AN: The song Juvia performs is Shatter Me – Lindsey Stirling ft Lzzy Hale, if you want to hear it.

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Juvia could feel her hands sweating as she finished lacing her skates and tried to look at herself in a mirror; it was the first time she was wearing the dress Lucy helped pick. She never worn white before for her performances and she was feeling a little self-conscious, checking on her make-up as well and making sure her hair was right.

For the first time people she actually liked would watch her perform. Usually, she wouldn't even mind the audience, already used with it – she had performed since she was fourteen. A decade later faces became irrelevant, but earlier that day Lucy, Cana and Lisanna had texted her telling how excited they were to see her.

It made Juvia feel nauseated.

Having friends believing in her was too new for her, having had only one friend for most of her life she was trying to get used to the idea of support.

The other girls who were supposed to be in her team barely looked at her, the only one who spoke to her was her coach and only to give her directions – Juvia knew she was the best option to win the medal and Juvia needed to keep her scholarship.

She was going through her routine inside her mind when she noticed the girl being called to perform was the one who would go before her, so the blunette got up and after having another look, she went to stand by the rink.

Juvia looked to the crowd on the bleachers, searching for her friends and her eyes watered when she unmistakably found them: it was hard not to when there were large signs with her name, some even had glitter on them. No one ever did that before.

"Are you alright?" One of the contestants asked her.

Juvia smiled. "Never better, thank you." She couldn't see very well who was who, but it was rather a large party who went to see her. The blunette barely notice when the figure skater left the rink after receiving a round of applause, but paid attention to the scores – not bad.

"And now, a contestant from Magnolia University: Juvia Lockser." She heard; Juvia raised her chin, pulled her shoulders back and entered the rink with a new resolve to win. She wouldn't let those signs be for nothing.

#

Juvia skated to the middle of the rink while the crowd clapped and cheered. She went in with a large smile and stopped at the position she would begin her choreography: arms up, facing her right and her left foot just a bit behind the right. She waited for the song to start and just as the melody began, she forgot everything else and focused on the performance, moving her arms slowly.

I pirouette in the dark

I see the stars through me

Tired mechanical heart

Beats until the song disappears

The moment the music started to pick it up, she started to skate forward to get the impulse for her moves, performing a perfect axel to her excitement.

Somebody shine a light

I'm frozen by the fear in me

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me

So cut me from the line

Dizzy, spinning endlessly

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me!

The moment the violin solo began, she had impulse enough to do the Biellmann spin and it was perfectly timed with

Shatter me!

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me!

Juvia stopped for less than a second to turn to her left, skated and performed a Layback spin with catchfoot; not perfect in her opinion, but good enough.

If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly

There's no one to catch me if I take a dive

I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same

The world is spinning but only in gray

If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly

There's nobody to catch me if I take a dive

I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same

The world is spinning but only in gray

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me!

The blunette finished her performance with a perfect upright spin, arms and chin up, breathing hard. Her heartbeat was so loud she barely heard the crowd cheering.

She was going to win.

#

Juvia still had her hair in a bun when she stepped out of the locker room, her bag on her shoulders and her silver medal hanging from her neck resting between her breasts. She sighed – she had been so certain she'd get the gold medal, but another girl had better score than her by a very small margin, earning her a second place.

It would be enough for her to keep her scholarship alongside, of course, with her grades and second place was better than nothing, but she would have to work harder to get gold the next time as her trainer had told her (scolded her, really). Maybe if she trained an hour more every day? She would need to wake up a bit earlier to –

"Look! There she is!" Juvia heard a familiar voice say and it brought her back from her thoughts and what she saw made her stop on her tracks.

There were eight people there, all of them with smiles on their faces and clapping. Lisanna had a sign with 'Team Juvia' written in glitter, Cana had another saying the same thing with their University colors and Levy had another one. The next thing she knew, Lucy was hugging her.

"You were amazing!"

Still confused and amazed, Juvia hugged the blonde back. "What are you doing here? Juvia thought you left."

"Without seeing you? Fat chance." Cana stepped closer and put her arms around the two girls. "You got the medal!"

