Gajeel was very confused. Juvia always loved the stripper. She was devoted to him to a slightly unhealthy extent, calling all the other girls he encountered "Love Rivals" and stalking him daily. She owned plush upon plush and poster upon poster that had Gray all over it. She bathed with a Gray loofah and had a Gray towel to dry off with for crying out loud! Even though the ice prick had said and done some bad things to her, she always brushed it off and came running back to him. Always. She loved him, so Gajeel never thought this day would come. Juvia was crying because of Gray. Gray had gone too far, and Gajeel was going to find out what he did and make him pay for it.

No one picks on my best friend except me, and no one hurts my best friend unless they have a death wish.

"So what was the matter with Juvia, Gajeel?" a deep voice asked, bringing Gajeel back to reality. He turned toward Pantherlily and looked him dead in the eye, a murderous expression slowly covering his face. Gajeel had been at home celebrating with Pantherlily since most of the guild's parties were too hectic for him sometimes. Pantherlily had expressed concern for Juvia since he hadn't seen her since Christmas Eve, not even around Gray when he had been out and about in town. Although he did not show it, Gajeel was worried for his oldest friend. He had immediately called Juvia, only to hear her sniffling when she picked up the phone.

"It's the stripper," Gajeel growled, answering Pantherlily's question. "He did somethin' that hurt Juvia and now she's a sobbin' mess. I'm gonna make that jerk feel so bad he won't even think about hurtin' her every again. He'll wet his pants outta fear an won't even try tah get near her ever again. Why, I oughta-"

"That's enough, Gajeel," Pantherlily interrupted. "You are clearly upset about it all, and that logic will get you no where. It's already almost midnight, so why don't we call it a night. Tomorrow, we will go to the guild and ask people about it. Although, that would explain the current weather conditions..."

Both mages looked outside at the storm that was obviously caused by Juvia. Gajeel began to get heated once again at the thought that rain that heavy would be caused by his best friend's sadness.

"I wanna make that stripper pay for it now-"

"We will go tomorrow-"

"Look outside, ya dumb cat! Do you see that storm? That's 'cause Juvia's crying at her apartment, alone, because the dumb Ice Princess decided to get a big head and break my friend's heart. She loves him and he hurt her! I wanna make him cry like she is and feel ten times the pain she is so that he'll never say anything mean to her again!" Gajeel yelled, his fists clenched as he struggled to keep his breathing in check.

Pantherlily sighed, "We will go tomorrow. For now, just calm down the best you can and get some rest."

"I wanna go an' check on her. I promise I won't track down the stripper tonight. 'Sides, you'll go with me to make me keep my promise of I want to or not."

"Not in this rain, Gajeel! A normal person would be soaked and run risks of getting a cold or worse, but you would turn into a pile of rust in this rain! You can't go, Gajeel not today. But I guess... tomorrow. We will go and find Gray and then check in on Juvia tomorrow, okay?"

Gajeel mumbled something incoherent.

"Gajeel?"

"Fine. We'll wait tomorrow."

"Good. Now, since it's past midnight, we need to get to bed so that we will have our strength for tomorrow's activities. We will clean up this mess of iron that you made tomorrow as well. But for now... goodnight. And Gajeel," Pantherlily trailed off, his tail swishing back and forth. He turned around to face Gajeel and a smirk appeared on his face. "Happy New Year."

With that, Pantherlily went to his bed and turned out all the lights in the apartment, save for the lamp beside Gajeel's bed. Grumbling, Gajeel went to his room and plopped on his bed, muttering about how he wanted to punch something cold and stupid. Gajeel reached for his bedside table and opened the top drawer, taking out some iron from it. Annoyed, Gajeel bit off pieces of iron and munched on it before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

When he woke up, Gajeel immediately noticed that the sun was glaring at him from outside. Maybe Juvia's feelin' a bit better. At any case, the ice princess is still in for a pounding when I see him. Grumbling, Gajeel got up and noticed the smell of bacon wafting through his house. "Lily?" he called out, stumbling into the kitchen. There was the exceed, flying around the kitchen with a pink apron on, cooking breakfast.

