It's Monday! This week, I get to share one of my favorite chapters.
- K. Chandler
Gray felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand. Was he being watched?
He looked around, but no one was there.
Wendy was able to treat Lucy after her unfortunate encounter with itching thistle. Gray and Erza had destroyed the patch that they'd found, but not before he extracted a small sample for himself. Itching thistle wasn't one of Isvan's few indigenous plants. He wasn't sure when he'd encounter it again, but a little immunity wouldn't hurt. He asked Erza to schedule poison trials for itching thistle ingestion and inhalation.
When it was time to leave Magnolia, Gray and Erza detoured through Draghi, planning to spend the night at Natsu's before cutting through the mountains and heading towards Isvan Palace. When they were kids, he used to visit Natsu all the time. The boys would get into all manner of mischief, though it was always Natsu's fault. Mostly.
Draghi Castle was practically a second home to Gray, except he didn't feel at home today.
A rustle in the bushes made Gray jump. He whirled around, catching a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye.
It reminded him of the Queen of Fantasma and the way she had been following him around. What was Juvia's deal? If he just ignored her, maybe she'd stop, right? What if he—
Cra-ackle! Swish!
He'd definitely heard something this time.
Something clamped down on Gray's shoulders.
"Gotcha!"
And Gray found himself face-first in the dirt, pinned down by the Draghi prince.
"Natsu! Get off!"
Gray didn't have time for Natsu's childish antics. He had an intruder to track down.
"Make me," Natsu cackled, grinding his knuckles into Gray's skull. "Or tap out."
Gray gave an impatient hiss, bucking Natsu off. He looked around, his senses alert to the possibility of attack.
But there was nothing there. No intruder. No attacker. No psycho killer waiting to pounce. Just the wind in the trees, Natsu's idiotic taunting, and own racing pulse.
Gray's shoulders slumped in defeat. Had he just imagined the whole thing?
"Aw, come on, Ice Block!" Natsu whined, oblivious to any threat. "Fight me!"
"Seriously, man?" Gray arched an eyebrow, trying to recover by playing it cool. "What are you? Five?"
"You're just scared."
"Me? Scared?"
He wasn't scared. He wasn't being watched. It was just the wind. Just the wind and his overactive imagination.
"I could beat you, hands down," Natsu insisted.
"You're the one who ended up flat on your butt," Gray reminded him.
"Somebody's wussing out," Natsu jeered. "Afraid to fight for real?"
"Just for that, we're using real swords," Gray said, waving Erza over. She nodded once before producing his armaments.
"What? Hey!" Natsu's eyes grew wide and startled.
Gray fastened his weapon to his belt. His grip steady on the hilt, he drew his sword, slicing through air.
Whap!
Natsu gave an unmanly shout. His eyes crossed as he stared down at Gray's sword, the point inches from his nose.
"What was that?" he demanded.
"Just checking the balance," Gray said, smirking.
Natsu growled, scrambling for his own sword. "Oh, you asked for it," he said, dropping into a sorry excuse for a defensive stance.
"Don't keep me waiting," Gray said, bracing himself for Natsu's attack.
Half an hour later, hands on his knees, Gray panted, sucking air into his burning lungs. He sheathed his sword before sinking to the ground, exhausted. He had forgotten how much energy his crazy best friend had.
Next to him, Natsu flung his sword to the side before flopping down in the grass, arms and legs spread like a starfish.
Gray had obliterated Natsu. Mostly. There were a few draws, and maybe Natsu had won at least once. Or twice.
Once both boys were recovered, Natsu propped himself up on his elbows.
"You gonna tell me what has you all distracted?" Natsu asked.
"Distracted? I'm not distracted," Gray said.
"Don't give me that," Natsu said. "You were way too easy to beat."
"Who beat whom? If anything, that was a draw," Gray insisted.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Natsu said.
"You ever consider that maybe I'm just out of practice?" Gray said. "I'm stuck behind a desk all day. It's been a while since I've had a good spar."
"Yeah, maybe," Natsu said, flopping back.
"Enough with the pretense," Gray said. "What's on your mind?"
Natsu hoisted himself back up on his elbows, surprised. "How did you…?"
Natsu couldn't be any more obvious if he'd tattooed his forehead. He always picked fights whenever he had something on his mind.
"Just spit it out already," Gray said impatiently.
Natsu was quiet for a while before finally asking, "Are you okay with all of this?"
