A Lapse of Memory
Chapter 3
by Contrail

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and is being used without permission. No profit is being made from this story.

Unfortunately for Gray, Juvia's memory loss didn't turn out to be a bad dream. Days turned into weeks, and Gray still just couldn't get used to it. While she acted the way she normally did around the others in the guild for the most part, when it came to Gray it was a different story entirely. Gone were the declarations of love, the gifts, the 'Gray-sama's. Instead, she was as shy around him as she had been when she'd first joined Fairy Tail, and called him 'Gray-san' like they weren't even friends. And while he could still feel her eyes on him when he was in the guild, instead of the adoring looks she used to give him, she now looked at him like he was a puzzle she was trying to solve.

Being around her when she was like this felt so awkward to him that he couldn't stand to be around her for more than a few minutes at a time. If things threatened to drag on longer than that, he made up some sort of excuse to leave and escaped. He felt bad about being rude to Juvia like that, but… Being around her just made Gray miss the way things had been between them more. He'd take even the most embarrassing of her antics over the tension that existed between them now. What he really missed, though, were the times when they were comfortable together, going on missions or eating or just talking.

The whole situation made Gray more irritable than usual, and it didn't take long for the rest of his team to notice this. Lucy and Erza gave him sympathetic glances when they thought he wouldn't notice, and even Natsu picked fights with him less than he usually did, allowing him to brood in peace. And they all tried to avoid bringing up Juvia in conversations. He was grateful that his friends were giving him space but otherwise leaving things alone. He really didn't feel like talking to anyone about it.

One evening, after returning from a mission, he spotted Levy and Gajeel sitting together and walked over to them, wanting to get an update from Levy. Porlyusica had examined Juvia the day after she'd returned from that ill-fated mission and she had concluded that there was nothing she could do to help Juvia, since there hadn't been any true injury involved. They'd just have to find some way to get rid of the spell that'd been cast on Juvia, and that's what Levy had been working on since then. "Hey, Levy. Any progress?" he asked, ignoring the disgruntled look Gajeel was giving him.

"Well, I finally manage to track down a detailed account of the magic that was used on Juvia," Levy answered. "The good news is that it can't erase existing memories, only block them. So they're still there, we just need to figure out a way to get past the block on them and make Juvia remember them. Once that happens, the spell that was put on her should unravel completely."

Gray was a little surprised at the wave of relief that flowed through him at Levy's words. He hadn't realized how much he was worrying in the back of his head that Juvia's memories of him might be gone forever until he didn't have to anymore. He tried not to let his reaction show too much, though. "Good work. Any ideas yet on how to get her to remember?"

Levy bit her lip, looking thoughtful. "A couple, but nothing solid enough to be worth talking about yet. I'll keep at it."

He nodded, giving her a small smile. "Thanks for working so hard on this."

Gajeel, who'd just been sitting quietly and glaring at Gray through his discussion with Levy, snorted at this. "What do you care, you icy bastard?"

Gray matched Gajeel's glare with one of his own. "I'm the one Juvia can't remember anymore. Or should I not be concerned when one of my nakama can't remember anything about me?"

Levy glanced between the two of them with worried eyes. "Guys, please don't fight…"

The two of them ignored her, however, as Gajeel got to his feet, staring Gray down with his full height. "Thought you'd be happy to have her forget you, with the way you usually treat her. Or does it hurt your ego to know that she won't be hanging on your every word even if you treat her like shit as long as you give her a kind word every now and then anymore?"

The accusation hit Gray like a slap in the face. Heads turned to watch them as the rest of the guild became more aware of the tension growing between the ice-make mage and the iron dragon slayer. As often as the members got into brawls over little things, arguments this serious were much more unusual. Clenching his hands into tight fists at his sides, he narrows his eyes and shoots back, "I would never treat one of my nakama like that. Just because I don't accept her advances doesn't mean I don't respect and care for her as a comrade and a friend."

Gajeel just shrugged off his response. "Coulda fooled me. Wouldn't be the first time someone's taken advantage of Juvia's good nature."

He had been ready to continue to defend himself, but Gajeel's last statement threw him off. He didn't like the implications of it, either. "…What do you mean, this wouldn't be the first time?" he questioned after a pause.

A flash of something - regret? guilt? - passes over Gajeel's face before he abruptly turns his back on Gray. "Nevermind. Just- Quit playing around with Juvia's heart. Figure out what you want and tell her, instead of letting her get her hopes up." Having said what he wanted to say, Gajeel stalked off towards one of the darker corners of the guild.

Levy sighed and stood up, giving Gray a concerned look. "He didn't really mean what he said. It's just… The whole situation with Juvia has him out of sorts."

Gray shook his head and looked away. Gajeel may not may have meant everything he'd said, but that didn't change the fact that he'd said it. Or that, if he was being honest with himself, there was a grain of truth to what Gajeel had said. Not that he'd been deliberately leading her on, no, but that his actions towards her were confusing. (And a part of him did enjoy having a pretty girl lavish attention on him when she wasn't being embarrassing.) So he sighed and said, "It's okay, Levy. I won't hold it against him."

