Cuore spezzato... (Natsu x Juvia)

Loneliness

"Yo, Luce! Wanna go on a job today?!"

Natsu was so bored. It had been a few days since he had last gone on a job and he wanted to do nothing more than kick a few arses into oblivion and of course, he wanted to do that with the girl he love, Lucy. Hopefully she would say yes because she's so lazy and only usually liked to go on jobs when her rent was due.

"Ah, I'm super sorry Natsu! I've got to meet with someone tonight so I can't go on a job today, maybe tomorrow?"

That was the line lately. If she didn't need to pay her rent, she would turn Natsu down with an excuse. At least when she was being lazy about not wanting to go on a job, it was genuinely because she was lazy and never came up with an excuse for it. Now, she was always dismissing Natsu and she never saw how it was always affecting him.

"Oh yeah, sure! We can always do tomorrow!"

And then tomorrow will never come. "Of course you're busy...busy with the icicle."

Natsu breathed in deep and heaved a sigh, wondering what he had done to his team to piss them all off that they wouldn't even want to hang out with him anymore. He just didn't get it. He could hear Gray and Lucy chattering away and giggling at something, but he wasn't really focusing on what they were saying. They just left him out of stuff and he couldn't quite understand why. Erza was becoming more and more strict with him and he didn't get why either. Hell, he couldn't even talk to Happy anymore because the exceed had gone and moved in with Lucy and even started getting a whole lot closer with Carla.

He rubbed at his face, suddenly feeling tired. He wasn't as bubbly, as cheerful and his fire wasn't as hot anymore. He hated it. Nobody didn't really notice anything when he put on that huge fake smile, no one thought that anything would ever be able to bring Natsu down because hell, he's Natsu Dragneel. Nobody ever understood.

Meanwhile, before Lucy had gone over to Gray, Juvia had approached him first. She felt her heart speed up when she saw him and she found it very difficult to keep her cool around him. Her hands were clutched together as she pushed away her swooning nature in order to ask him the most important question of the day.

"Gray-sama, would you like to-"

"No."

She frowned a little bit before putting another smile on her face. Maybe he was just playing hard to get right now. Yeah, that's it.

"B-but Juvia didn't even get to finish.."

"You didn't have to. I know you were going to ask me out, making my answer be 'no.' Not now, not next week, not next month, not ever."

Juvia bit her lip, her heart in pain. She thought that their friendship had been progressing well, but as of late, Gray was treating her colder than his ice will ever be. He barely let her finish speaking and it was nothing but harsh rejections tumbling from his lips. It took all of Juvia's being not to cry in front of him.

"Juvia wasn't going to ask Gray-sama on a date, just to do a job, but okay. Juvia gets it either way."

Honestly, this time she wasn't even asking to go on a date with him, just a job. Their magic worked really well together and their unison raid was strong. She had thought that working with him would make the job simple and quick, but also get some big bucks out of it. Of course, hanging out with him on the job was an extreme bonus.

She quickly turned away, wondering what she had actually done to deserve the harsh treatment he had been giving her lately. She turned back around and saw that Lucy had joined him at the table and they were yapping away and laughing. Honestly, Juvia had never seen Gray look so happy in her life and that made her turn her head away with a sigh. It was a shame, nobody ever noticed her sigh.