Author's Note: So, now for the 'battle' part of the prank war. I really loved writing this one! I bring you guys...a snowball fight! Let me know what you think ^.^

iii.

When a snowball exploded against his bare back, he knew the fight was on.

Gray slowly turned around, eyes dark slits as he searched his surroundings for the culprit. She was somewhere in the garden, he knew as much, possibly lurking and planning her next attack or just as likely hiding as a friggin' puddle, laughing to herself over her lucky one-shot victory.

But it wasn't over yet. It had barely started. Throughout his childhood, snow was all he'd ever known. When he wasn't moulding ice, he was moulding snowballs to lob at Lyon. They'd build separate snow-forts, mountains of frost setting them up for a whole winter of battles ahead, and when the battles began, there were no rules, no time-outs and certainly no walking away from combat. It was snow warfare and the pair would never give in until they were both on the ground, numb, bruised and battered — or until Ur intervened, refraining them from killing each other.

If anything, the snow was his territory and he wasn't going to let Juvia get off that easy. He didn't go through years of snowball fights with Lyon and Natsu to get his ass handed to him by her so quickly, damn it.

And so, Gray brought his hands together, fist striking into an open palm while his eyes sought her out.

Locked and sighted—Juvia was stood behind the one and only tree in their garden with her back pressed against the bark. She was trying to hide herself from him though it was no use; he always caught the blue of her hair with a familiar kind of ease.

"You've got some nerve…" Gray said in a low voice, watching as Juvia snuck a quick glance at him from behind the tree before erupting into a fit of giggles. He squinted at her. "You're fighting dirty, Juvia."

Juvia opened her mouth to retaliate, only to squeal and disappear from view again when a large snowball came hurling towards her with immense speed. It missed her by a fraction, whistling past to hit the fence with an unsatisfying splat instead.

Gray flexed his fingers, calling to her playfully, "Oi! You can't hide from an attack after challenging me! What's with that?"

"First," Juvia said, slowly tilting her head away from the tree to shoot him an accusing look, "Gray-sama must promise not to use his ice-make powers against Juvia."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. Because that would be cheating," she explained matter-of-factly before dodging another one of his snowballs with a panicked yelp. "Gray-sama!"

He smirked at her words, crouching down to roll a chunky-sized snowball instead of using his magic to do the job. He didn't need magic to take her on anyway. Gray had practically grown up playing in the snow years before harnessing ice-make powers. He still had the upper hand regardless. Juvia had no idea what she was in for.

Even so, as he pressed the tips of his fingers against the snowball to smoothen its edges, he decided it was a hell of a lot more fun to tease her. "Hey, if this were a water fight, you'd be water-slicing the crap outta me right about now. I figure I should be allowed to use a little ice-make magic too."

"That's not true, Gray-sama," Juvia said indignantly, and looking up, Gray could see that she still hadn't moved from her hiding place, wisps of blue hair peeking out from behind the tree.

Smiling to himself, he got to his feet and began trudging towards her, keeping his steps light and low against the snow.

"Juvia would also play fair!" she continued on and Gray resisted the urge to eye-roll at the defensive tone in her voice, thinking back to four months earlier when he had been watering the plants and had playfully sprayed her with the hose once, only to end up drenched from head to toe by a friggin' tsunami in return.

"That's not true and you know it," he said, rounding on her in one swift movement.

Startled, Juvia backed further against the tree, causing the snow resting on the branches to softly fall down in thick clumps, settling in their hair, dusting their lashes, enveloping them in white. Though, Gray barely flinched. His attention was focused on the blushing girl in front of him.

He placed one arm beside her head, the other tossing a snowball up and down in his hand as he smiled down at her. "Let's do it your way then."

Juvia eyed the snowball in his hand for a moment before meeting his eyes. "A fair fight?" she asked uncertainly.

"As fair as it can get, yeah," he said, ducking his head to tell her one last important detail. "Though, you lost this battle the second you threw that first snowball at me."

Eyes wide and heart hammering in her chest, she was gone, slipping and sliding past him, a dot of blue in their white garden—so much snow; so much ammunition to fuel his revenge on her.

Gray's lips tugged up in a satisfied smirk. He could have given her a head start. Hell, he could even let her win if he wanted to, but where was the fun in that?

In seconds, the air became thick with snowballs. Duck, dodge, cover. Shape, aim, throw. Gray's hands picked up snow like the two were made to go together, like black and blue, ice and water. He had snowball fights down to a science, each snowball of his perfect in size and density, and each swing of his arm enough to go the distance.

Juvia stood metres away from him, gloved hands frantically hurling misshapen snowballs in his direction. Hitting him once and getting attacked by an army in return, she screamed in protest, jumping behind the side of the house for cover.

Gray paused in his tracks, his breath leaving him in white puffs to rise to the clouds above. "Juvia?"

From the lull in action, he could only assume two things: one, she was making a stockpile of snowballs to retaliate with. Two, she'd friggin' done a runner.

"Oi! Juvia? You hiding again?" he called, making his way towards where she'd ducked for cover.

And then he heard a sputter of laughter, followed by the swoop of a snowball hitting him square in the chest.

"Juvia does not hide from her enemies!" she yelled, running into view to pelt him with as many snowballs as she had managed to carry in her arms.

But Gray took one look at her and burst out laughing.

She had returned to the battlefield wearing Mavis-knows how many layers of coats with her scarf wrapped around half her face ninja-style, and the glint of determination in her eyes reminded him of how she looked when she desperately gave her all against him in a friggin' game of Magnolia-Monopoly.

Cold or not, a snowball fight was a snowball fight and she didn't give in—ever.

She was a snow warrior.

Gray laughed, taking another snowball and whipping his arm back to send it flying towards her but he couldn't even aim it directly at her—he was laughing too hard. Shaking his head, he dropped his remaining warfare of snowballs to rake a hand through his snow-streaked hair before shooting her a sceptical look—one that said, 'are you kidding me right now?'

The look didn't faze her. The snowballs continued to swoop towards him but he strode forwards anyway, ignoring her attacks. He knew there was a stupid grin plastered all over his face but he didn't care.

He could let her win. But again, where was the fun in that?

"Gotcha," he said, catching her by the waist and lifting her up above the ground. Juvia squealed in surprise, the scarf slipping from her mouth as Gray flipped her around so that they both landed on the ground, side by side, their backs pressed into the soft snow.

With a glance towards her, he found her eyes closed, crinkled into a smile and her hair spilled out beneath her like blue ink on paper. She was still laughing.

Gray propped his hands behind his head. "So," he said, when it began to grow quiet, "your enemy, huh? Is that what I am now?"

Juvia turned on her side to get a better look at him, her cheek pressed against her gloved hand. Her eyes wandered over his face affectionately: the dark eyes, the sharp features, that easy smirk of his that pulled her in every time. Simply put, even his laughter had her heart fluttering in her chest.

"Gray-sama knows very well what he is to Juvia," she told him, just like that.

He pondered this for a moment.

From the corner of his eye, he caught her smile—kind of brilliant, bright smile that even had the power to make freshly lain snow look grey. And as he smiled back at her through the haze of falling snow, he realised that while he wasn't sure who had won their snowball fight, he knew he'd lost a different kind of battle to Juvia a long time ago.

Gray let his gaze travel back to the sky. Snow continued to fall like white petals from the clouds, soft and cool against his skin. He was always happiest when surrounded by the snow.

"Oi, Juvia. Aren't you cold?"

"No, Gray-sama."

"Yeah?" He smiled. "Me neither."

iii. snowball fight