Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, its characters and their stories.

2.- Nervous

It had been almost a week since they got back from that nonsensical job. The mages they had to defeat didn't even present that much of a fight against him. He didn't even know why Juvia had picked something so boring. Alright, they had enjoyed about four days of free accommodation after they finished the job, but Hargeon wasn't that large, and after the first morning without a job, they had been 'forced' to stay at the beach and enjoy the weather. He had been wary about spending all that time alone with Juvia. Although, as he had reluctantly admitted to himself, her crazy ways towards him didn't actually annoyed him that much anymore, he didn't love the idea of four days in a row dealing with her. He could never have imagined how shocked he would be when instead of Juvia being at her most stalking mode, she was just relaxing and enjoying the days off and the warmth. When she talked to him she did it with a weird normalcy, the only trace of her earlier behaviour was that she still called him Gray-sama. By the third day of this, their interactions were starting to unnerve him. It didn't seem right for her to be acting that way. Dared he say he missed her stalking him? Perhaps, but not that much. Juvia's demeanor, although eerily strange, was somehow appealing. He didn't know what had triggered the change, but he couldn't complain much. He thought it was just a temporary change, so when they went back to the guild, and Juvia still behave like she wasn't Juvia, his uneasiness increased. And it should had been fine had he kept his uneasiness to himself, had he acted stoic and not let it shown. The fact was, he hadn't been able to stop it affecting his interactions with her. He felt strange when talking with her, almost jittery. Nowadays he found himself spending more and more time with Juvia. He was drawn to her, and he didn't know why. People in the guild, specially those who knew him best, were starting to notice his change in behaviour.

Then yesterday, while he was sharing a tea with Juvia, he had felt how Erza glared at him over her strawberry cake. He had sensed her gaze in his undressed neck, watching his every move. Gray could feel she was trying to decipher what was going on. Earlier that week Lucy and Erza had scolded him for going back to his stripping habits once that he had at least reduced them to a minimum. He couldn't help it. He was nervous for some reason, so he turned to his stripping habit without even wanting to. His subconscious was trying to placate his nervousness by going back to any routine he had once held. Like responding to Natsu's invitations for a fight day in and day out. It all had started with Juvia's change in behaviour and the interest it awoke in him, but it had evolved to the point that he felt uneasy whenever she was near or she was mentioned in any conversation. So, as he lately spent a lot of time with her, he was resumed to fighting whomever offered when he could not stand this newfound uneasiness. He had even began to wake up from the slumber and gloominess Ultear's disappearance, and most likely death -Gray felt-, had sunk him in. He had been grieving, or something like it. He could perfectly recall that minute into the future. He was dead. He was shot, multiple times. Gray was sure Ultear had been the one to save him, to save everyone. She had somehow used her magic to turn back the clock, and she had saved many lives without anyone knowing it. And it made him furious that, first Ul, and now her daughter, had died protecting him. He blamed himself for it. Gray remembered the pain he felt, remembered how his body was slowly been blown by those little dragons. He remembered how everything went black. And the thing he could most vividly recall was Juvia's agonizing scream. Juvia had seen how he died. The last thing he had heard before the blackness surrounded him was Juvia's heartbreaking cry. It wasn't a pleasant memory. So now that his thoughts had escaped somehow that dark corner of his mind, and been replaced by this anxiety over Juvia, he was confused to say the least.

Why the hell was this happening to him? Juvia was Juvia. His crazy stalker whom he had had to grown accustomed to. The one that fussed over him every day, and didn't leave him alone for a second. But she wasn't stalking him anymore. She was acting pretty normal now. Not Juvia-normal, but sane person-normal. And it was freaking him out.

He was still brooding about this, whiskey glass included, when he heard Juvia's voice. She was talking with Lucy at the entrance of the guild. A rare sight, those two together. Even more rare without Juvia jumping to Lucy's throat saying that she was her love rival. But what made Gray choke on his drink wasn't that. It was the fact that Juvia was out of her normal attire and was instead wearing a beautiful summer dress that stopped just at her mid-thigh, allowing her guild mark to show. It wasn't that he hadn't seen that much of her skin before, no more than ten days ago he had been on the beach with her in her bikini. But it was somehow different. Juvia was more conservative when dressing than most of the Fairy Tail girls, so seeing her without her winter coat, and for once dressing for the weather startled him. He was still staring at her when he heard someone clearing her throat behind him.

"You could just tell her the dress looks good on her." Erza said. She then proceeded to sit down next to him and started to attack yet another strawberry cake. "Or you could continue gawk at her like some crazy stalker." She chuckled and continued to eat her precious cake.

"What do you mean." Gray rumbled.

"You know what I mean. Remember the conversation we had during the Games?" She smiled smugly. It didn't suit her much, though.

He just grunted in response. He could feel how his cheeks were starting to get the colour of flame-brain's hair. And suddenly there was the rapid pulse again. He felt nervous. And all because of thinking of a conversation and the sight of Juvia in that dress. He guessed she really looked good. She always looked good, perfect even.

...

...

...

He didn't thought that. He. Did. Not. Thought. That. This was Juvia, for Mavis' sake. She was his nakama. Nothing more, nothing less. She had become his friend, and that was all. After all he had suffered from her stalking he couldn't be thinking that. That thought had not crossed his mind.

"You might wanna cool your cheeks, Juvia is headed this way." With that, Erza left, not before she complemented Juvia in her look.

"Ohayou, Gray-sama" She beamed at him. She was smiling so broadly that for a moment he forgot what he was supposed to say.

"O-Ohayou, Juvia." He had stuttered, for crying out loud. He seemed like some freaking schoolboy with a crush. He had not thought that.

"Is something wrong? Is Gray-sama feeling well? His cheeks are pink." She moved her hand closer to his face and aimed for his forehead, but Gray ducked away.

"I'm okay, it must be the heat in this damn place." He retreated once again to his drink, and almost gulped whatever was left down in one go. He could see a hint of hurt in Juvia's eyes for when he had eluded her touch. He didn't like it. He felt as much as he saw her smile dropped, and a frown replaced it. He was going to die from embarrassment, but perhaps seeing her smile again was worth it. He took a deep breath and felt his cheeks grow even warmer.

"You look beautiful in that dress, Juvia."

A/N: I hope you liked it! I apologize if Gray is a little OOC, it was really difficult for me to write from his point of view. I apologize once again for any mistakes in my english, and remember, if you hadn't read my previous gruvia week one-shot, that for each prompt I will be uploading a one-shot, all of them connected somehow. Still, you could follow them without having to have read the other ones.

The following one-shots are going to be published both as independent entries and as chapters of the same story ("Care is an ambiguous word.")

Thank you so much for reading! ^^