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Leaving Hurts,
Hate Burns,
Love Heals

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It is never too late to make things right.
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Quarrels are a natural part of relationships. Making up is always the best part
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Chapter 18: Apologies

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Juvia walked with bags in her hands, a spring in her step every single one she took.

For her special treat, she went out shopping and the women was more than happy. A beaming smile spread across her face as she made her way home. She was almost there, too, so she was more than excited to see Storm asleep.

Gajeel had promised to put Storm to bed once it was his bed time, and Juvia believed he would do it so she didn't have to bother to go get him from Gajeel's house. She was glad, too, because she would've had to wal in the cold air for a long time.

She made her way up the hill to her home, and once there, raced to the porch.

It was funny, actually, being on the porch and feeling the sudden urge to actually go check at Gajeel's place. She could tell something was off the moment she stepped onto that porch, but with quick hesitance she dismissed it. It was probably nothing.

Once inside, though, she wished she would have listened to her gut feeling.

When she first walked in, the space around her was lightly dimmed, and at the corner of her eye in the living room she caught something move. A person, as if said person were waiting for Juvia's arrival, and they were - because it was Gray.

She would've been fine with him being there - she would just ignore him and go straight to Storm's room to kiss him goodnight - but that was the thing...She could feel Gray's presence, but not Storm's.

Juvia dropped her bags in horror, turning around to run for the door again.It clicked together all at once. She had fell for a trap!

'How stupid can Juvia be?!' she says to herself, finally realizing Gajeel wasn't being a generous friend; Gray and Gajeel had obviously planned this together! Storm was surely still at Gajeel's, and Gajeel was probably boasting at how stupid his best friend was to fall for a trap like this one

She reached for the doorknob, only to retract it once she made contact with it. The handle was cold; the coldness burning Juvia's hand as if she had just put her hand in a cup filled with ice water for 30 seconds. Its as if the door was frozen....by ice.

Juvia turns around, a deadly glare in her eyes. "Open the door, Gray. Now." as simple as it was, Gray only shook his head, which made Juvia's blood boil all together. "Unfreeze the door, Gray!!" she commanded, more like demanded, to her husband who only shook his head once again. Juvia pulled on the doorknob as if that would help, finding that it wasn't opening. She stopped trying but kept her hand on the handle, her hand turning red with how cold the door knob was. "Open the door or I'll-I'll-"

"You and I both know I am not going to open it." Gray says as he walks up closer to Juvia.

Juvia breathed in and out in annoyance, finally letting go of the door. "Fine." she says, getting into position to perform water slicer. "I'll open it."

But- before she could fully do as she wanted, her hand was captured by the one, the only- Gray.

Juvia turned her head over her shoulder, with a scowl. On Gray's face, a sign of silent plea. Juvia softened her glare at how innocent he looked…he looked handsome….. 'No, Juvia! You know what he did!'

"Can we…talk?"

"No!" Juvia almost screams, yanking her hand freely from Gray's grasp and turning her back to him "We already talked enough. There's nothing you can do to-"

As if matching his innocent and pleadful look, Gray spoke in the same kind of voice. "Please."

Juvia closed her eyes as her arms folded, her going into deep thought. She looks over her shoulder to Gray, and sees the same face he had made before. Something sparked in her. "F-fine."

They stood in silence for awhile - Gray at a loss of words, and Juvia waiting for her husband to speak up so she can quickly find a way to walk away from the situation.

"I'm sorry." Gray says, the silence falling.

Juvia sighed aggrivayingly. "I told you. Sorry doesn't help in any situation." she walks passed Gray, he turning around to see where she was going and quickly went after her. She was heading for the stairs, to lock herself away. He grabs a hold of her wrist. "What's your problem?" she yells, turning around to glare at Gray for the 100th tine that week. She yanks her hand away - as she did every single time he grabbed her wrist.

"Shh, calm down." he says in a calm collective voice, not matching Juvia's tone whatsoever.

"Me? Calm down? Why should I?! This 'conversation' isn't going anywhere with you saying sorry, as if it helps. It doesn't, and it won't! Just give up, I am never forgiving you for what you did!" the hint of tears was heard in her voice.