"Silver." Juvia said, looking down, her eyes watering a bit. "That's the third one in a row. Juvia will need to do much better now to-"

"You are kidding me, right?" Lisanna was exasperated. She gave her pink sign to Natsu and went to stand next to the blunette. "There were twenty girls tonight and you won the silver medal by such a small margin it is the same as if you had won the gold! And you were pretty great!" Lisanna looked to the others from the group. "Wasn't she great?"

"So great!" Droy and Jet said at the same time, nodding.

"Very manly." Which was a high compliment coming from Elfman, she learned.

"It was so cool!" Natsu cheered. "I couldn't do half of that without breaking at least a couple of bones after falling."

"That's because you're a moron." Gray said, slapping his friend on the back of his head before looking at Juvia. "But he is right, it was very cool."

Juvia could feel her cheeks get warmer when she looked at him; handsome as always, wearing a white coat and staring at her with a smirk on his lips. God, she hadn't felt that way for so long regarding a boy she had forgotten how the rapid heartbeat and sweaty hands made her feel silly.

"Thank you." She whispered and looked down.

"Well, now we need to celebrate your win." Cana said and everyone cheered.

#

Just like when Gray's team had won their game, the group went to Frank's Burgers to party and Juvia was having the night of her life, watching her new friends tease and fight each other. Just like the other time, she felt more than welcomed by everyone there.

Seeing that many of them had to work or classes early the next day, it was just a little after eleven p.m. when they decided to leave. They were sorting themselves out with rides when Juvia told them she would just take the bus.

"You are not." Cana gasped.

"It's late. No one is going home on their own." Levy pointed out.

"But-"

"Don't fight it." Natsu said from a few feet away while he had his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. "When they gang up on you, it's pointless."

"We will convert us to our side soon." Lucy winked.

"Oh, great. Just what we need: another girl in your army to dictate our lives." Gray rolled his eyes in annoyance but even Juvia could see it was fake.

"That's not manly." Elfman muttered, after all he had Lisanna and Mirajane as sisters; plus, Juvia knew he had a girlfriend who traveled a lot for her work and he was as whipped as they come, according to Lisanna's gossip.

"It's just that Juvia lives very far away and-" The blunette tried, but was cut off.

"Another reason you are taking a ride." Cana said with a final tone. "Lisanna is going with Elfman, obviously; Jet is taking Droy and Levy home; Natsu is taking Lucy and I am taking a ride from Gray, since we live at the same direction, and now you are coming with us. It's closer for Gray to give you a ride than anyone else." She shrugged. "Now come on," the brunette took Juvia's hand and pulled her "you too, Gray. I need my beauty sleep."

"You should sleep more, then; it's not being very effective." Gray said under his breath and Juvia had to hide a chuckle when Cana stated she heard him.

#

"Well, this is me." Cana informed when Gray pulled over a simple building. She had insisted Juvia took the passenger's seat next to Gray, telling her she would be dropped off first and that way Gray wouldn't be like a chauffeur. "It was fun tonight, congratulations again, Juvia."

The blunette smiled over her shoulder to her friend and then reached for her bag, looking for her phone – she hadn't texted Gajeel yet about the results. When she found it, she looked to her side and saw Gray looking at the back of the car over his shoulder.

"Shut up. Shut. Up." He whispered, paying no attention to the woman next to him, while speaking with Cana.

Frowning, Juvia looked to the backseat and saw the brunette pointing in Juvia's direction rather persistently until she saw Juvia watching her. Cana, then, smiled. "Good night." She leaned between the seats and kissed Juvia's cheek and then Gray's, whispering something to him, laughing when he told her to leave.

Gray looked at her, cheeks clearly rosier than before. "Forget about her. Where do you live?" Once she told her the name of the neighborhood, his eyebrows rose in surprise. "You do live far." Gray pulled away from Cana's driveway as soon as she was safely inside. "There are good apartments next to the University, you know?"

"They are not in Juvia's price range." She smiled and he nodded in understanding, falling in silence. Juvia finally checked her phone and saw she had a new text and smiled when she read it.

From: Gajeel-kun

21:15: How was it?

To: Gajeel-kun

23:45: Silver. Could've done better.

From: Gajeel-kun

23:46: You know you couldn't, idiot. Be happy you won anything at all. Moron.

