Title: Red

Rating: T

Pairing: Gray / Juvia

Warnings: Character Death

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Romance

Modern AU. To Juvia, Gray was her entire world: her sky, her ocean, her air. It felt like she couldn't live without him, yet she feared she was not so essential to him. Inspired by, but not based off of, Taylor Swift's song "Red". Not a song fic except for the chapter titles.

Chapter 1: Losing Him

Losing him was blue like I've never known

"Juvia. We need to talk."

Juvia stared silently at her phone. The bluenette was sat comfortably at the foot of her bed, dressed in a long night dress, but her mind was anything but comfortable. The message on her phone was all she could see of, all she could even think of.

And the sender? At the top of the conversation was listed Gray.

What could Gray want to talk about? He was the love of her life for three years now. But she… to Gray, Juvia was just another friend; the girl who clung to him for dear life; sometimes a nuisance. Whatever it was that he would refer to her behind her back, it wasn't lover.

So why would he text her such an ominous message. Was he finally done with her? Had her lovey dovey antics finally become too much? It scared her. Even if Gray never did love her back, just being near him brought her happiness. She could not imagine being separated from him.

Juvia took a deep breath: in, and then out. Her hands shook slightly as she typed in a response.

"Of course, Gray! Juvia would love to! When and where?" She attempted to hide her fears as she responded. She softly touched respond on her touch screen phone and watched as a loading icon spun next to the word "Sending" until it turned to "Sent: 12:34am."

What was so important that Gray would text her about now, past midnight? She bit her lip as she waited for another message. She sat back onto her bad and proper herself up on a pillow, and ran her finger down the screen to flip through the messages Gray had sent her before.

But there were none.

"Gray, are you at the pub?"

"Gray, have you ever had hot dogs in your mac and cheese?"

"Gray, maybe if you ask Juvia to marry you, Lyon will leave her alone."

All of the messages were from Juvia. Gray never responded to her. When she sent him messages, he would just eventually bring up a response in conversation some time later. Or, as for the last one, ignore it completely.

So why was he starting this conversation?

Juvia's mind was still full of questions, but her phone stayed quiet as she nodded off to sleep.

Juvia leapt awake and spun her head around to look at her clock. "9:45am" it read. She reached around her bed until she grasped her phone. After a moment, she unlocked it and groggily stared at the screen.

"Café across the street from the pub. 10 o'clock. See you there."

Juvia rubbed her eyes softly and glared closer at the screen as she slowly put together the message that had become her morning greeting.

"Ten O'clock?!" She screeched suddenly and leapt out of bed. Juvia ran across her room and threw open her dresser. In a flash, the bluenette was pulling off her nightgown and slipping into a light blue sundress. She took little time to fix her hair, and clumsily slipped into a pair of matching blue heels before grabbing her purse and stumbling out the door.

It normally took Juvia twenty minutes to walk to the pub, but this time she was going to make it ten. She strutted as fast as she could down the sidewalk. Her attention was completely on her phone, rereading the two messages from Gray.

She quickly typed in "Juvia is running late! So Sorry Gray! Don't be angry!" But she hesitated sending it.

Gray had something serious to talk to her about, but here Juvia was, completely late, and only because she couldn't wait a couple more minutes for him to respond before falling asleep. Gray would never take her affections seriously if it seemed like she didn't take him seriously.

She deleted the message and bit her lip. For a moment, Juvia glanced up. She could see their favorite pub, The Fairy's Tail, at the end of the block. Her expression lightened. All she had to do was cross the street. She was going to make it. Juvia looked back down at her phone to check the time just as she reached the crosswalk. "9:56 am," Juvia read, "Juvia can make an appointme—" Juvia's sentence was cut short as her heel caught the curb. She hadn't been watching her feet at all. As she stumbled, her phone slipped out of her hand and bounced across the street.

"Oh no." She grumbled and straightened herself. Without a second thought, she walked towards her phone to pick it up.

"Juvia!" She heard a shout. Juvia looked up as she reached down toward the ground for her phone. She saw Gray standing up front his seat in front of the café. He was waiting for her! But his expression looked as if he were scared, even angry.

