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The first night when they returned to Magnolia, Juvia thought she was dreaming at first.
She'd been prone to those , the dreams where Gray would come through her doorway and look at her the way she'd always wanted him to. Years of them.
She'd learned not to trust the warm weight that sometimes settled behind her before dawn, because when she reached for it, it was always just her pillow.
So when her mattress dipped and a familiar cold seeped through her blanket, she kept her eyes squeezed closed.
Dreaming, she told herself. Obviously.
But then an arm hooked around her waist and Gray Fullbuster pressed his face into the back of her hair and said, very quietly, "...Missed you."
Juvia stopped breathing.
He didn't say anything else.
Though, she supposed, thinking about it, she shouldn't have been entirely surprised. On the journey back from Guiltina he had been... different.
He'd stayed close to her at every opportunity he could. Saved her the seat beside him on the various trains back, fallen asleep beside her on the boat more than once and kept his hand on her head for some reason whenever he could, he walked beside her and talked endlessly about his adventure and eagerly asked what she had been up to the whole time, listening wholeheartedly to her little stories as if she was the one who had gone on a life changing mission.
She'd assumed it was the quest, a hundred years' worth of weight on their shoulders left everyone in Team Natsu a little raw and very grateful for familiar company in the end.
And she tried not the think about the two times their lips touched on the battlefield. She tried very hard not relate his behavior to that.
He just missed home, she'd thought. He missed the guild, his friends, and the stability of everyday life.
She had not let herself think he had missed her specifically. She'd gotten better at not doing that to herself.
And yet here he was, in the dark of her room at Fairy Hills, and she was revising that conclusion somewhat.
Juvia stared at the wall of her dormitory room for a long moment before she pulled his arm tighter around her and closed her eyes, deciding to enjoy whatever moment this was.
She woke to the morning light and Gray still in her bed.
He was on his back now, one arm behind his head and the other around her shoulders, looking at the ceiling as he slowly blinked awake.
"Morning," he said, completely normal, as he noticed her also waking up, not at all panicked about waking up in bed next to her.
Juvia just stared at him.
He looked back at her with a soft smile and placed a gentle hand on the back of her head.
"Sleep okay?"
"Uhm," Juvia's breath caught in her throat. "Yes. Did you?"
"Yeah, it was great." He stretched his body a little and she heard one of his limbs pop softly. "These are way better than the beds in the boys dorms."
Juvia giggled softly and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Would you like Juvia to make breakfast?" She asked gently, not knowing where the new line between them was.
"Oh god yes," then he got up, stretched until something in his shoulder cracked, picked up his shirt from the floor, and said, "I've been craving a home cooked Juvia-meal since the 100 Years Quest started."
"Juvia will get something together then," she sat up and put her hand over the warm indent he'd left in her pillow, watching with a slight frown as he made her was into her bathroom without saying anything.
What was that about?
The next night he came in again and she was fully awake.
She heard the window and the soft sounds of someone moving through a dark room they were still learning. He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, like he was giving her a chance to say something.
She kept her breathing even.
He lay down. His arm came around her, and this time she felt him exhale long and slow as his arm tightened around her. Her back pressed completely to his chest.
She woke the next day to find him already half-dressed, sitting on the end of the bed pulling his boots on.
"There's a bakery near the south gate that does good coffee," he said, without looking up. "You want me to bring something back?"
"...Yes please," she breathed out, looking at him unsurely as he smiled at her.
He placed a hand gently on her forehead and swiped her loose hair away from her face before he left through the door this time, and Juvia sat in her bed and stared at the door after him for a very long time.
By the fifth night they'd been home it had become a thing.
After the day had wound down and the streets had gone quiet, he'd come through the window and she'd stopped pretending to be asleep around night three, though she still didn't speak when he arrived. Some instinct telling her that words would break whatever strange thing this was but she'd shift to make room for him to settle behind her.
The mornings were somehow even more bewildering than the nights.
He made himself at home. Not intrusively, he didn't touch her things or take up more space than offered. He'd hand her a cup of tea he brewed while she was still dozing, he'd look at whatever book was on her nightstand and ask about the story.
Once he'd even stood at her window with his arms folded and watched fondly as some of the girls attended to the flowers and plants they kept around the dorms.
