Another Year, Another Chance
Prologue
by Contrail

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

Note: This is the story I mentioned in the notes at the end of the last chapter of How to Continue Living, the other way I thought about taking the idea of Juvia losing her magic due to the events of the Tartarus Arc. Ironically, one of the reasons I chose to go the way I did with that story is that I thought it seemed more plausible for Juvia to stay with the guild. Makarov disbanding Fairy Tail caught me completely by surprise.

Anyway, I ended up deciding to write this story after sassy-juvia on tumblr expressed interest in stories where Juvia didn't tell Gray about her involvement in Silver's death until after the timeskip. While this might not be quite what she had in mind, it does run along similar lines, and I hope she ends up enjoying it.


Gray stared out the window of the carriage at the passing countryside as they wended their way towards Crocus, but his attention was more on his own thoughts and memories than what he was actually looking at. Returning to Crocus for the Grand Magic Games reminded him of the last time he'd participated in them, three years before. Two years ago Fairy Tail had been disbanded and didn't participate, though that hadn't stopped Natsu from melting the stadium. Last year no games were held because they were still repairing the damage Natsu had caused (and trying to find a way to avoid a repeat of that incident).

For those reasons, the X791 Grand Magic Games had been the first and so far the last ones that Fairy Tail had participated in since the return from Tenrou Island. Back then, they'd been feeling the pressure of wanting to restore the guild's reputation, Raven Tail and Sabertooth had caused a lot of problems, and then there'd been the dragons invading after their victory… But there'd been good times, too, and a number of them had involved a certain blue-haired water mage, whether they were just spending time in each other's company (until Lyon had to butt in where he wasn't wanted) or fighting together (and how sweet that had been, their magic mixing together so perfectly to take out Lyon and Chelia and help propel their team to victory).

Little had he known then, that Juvia would end up disappearing from his life entirely just a short time later. The last time he'd seen her had been during the fight against Tartarus, when he'd saved Gajeel from the demon who'd poisoned Laxus. He'd barely paid any attention to her then - focused on defeating Tartarus, he'd assumed that she wasn't any more hurt than the others. It wasn't until after he'd gone to visit his hometown and returned to Magnolia to find the guild disbanded that he learned the truth. That she'd been poisoned by magic barrier particles in the process of defeating one of the demons and nearly died.

She hadn't made it through that trial unscathed - she may not have lost her life, but her ability to use magic had been destroyed. Juvia had long since left Magnolia by the time he'd made it back. Sighing, he reached into a hidden inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a letter, the creases where it was folded well-worn from the number of times he'd read it over the years.

Written on the sheet were the following words:

Dear friends,

Since Juvia is no longer a mage, she has decided to leave Fairy Tail. She truly enjoyed her time among you all, and she will never regret having joined this guild. Her memories of all of you will always have a special place in her heart.

Gajeel-kun, please take care of yourself. Juvia is sorry she will no longer be there to support you, but you have many more people to rely on than just her now.

Gray-sama, Juvia won't be bothering you any longer. She is sorry for everything.

With love,
Juvia Lockser

He sighed again. Juvia had left this letter with Lucy, who had agreed to let him keep it. Even after studying this letter for three years, Gray still didn't understand her last words to him. Sure, her more enthusiastic advances had made him uncomfortable, but he'd still rather have to deal with them than to not have her around at all. It didn't make sense for her to suddenly regret having done those things, either, when she'd never been reluctant to show her love for him before. Nor did the loss of her magic seem reason enough for her to cut her ties with her guildmates and friends completely. He had a feeling that there was something about this situation he was missing, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

Since she disappeared, he'd looked for her everywhere he went, hoping to stumble across her, but he hadn't been able to even catch a glimpse of her. When Fairy Tail had come back together a year after they'd disbanded, a small part of him had hoped she'd hear about it and try to get in contact with the guild, but no such luck. He'd asked the rest of the guild to keep an eye out for her when they went out on jobs, but even nearly three years after she disappeared, there'd been no sign of her. It seemed like she truly didn't want to be found. If only he hadn't been so wrapped up in his own feelings back then. Maybe things would've turned out differently if he'd been there when she woke up…

As he folded Juvia's letter back up and put it away, he noticed Lucy giving him a sympathetic look, which he did his best to ignore. Everyone in the guild missed Juvia and wished that she would return, but Gray and Gajeel were the two that searched for her the hardest and were the most affected by her absence. She'd been the first close friend Gajeel had had, practically his little sister, and Gray… Well, everyone thought that friendship wasn't the only thing he'd felt for her, and he'd long ago stopped trying to argue the point.

