Archive of Our Own ^beta

Spending time with Levy and Gajeel had truly taken a toll on Juvia, as she now finds herself being around Levy more than her actual best friend. Gray, having been gone for a while, bored Juvia out of her mind, doing nothing but worrying herself sick as she wondered how her beloved Gray was doing. Was he eating well? Was he injured? Is anyone picking his clothes up for him? Such questions were being endlessly mumbled by Juvia as she welcomed herself into Gajeel and Levy's conversations.

“Juvia, are you a fan of reading?” Levy smiles, reaching into her bag to bring out a thick book. “I bought this a week ago thinking Lu would love it, but I don’t think she’ll be back for a while.” Being reminded of how her darling Gray was spending more time with her so-called ‘love rival’, Juvia almost bit onto the hard wooden table.

Levy pulls her back, stopping her from doing so. “Here, why don’t you try reading this? I think you’d really enjoy it too.” She gently places the novel onto the surface in front of Juvia, turning it around to show her the synopsis and give her a general idea of the book.

It was your typical romance book accompanied with a beautiful front cover illustration that looked strangely similar to Gray and Juvia themself. The novel was another love story, one about the princely character and the girl who acted more nonchalant towards him. Despite the cover art looking similarly close to Juvia and Gray, the personalities they had seemed to be switched in the book itself.

Intrigued, Juvia gladly accepts and starts reading through it. She only wanted to read it as a sort of way to pass the time, but she soon found that she was very much wrong. It had been around a day since Levy lent her the book, but Juvia could not be seen anywhere without the book being tucked into her arms, reading it over and over again.

Pleased that she had somehow sucked another person into the joys of fiction and reading, Levy also adored that Juvia finally left her and Gajeel alone. She loved Juvia, she truly did but it was difficult making conversations with Gajeel about their baby when Juvia was sulking about her own love right next to her and she worried that Juvia would get sick if she didn’t distract herself with something else.

The power of romance fiction was underestimated, as it had already been a week since Team Natsu had finally come back from the 100 year quest, yet Juvia still had the same book carried around on her person. It wasn’t like she’s a slow reader nor was she illiterate, but she loved the book so much that even when Levy had tried to lend her a different one she denied it and continued clinging to the same book Levy first introduced her to.

Her obsession with the book had gotten so bad that even Levy worried that the book was enchanted with some sort of spell, but even after scanning it over and over again it seemed to be a normal romance book.

Presently, Juvia was once again sticking her nose in between the book as she quietly sat in front of Gray. It was odd seeing her so close to him yet being so calm. He expected her to be bouncing around him as usual, especially since they’d been apart for so long. Yet here he was, face to face with a book since Juvia’s own was hidden right behind it.
“Hey there Gray, seems like even you can’t get Juvia to be less obsessed with that book, huh?” Levy waves over, standing just behind Juvia who wasn’t even aware of her presence despite being right behind her on the seat. “Has she been like that since we left?” Gray raises a brow, nodding towards the unbothered water mage.

Nodding, Levy takes out her swift reading glasses and looks at the book over Juvia’s shoulder. “Yup, I even scanned the book for any enchantments. It’s clear, she must just really enjoy this thing.” She puts her glasses away again, shrugging at Gray. “I’m not one to judge harshly on books, but I already read my own copy of this book and I can’t lie, it’s good but I don’t get why Juvia is so obsessed with it. It overused too many cliches that I can’t even say for sure what about it makes it so cute.”

His ears perked up at the mention of another copy, and it wasn’t soon after where he suddenly found himself asking Levy for the extra copy. If Juvia seemed to be so into it, then it should be something good. Gray only imagined what about that novel seemed to catch her attention so much that she’s gone as far as to ignore her even when he experimented and stared at her for a minute straight.

Levy was right, it only took Gray less than three days to finish the book after doing nothing but lounge around with Juvia in the guild hall, who was also reading the same book. It truly wasn’t anything that different or special, Gray couldn’t figure out why Juvia seemed to be so obsessed with it.

On the rare chance that Juvia actually wasn’t reading it, Gray seemed to be sticking to her like a magnet. Whenever she’d accidentally drop something, Gray practically zooms to reach his hand over and give it to her, resulting in their hands accidentally making contact with each other. Being Juvia, she marvels even at the simple touch of their hands, but Gray simply stayed quiet.

