Note:

Flashbacks in italics

Thoughts in plain text.

I do not condone or encourage any behaviors in this story. It is simply a fictional story.

CHAPTER 2

[Gray POV]

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A bob of blue peeped out the window sill. Juve let the fall's gasp peck on her ruddied cheeks. I tried to be still and wordless, sketching out her pretty face on the back of my math test paper. When she plucked a petunia from the flower box, tucking it behind her ear, I traced the gauzy petals in graphite.

I was 15, and she was 13.

Photographing her pretty face to my heart, the corners of my mouth couldn't help twitching for this bashful, corny giggle. I clutched my pen tight betwixt my thumb and forefinger, giving a final touch to Juve's expressive orbs.

My eyes widened to two saucers in Mika's kitchen. Glancing down, I only saw the sheen mahogany of the desk. Fiddling while Rome burns, my sweaty palms fumbled with the pen case. As a hoot of wind raced by the narrowing gap in the block of brick separating our houses, the desk trembled.

Somehow, my math paper had levitated over my arms before drifting past our mossy walls. Panic seized me. Lady luck was hard on me these days; the MCQs on the last test were nowhere near a dramatic victory.

At the fleeting second my drapes flew up, I saw her wink. My drawing had chosen to stick to her panes quite indiscreetly.

"Gotcha, Gray! So indeed, you are into me." Her voice deepened with her tease, making an embarrassing heat flood up my neck. "You love me. I, Juvia, will teach you how to confess to a girl. SHY boy!" She laughed.

Now, I'll tell you one thing, her laugh is the most delightful thing. It is clear, like ripples in water, like the patter of raindrops on an umbrella. "Shh-shy? As if!"

"Really? Why don't you come and tell me that!"

Damn. I giggled to myself, pushing up the drapes as I accepted my neighbor's challenge.

"Grray-sama!" My feet met the slippery sunshade. But I didn't trip and hit my head into a coma as I expected. Instead, two dainty hands grabbed me in a secure grip. One jittery arm gripped my hair as soon as the other five nails dug into my shoulders. My heart beat staccatos in my chest to the song of my name on her lips.

I heaved myself up over the ledge and hopped into her room, her cosy little room, through her window. "Say that again."

The ceiling was a summer sky. Of course, what did I expect? Everything from the bookshelf in the corner to the table lamp by the bed. Her room is baby blue all over. So goddamn soft.

Juvia slid down against the wall next to the window sill, clasped arms clamped amid her chest. I shifted my weight onto the right leg, my eyes locked with hers.

I took quick daring steps towards her shorter frame, smirking once her breathing sped up. She blinked and bit her lips when I slammed a hand next to her. I perceived with intent, her gaze switching to my lips.

"I wanna kiss your cheeks—" Right now, I am only an inch away from nuzzling her neck. "—and your lips. Can I?"

I dived for the kiss the very instant Juvia nodded. The cold taste of peppermint candy on my tongue melded with her mellow warmth. It was the sweetest smooch, breathless, loveliest make-out.

My memories of Juvia sprouted from here like petunias blooming in the happiest hours of vintage. She left me with a flowerbox full of vintage dreams.

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[Third Person POV]

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Seven years later,

Juvia was such a sweet name. But musings of her weren't saccharine for Gray. To him, she was a lot, things you want to remember and forget, all the same. Too much for his heart to contain.

She was like a fever that dug into his mind a fathomless pit of desire, a lustful heat barely kept from simmering. But most of all, it is the sunshine on her face catching his heart off guard for evermore, flaring specks of hazel in adoring irises.

Juvia rose to her feet just about a bench perched alongside the ginormous cherry blossom. Wilted leaves drifted off, settling over her shoulders and the top of her head. She had grown into a fine woman. If the delightful round of her boobs down to her slim waist to that perky ass were any evidence.

"I knew that you'd be here." Gray's hands wrapped around her middle in a snug hold. His nose nudged close to her ears, nuzzling into them. Juvia turned around and touched his cheeks, letting a timid wisp of fog lift between their lips. It was cold; the west wind was at a freezing point.

"Gray. I wish I didn't love you." It hurt her. Like a bitch. It hurt worse for her to wriggle out from his grip. "Why are you here?"

Incredulity swam in his pupils, shadowing something underneath them, the vulnerability of some emotion he couldn't expose even now. "I know. I was in a bad mood last night."

She gave a short, mirthless laugh. "Is there anything else that you know?"

"Juvia," Isn't this how we are? What made yesterday different? He gestured his hand in a dismissal wave.

"Gray." Although she was donned in knee-high khaki boots and a faded, full-sleeved t-shirt dress, she shivered.

"Why do you have to make things weird between us?" Where is the Gray-sama he so desperately needed to hear?

Juvia wanted to say: Because I think I deserve better.

But she couldn't. I always reassured myself. How long do you think I can take this?

She turned her back on him. "Gray, do you love me?" A stray tear slipped her eye, rolling down to drop to her feet from her chin.

Moon rained through the canopy onto the thatched roofs of the sleeping sun shrine like the spite of a star-crossed lover towards its pair. Her once pale skin had tanned into the flesh of a juicy cantaloupe muskmelon. Gray itched to run his fingers over every slope and fold of it.

"We've talked about this." Was she the one in denial? Gray gripped her hand and whirled her back around. His face hardened, making her gulp.

I don't understand why you're acting like this. Juvia read in between his lines. Giving up already?

"I'm tired." Chimes blew and whistled in the breeze, a perfect theme for a mystery film, but there was nothing mysterious about them. Just plain old things, repeating and repeating and repeating. "Why don't you tell me that you love me?"

Her eyes told him: You do understand. You must.

"We didn't. I did. I asked." She sniffed, pinching her eyes shut. "And got disappointed. Dissatisfied. Each time."

"I don't wish to disappoint you. Again." Vexation creased his forehead. He could use eight shots of vodka right about now. "I don't have anything else to tell you."

"Then give me a fucking ultimatum. So that I can be done with this." She said, her voice too low and cracked.

Gray rubbed a thumb along her cheek to wipe her wet cheeks. Her eyelashes felt like the feather of a pine jay. His slanted eyes narrowed into slits. "I told you to move on."

"What were we? Was my body the only thing you liked about me? Or, did I not satisfy you?" She screamed. "Fucking tell me you don't love me!"

He didn't answer right away, didn't even acknowledge.

Then he glimpsed up with a bitter smile. "I... I can't."

.

Author's Note:

That's all now.

I loved your comments. They lit me up. :)

See you again. *nods off to sound slumber*