Juvia snorted, thinking how insensitive her friend was but she was used to it after fifteen years of friendship; the first time she won a gold medal, he had patted her on the head and told her it was nothing more than her obligation after they spent all of their money on her skates.

"Boyfriend?" For a moment she had forgotten she was in Gray's car. She looked at him, his eyes on the road ahead and if she hadn't heard him, she'd thought he was completely interested on driving.

"What?" She frowned, not really getting the meaning until he let go of the wheel and drove with one hand as he waved towards her phone. Realization dawned on her. "Oh no. No, no, no. It's a friend of Juvia's asking how it was. We've known each other for so long he's the closest thing Juvia has for a brother."

"Sorry for prying."

"Don't worry." She felt herself blush. "We met at foster care, took care of each other there and never really stopped. We've had our disagreements, but he's the closest thing to family Juvia has."

Gray nodded. "I know a thing or two about siblings; you can't love them more but sometimes want to kill them."

"Spot on." She giggled and told him to take a right. "When Juvia discovered she could ice skate well enough to get a scholarship, she had little money to buy skates and a suitable dress for competitions. Gajeel-kun gave me all the money he had and went with Juvia to choose a dress and that was more surprising than anything else – if you saw him, you'd understand he's not the type of a guy who likes to choose pastel colors with glitter. But he did it for me."

"When my mother died and my father remarried, I was acting out, you know?" Gray told her, following her instruction to turn left two times in a row. "I still missed my mother and suddenly there was this new woman with her children sharing our house. My mom, I called her by her name back then: Ur, sat next to me and told me that sometimes you are not born into your family, instead you needed to find them, that's why she was so happy to have found my dad and I. My brother Lyon was adopted by her when he was six, later on my dad adopted him as well.

"I thought about that a lot when she talked to me and I realized that I had been born into a family, but mom was gone, just like Ur had lost her husband. Somehow, our broken families found each other and became one." He glanced at her direction. "I guess you found your family too, huh?"

"Yes." Juvia smiled. "She couldn't have found a better brother if she tried."

"That's good." He nodded. "No one should spend their life alone."

Juvia hummed in agreement. "At least Juvia has him."

"And you made friends who will last a long time." Gray snorted. "You are in the group now and you saw the girls: once you are on their grip, no escape."

"Juvia doesn't think she wants to escape." She smiled. "They are nice."

"They are." He agreed. "I've known them since my first day at Magnolia University and before I knew it, they refused to leave me alone. They are my best friends."

"That's good. We can never have enough good friends you can trust."

"True." They stayed in silence for a few moments. "So, silver medal, huh? I can't say that I know much about the figure skating or scores, but it was pretty damn good, you know? I didn't even need to cheer when people cheered because I knew it was amazing."

"Thank you." Juvia blushed, eyes sparkling with how genuine he sounded.

"And through a completely layman's eyes, those judges should've given you the gold. That other girl was good, but you were better."

The blunette shook her head. "No, Juvia messed up at her catchfoot. Hers was better. It was fair enough, Juvia guesses. Juvia will just have to practice harder; she already had an earful from her coach."

Gray frowned. "I've seen you practice and I don't think I've seen anyone practice as hard. Plus, it's a silver medal, you brought a medal back to the University!"

Juvia shrugged. "Either way: practice harder."

He glanced her way again and nodded. "Alright then."

"Turn right and we arrive at Juvia's place." She pointed and he did as asked, stopping in front of the building and she undid the seatbelt. "Thank you for the ride."

He had a frown when she looked at him. "Do you live alone?"

The question caught her a bit off guard, but she answered anyways. "Yes."

"That friend you mentioned, does he live nearby?" The question was even stranger than the first.

"Uh... no. Gajeel-kun lives next to the junkyard he works, since it's free of charge. Half an hour away from here, at least. He takes the bus." She frowned.

"And you work the night shifts?" Gray asked and she nodded. "You arrive home at...?"

"Maybe half past midnight? Sometimes around one." The blunette answered. "Why?"

He looked out of the window. "This neighborhood isn't the best, especially for a girl living alone." Gray pointed to her building. "And you don't even have a doorman: anyone could get in. And I spotted three people selling drugs on the past four streets we've passed."

