Between The Pages

Chapter 26

Juvia almost felt like a child again. Every wonderful thought she had just magically appeared right before her eyes. Of course these images were only temporary and would fade back into a crystal as soon as enough time had passed but she didn't care. For two hours she made her fantasies briefly real with Gray as her only audience. He was very impressed. He had sensed that Juvia was gifted with a strong and creative imagination. That she knew how to escape the cruelty of reality through fantasy. That she would mentally create happy things to block out what made her sad. Just like he did.

"I can see why you love this room so much." She said sitting next to him. "But I don't understand why you wouldn't share this with your sister or anyone else?"

"Well these crystals don't just show my dreams. They also show my thoughts and memories. Personal things that I don't want her or anybody to know about."

"But you don't mind if I see your personal thoughts?"

"I do but you won't see them. You're not from here and you don't know anything like magic so you wouldn't which crystals to look for."

"What do you mean?"

"To you or any other regular human my crystals look the same but creatures like my sister who have been exposed to magic since childhood can identify the difference between a dream crystal, a thought crystal, and/or a memory crystal. Lucy's always wanted to know what's really going on in my head but my private thoughts are mine alone and I share them with no one. Not even her."

"Understandable. In my opinion we're all entitled to a little privacy. I have plenty of thoughts that I'd never want my family to know about."

"Such as?" He inquired.

"If I won't even tell my family, what makes you think that I would tell you?" She teased.

"Good point."

"But then again you probably won't feel burdened or guilty if you hear about this and sometimes you really need to tell someone about what you're actually thinking."

She looked down at her hands and fiddled with them nervously before speaking again. Truth be told, she had never opened up to anyone about her secret thoughts. The ones that she wouldn't dare breathe a word to her parents or brother about. 

"I...I don't like myself." She admitted. "Every time I look in the mirror I can only see what's wrong with me and everyday at school I would only hear what was wrong with me from my peers. Tht I was ugly and weird and an embarrassment to my more popular brother. No one wanted to be my friend and no one ever had a kind word to say to me. So many times I would come home and cry but I was always careful not to let anyone see my tears."

Her eyes were already beginning to swell with tears. She had been keeping it bottled up for so long and now she was finally letting it out.

"My family loves me so dearly, if they knew how much I was hurting they'd probably blame themselves and I don't want that. I don't them to be responsible for my problems. They shouldn't even be responsible for me in the first place."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gray asked.

"I'm adopted. My birth parents were the ones who died, my adopted mother and my birth mother had been close friends and she always wanted a daughter so she took me in after the accident. I'm grateful to her and my adopted father but to this day I can't help feel that maybe they made a mistake."

"Well that's a stupid thought to have." He said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" She said not expecting that reaction.

"Well if they really do love you as much as you say they do then why would adopting you be a mistake?" 

"Because I'm...I'm pathetic. I'm worthless. I'm...I'm a freak."

"Did they ever say that you were any of those things?"

"No but-"

"Then you shouldn't suspect that either one of them have any regrets about choosing you to be their daughter. Who cares if others say mean things to you, they're not your family. They don't know how your family really feels about you. But you do. You know they love you and that they most likely don't have a single bad thought about you. The next time someone says that your ugly or something just ignore them because as long as the people you love don't say things like that then it's really no reason to cry about."

"I suppose you're right." She sniffed. "But let's be honest, love me or not I'm still an ugly freak."

She was still looking down at her hands and refusing to face him. She wished that she wouldn't cry so, especially over such a ridiculous notion that Gray had pointed out. She really was pathetic wasn't she?

But then she was brought out of her thoughts when she felt his hand lift her chin up.

"Look at me." He told her.

"Why?" She asked.

"I wanna have a look at you."  His fingers moved from her chin to her cheeks as he proceeded to wipe her tears away. "In my opinion you're not ugly at all. Your appearance is different from most females but that's not a bad thing. Your hair is like waves of pure silk, your is skin as soft and fair as a dove, and you have the most lovely pair of blue eyes that I have ever seen on a person. Truly it is both a crime and a sin that the people your world cannot see your beauty."

With each word he spoke in those sentences she felt her cheeks turn bright pink with blush and the shade of pink only became deeper as she felt his hands caress her face. Her heart was pounding and she felt terribly flustered in that moment. This handsome young man was actually telling her how beautiful she was. It was like something out of a fairy tale story and it seemed too good to be real.

"I...You don't have to...Flattery is not...I mean..." She said not sure how to respond. "Thank you. Thank you very much. I...I think that's the first time a boy has ever said that to me."

"Really?"

"Really. You and everyone here are so kind to me. Makes me forget just how much I dislike myself."

"No offense but the world where you come from sounds horrible."

"From my point of view it is."

"Then why do you want to go back?"

"Sometimes I ask myself the same question."

Before they could continue talking, she realized that it would soon become very late and she hadn't even started on the sewing. 

"I better get back to work." She told him. "Thank you very much for showing me this place. It made me feel a lot better."

"Glad I was able to cheer you up." He replied.

He showed her the way out of the room and escorted her to where she would continue with her work. He left her alone but secretly spied on her using one of his crystals. He watched her take the fabric she had spun from the flowers and the thread that she had spun from the nettles to start the remaining task of her work. for the rest of the day she quietly and diligently began to sew a tapestry by hand without stopping once.

By the time it had become dark she had worked herself so hard that she had fallen asleep on her work. Gray then discreetly slipped into the room and gathered up her delicate body into his arms. She did not wake, only instinctively moved her head closer to his neck and chest which made him blush a little. 

With great care he carried her back to her room and laid her down into her bed. After that he covered her with the quilts, brushed her hair out of her face, and took a moment to just gaze upon her face. As he did this, he was completely unaware that Alok had been watching him from a distance and he was not at all pleased with how the young man was behaving at the moment. 

"That girl is a threat to my plan." He thought. "If I do not think of something quick she will undo all my hard work. I've come too far to let it all be ruined now."

With that in mind he now made it his mission to somehow eliminate Juvia and with Gajeel gone, he had to use another scapegoat. Luckily for him he knew just the one.