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Another groan escaped his lips as he sat down at the table next to Lucy. How in the hell did he get stuck being a judge for sorcerer weekly's model to be on the cover?? Gray slouched back in his chair and glanced over at Lucy, who looked pretty excited to be here. He spoke in a quiet, annoyed tone, "Lucy, tell me again how I'm the one who got stuck doing this with you?" Lucy chuckled a bit as she twirled her pen. "Because, Jason told me I could bring a friend to help me judge. Everyone else is busy and there's no way I'd be able to get Natsu to help me with this." He let out a sigh, "seriously? Everyone is busy? Not even like Wendy or Juvia could do it?" Lucy's smile remained on her face, "nope, and Juvia is actually participating in this competition. I've seen some of the outfits and swim suits she plans to wear and I honestly gotta say I'd be shocked if she wasn't the next cover model."
Grays eyes widened once he heard about Juvia being a part of the competition. "Wait...Juvias...modeling?" Lucy gave a quick nod. He ran a hand over his face and thought to himself. Great...he was already worried about giving her an answer on how he feels about her, and now he's gotta judge her in a modeling competition?? A few minutes pass and Jason came running up to them, looking very eager as always and ready to talk Lucy's ear off about everything going on. "Lucyyy! You made it! So coool!" He paused for a moment as he caught a glimpse of Gray before continuing, "oooh and I see you decided to bring a guest!" Lucy let out a soft chuckle in response, "yep, I'm here alright, and yes I did. This is Gray, he's another member of our guild." Gray managed to muster a small smile at Jason. It wasn't long before Jason started to talk again. "I'm so excited to find out who the next cover model will be! It's gonna be such big news! But anyways, I really just wanted to come over and say that the models are all ready and waiting to be judged!" Once he was out of sight, Lucy let out a small sigh. "I see he's still as crazy as ever about these kinds of events..." Gray laughed a bit as he folded his arms over his chest, "yeah, he seems so excited, maybe he should enter into the competition."
Soon, the first model made her way out in front of the pair. She was a tall, blonde girl with a cute pink and white sundress, black sandals and a pair of heart shaped sunglasses. Lucy's eyes widened a bit. She was a gorgeous woman with a pear shaped body. She showed off a few poses before walking back. Lucy said nothing as she wrote on the paper in front of her. Gray on the other hand seemed a bit unimpressed. She glanced over at him and spoke up, "what's wrong? You look unhappy..." He kept his pose as he spoke, shrugging his shoulders. "This is going to be boring, it's no different than seeing you and Erza dressed like that. I'm used to it, it doesn't impress me." Lucy gave a small smile to try and lighten the mood a bit. "Oh come on, that was only the first one. I'm sure someone's outfit will catch your attention." Gray said nothing as he rolled his eyes and waited for the next girl.
Sure enough, the next model came out and Gray still seemed bored and unimpressed. She was a bit shorter than the last girl, short brown hair and was wearing a black bikini with blue hearts. The girl looked at him and noticed that he had a bit of a scowl on his face and she quickly became nervous. Lucy on the other hand still seemed pretty upbeat about everything and had a big smile on her face. The model soon walked back and entered to back room where the rest of the girls were gathered, including Juvia. She walked up to a couple of the girls and started to talk about what she saw. "I'm so worried, that one girl out there seems so nice but the other judge she's with...he seems so...I don't know...angry." The girls continued to talk as Juvia soon overheard what was being said. Her eyes widened slightly and she became even more worried now. She started to think to herself, "should I change into one of my other outfits? Maybe that might impress him...I wish Lucy were back here instead of judging, she'd definitely be able to help me." She let out a deep breath and decided to go with what she was wearing.
Lucy and Gray continued to judge the models. Five more girls went out in front of them and Grays expression still remained completely stoic. Juvia was the next one up and she was completely nervous. She had no idea that it was Gray out there that was going to be judging her. She looked back at the girls and they all gave her a thumbs up and smiles. They all thought that what she was wearing was sure to break the silence in Grays head. Gray had his head down a bit as he tapped his pen against the table. After a few moments, Lucy nudged his arm to get his attention and motioned towards the stage. Grays eyes went completely wide as soon as he saw her. Juvia's hair was down and straightened, she had on a blue bikini with white polka dots and frilly edges. As soon as she showed off a few poses, she got his attention even more. Her bottom piece really accentuated her butt and hips, her top piece having the same effect on her chest. While Lucy was sitting next to him cheering her on, Gray did absolutely nothing. He just sat there, looking at Juvia, his mouth subconsciously fell open just a little.
The competition was soon over and everyone had left for the evening. Lucy said her goodbyes to Juvia and Gray before heading over to talk to Jason one last time. Juvia was about to head home since she felt way too nervous to even be around Gray after everything. She felt that it would be best if she just went home for the night and let everything in her mind try and calm down, surprisingly, since she normally would want to see him after something like this. As she adjusted her jacket and started to walk home, she suddenly felt someone call out to her. "Hey! Juvia!" She turned her head over her shoulder and saw that it was Gray jogging up to her. She raised a brow in confusion as he made his way up to her. He had a small smile on his face as he closed the distance between them. He then spoke in a bit of a quiet tone, "hey...you looked...really great out there..." Juvia's eyes widened a bit as her face became a bit flushed. "Really? Thanks...I was worried you wouldn't like it. The other girls I was with said that you seemed quite miserable." Gray chuckled a little and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well...kinda....anyway, I'm not sure if it's been on your mind at all lately but I've been thinking..." Juvia's ears perked up a bit when she heard what he said, she waited for him to continue. "I thought that maybe...if you're up for it, would you wanna maybe...hang out with me sometime? Ya know.... just the two of us? Juvia's face turned a shade of scarlet red as steam bellowed from beneath her hat. "YES!" She cheered, but quickly adjusted her tone, "I mean, if it's alright with you, sure."