Review Responses:
TheSilverDragoon94: Thank you so much! I'm so glad that you didn't find it OOC - I worried myself to death about it, haha! *laughs awkwardly* Ah...yeah...those days of spewing nonsense in front of a crush don't seem like they're coming to an end anytime soon for me. I personally find college to be a more rigorous version of high school with the only good thing about it is that you're able to control your schedule. Then again, I personally am not that big of a school fanatic. Oh, wow! I think I've only read about a third of the works in 'Spread the NaVia~!'! That's so cool! And congratulations for your work making it in the community! Don't say that! I'm sure that your work is incredible! It did make 'Spread the NaVia~!' after all! (`・ω・´)
Volcomix13: Thank you for your encouraging words~! o(^▽^)o
Dark Gothic Lolita: Thank you so much! I was so worried that I didn't portray Juvia as well as she is in the anime and manga! They're my favorite dorks and small spoiler alert: it'll take some time for them to get together as I want to build a strong friendship between them! (๑ÒωÓ๑)
janeto13: Well, here's another chapter! Thank you for your kind words! （●＞ω＜●）
Chapter 4
"Tsk tsk, doing homework on the job, Juvia?" Juvia jumps from where she is standing behind the counter and looks up with wide, fearful eyes only to be met with a grinning Natsu.
"Oh, Natsu-san." The bluenette says, breathily. "S-Sorry. Juvia - Juvia didn't hear you come in." Besides giving her the scare of her life, Juvia is grateful that it had been Natsu who caught her slacking off on the job instead of someone else. The coffee shop had been essentially a ghost town as no one, up until now, had stepped foot in it. Normally, even if the shop was vacant, the female would still do small chores such as wiping the tables, restocking water bottles, and whatnot. Today, however, is a different story. All of her professors must have met up with each other and decided to make her life even more difficult by assigning an ungodly amount of homework that were all due on the same day. While Juvia is not one to procrastinate unlike someone she knows - *cough cough* GAJEEL-KUN - she wants to finish as much as she possibly can so she can fully enjoy her Sunday. Hence why she had been too absorbed in finishing as much of her homework load as she possibly could and didn't hear Natsu come in.
"That's all right. Whatcha working on?" He gestures towards the granite counter top, where a majority of the content in her backpack lay scattered about.
"O-Oh. Juvia was working on a lab report for chemistry homework." She answers, bashfully as she vainly tries to tidy up her station to make it appear more presentable, although she knows that it would go back to being cluttered once Natsu leaves.
"Chemistry, huh?" Natsu repeats questioningly to which she nods. "You're majoring in chemistry, Juvia?"
"Marine Science, actually." The bluenette corrects him. "Chemistry is just a general education class." She adds on, quickly.
"That's so cool!" He flashes her a toothy grin. "I'm in the fire academy - I'm training to be a firefighter."
"Really?" Juvia furrows her eyebrows in thought. "Juvia thought that Natsu-san is attending Fairy Tail."
"Oh, I am. I need to get my Associate of Science degree in Fire Science too, so I figured that I'd go to Fairy Tail for it." The pink-haired male corrects her. "I guess I should bring my homework when I come here from now on. We could do homework together." He stops in the middle of his sentence, as if contemplating something. "Hey, we could be study buddies!" Natsu beams at his revelation.
"R-Really?" She stammers out, to which he nods excitedly. "Ju-Juvia's never had a study buddy before." She admits rather lamely. Because Gajeel and Juvia's current schedules didn't align, they hardly saw each other during school. Hence why Juvia could usually be seen in the library working on homework by herself in-between classes.
"Really?" He looks at her, surprised. "That's kind of hard to believe."
"How?" The bluenette raises an eyebrow. To be completely honest, she thought that it was more than obvious that she's never had a study buddy, with her shyness and awkward self being more than enough evidence. She supposes that Natsu would have noticed it by now, especially with how embarrassing the weather conversation turned out to be.
"I don't know why you've never had a study buddy 'til now; you're a fun person to be around." He flashes her a toothy grin.
"Th-Thank you, Natsu-san." The bluenette thanks shyly as she feels heat rising up to her cheeks. "No-No one's told Juvia that before." She whispers nearly inaudibly, figuring that the pink-haired male in front of her probably couldn't hear.
"Seriously? No one's told you what a fun person you are?" Juvia looks up, startled at his sentence, both horrified and impressed that he was able to hear her whisper.
"A-Ah." She nods, wishing that the ground would swallow her up as she wasn't used to being praised. "Ju-Juvia isn't sure if Natsu-san can really say that; Natsu-san doesn't know Juvia very well."
"That's all right! That's why our study sessions will bring us closer!" Natsu reassures her, his signature smile still in place. "It'll be fun! Don't worry about it!" He adds upon seeing the concerned expression on her face.
"But, Juvia and Natsu-san are going to be doing completely different homework." She reminds him. "Juvia might not be able to help Natsu-san with his homework."
"Well, sure, but it's a lot more fun doing homework with someone else besides doing it by yourself." He responds back, undismayed. "What do you say? Study buddies?" Natsu asks, his eyes full of hope.
A moment of silence hangs around the two before Juvia nods, her cheeks aflame. "Study buddies."
xoxo
"I've got to say, this is unlike you, Juvia-chan." Juvia tears her gaze away from the book shelf in front of her to the shorter bluenette next to her. "I never knew you were into fire fighting." Levy continues, gesturing towards the book in Juvia's hands, Essentials of Fire Fighting. It is a late Saturday morning and Juvia and Levy are at one of Levy's favorite bookstores. There is a 'Buy One, Get One Free' sale and being the bookworm she is, Levy is picking up as many books as she possibly could. Gajeel had complained about being 'bored to death' whenever they went shopping, hence why the two girls were going together.
