The Struggle to Let Oneself Love Another

Chapter 9

Gray was walking towards the guild hall while he was in deep thought. He was remembering what Erza had told him during the great magic games. About how he should take her feelings more seriously. He had finally made up his mind... he would accept her feelings towards him and return them to her as well. "I can't just tell her that I love her now, first I need to apologize to her for keeping her waiting and for the way I treated her. She deserves better than that." When he arrived at Fairy Tail, Gray looked around for the beautiful wizard, and saw her talking to Lucy and Levy. With a slight smile he started to walk towards them, focusing his eyes on Juvia. Then he felt something he hadn't felt before, he couldn't describe it. He started to breath heavily and he could feel himself blushing. It got worse the closer he got to her. His heart was pounding and he started to feel nervous. His pace slowed the closer he got to her. Eventually he was just standing there staring at Juvia. "What's going on? Why can't I bring myself to tell her my feelings? I ... I need to go collect my thoughts." Then Gray quickly turned around and ran out of the guild hall. But not before someone noticed him.
...
He stopped running after a couple of minutes. He found a place under a tree to sit down for a while. "I guess now that I've acknowledged my true feelings for Juvia, my emotions are having a hard time keeping up or something. If I can't learn to control this, how am I going to be able to talk to her?"
"Gray what are you doing here by yourself is everything ok?" He was caught off guard when he heard the voice of the celestial wizard Lucy but then slowly started to relax again. She sat down next to him and gave him a worried expression. "It's nothing Lucy I'm just thinking about some stuff." 
"Is it about Juvia, Gray?" His eyes went wider for a second, then he had a slight smile. "Is it really that obvious?"
"Well no not really but I saw you back in the guild hall. You looked like you were going to walk towards us, until you totally freaked out and ran away haha." "Lucy" his serious tone caught Lucy off guard and she immediately stopped laughing at him. "Lucy.. I think I'm in love with Juvia, but I can't bring myself to tell her for some reason." She didn't say anything she just stood up and grabbed Gray's hand. Then she dragged the sad ice mage to her apartment.
...
"Lucy can you tell me again why you dragged me here?"
"Because I'm going to help you build up the courage to tell Juvia how you truly feel about her."
"Exactly how are you going to help me?"
"Well I noticed that you got nervous the closer you got to Juvia, so I'm going to have Gemini change into Juvia. That way you can practice as much as you need to." After summoning Gemini Lucy had them turn into Juvia. Which made Gray feel anxious. He knew that it wasn't the real Juvia, but because it looked and sounded just like her, he couldn't help but blush. "Now go and confess your feelings to Gemini.. Uh I mean Juvia." Lucy was pushing against Gray's back to force him to get close to the fake Juvia. "Come on Gray, don't back out of this now! I just have to practice what I'm going to say to the real Juvia on Gemini." While waiting for Gray to start Gemini had a mischievous grin on there faces. Then Gray finally started by saying,"Juvia I love you."
"Oh Gray, Juvia has been waiting so long to hear her precious Gray say that to her!" While saying this Gemini had grabbed Gray's head and forcibly placed it on the center of Juvia's chest. He tried to escape her grip but the surprise of it all caught him off guard. He was blushing heavily and forget what he was going continue saying.
"Gemini your not helping anybody by doing that!" The angry expression on Lucy's face convinced Gemini to
release there grip on Gray. They turned back to there actual form and told her, "We were just having fun."
"Yeah we were bored so we decided to mess around"
"Well you two didn't help Gray at all." The three of them then looked at Gray who was on the floor passed out. The whole ordeal was a bit to much for him. She then made Gemini go back to the celestial world, and placed the passed out ice wizard on her bed. It was night time but the shine of the moon came in through the window. Lucy started to make a bed out of blankets on the floor when she stopped to stare at Gray's face. She had never really noticed how cute he looked when he was sleeping before. The more she stared at him the redder her face got. Eventually she realized what was happening and quickly returned to making the bed. "What was I doing just now? I can't become distracted like that towards Gray. He has finally realized his true feelings for Juvia and I shouldn't get in the way. I should only help Gray confess his feelings and put mine aside." Then Lucy started to hear Gray mumble in his sleep. She couldn't hear what he was saying so she got closer. "Gray did you say something?"
"... Juvia...I... love..."
A slight smile but with sad eyes was on Lucy's face by this point."I guess he does love her..." While asleep Gray unconsciously moved his hand and gently caressed Lucy's left cheek. She slightly flinched when his hand made contact with her face but decided to let him continue. She could feel the warmth from his hand seep into her face. She felt so peaceful and relaxed. That when Gray started to mumble again it caught her by surprise. "Juvia come closer please..." Lucy responded by getting closer and whispering,"This is Lucy what do you..." Her sentence was interrupted as soon as her lips were unexpectedly met with his. His eyes were closed, while hers were wide open. The kiss lasted for about 5 seconds before Gray returned to being fully asleep. In the morning he would have no recollection of what happened after he passed out on the floor, earlier. However, Lucy would not only remember what happened but also what she felt during and after the sudden kiss. She knew that he wouldn't remember any of this tomorrow, which made her feel sad. She was determined to help Gray and Juvia find love, but now she wasn't so sure...