Main Characters: Juvia, Gray, Lucy, Natsu

Rating: T

Genre: Romance / Humor

~ Powder Puffed Fantasy ~

One-Shot

I'm still alive. Still working non stop and I moved again. I'm having a hard time finding time for writing but I'm still thinking about you all! Finding You In Candlelight will return.

This short is what comes from shower brainstorms. Hope you like it! - xoxo

This was it. This was the day Juvia would prove to her beloved Gray that she was his one true love. No more hiding, no more worrying endlessly about Love Rivals... Juvia was determined to show Gray what was really in his heart.

Juvia looked down at the thick enveloped in her hands. She had finally procured a magical powder for her plans and, unlike the love potion, the soulmate thread, or the Juvia-bread, this one was guaranteed to work. The shop owner promised her results.

She stepped carefully through the crowd of guild members, focused solely on reaching her beloved without dropping her parcel.

Juvia smiled hopefully as Gray came into view. All he had to do was look at her and the powder would do the rest. It only took a pinch, she had tested it herself a few hours ago with it mixed into her drink, but she did not want to risk it failing. Gray would get all of it.

Juvia took a deep breath. This was it.

On the far side of the Fairy Tail guild hall, Gray and Lucy sat at a small table away from the crowd as they waited for Natsu to finish picking out their next job request.

"Remind me why we are letting that Flame Brain pick out our job?" Gray griped again, aggressively stirring his iced tea with a straw.

"It was his turn. You chose the last big monster hunt," Lucy grumbled back, picking at a dent in the table with her fingernail.

"It's going to be the same as last time. Big monsters, lots of destruction."

Lucy glared at him across the table. "As long as the two of you don't make me lose out on my rent money, I don't care what we do."

"That's progressive thinking from you, Lucy," Gray teased. "You always complain before, during, and after monster hunts."

Lucy huffed and clenched her fists. "You are infuriating."

Gray reached over to grab her hand, restraining her from throwing something at him. His eyes were mirthful, full of familial affection for the friend in front of him. Before he could say anything, they were both pulled out of their conversation by a loud keening cry of pain from across the guild.

Juvia could not believe it. Her beloved Gray was holding Lucy's hand! Her number one Love Rival! She knew that troublemaking Celestial Mage was seducing him all this time. Why else would he be looking at the blonde the way Juvia wanted him to look at her?

"Gray," she whimpered and steeled her resolve. She would go through with this, if only to find out Gray's true feelings once and for all.

"Hey, Juvia. You headed to our table?" a voice came from her shoulder. She jumped, turning her head slightly to stare wide-eyed at a messy head of spiked pink hair.

"Oh. Hello, Natsu," she stammered, fearful that she had been caught. "Juvia was hoping to sit with Gray before Gray's team left for their next job."

"Sure!" Natsu welcomed her happily, knowing it would irritate his teammate to no end. They could always catch the evening train instead, after all. "The train we have to take doesn't leave until tonight."

"Juvia is pleased!"

"What's in the pouch, Juvia?" Natsu peered over her arm to take a closer look at the envelope in her hand.

"Juvia's pouch is none of Natsu's concern!" Juvia tried to pull the powder away as Natsu took a large sniff over the contents.

Natsu's breath hitched, his eyes scrunching as if he were in pain. He tried to take in a breath only to stop short again.

"Is Natsu okay?" Juvia asked hesitantly.

"ACHOO!" Natsu sneezed, a powerful gust of hot air and flames rushing from his mouth and over her hands. The packet exploded, a plume of ash and blue powder billowing out over the crowded guild hall.

Juvia shrieked and watched in horror as her precious magical solution to all of her problems coated half of the room. A pained keening flew from her lips. She did not care about the other guild members breathing in traces of the powder. She did not notice Natsu following her line of sight with confused fascination. She only cared about her beloved, her heart rending in two as she watched as both Gray and Lucy inhaled a breath of powder and looked into one another's eyes.

"LOVE RIVAL!"

Lucy jumped at Juvia's scream, only half acknowledging the ash floating through the air. There was nothing new about fire and debris flying around the guild hall.

"Do you think she'll ever get over calling me a Love Rival?" she sighed.

Gray shrugged, avoiding the question, grunting as he felt a tickle in his throat. "Who knows?"

"Ugh, what if we were actually dating?" Lucy joked, then blanched as she imagined Juvia's reaction. "I don't think I would survive her fury."

Gray shivered. "Neither of us would live long. Natsu would set me on fire in my sleep… Scratch that he wouldn't wait."

"Are you ever going to tell her?" Lucy eyed him expectantly, letting out a small cough when something small caught in her throat.

"Maybe. Are you ever going to follow your own advice?" He quirked an eyebrow at her over his drink.

Lucy flushed and grabbed her own drink. "Probably."

"I don't know why she thinks we're interested in each other."

Silence fell over their table and each slipped into their own daydream. Gray was the first to look up from his drink, his calculating eyes taking in Lucy's features until her clear brown eyes lifted to meet his.

"Juvia."

Natsu's low growl rumbled in Juvia's ear. She cast her tear-filled eyes in his direction. She noticed his gaze focused where hers had been, on the small table in the back of the guild where their two guild mates sat, heavily flushed and eyes locked together.

