Ground Rules: Gray/Juvia/Lyon: In which Gray finally snaps after putting up with Juvia and Lyon's annoyingness and confronts them about solving the problem.
A/N: And so I created a fic right after the GMG, though where exactly this fits in, (because at the moment, um, dragons are attacking and Gray is, like, probably dead, so….) I have no idea. Just something light hearted and comical and a two-shot (originally a one-shot, but that ish was long, so I cut it up.) R&R!
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail ain't mine!
He was in love with his guild. He really, really loved it, with all of his heart, mind, and soul. It was a place that he would die to protect.
Yes, he loved his guild, but what he especially, especially loved about it was the noise. The noise because . . . it made the place feel alive. It made him feel alive. All of the energy and rowdiness was what livened the guild up, what made him experience that homey sensation.
But . . .
"Gray-sama~!"
. . . there were . . .
"Juvia-chan~!"
. . . times when . . .
"Erm, please don't refer to me as that, Lyon-sama! Gray-sama is the only young man allowed to add the –chan on Juvia's name."
. . . it just got . . .
" . . . Gray doesn't even call you that anyway, Juvia . . . ."
. . . too freakin' loud . . . .
"Juvia did not ask for your needless opinion, love-rival!"
Mainly when they weren't even in their own guild hall. And ultimately when a certain, snowy-haired ice mage decided to hang out with their guild for the night. Damn. And then it got noisy . . . like, the annoying kind.
"Well, sorry!" Lucy huffed from across the bar of the lodging called Honeybone.
He decided to raise his own voice, irritably setting his caramade frank down. "Oi, would you—?"
"Gray-sama, of course~!" Fairy Tail's water mage exclaimed before he could even get the words out. Like, jeez. Chances were, she hadn't even known what he was about to say.
He blinked, shutting his mouth.
"Don't talk to that stripper, Juvia-chan!" Lyon piped up, whilst shrugging off his jacket. "Share a drink with me instead."
"J-Juvia doesn't particularly like alcohol, though . . . ." Gray watched as she drummed her fingernails against the countertop of the bar, seemingly disinterestedly.
"Yet, you ask Gray to have a drink with you every day . . . ." Happy chimed in from the air, snickering into his paws.
"I meant lemonade!"
Surprisingly, his guild, Fairy Tail, wasn't even raucous that night. They were just sitting there rather, observing the events unfolding, watching those two and their issues and then smirking pointedly at him, as if they were his problem.
"Then, won't you have some lemonade with me?" Lyon pleaded, sidling closer to the blue-haired girl as Gray tried once again to take a bite of his frank.
"N-No thank you!" She bolted at least three seats over, away from Lyon and closer to Gray, knocking over several wine glasses in the process. "You're smothering Juvia, Lyon-sama . . . ."
With the sound of shattering glass, Gray winced, his right eye twitching in aggravation, and set down his caramade frank, once again.
The bartender grunted to Master Makarov, "You're gonna have to pay for everything your brats break."
The old man gulped down whatever drink had been in his mouth before protesting, "My brats? No, it wasn't my brat's fault! It was Obaaba's little nuisance!"
And the rest of the guild was still snickering and giggling and whispering, "Wow, Gray's gotta troublesome love triangle going on there."
And Gray would shoot his nakama a glare, indicating that they shut up, that they were not his problem, his responsibility, so his friends should just stop looking at him like that.
"Graaaay-sama, can Juvia please sit next to you?" Juvia inquired in something akin to a whine, the fingers of both of her hands intertwined in a beg while she cast Lyon a glance of displeasure.
Gray saw her plan. On his left, Max was seated calmly, and one stool down from the one beside him, was Macao, Wakaba next to him. And Juvia was hoping to squeeze into the chair parallel to Macao's so that she'd be next to him and Lyon would not have a space.
But, oh no. Gray shook his head to himself. Juvia would not be bringing all that trouble over near him. Oh no. Not at all. No way was—
Damn, she was next to him in an instant, the stool teetering for a moment after she'd practically thrown herself onto it.
"T-Thank you, Gray-sama," she panted, as if out of breath. And then (not much to his surprise, actually, because she did it only all the time) she clung to his arm, dark eyelashes fluttering as she looked up at him. "Juvia really appreciates it."
