Hey Dark Gothic Lolita here!

Sooooo, remember when I kept on saying I've been working on a new pairing? THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE PAIRING I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON! I have many more stories that I have written for this pairing and this is most certainly not the first.

Why this crack pairing you ask? Simple. Juvia and Zancrow have TECHNICALLY met before, correct? Right before he died and before Juvia passed out. That is my argument. They have met okay?! Okay!

Disclaimers are boring.

ENJOY!

After the hottest summer

Chapter one

"I HATE YOU, I ABSOLUTELY HATE YOU!"

Juvia didn't even realise that she was speaking in first person as she shouted at the male who was standing and smirking in front of her. Her hot angry tears poured down her face as she gave him her deadliest glare, trying to get him to stop smirking at her and take this seriously, but being serious wasn't in his nature.

"Oh c'mon, why are ya cryin'? You and I both know that this was supposed to be nothing but a little bit of fun, just some sort of summer romancin', right? I was only helping you get your mind off that guy...Blue, was his name?"

"His name is Gray," Juvia said through gritted teeth. "Juvia knows that this was just a little bit of messing about."

"Yet here you are, having feelings for me."

Juvia went silent. She couldn't deny that. She did end up catching feelings for him, even though she vowed that she was going to try her ultimate best and do no such thing. Her heart had reached out to his when it wasn't supposed to do so and now here she was, getting hurt once again.

"Juvia isn't bothered by that. What bothers Juvia is that Zancrow had a girlfriend this whole time. Did Zancrow mean anything he said to Juvia? Actually, forget that Juvia asked that question, it was stupid. Either way, school starts again tomorrow and seeing as Juvia and Zancrow go to separate schools, Juvia won't have to worry about Zancrow ever again."

She didn't even say goodbye as she just turned on her heels and walked away from him. She expected for him to run after her and apologize and say that he was going to make it up to her. But she knew Zancrow better than he knew himself and she knew that he was going to do no such thing. But that was why she liked him. He was spontaneous, unpredictable and daring. The guy was completely crazy and she came to enjoy that.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, walking away from the guy who stole her heart. She probably wasn't going to get it back as well.

"Natsu and I slept with each other during the summer holidays."

The other girls started squealing when they heard that come out of Lucy's mouth. Lisanna was texting someone and all the girls were looking at her, wondering if she was going to get jealous or something. When she didn't, everyone was surprised. She put her phone away and looked up at the confused faces. Was it because she hadn't said anything?

"Oh, was he good?"

"The best!"

Lucy was oblivious to Lisanna's crush on her childhood best friend, but the other girls had not been. Right now though, Lisanna was acting like she got over him.

"I met a guy, but he goes to Sabertooth. His name is Sting." Lisanna blushed when she said that and all the girls started squealing once more. There was just so much good news flying about it was actually so cute!

Juvia sat off to the side, her face as blank as a slate. Her mind was still reeling from the day before and she couldn't get the blonde out of her head. She hoped for nothing but the best for him and his girlfriend. She was just his side chick the whole time and she didn't think that was fair on his girlfriend in anyway. She had never been so hurt in life and she had been dumped twice. First by Bora who hated the fact that she didn't put out (because hey, they were like 13) and Gray who thought she was a bit weird.

"Juvia? What about you, what did you do all summer? Any cute guys?"

"No." Because Zancrow wasn't cute, Zancrow was absolutely hot. "You guys knows Juvia, she worked all summer long as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. Juvia saw cute guys, but they all had girlfriends." The same way Zancrow had a girlfriend the whole entire time that they were fooling about.

Cana hugged her friend and grinned. "Hey, don't feel bad, I didn't find anyone!"

"Yeah, cos you don't remember finding him or doing the dirty with him." Evergreen smirked as the girls looked at her for the full story. Cana wasn't the sort of girl to care anyway.

"So we went to this one rave and it was the first time I'd ever gone to one sober and you know, not stoned because I'm in a relationship now, so anyway! Cana got drunk as usual and she hit it off with one of the guys from Quatro Cerberus gang! Of course they were so out of their heads they had sex in the middle of the whole thing and parted ways, not even remembering what happened."

"CANA! Did you even use protection?"

