Ta-da! The second chapter is here! I hope the first one was satisfactory.

I can't say I'm super proud of this one, but it'll suffice, I hope. I haven't written Chapter 3 yet, so it maybe be a couple of days before I update again. I've been planning out the whole story, but now I'm debating whether or not to make this an emotional back-and-forth, drama-type story, or to just rush things along and throw out some of my emotional descriptions.

Well, I'll shut up now, and you're probably not reading this anyway.

-KingRadish

Two Halves Make a Whole

Chapter 2- December 25th

He was in the kitchen, shirtless and cooking when she woke up in a strange place. The walls were clean and brilliantly white, in stark contrast to the yellowing, peeling wallpaper at her in heavy frames and intricate decorations hung in various places on the clean walls in an attempt to fill in the gaps, but emptiness still lingered here and there, clinging to shadows and hiding in corners. The far wall was a set of windows looking out onto the city, slowly waking up after a night of slumber.

Although her cluttered, old apartment was so different from this immaculate abode, the feeling of temporariness was same. This wasn't home. It was simply a place to live in, to bide in, until it was time to go without a regret or a single look backward. Perhaps… Perhaps it was the same for him.

He conjured up a gray t-shirt from thin air and hurriedly pulled it over his head. She had a good view of his toned chest and abs, but her mind felt disconnected and nothing quite registered. She guessed it was probably the drugs from the day before.

"Is this your home?" Her voice sounded so foreign to her own ears, but so normal after the nightmare of the day before.

She saw him stiffen. "Yeah. I live here." A pause. "And don't worry, I didn't do anything to you."

"Thanks." The word was empty, ringing with courteous distance. She hugged legs to her chest and wept.

She cried for a while, then closed her eyes and simply sat, crouched in that position and savoring the warmth of her own body. A soft shuffling sound made her look up.

"Here, have some breakfast." His voice was slow and hesitant and his dark eyes- now she noticed that they were actually midnight blue and flecked with silver- were clouded with worry. "It'll probably warm you up. I'll grab some hot chocolate t—"

"Thank you so much." She swallowed back another urge to burst into tears. This stranger was being so kind to her, even though she was just a stranger to him too. A suicidal stranger. "Really." She couldn't find the right words to express her gratitude so she looked into his eyes and hoped that her eyes would convey the magnitude of her feelings.

He looked away and mumbled something that sounded like, "Don't worry about it."

As she ate, she realized just how hungry she was. Her body was famished, so she at with a ferocity she hadn't felt in days. He sat down beside her and fiddled with his fingers, glancing occasionally at her voracious eating. He looked surprised, and she smiled in spite of herself at his expression.

He waited till she was done and satisfied until he spoke. "So, yesterday… Feeling better now?"

She nodded, and her toes seemed so interesting all of a sudden. "Yeah, a lot better. Things were just… not good at all."

"Well, nothing's worse than jumping off the bridge, I promise you."

"You wouldn't know."

He looked surprised, then away. There was an awkward silence, and she regretted the way she snapped at him. She was, after all, sitting in his apartment, eating his food, and enjoying his kindness.

"Sorry… Juvia wasn't-"

He waved it off. "Hey, it's fine. You must have been through a lot. Life gets tough, but trust me when I say that it gets better." He grinned, showing off a row of white teeth, and suddenly her mind seemed to register him as a person instead of some divine being come to save her.

He was probably in his late twenties, nearing thirty, with a handsome, narrow face and dimples when he smiled. His sharp, intelligent eyes were almost as dark as his raven hair, which was a little disheveled from a tired night. And his shoulders—oh God, she loved his shoulders- were strong and straight, the type someone could lean on. He was a good half-a-head taller than her and his figure was fit and healthy. He was pretty much perfect, she decided, except for something hard that glimmered in his eyes. There was something jagged hidden in his jawline that was completely unharmonious with the rest of him, like a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit with the rest of the picture.

She realized that she'd been silent, and he was regarding the ceiling as the most interesting invention of the century, so she smiled at him and agreed. He seemed reassured and leaned back into his couch.

"And, honestly, I know how it feels. I do, because I stood there once too, ready to go and give up. But then someone came around and pulled me away from that railing, and now, I'm really glad that I'm still here. I've lost a lot, but I'll gain more."

She gaped at him and he turned away, suddenly self-conscious.

"I just mean that if you jumped yesterday, it wouldn't have been worth it. If it was because of a guy or whatever, you should just know that you're worth more than him and he's probably trash for making you want to do that and—Hey, don't cry…"

She swiped at the teardrops that flowed freely down her cheeks. She couldn't stop. His words had made her think of the harsh reality that awaited her outside of this warm apartment, away from this kind stranger.

And the shame. She'd never felt so shameful in her life, not even when Bora did all those terrible, terrible things to her body. It rolled over like a wave and suddenly she wanted to shy away from this man's tender eyes and hide herself somewhere where no one would ever see her.

He handed her a tissue and whispered comforting words to her in his rough tenor voice until she eventually calmed down. He told her funny stories about the things he and his friend Natsu, who had helped save her, got up to when they were younger. They were silly stories and pointless anecdotes that she both listened to and ignored, but somehow they brought her back from the spinning world of despair that her tears had thrown her into.

When she'd stopped crying, the world was spinning in dizzying circles. He draped a blanket over her shoulders and turned away, but not before she saw his red-rimmed eyes and the tears that shone in them. He busied himself at his kitchen counter, wiping and washing until everything was sparkling.

"My name's Gray, by the way. Gray Fullbuster. It's nice to meet you."

She hesitated for a second, then said, "Juvia."

He turned and smiled at her. She noticed the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, and thought about how undeserving she was of this beautiful man's smile.

"Juvia should probably go." She found herself saying, despite her not wanting to ever leave. "She's very sorry for troubling Gray-sama."

His name sounded strange in her mouth, but she loved the way it sounded. It was so clean and fresh, like a blank page yet to be written on. Bora, she thought. Bora sounds dirty.

He gaped. "Gray-sama? Just Gray is fine…" He ran a hand through his dark hair. "And, it's no trouble at all. I enjoy your company. You can stay for a while. I want to know that it's safe here and you can think things through. Besides, it's Christmas Day so the buses don't run for another hour."

Juvia took her dishes to his kitchen sink and stood beside him. It was Christmas. It was Christmas.

"Thank you, Gray-sama. For taking care of Juvia, for saving Juvia, for not taking Juvia to the police. Juvia owes you everything." She put emphasis on the last word, then turned and went toward the door.

He watched her as she turned the locks and pulled the door open. "Juvia-"

As she stepped out, she turned back to him one last time before she disappeared.

"Goodbye Gray-sama. Juvia will never forget you."

Again, if you liked that, please let me know! I kinda need some motivation and stuff so I don't turn into a blob of laziness and fat. My New Year's resolutions never really last anyway.

I'll try to get Chapter 3 going. Does anyone want to perhaps help me with ideas and stuff? I'll give you lots of credit and maybe I'll even let you be CO-RULER OF THE UNIVERSE with me. :P