Juvia smiled softly. "Juvia can protect herself, Gray-sama. To grow up with Gajeel-kun and not learn how to fight back? Not possible. Plus, the bus stops just over there," she pointed to a bus stop across the street just a few meters far from the front of her building "and Juvia just has to walk twenty meters to get home. And her lock is fine."

"Either way, I don't like it." He scowled and seemed to think before he pointed to her phone. "May I?"

The blunette frowned, but gave her phone to him after she unlocked and watched as he typed something before offer it back to her. "I've put my number in there; anything happen and you need help, I can be here in ten minutes." She looked at him in surprise. "I hope nothing does happen, but if you need it, just call."

Juvia took her phone and felt her eyes burn with unshed tears. In a whim, she put her arms around him in a messy hug. "Thank you." She whispered, not expecting such kindness from him. "Thank you." She said again, feeling him pat her on the back uncomfortably. They stayed that way for a moment before Juvia returned to her right mind and let go of him. "I'm sorry. People don't usually are this kind to me. This whole month has been..."

Gray cleared his throat. "Well, get used to it. As I said, you are in our group now and everyone will be kind to you in their own way."

"Thank you, either way." She kissed his cheek, dried a tear that fell and smiled. "Good night, Gray-sama."

"Good night, Juvia." With a look his way, Juvia grabbed her bag and left the car.

Once she opened the door of her building, she looked over her shoulder and saw he was still there. She waved good-bye and he raised a hand in acknowledgement, she got in and closed the door.

While she was climbing the stairs, she couldn't help but to smile widely; she couldn't believe her night, she couldn't believe the past few minutes. She couldn't believe her life.

She should've realized that moment what was happening with her stomach filled with butterflies, but didn't, too happy reliving her memories.

#

A few days later, Juvia was about to skate her way out from the rink when she noticed Gray, not too far away, talking to one of the members of his team. The man offered Gray his hand and Gray took it before leaving. Frowning, Juvia skated in his direction and called his name. He turned to see her and raised a hand in greeting and stepped close to the rink.

"Hey." She said once they were close enough. "Where's your team?"

Gray sighed. "Apparently, the coach sent emails to everyone saying we wouldn't have practice today and I didn't read it, neither did John. So, ends up I came here for nothing." He groaned.

Juvia made a clicking sound with her tongue and an idea struck her. "Well, since you are here already and Juvia only has classes in two hours, how about that hockey lesson you promised? At least you wouldn't have come here for nothing."

He thought about it for a moment and nodded. Juvia watched as he put his skates on and grabbed a disk and two sticks.

Barely containing her excitement when Gray joined her, she listened as he explained her about the basics of the game. Gray spent a while teaching her how to use the stick, how to move the disk and how to make goals. She had made three goals out of their ten tries when Gray skated towards the net.

"Alright, now I'll stay here and I'll try to prevent you to making goals." He stood in position and Juvia took a shot and he used his stick to stop it and then threw it back at her. "Again."

The third time she tried, Juvia made a goal, the net moving as soon as the disk hit it. "Juvia did it!" She squealed, raising her arms, stick still in her hand. "Oh! Did you see that?"

Gray was genuinely smiling. "I did. Good job."

The blunette skated to stay next to him. "You didn't let me have that goal because of pity, did you?"

"Of course not, I don't do this crap." He shrugged. "I'm just a very good teacher."

"Or Juvia is excessively good in anything cold related." She hit him on the shoulder playfully and he rolled his eyes. "Juvia is great with skating, apparently she is going to do fine with hockey, but wouldn't be as good with soccer, for example. I tried when I was a child and ended up with knees scrapped."

"I liked soccer, knees scrapping and all. And volleyball, biking, running, swimming, climbing trees; anything I could do outside." Gray told her.

"You seem the type." She smiled. "Juvia liked to stay inside more. It rained a lot during the summer and it snowed during the winter so it was a bit difficult to play outside."

"Just activities ice related then, huh?" Gray asked. "I bet you'll be studying whales or something up north in the cold once you become a marine biologist."

She shrugged. "Not a bad idea. Now go back to the goal! Juvia wants to see if she's good or just lucky!"