Cana shrugged and Evergreen laughed. "I fished out the condom myself and gave it to Cana. It was quite hilarious watching her put it on him with her toes. I don't know what the fuck they were all thinking! All I know is, it was absolutely hilarious!"

All the girls laughed and the guys started settling into the room as well. Lucy glanced over at Natsu who smirked at her and they all watched as she blushed. Gray was avoiding Juvia at all costs, thinking that she was going to try and talk to him even though he ended it before the summer began. Juvia didn't once look his way, but was on her phone instead.

"Hello ladies, so how was your summer?"

Gajeel stood over them with a feral look on his face. He stood behind Levy who immediately blushed as she froze in what she was doing. She hadn't told the group of her own romantic escapes with Gajeel and all the girls were giving her looks that said 'we'll discuss this later'.

"Doing pretty well actually. Worked on my tan, got laid and what not. It was a cool summer."

Natsu laughed as he came closer. "Oh yeah? And who the hell would sleep with you, four eyes?"

Just as he said that, Elfman walked into the classroom, his eyebrow raised as he glared at Natsu. "What did you just say to her?"

Natsu got the message and he backed away cautiously and apologised to Evergreen who in turn just turned her head to gaze at her boyfriend. The guy might have looked like a big oaf or a brute, but he was her brute and she didn't care about what anyone else had to say. She gave him a sexy smile and he smirked back at her.

Juvia's phone then rang and they all looked at her as she too jumped. She looked down at the phone and saw that it was from an unknown number. She frowned before moving away from the rest of the group. She wanted to hold this conversation in private. Luckily, she had five minutes until the bell went to signal homeroom.

"Um, hello?"

"Juvia."

She knew that voice from anyway. Why was he calling her? Did he want to her to have a heart attack?!"

"Zancrow," she breathed out quietly. Her friends had all gone back to talking, but Gray was throwing her glances every now and then. "What does Zancrow want?"

"To say that we're going to be seeing each other, very, very soon."

She quickly pressed the red button and shoved her phone away, not wanting to hear the rest of it. Her friends gave her a questioningly look and she shrugged her shoulders. "Prank caller." That seemed to make Gray relax as he stared at his ex. There had been no discussion of their break up, he just ended it with her and she did the typical cry and run. But she didn't badger him or try to tell him that she could change. Not seeing her for the whole summer also made him miss her a bit.

Juvia caught Gray looking at her but just ignored him. Her feelings for him had vanished along with the fading romance of Zancrow's summer time love. She had lost her virginity to Zancrow and even though they hadn't ended up together now and that they weren't even on the best of terms, she didn't regret that. She loved every minute with him and that's why it hurt so much.

The bell finally rang and everyone calmed down and they all sat down, waiting for their teacher to come in. The man came in and Cana grumbled under her breath, obviously not impressed with his entry.

"Hope you all had a good summer, because I did."

Their homeroom teacher Gildarts had gone on holiday with his wife, leaving Cana home alone all summer. It's how she was able to go to all those raves without getting in trouble. Although her father was the king of partying, it didn't mean that he was going to allow his daughter to follow in his footsteps as the partying princess.

Juvia didn't even bother with the mindless chatter as she just stared out of the window, her chin resting on her hand. Why had they had to argue the day before they all went back to school? Now she wasn't going to be able to get him out of her head.

"Not here with your boyfriend?"

Juvia looked up to see who was talking to her in her depressive state. She was such a Debbie downer that she was surprised that anyone would be talking to her in this state. There he stood, a guy probably about her age with wild blond hair, reminding her of her best friend. His eyes were red, but he had these rings in them. If she had never seen Gajeel and his brother, she would have thought that he was wearing contacts.

"Um, no we broke up. How do you know Juvia has a boyfriend? Well had."

He sat down in front of her and Juvia had to admit it, she liked this sort of boldness in a guy. He grinned at her despite the fact that it looked like he was supposed to be on his shift. He wore a black dress shirt with a red waistcoat and black jeans with a pair of black vans to finish.

"You come here a lot, so I see you guys. I've been your waiter a few times, but you're so wrapped up in looking at him that I don't think you've noticed any waiters. I'm not a stalker or anything."

He gave her a grin that would have said otherwise, but Juvia ended up laughing instead of feeling a bit weirded out by the waiter who had come to talk to her. She liked his company. Funny, he was actually the first person that she had told about the break up since Gray had done it almost three hours before. Even her best friends didn't know about it.

