AN: Here we go! Last chapter! Thanks for reading this crazy story LOL
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Dragon Heart
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The next day, Gray woke up early with his father shaking him to remind him of the meeting and it took him a moment to remember how important that day was. He was going to talk to the council before things got too out of hand and he was finally going to propose to Juvia.
Silver left to the Great Hall, leaving his son to prepare himself and Gray sat on his bed and looked towards his window and saw it get opened from outside by Avalanche, who gave him a dragon-version of a smile. The dragon was large enough to peek to the second-floor of his house. "Good morning to you too, Avalanche. Got a good night's sleep?" The dragon made an agreeable sound. "Good, we have a long day ahead of us. At least, I do, you will probably just laze around and eat fish." Avalanche snorted in annoyance and Gray chuckled. "Sorry, sorry."
Gray got up and stretched his muscles and looked for his shirt. "You know, if Juvia and I are getting married, we will need to move from here. I doubt my dad – or we – will be much comfortable here." He put his dark gray shirt on. "We could probably move to her house for a while but it's already small for just her as it is, imagine both of us and two dragons?" He found his pants and yawned while putting them. "My dad will probably want to build us a bigger, better house." He glanced at Avalanche, whose head was tilted, as if in question. "He'll want us to… have hatchlings soon." Ava cooed happily and Gray groaned. "Oh, not you too." He rolled his eyes. "Just because you go to get busy every year in Snoggletog, doesn't mean we want a clutch of babies every year."
Avalanche rolled his own eyes and grumbled as if to say 'stupid human doesn't understand life cycle'.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm the moron." Gray stomach grumbled, and he finally stood after putting his boots and he went through his chest of clothes to find the necklace he bought for Juvia all those months ago and put it on his pocket. "Come on, Avalanche. I hope dad didn't take everything he bought from Juvia to the Great Hall." His stomach grumbled even louder.
Gray went downstairs and found his father had left a small basket with sweet bread and he grabbed two before leaving the house, where Avalanche was already waiting for him.
Since he had been away for so long, he preferred to walk so he could greet people, Avalanche following him and the large dragon would stop from time to time because the berkian children would like to climb on him to slide down on his wing and being very patient, he granted their wishes for a moment while Gray smirked at it – at first sight Avalanche was scary but inside, was a big softie.
Gray entered the Great Hall and saw it was almost empty, safe from the council – at times, the doors were closed to the common people, so they could discuss important things – and Gray gulped. It was time.
"Good morning." He said to the men and women of the council and they all nodded. "Thank you for receiving me."
"Step forward, son." Silver said, using his 'chief voice', as Gray liked to call. Icepick, his father's Deadly Nadder sat behind his human and crooned happily when he saw Gray but then quiet down, knowing when to. "As the Heir of Berk, you asked for this meeting last night as a matter of utter importance."
"I did." Gray cleared his throat. "Since I am the Heir, I know it is my duty to inform the Council when I have decided something that will impact my life and my family line so now I am informing the council whom I am going to marry." Some of them started to whisper amongst themselves and Gray continued to speak. "I will marry Juvia Lockser."
"What?" One of the men said, Nosemole was his name.
"This is unacceptable!" Another replied.
"After the rumors we heard, is this an attempt to restore her honor? Is she with child?" An older woman asked.
"No." Gray answered between his gritted teeth. "I want to marry her because we love each other."
Most of them scoffed. "Love, he says. I have eyes, my boy, she's one of the prettiest girls on the island so I know what your 'love' is." The man had the audacity to wink at Gray, who growled and took a step towards the table at the same time Avalanche bared his teeth towards the man, who shrunk in fear.
"Gray." Silver's voice was firm and brought Gray back from his fury haze.
"It's alright, Avalanche." Gray said over his shoulder and the Stormcutter relaxed just a bit but kept his eyes on the man. The dark-haired Viking cleared his throat and resumed his addressing to the Council. "I have already talked to my father with and he is agreeable with the match."
"Is this true, Silver?" The younger of the two women in the Council asked, curious – Gray was glad she didn't seem outraged like the others.
"It is, Phlegma." The Chief nodded. "Gray had told me of his intentions of marrying the girl a year ago and I gave him my blessing." Silver twisted the truth a little, since all Gray had done was tell his father he didn't need to look for brides for him anymore, but whatever helped the council accept the union was more than valid.
"That was before he was seeing sneaking inside her hut late at night and leaving her hut early in the morning." One of the older men, Sven, said.