"Am I okay with all of this…?"
"Can you just answer the question instead of repeating my own words back to me?"
"It might help if you explained what 'all of this' was," Gray said, fluttering his hand to emphasize the vagueness of Natsu's words.
"Y'know," Natsu said. "With Lucy."
"It's fine," Gray said, fighting to keep his expression neutral.
This wasn't fine. Lucy needed to leave him alone and stop meddling. But it was no use complaining to Natsu, given that he was sweet on her. Better to ignore things for the sake of their friendship.
"The three of us have been friends for a really long time," Natsu said. "You know, Lucy's reaching her majority in a couple of months."
Gray nodded. Where was Natsu going with this?
"Um, do you know what you're getting her yet?" Natsu bounced his knee, like he did when he was anxious.
"Why? Did you forget to get her a birthday present?" Gray asked.
"I just want to know what you're doing. That's all."
"She's getting a tin of that Isvanian spice tea that she likes and a first edition copy of Wilhelm's Tales. And no, you can't steal my idea," Gray said. "It took me ages to hunt down a copy of that book."
"Oh." Natsu sounded surprised. "A book? So that's all?"
"She likes books. Why?"
Natsu twitched again. "I was thinking jewelry… Like maybe… a ring?"
Gray's eyebrows shot up. "You mean like…?"
"I really like her, you know?" Natsu sounded almost embarrassed. "I didn't want you to be surprised that I was planning to… y'know, talk to her."
Gray wasn't sure why he was surprised. His friends were kind of obvious. It was bound to happen eventually.
"Good for you, man. Congratulations," Gray said.
Natsu let out a noisy breath, his color still high. "Congratulate me after she says yes," Natsu said, but he couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes.
He could be such a kid about these things.
"Is that all you were worked up about?" Gray said.
"What did you think I meant?" Natsu asked.
Gray shrugged, turning away from Natsu's searching gaze.
"You don't like her meddling, do you?" Natsu asked suddenly.
"You mean how she's trying to fix me?" Gray shot back, grimacing at the distasteful words.
"She says she's just worried about you," Natsu said.
"It sounds like you don't agree with her."
"I'm not a fan of how she's handling it," Natsu said. "But Lucy's not wrong. Sometimes I worry about you too, Ice Block. Sort of."
"There's nothing to worry about," Gray said. "I won't deny that it's been a rough couple of years. This isn't how I imagined my reign starting, and it's been a bit of trial by fire. But things are good now. As good as they'll ever be."
As far as Gray was concerned, there was nothing to fix. Lucy was wasting her time.
When the sky grew dark and the clouds threatened rain, Gray and Natsu went inside.
"Weird," Natsu said. "It doesn't usually rain at this time of year. I guess we were overdue."
The uncanny feeling of being watched returned.
Gray craned his neck to look out the window. "Natsu… Do you see what I see?"
"What? Juvia hanging out by the front gates?" Natsu asked.
Gray swiveled his head towards Natsu so fast that his neck gave an audible crack. "You knew about that?"
The good news was that he wasn't crazy. The bad news was that it seemed that Juvia really was following him around.
"She's been there all afternoon," Natsu shrugged.
"Why didn't you say something!" Gray yelped.
The Draghi may have been a warrior people, but that didn't excuse the blatant lack of security.
"It's harmless," Natsu said.
"Harmless?" Gray echoed skeptically. He shook his head in disbelief.
"There you go. Repeating me again."
"Do you really think this is harmless?" Gray demanded, gesturing towards the window. "Stalking is harmless?"
"It's a little weird, but It's not like she's doing anything wrong," Natsu said. "There's no rules to keep her from standing there."
By the time Gray and Natsu retired for the evening, Juvia was still standing out in the rain, watching him from the courtyard.
"She's still out there," Gray reported.
"And you're still looking," Natsu said.
"Don't you find this the least bit, I don't know, creepy?" Gray asked, instead.
Natsu frowned, like he was choosing his words. "Juvia's a friend of Lucy's. And Luce said that she can be a little… awkward."
"Awkward is one thing. Creepy is another."
"Have you ever told her that? Directly?"
"You want me to spell it out for her?"
"Maybe," Natsu. "She might not realize that it bothers you. Especially if she's as awkward as Lucy says."
Gray could still see Juvia from the window of the bedroom he was staying in. Her rain-drenched hair covered part of her face, leaving one inky pupil to follow him through the darkness.