Jeez, this was annoying.
"I didn't confirm anything with you," he grumbled, lifting his frank to his lips. "Don't bring your trouble over this way."
"T-Trouble?" She blanched, shaking her head vigorously. "Juvia doesn't have any trouble." She pointed frantically at the white-haired, ice alchemist. "It's Lyon-sama who's the trouble."
He raised a hand to his forehead, moaning, "You guys are both trouble . . . . Leave me out of it . . . ."
"We're not the trouble, Gray," Lyon shot back, strolling over heatedly while Juvia pressed her back as far into the counter as it could go. "You're the trouble. You need to stay out of things and just let Juvia-chan and I be happy with each other."
Juvia groaned in frustration. "But Juvia is happy with Gray-sama!"
Gray was ready to pull out all of his hair. "I'm not happy with any of you!" Kami, they just wouldn't leave him alone and his own guild wouldn't even help! These . . . these lunatics . . . he didn't (nor did he want to) have anything to do with them at the moment. He just wanted to eat his caramade frank in peace.
"Come now, Juvia-chan." He made to take her hand in his, but she drew it back from him quickly. "Let us flee from here and I'll take you some place special."
Gray brightened instantly, so happily that he might as well have been glowing. Yes, this time, he was fine with wherever Lyon wanted to take Juvia.
Just take her and both of you leave me be . . . .
But of course, there were objections: "Juvia apologizes, Lyon-sama, but she wants to stay with Gray-sama!" Her grip on his arm got firmer and he began to worry if circulation would be cut off soon.
The Lamia Scale mage shot him the dirtiest glare he'd ever seen. Like, there was some major jealously brewing within those eyes.
"Gray, quit trying to hog Juvia, you scrawny bastard! She's not yours, you know!"
The younger ice mage scowled. "Oi, get outta my face. I don't even—"
"No!" She yanked him so hard, he nearly toppled from his stool with a yelp. "Juvia is Gray-sama's ultimately!"
Lyon let out an exasperated growl. "There you go again, Gray, keeping Juvia all to yourself."
These people were nuts, blinded by . . . by . . . by their insanity, or something!
Tiredly, he tried, "I'm not—"
And again, typically, he was interrupted: "Enough of your pathetic excuses, you idiot. We've got to settle this."
Gray merely raised her caramade frank to his mouth. "I'm eating here—!"
The frank was swatted swiftly from his fingers with a speed that caused the air to whistle. Gray could only stare as his food, his money, his craving splattered to the ground, dirt and dust collecting on the sticky sauce.
The entire guild grew silent, except for the gasps and several, "Ooh, Lyon's done it now,"s. Even Juvia released him to clap her hands over her mouth in astonishment because she understood that nobody— nobody, and especially not Lyon, messed with his favorite food.
Gray gritted his teeth, his fists clenching and unclenching, but instead of blowing his top, he leapt suddenly to his feet, grabbed Juvia by her hand, and put Lyon in a headlock with his other arm, dragging the two outside, despite their protests.
"You two . . . I've had about enough of you two."
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"Gray-sama, Juvia understands that her behavior hasn't been the best," Fairy Tail's water mage declared in oddly the cheeriest of tones, not even resisting as he continued to tug her by her hand, far, far away from the inn and their guild. "It's okay if you want to punish me. Juvia will bend over right here if you ask her to~!"
Gray cringed, but it didn't stop his heated trek through Crocus. Of course Juvia would turn his frustration toward something that suited her. Still, his palm grew sweaty in hers.
Lyon suddenly went wild in the headlock that Gray had him in and briefly, Gray wondered just how strong his irritation had made him so that Lyon could not escape.
"Don't even think about it, Gray! You will do no such thing to Juvia-chan! Not while I'm around!"
Says the dude in a headlock . . . .
But anyway, Gray picked up the pace, leading them away from the pub until they were at least two streets away and right in front of a local playground. And then he stopped . . . and let them go.
Except for Juvia. Even though Gray tried to let go, she still gripped onto his hand.
Lyon's hands instantly went up to rub at his sore neck. "What are we here for, Gray?" he demanded. "To play in the damn sandbox?"
