Chapter 5
When the sun comes up, Gray looks out of his window. He watches the sky change colours as the sun climbs up the sky. After a short while, he hears birds chirping. Gray sighs. 'I would have liked to have to have woken up to such a morning.' Gray didn't get a wink of sleep last night. His thoughts kept drifting off to Juvia and the effing Human Torch.
"Tch…" he clicks his tongue, "This can't be happening." 'For all the declarations of love she makes for me, she sure went gallivanting into the enemy's arms pretty quickly.' "Wait a minute, Natsu is not the enemy?" 'Hell yes, he is. Going after my Juvia, that bastard!' "Wait, what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…..no…no…no, not my Juvia…NO!"
He sits up quickly and covers his face with his palms. "This is not happening! When did this happen? Maybe, this is bad dream. I should try waking up." He lies back down and closes his eyes in the hopes of waking up in the real world.
He opens his eyes and huffs. 'This is not a dream, Gray!'
He thinks back to the time they met the first time. 'It wasn't a life changing event or anything. But from what Cana told me, it was a very big deal for her. She told me I took away her rain.' He looks out of the window. 'Well, it sure is nice that it doesn't rain all the time. But I didn't really do anything.'
He runs his fingers through his messy black hair lazily. He remembers the time he stepped in the line of fire just to save her. 'I only did it because she is my nakama! I would do it for anyone.' That's what he tells himself, since that day. It's the easiest explanation for him. 'Since that day though, I have a stronger urge to keep her safe.' "Urgh! I'm just sleep deprived. I couldn't sleep all night because of Natsu's snores."
Honestly though, Natsu's snores didn't bother Gray much, it's just that he needs someone to blame his sleeplessness on.
"Well's not like I'll be able to sleep now, so…" He gets off his bed and stretches a little bit. He goes into his bathroom to attend nature's call. Since he is already in the bathroom, he decides to brush his teeth and take a bath. He comes out of the bathroom with only a towel on. He opens his cupboard and takes out an orange shirt and blue jeans and a black underwear. He wears them leisurely.
He stands straight in front of the mirror and smirks at himself. "Gray Fullbuster, you've totally got it." 'That's why you have Juvia chasing after you.' "Gah! I'm going to take a job today, so I can clear my head. Once I get out of Magnolia, I won't be thinking about her."
The bell rings. Gray looks at the clock. 8.45. "Who's here at this hour?" He leaves his room with a frown.
"Good Morning, Lucy!" Happy shouts in Lucy's ear.
"Aaaaaargh!" Her eyes shoot open. "Why the hell did you do that?" Lucy groans.
"Boy, you're not a morning person, are you?" Happy says like he did nothing wrong.
Lucy gives Happy a death stare.
He starts shivering. "Sorry, Lucy. I won't do that again."
"That's better." She says coldly.
"Looks like Natsu didn't come here at all." Happy says to divert her attention.
She sighs, "Guess, he didn't." She felt something in between disappointment and anger last night but now she is only feeling her anger build. 'Just wait, Natsu! I'm going to kick you from one end of the guild hall to the other.'
"Maybe he went to the guild." The blue cat suggests.
"Maybe…"
"Lucy, do you have any fish?"
Lucy's jaw drops. 'He moved on from the topic so quickly.' "You just sounded worried about Natsu and suddenly you ask for fish?"
He scratches his cheek while thinking, "Ya, well, I can't worry on an empty stomach!" He replies cheerfully.
Lucy falls off the bed. "That is not even a thing."
"You don't know how cats work."
'I don't think anybody works like that.' She shakes her head, 'Why do I even bother with these two?' "There's no fish at home."
His faces drops. A second later, his face lights up, "I'll go to the guild then. I'm sure Mira will give me some fish. His wings appear and he flies off from the window.
"Hey, use the door sometimes!" The blonde shouts after him.
"Hey! Not so loud!" One of the neighbours shouts back."
A blush appears on her cheeks, "Sorry."
