Summary: Gray and Juvia take their son to visit their first house together, before they became a couple and reminisce about how happy they were for six months.

AN: Hello! So, it's been almost a year since I wrote this to the Gruviazine (thanks to everyone who bought it! It was beautiful, wasn't it???) and since people are finally posting their art, this was my contribution to it! My story was based on Ccrispy's drawing (I don't know if she posted it yet), but it showed Gray, Juvia and their son in a forest, it was beautifully done, and this is my take of it.

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Our First Home

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"Oh, Juvia had forgotten how beautiful it is in here during the spring!" The blue haired Water Mage exclaimed as they approached their destination. Her husband was a little behind her and their son, Gris, was chasing a few butterflies a few meters along the trail they were taking. "Baby, slow down, Mama needs to keep an eye on you."

The five-year-old yelled: "Yes, Mama!", but he didn't slow down much.

"I still don't know why you wanted to come here." Gray asked, catching up with his wife and walking side by side with her.

Even after seven years of marriage, knowing each other for thirteen, Gray still couldn't figure out his wife completely. "Oh, we're here!" She beamed in happiness and saw the abandoned village, their son had stopped and waited for them – he was such a good boy like that. "We arrived, sweetheart!"

"Oh?" The little boy cocked his head to the side in question and then looked to his parents. "Mama and Papa lived here?"

"We did." Juvia nodded. "A long time ago. Even before the twins were born."

The boy gasped. "That long?" He made it sound as if it had been a hundred years before, not 10.

"Yeap."

"Are there ghosts in there?" Gris seemed worried and the adults shared a knowing look. The village indeed looked like it was haunted – it was abandoned a long time ago and the wilderness had taken over: there were trees growing inside houses, vines on old walls, some animals roaming around.

"No, buddy." Gray put a hand on his son's head and messed his dark blue hair. "No ghosts, but when places are abandoned, nature takes over like that, you see?" Gray pointed to where a doe was grazing with its fawn at the edge of the woods. "Since no one lives here..."

"...the animals and trees do!" Gris' smile was as bright as Juvia's.

Gray chuckled, love filling his heart. "Sure, that's a simple way to put it."

Juvia picked the youngest Fullbuster from the ground and kissed his cheek while he got fascinated with the butterflies around them even more. "Let's go." She started to walk and Gray was a little behind them.

"Mama! Put me down!" Gris complained and Juvia chuckled but complied with his request.

Juvia put him down and waited her husband to stand next to her and she twined her arm with his and held his hand – throughout the years, Gray had learned to accept and enjoy Juvia's fondness for touching.

They walked in silence, their son chasing some wild rabbits and laughing to themselves and once in a while, either Juvia or Gray told him which way to go.

"I haven't been here since the day I left you behind." Gray said, quietly. He hated to think about that time and being where they were, he couldn't help it.

Juvia answered after a moment. "Me too, I haven't been here since the day Juvia came to get our stuff while you got questioned by the Council."

"Why come back after all this time?"

The Water Mage took a moment to answer. "Because it's time we remember the good times and make some new good memories." The blue haired mage said. "Juvia was sad here for a while, but first, she was so happy, like never before." She looked around and pointed to the middle of the abandoned village square. "Remember that day we were training here and you almost kissed me?"

Gray's cheeks reddened and he spoke, indignant: "I did not!"

"Oh?"

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Gray and Juvia had been fighting each other for the last thirty minutes, and they were both at the same level: defending each attack wonderfully. Both smiled from time to time, adrenalin inside their veins, hearts beating like crazy. It was wonderful...

...until Gray finally got one up on Juvia and put her on the ground – Juvia squealed and grabbed his forearm, making him fall on the ground on his side, next to her.

Instead of being mad, Gray started to laugh and Juvia followed.

"You do not take it easy on Juvia." She told him.

He chuckled. "I don't because a real enemy won't either."

"That's true."

"And you give as much as you take, mind you." Gray told her and Juvia chuckled.

"Either that or you'd win and Juvia doesn't like to lose, even if it's to Gray-sama." He smiled with her words and he lied on his back.

They stayed in silence for a moment, panting, trying to take their breaths back when Juvia asked, in a whisper: "You... you were gone longer this time."

It took him a few seconds to answer. "Yeah."

They didn't speak for a while, until Juvia broke the silence. "Are you... Do you need help? You know Juvia can help you with... whatever it is you are going through." She didn't say, but it was clear she was speaking about the dark marks she'd seen on his body a few weeks before. "Juvia's here for you."

"I know." Gray said. "You always were." He looked to his side to stare at her. "I have it handled, thank you." She didn't seem sure at all so he nudged her with his shoulder. "I promise, okay?"

"Okay." Juvia sighed – she didn't like when her Gray-sama kept secrets from her, but he was entitled to his own, just like she had hers.

