Changing Tides
Chapter 1 - Phantom's End Is A Beginning
by Contrail

Summary: Gajeel and Juvia talk in the ruins of Phantom Lord's headquarters.

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and is being used without permission. No profit is being made from this story.

After he could no longer see the back of that stupid (strong) Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail, Gajeel looked around the wrecked remains of Phantom Lord's headquarters, trying to decide what he should do now. As he took a deep, slightly painful breath, he noticed a familiar scent being carried on the breeze. Juvia. But the scent of rain that always accompanied her was missing, and when he checked the sky there was no tell-tale knot of rainclouds to be seen. A strange, cold feeling passed over him. None of those Fairies would have had the guts to kill someone, but if she'd still been unconscious when the building came down…

As he made his way towards the direction her smell was coming from, he wondered why he even cared what happened to trash that couldn't even defeat a Fairy. But then he reminded himself with a growl that if being defeated by a Fairy made someone trash, then he was trash, too. No, the Fairies had been strong opponents, much though he loathed to admit it. And Juvia had always been strong, a good partner when they'd been sent on missions together. Whoever'd taken her out must've been pretty strong themselves.

When a familiar head of blue hair came into view, he felt something relax in his chest. She seemed to be wandering aimlessly around the ruins of their guild, not watching where she was going. Instead her gaze was fixed solely on the sky, blue shifting into red and gold as the sun set. He made no effort to hide his approach, and once he was a few feet away from her she finally tore her attention away from the sunset to turn and look at him.

She was smiling, not the slightly upturned lips that had been the closest thing to a smile he'd seen from her prior to this, but large and heartfelt. It was almost absurd, really, that Juvia was the happiest he'd ever seen her after she had disgracefully lost to a Fairy, when their guild was in shambles around them. But he'd learned enough about her over the past couple of years to understand it, to know that this was the first time she'd ever been able to watch the sunset. "Gajeel-kun… The rain, it's gone. Gone!" she told him, her voice a mixture of awe and excitement.

He snorted in response to her obvious statement. That was evident to anyone with eyes, the real question was… "What happened to it?" She'd told him that she'd been plagued by it for as long as she could remember. There was no way it would just vanish on its own.

"Well, one of Fairy Tail's members came to fight me," she began. "Oh, he was so handsome… and determined to save his comrade… and kind even to an enemy like me…" Juvia had a dreamy look in her eyes now, and she was pressing her hands to her cheeks as she blushed. He'd never seen her get that sappy over a guy before, not even that Bora bastard who'd ended up dumping her.

Ugh. He wanted to know what happened to make her rain vanish, not listen to her go on about how great the guy who defeated her was! "Get to the fucking point, water woman!" he snarled.

Juvia jumped a little, snapping out of whatever dreamland her mind had wander into. "Oh, yes, of course. Sorry, Gajeel-kun," she said sheepishly. "At the end of the fight, he used a very powerful ice attack to freeze Juvia's Sierra form. It was so powerful, it even froze the rain around us. That's when the clouds parted, and Juvia saw the blue sky for the first time." She sighed happily and looked back up towards the sky.

Well, he guessed that explained why she was so impressed with the guy, even though it sounded like it had been completely unintentional. "Guess you'll be harder to keep track of now."

She flashed another smile at him, and he rolled his eyes at her. Not like he was trying to say he was glad her rain was gone or anything soft like that. They both turned to look back at the sky, and together, they watched the sunset until the Rune Knights came to arrest them.

So, this is going to be a collection of Juvia-centric one shots, not in any particular order with regards to chronology. As much as I enjoy Gruvia, I'm interested in exploring her relationships with other characters, too, so I won't be posting anything primarily shippy as part of this.

I have some ideas for more one shots to write for this already, but if you have any ideas you'd like to see, please feel free to suggest them! :^)