Looking relieved, she nodded and headed off after Gajeel. He didn't really feeling like sticking around the guild anymore, so he headed towards the door, passing Juvia, who had just come in, on his way out. He didn't have any particular destination in mind, so he just let his feet take him where they would while he lost himself in thought. He couldn't help wondering about what Gajeel had let slip about someone having taken advantage of Juvia in the past. Who'd done that to her? Had he hurt Juvia badly? Did he get what was coming to him for having done that to her?

Unfortunately, he had no way of finding out the answers to any of those questions. Gajeel wasn't going to tell him, not when it looked like he regretted having mentioned it at all in the first place. And while normally he could've just asked Juvia directly, with her memory loss that wasn't an option, particularly considering the way he'd been treating her lately. He honestly didn't know a lot about what Juvia's past before Fairy Tail had been like beyond the basics. He'd never bothered to ask, and Juvia had only rarely mentioned anything about her time in Phantom Lord, let alone her childhood. Maybe once things were back to normal between them (and that would happen, he'd make sure of it) he'd ask her about things like that more often.

A familiar voice calling his name broke him out of his thoughts, making him realize that his wanderings had taken him into a park. He looked up to spot Lyon walking towards him. Great. Dealing with Lyon was just what he needed to put a perfect cap on his day. "What are you doing here?"

Lyon just smirked at him. "Why, hello, Gray, it's nice to see you, too."

Gray just rolled his eyes. He knew he was being kind of rude, but he didn't really care. He really wasn't in the mood for this right now. "Yeah, yeah, very funny. Why are you in Magnolia?"

The other ice-make mage sighed but apparently accepted that that was all he was going to get out of him. "Well, I was passing through on my way to my next job, so I thought I'd drop by Fairy Tail while I was here. Since you weren't there, though, I came looking for you."

"Well, you've seen me now, so you can be on your way."

Lyon sighs and shakes his head. "So eager to get rid of me? If I didn't know about the real reason for your bad mood, I'd be hurt."

"Real reason?" Gray asked skeptically.

His demeanor turning more serious, Lyon gave him a direct look. "I know about Juvia forgetting you."

That statement brought an immediate scowl to his face. Of course the loudmouths of the guild wouldn't think not to tell Lyon about that. And Juvia had been at the guild when he left. "You'd better not have-"

"I gave up on winning Juvia's heart, remember?" Lyon retorted, cutting him off in mid sentence, a slightly pained tinge to his voice. "And even if I hadn't, do you really think that I'd stoop so low as to take advantage of something like that?"

After a tense couple of moments, Gray sighed and looked away. "No. No, I don't," he admitted. "I've just been… a bit stressed lately."

Lyon nodded his acceptance of Gray's not quite an apology. "That's understandable. Juvia's feelings weren't the only reason I backed off, after all."

Gray gave him a puzzled look. "What…?"

"Nevermind," Lyon replied with a shake of his head.

He kept his eyes on Lyon for a bit longer, but when it became clear that the other man wasn't going to elaborate, Gray turned away and moved to lean on a nearby fence, looking out over the grass.

After a minute or so, Lyon came over to join him at the fence. "You know, given how upset you are about this, I wonder what you thought trying to push Juvia away at that party was going to accomplish."

Gray gave him an irritated glance out of the corner of his eye. "What makes you think I was trying to do that?"

Lyon returned his look with a skeptical one of his own. "I know you, Gray. And you weren't being nearly that cold to her before then."

He shifted uncomfortably and looked away. "Maybe I just got fed up with her clinging to me all the time." That statement rang hollow even to his ears, though.

An exasperated sigh came from beside him. "Are you really going to spend the rest of your life driving away anyone who might care for you as more than a friend?"

"I'm not interested in that kind of thing." Gray stubbornly kept his face turned away from Lyon, but he could feel his face growing a little warm. Topics like this always made him (embarrassed) uncomfortable.

"Fine, be that way," Lyon grumbled. "Still, even Juvia will get tired of being pushed away eventually. You'd think you'd have realized by now that death isn't the only way to lose someone."

He didn't have anything to say to that. Gray had to admit, even if only in his head, that Lyon had a point. With Juvia's memory like it was, it did feel almost as if he'd lost the Juvia he knew only to have her replaced with a stranger who just looked like her. But she'd definitely get her memory back. And while the idea of Juvia changing her treatment of him not because of memory loss but by her own choice was an unpleasant and unsettling one, she was so persistent that she'd never give up. No, that was something she just wouldn't do. (Right…?)

After they just stood there in silence for a while, Lyon straightened up. "…I need to get going if I'm going to make my train. Think about what I said, okay?" He started to move away, then stopped and turned to look back over his shoulder. "Oh, and Gray?"

"Yeah?"

"Put your clothes back on."

Gray groaned to himself, then shot back, "Don't tell me that while you're shirtless, too!"

Next Chapter: How Juvia's holding up under everything.

Again, thanks for the reviews and follows! :^)