...9 - Invel x Juvia >\\\\\\\\\\\\\\<
I honestly have no idea which ask meme 9 goes to. However, I had an interesting idea for the pairing, so I hope this will still work.
Jose, the woman thought to herself with a smoldering irritation she rarely showed on her face, should trust her more. Hadn’t she already proven herself to be a capable water-wielder enough to become part of his precious four? Usually she was please, grateful even, to have found a place in Phantom Lord, right up until she was sent on a mission not fit for a dog.
Testing, always testing, her scowl took on a more sour note from its usual apathy, noting how Gajeel was never graced with even a moment’s doubt despite his headstrong, violence-prone disobedience and unpredictable magic.
Juggling the package, which was awkward and pointy in all the wrong places, her steps dragged with disinterest and the decent into the meeting point seat was not quite an ungraceful, pouty flop because that’d break her facade too hard. She was cool, aloof, untouchable...
Her gaze swung upward at the clipped, precise sound of footsteps, taking in the neat boots and pressed pants with mild interest. Most of the company she kept were keen on their appearance in all the wrong ways, going for wild or striking outfits instead of professional.
They were wizards after all, not lawyers.
Chilly blue eyes traveled upward from beneath heavy lashes and dropped lids, jaw jutted to a slight angle and curls brushing her shoulders at the slight movement.
The moment their eyes connected, she felt a jolt hit her.
“Juvia didn’t ask for a mirror,” she muttered nearly silently under her breath and the man with the piercing, clear blue eyes nearly as cold and distant as her own replied, “I apologize, but I did not hear you.”
Old Juvia would’ve gotten flustered and apologetic but she reigned in the impulse with only a rose dusting on her cheeks and twitch to her lips in disgust for her loose lips. Perhaps Jose’s distrust wasn’t in her abilities... just in Juvia herself.
“Nothing. Here is the package.”
A pale eyebrow arched across the stoic face, “Do you know what is in it?”
“No, Juvia is not privy to that information.” It’d been tempting to look but she’d resisted. Who knew what magical runes lay sealed inside, waiting for a fool to unleash them.
Instead he took his time looking her up and down, gaze giving away nothing, face handsome but remote. Leaning forward, he gracefully removed the package from her grasp gingerly, making her wonder just how close she’d been to becoming a paraplegic, sling it around as she had earlier without a clue or care.
Truthfully, she’d imagined herself to be carrying not-quite-legal narcotics. It wouldn’t be the first time the law’d been skirted for profit, and it wouldn’t be the last, Juvia was certain.
While distracted, something was slipped into her palm. The paper was stiff, crisp, business-like just like its owner. Invel Yura. The rest was an address and title that made little sense to her -- foreign, alluring.
It trembled in her hand as the meaning hit her, heart thudding so hard it filled her ears and made her stare wide-eyed at the offer, instinctively knowing this was so much bigger than Phantom Lord’s petty dabblings and politics.
“Think about it,” his expression had changed now, crackling with personal intent, scorching and intense. A smile of amusement, genteel and knowing, played at his lips. “A woman such as yourself deserves better.”