She kept looking at him, to see if she could read something – she learned to know him in the last two years, but she was still learning – but couldn't. Instead, she felt the air between them change a little and his eyes went to her lips and for a brief second, she thought he would kiss her.

Her heart started to beat faster, but she was disappointed when instead he shook his head and got up, offering his hand to help her up.

"We should go home. It's getting dark soon." Juvia took his hand in disappointment but got up, cleaned her shorts and walked next to the man she loved to the house they shared.

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"You were thinking of kissing Juvia, weren't you?" The Water Mage asked, smiling and glanced at their son just to make sure he was still looking around safely.

Gray looked away, but after all that time together, he couldn't lie to her. "Now that you reminded me of that... yes." She saw the tips of his ears get red before he looked back at her. "I thought about kissing you a lot before we actually did. For years, even."

"Why didn't you? Do you know how many more years we could've got?" Juvia asked in fake disappointment.

The Ice Mage laughed. "Yeah, a couple of those, but back then my mind wasn't right and it would only make things messier."

"Oh, Juvia dares you to tell her how things could've been messier." She chuckled. "It was... quite a time, when Zeref was around."

Gray snorted. "Things were pretty messed up, weren't they?"

"We pretty much died and came back, fought the meanest dragon ever, an elite fighting squad... Yes, it was messed up." She stopped him and turned him so she could put her arms around his shoulders, pulling him for a kiss. "Now, they are not messy, not more than it's safe, that is. We got together, we dated, we got married and now we have a beautiful baby-"

"We talked about this: Gris is five. He's not a baby." Gray rolled his eyes.

Juvia glared at her husband. "He'll always be Juvia's baby." Her eyes softened and she caressed the back of his neck and the short hair there. "What Juvia wants with this trip is to rejoice the time we spent together here. She's not going to forget the time she was alone, no, but that was our first home, Gray-sama. We weren't dating yet, but that was a turning point in our relationship and it cannot be forgotten because despite of the sadness, there was happiness too. Juvia was happy and she hopes you were too."

He kept looking at her for a while before kissing her and then another time, leaving her breathless. "How can you be so... nice?"

"To balance out the crazy." She winked at him and Gray laughed – he was doing that more and more since they got together and he slayed most of his demons. It was amazing.

"Ew, Mama, Dad! No kissy stuff!" Gris said and the couple looked at the direction of the voice and saw the little dark haired boy make a disgusted face at them. He proceeded to push Gray and Juvia apart and put himself between them – he was going through a phase where he was very jealous of both of his parents, especially Juvia. He took a hand of each of the grown-ups and said: "I already explored here! Let's go!"

The older Fullbuster chuckled. "Okay, buddy. Let's go."

The three of them walked for a few minutes until they reached the house Gray and Juvia lived in years before.

Like the rest of the village, nature had taken over, there were vines, the door and windows were broken, but there were flowers too. It was strangely beautiful.

"Is this it?" The adults nodded and the boy made a face. "I like our house better Gris said, blunt as most kids were and his parents laughed.

"It was nice back then." Gray told his son and then looked up to his wife. "We were very happy when we lived here."

"Now you are happy at our house." The boy decided with a nod.

Juvia smiled. "Now we are happy wherever the three of us are together. This was our first house, but it was our first home because we were together. The three of us are our home now."

A few second later the boy made a confused face. "I don't get it."

"You will one day, kiddo." Gray said. "You will one day."

They were in silence until Gris said, loud and whiny, not really interested in the adult conversation: "I'm bored."

"Bored?" Gray asked, pretending to be offended. He turned to Juvia. "Did he say he was bored?"

"He did." Juvia nodded, a knowing smile on her lips.

Gray deepened his voice. "How can you be bored when I, Captain Icefury of the pirate ship Ice, am here?" Whenever Gray and their son played, the little one insisted on that particular scenario – he was really into pirates lately and had given Gray the nickname.

The dark blue haired boy gasped and let go of their hands, stuffing his chest out, looking so adorable Juvia wanted to hug him forever, but, by experience, she knew it would only annoy him and she didn't want a tantrum in her hands.

He ran to get a fallen branch from a tree and Gray did the same – to act as swords, Juvia guessed, since she prohibited magic while they were playing – and then he said, trying to deepen his voice: "I am Captain Fullbuster from the ship Icywater!" 'God, so adorable', Juvia thought to herself. "You will never catch me, Icefury!"

Juvia watched lovingly as her boys chased each other and pretended to be in a swordfight. She found a rock to sit on and was glad to just watch them for a while – she knew she'd get taken hostage by one of them soon, so she wanted to take in the image for a moment, of her husband and son playing around at the first house she lived with her Gray-sama.

Her Home sure was beautiful. The house had been alright too.

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AN: For the Zine we couldn't name the child because Mashima still hasn't given us a name (god, I'm afraid of what he'll come up with) but since I'm publishing this here, the boy's name is Gris. HAHA. I hope you liked it!