Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and the characters belong to Hiro Mashima

"Water Slicer!" those were the last words the leader of the Dark Guild Raging Hawk's Leader heard before razor-sharp water blades cut trough his skin, leaving two clean cuts on his neck. At least he died almost immediately, Juvia thought. Some of those people she had had to kill had tried to dodge her attack and ended up on the floor, pleading for mercy before they died on blood loss. Juvia would never admit it aloud, but she had nightmares about those cases; the screams of the guild members when they realized who exactly had attacked on their base and the pleads and prayers before they died at the hands of Juvia of the Great Sea, the water mage of Phantom Lord. Her guild mates respected her and her enemies feared her and both knew her as a cold-blooded killer whose expression did not change even during the most horrifying massacre.

A rough voice woke her up from her thoughts. "Oi Juvia, you okay there?" her partner on this mission, Gajeel Redfox shouted from downstairs. Apparently he had finished off his share of the dark guild as well. Quickly Juvia rinsed few droplets of blood that had spilt on her coat. "Juvia is ready, we can leave now" She shouted back. Mission had been really simple and had only taken them two days, train trip and finding Raging Hawk's headquarters counted. As soon as they had found the building, Gajeel had broken the door and caused enough havoc so Juvia could slip upstairs more or less unnoticed and guard his back by destroying every mage in there. They had miscalculated the size of the guild, so it had taken them longer than expected, but no more than hour and half.

"Well get you ass down here then, I'm starving!" A demanding voice came from the stairs. Juvia took a last glancearound her, making sure that nobody would stab their back as they took their leave. There were around twenty bodies in the room, all of them surely dead. None of them had been especially strong, not even the guild leader. But that was the case with most of the Dark Guilds, and that was why most of them were wiped out so easily. They might terrorize a city effectively, like in this case, but they had no chance of surviving against a S-class mage or two.

Something in the guild leader's breast pocket caught Juvia's attention. She crouched down to pick up a piece of paper just before Gajeel decided that he had waited quite long enough. "Oi Juvia, I'm leaving soon and so if yer going to stay and live here..." his sentence was cut off as he saw her friend staring at a piece of paper, face paler than usual. "Did'ya find something, Juvia?" Gajeel asked, worry creeping in his voice.

"No, it is nothing" Juvia replied to her friend with abnormally quiet voice, slipping the piece of paper in her pocket as she stood up. "We should leave now" she said, walking past Gajeel to the stairway. Something was really wrong with her, though Gajeel, but he knew he should not press the matter. If Juvia wanted to tell him what had made her upset, she would tell him sooner or later. And they had seven-hour train trip back to Oak town.

Sight of the room that had once been guild hall made Juvia's stomach turn. Corpses lay on every possible surface, several of them bent on angles they could never normally do. Gajeel was not known to do clean job while going on rampage, which usually ended up in a sight like this. No matter how many times Juvia saw it, she would never get used to all the blood and bodies.

Out of nowhere, a knife flew towards Juvia's head, piercing it with deadly accuracy. The same moment as the knife hit her, Gajeel was already running through the room. As soon as he got his hands on the poor bastard who had hurt his friend, he thew him towards the stone wall. Before the dark guild member had time to count his broken bones, he was roughly lifted against the wall.

"What'ya think you're fucking doing, bastard?" Gajeel shouted, grabbing the man's throat with his right hand.

"You know what usually happens to those who try to hurt my friends?" Gajeel whispered, bringing his own face close to his. "Usually they die, and I fucking make sure myself that their death will be long and painful one. But today is your lucky day, bastard" He finally let the younger man drop on the floor, where he collapsed, trying to gulp some air. "M'friend Juvia here is a bit of a special case" Gajeel continued, clearly enjoying the terror that it on the younger man's eyes. "Juvia here is really damn dear to me, and you would usually suffer for several days for

even thinking of hurting her. But we're in a hurry right now" Gajeel moved just enough so the dark guild member could see where Juvia was supposed to be laying dead. But for the surprise of the young man, the female mage was standing, looking quite healthy.

Except she was missing half of her face.

