SUGARBIRD

Chapter one

Juvia personally loathed this whole category thing. She hated having a label and she was fairly positive that even if hers was different, she would still hate it. But for her, being in the lowest possible category, life seemed unfair. She didn't decide her category for herself and she certainly didn't want it. But it was unchangeable. She would carry it for life.

She was an Infirma. The lowest of the three. The 'weakest' if you will: which many people did. Personally, she didn't think she was weak. She harbored water magic and she had kicked a lot of different butt from all over in her time. But, to the laws of nature at least, she was puny.

There were three categories which you had to fit into; Infirma, the lowest, Fautores, the neutral, and Confortare, the strongest. You would find out where you belonged around your thirteenth birthday, but everyone was different. It would appear on your mage mark, wherever you had received it at birth. Everyone was born with a grey mark, somewhere on your body, and at the time when your category would show, it would change color. The colors were confusing and there were a lot of different shades that fit into different categories and it made Juvia hate the whole system more. For example, someone could have a light orange color and be an Infirma and at the same time, someone could have a dark shade of orange and be in Confortare. There was a nature mage at every government help center in Fiore and you would have to visit them when your color changed so you could be positive of where you belonged. But there were the dominant colors, the common ones that everyone knew which category they belonged to. Dark red and blue were the most common Confortare colors, pink and white were the most common Fautores colors and light blue and purple were the most common Infirma colors.

She had light blue. Her guild mark was on her thigh and around one week before her fourteenth birthday she found out her fate. Infirma. She really loathed this whole category system.

Light blue, to match her hair. She scoffed at her reflection, noting the darkness of her eyes and wishing that that was the color of her mage mark. If only.

The sound of her mother's calls snapped her out of her trance. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, sliding the shower door on her way out. She had just showered to get ready for school and was currently putting on her uniform in the bathroom.

"Juvia! Juvia!"

Said girl grunted as she tried to slip on her skirt without falling over, "Juvia can hear you!"

"Hurry up! You really shouldn't stay up so late you know. Wouldn't get yourself into this stress if you didn't." Her mother, Jacy, a woman of forty and very beautiful violet hair, called from the next room. Juvia could imagine her face while she sat at the table, drinking her tea and waiting to see if Juvia would make it out in time.

"Juvia got off work late." The girl seethed, "And she had assignments to finish! No helping it."

Finally clothed, she stormed out of the bathroom to give her mother a glare, which she returned with a laugh and walked over to the dining table, where her breakfast sat. She scoffed it down while her mother crinkled her nose.

"Not a very classy one I've made." Jacy sighed earning a glare from Juvia, who had her mouth full of food. "What time did you end up sleeping?"

Juvia shrugged, "Around two-ish Juvia thinks. Ack! Gotta go! Okay, Juvia will be back 'round four." The water mage got up and half threw her dishes in the sink, resulting in her mother frowning at her. She kissed the violet haired woman on the cheek and ran over to the front door to grab her school bag, which was hanging on the wall.

"Ah! Juvia!" Jacy called and said girl shuffled back a bit, so she could see her mother, "Gajeel's coming back next week, forgot to tell you."

"Okay, okay! Talk about it when Juvia gets home, she's glad to hear it but she is also very late!" She waved at her mother and ran to the door, flinging it open and slamming it closed behind her.

Inside, her mother flinched at the harsh close of the door before getting up to check that the dishes were still in one piece.

After a bus and a train, Juvia had reached her school, Fairy Tail, just in time. Her school was pretty big, big enough that there were students that Juvia had never seen before and would pass her occasionally and make her question if they were new. It was a school that taught magic of all kinds, from fire to water, and it was highly regarded among Fiore. It was also pretty strict on tardiness, so when she glanced at her watch to find that she had ten minutes to spare before class, a weight lifted of her chest.

But today was Tuesdays, her least favourite day of the week. This was mainly because she missed Monday's, because she took the day off to work at her job (it was approved and organised through the school), so she had to catch up on all the missed content. It was also partly due to the fact that she had 'The Elements of Water' class on Tuesdays, where all water related mages throughout the school would join together for half the day to practice magic and learn new spells. And she disliked this class because a certain ice mage, whom she tried to not think about, was in this class. She was in eleventh grade and he was in twelfth, so she got to avoid him every other day of the week, and this was good, as he hated her and anything to do with her.

She shook her head, now wasn't the time to think of him.

"Juviaaaaaa!" An arm grabbed the said girls shoulder and the water mage giggled at the voice, whom she knew very well.

"Why are you so happy this morning, Lucy?" Juvia spoke, turning her head to look down at the girl.

"Well." The blonde, who was a very pretty Fautores, straightened up, "Because I miss you so much on Mondays because of your stupid job, so I look forward to Tuesdays."

Juvia rose her eyebrow, obviously not believing a word of it, "And the real reason?"

Lucy giggled, "You know me to well! Natsu bought me this! Look!"

The blonde took out an object and showed it to the water mage, who curiously observed. It was in a small pink box and Lucy handed it to Juvia, who hesitantly opened it. She gasped at the sight of it, half admiring it half admiring Natsu for picking out something so nice. It was a small gold necklace, not too extreme or too plain, and it held a charm that looked like a bird. Inside the bird was a small diamond and Juvia rose her eyebrow at the sight of it.

"It is beautiful Lucy! But… why did Natsu get you this?" The blue haired girl wondered, closing the box and handed it back to the owner.

"Ah! Uh—I actually don't know, but I am not complaining." The girl smiled down at it before putting it back in the pocket which she took it from.

"And why aren't you wearing it?"