"Juvia, I know sorry doesn't cut it, but neither does yelling. If you stay calm we can sort through our problems, fix what I did wrong." Gray says in the same calm voice as before, trying to show her the type of voice to use.

"There is no sorting through this, Gray! You ruined us, and there is no fixing it-"

"I know you, Juvia. Do you really want to do this? You and I both know you want to forgive me but some part of you doesn't. You love me, I know it. And if you didn't….what do all the years mean between us?"

Silence reappeared as it filled the air, the sound of ticking heard and nothing else. Gray stared into Juvia's eyes as if to see or hear a response, but Juvia found a place on the wall next to her way more interesting.

That silence stayed for a long time, as if the two's tongues were caught by a cat. There was no sign of lip movements, or sound going to appear- until Juvia stepped away from Gray and the stairs, walking over to the couches with a huff.

Gray turned his head around to see what she was doing and saw her sitting patiently, whilst waiting for him to join her, she doing so in silence. Maybe she didn't want him to follow her, but Gray took her not asking him to as an invitation to. He softly smiled, just in case a regular one set Juvia off. He turned away from the stairs and walked to the couch Juvia was on and sat a reasonable distance from her.

She eyed him, he eying her. It was a game of whoever-blinks-first-loses, but taken in a more serious way.

"Hurry. I need to go get Storm from Gajeel." says Juvia lazily, her folding her arms as she stared a blank one at her Husband.

Gray sighs turning his eyes away from Juvia's "That won't be necessary."

"Why not?" asks Juvia as if she was just told that Storm wasn't important.

"Gajeel is keeping him for the night, so we can sort things out." answers him honestly.

Juvia stays silent for a while, Gray not sure what was going on in her mind since he wasn't facing her, but when he did, all hell broke loose. Tears were brimming in Juvia's eyes, obvious guilt hidden in them.

"Hey…" in the best soothing voice he could manage, he scooted closer to Juvia although dangerous. "Tell me whats making you want to hate me so much…maybe if I grasp the idea of what I can fix…"

"You left me."

"Obviously, but expand on it."

"You-You….made me feel guilty…like you leaving was my fault, like I was….nothing but a nuisance. I kept thinking that the remainder of the time I didn't find out about your exact goal of leaving was……What sets me off most was that you didn't tell me, your wife, where you were going…instead making master do it." she looks fearlessly into Gray's eyes, but that didn't hide the fact that her eyes spoke hurt, and her heart spelled broken.

"I was going to tell you…its just that the mission was so important, it could risk a life and I wanted to-"

"Save me, I know…..But what you didn't save me from, was falling. Falling into darkness, a pit where I told myself hopeless things..which eventually turned into hatred towards myself…which then led to me feeling like-like…..nothing." every other word was just normal, sure you could see the tears and her hurt, but when she said the last word Gray truly felt the pain he gave his own wife just by leaving.

He tried opening his mouth, but Juvia beat him to it, opening hers instead as all her words sounded like the 'nothing' she had said previously.

"I told myself countless times that I wasn't good enough, but with quick maneuvers I denied it. But after seeing Storm's attitude change when you came back…I knew I didn't make him happy all the time you were gone." tears fell down her face like a waterfall. Slipping past her cheeks, to her chin, and the dripping into her lap which she was staring at.
Gray got closer. "You know Storm loves you-"

"Does he, though?"

Gray took a long time to answer, so she took his time to speak as a sign that Gray didn't agree and wasn't going to even try and persuade her from thinking Storm indeed loved her (which he did).

"Maybe I am…..Maybe I am not good enough! You think so too, don't you?!" her voice was eager, more tears falling into her lap.

"No! Definetley not!"

"I'm not good enough…."

Gray got even closer, closer than he was before. "You are."

"Maybe I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not." her voice sounded more like shattering glass.

Gray got closer, like shoulder to shoulder closer. "You. Are."

Juvia looked into Gray's eyes with waterfalls coming from her eyes. Gray could tell she was being 100% serious, and believed she was not good enough. That in itself broke his heart; he loved that woman with all his heart, if anything he was the one not good enough, to him at least. He left her. He made her feel this way. He was the person who did all of this, so all that made him think of himself as not good enough.