"Oi Zancrow, get back to work!"

Some guy from behind the bar gave Zancrow his angriest face and Zancrow flipped him off. He then looked back at Juvia.

"I'm gonna get a bollocking, but for now, I don't care. As he just yelled out, my name's Zancrow and I guess that your name is Juvia."

Juvia nodded her head, feeling a little blush come on. She hadn't thought her name would have ever sounded perfect coming out of someone other than Gray's lips. Towards the end of their relationship, the only way that Gray would say her name was with an exasperated sigh, as though he was sick and tired of her. That should have been her first sign of a break up happening soon.

"So I work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Hope to see you again."

He winked at her before he stood up to take another table's order. Juvia felt her face glow up and she stood up from her chair. As she got to the door of her and Gray's favourite restaurant, Frank Canard, she looked back over her shoulder and at the same time, Zancrow had looked over at her, the same time that he did. They grinned at each other before Juvia stepped back outside into the heat of the summer.

"Juvia? You okay, the bell just went and you're kind of out of it."

The girl was launched out of her thoughts as she looked up to see Lisanna standing over her desk giving her a friendly smile and Juvia quickly jumped up, a fake smile up on her face. She grabbed her school bag.

"Oh you know, just thinking about how summer was and now we're back in school. It's depressing."

Lisanna looked over at Juvia and gave her a look that said that she didn't buy her lie one bit, but she just sighed and shrugged it off, pretending that she bought it. Juvia sighed in relief. It just meant that Lisanna was going to ask in private about what was on her mind.

"Yeah, it is depressing. I mean, now Sting and I can't see each other. I never even got to tell him how I feel and you know how these things go. He'll probably find another girl that he likes at his school and because he can see her everyday, he'll be like 'Lisanna who'?"

"Lisanna doesn't know that, maybe he's different."

"Doubt it. He can get any girl that he wants."

"And if he wants Lisanna?"

The girl let a smile slowly take over her lips as she ducked her head and tried to hide her blush. "I...I would really like that. Do you really think that maybe he likes me back?"

"He'll be crazy not to! Juvia has maths, what about Lisanna?"

"I've got Japanese. I guess I'm heading this way. See ya later!"

Juvia waved as Lisanna turned left and she turned right, into the first classroom on the corridor. She heard a lot of shouting and she frowned. Why was it rowdy already? She pushed open the door and just about caught what the teacher was saying.

"-will be having students from Grimoire Academy because their school was used as a 'trap house' for the whole of the summer holidays as well as other illegal activity. They're shutting down the school to clean it out as well as find the men who did it. We'll be having 30 students per year group (per grade) spread out between the other schools in the area."

Juvia made her way to one of the empty seats, not really caring about what the teacher had to say. That was until it clicked in Juvia's head.

"I'll be seeing you again, very very soon."

She groaned internally. She didn't need this in her life. What if he came here? What is he got sent here with his girlfriend as well? There was no way she would be able to cope with her school life. She would end up avoiding him at all cost. Besides, it's Zancrow, he will pretend to try to be her friend and then drop hints to her friends.

She sighed and brought the textbook that the teacher had put on all their desks, wondering what maths was going to be like this year. She wasn't going to stress herself about Zancrow, not when he was...coming through the classroom with almost five other people.

She quickly popped up her hood and pushed all her noticeable blue hair out of her face and she gazed out of the window, making sure that he didn't see her. If she didn't hide her blue hair, there was only two other people with blue hair, her cousin Levy and some guy called Jellal.

The teacher introduced them as the new students and they all had to say their names and their hobbies and all that jazz. Juvia tried not to, but she only concentrated on Zancrow's entry.

"I'm Zancrow, a crazy son of a bitch."

That's all he said and it made Juvia smiled while she stared out of the window.

"Fancy that, you come to where I work and now I'm here."

Juvia looked down from her high seat to see a shirtless Zancrow standing there, looking up at her. She glowed a nice shade of red, admiring the eight pack that he wore so greatly on his chest. His biceps were big, but not like Elfman big. She could just imagine herself falling into those arms...

"So what is Zancrow doing here then? Out with some friends?"