"So listen to me, bastard." Gajeel continued, again blocking his view. "Because m'friend seems to be all right, you're getting special treatment tonight." And without another word he turned his arm into a blade and sank in in his shoulder. The younger man screamed in agony as he pressed the deep wound with his undamaged other hand.

"Take a message to your next group, bastard; Those who try to mess with Phantom Lord will not survive." the iron dragon slayer stated, grinning like a maniac. "C'moon Juvia, let's go and get some dinner, I'm starvin'." Juvia nodded as a reply, her face finally back to normal. Without another word they leave the building and the bleeding man.

They had walked for an hour, almost half of the way back, as Juvia finally spoke: "Gajeel wouldn't have needed to hurt that man. Juvia can take physical damage easily and you know it."

"He tried to kill ya, Juvia, and I don't like it when someone tries to hurt you like that" Gajeel simply stated, wiping some rain off his face. "Or are ya now angry with me because of that?"

"Juvia is not, but Gajeel could have been a bit nicer to that man. Juvia can't get hurt"

"Nicer?" Gajeel laughed, but there was no humor in his voice, "Juvia, didn't you read the banner? That bunch of bastards have been terrorizing nearby villages for a year now, robbing, killing and raping all they liked. There was no reason for us to be nice to them"

"But..."

"So don't sulk over one thief, he's not worth it. Plus, he'll live so he was more lucky than anyone else in that sorry excuse of a guild." Juvia replied him with silence. Gajeel knew exactly how hard these kinds of missions were for the water mage, but if one was going to be part of Phantom Lord, they had to do ugly jobs as well, sooner or later. And if you dared to complain, you would be marked as a weakling. And weaklings never had a long career in Phantom Lord.

Neither of them didn't say a word after that, before they could see the village they had left that morning. It was hardly even evening, and since neither of them were on a mood to stay in the village for another night, they reported quickly to the city hall about the Dark Guild before heading towards the train station, boarding to the first train that went towards Oak Village. Surprisingly enough, they ended up spending two of the seven hours in the dining car, Juvia eating one portion of soup while her friend emptied the car from anything that even vaguely reminded meat. As dessert Gajeel ate the spoon Juvia had been using to entertain a kid that had been staring at him.

They arrived to Oak Town few minutes before midnight and headed towards Gajeel's apartment. It had become a common custom for them since their first mission together. Juvia had hit her head badly and Gajeel, after carrying her back to his apartment, did not let her walk to her apartment alone and had insisted that she would sleep in his bed that night. Naturally back then Gajeel had taken the couch, after making sure Juvia was not going to faint and hit herself again. After that they had more or less become friends, to the point where Juvia had a key to Gajeel's apartment. Gajeel had decided that it was not the worst mistake he had made; Many times after that he had come back from a long and hard mission to find his apartment clean and freshly cooked meal ready. The girl was really a present, he had thought many times as Juvia had tended her wounds when he had no strength to do it himself.

As they arrived to Gajeel's apartment, Gajeel took the liberty to collapse on the couch. "Ya can go and take a bath, I will fix us something" He yawned and stretched, making himself comfortable. Gajeel turned his head as he heard Juvia giggle. "What's so funny now?"

Where Juvia might have been gloomy and sulky before, now her smile was lighting the whole room. She looks so damn cute when she smiles, Gajeel thought. "You will fall asleep there again if Juvia leaves you alone. But Juvia can cook as well if Gajeel is tired."

"That was one time!" Gajeel answered, closing his eyes. "Or could it be that Juvia of the Great Sea does not appreciate my cooking?"

"That's no fair, Gajeel knows Juvia likes whatever you make" water mage replied, playful pout on her face. Although Gajeel's idea of gourmet food usually meant greasy meat and some potatoes and bread as vegetables, he was surprisingly good cook.

"Nah, I know Juvia, I know. come here" Gajeel said, spreading his arms, letting the other mage to cuddle partially on top of him, partially next to him. At first he had not understood Juvia's need to cuddle, but even thought he would never admit it aloud, he liked it how it felt like he could protect her from the world just by holding her like that.

Gajeel felt how Juvia buried her face in his shirt. "You're mean, Gajeel" she mumbled.

"I know, Juvia, I know"