Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Fifty-Two: Begin Again

Juvia was already standing outside, shivering in the cold. Her arms were crossed, hands rubbing against her forearms to bring a small amount of warmth into her limbs. Even with her thick fur ensemble, the snowy wind was still managing to sneak its way through and hit her pale skin.

Gray closed the door behind them, not moving until he heard the gentle click of the lock. He turned his attention to Juvia, then. Her eyes were looking up at the sky, snowflakes dusting her shoulders and eyelashes. She turned to him with a smile, tilting her head in a silent offer. He nodded, unable to speak. Her beauty took his breath away.

They started to walk, shoes crunching in the thick layer of snow coating everything in sight. He shivered as snowflakes slipped down his coat collar and dripped down his spine. A foot of empty space separated the couple, space both wished they could cross and yet didn't know how to. So they kept walking in silence, Gray's hands deep in his pockets and Juvia's arms crossed. By the time two blocks had passed, Juvia couldn't take anymore.

"Is there anything you wanted to do?" She asked, quietly enough that he almost missed it.

Gray looked down at her, none of his emotions peeking through despite her desperate wishes otherwise. "Uh, we could see the others, if that's what you want. Is, is that what you want?"

"No," she responded almost too quickly. She flushed, eyes boring into the ground by her feet. "Uh, I mean, do you want to?"

"No," he agreed, a small smile lifting his lips as he kept watching her. As if she felt his gaze, she paused and glanced up, meeting his eyes and revealing the tears she'd valiantly been trying to fight off. This brought his motion to a halt, another several feet between them as they stood separated on a bridge spanning the frozen river. "Juvia?"

She inhaled deeply, tucking a strand of damp hair behind her ears. She remained silent for another long moment, holding out a hand and watching as the storm began to swell, snow swirling faster and faster through the air until all she could see was her darling Gray and the bridge beneath their feet. Perhaps he could see more, but she'd always had laser focus when it came to him.

"You never called." She closed her hand around a palmful of snow, the heat of her skin competing with the frozen water trickling between her fingers. "You promised you would, but you never did." Her gaze dropped to the stones under her feet, Gray's stare too much to bear. "Why?"

Gray inhaled deeply, a cloud of white pushing past his lips. He rolled his shoulders, debating the best way to say the multitude of thoughts caught in a tornado in his mind. He swallowed, letting out another deep breath. "Uh, did Gildarts tell you anything? Like, uh, did he tell you what the quest was about?"

Juvia licked her lips, shifting her weight from leg to leg. "You were in a country named Benos," she started, not finding it hard at all to pull up the information she had memorized years ago. "The quest seemed impossible to everyone, but Gildarts had faith that the seven of you would complete it. He said that part of the quest meant that he couldn't talk about it until someone finished it, and he even really shouldn't have even told you everything that he did."

"And, when you found out that we did it? Did Gildarts tell you anything else when he found out we completed the quest?"

She frowned, biting her lip and only glancing up for a second before returning her attention to the bridge. "Uh, no. I didn't think to ask him about it. I guess that was never on my mind." She blushed, thoughts coming to the forefront like they so often had. She'd never thought to ask Gildarts about the quest again because she'd been so worried about why Gray hadn't come home yet. It had never even occurred to her to wonder if something might have changed, if there might have been a good reason why he had never called or reached out.