Even when they were eating and Juvia was once again distracted by her book, she’d have a small crumb near her mouth. “Juvia,” Gray calls, gently taking his finger up to under her chin, raising it slightly to look at her better before wiping the crumb off with his own finger before licking it off. “You had something by your mouth.” He explains.

With a curt thank you, Juvia once again turns her attention towards the book as if nothing happened. If anything, it was even more shocking to Gray that Juvia didn’t say anything more, even with how he sat so closely next to her that his arm was practically over her shoulder.

At some point, everyone noticed that Gray was the one who was sticking to Juvia even more than usual. They’d even noticed how Gray would be following her around without either of them even realizing, he seemed to be on the constant lookout for an opening to whisk Juvia away from whatever was making her so obsessed with that book.

“Juvia.” He calls from behind her, making Juvia whip her head around to ask him what was up when she was suddenly pinned against the wall of a building near the guild.

“G-gray-sama?!” Juvia exclaims, eyes wide as she notices how close Gray was to her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen him this up close before, but she was so completely taken aback by his actions just now that she swallowed a lump she didn’t even know she had stuck in her throat.

His eyes once again flicker over to the book tucked away in her arm, her finger pinched in between the pages to save where she was. “You’ve been giving more attention to that book lately.” He simply says, leaning in even more with furrowed brows as Juvia nervously laughs.

“Well, Levy recommended it to me while you were out. It’s really good.” She raises the book up between her and Gray, a sheepish smile strewn across her face. Gray’s eyes narrow at this, before he gently but firmly puts his hand under her chin, raising them to look up at him.

“I’m here now, can’t you pay attention to me instead?” His voice was no louder than a whisper, yet every word echoed clearly in Juvia’s mind, her face already turning into several different shades of pink, almost unable to believe her own ears.

Lips quivering, Juvia was in a weird sense of both shock and flusteredness. Her beloved Gray was so close to her, and he was willingly asking– begging for her attention. Her mind finally wanders back to the several times where Gray seemed to be clinging to her more than usual ever since he had come back. “Gray.. My love?!” She finally squeaks out.

Such a scene was something Juvia thought would only happen to her in her daydreams, yet here she was being pinned against the wall like the main character of a romance novel while her leading man was confronting her about something.

Leaning in even more, his eyes flicker from her eyes to her lips, then back to her eyes. Such subtle action didn’t pass Juvia’s eyes however. Eyes practically sparkling, Juvia finally throws her arms around Gray, letting the book fall down to the ground beside their feet as she clings to him.

“If you wanted Juvia to kiss you, just say so!” She chirps, snuggling her face against his chest as Gray eventually wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her deeper into the hug. “G..gray?” She shyly looks up from the hug, finally noticing the softness in his expression.

“Yes.. Juvia?” He smiles, gently running his hand through her hair, taking a lock of it up to his nose to gently sniff. Normally, such an action would be seen as weird. But Juvia’s eyes suddenly snapped wide open as she watched Gray let her hair fall back onto her back.

“Was that… Are you trying to act out Gren-sama?!” She suddenly exclaims, accidentally pushing Gray away to stare at him in astonishment.

Gren was the leading male of the novel she had become obsessed with, and Juvina was the main character. As soon as Gray acted out the hair sniffing, Juvia finally realized the other things Gray had been doing ever since he came back. He had been acting out some of the romance scenes from the book Juvia had been obsessing over.

“Ah.. Seems I’ve been caught.” Gray chuckles, not minding that she had pushed her away as he averted his eyes from Juvia, who was still gawking at him with an unreadable expression. “Sorry.. You seemed to be so obsessed with someone who looks like me from a different dimension, I thought you’d like it if I pretended to be them.”

Juvia starts giggling, once again tightly wrapping her arms around Gray, who gladly returned the hug with his own tight embrace. “No one could ever replace you, my darling Gray. Juvia’s sorry, she was so preoccupied with that book..”

Before she could ramble on any more, Gray quickly gives her a peck on the lips, pulling away to smile at her. “No need to explain yourself anymore, I’m home now.”

Her eyes were wide as saucers before she practically threw all of her body weight onto Gray, resulting in him almost stumbling to the floor. “Welcome home, Gren-sama!” She grins, hugging him even tighter.

Gray pouts at the mention of the ‘other Grays’ name, which only made Juvia giggle even more. “Sorry, sorry. Juvia couldn’t help but reference the ending of that novel. It seemed too perfect.”

“Welcome home, Gray, my darling.” She says, lips finally crashing together for the first time since Gray had come home with his feelings finally clear to both of them.