"What was in the pouch?" he asked, anger licking the undertones of his speech.

"Juvia wanted Gray to look at Juvia and see what Juvia knows Gray feels deep down," Juvia rambled, her hands clasped together over her heart.

"What does it do?" Natsu insisted. "I swear, if you forced Lucy to fall for that stupid icicle with one of your schemes…"

"NO!" Juvia protested. "There is nothing manipulative in Juvia's plan. Juvia tested it first. It is only a… tool to help Gray see his true feelings for Juvia. Juvia had no problems when she took it."

"Then why is he looking at Lucy like that?"

Juvia frowned. "Juvia doesn't know. Gray was supposed to see Juvia when he took the powder, to see Juvia as he experienced the visions… And now…"

Natsu's endless dark eyes bored into her. "Now, what?"

Juvia gulped. "Now he is imagining his ideal future… but it's Love Rival's face that will be in them. And Love Rival is doing the same… with Gray."

"Snap them out of it!" Natsu demanded. "Make him look at you instead!"

"Juvia can't! The powder only works once. It can't be interrupted once it starts. Natsu and Juvia must wait until they come out of it."

Gray was thrown into a vision of his future. A soft warmth tickled his subconscious, pulling forth the urges he suppressed every day. Only this time it was Lucy's face he saw in his mind's eye.

They sat together on a high mountain, Gray sculpting a small ice rose as they watched snow fall on the rural town below. Lucy's blue eyes sparkled as she showered him with compliments on his abilities.

They floated together in a lake, letting it carry them to wherever the current wanted to go. He watched Lucy dissolve into the water when he looked at her, her face blushing as he told her she was pretty.

They were fighting a mountain vulcan, the snowy white beast charging at Lucy while she skillfully dodged it and lashed out with a whip made of water. She reached his side again and their hands clasped together, their magic melding together to cast a perfect unison raid and obliterate their opponent.

He watched Lucy approach him, gliding down the aisle in a billowing white gown. Streams of water created the perfect archway over her head as she walked; Gajeel tucked neatly on her arm to escort her to his side.

His heart burst with each scene, a deep longing flooding him... but it felt… wrong. Lucy's eyes were not blue, for one, and she hated the cold. She would never be happy on a snowy mountain with him. His mouth twisted into a grimace as the next scene flooded his mind.

Lucy rested on the steps of a hospital birthing pool, exhausted, sweat coating her brow. Her smile was focused on a small swaddled blanket tucked in her arms. A tuft of wild blue hair poked out of the blue blanket. Lucy called a gentle stream of water up from the pool to brush the hair down into a more orderly curl.

Gray's stomach flip-flopped nauseously as his mind flooded with warm longing. What was happening to him?

Lucy's imagination was plagued with confusing, contradictory images that, honestly, scared her.

She had just been rescued from the grasp of an evil nobleman who wanted her for some nefarious purpose. She has long since stopped trying to reason why everyone wanted to kidnap her. Gray had her in his arms, taking her away from the cage she had been held in, and his embrace was warm, protective. She sighed happily, knowing she was safe in this comforting heat.

Lucy's eye twitched. Gray was not exactly a warm or comforting person to hug. She knew this. Why did the daydream make her heart so excited?

She received a letter stating that she had won an award for her writing. Gray found out and was so excited, he set the bouquet of flowers he'd bought her on fire, crowing to the city that his girlfriend was the most incredible person in the world. She blushed in embarrassed appreciation at his wild antics.

They sat on the floor of her apartment playing… adult cards… every round lost meant Gray was removing his sandals… his vest… his pants…

Lucy flushed, denial raging through her mind. When did Gray start learning fire magic? He was never that expressive with his emotions either.

She walked barefoot down a sandy beach, a small bouquet of white daisies in hand, her knee length white dress fluttering in the breeze as she made her way between two columns of her friends and family. Loke was on her arm, guiding her towards a raised platform where Gray stood waiting for her. He looked handsome in his loose collared white shirt and black shorts. She smiled at his attempt to comb out his spiked… pink hair?

Lucy blinked rapidly, trying to wash the image from her eyes, deep discomfort spreading her mouth into a grim line.

Lucy and Gray snapped out of their visions and realized they were still seated across from one another in the guild hall.

"Weird." They spoke at the same time, a disturbed shiver running down both of their spines.

Lucy looked down at her drink and noticed a small clump of ash and blue floating on the surface. After the bizarre daydream she had just experienced, she did not want to risk drinking whatever had fallen into her drink.

She looked up as Gray shoved his drink away as well, also noticing the foreign substance.

"I need a new drink," he muttered, raising a hand to flag Mirajane down.

"Yeah," Lucy agreed, pushing away her own drink. "Maybe something a little stronger this time."

"What's happening?" Natsu whispered. Gray and Lucy both looked like they were in pain and incredibly uncomfortable sitting at the table. "They look like they're about to throw up."

Juvia was ecstatic. "Love Rival is not a Love Rival. Gray's true dreams do not include Love Rival. Gray will be Juvia's yet!"

Natsu stared at the Water Mage as she spun in circles and skipped off to hatch a new plan to win her beloved's heart. Whatever had just occurred, it made him feel much more at ease with something unknown hidden away in his heart.