"No," Gray snapped, shaking his arm and hoping that the stubborn hand clutching onto his would just come off. And then he looked around himself, realizing that he didn't even know why he'd brought them here either. If anything, he had just been stomping away aimlessly. "We're here because you two have got serious problems and we need to work them out because they are negatively affecting my life."
Lyon crossed his arms and scoffed. "What are you? Our therapist?"
"The . . . rapist . . . ?" Juvia's mind, naturally, was elsewhere while she smiled lazily, her voice airy. "Juvia would love for Gray-sama to be her rapist . . . ."
Gray shook his arm a little more frantically.
"I'll make sure that stripper won't do anything of the sort to you, Juvia-chan!" Lyon snarled, teeth bared like some sort of wild animal.
There. Exactly. Gray narrowed his eyes. "I rest my case. You two need help."
Lyon gradually simmered down and Juvia finally looked at Gray with eyes that were not glazed over.
"We don't need help from you," the mage from Lamia Scale spat eventually. "We don't even need help at all. It's not our fault you've never been in love . . . that you're as static and stiff as your ice make."
Gray made a face. "I didn't wanna help you anyway, loser! I just wanted to . . . ." He trailed off, thinking of how he should put this. The two stared at him expectantly and he chewed the inside of his cheek. "I don't know, make a truce, or something! Can't we stop annoying each other?" He ran his free hand over his face. "What is all that about, anyway?"
"You're surrendering, Gray?" Lyon straightened up, smirking.
Surrendering what? Why must Lyon always be such a bastard? "What? No! I don't like you, but all I'm sayin' is, if we happen to be hanging together, can't we act civilized and get along?"
Juvia bit her lower lip. "Juvia wouldn't want to embarrass Gray-sama in public. But Lyon-sama is just so . . ."
The snowy-headed wizard softened his gaze, studying her intently. "I'm what?"
She shrunk beneath her bangs and Gray actually grinned to himself. Yes. They were seeing the problem now. And directly, Gray had nothing to do with it, since it was mostly all Lyon bothering Juvia because he liked her and Juvia bothering Gray because she liked him, thus causing him humiliation. Yes, because it was most certainly not a love triangle; there was no "And Gray wanted to beat up Lyon because he liked Juvia, who liked him." Yeah. Duh.
"W-Well, it's not that Juvia doesn't like you, Lyon-sama . . . ." She dug her heel nervously into ground, fiddling with her fingers. "B-But you . . . you're so . . . clingy and I . . . I love Gray-sama."
Immediately, Lyon's eyes narrowed and shifted over to Gray, but he snapped, "Don't give me that look. It's not my fault. This is the reason why we've got so many issues with being in the same room together."
Lyon sniffed bitterly and turned his head. And inwardly, Gray felt rather victorious, yet he swallowed it a bit and switched his attention to the water mage with her fingers intertwined with his.
"And you . . ." He motioned to their hands. "You do embarrass me at times. And you're just as clingy as you claim Lyon is." He flushed at the way her face flushed and stuck his free hand in his pocket. "But you're a r-really appreciated friend of mine, Juvia, and it would be cool to be in the same place as you and Lyon and not have it be a catastrophe."
She nodded, offering him a small, amused smile . . . a smile of which he returned.
"You guys could at least be considerate," Lyon grumbled. "Always acting like lovers in front of me."
Yeah, they could've been more considerate. But if he wanted to act like a lover with Juvia (which he was not), then he would do it. Lyon just needed to man up. Totally.
It was then that his stomach growled. Noisily. Lyon and Juvia both turned to peer at him. And he shrugged and asked them, "You guys wanna get something to eat?"
"Juvia would love to go out with Gray-sama!"
"I would love to go out with Juvia-chan!"
Gray eyed them pointedly. "I meant together. As friends."
"Oh. Yeah, mmm, sure . . . ."
A/N: And so that chappie one guys, but you don't have to wait long for the second (and last) since I'm nearly done with it. LOL, so this was originally named "Sessions" because I was gonna do some therapy thing with Mira acting as their therapist, but then . . . this happened. So review please you guys and tell me what you thought!