"Good morning Gajeel," Pantherlily replied, nodding his head at Gajeel before going back to his chef duties. "I figured that you would want a decent meal before going to find out what happened to Juvia, so I decided to make you breakfast."

With that, Pantherlily brought two plates of hot food and two glasses of milk and set them on the table. Then he grabbed a few kiwis and some iron pieces before setting them down at different seats. After he checked to make sure that all the appliances were off, Pantherlily sat down at the able while Gajeel sat down at the other end.

When the two had finished their meal, Pantherlily began cleaning up as Gajeel got dressed. After they both were ready, the duo headed out of their apartment and wordlessly strolled down the streets of Magnolia. Puddles were everywhere and the river was abnormally high, but the sun was shining and people were out playing in the slush and snow. Gajeel reflected on his and Juvia's conversation the night before, and he became more riled up the more he thought about it. Finally, they reached Fairy Tail's doors.

Gajeel burst through the doors of the guild, furious at the prospect of Juvia being hurt. Everyone turned their heads toward the entrance, since they were all hung over from the New Year's Eve party they had the night before.

"Hey, can't you be a little more quiet? Some of us have a headache, you know."

"Yeah, you've gotta have some sympathy for us."

Gajeel payed no attention to anyone as he stalked through the guild. Suddenly, he stopped in front of Gray and growled, "Oi, Stripper! Whatd'ya do to Juvia? She ain't her normal psycho self, and it has somethin' ta do with ya!"

Gray looked up from the bar, still nursing his hangover from the wild party the night before. He had immediately remembered the conversation he had with Juvia, and guilt was written all over his face. He had been getting drunk every night afterwards in a futile attempt to forget what he had said and done to the water mage, but every morning he woke up with a pounding headache and his memories intact. At the moment, Gray didn't know what to say.

"Did ya hear me, ice prick? You made Juvia cry. So I'm gonna ask ya one more time, what did ya do to Juvia?" Gajeel was beyond furious at this point due to getting the silent treatment.

The entire guild had gone dead silent, and everyone was looking at Gray, wondering what he did to make Juvia cry. Gray sighed, and resigned himself to his fate. "Well-" Gray shakily began, "It all started during that Christmas Eve party a few days ago..."

When Gray finished recounting that conversation, the entire guild stared at him in shock, wondering how he could be so cruel. Sure, he always brushed Juvia off and could be a little cold at times, but they never thought he would do something like that. Gajeel began marching up to Gray, bloodlust seeping out of him, but Erza beat him to it.

SMACK!

"Why would you say that to Juvia? She may be a little too expressive of her emotions sometimes, but that does not give you any right to say those things to her! You hurt a comrade, your nakama, Gray!" Erza yelled.

Gray cowered, too afraid to say anything back. When he looked around at the rest of the guild, he saw a mix of emotions on their faces: sympathy (for Juvia), shock, anger, and disappointment. Right when Erza was getting ready to pummel Gray, Natsu grabbed her arm, preventing her from striking again.

"Erza, stop." Natsu commanded. "Gray will see soon enough the damage he has caused." Natsu turned to look at Gray and said, "As for you, Gray, think about what you said, not to a stalker, not to some fangirl, but your fellow nakama - the people you're supposed to protect and care for. I'm disappointed in you, Gray, and I know everyone else here is, too."

Gray looked down, ashamed of his actions. He got up and was heading toward the guild doors with all eyes on him, doing a walk of shame worse than after a one-night stand. Suddenly, the guild doors opened again and everyone looked toward the entrance, curious as to who was there. Shock wasn't even close enough to describe what they felt when they saw the person at the guild entrance. Gray could barely choke out the person's name as his eyes seemed to bulge out of his head.

"Juvia?"

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A/N: Hey! So I posted this story on Quotev and decided to give a try. This was originally posted under MoonDancer478 on Quotev. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima but this particular story belongs to me. Thank you guys for reading! The story is already complete, so I will update weekly until it is finished and all caught up.