The Struggle to Let Oneself Love Another

Chapter 3

The next day Natsu was making his way towards the guild hall when he noticed that Juvia was waiting outside under one of the trees. When she noticed him staring at her it surprised her and she quickly looked away before he could see the heavy blush on her face. He decided to go and talk to her to see if she was alright. 

"Hi Juvia how are you feeling?"

"He.. Hello Natsu, Juvia is fine how are your arms?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Don't worry about it I'm fine I tend to recover pretty quick so this morning I took off the bandages and they were good as new."

"Juvia is glad to hear it. Also she would like to return this to you."

She pulled out Natsu's neatly folded scarf and held it out to him with both arms. Too shy and flustered she looked away and avoided making eye contact with a slight smile on her face. Natsu noticed this and smiled himself as he gladly took his scarf back. 

"Thanks Juvia. Hey do you wanna go hang out in the guild hall maybe look for a potential job we could do?" 

"Well actually Juvia has something else she would like to give you?"

She quickly pulled out a box and with shivering arms said...

"Uh... um I made you some food I thought you would enjoy that I made this morning it's still warm if you would prefer to eat it now." 

"Wow really thanks I'm actually really hungry since I didn't eat any dinner yesterday. Hey would you mind eating it with me I would feel bad if I ate the whole thing in front of you."  

"Yes, Juvia would love to eat with you." 

They both sat shoulder to shoulder in the shade under the tree eating the food Juvia had cooked.  

"You can have the rest Natsu, Juvia is full."

"Okay cool I'll eat the rest then"

While Natsu was busy stuffing his face Juvia noticed that Natsu's left arm was resting against his left knee which was pretty close to her right knee. She looked at her right hand and with a nervous blush on her face slowly moved her hand towards his. 

"Come on Juvia you can do it, he already knows how you feel about him. It would be okay if you hold his hand. People who like each other do it all the time. Right? Yes of course it is."  

The closer her hand got to his the redder her face got until finally she placed her hand on top of his. Natsu continued to stuff his face as if nothing has changed which made Juvia a bit sad. She was happy that he didn't move his hand away from under hers, but she wished he would meet her half way and hold her hand instead of just letting her rest her hand on top of his. 

With her smile gone she lightly started to retract her hand before Natsu grabbed her hand placed it on his left knee and rested his hand on top of hers. This gesture brought tears of joy to her eyes and with out thinking Juvia rested her head on his shoulder. 

After a minute Natsu finally finished all his food and looked at Juvia. 

"That was really delicious Juvia thanks for making the food. Although it could have used some fire then it would be perfect. Maybe next time I could cook something for you to eat?"

"Juvia is glad you liked it Natsu. And she would gladly eat anything you would cook for her." 

"Hey Juvia would you mind coming with me to show you something?"

"Okay is it far from here?" 

He pointed to the top of a nearby mountain 

"It's up there I think you'll like it."

It took them about 25 minutes to get to the top. Juvia noticed that there was a rather large statue about 20 feet from the edge of the mountain top. They walked to the front of the statue and looked at it from the front. She noticed that the engraving on the statue was unreadable but then her focus moved to the upper half of the statue. 

"Natsu, why is there a statue of a young girl here? Who is she?"  

"Oh this is a memorial statue for one of the original founders of Fairy Tail. Her name is Mavis. But this isn't what I wanted to show you. Look at the view behind us. You can see the entire guild and the surrounding landscape it's a pretty great view don't you think Juvia?" 

"It is, Juvia thinks everything looks so beautiful from up here. Hey Natsu how did you discover this place?"

"I can't really remember I used to come up here all the time when I was a kid and I would just stare out into the distance and I guess sometimes I would hope that I don't know... maybe sometimes I would hope that one day I would get to see Igneel soar through the sky again. But I never did."

By this point Natsu's smile was gone which did not go unnoticed by Juvia. She grabbed his hand to get his attention and when their eyes met she gave him the warmest smile Natsu had ever received he smiled back. She took it a step further and took Natsu into her arms and embraced him. Natsu himself returned the gesture and placed his arms around her. 

They looked at each other but neither of them said a word, however their eyes were saying a thousand words a second. As there heads moved closer together and their eyes slowly closed their lips met for the first time after admitting their love for each other. Both sides were putting a lot of passion behind their kiss. However, Juvia was clearly dominating and leading the kiss. Natsu realized how much nicer it was to be kissed by Juvia without having to go through a beating. They broke the kiss for air and Natsu said...

"I love you Juvia."

"I love you to Natsu."

He noticed that Juvia didn't speak in the third person. He didn't know why but it made him feel better. 

They sat next to each other and talked for a long time. Natsu told her about how he would train with Igneel and about how he joined Fairy Tail. While on the other side Juvia talked to him about her interests and her childhood. 

As they talked the day away Juvia knew that she would have to tell him eventually. She felt a lump in her stomach and could feel tears running down her face. She turned to face Natsu and on the verge of crying Juvia said... 

"Natsu I'm sorry for what I did to you."