said so. I've been trying to cut back anyway."
Gray found himself engulfed in blue hair and cream skin, his throat slightly constricted by her covered yet ample bosom. He was sure she was maintaining a solid form, but it somehow felt like she was melting anyway.
Gray decided he would have to find another form of stress relief. And quick. Something to keep his hands occupied. Like knitting. Or chronic masturbation.