Circle of Truth (18+)

Chapter Two

After the distribution of the punishment, all the students would quietly gather outside the principles office. "This is your fault, you know." Lucy would blame and shame Juvia for their faults. "Do you not have ears? He said we would've been called in anyway." Juvia retaliated, to which Lucy wouldn't respond. As silence befell them once again, they were disturbed by the appearance of two women and a man. The two women? The Strauss sisters. Mirajane and Lisanna Strauss were the most famous siblings in their school right now. The youngest whitehead, Lisanna would find herself wrapping her thin arms around Natsu and Gray's muscular bodies. Her curvaceous chest would press against their arms causing both to blush. "It's been a while, Lisanna." Gray would say only for Natsu to nod. Lisanna is usually away as an exchange student but had recently came back to study at Fairy High with her sister again. Erza and Lucy seemed to take comfort in seeing their old friend Mirajane as well as they met her with an embrace. Mirajane was everyone's friend, she had no enemies in this school besides those who were jealous. Juvia would shoot Mirajane a smile and was met with a wave from the she devil. The man with them was known as Laxus Dreyar, a blonde brute and the direct grandson of the principle. Although he was related to the head of the school, he was known for his delinquency and alliance with Gajeel Redfox. Approaching them, Laxus would greet Juvia, Jellal and Gajeel. "It's good to see you, Laxus." Juvia would tell him, her eyes brushing from his electric blonde hair to his toned, tall and muscular figure. She found herself faltering too much at the man in front of her. As the three groups began to converse, Juvia would suggest to Gajeel, Jellal and Laxus that they all go to their 'secret base' hangout spot. Although it wasn't actually a secret, it was kind of difficult to find. An array of agreements would fill Juvia's ears as they all collectively agreed to skip and come back for afternoon library cleaning. Doing so, the four would leave.

~Three Hours Later~

Returning in time to clean the library, the previous group of 8 met again. This time, they were joined by the three that they had encountered outside the office. Heading into the library, Erza Scarlet began to section off cleaning areas. Although she wasn't liked, Erza was a smart woman and her strategies on how to do things faster were expertly. One flaw, she didn't actually consider the height difference between the female students to the book shelves. Finding this to be an issue, they drew straws on which male and female would work together. Levy and Natsu on the bottom right section, Lucy and Jellal got bottom left, Laxus and Erza were on window cleaning, Gray and Juvia had the top floor, and the Strauss sisters swept. Understanding their pairings, the pairs would split apart into their designated sections. As much they hated their pairings, all of them just wanted to finish as quickly as humanly possible so they could go home. Chatter would fill the library as pairs like Lucy, Jellal and Gray, Juvia bickered. Others were just certain people being curved, and other pairs were just chattering. Pulling up a ladder to the place she needed, Juvia would use this to climb onto the highest section of the shelf. Despite using a stepping ladder, it was higher than Juvia expected and her frail body attempted to reach to no avail. "You need help?" Gray would ask, his icy voice lingered as he stared upwards to where the blue haired maiden was. His eyes tracing down her long curled hair, down her back, underneath her skirt to see her black thong and long legs covered in thigh high socks. "No" Juvia would say simply, but would still wheeze as she struggled to reach her cloth into the corner to wipe. She paused, sighing and looking back down at Gray, who she caught looking up her skirt. "Hey! What are you looking at!?" She huffed, her face turning red as she blushed, holding the back of her skirt. Gray blinked, his face also turning red as he was caught, he cleared his throat "It's not like that!" he justified. Juvia shook her head, turning her attention back to the book shelves, she took one final attempt of stretching to reach the dusty end of the wood, misstepping, the blue haired girl would find that she had lost her balance and was slipping towards the ground. She hardly had time to process the fall before her hand instinctively grabbed onto the ladder, stopping her from falling but abruptly slicing her knee on the wooden ladder. She visibly winced, descending the steps, Gray stepped forward and grabbed her hand, helping her off the ladder. "You okay?" He asked, looking down at her knee that was bleeding. "Oh man, you should've been more careful." He scolds her. Juvia rolls her eyes "I would've asked you to clean it if you werent so busy looking up my skirt, p e r v." Juvia said, mockingly as she sounded out the letters in 'perv'. Gray rolled his eyes, placing her hand on her waist and leading her over to the bench next to the bookshelf. "It was not like that... now sit here for a second, i'll go find a bandage for your knee." He said, sitting her down and heading off to find Erza. "I'm fine, its just a scratch." Juvia protested, but sighed as Gray had already left.

