#winter cabin

MacDowell Cheney Cabin in the Winter Super Moon - Hope Gangloff , 2019.

American , b. 1974 -

Oh, that morning light, that Scandinavian light.

It doesn’t arrive loudly. It enters sideways, carefully, touching snow and timber as if asking permission to exist. Cold gold on frozen ground, a brief truce between night and day. For a few minutes, everything becomes unreasonably beautiful. Even what was built to be temporary, even what was meant to be forgotten. It is clarity. A fragile illumination that reminds you how little is needed to make the world feel possible again.

(Photo: d.)

Evening Winter Landscape

Carl Schultz

The train ride had been quiet. Not awkward just comfortable. Juvia had spent most of it looking out the window at the snow-covered forests rushing past, occasionally sneaking glances at Gray sitting across from her.

Eventually she couldn't help herself. "Gray?"

"Hm?"

"Where are we going?"

He looked up from the book he'd barely been reading. "You'll see."

"A surprise?"

"Yeah."

Juvia clasped her hands together. "Gray planned a surprise for Juvia?"

He immediately looked embarrassed. "Don't make it sound like that."

"It is like that."

"I know."

An hour later...

Gray unlocked the door to a small wooden cabin tucked between snow-covered pines. The inside smelled faintly of cedar and the fireplace. Juvia stood frozen in the doorway.

"Gray?"

"What?"

"You rented... a cabin?"

"For a few days."

"Just us?"

He nodded.

"You've been saying you wanted to get away from the guild."

She turned slowly toward him.

"You remembered..."

He frowned. "Of course I remembered"

"Juvia said it once."

"So?"

"So Gray remembers things Juvia says."

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You make it sound like I never listened."

Juvia smiled. "You always listened.. You just pretended not to." Gray couldn't argue with that.

---------

By evening the fire was crackling warmly. Snow drifted lazily outside the windows. Juvia curled up on the rug, wrapped in a blanket and Gray sat on the sofa reading.

Every few minutes she looked up at him and then smiled. Gray eventually clocked on and lowered his book.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You've been staring."

"Juvia is appreciating."

"Appreciating what?"

"Her boyfriend."

Gray covered his face with one hand. "Urgh, you're going to keep saying that, aren't you?"

"Forever."

"I walked into that."

"You certainly did."

After dinner they stepped onto the porch. The world was silent beneath a blanket of snow.

Juvia slipped her hand into Gray's and he accepted it automatically now. No hesitation. No blushing. Just something that had already become natural and Juvia noticed happily.

"Gray?"

"Hm?"

"You don't even think about it anymore."

"About what?"

"Holding Juvia's hand."

He looked down. Their fingers were intertwined. "Guess not."

She smiled to herself. "That makes Juvia happy."

Gray looked out across the snowy valley. "Me too."

------

That night the fire burned low. Juvia sat beside him on the sofa, tucked under the same blanket. The silence stretched comfortably and then Juvia quietly asked Gray "Can Juvia tell you something?"

"Always."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "For a long time I imagined what it would feel like if Gray loved me."

He stayed still, listening.

"I thought it would be exciting." She laughed softly. "I imagined fireworks, dramatic confessions, grand adventures" She looked up at him.

"But this" She gently squeezed his hand beneath the blanket. "is better."

Gray smiled "Really?"

"It's peaceful. No chasing, no wondering, no pretending, just" She nestled a little closer. "Us."

Gray looked down at her for a long moment before speaking. "I used to think being in a relationship meant I had to become someone different.

Juvia blinked.

"But sitting here" He glanced at the fire. "I don't feel different."

"You aren't."

"I just feel..." He searched for the right word. "Mmm, lighter."

Juvia smiled. "That's because you're not carrying everything alone anymore."

Gray turned to her, surprised.

She met his gaze with quiet certainty. "You've always tried to protect everyone else." She reached up and rested a hand against his cheek. "But you don't have to protect your heart from Juvia."

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Gray leaned into her touch just slightly.

"So..." he murmured, "Can I tell you something, too?"

"Anything."

"I've been thinking" He looked almost sheepish. "Maybe we should make this a tradition."

Juvia tilted her head. "Coming here?"

"Yeah, just us. No quests, no guild, no disasters."

She stared at him, her eyes already beginning to glisten. "Every winter?"

Gray smiled. "If you're free."

Juvia laughed through happy tears. "Gray!"

"What?"

"You just accidentally gave Juvia something new to dream about."

He chuckled and brushed a thumb across her cheek, catching one of the tears before it fell. "Good."

Outside, snow continued to fall in slow, lazy spirals.

Inside, wrapped in a blanket with the fire glowing softly beside them, neither of them noticed the hours slipping by.

For the first time in a long time, there was nowhere else they needed to be.

And for Gray, that was the biggest surprise of all. He'd always thought peace was something you found after the battle was over.