'Good morning,' Gray cheerfully greeted Lucy and Erza where they sat at one of the many tables in the hall of the guild. They both looked up at him surprisingly.

'You're oddly cheerful this morning,' Lucy pointed out, pretending to not know why.

'I had a really good night's sleep. It was actually one of the best I've ever had,' Gray responded as he stretched before sliding in next to Erza.

'Morning Gray,' Mirajane warmly welcomed him as she walked over with a plate of food. 'I hope you slept well.'

'I really did. It was great to be in my own bed,' Gray replied, watching Mirajane place the food in front of Lucy. The white-haired mage smiled in response to Gray as Lucy softly thanked her.

'Just the other day you were grumpy about coming home,' Erza casually muttered under her breath once Mirajane was out of earshot. Gray turned to glare at her, knowing very well where she was about to go with this, but he was interrupted by a loud voice echoing throughout the great hall.

'FOOD!' The voice screamed as Natsu basically jumped from the open guild doors to Lucy's side, startling her. She stared wide-eyed at him as he stared intensely at her hot plate of food. Lucy eventually rolled her eyes. If only he would stare at other things that way. She sighed to herself and pushed her food in front of the dragon-slayer.

'Here, have it, before you start drooling,' she told him, folding her arms out of annoyance. Natsu looked from her to the food in disbelief. Suddenly he threw his arms around her, taking her by surprise.

'Thank you, thank you, thank you!' he cried out, causing everyone in the hall to stare and Lucy to go blood red.

'You're the best!' Natsu shouted with praise as whisperings began to surround them, alerting Lucy to the attention they were starting to get.

'Don't say things you don't mean,' Lucy strictly told him and she shoved him away from her, hoping it would stop the whisperings and her red face. Erza and Gray both chuckled. Poor Lucy.

'I do mean it.' Natsu responded through a mouthful of egg. He never did get the implications of his ignorant actions. He wasn't even aware of Lucy's blood red face. He was now completely focused on the free food he had gotten. Lucy sighed to herself yet again. He really didn't get it. She eventually shrugged her shoulders and leant her chin in the palm of her hand, watching Natsu eat. At least he was happy.

'You might want to slow down fire–' Gray began to speak, disgusted by Natsu's eating manners. He didn't finish his sentence. His entire body froze as he caught a glimpse of blue hair. It was her. She was back.

'She never left,' Erza whispered to Gray as if she could read his mind. It wasn't like that. Erza just knew that the only reason Gray could be this relaxed was if he thought Juvia wasn't around. Gray looked at his scarlet-haired friend with raised eyebrows. That didn't make sense. Then why wasn't she trying to be all over him yesterday? That didn't matter. It would only be a matter of seconds before she noticed him. Gray immediately went into defence mode, ready to protect himself from her advances. He watched her walk over to the counter and smile warmly at Mirajane. He noticed how Juvia gently clapped her hands together in front of her and titled her head slightly in her greeting. Had she always done that? Gray quickly shook his head. That wasn't important. He had to focus if he wanted to avoid her springing onto him.

'I guess I should order another plate,' Lucy muttered to herself as she raised her hand to call over to Mirajane. No! Gray's body immediately tightened. Juvia would definitely notice him now. He tried to jump across the table to stop her, but the words were out of her mouth before he could. It was too late.

'What's your problem!' Natsu screamed as Gray came crushing into him. The impact caused the plate of food to go flying all over the two mages as Lucy and Erza jumped out of the way. Everyone stared. Gray knew that this meant Juvia was staring too. She had finally seen him. He didn't dare move. He didn't even react to Natsu's name calling and wanting to start a fight with him. Maybe if he stayed still, she wouldn't see him. He knew this was wishful thinking. He prepared himself for the worse. But he didn't get quite what he was expecting.

The entire guild burst into laughter and amongst it was a soft sound coming from the blue-haired girl. Gray stared at her. She was standing there, looking back at him with a tender smile of laughter. And that was it. That was all she was doing. There was no outburst of 'Gray-sama.' No arms flung around him. None of the usual. What was going on? Was she playing mind tricks on him? Gray felt something weird in his chest as he watched Juvia give him a little wave before she returned to her conversation with Mirajane.

Huh. Gray felt like his head was going to explode with confusion. Juvia was acting out of character. Lucy and Erza noticed her strange behaviour too. This was so unlike her. They looked from the water mage to the ice mage, half expecting her to finally realise her precious Gray-sama was home and tackle him to the floor with affection. But she didn't.

'Maybe she really is…upset at Gray,' Lucy muttered to Erza, not completely believing her own words.

'Is that even possible?' Erza muttered back as Gray clenched his jaw. It's not like they didn't know he could hear them. He unclenched his jaw as both girls turned their gaze on him. That was never good.

'You need to go talk to her,' Lucy told Gray and he fiercely shook his head. That was the last thing he needed to do. He could only imagine what would go on inside her head if he approached her first.

'You have to,' Erza put in as she gripped his arm. Her words sounded more like a command than a request. Gray frowned. He knew what would come next. He felt a pull on his arm as he was forcefully pushed in Juvia's direction against his will. He stumbled a few feet behind the unknown blue-haired girl as Mirajane watched from behind the counter, amused. Gray refused to go through with this. He turned to quickly leave, but a glaring Erza stopped him. Really! It was either face Juvia or face the wrath of Erza. He was almost tempted to face the scarlet S-class mage. Another glance in her direction convinced him otherwise. It would have to be Juvia. Gray swallowed hard.

'Um, hi…hi, Juvia,' he mumbled, extremely uncomfortable from the situation he found himself in. She titled her head back and blinked blankly at him in response before her eyes widened with surprise. She clearly wasn't expecting him to greet her first. Gray braced for impact as her surprised expression started to fade. He could guess what expression would come next. Delight. Love. Obsession. His guess was wrong. All Juvia did was turn to face him with a gentle smile. There was that odd behaviour of hers again.

'Welcome back,' Juvia greeted him. Lucy and Erza's mouths both dropped open. That was it! Gray shifted his feet uneasily. He didn't know what was worse, Juvia's overreactions or her underreaction. He just knew he didn't like being in this moment.

'I heard you had a successful mission. Well done. It must–' Juvia continued to speak. Gray didn't hear pass that. I! Did Juvia really just use the word I? What was happening? She always spoke in the third-person. Now she was using words like I. Something was wrong. Lucy and Erza thought so too.

'Juvia–' Lucy tried to speak out to her friend, but her voice was drowned out by a louder voice.

'Juvia,' the unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the hall. The new sound even caught Natsu's attention and he looked up from the food he was trying to salvage from off the table. Lucy noticed Natsu sniffing up in the air. That meant that it wasn't just an unfamiliar sound, but an unfamiliar smell too. Lucy started to turn to see who the person was, but stopped when she saw Juvia's face light up. Gray saw it too. She had the expression of love on her face that he had come to try to avoid, but it was different somehow. This time it wasn't directed at him. Gray slowly turned to look at the person who was now making their way over to them.

'Blake,' Juvia happily responded with a voice full of affection. Lucy, Erza and Gray's eyes widened as Juvia joyfully embraced the stranger with sandy-blonde hair and green eyes. Blake! Who was Blake?

'Oh, how rude of me,' Juvia said as she noticed her surrounding friends staring at what seemed like an odd scene to them. They didn't know yet. Juvia opened her mouth to continue speaking. None of them could have guessed what came next.

'Everyone, this is Blake, my boyfriend.'

Boyfriend!