She lies back on her bed again. 'Why am I feeling so irritated by Natsu's behavior? In fact, this should make me happy that he didn't show up at my place thinking like it is his.' She sighs. 'Now all I have to do is make sure the cat gets the message too.'
She closes her eyes to sleep again. She opens her eyes after a few minutes, "Stupid Cat! I can't go back to sleep now!"
Her thoughts drift to Natsu. "When the hell did Natsu and Juvia become BFFs?" 'What if they are more than BFFs?'
"No, that's not possible! I mean, Juvia is madly in love Gray. Does Natsu have feelings for Juvia? No,no,no…no,no,no,no….no,no! Then why does he decide to not come over to my place last night? It was at Juvia's insistence. Why on earth did Juvia not want Natsu to spend the night at my home? What is her problem?"
"Wait a minute! All this is on the basis of what Happy said. We all know that Happy does exaggerate facts a little bit." She attempts convince herself. "I will know everything once I get to the guild." 'I will just ask Natsu to explain and he will tell me everything. Or will he?'
She turns around on her bed and lets out a scream into her pillow. "ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH! Is Natsu really trying to sabotage Juvia and Gray? Why is he going so far? I'm right here. Why can't he see me?" She sighs sadly.
She sits up on her bed, "Don't think so much, Lucy! Not until you know all the facts. Once I meet him, I will know everything. With her mind made up, she decides to get off her bed and get ready for the day.
"Good Morning, Gray-san!" Gray hears the bluenette's voice as soon as he opens the door.
"What are you doing here in the morning?" He asks instinctively and immediately regrets it when he sees her smile drop a little.
"Juvia came to make breakfast. If Juvia were to take Natsu-san out for breakfast then Juvia will be broke." She shows the bags in her hands.
Gray sees egg cartons, loaves of bread, some fruits and vegetables and some other small packets in the bags.
He snorts, "Not sure if it'll be enough for him."
Juvia sighs, "But it's meant for all of us."
"Uhhh… Maybe it'll be enough. You never know." Gray says awkwardly.
"So…" Juvia looks at him expectantly. But when Gray doesn't seem to understand, she says, "Gray-sama, are going to let Juvia in?" 'Oh no! Juvia called him Gray-sama again. Even after I practiced all night, I slipped.' She closes her eyes and shakes her head slightly.
He notices her slip and smiles a little to himself, "Oh! Yes. Come in."
'Last Night, I was so close to getting in but today I am actually in Gray-sama's apartment.' She smiles from ear to ear while looking around the apartment.
"Juvia, why are you smiling like?" He asks her cautiously.
She stops immediately, "Nothing. Where's the kitchen? Is Natsu-kun awake yet?" She puts added emphasis on 'kun'.
Gray's jaw drops and eyes widen. 'When did she stat calling him 'kun'?' "I didn't know you and Natsu had become so close." He observes coolly.
Juvia finds the kitchen and deposits the bags on the counter. Gray waits impatiently for her to answer. "Well, after yesterday, Juvia thinks of Natsu-kun as a good friend. I'm guessing he is not awake?"
Gray shakes his head. "I'll go wake him up."
Gray takes a deep breath right outside the guest door. 'Damn this is getting tougher to handle.' He knocks, "I'm coming in."
He opens the door and finds Natsu sleeping in a position that sort of resembled the spread eagle position. A small fire in his mouth, increasing and decreasing depending on his breathing. A thin trail of drool down the side of his mouth.
"How is this even possible?" Gray shakes his head amusement. He kicks Natsu's leg roughly and says, "Oye! Get up, Juvia is here. She's making breakfast."
As soon as he says the last sentence, he feels something in the pit of his stomach. He knows it's not hunger. 'I wish the breakfast was only for me.' He tugs on his hair in frustration. 'She's here making breakfast only because this buffoon is here! How come she has never offered to cook breakfast for me all these years? I would have declined, no doubt. But she never even offered.'
"Gray-san?" Juvia calls out from the bedroom door. "What are you doing? Why is Gray-san not waking Natsu-kun up?"