"Yeah, my guys are still changing so I told them I'll meet them out here. Little did I know I would be seeing a hottie. At least now when I drown, you'll be giving me the kiss of life."

Juvia pulled down her sunglasses from her head and over her eyes and turned her head away, trying to not to show her reaction to that compliment. She was an easy person to read, so Zancrow probably already knew that she was going to react like that. He laughed.

"Aww, c'mon, don't hide your face from me, beautiful."

When she looked back at him, through her blue rimmed sunglasses, she saw him throw a wink at her and she smiled, biting her lip. She got down from her chair when she saw a little child struggling to get out of the water and no one seemed to be helping him up. She grabbed his arms and pulled him out.

When the child thanked her and walked off to his family, there were shouts from guys over on the other side of the pool, shouting to grab Zancrow's attention. He raised his hand up, giving them his crazy grin before he turned his attention to Juvia.

"So when do you get off?"

"Some time around 6?"

"I'll be back for you then." He then turned around and slammed his body into the water. "CANNONBALL!"

All his friends cheered and Juvia laughed, even though she was now standing at the side of the pool, soaked to the bone. She got back up on the lifeguard's chair and through her sunglasses, she was always watching Zancrow.

She was the last one to leave and lock up. That's because the owner of the place was a family friend and they trusted Juvia, knowing how capable she was. She also had a passion for swimming, therefore she was going to treat the place respectfully.

"Hmm, I came back just in time."

She jumped when she turned around and found Zancrow standing there, right behind her.

"Zancrow scared Juvia! She didn't really think Zancrow was going to come! Why is Zancrow here anyway?"

"I wanted to go for a little swim with you. Come on, I know you want to. Just for like ten minutes before you lock the place up or something."

Juvia looked at him and when he thought that she was going to say no, she grabbed two towels and headed to the pool with him walking in step with her. "You're not swimming in your clothes right?"

"Don't be silly, Juvia has stuff to wear!"

Yes, she did have swimwear, but she didn't know whether she wanted to wear it while she was alone with Zancrow. He seemed to be waiting for her and she slowly grabbed her shirt and raised it above her head slowly, almost like a strip tease and Zancrow stood there watching. She wore a blue bikini top with white polka dots. She then removed the shorts she was wearing to reveal matching bottoms.

She blushed when she noticed him staring at her and she tugged his hand. "Come on, are we swimming or what?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure."

She slinked into the water as she swam around the pool, waiting for him to come and join her. She got a little annoyed when he still stood on the side, so she caused a wave of water to practically wash him out.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Zancrow was staring."

He smirked as he jumped in and started chasing after her as she laughed, running away. They were both playing 'it' for a while before Zancrow opened his arms and wrapped her in them. They stayed like that for a while as they listened to each other's heavy breathing.

"What is Zancrow doing?"

"Thinking about something."

She didn't say anything as she waited for him to continue. It took him a while, but he finally started talking again. "I was thinking about why Gray dumped you."

Juvia tried to pull away from him. Why was he bringing up all the negative stuff?

"I mean, you're fucking funny, you're amazing and you're beautiful. What more could he actually want?"

Juvia hadn't been expecting that all. "Juvia doesn't know, he just broke up with her. But Juvia is getting over it slowly but surely. She doesn't really want to get into a relationship for a while, not until she sorts herself out. Besides, this is the first time we've hung out and we don't know much about each other."

"Three months will do it?"

"Hopefully. Either way, what's it to Zancrow?"

She swam away from him with a cheeky smile on her face and she watched him as he watched her also. A lazy smirk came up on his face as he swam back towards her, closing the gap between the two of them once more.

"Y'know. I was just thinking about something. Don't worry bout it."

He held her round her waist and grinned, making her stomach almost explode as she held onto his shoulders. She stared into his eyes and when she realised what she was doing, she looked away. She couldn't do this. It was only a few days since Gray broke up with her, she couldn't suddenly get with a new guy, no matter how hot or nice he was.

She pushed herself away from him and he didn't even bother stopping her as they gave each other one last look before turning away. They seemed to have the same idea as they both stepped out of the pool and went to dry themselves in silence. Juvia placed her shirt and shorts back on and waited for Zancrow to be done before locking up.

"Maybe I'll see you later."