"Listen here, Juvia." he places a hand on her knee cautiously, but with her fragile state she was not going to start yelling at him. "You are good enough. Storm loves you to pieces, everyone in Fairy Tail loves you, and I do too. Whatever is going on inside your brain, make it stop because its all just lies. You're perfect, maybe not to yourself, but in my eyes your body screams it. You are such an amazing Mom and deserve all the credit for the 3 months I had been gone. I deserve all the yelling you did to me, all the ignoring you did….I still do deserve it. What I am asking is for you to forgive me at least a little, even if its not fully. We can fix us….I know somewhere in you, you at least miss me as much as I missed you from the time I was gone and now. Just please, you're everything to me….I can't lose you!"

Juvia looked away as she sobbed, Gray rubbing her leg soothingly. She wasn't answering, or even reacting to him…if she wasn't answering, then…. "Please, Juvia…I love you so much."

She still wasn't answering, so he took that as a sign. He took his hand off her knee and arose from his seat on the couch with a frown, he started to walk away.

He took at least two steps before he was taken by surprise. Arms wrapped around his torso from behind, and a head pressed into his back. He felt the wetness of Juvia's tears soak into his shirt as her sobs were sniffled. Gray turned around and saw the blue hue of her hair he loved dearly and smiled. Turning around, he wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug. Juvia still kept her face hidden from Gray, but in a matter of time she looked up into his eyes as her sobs stopped.

She smiled sweetly, a few last tears spilling from her eyes as Gray was star struck. Even though she had been crying, he found the redness in her eyes cute. He smiled back, placing his hand on her cheek and caressing in softly to dry the wetness on them. She leaned her head to the side his hand was on, resting her cheek in his open palm as she held onto his wrist. And with her eyes closed, she sighed in pleasure.

Gray, of course noticing she wasn't tense meaning she was not mad anymore, let the jolt of missing his wife hit him making him bring her face closer to his, initiating a kiss.

It was an innocent one, the two both sighing of pleasure at the same time with how long it was since they touched lips.

Juvia unwrapped her arms from his torso and moved them up to his neck, wrapping them around there instead. Gray placed his hands on her hips as they broke apart.

Gray looked into her eyes and saw his Juvia - not the mad, broken, or sad Juvia - his Juvia. He let emotions take over as he took in just how much he had hurt her. "I am so sorry…."

Juvia shook her head, eyes going soft as she looked into Gray's eyes with loving ones of her own. "Don't be….you apologized already, and I forgive you."

"I-I don't….deserve it." Gray says with honesty, looking into her eyes.

"Maybe not, but Juvia thinks you do….You apologized the way Juvia wanted, so don't be sorry. You already said it enough."

"But-" he tried to protest, but Juvia cut him off.

"If you still think you don't deserve my forgiveness, you might as well show it to me." her eyes said 'challenge', as a little smirk played on her lips. "And then maybe I'll be the judge on if you really forgive me or not."

Gray raised a brow, making Juvia - the clever girl she was - show a smirk that also said 'challenge'. He leaned in and placed his lips on hers as one of his hands on her hips moved down to her leg to hoist it up and hold it next to his hips. What was a sweet and innocent kiss from before, was now a full out make-out session.

Juvia's arms now wrapped tightly around his neck as she brought him closer, their bodies flush up against eachothers. Their tongues collided as they both let out a moan at the touch. Juvia wrapped her leg around his body as he helped guide the other around the other side. Her hands now were on his cheeks, as she tilted her head to deepen the kiss.

It didn't take long for Gray to start carrying her to the stairs.

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Um...0//-//0.....I am SO bad at writing lemons, but...

--Question--

     Do you guys want a lemon in the next chapter? I don't mind if you do, just be ready for disappointment. In one of my stories I tried to write a lemon but...it didn't turn out too great. It was really.....embarrassing to read so... Do you guys want one? Either way I will write it (because its apart of the story.) but depending on your opinions I may not.

Yes

Or

No

Your choice. Not mine. Just please let me know!!!

Any grammar mistakes? Let me know!!!