Chapter 9: Heart beats slow

But I didn't even read his books!

Juvia couldn't help but smirk before typing her answer. It doesn't matter. Levy-san wants to include you in her world. You have to go. There was a book signing and a meeting with one of Levy's favorites authors at the bookstore this Friday and she asked Gajeel to go with her. And as result, he was freaking out. Juvia has his second last book if you want to read it.

She could hear his snort in his next message.

Like I could read a book in three days. Ain't like Shorty. She devours a book a day!

You can't know before trying.

There was a long pause then.

Don't know if you want to help or torture me, woman.

She chuckled. Juvia will lend you the book at dinner. She's going to study at the library for now. See you later.

As she put back her phone in her bag, she wondered if Lucy had also asked Natsu for the book signing. If so, the pink haired man was probably in the same state than Gajeel.

Just when she turned the corridor, she saw Gray leaning against the wall and talking on the phone.

"Hum…Yeah…" He lifted his head and waved at her when their eyes met. "Okay, okay. I'm going to ask her. Yeah. I have to go, now. Bye, Tear."

"What was Ultear-san?" Juvia asked as he ended the call.

"Yes. She asked about you. She wants to thank you properly for what you did for Meredy."

"Oh! She doesn't have to. Juvia didn't do anything special. Everyone would have done the same thing."

Gray could not hold back a smile. "I don't think so. Anyway, Tear proposed to invite you for holidays but I said you'd not be free."

Juvia sightly blushed. "That's sweet of her. But alas, Juvia has to work full-time at the bakery all July. She has only two weeks in August when she can go to Lucy's mansion."

"Yeah, I'm going too."

Victory bells were ringing in Juvia's head. She was going to spent two weeks with Gray at the beach! She ripped herself out of her thoughts before her mind wandered too far in daydream land.

"And how is doing Meredy-chan, Gray-sama?"

"She's fine now. She is going to the same therapist as Jellal did when he was younger. It looks like it's doing good."

"Juvia is happy to hear that." She sighed with relief. "Meredy-chan is brave, she just needed help."

"Yeah. She talked with Jellal first. He shared his experience with her and now she seemed to like him." He could not help but recoil his discussion with Ultear. Meredy seemed to have a soft spot for blue haired people. It's going to be a family trait. He had heard Ultear's sly smile just with her tone and he had been glad she could not see the roll of his eyes. Meredy is letting her hair grow so she could look like Juvia, you know? She's her model. He wondered if he should tell Juvia that. She'd probably be embarrassed as hell. "Anyway. Prepare yourself to be showered by gifts and invitation to come North."

The rosy taint lingered on her cheeks and he found her cute.

"If she's able to go, Juvia'd be delighted to see Gray-sama childhood town." She murmured with a dreamy sight.

Gray cleared his throat, suddenly feeling uneasy about the direction the talk was taking. "Were you heading for the library? I was going too. Loke has special guest and I can't study at the flat." He said with a grimace, and she muffled her giggle. "Don't laugh!" He protested as he started to walk and she quickly strode to stay at his side. "Sometimes it felt like it's not my place too! And I prefer not to say how much time I fell on him and one of his girls dressed in nothing but their hands. And they called me exhibitionist."

As if he needed to take his frustration out on something, Gray teared open a chocolate bar and took a huge bit of it. Then Juvia's stomach let out a loud rumble and he glanced at her with furrowed brows.

"You're hungry? Are you exhausting yourself again? You need to eat or you'll faint once again!"

Juvia blushed. "No! Juvia is not skipping meals this time! She just had a light lunch earlier and the smell of chocolate is stirring Juvia's belly but she's not hungry!"

Gray sighed as her stomach protested. He showed the bar before her mouth. "Eat! Or else, the librarian's gonna kick you out! He did that to Natsu when his stomach growled so much people thought there was a bear indoors."

With shaking hands, she accepted the snack. "Huh… Gray-sama's leftovers…." She whispered not loud enough for him to hear.

"So, what subject did you plan for today? Mathematics?" He held a chuckle as she chewed the entire bar with meticulousness and nodded at the same time. "Do you mind if I join? Like last time. It was very efficient."

The next thing he knew, he was tackled down as she hugged him tightly, her face pressed against his chest.

"Juvia is so happy Gray-sama wants to study with her! She'll help him as much as she could!"

"Herm… Thanks…" He mumbled as nice as he could with the muscles of his back protesting against the treatment. "Can you let me go? The floor is as hard as it's cold."

He felt her tense, and in a flash she had pushed herself off him.

"Gomenasai!" She stuttered as he got to his feet. "Juvia overacted again. But it's Gray-sama fault! Saying nice things to Juvia, walking with her, sharing his food, and watching out for her health!"

