Accidents Happen
By: Amnesty
Gray and Levy were walking down one of the corridors of Fairy Tail together to gather some supplies for the guild's bar that Mira had asked for. While heading to the supply closet Levy just happened to glance out the window and saw Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Juvia standing outside together along the part of the building no one really went to.
"Hey Gray, hold up," Levy said as she leaned her hand on the glass paneling. "Did you know Gajeel and Juvia were back?"
"Really," Gray asked, masking his surprise. Typically the moment Juvia got back from any mission she came to greet him immediately.
Gray joined Levy at the window and looked outside. He couldn't place it but something looked very odd between the two at the moment by the way they were acting. Lily seemed to be talking to the two mages who seemed to be awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze. Gajeel faced one direction with his arms crossed tightly and with a mild blush on his cheeks while Juvia was facing the other direction, completely flushed and swaying uncomfortably.
"Did they have a fight or something," Levy thought out loud.
Those two seemed to typically get along with each other very well as Juvia was one of the few people that Gajeel would team up with for personal missions. He saw her as a valuable and strong team mate and friend that he could rely on. Something Levy was envious of. Levy raised the window to call out to the two but before she could speak Gray grabbed her shoulder and put a finger to his lips.
"I want to find out what's going on between those two," Gray whispered.
"Eavesdropping Gray, really," Levy whispered back. "Because I'm totally okay with that."
Gray rolled his eyes and peered back out the window to watch the scene unfold.
"Listen up," Lily stated as he stood between the two friends. "I've been patient and dealt with the two of you acting this way the whole way back home but this is starting to get ridiculous. The way you two are acting now toward each other the moment we step inside the guild everyone will know something is up between the two of you. Gajeel, do you want to play a thousand questions with Mira and Cana?"
Gajeel tensed before answering steadily. "No."
"And Juvia, do you want Gray to question your loyalty for him?"
Juvia's head popped up in a panic and she began to shake her head feverishly no. "It was an accident Gray-same! Juvia swears."
"Exactly," Lily nodded. "It was an accident between two friends. And honestly with how often you two go on long missions together I'm surprised it took this long for something like this to happen in the first place. But it's over now and they two of you need to except what happed and move on. So let's start from the beginning. Both of you take a step back," Lily ordered and both Juvia and Gajeel followed the Exceed's directions and took one step back toward the other mage. "Okay, and another." They did so again and kept following Lily's prompts until they were standing right next to each other. "Now, the two of you are at a normal distance between each other. It's time to turn and face each other." The two mages slowly turned with their faces growing a darker shade of red as they went. They were now facing one another but Gajeel had his eyes toward the sky while Juvia was hiding her face in her hands. "Good, good. You two are doing very well. See, this isn't so bad. Just like old times. Now, at the count of thee I want you two to make continuous eye contact for at least five seconds. Here we go," he warned. "One… Two… Three!"
Gajeel and Juvia quickly locked eyes with determination. Wanting desperately to get past this road block in their partnership so that things could go back to normal. After four seconds of intense staring the impulse to glance down at each other's bodies won out and they eye contact broke.
"Kyaa," Juvia screamed as she wrapped her harms around her chest and leapt away from the Dragon Slayer, completely flustered and mortified.
Gajeel took suit and turned to walk back to where he was standing earlier, much more flushed. "This is ridiculous. We can't even look each other anymore," he growled in annoyance.
"But the two of you are making progress," Lily said encouragingly. "We added a whole two seconds to our last time. We'll just… keep at it until the two of you are ready."
"Gray-sama, Juvia is so sorry," Juvia whined as she cried a waterfall.
Back inside the building Gray and Levy slid down the wall below the window in shock.
Levy clutched her stomach as she stared out blankly. "Bound to happen eventually? What was bound to happen eventually?" Levy moaned. "I'm starting to feel sick…."
"Why is Juvia apologizing to me? What did they do where she would feel the need to apologize," Gray asked to himself, suppressing the urge to rush outside and go all out against the Dragon Slayer.
"What happened," both Levy and Gray asked in unison and annoyance.
*** Flashback to a few days ago***
Juvia was relaxing peacefully in a natural hot spring that was in the woods near the town where they just successfully completed mission. It was near evening time and the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. To Juvia the water felt delightful as it worked loose her aching muscles. She looked over to the wooden fence that separated the male's spring from the females and smiled to herself before drawing closer to the blockade.
"Gajeel. Gaj~eel, Lily. Can you hear me over there," She called out.
"Yeah? Whaddaya want," she heard Gajeel respond from the other side.
"Isn't it nice that the springs are so close together we can easily chat with each other from the other side?"
"Can't we just bathe in silence? Why do we have to talk with each other while we do it?"
