N/A: Why, yes, I'm getting ahead but who the fuck cares? This was suposed to be a drabble but evolved into this, a wonder that I'll never be able to answer. It isn't really good, but I hope that you can enjoy it anyway.

Enjoy!

Warning: Set after chapter 416. Some fluff, some thoughtlessness and some M scenes (very light!).

Summary: She would follow him to the end of the world and he doesn't want to stop her.

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me. All propety of Hiro Masima.

Far Away from Home

Juvia tugs her lower lip out, cheeks round and a frown covering her features. He watches unaltered, a scowl of his own forming to match her. He is not giving in this time, even with all the pouts and whimpers and pleas she is going to use on him. He is not. Gray has made his mind.

"No," he rebukes. "This is my problem. I'm going alone."

"Juvia is going with you," she answers back, hands writhing in front of her. The traveling pack is next to her, too.

Gray's frown darkens. She was so damn stubborn. She could stay behind with Cana or the others and try to make something out of the rumbles that was once known as Magnolia. She knows and he knows that she longs to stay close to home with their friends, and not far away with him in a training trip or whatever that gods only knew how long it would take.

But she doesn't. Instead, she gets a hold of his hands and looks at him square in the eye.

"Gray-sama needs Juvia," she says slowly, voice low with a conviction that pulls him to her, "and she isn't leaving Gray-sama's side. Not now."

And isn't that the truth? Juvia smiles at him, her hands warm between his. The weight of his backpack is heavy, the dust that has yet to settle on the destroyed town itches and the look Juvia is giving him makes Gray yield.

He sighs, shoulders shagging in defeat, and lets a smirk show before switching to the impassive expression he always wears.

"Alright, but this is for training," the ice-mage comments. Then, he remarks again, "Training only."

"Juvia understands."

She doesn't, he knows. But it's too much of a hassle to makes his point clear, so he shrugs and waits for her while she picks up her belongings. It was only meant to reassure himself, anyway.

When she falls at his side with the unknown in front and a gone guild behind, Juvia interlaces her hands with his and doesn't let go.

It's as a good start as any as far as Gray is concerned.

.

They decide to go to the North. Once, long ago, Ur told him everything about creatures and monster that were as big as houses and more dangerous than anything else. Resilient to all the elements and equipped with claws and fangs that could tear metal apart like butter. They live in the mountain range that divided the countries of Seven and Iceberg and away from Fiore, she said, an unpopulated area because of the cold.

It's perfect for him.

Juvia screams, blasting a jet of boiling water to the wild animal in front of them. It doesn't affect it at all, but the moment gives him the necessary time to enclose it into a cage of ice. Then, it's Juvia's work to drown the beast with a water lock. Those fucking animals were harder to kill than he thought they would be.

Then again, that was what he has asked for.

He leans over the immobile figure, mussing if its fur would have any value for when they climb down to the nearest town for supplies. Juvia is trembling next to him, bracing her winter cloths close to her body while steam comes out of her ears. He frowns.

"Are you using your magic to keep warm?" he questions, hands falling at his sides.

He watches as the water mage blushes, a guilty look reflecting in her face and the steam stops coming from her. He sighs, remorse revolving in the pitch of his stomach. He should have noticed earlier; not everyone is as resilient as he is in the coldness of the high mountains.

"You shoulda say so, dammit," he chastises, his own jacket falling from his form. "Let's find somewhere safe to pass the night."

The ice mage envelops Juvia with the jacket, fingers lingering in her shoulders before he spins around in the opposite direction to search for a place to settle down –without paying attention, or trying not to, to the new steam line exiting the girl.

They are only one month in and he already can feel time slithering between their fingers.

.

The town is a little one, the architecture way different from what they were acquainted with from Fiore. The inhabitants are amicable enough, although they are wary of them when they appear climbing down from the fearsome mountains the first few times.

The language is different, too; but, surprisingly, Juvia shows some level of knowledge with it. Nonetheless, Gray is a bit surprised the first time Juvia cuts in a 'conversation' with one of the traders at the market, trying to speed up the process.

With a pocket full of gold coins, new information to store and wide eyes, Gray looks at her companion in confusion.

"How?" She ducks her head low, strands of her blue hair hiding her, hands behind, and doesn't dare to gaze at him.

"In the orphanage," she starts softly, "there was one caretaker from around here. She thought us a bit. Although Juvia doesn't remember much."

He nods, eyes ahead once again. His nose is wrinkled in thought and when he turns to her, a question in the tip of his tongue that he will never remember again, he discovers that she still holds her head downcast. Gray purses his mouth into a thin line.

"Uh, that's incredible," the ice-mage mentions, attaining her sole focus. "I remember nothing 'bout when I was kid, much less a language. So…"

She smiles candidly. She is in the way to say something as an answer when suddenly, two old women at the side of the street mutter in their direction, snickering between their breaths. At that, Juvia goes really still and really red.

Gray scowls, eyes darting to the grandmas and then back to her.

"What?"

"Th-they asked if Gray-sama is Juvia's boyfriend!" Juvia squeals, red face, hands flying around and hopping lightly.

He watches as Juvia babbles endlessly, first in one language attempting to get an answer out of him and the next answering the old ladies with exaggerate gesticulation, shaking her head vigorously. She looks at him with eyes like a deer and a pink flush dyeing her skin.

"Oh," Gray utters. At the back of his mind, he considers that he should freak out, but he really doesn't feel like doing it. He sighs. "Well, let's go."

.

"Dad was the one who told me to destroy END," Gray whispers in the darkness of their tent. "Before he died." Again.

Juvia shifts, legs and arms slipping securely around his body. He doesn't complain this time. The nights are freezing, which makes any source of warm welcome. And Juvia is in more need than him with her water body and his resistance to the cold and the snow.

