Gruvia Week 2023 - Day 2 & 3 (Whisper + Starlight)
HAPPY 10 YEARS OF GRUUUUVIAAAAA!
Here’s just a short story, mostly Whisper prompt but Starlight can be added to it too.
Team Natsu, along with Juvia had just finished a long day of fighting monsters within the forests nearby, and once the mission was completed and they’d collected their reward, they all headed straight back to the inn for some well-deserved rest. The inn was small and put them all together in a large room at the back, floors made from tatami mats with multiple futons laid out for all the guests. As much as Juvia was thinking of dragging her futon across the room next to Gray’s, she just couldn't refuse Wendy after she asked for all the girls to sleep together next to each other. And so, Wendy, Juvia, Lucy, and Erza were all laid out in a row on the side, and Gray and Natsu along with the Exceeds crashed out the other side.
It seemed like everyone was fast to go asleep, with Juvia last hearing Wendy’s breathing starting to slow and even out meaning she was getting into a deep sleep finally. Juvia took one last scan of the whole room, hoping to get a glance of gray-sama before she slept, but his back was to her, and then decided to close her eyes herself. She needed to sleep before Natsu’s loud snoring got even worse!!
She left like she only had just shut her eyes when she felt a hot breath by her ear. Had Erza ended up rolling out to her? She was quite a hectic sleeper, but then Juvia she felt it again and could make out the syllables of her name being called gently.
‘Juvia..’ someone was whispering her name, so she let her eyes flutter open and Gray was crouched next to her.
'Shhh' he said, putting his finger to her lips. And he just cocked his head towards the door and held his hand out to her.
Juvia blinked, once and then again, trying to get her sleepy mind to process. She gently took his hand and wiggled out her covers, trying not to disturb the other sleeping girls. A murmur from one of them made them both freeze, but after a second, Juvia carried on getting up when it felt safe no one was waking.
Gray kept hold of her hand as he lead her out the door and then down the corridor to the door to go outside. Juvia followed willingly but couldn’t help her curiosity about where or even why Gray woke her up just to take her outside. How long had she even been asleep for?
‘Gray-sama?’ Juvia said again, this time in a hushed voice.
He just looked back at her with a small smile. ‘Just a little further, but we need to be quiet’.
They silently walked a little further away from the inn, until they reached a small path that lead them to a lake. Gray finally released Juvia’s hand and sat down on a simple wooden bench around the outskirts of the water.
‘Shhh,’ Gray said again, ‘Just wait and see’.
Juvia bit her lip and looked out into the darkness of the lake, with the moon providing a glint of light to help them make out the silhouette of the night-time scenery.
She turned her head behind to the inn to make sure they hadn’t disturbed anyone, then back at Gray. He was staring straight ahead at the lake, a relaxed face on his shoulder, as he sat with his hands dangling in his lap.
Juvia’s mind was reeling. What was so important that Gray had to wake her up for, to get out here, but now he wasn’t saying anything?
She studied his face, his long lashes peeking out below his deep frowned eyes, at his strong facial features and then something caught her eye behind him, making her gasp lightly. She leaned towards him, pointing out and whispered ‘Look’. There a light just seemed to appear out of thin air, blinking as it continued in the air, to disappear again. ‘What is that?’
Gray turned to her with a crooked grin, ‘Fireflies’ he whispered back.
‘Starlights?’ Juvia whispered back, confusion in her voice.
This amused Gray. ‘No, fire...flies...’ he again lowly made out, not being too loud to spoil the moment.
Juvia's eyes widened at the sight across the lake as there were little lights blinking everywhere, ‘How did you know…?’ she said in a small voice.
Gray just shrugged, and in a low voice back said ‘You tend to find them out on lakes at night in the summer’.
A new one now joined the other Juvia had previously spotted, and as she looked out across the lake, more lights were popping out of the darkness.
Minutes ticked by, but they continued to sit shoulder to shoulder on the bench marveling at the little stars of the night, skirting across the body of water in front, whispering to each other as a new one appeared.
Hope you enjoy and thank you for all the reads and reviews over the years, this fandom has been one of my favourites, and being here for quite a while, I am happy to still see it thriving. All the best KC xx