"Please, Gajeel-kun. Juvia is all alone over here," Juvia said, pout clear in the inflection of her voice. Although she didn't really mind being alone in the hot springs (she actually preferred it this way). She still wanted to talk with her close friends.
"I'll talk with you Juvia," Lily replied next to Gajeel.
"Yeah yeah," Gajeel also agreed. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, how's the water on your end?"
"Fine, a little cooler than I typically like it though."
"Really? Juvia's is very warm. Do you want to switch? Since we're the only ones here I'm sure it would be fine to do so."
"No, stay where you're at. I don't plan on staying in for too much longer anyway"
Juvia giggled. "Are you beginning to rust?"
"Yes Juvia. I'm beginning to rust," he deadpanned.
"Juvia will get out too then," she said as she pulled herself out of the water and wrapped her naked body with her towel.
Once she secured the white towel around her she noticed the sign that she hung in on before she got in.
"What's this," Juvia stated as she began to read out loud. "Danger: Springs closed due to dangerous creature until further notice." Juvia placed her hands on her hips in thought. "Dangerous creature? Hmm… Hey, Gajeel."
"Yeah," he called from his side
"Did you see the warning sign about the hot springs being closed?"
"No… Oh wait. There is one over here." There was silence on the other end momentarily. "Apparently they were having some wildlife issues."
"I did notice this place seemed rather abandoned looking when we got here," Lily piped in.
"I thought it was just rustic," Juvia laughed.
"Well, I haven't seen anything since we got here. Maybe the creature died at some point and the town's people just forgot about this place"
"Maybe," Lily stated, but just that moment the ground around them began to shake violently with what sounded like rapidly approaching running.
"Kyaa," yelled Juvia as she looked around frantically. "What's that?"
The running sound grew closer and Juvia turned as a large beast leaped out of the trees and plowed through the wooden divider between the springs. She saw Gajeel and Lily on the other side who were also both, thankfully, covered by bath towels.
"It's not dead," Juvia stated, pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah, I can see that," he quipped back, turning both arms into iron.
The creature turned about and let out a piercing screech. Everyone covered their ears to try to block the pain, but the creature's screech effected them in such a way that all they could hear was a sharp ringing. The creature then began to charge again for the attack.
The three Fairy Tail shared a look and a quick nod. Even though they couldn't hear each other they knew exactly what to do and how to work together. Juvia pulled up the hot spring's water and rushed it toward the creature. Once enough was gathered she had it push up and launched it into the sky where Gajeel, who was being carried by Lily was waiting and with a quick punch took the creature out. The wild beast crashed back down into the base of a tall tree with a loud thud.
Gajeel and Lily landed while Juvia ran closer to where the beast landed. She turned and gave Gajeel and Lily a peace sign showing that the creature was decommissioned. She than began to casually walk toward Gajeel and Lily.
"Well that was easy," Juvia unconsciously shouted since she couldn't hear herself speak due to her ringing ears. Looking at her teammates she could see that they were yelling something at her as they ran closer. She tilted her head in confusion. "What, Juvia can't hear you?"
She then quickly noticed what felt like a small tremor and turned to where the creature had fallen only to see the large tree it plowed into falling in her direction. Juvia quickly readied her mind for her water body but before the tree hit she felt Gajeel tackle her out of the way. They rolled a bit before finally coming to a stop. Juvia's eyes fluttered open to see Gajeel's wide, horror filled eyes inches away above her. Her mind immediately connected the dots to their current position. At some point while dodging the tree they had lost their towels and their bodies where pressed against each other tightly.
"I can feel Juvia's-" Gajeel thought with a heavy blush.
"Gajeel-kun's naked body against mine," Juvia thought as well with an equally red blush.
Juvia began to scream at the top of her lungs as Gajeel back peddled off and away from his exposed friend. Juvia sat up and covered her chest the best she could as she continued her melt down.
"Sorry," Gajeel shouted frantically. "I'm so sorry. It was an accident! I swear!"
"Gajeel stop looking," Juvia screamed.
Gajeel realized that he was doing just that and turned around quickly. "Sorry. Sorry!"
Lily quickly grabbed Juvia's towel and gave it to her as smoothly as he could with his eyes closed. Juvia snatched the piece of cloth and held it against her body as she began to cry.
"I'm really really sorry," Gajeel pleaded.
A/N: So there we have it. I'm sure they smooth things out with Gray and Levy at some point after they get over the awkward incident. I also apologize if it doesn't make sense as I'm kinda writing from the after buzz of drinking with friends. I may read this tomorrow and go "what the frak!" Anyways, hope you enjoyed my drunken story. Please review! I'm going to bed now….