"Didn't want to ruin it so soon, but of course I wanted to show you and the girls- oh! Natsu! Natsu!" The blonde cheered and waved her hand over at her boyfriend, who was a Confortare and a very strong one at that. Juvia turned to greet him and stopped in her tracks at the sight of his companion. Natsu had, Juvia assumed, just arrived at school and was most likely walking to classes or to meet Lucy, with Gray at his side. This wasn't too surprising as they were 'best friends', or enemies, sometimes Juvia didn't know. She sniffed the air and cringed, there it was again: his scent.

Juvia let out a small gasp at the sight of the ice mage and was thankful that he was looking down at his feet and seemingly hadn't seen her yet. This meant she could still make her escape unnoticed. She didn't like to be around him at all ever since then. And Juvia knew that he couldn't stand her and shared the feeling. She didn't want to feel sad, the day had been so promising.

"Ah!" Natsu grinned, "Luce, good morning. Juvia."

At the mention of her name, Gray's head shot up from looking down and he glared over to Natsu, before turning his eyes that Juvia both hated and loved so much to look down at the water mage, who was currently holding her breath. She always got so bothered by his looks.

As Juvia tensed up visibly, Gray grunted before muttering, "Well. I'm not sticking around for this, cya."

"Wait Gray, I'm coming!" Natsu called out to the said boy, who had begun to walk off, before turning back to face the girls, "Meet you for lunch, Luce. Cya, Juvia."

When they were alone once again Juvia let out a breath she had been keeping in for the entire time the ice mage was in her presence. She hated when they collided, it always made her feel angry and sad at the same time and she would spend the rest of the day thinking of past memories that she shouldn't think of.

"He hates Juvia." She sighed, half wondering if she would need to go to the bathroom to have a small cry before class.

Lucy looked over to her surprised, "He doesn't. You guys used to be super close."

Juvia scoffed, turning in the direction of her first class, "Used to be."

That was before all this Infirma shit happened, Juvia thought as she and Lucy walked toward their class, when everything was happy and when he hadn't abandoned me.

Mating, in other words, finding your 'soul mate' so to speak whom you would spend your life with was something everyone looked forward to. It was pretty exciting and Juvia was just as excited as everyone else before she became an Infirma. Basically, once your mage mark colors you become of age and start to smell scents you haven't smelt before and feel things you haven't felt before. This, as so many teachers and classes had told Juvia before, was how you would determine who your mate was.

They would have a smell that was so attracting to you that you could pick them out of a crowd and when you would first make eye contact, in your heart you would know that they are the one. Then, when you both felt ready, you would mark each other and your mateship would become official.

Confortare's usually mated with Confortare's and Infirma's usually mated with Infirma's and so on. But it wasn't uncommon for a Fautores to mate with either a Confortare or an Infirma. Nothing was forbidden in the mating process, Confortare's could mate with Infirma's, it was just extremely rare. You usually stuck to your category so you could support each other and benefit each other. Mating throughout the categories meant that the stronger mage would most likely hurt the weaker mage as their magic and strength would be different. This applied mostly to Confortare's and Infirma's as the Infirma would constantly be getting hurt and wouldn't be able to keep up. But it wasn't forbidden or unseen. Nothing was.

Juvia wondered, almost every day, what if the person you knew was your mate, didn't feel the same. What if it was one-sided?

She sat alone in her 'Elements of Water' class and whenever partner work was required, which was almost every class, she would end up partnered with the student teacher as she was the only Infirma in the class. And it embarrassed the hell out of her, because every class she could feel his glare on her back and every class she knew that he was watching her make a fool of herself. Whenever she would look at him, he would always be staring, glaring at her and it frustrated her to no end.

But today, was different. There was a new boy with blonde hair and brown eyes who was really short and his uniform looked about six sixes too big for him. And he was an Infirma and Juvia practically cheered at his arrival. His name was Takashi and he was sat next to Juvia, the only available seat in the room much to her embarrassment.

And when the teacher issued them with some practical partner work, Juvia smiled over at the boy and offered her hand to him.

"I'm Juvia." She smiled, dropping her third person habit in order not to weird him out. He smelt like laundry detergent, she noted.

"Takashi." He shook her hand and smiled back, but Juvia could tell he was uncomfortable so she pulled her hand away.

"Would you like to be Juvia's part-"

"No. I'll be your partner."

The water mage and the new boy, who was also a water mage, turned to face the new arrival of the voice. Juvia widened her eyes at Gray, who was still holding his signature glare, only, not directed at her but at Takashi. She felt her heart beat quicken and his scent fill engulf her and she wondered why he wanted to be associated with her all of a sudden. He never even acknowledged her anymore.

"Ah, Gray-kun," The teacher, Mr. Tachibana, a middle aged man with blue long hair, spoke, in a tone that made him sound like he didn't care at all, "You shouldn't be Juvia's partner."

Gray turned his glare from Takashi to the teacher while Takashi looked between all three mages and Juvia stared, shocked at Gray and his sudden interaction with her life.

At Gray's uncomfortable glare, Mr. Tachibana spoke again, this time with a little more enthusiasm, "I won't allow a Confortare and an Infirma fight in my class, you'll probably hurt her."

The ice mage looked over at Takashi and Juvia before looking down to his hands and snorting, "Yeah. I know, I know."

And he said nothing more. He just turned and walked away, back to where he usually sat toward the opposite side of the classroom and if Juvia had paid close attention to him once he sat, she probably would have noticed that he had frozen the entire top of his desk. But she didn't, she was looking down at her lap and frowning. Why did he always do this? Make her feel every emotion possible? Why was he doing this now, after everything that had been done? She didn't understand him. They weren't friends anymore, he had said it himself.

"Takashi and Juvia," Mr. Tachibana stated, "Both Infirma's. Perfect partners."

Yeah. Juvia definitely loathed this whole category thing.

Don't ask me why. I know I should be paying attention to my other stories. I just. Please tell me what you think. Should I continue?