After a few minutes he returned to their quiet section upstairs. Walking over to Juvia, he kneeled down in front of her, holding a first aid bag in his hand. Juvia looked at him, confused. "I can do it myself." She said, reaching for the first aid kit. Gray shook his head "Since i didn't do a great job helping you clean, this is the least i can do. Just stop moving, it's annoying." He retorted. Juvia rose an eyebrow, his actions were kind but he had such a mean way with words... She sat quietly as he placed his hand on the back of her knee, lifting it to rest her leg on top of his knee. Juvia felt a lump in her throat at how cold his hands were. Gray began cleaning up the blood and the wound. "You know, that skirt is really short." He blurted out, Juvia blinked. "What? My skirt is fine." she responded. "It's fine if you want everyone seeing your underwear. I've barely lifted your leg and i can see everything." At the end of his sentence. he rose his gaze from her knee towards her. Juvia swallowed heavily as they held eye contact for a few seconds, she wanted to retort in a sarcastic manner but his voice was so serious, she couldn't respond. "Sorry. I'm just saying." Gray continued, looking back down at her knee as he begins wrapping bandages around her knee. "So you've looked enough to see 'everything'?" Juvia asked, her voice lowered in volume as she stared down at the kneeling man touching her legs. Gray paused, looking up at Juvia. He stared at her eyes, they were huge and so piercing it was hard to look away, even so, Gray couldn't help but trace his eyes over the curls of her hair, down to her collarbones peaking from the uniform and the outline of her curves in her shirt. His eyes continued moving down, following the trail of crinkles in her school shirt to the folds of her skirt, until they landed at her thighs. Since her legs were raised onto his knee, there was a gap in which he could see the fair skin of her lower half, then the black panties that clung to that part of her. He felt a frustrated heat rise in his chest, unable to stop his eyes from staring at her long legs, sitting on his knee, so close to him. He took a deep breath, finishing the bandages as he placed her feet back on the ground. His hands still holding onto both of her knees. A moment of silence befell them, Juvia didn't want to move, his touch was so cold and yet weirdly comforting. She was afraid if she made a sudden movement, this encounter would end. Gray exhaled, raising his eyes to look at hers again. "I don't think ive ever taken the time to look at you properly before today." He stated. "Do you not like what you see?" Juvia responded, her breath hitched as she spoke before thinking, the blue haired girl cursed herself mentally. Gray paused for a moment, staring at her eyes as he thought his response. He was still kneeling in front of her, both of his hands rested on the back of each her knees. "I do." he responded, his hands moving up her legs, scrunching her skirt as he traced up her hips to her lower back as he stood up, bringing her to stand as well, his head leaned down, closer towards her as their bodies pressed against each other. . His hands pressed gently on her waist as their faces draw closer, inches away. Juvia can hear his breathing becoming harder, even his breath was cold. She exhaled gently, glancing between his eyes and his lips. He was so close, all she had to do was lean forward just a little more- 

"Gray!" A sudden interruption of a voice would cause Gray and Juvia to quickly separate. Gray coughed, turning to look at Natsu who was stood at the steps. His face had a look of surprise as he looked between Gray and Juvia. "Erza called us down... since we're almost done..." Natsu trailed off. Juvia coughed awkwardly. nodding and speeding past Natsu down the steps to join the others. Gray passed Natsu too, shouldering the curious look he was getting. "It's not what you think, i was just helping her because she got hurt." He excused, Natsu scoffed as the pair joined the rest.