Juvia & August

CRASH!! Juvia flinched as the sound vibrated through her eardrums.

“You broke another cup isn’t it?” she asked pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Don’t you hate for being right every time.?” replied August in a mellow voice, scratching the nape of his neck.

Lately August has developed a habit of breaking things, all because his hands couldn’t stop shaking. But it usually happens when he is unalarmed. But Juvia understood which one was for his condition and which one was done intentionally.

“Third time today, what you want!?” Juvia retorted.

“So it took one plate, one glass and lastly one cup to get your attention?”

“I knew it! It was all done intentionally!”. 

August couldn’t help but giggle like a kid who just got caught by his mother while he was doing something mischievous and was trying to play it cool. 

“Seriously August change your ways we are not teenagers anymore. If you want to talk just talk, stop breaking things.”

August stopped giggling and asked with wide eyes “So you still remember that day?”

“How can I forget, you do things that get engraved in my memory.”

Juvia couldn’t help but take a walk in the memory lane of her most bittersweet memory. She was about 14 years old back then. It was the day where the kids were supposed to bring something to bury in the time capsule at their school. So Juvia brought a cup. That cup was a gift from her late grandmother. That cup had the number ‘40’ engraved in a golden layout on the body of that particular cup, and for some reason, Juvia found that enthralling. So she had mixed feelings about burying the cup. But she decided to bury it anyway. As her teacher asked everyone to gather around with their respective things for the time capsule, Juvia slowly took out the cup from her bag and made her way towards her teacher, but got pushed from behind which made her lose her balance and she was greeted by the not so friendly floor below her.

She couldn’t get her whole body up just her head. As she got her head up, her eyes captured a sight she couldn't bring herself to believe, the pieces of her precious cup were lying aimlessly on the floor. Juvia’s heartstring started to tighten, it was like someone was pouring gallons of water inside her heart which made it heavy and her body was suddenly not enough to carry a heavy heart. As she was concentrating hard to keep the water out, her eyes helped, as water started streaming out from her eyes. In the midst of all this, a mellow voice broke her concentration.

“I’m sorry. Are you ok.?”

She looked up and saw 14-year old August stretching out his hand in order to help her get up.

“I’m fine,” said Juvia as she got up on her own and left without saying anything else. 

 She never saw that cup again as her classmates later informed her that it was August who kept the pieces of the broken cup inside the time capsule and asked their teacher to bury it. She hated him for a long time but as time passed she understood that the infamous incident was purely an accident and she bore no hard feelings towards August for a thing that she was never going to see again anyway. But soon after they became good friends. Even though August had many annoying habits one habit annoyed the hell out of Juvia, which was August watching any t.v episode which they were supposed to watch together. August did it a few times. But each time he found unique ways to make it up to her. He would either gift her a box of chocolates or he would either give her his share of lunch and ruffle her hair every single time and if that didn't work he would make loud noises to get her attention and he was sure that this method will 100% work and he was not at all wrong as Juvia fell for this trick every single time.

“Juvi can you please forgive me now?” pleaded August joining his hands together.

Juvia scoffed. “Give me a reason why should I?”

“Because I got something for you.”

“Oh yeah? Like what August?.” Juvia asked in an uninterested voice.

“Wait here!” said August and he quickly sprinted towards the storeroom.

‘What now?’ Juvia thought to herself as she waited for him to return. It took about twenty minutes for August to return.

“Ok, close your eyes now,” August said in his usual mellow voice.

Without any further argument, Juvia gave in. She felt him putting something in her hand which made her open her eyes instantly.

She couldn’t believe what her eyes captured this time either. It was that familiar number ‘40’ in that familiar golden layout. Her heart again started to tighten but this time it was with warmth instead of water. 

“Where did you get this? I t-ho-ught….I t-hou-ght.” Juvia couldn’t get words out of her mouth it was like the words got caught in her tongue. 

“The truth is I took out that golden part and buried the rest of the pieces”. Replied August timidly.

“You had it with you all this time? Why would you keep it from me?”

“Well, Juvi, I thought you might be mad that I didn’t bury it….” said August again scratching the nape of his neck.

“Then why are you giving me this now?”Juvia asked wide-eyed as she was searching for an answer which might make her heart to relax a bit.

“Happy 40th marriage anniversary Juvia,” stated August ruffling his wife’s hair.

Juvia couldn't help but feel giddy inside. That number 40 still has that warm feeling as it did all those years ago, and that infamous incident led a cute disaster into her life.

"So you promise you won't watch any other episode without me?" asked Juvia trying to conceal her giddy self.

"Yes, I promise Juvi."

"And don't break any more things please."

"I don't know if I can promise that," August spoke quietly to himself.

"What?!" Juvia retorted.

"Ok, fine I promise," said August in his mellow voice.