Gray straightens up too fast when he hears her voice, "He seems to be deep in sleep." He says rigidly. 'Look at her caring so much for 'Natsu-kun'.'
"Maybe, I should give it a try." She stands next to Gray. Without saying a word, she rises her right hand a little with a tiny smirk on her face, she shoots a jet of water at Natsu.
As soon as the water makes contact with Natsu's face, he wakes up with a fright and coughs out the water. "Hey, what was that for?" Natsu shouts.
Gray watches her actions with amusement. He'd never wanted Juvia more. He wants this girl who will shoot a jet of water at his nemesis just for fun. He sees her flying back and hitting the wall. Gray realizes belatedly that Natsu sent her flying to the other end of the room with a punch on her gut.
Gray reaches her to check on her. "What the hell! Why'd you do that?" He shouts at Natsu.
"It's just payback for what she did." Natsu retorts back.
"Juvia is fine." She stands up and dusts herself off and takes a fighting stance.
Natsu follows her and takes up a fighting stance.
Gray looks at the two element users in bewilderment, 'Are element users crazy? I've never seen Juvia like this.'
Both of them are about to attack but Gray stands in between them, "STOP! Just stop. This is my home. If you want to fight, do it outside. You both already destroyed Natsu's home and now you want to destroy mine as well!"
"Sorry, Gray-san." Juvia looks down on the floor in embarrassment.
"Jeez, stop being such a drama queen." Natsu tells Gray.
"Natsu-kun, freshen up. Juvia is making breakfast."
Natsu's eyes widen slightly when Juvia addresses him but he just nods in acceptance. "All right, I'm hungry!" He exclaims. Just then there's a loud noise.
"Jeez, Natsu! That stinks!" Gray covers his noise gets out of the room. Juvia follows Gray quickly.
Natsu scratches his cheek, "Well, that was embarrassing!"
Gray, Juvia and Natsu are sitting around the small dining table in the kitchen and eating breakfast. There are cut fruits, toast and omelets on the table.
"So, I was thinking…" Natsu starts.
Gray snorts, "Didn't know you have the ability to do that."
"What the hell did you say, Gray? You wanna take this outside!"
"Yes, I do!"
"No fighting while eating." Juvia says in a calm voice.
They ignore Juvia's voice and get ready to go outside. Juvia sighs audibly and uses water lock on the two of them.
"Let me out!" Juvia hears Natsu's muffled, angry voice. "Let me out of here!" He bangs on the water lock with his fists.
"This is not funny, Juvia" Juvia hears Gray muffled, calm but angry voice. Gray folds his arms on his chest and glares at her. "You know, I can break out of the water lock."
"Then why doesn't Gray-san do it?"
"It'll take a lot of my energy and I want to use all my energy for fighting this idiot." He says bitterly.
"You are the idiot, Gray." Natsu yells.
"Juvia will release you both, if you don't fight and eat the breakfast that Juvia made peacefully." She says strongly.
Both Natsu and Gray are astonished by her tone and nodded sheepishly.
She releases them and the fall on the floor but both of them are dry. They figured Juvia must have made sure not to get wet. They take their seats and continue eating.
"I'll get you later, Gray." Natsu tells him.
"We'll see." He smirks at him.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by him." He points toast at Gray. "I was thinking that we could get Levy to use solid script to make my house." He smiles brightly.
Gray laughs. Natsu throws him a dirty look.
"I don't think, Levy's magic works like that, Natsu-kun." Juvia points out.
"What's not to work? I think, we should give it a shot once." Natsu says with determination. "It'll save us from a lot of work, Juvia."
"There's no harm in trying once." Juvia says doubtfully.
Gray stops laughing immediately. He puts his hand on Juvia's, "Don't let his stupidity rub off on you, Juvia."
Sorry for posting so late, I got a little stuck! Thank you so much for the appreciation till now! Please read and review! Did you guys read this week's chapter? Like OMG, right! Mashima-san is totally killing it!
Enjoy! Neepa... :-)