"I like the girl, Chief, I really do: her baking is great, she's sweet and kind to everyone. She always helps me with the steps at the main square when she sees me struggling with my staff for balance." Jarl, the oldest of them all, spoke slowly. "All those things are good qualities for a Chief's Wife."
"Elder Jarl, haven't you heard about her being intimate with him before marriage?" Nosemole asked.
Jarl rolled his deep blue eyes. "She was being intimate with him." He pointed at Gray – he felt hopeful, Jarl was one of the most respected elders in Berk and if he were to be on his side… "And he wants to marry her. I do not believe you married a 'maid' yourself, Nosemole." Jarl snorted and the other chuckled when Nosemole's face turned red. "It's not the girl's reputation I am concerned about, especially since it is not a crime and anyone can see she loves the boy more than anything in the world." Jarl said and looked at Gray. "Am I to assume she was a maiden before you took her?"
Gray blushed, but thankfully his father's similar question the night before prepared him for the answer. "Yes, sir. There hasn't been anyone else for the both of us."
"Hm, I see." Jarl nodded. "Taking that out of the way, as I was saying, I like the girl and she would be a good wife for our future chief" Gray's heart leaped inside his chest in hope "but, what advantages does she give to Berk?"
Gray blinked twice, confused. "I'm sorry?"
"She is a nice girl, but she's an orphan without money, land or political ties. An heir should marry to increase the town's wealth and she is just a baker. So tell me, Gray, what advantages does she bring to Berk?"
Taking aback by the question for a moment, Gray took a few seconds to answer the elder. "She is one of the most talented riders at Berk, one of the best and bravest warriors we have. As you said, she is also kind, sweet and willing to help others at the same time she can use a spear to take down an enemy and I have seen her make such stunts in the air during battle you wouldn't believe unless you saw it. You are right, she doesn't have much material things to give; all she can give to Berk is herself and we would be fools not to take it.
"Being Chief isn't easy, I have seen my father do it with and without my mother and I could see how much harder it became after she passed." Gray threw a sad look to his father and received one back. "That's why choosing the right person to share the responsibilities with is so important. Juvia is that person to me, I have learned to count on her, to see her as an extension of myself because of how deeply we care for each other."
Gray saw some of the council members nodding, but others were still skeptical, but he needed to be completely honest, as he was with his father the night before.
"This is just a formality, though. I am notifying you because it is my duty as Heir and it must be done. When the time comes, I will step in and be Chief, but I will do it with her by my side whether we are married or not." There were gasps and whispering around the table.
"Are you going to live in sin, then?" Nosemole asked.
"I am going to live with the woman I chose and who chose me back." Gray's tone was cold. "We will be husband and wife in everything but title and once we say the words to each other, it doesn't matter what you agreed or not, the gods will know and bless us." He raised his chin. "I will recognize all of our children and if you think my bloodline is too scandalous, you can choose one of my cousins' offspring to be Chief after me." Another round of gasps. Everyone knew the Fullbuster had two cousin clans: the Fullers and the Boostars and deciding which would receive the chiefdom would most likely cause a civil war and Gray was counting on it to scare the council enough to agree to the wedding. "Good luck with that, by the way." Gray smirked.
Unexpectedly, Jarl started to laugh. "You are a smart boy, Gray Fullbuster."
"Chief!" Wart exclaimed. "Did you agree with this?"
"I married for love, Wart, and I will not force my son to give up on having the same amazing thing I did because you can only think of strengthening our tribe with money." Silver told the council. "Have any of you thought about making our own people have stronger bonds with the Chief? I know Juvia and during the months she was away alone at Dragon's Edge, every time she came to Berk, she checked on me, she spent time with me, assuring me Gray was fine even though I knew she was as scared as I was about his safety. Even now, he was gone for almost a month and every night she stopped by my house to keep me company for a while. I have seen her play with the children for nothing in return while their parents needed something important done and had no one to supervise their children. I saw her give bread for two weeks to a family whose house burned down because they didn't have anything to eat when she was struggling herself. Seeing that, I knew she was made to be by son's side because I could see how genuine she was."
"All of you tried to marry me off again after I lost Mika and I denied every proposal. I guarantee you, my son is even more stubborn than I am so I really wouldn't test him." Silver smirked. "I already call her daughter and I already consider her part of my family. In my eyes, we couldn't do better regarding a wife for the next Chief." Silver told them.
