Juvia-senpai

4. The stroll in the night

He was drenched in sweat. Right now in his mind was three things; himself, the ball and the goalpost in front of him. He moved forward, extended his left leg backward and with a swift movement struck the ball near the lower left area, inducing a rightward spin to it. And with that spin, it hurled away from the right side of the post. The induced spin, forced the ball make a leftward curve in its path and it landed on the net through the top right corner of the post. The sound the net made due to this was the only sound that was heard.

Gray did not stop and struck a second ball in the very same manner. The ball responded exactly the same manner it did to his touch, the previous time.

His body was already pushed to his limit. And yet his mind did not want to stop. He looked around himself. He was in an indoor practice ground and no one was around.

He willed his mind to visualise, and the next moment he was standing in a huge stadium. In front of him the goal keeper had a mocking smile on his face as if to say that Gray wouldn't be able to make the ball go past him. Sound of whristle was heard and the crowd began to chant Gray! Gray! Gray!. He moved forward toward another ball that was placed in front of him intending to hit it past the keeper. His right leg placed to the side of the ball and his left leg extended back he looked in front of him. And then he released his leg, which now was making its way towards the ball.

Suddenly the keeper shimmered. He was replaced by a teenage boy with sandy coloured hair. He wore an earring in one of his earlobes and had the most sinister look on his face. Upon seeing him, anger flowed through Gray. With brute force he struck the ball. It went away from where it was intended to go and landed somewhere to the right side of the post. Gray fell to his knees. The sandy haired boy laughed at him and gave him a thumbs-down. Around him everything began to dissolve. The crowd was replaced by empty seats, all the players in the field began to disappear and the chanting died down.

Finally the sandy haired he disappeared with a smug on his face. Something told him that it wasn't the first time that he had met Yukino. They definitely had some history that he didn't know about. Gray punched the ground with his hand, as he let out a cuss from his mouth.

"You do know that rest is a very important part of your training right?"

Gray glanced in the direction from which the voice came. A silver haired boy stood there, holding a ball in one of his hands. He had a white jersey on which said 'Wonder Boy' in bright red. He let the ball fall and began to bump it around with his feet and head.

"Well hard work cannot beat talent which already works hard just by sitting around can it?" Gray said between his breaths. The moment Gray said those words, a fire was seen in the eyes of the silver haired boy, but it dissolved before Gray himself could see it. The boy sighed.

"You know that am not a complete idiot right?"

Gray smiled lightly. He can never hide anything from Mikhail. He always read him like an open book.

"Have you fallen for someone?"

Gray went bright red when he heard that. He tried desperately to hide his it but steam was literally coming off his face.

"owo!!!! I had never thought I would live to see the great Gray Fullbuster be such a blushing mess!"

The rate of steam emition increased so much that one could have powered a small town from it.

"Who is that lucky girl? Or perhaps is it a boy?"

"Baka! Shut up before I dig your grave.."

"Eh?? Is it me???"

Gray's face exploded at this point. "WH-What ARE YOU SAYING YOU IDIOT?!?". Mikhail just smiled playfully, "Awww... don't be like that you know we'd make a cute couple" he said while pretending to be bashful. Gray turned into a shade of hot pink at this stage, "OF COURSE NOT YOU IDIOT!!".