Juvia had watched him from bed and thought: I have no idea what is happening.
The night of the "boys' night", Juvia had gone to bed alone and she'd lain awake longer than she meant to.
She wasn't going to wait for him. That wasn't… she was better than that now. She had grown. The fact that the other side of the bed felt strangely absent was simply something she was going to lie here and be mature about and not being able to smell him wasn't —
She was in his room before she'd consciously decided to do it.
Standing in the doorway with her hand on the frame and looked at the unfamiliar surroundings and bit her lip.
His room was tidier than she'd expected, there was a jacket on the desk chair and a half drank glass of water on the nightstand and a stack of books she hadn't known about.
She lay down on his side of the bed, she assumed it was his side from the indent, pulled the blanket around her, and told herself firmly that she was not going to think too hard about this.
She was asleep in four minutes surrounded by the faint smell of his cologne.
She woke at first to the sound of the door clicking shut and loud voices shouting in the hallway outside.
There was a slight pause, longer than his usual, and she imagined him standing there in the dark, taking in the unexpected shape of someone in his bed. Too nervous to actually look at him or explain herself.
Then he let out a quiet sound that might have been a laugh, and something that sounded almost like a sigh of relief.
"Thank god," he said, under his breath, like he was talking to himself. Like she wasn't supposed to hear it. "Didn't know how to explain to the guys that I needed to go to the girls' dorm without sounding like a total perv."
She let out a small laugh at that and the mattress dipped as he settled in with her, their usual set up as he brought her into his chest and she gripped a hand on his forearm around her waist.
Then, his lips pressed briefly to the back of her head in a small kiss as he whispered goodnight.
Juvia was very glad it was dark, because her face had gone neon red.
She felt him relax and she thought; I do not understand what is happening anymore, but please don't stop.
She woke in his room to pale morning light, his arms still firmly around her and his breath brushing the back of her neck.
"Morning," he said, the same as always, when she stirred awake.
"Good morning," Juvia croaked out, her voice still raw from sleep.
This was his room. She had come here this time and he had come back and found her in his bed and his response had been thank god and to kiss to her and now he was lying there like it was all completely normal and —
"You hungry?" he whispered and she felt his arm move so his hand was gripping her waist instead of being draped around her. This was the first time she had woke up with him still clinging to her and she wasn't sure what to do with herself.
"...A little."
He hummed and got up after one last squeeze, assuming he was going to make them some food, and Juvia decided she was simply going to accept that this weird little cuddling thing between them was her life now.
The next night, back in her room, she let the silence sit for a while. His arm was warm around her already and she couldn't bring herself to fade to sleep just yet.
"How was boys' night?" she asked, breaking their nightly silence for the first time.
"Fun," he said, voice vibrating against her back. "Natsu tried to start a competition about who could eat the most and Laxus won."
Juvia smiled at the wall before her. "How was Gajeel?"
He hummed and she couldn't tell if it was in complaint or if was a sleepy laugh. "A disaster. He decided that because Levy had the twins he deserved one night off, which is fair enough honestly, but then he had about four pints, which is enough to send him over the edge now that he's a new dad. He spent an hour crying about how fast they're growing up." Gray exhaled. "I took him home pretty quick. He told me I needed it more than he did and to go back to the bar instead of home."
"Needed what?"
"The night out, I guess." He stopped for a second. "I only had maybe three beers myself before the Gajeel situation escalated. Turned into a bit of a babysitting job in the end and when I got back to the guys they were all going crazy while I was still fine, so I came back and a few followed."
Juvia was quiet.
Three beers, she thought. And he spent the rest of the night looking after Gajeel.
She'd assumed when he'd come home and pressed his lips to her hair, that he was drunk which made him more confident than usual. That it was easier to be tender when he was loosened up, it was easier to come looking for someone when your inhibitions were down.
She'd let herself believe that because it felt safer than hoping for the alternative.
But he was always sober and last night had been no different from the rest.
She turned over.
It wasn't graceful, they were pressed close and it took some doing, his arm shifting to let her move, but she got there. When they were face to face in the dark, Juvia reached up, found his jaw, and kissed him.
It wasn't a very a dramatic kiss. It was nothing like the two CPR-sort-of-kisses they'd shared during the dragon fights. Not like any the elaborate things she'd imagined over years of having too many feelings for him either.