Gray shuddered. It really was unsettling to be watched like that. If he didn't look out the window, then he wouldn't see her, and he wouldn't have to worry about it. After all, she was out there, and he was in here.
But ignoring the problem wouldn't help, would it?
Horrifying as the idea was, maybe it was time to take Natsu's advice.
Gray ventured carefully, keeping to the wall. He was ready to fight, if necessary, but he didn't want to appear too defensive. Strange or not, Juvia was still the ruler of a foreign land and they were on Draghi soil, so the situation had to be handled diplomatically. The last thing he wanted was to start a war.
"Juvia," Gray said.
"Gray, darling!" Juvia's face lit up like a candle through the storm.
"What are you doing here?" Gray asked, almost afraid of her answer.
"You said you wanted to talk later, didn't you?" Juvia said.
"No…?" Gray said, shaking his head. "When did I say that?"
"Back at the picnic," Juvia said, blinking up at him in genuine confusion. "So, this is later."
Had she taken that literally? She really was socially awkward.
Guilt gnawed at his gut. Maybe Natsu was right. Was it possible that this was all one, giant misunderstanding?
"Look, just… come out of the rain." Gray waved her over. She may have been from a rain-soaked kingdom, but if she was going to catch a cold, he wouldn't have it on his conscience.
Juvia joined him under the cover provided by a second-floor balcony.
"Is there any reason you came all the way out to Draghi?" Gray asked gently.
"I wanted to talk to you, of course," Juvia said.
"So, you decided to stand out here in the rain?"
"I would wait for you anywhere," Juvia said softly, her eyes wide and reverent.
Gray winced. There was no easy way to do this, was there?
"I'm done hiding, Gray," Juvia continued. "This is the new me. And I want to tell you how I really feel. Gray… I think I'm in love with you. And I wanted to say—"
"Don't," Gray interrupted, holding up a hand.
"Gray?" asked Juvia, her brows drawing. "What's wrong?"
Gray shook his head. "I have something to say to you, too," Gray said.
"I feel the exact same way!" Juvia blurted. "Oh, Gray!"
"Let me finish," Gray said.
"Yes, of course," Juvia said, the eager look still on her face. "It's probably better for you to say it first. Go ahead."
Gray sighed. "I was reminded today that I need to start being more direct about my feelings, too."
"Yes," Juvia breathed, bobbing her head in agreement.
"That means talking about what I like, and what I dislike," Gray continued.
If he could make his position clear to Juvia, then maybe they could minimize any future awkwardness.
"Yes…? Yes?"
"I don't like when you do that. You jump to conclusions and assume things about me that I don't mean," Gray said.
"I don't understand…" Juvia said. "You said that you wanted to talk later. I've been waiting on your answer."
"That…" Gray sighed. "That was a figure of speech. I didn't literally have something I wanted to tell you at a later time. And I really didn't intend for you to follow me all the way to Draghi."
"Oh…" Juvia's eyes grew wide, as if the thought never crossed her mind.
This was looking more and more like a misunderstanding. Gray had to give her the benefit of the doubt for now and hope that they'd be able to salvage the situation. But this time, he'd be explicit and express himself as clearly and thoroughly as possible.
"Listen, Juvia. I don't know how else to say this… You following me around is weird and it makes me uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable…? That means… Does Gray think…"
"I hope we can still be friends," Gray said, his voice firm.
"Friends?" Juvia echoed.
"Yes. Friends," Gray confirmed. "Nothing more," he added, just to make sure he was clear this time.
Juvia nodded stiffly.
Juvia clenched her fists as Gray went back inside.
Friends… ? Surely, that couldn't be right. Gray liked her. Deep down, he was in love with her. He had to be.
How else could she explain how accepting of her he was? He didn't seem at all upset about her affections. He probably secretly liked them!
Yes, that had to be it. Gray was most definitely secretly in love with her. He just needed a little nudge to help him see just how much.
A bonding moment between the boys and a... did that count as a moment?... between Gray and Juvia. Inspired by a couple scenes in canon (you may recognize some of the dialogue I lifted), I wanted to give Gray a chance to set the record straight. Do you think it will help? XD
Next time, in Toxic, the stalking gets taken to a whole new level (I feel like I'm repeating myself...): "I think she fancies you, Highness," Erza observed.
Stop back next Monday for the next installment, or just follow me, Karine of R011ingThunder.