For the next half an hour they played and each time Juvia made a goal, she cheered and Gray would throw his head back in laughter, because it was as if she was making her first one all over again. To spice things up a bit, he told her he would try to steal the disk from her.

If she was true to herself, Juvia knew he was taking easy on her that time, but just didn't care, deciding to enjoy skating away from him, trying to prevent him from taking the disk.

"No, no, no! Go away!" She squealed when saw him approaching from her left. "No!"

"Got it." Gray said in triumph when he stole the disk.

"Not fair!" Juvia yelled from behind him, trying not to laugh. Deciding they were not playing for real either way, the blunette threw her stick on the ice, skated closer to him and put her arms around his waist. "Gotcha!"

He laughed and kept going into the direction of the goal and even with her behind him (giggling like crazy), he managed to make another point. "Ha!" He cheered. "You might be good, but you are just not in my level!"

Juvia let go of him and was still laughing when he turned around to see her. "Oh, god. That was fun." She took a deep breath and slowly sat down on the freezing ground, lying on it a moment later earning a strange look from Gray. "Come on down. We deserve to rest for a moment."

Still looking as if she were crazy, Gray shrugged and did the same as she did: lied down on the ice, groaning softly and looking up to the ceiling. "Is it weird that running around in here with you made me more tired than playing a full game?"

Juvia laughed. "Well, when you are playing, Gray-sama, you have adrenalin in your body pushing it to the edge and you only feel tired the next day. Today, we were just having fun."

"Having fun? You grabbed me. I felt very much assaulted." Gray said in a mock tone and the blunette chuckled. "Against the rules too."

"You didn't complain then." She shrugged and turned her head to look at him and he did the same. "It has been a while since Juvia had this much fun here in the rink." She told him. "Usually is just practicing and then performing. She forgot how fun it can be. Thanks for that."

He stayed in silent for a moment, looking at her thoughtfully. "I guess it was the same with me." He frowned. "I like what I do, but I guess everything turned into... business. So, thank you as well." Gray smiled and Juvia felt her heart race, like it had been doing a lot when he was around. Her stomach felt strange and suddenly she felt hot even though they were literally lying atop of ice.

What on earth was wrong with her to feel th-

Juvia's heart almost stopped when realization hit her. She was falling in love with him, hard and fast. Much faster than she thought possible. And for a while now if she had to guess. She tried to remember exactly when it could've happen, but came up empty. She had been infatuated with him from the moment they spoke for the first time, sure, but it was a crush.

It had to be a crush. She promised to never fall in love again.

"Juvia?" He asked, frowning at her. "Are you alright?"

Snapping out of it, Juvia blinked a few times before smiling at him. "Yes. Sorry, Juvia drifted a little."

"Where?" Gray snorted. "Your expression was of a person who forgot to bury a murder victim."

"Just remembering Juvia has a paper due in two days and she has to finish it." She lied easily.

"I was close with the expression, then." He said and even under the circumstances she couldn't help but to laugh. "Anything I can do to help? You helped me with my Disney test, maybe I can help you with yours? As you know I am a bit of an expert on Finding Nemo." He raised an eyebrow and she giggled.

"It's about currents and very boring, but thanks for asking." Gray hummed in agreement and they stayed talking for a few minutes more when they heard a throat being cleared and both looked to their right, seeing the janitor.

"Sorry, kids, I have to clean the ice now."

"Alright, we'll be out in a minute. Thanks, Carl." Gray said and got up, offering Juvia a hand, which she took. "This was fun."

"It really was." Juvia smiled and skated to where she had thrown her stick earlier and gave it to him. "We should do this again."

"We should." Gray nodded and they stared at each other for a few seconds and he was about to say something when Carl cleared his throat once again and Gray almost jumped away from her. Gray cleared his own throat and pointed to the exit of the rink. "Shall we?"

Slightly disappointed with the interruption Juvia smiled through it, nodded and followed Gray out. She needed to do something about her feelings, that wouldn't do. She didn't deserve another chance at loving someone.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. She could think of it later, Juvia would not spoil a perfect morning with an amazing guy with her dark thoughts. She's rather enjoy them as much as she could.

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