Jarl chuckled after a moment. "I guess we all know what to do now, huh?" He asked. "All in favor of the union between our Heir and Juvia Lockser, say 'aye'."
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He could marry her! Gray was trying to contain himself, but the knowledge he could actually marry his girlfriend was overwhelming and he was almost skipping his steps, but he had a reputation to maintain so he took a few breaths and calmed himself.
After talking to what seemed like, the whole town of Berk, he finally reached his destinations on the outskirts of town and he could feel the looks of some of his people as he walked towards Juvia's hut, but he didn't care. They would stop talking about it soon anyways.
The smell of baked goods hit him hard and the familiarity of it made Gray's heart leap in anticipation when he heard her talk – probably to Bozu through the window of his stall to the kitchen.
Thor, how times had changed, hadn't it? Their first meeting had been so crazy, who would've thought one day he would be on his way to ask her to marry him.
He approached the door and knocked, hearing her ask for him to wait a second and a few moments later, she opened the door and she cleaned her hands on her apron until she saw who was standing on her doorstep.
"Gray-sama!" She shrieked in excitement and threw herself on him and Gray wrapped his arms around her and smelling her unique scent, calming him when he didn't even know he was antsy. She kissed him on the mouth soundly. "Oh, father said you would have an important council meeting early today, otherwise Juvia would've come to your house. How are you? Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He just agreed and gave her another kiss before Avalanche started to make noises behind them. "Alright you big baby." Gray rolled his eyes but let go of Juvia and the blunette giggled when she stepped outside her hut to pet her boyfriend's dragon.
"Hello, Ava!" Juvia scratched under his chin and the large dragon all but purred. He rubbed his head on Juvia's head, messing her hair up and she just laughed – even Gray smirked at the scene. "Juvia missed you too." Avalanche gurgled happily. "Alright, Bozu's at his stall but you two are too big to fit there, so why don't you two play behind the house?" The Stormcutter practically bounced in excitement and after receiving a nod from Gray, went around the house, to the door of Bozu's pen and the humans could hear excited noises from both dragons; they hadn't seen each other in weeks and missed their friend. "Come inside." Juvia told Gray. "Juvia is finishing a pie."
"Alright." The Heir of Berk agreed and waited until she got inside to get inside and close the door and the moment it was closed, Juvia had him pinned against it, Gray's arms around her, kissing each other deeply, hands roaming anywhere they could possibly go. "Shit, I missed you." Gray whispered, his lips on the side of her neck.
"Me too." Juvia replied, putting her hands on his hair, pulling his head up so they could kiss again. "No more long trips for a while."
"Alright." He agreed easily and kissed her much gentler than before. Even if he wanted to put her over his shoulder and take her to her bed, he ha to settle things with her first. "Juvia…" He said after they stopped kissing. "My father told me what happened while I was gone."
The blunette sighed and shook her head. "Juvia thought he would. She told him he didn't need to buy all my things but he insisted."
"Well, winter is coming."
Juvia shrugged. "Juvia is sure Bozu wouldn't mind if Juvia let him inside so she could cuddle with him during the nights you can't and you know he has been dying to feed me worms, so… if the time comes, Juvia will take on his offer." She joked. "Juvia will be fine."
"But the villagers are talking-"
"Let them." Juvia threw her braid over her shoulder, towards her back. "All they do is talk. A few years ago it would have affected me a lot, but not now. Juvia hasn't done anything wrong and she won't let them make her think she did." The glint of rebellion in her eyes made Gray's heart stop for a while; it made her even more beautiful.
Thorsdamn it, he was a lucky man.
"Marry me." He blurted out and Juvia frowned.
"What?"
His idiot mouth had moved before he could think of the right thing to say to her and now his mind was a scramble of ideas of how to fix it.
"I… asked you to marry me." He repeated, stupidly. "I… The council… They didn't want me to because of what we did but we can get married now." His mind really gave up on him, huh? "No one will care about the rumors anymore."
On retrospect, he could've phrased… the whole thing, better.
"No." She answered him, almost offended.
Even with a lame ass proposal as that one, Gray always thought she would jump on the opportunity to marry him no matter what. "What?"
"No. Juvia isn't going to marry you like this." She pushed him away and he took a step back from her.
"Like what?"
"You are feeling guilty about what people knowing about what we've done. Juvia will not marry you because of it. Juvia won't marry you because you think this is the honorable thing to do. You think my honor will be restored with us getting married." It was the first time since they met he saw her get really annoyed at him.