"Huh… I'm sorry, I guess?" He said raising a brow. "That's friends do usually, so next time, no need to go onto rugby mood. Broken bones aren't the expected reward." He added massaging his lower back.

A ghost of a grin graced her lips. "For a hockey player, you seem quite fragile, Gray-sama."

If he didn't know better, he could say she was teasing him. But she was going to learn Gray wasn't a man to challenge.

"One day, I'll take you to the ice rink, and we'll see who's the one fragile."

Her hands flew to her mouth. "Is Gray-sama asking Juvia on a date?"

"What?! No! What the…" He denied the best he could, feeling an uncomfortable heat filling his face. "What's going with you today? Is it exam stress? Come on, we don't have all day." He marched toward the library, swearing to himself not to bring any topic non concerning study matter for the rest of the day.

###

"I shouldn't have come. I should be studying instead!" Lucy was complaining as she chewed her nail.

"Come on Luce! It's just a small break! No one had to study 24 hours a day, seven days a week!" Natsu tried to lessen his friend.

It was Saturday night, and all the group had come to play bowling. They were seated at the end of the room, several drinks on their table, half already empty because of Cana.

"Yeah, but we already relaxed yesterday at the book signing." The blonde retorted.

Natsu wore a disbelieving face. "Is that you call relaxing?"

"I agree with Pink Ass." Gajeel commented. "It was dull and uninteresting. The man didn't talk about the real stuff! He just babbled about the social difference between the main characters for hours."

"Yes" Levy approved, resting soft eyes on the tall man. "I was a bit disappointed myself. He didn't talk about educational standard system and how it may exclude individuals with different way of viewing and understanding when it's the core of the story."

"Exactly! He didn't even remember the homeless character with high-knowledge from his last book!" Gajeel added. "I would not be surprised if there's a ghost writer behind."

"Wait. You mean you actually read his book?" Loke asked with bewildered eyes.

"I can read ya know? Ain't like someone who think with his lower region."

"You should have joined me!" Cana said as she came back from the bowling alley and grabbed her drink. "I was at that new bar, enjoying good booze! That's what I call a pleasurable evening!"

"Was it really that bad?" Juvia asked, worried that it did not benefit the relationship between Gajeel and Levy.

"It was soooo boring!" Natsu whined. "I'm not going to a book signing ever again, except if it's Lucy's!"

"Well, thanks Natsu. But there's no chance I'll be invited as an author."

"Huh? Of course, you're going to be a famous author! The first chapters you wrote are good!"

"What? Wait, you read my book?" The blonde shrieked with rosy cheeks. "How? When?"

"Well, last time, at your sleepover. Gray and I found it and it was good, and we want to know what happen next!" The pink haired man explained, unaware of Gray's signals to stop.

"It wasn't a sleepover! You just invited yourself as usu… wait a minute… Where did you find my notebook? I hid it in my closet." She asked with a black shadow covering her face and her tone turning icy, and Natsu paled at the imminent backfire. "Natsu… Were you rummaging into the drawer with my underwear?"

"Huh… oh… Well… Not exactly… It's not what you think, Luce!" He shouted with fear in his voice as she raised from her seat and looked down on him with a death glare. "I can explain!"

"And you Gray?" Lucy turned toward the back haired with equal wrath, cracking her knuckled as if preparing for hard and coming wrestling.

"I didn't dig into your undies! It was Natsu! And I just read the first pages!"

"Traitor!" His friend whispered but that was enough to draw Lucy's attention on her first prey.

"So Natsu, you better have a good excuse, or I'll use your head instead of that bowling ball."

"I didn't mean to!" He was clearly terrified, and as he tried to justify himself, he talked faster and faster without even taking his breath. "I was searching for a towel to wipe the tomatoes sauce I had spilled on your new sofa while you were cutting Erza's cake in the kitchen. And some of your panties fall out of the drawer and I picked them up to put them back, but I got curious because they were so tiny and I didn't know panties could have so much lace and ribbons and silk and the more I tried to put it back, the more it fall so I pressed with my hand so I could close the drawer but I felt something hard so I took it and it was a notebook with your name on it and first I thought it was your diary and I could not resist so I read some pages and then Gray barged in and asked about the book and at first I didn't want to lend it to him but the idiot said it was a porno book or something alike and I couldn't let him say something like that about you so I push it right onto his stupid face and after that he said you were going to kill us so we put it back into the drawer and we left the room and I put a cushion to hide the sauce stain."

There was a long pause as Natsu regained his breath while everyone watched him speechless, half-amazed for his tirade and half-sceptical about his defense.

"I knew it was you who ruined my sofa!" Lucy finally whispered. "You're going to carry my things when I go shopping for two months and buy a lot of chocolate as apologies."

"Everything you want Luce." Natsu breathed out, relieved to get out of it as easily. Everyone relaxed then, and they all laughed as Levy took her turn to throw the ball and Loke teased Natsu about panties.

