A/N: Hello, dear readers. I am back! It has been a few months, but this internship is killing my inspiration. Luckily, over a month and a half I will be done. This is just a short drabble about how I feel after today's chapter. I certainly hope Juvia will not forgive him just like that. Along the way, I added Lucy and Erza as well. Hope you will enjoy!

In order to keep up

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"How are you feeling today?" A blonde girl asked her companion.

Said companion turned her head towards her friend, smiled and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Juvia's fever is slowly fading," she answered.

"Have you talked to Gray, yet?" Lucy asked out of concern.

Juvia's smile fell immediately and held her eyes glued to her hands. Nervously, she mumbled a few unintelligible words. A sad smile appeared on the face of the celestial spirit mage.

"I understand," Lucy said as she took her friend's hands in her own. "He is a jerk for leaving like that."

Juvia shook her head and squeezed Lucy's hands tightly. "That's not the point, to be honest."

The blonde winced slightly at her friend's powerful grip, but her eyebrows narrowed at her statement. "Then what is?"

"Gray-sama left without uttering a word. He did not trust Juvia enough to tell her what was going on and eventually his interest in destroying the book of E.N.D. had a higher priority than letting Juvia into his life. We trained, lived and work together as a team for over six months, but Juvia guesses that does not mean anything to Gray-sama. Juvia has been so worried and she is glad that her love has gone back home, but since he did not trust Juvia, Juvia does not know if she can trust him ever again."

At the outburst of her story, Juvia held her hands in front of her mouth in shock and expected Lucy to be outraged. After all, Erza and Gray both claim it was better this way and that it had nothing to do with trust issues. Instead, Lucy's eyes were full of compassion and understanding.

"You have every right to be mad, Juvia," Lucy muttered and suddenly tears appeared in her eyes.

"Juvia is so sorry for making you cry, Lucy-san. Juvia does not want to bother you with such a sad story."

Lucy shook her head stubbornly. "I'm sorry I'm crying, but I understand how hard it must be to be left behind. You were not the only one, after all."

"Yeah, you have mentioned once before…" Juvia replied softly.

"When you finally think nothing can separate you, a single thought can rip you apart like it's nothing. And the worst thing is, is that the other party does not seem to care, at all," Lucy said, narrowing her eyes in anger. "Natsu and Happy packed their bags and left me with a horribly written note that they would be back within a year. No goodbye, no proper reason, just a stupid note. He left me and he did not trust me enough to come with him. Then Fairy Tail had to disband and I became… so…" Lucy yelled and finally burst out in tears.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered softly and repeated it again and again and again. Juvia tried to hold back the tears in her own eyes, but to no avail.

"They didn't mean to make you sad," a gentle voice whispered.

Lucy and Juvia both looked up to owner of the voice. Erza sat down on the bed next to the two mages and held her eyes to the ground. "I'm sorry, Juvia, for making Gray infiltrate Avatar. He was forced to leave you behind, because of me."

Juvia shook her head and squeezed Erza shoulder to put her at rest. "Gray-sama made his own choice."

After a few moments, Erza spoke up. "I have been lied to. I have had difficulties trusting Jellal over the last few years. He was possessed by demons from his past, consumed by darkness and he has betrayed everyone he has ever cared about. Over the years he has tried to redeem his sins by destroying dark guilds and gathering information on Zeref. Even though he is on the right path at the moment, does not mean he will ever be fully honest with me. He still lies and makes up stories. At first I thought he did not trust me, but eventually I figured out he keeps his distance for a reason," Erza said and smiled gently as she looked up to her friends.

"Our boys are trying to protect us, because they do not want us to get hurt. If that means for leaving us behind, then it will be that way. They do trust us, with their lives, but in the end they rather see themselves die than watching us suffer."

Lucy shook her head in anger. "I have suffered because Natsu and Happy left me. Juvia suffered even more and Jellal has betrayed you so many times."

Immediately, her face fell and she clenched her fists. "I'm sorry. I know the boys will always look after us, but sometimes I remember the days I was incredibly depressed. Fairy Tail's disbandment left me as an emotional mess and sometimes I have issues."

"When Natsu showed his face, I knew there was hope for Fairy Tail, but his careless attitude sometimes angers me. He doesn't seem to care he hadn't seen me for over a year. Sure, he was glad to spent time with me, but as if nothing has ever happened. That bugs me a lot."

"Natsu is incredibly immature at times. He has never been an open book to anyone and has trouble talking about his feelings. The dense idiot does not want anything to change, so he acts like nothing has ever happened," the requip mage said.

"I know, but still…"

"Gray-sama had been such a gentleman during our time together. He showed Juvia can be happy without Fairy Tail. I had the feeling that perhaps, maybe, one day he would care for Juvia as much as she does for him, but the feeling faded as soon Juvia figured out he wouldn't come back for quite a while."

"He needs to grow up," Lucy said and punched her pillow. "They all need to grow up. We are fine, capable mages and we want to be let into their lives."

Erza nodded enthusiastically. "But how are we going to do that?"

Lucy jumped off the bed and took the hands of her friends into her own. "By keeping up with them. Wherever they, we go. We will not give them the chance to leave us behind anymore."

Juvia's eyes sparkled. "I have always been good at stalking!"

Her friends burst out in laughter. "Let's do this!" Erza yelled.

Days, weeks and months went by when the boys finally learned they could not leave their (girl)friends behind anymore and they finally had to give in by confessing how lost they would be without them.

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A/N: I did not check for grammar mistakes as I do not have the time. Sorry! Reviews are always appreciated!