It was just her and him.
And he kissed her back with zero hesitation. It was natural, his hand came up to her hair with a gentleness that made her throat tighten unexpectedly and his lips were so soft against hers this time that it felt like this should have been their very first kiss.
"Gray-sama," she said softly against his mouth.
"Mhm," he had his hand so firmly on her head while they kissed that she couldn't pull back very far.
"Can we talk now?"
"Talk about what?" He whispered and tilted his head so his nose gently booped against her own and she nearly died from how sweet he was, but then he went right back to kissing her again, clearly distracted by the action.
"What is… this?" She didn't know the exact word to say, to describe the inability for either of them to be away from the other for a long period of time, sneaking into each others rooms every night, and everything in between.
"This?" He was definitely distracted by the kissing and Juvia had to conjure all her strength to pull back from him.
"You and me?" She tried again. "We keep ending up like this and Juvia doesn't know where the line between us is now."
"I don't want a line between us, Juvia." Gray whispered with a soft laugh as he leaned his forehead on hers. "I came back and we're —" He paused and his thumb moved slowly at the nape of her neck, which somehow made the pounding in her chest much worse. "I thought when I came back you'd just know that you were mine. That I was —" He stopped and pulled back to look at her better. "That you were what I came back to and the reason I went out there to improve myself in the first place."
"You never told Juvia about that part," Juvia said, very carefully.
"...I was getting there."
"After you climbed through Juvia's window? Or before?"
"Well, that was part of the getting there."
"Without saying anything?"
"I said I missed you," he scoffed and shook his head.
"Once! On the first night and then you just," she gestured, uselessly in the dark, "acted like everything was completely normal!"
"Wasn't it?" he asked with a frown. "It was to me." He said it like he was only now understanding how that might have landed. "In my head it was settled. I just hadn't," He cleared his throat. "Said it out loud yet and you didn't say anything either or push me away so I thought it was cool."
"Juvia would never push you away," she said with a fond head shake. "You are the one who changed things without saying why."
"I know." He replied sheepishly. "I'm not the — I know I'm not good at the whole —"
"Words?" Juvia offered.
"Words," he agreed with a sigh. "About any of this stuff really. I figured the showing up would... say it for me."
Juvia thought about every morning. The small unremarkable domesticity of someone who had simply decided and moved in around the edges of her life.
"It did say something," she admitted. "Juvia just didn't know what it was."
"Yeah." He was quiet a moment. "I just want to make you happy."
She looked at him in the dark, her chest aching at how open and hopeful he was being with her. "You still haven't answered her the question," she said. "Properly."
"I know." And then, direct in the way he sometimes was when he'd made a decision like this, "I want you to be mine and I want this to be a forever thing between us."
"Juvia has been yours for a very long time." She paused and decided to lighten the mood again. "It would have been nice to know you felt the same way before you started treating her bedroom like your own."
He laughed a that, thankfully. "Yeah, alright. That's fair." He pulled her back in, "this does mean you're my girlfriend now," he started off confident, answering her original question before hesitantly adding; "Right?"
Juvia considered making him suffer slightly before caving in and saving him the light panic, just because she wanted him to stay close.
"Yes," she giggled and pulled him closer. "I have been from the very beginning, congrats on finally catching up."
He pressed his lips to her forehead and she could feel his smile there, "so can we go back to making out now?"
That next morning was Juvia's favorite so far, she woke up to her cheek resting on Gray's chest while he gently stroked a hand over her head and his other hand on her waist to keep her close.
She hummed and pressed her face into him some more, wanting the moment to last forever.
"Good morning," he said fondly and kept up the comforting motion.
"Morning," she said airily, feeling like she was floating on clouds. When she looked up at him he was already looking at her with half-lidded, just-awake eyes and a slight smile on his face.
She really couldn't help herself but lean up and give him a kiss, just one, soft and slow.
They pulled apart and Gray looked happier than she'd ever seen him.
"God, I can't believe the first thing I've done today is kiss you," he said, smiling with his eyes still closed. "What a life."
Juvia snorted as he flopped his head back into the pillow. "Isn't Juvia supposed to be the dramatic one?"