The truth of it was, they were right, though that was something he hadn't been ready to acknowledge yet back then. Three years of missing her had helped him figure out his own feelings. Before she'd left, he hadn't truly realized how enmeshed in his life she'd become. He'd think of something he wanted to share with her, only to feel a pang in his heart when he remembered that he had no idea if he'd ever see her again. He still half-expected her to come up and greet him when he returned from missions, smiling brightly at her 'Gray-sama' and wanting to know how the mission had gone. He longed for her company, and the warmth of love and affection that she had always offered so freely to him, that he had wanted and needed yet had been too afraid of losing to accept. Now that she was out of his reach, he regretted passing up his chance to indulge in it.

Maybe he would've been able to let go of her better if he'd had a chance to say goodbye to Juvia in person, had her explain her reasons for leaving in a way he could understand, instead of leaving him with nothing but a cryptic note. It didn't help that it kind of felt like the whole guild was turning into couples around him. Erza and Jellal had married, and were even expecting a child, and many others were engaged or at least dating. Even Natsu and Lucy had finally gotten a clue and admitted they were in love with each other. But seeing so many of his friends happy together just made him feel Juvia's absence more keenly.

Gray often thought about where she might be and what she might be doing, if she was okay. He knew that she was a strong woman who could take care of herself, but with the loss of her magic… He even wondered sometimes if she'd died, somewhere out there beyond his reach, though something inside him told him that he'd know somehow if that had happened. He'd also imagined what he might say or do when (and it had to be when, not if, he wasn't going to give up on seeing her again) he saw her again, but he'd never been able to figure out how she'd respond. There was just too much he didn't understand about why she'd left. He knew what he wanted the outcome to be, though - for her to return to Magnolia, to come back home to the guild and to him.

The feeling of Cana laying her hand on his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts. "Hey, Gray, we're here." Finally noticing that they were no longer moving, he glanced around to find Lucy and Mira helping Natsu and Gajeel, respectively, out of the carriage. He wasn't quite sure why it had become a thing for Fairy Tail's team to all travel to the Games together, but at least their motion sickness had kept Natsu and Gajeel from causing too much of a hassle during the trip.

"Guess I should've been paying more attention," he admitted as he helped Cana collect their luggage from the carriage. After waiting for a couple of minutes for the dragon slayers to recover, they started making their way to the inn they'd been assigned. The group wasn't in any hurry as they walked through Crocus, taking in what had changed and what had remained the same since the last time they'd been there.

As they continued through the streets of the capitol, Gray's eyes caught a flash of a familiar shade of blue. Even though he knew he would probably just be disappointed, that it was likely just someone with the same hair color as her, he couldn't resist turning his head to get a better look. But what he saw when he turned to look stopped him dead in his tracks.

Walking in a different direction than his group, her clothes were different than she used to wear, a short-sleeved blouse and knee-length skirt suited to the summer weather instead of her long navy coat. Her hair was still left in its natural waves, but pulled up into a ponytail instead of hanging loose. Her features seemed to have matured a little, the legacy of three years spent apart. But he'd still recognize her anywhere, particularly her tilted, cat-like eyes, the color of the ocean's depths. Those eyes widened in surprise when they met his. Time seemed suspended in a frozen moment of recognition between them.

The moment shattered as she turned away and continued hurriedly on her course. His heart constricting painfully in his chest at her reaction, he called out, "Juvia!" But that only seemed to make her move faster. He pursued her as quickly as he could, but she darted into the middle of a crowd, and when he managed to push his way to the other side, there was no sign of her.


Originally, this was the beginning of the first chapter of this story, but after that chapter weighed in at 5k+ words when finished, I decided to split this off into a prologue. Since the next part of this is already written, it will posted shortly. :^)