And as a loud honking sound brought Juvia to reality, it all made sense. She slowly turned her head to her left to see a car speeding towards her, the sound of the horn mixed in with the sound of screeching tires. And despite all of her fear, Juvia froze. She couldn't find the strength to scream, or even close her eyes as she saw the automobile hurdling towards her. Gray. Juvia is so sorry. Were her only thoughts.

"Juvia! Get out of the way!" She heard Gray shout her name again, and then Juvia felt Gray shove her with all of his strength, and as she fell to the ground next to the curb, she heard the impact of metal against flesh, and looked up to see her beloved's body fly into the street.

This time, she had the strength to scream.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Juvia stood outside the emergency room shaking. The ambulance hadn't let her aboard. When they had asked her what her relation was the victim, she choked on her words. She couldn't even think of an answer. She had walked to the hospital alone, she found where he was being held, where his emergency surgeries were being operated, and got as close as she could before being turned away.

Now she was alone, and so, so, scared.

In a soft whisper, she kept repeating to herself, "Please be okay, Please be okay, Please be okay!"

"Juvia!" She heard an feminine voice call out to her. There was a barrage of footsteps coming in her direction, and she looked up just in time to see Erza before the red head threw her arms around her. Juvia quickly responded by wrapping her arms around her friends back, taking whatever comfort she could be given. Natsu and Lucy were close behind.

"We got the pub and Master said that Gray was in the hospital!" Natsu barked.

"He said there was a car accident!" Lucy shouted, "Do you know what happened?"

Juvia flinched, and held Erza's back tighter, trying to force the image, of Gray flying past her, out of her mind. "Juvia was right there…" She mumbled. There was a resounding gasp from her friends. "Juvia just let it happen. It's all Juvia's fault." Juvia's arms dropped to her sides.

"Don't say that." Lucy said. Juvia felt the blonde's hand on her back.

"No, if Juvia had just moved, Gray wouldn't have…" Juvia choked back her tears, "And now Gray is…"

"Don't even go there." Natsu growled. Juvia felt Natsu and Lucy join in on hugging her. She felt completely surrounded be their body heat, and for a moment, everything seemed like it was going to be okay.

But it was only for a moment.

Suddenly, the Emergency Room's door swung open, and a nurse came out holding a clipboard. She gasped lightly as she saw the small mob of four people that had gathered outside the door. The door shut behind the nurse, but as Juvia's friends freed her from their hug, she was sure she saw a group of doctors with blood soaked hands.

"Are you…" The nurse started and glanced at her clipboard, "Mister Fullbuster's friends and family?"

Erza, Natsu and Lucy nodded. Juvia could barely breathe, but she felt Erza grab her hand to reassure her. The bluenette nodded as her friends had.
"I am very sorry to tell you," The nurse began again, and Juvia wished she didn't have to keep listening, "but as of 10:54, Gray Fullbuster has passed away. We tried all we could, but we couldn't save him."

And that was it. Juvia's legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor. The nurse apologized for their loss, but quickly scampered away as Juvia's screams began to escape from her throat.

"No. NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" It started out, before turning into incomprehensible sobs and bellows. Lucy and Erza collapsed next to her and wept on her shoulders, but Natsu fought reality.

"No! Gray can't be…" Natsu started towards the emergency room, "He can't be dead!"

"Natsu! You can't go in there!" Lucy sobbed and leapt to her feet. She grabbed Natsu's arm and tried to pull him away, but he dragged her with him as he shoved open the door. Natsu froze; Lucy refused to look, hiding her face by pressing it into her shoulder. The door swung shut again and Natsu made no attempt to reopen it before collapsing to the floor and bringing Lucy down with him.

"He's gone, Natsu. Don't do this." Lucy pleaded.

The salmon haired man took a deep, teary breath, before clinging onto Lucy and sniveling into her shoulder as she held onto him.

Juvia heard her words but didn't want to accept them.

It was over.

She had lost him.

Ch. 1 End