She's In Your Court

Chapter 10: I've Got a Crush on You

I've been stung
All this chemistry has got me falling
I'll be alright
I'm definitely high

Juvia dashed to the living room. Alas, it was too late. The can of worms had been opened. There was no escaping now.

Juvia caught his father seated in the middle of the living room, an open album spread over his lap and a curious Gray leering over him. Gray hanged on Julian's every word; his midnight eyes glued on the pages of a photo album. Times like this that Juvia wished she was an athlete rather than a dancer. The resentful ballerina dropped down the couch next to Gray, accepting her fate. She just wished it wasn't 'the album' every girlfriend prayed would never see the light of day.

"Here's my little girl in her first pink tutu. She was four and she never took it off." Julian beamed. "Here she is in her first recital; she played the young snow white, my little princess."

The doting father pointed at each photo as he recounted the momentous events in Juvia's growing years. He glanced at her with pride and love every now and then. Juvia received her father's gazes with a smile. Yet, the ballerina was on guard. At the back of her mind, the nervous girlfriend wished nothing embarrassing would come out of the album.

"Oh."

But fate was a mischievous one. As Juvia's luck would have it, a single photo fell out of the album when Julian flipped the page.

"How did it get here?"

That rhetorical question never meant any good for any one. Girlfriend instinct forced Juvia to grab the polaroid, beating Gray to it, before the man had a good look at baby Juvia naked in the tub.

Why do baby pictures always have to be them butt-naked?

"I'll take that." Juvia ran out of places to hide the photo and decided to keep it inside her brassiere. For sure, no one would dare look in there.

"Hey, I wanted to see that." Gray protested.

The moment the words escaped his lips, Gray realized the possible confusion that his statement may bring. Before they eventually make him lose his standing as Juvia's favorite boyfriend, he quickly turned to Juvia's father to clear things up. "I meant the photo, Sir. Not... not your daughter's... braHey how about this one?"

Gray hurriedly flipped the album to the next page before the now suspecting father held him accountable. His fingers slowed down and ultimately stopped at a single page. Something else caught his attention. Words failed him, his breath hitched in his throat. The corner of his mouth turned up to the slightest degree which did not escape Julian's studying eyes.

"That's Juvia in her Fairy Tail jersey."

"Wow." Gray said breathlessly staring intently at the photo. He memorized the photo with a gleam of awe in his eyes.

"I have no place in Ballet." The older man felt the need to get into detail. "She probably felt bad for me. So, Juvia came with me for every Fairy Tail Game, even though she hated it."

"I didn't hate it, dad." Juvia gently corrected.

Gray turned to the woman who apparently shared his love for basketball – proud and beaming and happiness written all over his foolish smile.

"I didn't know you liked basketball."

The affection in his eyes was met with recognition. Juvia wasn't trying to hide it or anything. There was just one little detail she would like to keep to herself – take to her grave if she could. If Juvia started talking about her like of basketball...