Forty-Three - Gray Fullbuster
Gray could not believe he had gotten pulled into the stupid flour project. Juvia had convinced Bickslow, the shop teacher, to assign a sack of flour to him and Juvia. How she had managed it, he wasn't sure. He assumed she had done so while at swim club, as Laxus had pushed off his faculty advisor duties onto Bickslow. However she had done it, Gray was annoyed.
It wasn't as if he hated the project itself, he had just been assuming his end of the year shop project would be making something, not taking care of a baking ingredient. Fortunately, he didn't really have to do much. Juvia seemed more than happy to do all the work as long as he hung around her all the time. That was the easy part; he liked hanging around Juvia. The tough part was getting people to stop embarrassing him about it.
"Gray-sama," Juvia said in homeroom at the end of the day. "Juvia has chosen a name for our child! Silver, after Gray-sama's father."
"How did you even know that?" he muttered.
"Juvia knows everything about Gray-sama," she smiled.
"You know, if we're supposed to be married for this project, shouldn't you just call me 'Gray'?" he asked.
Juvia's entire face seemed to turn red at the prospect. "Gray-sama and Juvia are married? Gray-sama would like Juvia to be more familiar with him?" she mumbled to herself.
"Yeah," he said. "So stop with the 'sama'."
She was quiet for a long time, in which Gray noticed Gajeel glaring at their sack of flour. As he was about to ask what Gajeel's problem was, Juvia spoke.
"Gray," she said.
He looked over at her. "What?" he said.
She blushed. "Oh! Juvia was just trying it out," she said.
"Oh," he said. "Good. That's much better."
"Gray," she said again, with a smile. "Juvia loves Gray!"
"You don't have to be so loud about it," he said uncomfortably. "Everyone can hear you." She ignored him and draped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. "Ah! Hey!" he protested. He heard Gajeel laughing as the end of the day bell went off. Juvia grabbed their bag of flour and flounced off happily, but Gray stayed behind, glaring at Gajeel. "What are you laughin' at?!" he demanded.
"I ain't laughin' at you," Gajeel said. "I'm just glad to see Juvia's happy."
"What do you mean by that?" Gray asked. "She's always happy."
"Only when she's around you, dork wad."
"Dork wad?" Gray repeated. "What the hell kind of insult is that."
"Just be good to her," Gajeel said. "Or I'll break your face."
"We're not even together," Gray protested.
"Don't gimme any of that crap," Gajeel said. "I heard Erza talking to you the other day, after she yelled at Natsu for being an idiot."
"Whatever," Gray scoffed. "Like Erza's one to talk."
"I don't give a shit what Erza does," Gajeel said. "What I care about is that you don't break Juvia's heart."
"I'm not plannin' to!" Gray insisted. "Lay off!"
"Good," Gajeel said gruffly. "I ain't kidding about breakin' your face."