The two girls had been roaming around the store until Juvia stopped at the 'Career' section.
"O-Oh." Juvia stutters as she turns the book on its' backside. "Ju-Juvia just got into it."
"Who are you and what have you done with the real Juvia Lockser?" The smaller female teases, nudging her. "Are you sure you're 'Juvia of the Great Sea' and not 'Juvia of the Great Fire' or something?"
The Phantom Lord student blushes at the mention of the nickname that she had penned for herself as a joke years ago."Ah...well...there's-there's this guy." She murmurs, hoping that the other female wouldn't hear. Unfortunately for her, it appears as if her friend did hear, as she hears Levy squealing in excitement, to which her blush deepens.
"A guy? Is he cute?" The Literature major questions as she whirls the taller female to fully face her. "Details, Juvia-chan, details."
Juvia nods shyly and averts her gaze from her friend when she lets out another squeal. "So this guy, he's a firefighter, isn't he? And that's why you're buying this book?" Once more, the Marine Science major could only manage a nod while Levy gasps, excitedly. "Oh, Juvia-chan, why didn't you tell me about this before? Who doesn't love a man in uniform?"
"Levy-chan! You're with Gajeel-kun!" The taller bluenette gasps in mock shock, the cheeky grin on her lips clearly giving her away. "Besides, Juvia just found out recently that he's training to be a firefighter." She pauses as she looks down at the book in her hands before admitting, "Juv-Juvia isn't sure if he likes her. We-We haven't talked that much until now."
"Well, at least you guys are talking now. We all got to start somewhere." Levy smiles, encouragingly. "You're an amazing person, Juvia-chan, of course he's going to like you."
"Th-Thank you, Levy-chan." Juvia swears that her face must now resemble a tomato from all of the color rising to her cheeks.
"It's nothing, Juvia-chan. Oh! That must be Gajeel." The smaller bluenette fumbles with her purse, trying to locate her beeping phone. "He's probably bored to death waiting for us at home." Levy adds on, nonchalantly, taking the book from Juvia's hands as she struggles carrying her basket full of books.
"L-Levy-chan! What are you doing?" She asks, worriedly, grabbing a hold onto one of the basket's handles.
"Paying." The smaller bluenette manages to get out as the two females stumble to the cash registers. "If I spend another minute in here, I'll spend all of the grocery money."
"No, not that. What are you doing with Juvia's book?" She specifies, pointing towards her book on the top of Levy's stack of books.
"Paying." Levy repeats once more as she pulls out her wallet from her purse.
"Juvia-Juvia can't let you do that!" Juvia argues, digging into her own purse for her wallet. Just as Juvia is about to hand the cashier her credit card, she pouts childishly when she discovers that Levy had already beaten her to it. "Levy-chan!" The taller bluenette whines.
"Don't worry about it, Juvia-chan!" Levy replies all too cheerfully in Juvia's opinion as she stuffs her wallet back in her purse before grabbing her two big paper bags. "I got to go home - oh! Here's your book, Juvia-chan." Levy hands Juvia the Essentials of Fire Fighting book to which she takes. "Let me know if anything happens. Bye, Juvia-chan!" With that, the smaller bluenette winks before walking off to the direction of her car, leaving a flustered Juvia behind.
xoxo
Juvia tightens the robe around her waist as she locks her front door, the latest letter in hand. She had been soaking in her bath tub and reading her new book when the neighbor's Pomeranian started barking, alerting her that the sender had arrived. Getting out of the tub, she fumbled for a towel to dry herself before slipping on a nearby robe. After waiting for the dog to stop barking and waiting for at least five minutes, only then was she brave enough to slip out the front door and retrieve the letter.
As carefully as she could, Juvia tears the envelope open and takes out the newest letter to begin reading it.
...
My Other Half,
The weather's getting chilly again. I heard that it's going to rain soon. I hope you're keeping warm because I know how the way you dress, even in horrible weather. Fashion is nothing when you're sick.
I hope you don't mind that I lost the scarf you gifted me, too. It was kinda itchy.
Sorry about that.
Yours always,
Your Faithful Idiot
...
End of Chapter 4.
(8/13/20): Oh my - is that ... Juvia and Natsu having future plans for a study date? Indeed it is! Okay, so to get the obvious things out of the way, I honestly had NO idea that you don't technically need to go to college to become a firefighter; you just need to go through training. According to Google, some places require that you have an Associate of Science degree in Fire Science to be a firefighter among other things. Because Natsu is attending Fairy Tail, I figured that it wouldn't hurt if he majored in Fire Science, LOL. Also! I know what you're probably thinking : why didn't you give Juvia a major that's related to rain? To answer your question, Juvia is a WATER mage and not a RAIN mage, so I figured that the next best thing would be to make her a Marine Science major. I should also note that I am neither training to be a firefighter nor am I a Marine Science major - obviously, as I didn't know a thing about any of these, LOL - so if anything seems off about their classes and whatnot, I apologize.
How 'bout that girls' trip between Levy and Juvia, huh? Since most of the chapters were about Natsu and Juvia, I wanted to bring Levy in so that Juvia's entire life doesn't revolve around Natsu. And isn't it cute, Juvia wanting to learn more about firefighting to talk about to Natsu?
But anyways, do let me know what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you in the next one! Bye~! (≧∇≦)/