"Yeah, yeah," he smirked and opened one eye. "Breakfast?"
"Juvia can cook something," she nodded and placed a kiss on the skin of his chest that was closest to her.
Gray made a noise of appreciation at that and watched as she climbed out of the bed. "Have you been telling anyone about this, by the way?"
"Hm?" Juvia frowned as she watched him stretch before also standing. "Telling the guild, you mean?"
"Yeah," he fixed a stray hair on her head when he was finally upright. "I mean, I don't mind if you have I was just curious."
"No," she confirmed. "She didn't know what to say to you about it, never mind the others. Have you told anyone?"
"Natsu," Gray shrugged.
"What?" She stopped him from walking past her to the kitchenette in her dorm. "You told Natsu?"
"Well, yeah," he looked at her like she had grown a second head. "We shared a tent for the entire 100 Years Quest, he knew I was there to become stronger for you and helped me out with figuring out which dorm was yours when we got back."
"I just… didn't know you would talk about that stuff with him," she stared at him blankly as he looked confused. "You two always fight."
"Not always," he scoffed and placed his hands on her hips. "Often, yes, but we talk about all that kind of stuff too. He's… technically speaking my best friends and he's like my annoying younger brother, we can talk about anything."
"And he kept it a secret for you this whole time?"
"And helped me out with getting up here too," he looked over her head for a second before looking at her. "I'll owe him one when the times comes for his plan too, which I don't mind doing."
He kissed her cheek then and walked past toward her mini-fridge.
"What's Natsu's plan?" He stopped dead at her question and turned slowly to face her. "Is it something to do with Lucy?"
He opened his mouth to speak then closed it again and puffed out his cheeks as he thought of an answer, "did I tell you how pretty you look this morning?" He swooped back toward her and leaned in for a kiss, but surprisingly she dodged it to stare him down.
"What do you know?" She asked excitedly, eyes gleaming at the idea. "Is it both of them or just him?"
"Juvia," he sighed and looked at her pointedly. "You didn't hear anything."
"She didn't?" She pouted up at him, trying to sway some information out. "But she could help too!"
"Maybe," she squealed and wrapped her arms around his shoulder in a big hug. "But you cannot say a word about it to either of them. If he knows he's better at keeping secrets than I am then it's going to turn into a whole thing."
"Juvia's lips are sealed," she made a lock and key motion on her mouth. "So, is he in love with her? Is he going to ask her to marry him?" She jumped and squealed at the idea. "Lucy says he's not the boyfriend type, but then that would mean he's the husband type for her!"
"You are way ahead of yourself," he said bluntly and rolled his eyes. "What happened to breakfast?"
"Yes, yes," she fluttered a hand in his face. "Juvia will make it now," stepping out of his arms and making her way to the fridge with Gray close behind. "Will you tell her the details on what you told Natsu in your tent talks?"
He hummed for a seconds in consideration, "yeah, it was about you so, why not?" She handed him an crate of eggs and looked expectantly. "Now?"
She smiled innocently, "well, Juvia needs some entertainment while she cooks for us." She delighted in his groan at her insistence.
"Fine," he rolled his eyes. "Where do you want me to start?"
"The beginning, of course!" She beamed while looking through ingredients. "And don't skip over anything."
"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes and let her use his arms to stack food on from her fridge.
She handed him ingredients for a solid ten minutes while he talked and she listened, smiling and occasionally making noises of delight that he pretended to find annoying.
By the time she was plating the food he'd gotten to the part where Natsu had spent their first day back helping him track Juvia's scent and scaling the walls to make sure the room was definitely hers.
"He scouted well," Gray said flatly. "And helped me draw a map just in case it was too dark to see the window at night."
"That is very sweet."
"It was deranged," Gray corrected, but she caught the corner of his mouth pulling up before he could help it. "But worth it in the end." She set a plate in front of him and he immediately took a huge bite. "This is so good," he said with his mouth full.
She felt warmth bloom all the way up to her ears at the praise and sat down across from him with her own food before she combusted entirely. "Don't get too sentimental," she said primly. "You'll ruin your stoic image."
"I don't have that image anymore," he said, still eating. "You've completely destroyed it."
"Juvia accepts full responsibility," she smiled at her breakfast. He kicked her lightly under the table and she kicked him back.