"Juvia is glad that Gray-sama isn't a panty fetishist." Juvia said with a coy smile.

"Of course, I'm not! I'm not a pervert!"

"Next time, say that when you're wearing shirt and pants, Stripper." Gajeel remarked with his famous laugh.

"Crap!"

Levy left her place to Natsu, and she took the opportunity that the man concerned was choosing the best ball, all the while arguing with Gray, to express her point of view.

"The good news is that Natsu like your story, Lu-chan."

"Be glad you don't hide your sextoy in the same drawer." Cana said smugly.

There was a loud thump under the table then and Levy whined. "That was my leg, Lu-chan!"

"Oh! I'm sorry Levy-chan!"

###

The noise of Gray's foot taps echoed into the hall. Leaning against the wall, he checked the time as he had done it for the last ten minutes.

"Nervous about the exam?" Loke asked him.

"Humm? Not really."

"Then, why are you stamping your foot like that? The floor is going to crumble."

"Huh… Didn't notice." Gray said and stopped his anxiousness gesture, but a minute later his leg started again the nervy drumming as he looked around. "Where's Juvia?" He murmured for himself but Loke heard it and smiled shrewdly now understanding the agitation of his friend.

What was she doing? Did something happen to her? Gray could not help but wonder. They have studied together several times since that evening at Natsu's flat and they were more than ready for the test. Did stress take over her like last time when she fainted? He ran his hand through his black hair and he checked his watch one more time.

"Your clothes Gray." Loke commented unfazed.

"Shit!"

Finally, just when he was fastening his last button, Juvia appeared at the end of the hall, sprinting with Lisanna to be on time.

"You're almost late." Gray said, frowning as the two girls tried to find their breaths.

"Sorry!" Juvia panted. "We crossed Erza's way and she wanted to make sure we were ready for the test."

"We said we might be late, but you know her, she can be stubborn." Lisanna added.

"Well, you managed to pass the Titania." Loke patted her shoulder and winked. "That test is going to be a piece of cake. A strawberry cake even."

The door opened then and all the students were authorized to enter and take their places.

Without thinking, Gray sat just behind Juvia and as soon as the test copies were distributed, he started to write his answer. The next hour was quiet, the only noises being pen writing and sheet of paper flipping.

Unfortunately Gray was at the middle of the test when he felt eye strain. He raised his head, rubbing his eyelids and then looked around. The others were all nose buried in their paper, smoke almost escaping from Natsu's head. After a few minutes, he decided to go back to the exercise, but his gaze was draw by Juvia's arms going to her hair and tying it in a ponytail as it kept falling before her eyes and bothered her. Then she returned to her copy, but Gray couldn't turn his eyes of the line of her neck.

Her skin looked velvet like and tender, it was captivating. Her blue hair contrasted so much with the whiteness of her skin, the end of the ponytail brushing her nape. He never found necks so attractive before, but right now he wanted to do so many things with it. Like running his fingers along the curve and feeling the smoothness of the skin. It seemed so thin, she was probably sensitive there. Maybe it was her weak point? His mouth watered a bit as a desire overflowed his mind to put his mouth against her soft column and kiss and nibble and suck on the flesh.

He snapped out of his reverie with a jerk and shook his head. Why was his mind drifting like that when he had an exam? He probably didn't sleep enough last night. But why did it have to be Juvia? He should not have this type of thoughts about a friend.

Scolding himself, he focused on his test, not allowing his eyes to look away until the end.

"One less!" Loke exclaimed as he exited the classroom, stretching his arms. "I'm looking forward for the end of the week and be free again."

"Juvia agrees. Exam weeks are so exhausting." Juvia said as she took gulps of water from her bottle. "It's like Juvia is drained of her energy."

"And that's why we all need to relax when it's over." Loke approved. "You're coming to Lucy's party, Friday night?"

"Yes, of course! All the girls of the dorms are coming, right?" Juvia turned to Lisanna who nodded.

"When she'll see the state of her apartment after that, Lucy is going to regret holding a party with all of us." Gray predicted, earning laughs from the girls.

"Juvia will help her with cleaning. Juvia's sorry but she has to go to Yajima-san's bakery now! See you later!"

As the blunette jogged away and Lisanna answered the call of her sister, Loke stared at Gray. "You're not bringing Daphne with you this time, right? Or any other girl?"

The raven-haired man rolled his eyes.

"I'm coming alone. And I'll go back home alone. Can't say the same about you, right?"

"I hope so!"

AN: I wish I could do better but I suck at transition, so as always, this chapter looks more like a puzzle than a real story… Anyways. Happy New Year everyone! I'll try to update more frequently next year! (The next chapter will be about the party he he!)

Thanks to all who reviewed the previous chapters!