"Well, yes, but-"
"Juvia's honor is her own and no one but her can take it from me and just because we make love without being married, does not mean my honor is gone. Juvia is still as honorable as before so you don't have to restore anything." Gray groaned with her stubbornness but couldn't really fault her: they were Vikings after all and being stubborn was a big part of it.
Juvia had won him over because of it, he would do the same to her that time.
"Juvia, stop." He raised his voice a little and she stopped talking, huffing in annoyance. "This is going all wrong. Let me start over."
"The answer will be the sa-"
"Let me speak!" Gray rolled his eyes and Juvia crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for him to explain himself. "Thank you. Now, I know the timing is a little off, but this time I couldn't wait any longer." Juvia frowned and he was glad he had her full attention now. He took the necklace from inside his pocket and showed it to her. "I bought this as a betrothal gift almost a year ago, while I was in my mission." Her blue eyes widened with his words. "I knew I wanted to marry you for a long time, Juvia."
"Wha- Why-?"
"When I came back, I didn't want to ask you and let you think I was doing it so you could forgive me for leaving you for six months." Gray explained. "So, I waited and then we were moving back here, settling down again, things were hectic for a while. I finally thought enough time had passed after Natsu and Lucy's wedding but then my father asked me to travel the archipelago and I didn't want to ask you to marry and leave for a month. I promised myself I would do it when I returned."
"But surprise, surprise: everyone seems to be gossiping about us and I knew for certain you would think I was going to do this out of duty. You are not the only one to know a lot about your significant other." He smirked a bit but then it vanish. "I wasn't expecting the 'no', though."
"Uh… sorry?" Juvia asked.
Gray shook his head. "It's fine, it was a crappy way to ask someone to marry them. So I hope to do better this time. He took a deep breath. "Juvia, I know you are the person I want to spend my life with, who I want to be by my side, to be my partner in everything." Juvia was looking at him with wide eyes and he could see her eyes start to shine with tears. "I don't say this enough, but I do love you and that is the reason I am asking so… will you marry me?"
It took her a moment to answer. "This isn't about the people talking about us?"
"No." He shook his head.
"This isn't you trying to make me 'honorable' again?"
"As you said, only you can do that."
"Gray Fullbuster if Juvia finds out in forty years you did this just to ease your conscience, you will be in so much trouble!" She let a few tears fall between her giggles.
"Is that a 'yes'?" Gray smiled, knowing the answer.
"Of course it's a yes!" The blunette pulled him for a hug and a kiss. "Yes." Kiss. "Yes." Kiss. "Yes." Kiss. "And yes! How could Juvia say 'no'?"
"Well, you did say 'no' earlier." Gray pointed out.
"Doesn't count." She told him gleefully and kissed him again and Gray held her as close as he could. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." He whispered, knowing he needed to learn to say it more often. Gray got the necklace and put it over her head, the pendant with a dragon and a raindrop on it and she looked at it with wonder.
"It's beautiful." She whispered and pulled him for another kiss. "Can we please get married right now?"
Gray actually laughed out loud at her question. "Actually, my father and the Council decided to wait until after winter, so we can celebrate spring, the wedding and get the invitations to the other clans to come – sadly, I am the Heir and this will be a huge thing. Unless you get pregnant, that would expedite things; trust me." He snorted. "But if you want, we can say the words right here, right now so we can be married under the gods' eyes."
Juvia was surprised to hear him speak so freely of it and with such certainty. "Would you do that?"
Gray sighed. "Juvia, I just fought the Council of Berk to marry you and told them I'd live with you even without their approval. I am very committed to this."
"You did what?"
"That pie you mentioned before, is it in the oven yet?" Juvia shook her head, still in disbelief. "Good. Let's go to your room, say the damn words and consummate it so the Council can't change their minds. I'll fill you in what happened, then."
When she hesitated, Gray hoisted her up from the floor and put her on his shoulder, earning a fit of giggles from his soon-to-be-wife and he smiled as well. He was exactly where he meant to be.
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The End
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AN: Yay, another story finished! I hope this was a good story with a good end. I hope I didn't disappoint with the Council meeting or the proposal! Thanks for reading and the support!
Thanks to: Snavej, mdmpinkie9088, Martygruvialover, ILoveSxS, fyriagita, TheUniqueFangirl, SrijitaTomlinson, earthstar001, Juvia is my spirit animaland Guest, who reviewed last chapter! Thank you!
06/01/2018 ~ BonneyQ