So when she tucks her head just under his chin, he lets her, only moving slightly to change to a more comfortable position. She blinks sleepily, taking the information slowly with the slightest twist of her brows and her nose red.

"Why?"

"Dunno," he shrugs. There are some grunts and strange noises outside, far enough not to worry. "But I'd be very angry if a dammed book fucked with my life like that, too."

The tent shakes with the howling of the wind even though they are inside a cave and Gray bristles, wondering if their shelter will make through the windy night. Juvia tightens her hold on him while he envelops their bodies with blankets.

There is silence, besides all the unnatural sounds that may be getting closer to them, and he thinks that Juvia has fallen asleep when there is no answer. He sighs, one hand around her stomach and the other playing with the loose threads of one blanket.

Suddenly, the water woman stiffs, nose caressing against his chest.

"Juvia wants to help," she mumbles.

Gray smirks at her serious tone that's laced with drowsiness and tiredness.

"Already doing that."

.

They spar, sometimes, when the surroundings are clear of beasts and monsters and the day is sunny. Even if the harsh location and harsher things lurking in it are good to improve their strength, there is a thrill only visible fighting another mage.

Juvia swiftly moves through the thick layers of snow, spurts of water shooting from her hands and Gray retaliates with spears made out of ice and giant shields that go through her watery form with ease. He does his best to get a chance on a close-range combat.

There is a fleeting moment where he manages to freeze her left arm, but she swings her other one with a powerful blast of boiling water that pushes him backwards. Gray lands into the snow covered ground with a loud thud.

In a blink of an eye Juvia's face hovers above his, contorted into something akin to suffering. He swats the dizziness from the fall with a shake and focus his attention into the woman who seems ready to have a panic attack.

"Gray-sama!" She wails. "Juvia's so sorry!"

It takes a moment to understand that she is in the verge of tears, an action that isn't good at all. So he pulls out his best reassuring smile, which trembles a bit in the corner, while cupping her face from his position upside-down and does the best not to panic for the imminent catastrophe by her hands.

"I'm okay, Juvia. Jeez, fuck, don't cry! See? I'm well! This was going to happen anyway. We're training."

.

He has gone mad, Gray decides. He has to be, because there is no other explanation.

After the exhausting week trapped in the dammed cave for the torrents of rain pouring down, absolutely isolated and with Juvia as the only companion, something has to go down.

In this case, it's his sanity.

Everything has been going as usual. They were talking, as they had been doing for the rest of the week with nothing else to do. They spoke about home and their friends and what they would tomorrow since the provisions were low and what if Fairy Tail would assemble again, if ever. There had been mentions of Zeref and END and his father; the weather and the cold and Acnologia and she has stayed so damn close to him like she has come to do lately.

And the next thing he knows Juvia is on his lap, her hands around his neck and they are kissing. She tastes good and she is fucking warm even with the freezing temperatures and the dampness thanks to the endless rain. She moans a word that sound really close to his name and his brain kicks into action again.

Before this, what were they talking about? Silver and the future and something about how she loved him, right? And what has he said? Something like– like… fuck, fuck, fuck.

Juvia grinds against him, he hisses a curse and absently takes note that one hand is tugging her thick, annoying, stupid dress down and the other is fondling with her chest while he occupies himself kissing her throat.

She moans a giggle, a hand soothing along his cheek, taking his mind away from the very important task.

"Training only, Gray-sama?" she asks.

He blinks stupidly, mouth hanging open at the cheeky tug on her lips. He can hear the drip-drop outside the cave when it hits him.

"Yeah," he groans. "Yeah, training only."

He seals the deal with a kiss. Juvia laughs.

.

It's three quarters of a year into the training trip when homesickness starts to show its head. They had been able to quell it sharing stories of their friends when the silence has turned to heavy for them, but as time slowly passes, the longing to see Natsu and Lucy and Gajeel and Erza and Wendy and Cana grows steadily.

She strolls with him along one of the most dangerous sides of the mountain. They are searching for some monster that has been terrorizing the village they go for supplies. It's not a task that really worries them, they have stopped struggling with the nature there since long ago, only a few real challenges appearing here and there.

"Juvia misses the guild," she mutters suddenly, looking somewhere far, far from where they are. "She'd want to meet them again."

"I know." He does too.

Gray fumbles with his fingers that are safely tugged in her smaller ones. There are still moments like this when he is not sure what to do. Everything is confusing then. But her warm is addicting, and before he can even think what he is about to do, he has done it.

He pulls her closer, his hold in her clenching lightly, and kisses her in the time that she blinks in surprise at him.

"Just wait a bit more. A couple of months," he says, smiling calmly. "Then we're off."

Those words make wonders, it seems, because Juvia is smiling with him and nods eagerly. He is glad. With a newfound boldness –not like she was lacking it before– Juvia curls her arms around him, dragging him with her.

.

At the beginning of a new day, they walk down the path to the nearest train station. The cold has been left behind in the mountains, they feel more powerful magic surging through their veins, and even though it has almost been a year, they take their time wandering around to the path that will lead them back to the beginning.

Meanwhile, all the way back, Juvia grins like some sort of madman. It's not like it really matters, he has always known that she is crazy, but there is something behind this smirk and so, he asks.

He shouldn't have.

"Juvia can't wait to tell the others."

A glance to their joined hands is all Gray needs to understand what she is referring to, and he almost screams in frustration. He resolves to only frown and mumble under his breath, a blush taking over his nose and ears.

Whatever that will happen when they arrive Magnolia –congratulations and lewd jokes and many threats from some–, will happen, he decides.

And they go back to home as they have come.