Unwavering Acceptance
by Contrail

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and is being used without permission. No profit is being made from this story.

Gray didn't regret what he had done. If he hadn't managed to absorb part of Mard's curse, both he and Natsu would have died. Still, he hated seeing the parts of himself that had been changed by it, a reminder that he'd partially become like the monster that had killed his parents. He took to wearing a glove on his left hand, and his hands stopped mindlessly removing his clothing. Even his subconscious didn't want others to look on his altered form. There was nothing to be done about his face, however, and he started to make a habit of looking into mirrors as little as possible.

Wherever he went, he could feel the weight of people's stares on him. He wasn't sure which was worse, the ones who stared or the ones who carefully avoided looking at that side of his face. Even in the guild, it took time for the others to look at him normally instead of having to keep their eyes from drifting towards his left. His guildmates were giving him more space than usual as well, something he couldn't blame them for. He knew the whole situation was making his temper shorter than normal.

Of them all, Juvia was the one that was treating him most normally. After her initial examination of the damage, done with quiet concern, she seemed to quickly adjust to his new visage. While she did her best not to aggravate his temper (but then she usually tried to be sensitive to his moods), otherwise she was her usual wildly imaginative and overly affectionate self around him. It baffled him how she could act like he hadn't changed at all. How could her feelings not have changed with what he had become? She probably just wanted to spare his by acting as she always had. She couldn't still love him now that he looked like this. She couldn't.

Which why when she intercepted him one morning a short distance from the guild, a basket of (delicious looking) cookies in her hands and a cheerful smile on her face, he couldn't take it anymore. With a ferocious scowl on his face, he shoved the offered cookies away from him, accidentally knocking them out of her hands and onto the ground. "Would you just quit it, Juvia?!"

She stared at him in shock at his outburst for a moment, before looking down and clutching her hands together. "Juvia doesn't understand. What is it that Gray-sama wants her to quit doing?" she asked quietly.

"This!" he declared, waving his hand at her and the basket of treats that was now resting by her feet. "This whole… act of yours." Gray looked away from her. "We both know you can't feel the same about me, not after what happened. So stop pretending you still…" His voice trailed off, unable to finish that sentence.

For a moment, all was quiet as neither of them moved. Then Juvia stepped closer to him and placed her hand on his face, gently coaxing him to look at her again. As his eyes met hers, the way she gazed at him, her eyes so soft and full of affection for him, made his heart skip a beat. Her hand shifted to rest against the changed skin of his face, and her thumb tenderly brushed against his cheek as her lips curved in a small smile tinged with sadness. "Juvia will always love Gray-sama, no matter what," she murmured.

Closing his eyes momentarily, he leaned his head into her touch as a rush of warmth filled his chest. She was always surprising him, this beautiful girl with such an open and loving heart, whose smile could be as brilliant as the sun. How could he help caring for her, who only wanted to love him and stay by his side, no matter what happened? No longer able to resist the impulse to do something that part of him had been desiring for a while now, he leaned closer to Juvia and brought his own hand up to cup her cheek.

Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed in response to his actions, before drifting closed as he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against her own. His mouth moved against hers in a gentle, tender caress at first, but as the kiss continued he tilted his head to one side so he could deepen it. Juvia slipped her hand over his cheek into his hair, threading her fingers through the soft strands. The hand on her cheek found its way to the back of her neck, tugging her closer, while his other came to rest against her waist.

His tongue brushed against her lips, coaxing them into parting so he could explore her further. Tracing the inside of her mouth, he rubbed it against hers, tangling them together and evoking a soft moan from her before pulling away so that they could catch their breath. As they stood there with their foreheads resting against each other, Juvia's eyes fluttered open and met his own. "Gray-sama…" she whispered, all dazed eyes and flushed cheeks as she looked up at him.

He gave her a lop-sided smile. "I just… Thank you." He couldn't find the right words for what he was feeling, but as he leaned in to kiss her again, he thought Juvia understood what he wanted to say anyway.

This story was inspired by a post by watching-the-lovely-rain-fall on tumblr. Please review! :^)