* Soulmate AU
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s e c o n d c h a n c e s | 1 2
The wallowfull feeling that submerged Juvia as she stared at the cloud tattoo on her arm was as painful as being shot right in her heart with a giant needle. She took the bar soap once more, and went back down to scrub at the already inflamed skin. No matter how many times she rubbed, the gray cloud tattoo wouldn't disappear.
Soulmates were essential to life in Phantom Lord. If you didn't have a soulmate, you were nothing. Especially, women. At the age of eighteen, they were all expected to have or know of their soulmate.
By the age of eighteen, everyone should've encountered their soulmate. They were destiny's laws and they couldn't be broken. Still, if either one of the soulmates didn't want the other one, they could easily reject them. When soulmates meet, their tattoos glow and come together to form a perfect image, but when they break that bond, their tattoos stop glowing and simply become wasted ink on skin. It wasn't something that happened often, but if it ever did, women were the one to blame, and men were seen as the poor victim that wasn't matched with the perfect partner. There were no second chances.
That's how Juvia found her eighteen year old self scrubbing her skin until it was bleeding. A dull and opaque cloud tattoo would never gain her respect. She would be the laughing stock of the town. If only Bora—
"Stop it," she muttered to herself as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Juvia won't be weak. She won't let herself be made a ridicule anymore!"
Juvia scrubbed until her skin bled, but she gritted her teeth and set a mindset to never fall in love—to never care for another being ever again. That was, until she met Gray Fullbuster.
He rescued her from a dark abyss she'd hidden herself in. He'd showed her the sun and the many possibilities of being part of a real family like Fairy Tail was. For the first time in her life, she wasn't tugging her sleeves down every few seconds to hide away the lifeless black ink. She wasn't looking over her shoulder worried that someone could attack her for being an incomplete half. She could smile freely, laugh and even cry without being judged.
Before she knew it, her heart would beat faster whenever she saw Gray walk into the guild, when he would call out her name, or simply stand beside her. At first, she was infatuated with the man, but when she told him about her soulmate, everything changed.
"Gray-sama," she said softly. They were sitting on a bench overlooking a creek after a mission. Caramel Franks on each of their hands. "Why do you think we need soulmates?"
He'd stopped chewing as he processed her question. His hair was rustling in the autumn wind and his obsidian eyes were looking at her with a new intensity she'd never seen before. "Are you asking because of your soulmate?"
Juvia lowered her eyes. "Juvia's soulmate rejected her almost five years ago, and ever since then, she's felt a void in her chest. She's tried, but nothing call fill it."
Gray sighed as he scratched the back of his head. "I understand what you mean," he glanced at her and seemed to make a quick decision. He pulled the sleeve of his dark jacket up; there, on the base of his forearm were three snowflakes—but they were colorless and the ink looked old.
Juvia gasped and looked back up at Gray. "Gray-sama, your..."
He gave her a wry smile. "Yeah, my soulmate rejected me." He looked up at the soft orange, and purplish sky. "I was sixteen when I met her. We were both young, but even then, I knew we weren't meant to be. I really tried, don't get me wrong, but I knew she wasn't the one for me. It was a matter of time before we both decided to call it off. It was a mutual agreement. It's been almost a decade, but I still feel that emptiness in me."
"But why?" Juvia cried, not being able to understand. "Why would you want to willingly leave your soulmate?"
Gray looked at her. "Because I didn't love her, and she didn't love me."
"But now Gray-sama will be alone," Juvia felt her eyes grow misty. She pulled her own sleeve back and showed him her lifeless cloud. "This is a reminder that Juvia will always be alone and that no one ever wanted her. There are no second chances."
"I'm not alone," Gray surprised her when he grabbed her arm and placed it beside his. Both their tattoos were on either side of each other, by nothing happened. "I have the guild, my dad, and I have you." He looked at her. "If it consoles you, we can both be alone together. But we're teammates, but most of all, we were people that got rejected by our soulmates. So, I guess you and I our own special group of people, huh?"
Juvia's eyes widened at his words. "Gray-sama and Juvia?"
Gray laughed. "Don't be getting the wrong idea. I'm just saying that when you're feeling like you're alone, I don't mind listening to your troubles." He sighed. "Our soulmates don't define us, what we do with or without a soulmate is. So, don't be thinking too hard about it. Sometimes life gives you second chances without you noticing." Gray stood from the bench, separating their arms.
"We should go," he continued. "It's getting late."
Juvia watched him start walking down the path, only to stop a few feet ahead to wait for her. Before, she thought she'd just been infatuated with him, but the way her heart beated when she saw his retreating figure, and the way her cheeks flushed when she thought about him, she realized she was in love with him.
When did it happen? She wasn't sure. All she knew, was that as she got up and went to pull down her sleeve, for a split second, she saw her tattoo come to life and shine brighter than it had ever done before, even when she'd met Bora. Her eyes widened, but it was gone when she blinked.
"Hurry up," Gray called out to her. "The others are waiting for us."
Juvia looked at him. He was waving a hand at her. Even though his face showed annoyance, she could see the softness in it. Y/N clutched her arm. She ran to him.
Maybe second chances really did exist.
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