█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ  A SIZABLE GULP descended as the entirely of his crown subtly motioned backward ; a fleeting rush of BAFFLEMENT struck him upon the contact that she established.  ❝ Juvia…❞  he uttered lowly, sunken eyes seeking her own. Usually, closeness &&. affection in physical terms are undesirable        but this, this WASN’T concerning preferences. Juvia’s weariness was noted ; a distraught atmosphere permeated not only himself, but her as well.  

         Yet another exhausting mission comes to a theatrical conclusion —-
     A fierce clash; a heated battle, a tiresome day.*

 ❝ … ❞

             AND THEN SHE WAS AGAINST HIM. It was a strange, indiscernable sensation that simmered like the swell of summer heat. The spot where her forehead interspersed against the coolness of his skin felt like a foreign comfort of searing sunlight. Her warmth seemed to banish the institutional chill that has rooted itself into his very CORE, successfully defrosting a fraction of ice that encased his rancor heart…

    Silence enshrouded them as they stilled amidst the withering landscape when Gray sentient a SUDDEN disconnection-– an abrupt absence of the said warmth.

        ❝ Shit–! ❞

                   … Uh oh, she lost her ground.

    &&. with HASTE, he crouched down– craning his spine in a limber stretch before allowing Juvia’s weary body to take collision against his back the moment consciousness eluded her. A howling breeze uplifted mounds of snow in their direction && Gray’s musculature unintentionally served as a SHIELD, navigating the blasts of ivory powder as it pummeled against his thorax ( as opposed to striking the water fairy behind him ).  & yet —- he took no hesitation in standing up and continued to surpass the tempest, leaving this dull site behind.

    The storm doesn’t falter him, for he was B L I Z Z A R D manifested in human flesh ; he was, but a conduit for the COLD.

     ❝ C’mon… we’re going home. ❞