With that, he was gone and Juvia didn't know how to take that. Did that mean she ruined what could have possibly happened, or did he really mean that he was going to see her again? He seemed like the sort of guy who would dismiss a girl by saying stuff like that though.

Juvia heard someone settle down next to her and she was so afraid to look. That was until she heard Zancrow's voice float from somewhere else in the classroom and when she finally got the guts to look, it was some other person sitting next at the desk next to her and she let out a sigh of relief. Good, she was yet to be known to him that she was in this class.

"Right, well now that all the introductions are done, let's start the new year."

The class was dragging on and Juvia wasn't really paying attention, but she was making sure that she was getting some work done so that the teacher wouldn't shout her name and alert Zancrow that they were in the same class. If she could get away with not being called, she was going to have to wear hoodies everyday they had maths together.

She felt a buzz in her pocket and when she looked over at Zancrow who had been placed literally on the other side of the classroom to her, sitting by the door while she sat in the back corner by the windows. He had just put his phone away and she knew that it was him who sent the message. All the more for her to not text back.

She wished that her friends were in this class to talk to, but now Zancrow was here, there was no way that she would want for him to embarrass her in front of her friends and remind her of what could have been but will never be.

She looked up at the clock and grinned when the bell went off anyway, making everyone get up from their seats. Juvia took her time as the Grimoire kids all grouped together and left, making Zancrow leave with them. She unlocked her phone and sighed heavily at the text.

I'll be looking for you.

Look for her for what reason? They already spoke, they know what will be happening from now on, so like whatever.

"Erm, excuse me?"

Juvia turned to look at the girl who sat next to her and smiled a little bit. She hadn't realised that there was still one kid from Grimoire still here.

"Um, yes?"

"I was wondering if you could show me to my history class? I have no idea where it is obviously."

"Oh that's okay, Juvia would love to. Luckily, Juvia has geography which is on the same hallway. Let's go! Juvia's name is Juvia by the way. What about yours?"

The girl was pretty, like beautiful in fact. Her pink hair flowed with long locks down to the small of her back and under her school shirt, it was obvious that her chest size was amongst people like Lucy and Erza. Her eyes were grey with almost a tint of green. She was like some sort of exotic beauty. She grinned at Juvia.

"I'm Meredy, pleased to meet you."

And just like that, Juvia's whole world collapsed in front of her eyes.

"So what's the emergency that couldn't wait until our next class together? Juvia? Wow, this must be like, serious."

Lisanna was watching her friend pace around the toilets. She seemed to be in extreme distress and she grabbed Juvia by the shoulders, shocking the hell out of her. She looked into her eyes, blue on blue.

"Juvia, calm down and just breathe. Okay, now look at me and tell me everything because I get the feeling that it wasn't just nothing but work that happened, was it?"

Juvia shook her head and rubbed her face with her hands. "Okay so as Lisanna knows, Gray broke up with Juvia like, at the beginning of summer. Well that very day, Juvia went to Frank Canards and it turns out there's this really hot waiter who works there who always sees Gray and Juvia. We got talking and Juvia told him we broke up and he was just being so nice. Then Juvia saw him again the next week and we swam together and stuff. All in all, we had a friends with benefits kind of thing going on and when Juvia told him yesterday that she came to like him...he said that he's in a relationship already!"

She burst into tears and Lisanna wrapped her arms around her friend and she hugged her, soothing her the whole time. "Why does that name sound familiar? Wasn't he in my Bio class like just now? Oh...he goes to Grimoire and is now here..."

"Yes..."

"Oh baby, come on! No tears! I hate to see you like this! Why didn't you say anything to me? Forget that, I never told you about Sting, so like whatever. How about after school we go and do a bit of retail therapy, huh? You and me."

Juvia laughed a little as she smiled and wiped her tears, pulling away from her friend's hug.

"Juvia forgot, she got to meet his girlfriend and she's really nice."

"...We'll go home and get my dad's card."

So how was that chapter? As you can tell, this is an AU story, but have no fear, I'll be releasing more ZanVia stories when I wake up because right now it's 1am and I need some sleep before my lectures tomorrow lol. I have three more ZanVia stories that I have been working on, so you all better keep an eye out on it!

Please don't forget to rate or hate, flames or floods! Please give me some reviews and I can give you some love!

Lolita-chan