If we're being honest, I thought Mira's magic would fail. But...Here they are. Juvia started to sink like a stone, but her legs are new yet. She's still getting used to them. I wrapped my arms around her waist, doing my best to keep her afloat. Is Juvia going to have to relearn how to swim? I'm sure I'll be able to teach her if it comes to that. For now, she seemed to be in high spirits, so I couldn't complain. Only one thing left to do.
"Juvia," I had a firm grip on her hands, "Are you ready?"
"I think so," Juvia's voice softened as she stared down at her newly acquired feet, "How do I do it?"
"First," I pulled her out of the water and sat her on the edge of her oasis, "How is that? Are you doing ok?"
"Yeah," she nodded, shivering a little, "Is it always this cold on land, Gray?"
"Not always," I took my shirt off and gave it to her, "I probably should've been more prepared for this."
"Do you want me to run to the guild hall and get her something, Gray?" Mira offered.
"That's alright," I brushed her off, "But thank you."
Juvia drowned in my shirt. In a way, it was kind of cute to see the material hang off her small frame. She seemed perplexed by it. Juvia pulled her arms out of the long sleeves and wriggled her body through the neck hole. Then, she tied the sleeves around her waist in a big bow. Huh...Really doing the best with what she got, isn't she?
"It looks like she's got it under control," Mira approved, "I have to hand it to you, Juvia. You have quite an eye for fashion."
''More than my upper body was cold," she pointed out, resting her head on my shoulder, "Thank you for your shirt, Gray, but won't you get cold, too?"
"Have you just met me?" I chuckled, conjuring another ice duck for Juvia's oasis to float on the water, "Cold doesn't bother me. I'll be ok."
"Do..." Juvia's voice shook, "Do you promise?"
"I promise," I hugged her a bit tighter, "Are you sure you're ready to try walking, Juvia? You seem like you're ready to fall asleep."
"No," she shook her head furiously. There's no way that didn't kill her neck, "I'm ready. I want to do this, Gray. For you."
"Don't do this for me," I smiled, pushing some of her wet hair out of her face, "Do it for you. Do it for all the times you wanted to crawl out of this oasis and see what the surface was like."
"You're more experienced than I am," Juvia caught a second wind, "How do I walk?"
"Now that we have you on land," I helped her stand, but one of her knees buckled under her.
"Gray!"
"I got you," I caught her by her arms, "I got you. We're ok. Just put one foot in front of the other. Take it nice and slow. We'll focus on running some other time."
"Alright." Determination burned in her eyes. Juvia was more than ready to get out of this oasis, "Just...don't let me go."
"I won't," I promised, keeping my hold on her hands, "You can do this, Juvia. Make me proud."
Slowly, but surely, Juvia moved her left hip forward, not making the connection that her leg had to move, too. Her knee buckled again as she lost her balance, pulling us both to the ground, "Gray! I thought you said you weren't going to let go!"
"I didn't," I winced, pulling the rock out of my leg, "I fell, too. Are you alright?"
"I think so," she shook it off, "Can we try again?"
"As many times as it's going to take," I hid a smile from her, "You just need to be more careful, ok? Remember. Your leg has to move, too. It's not all in your hips anymore. Try it again."
"Ok," I helped her back onto her feet. She seemed to have that balance down. Juvia could stand like a champ. It's the walking thing she's got a problem with. But then, she shuffled one foot forward, regaining balance quickly. She looked up to me for confirmation.
"Keep going," I insisted, "You're doing good."
"I'm..." Juvia took another step. A more fully formed step. And another one. Then, another one, "I'm doing it, aren't I?"
"Yes, you are." I'm so proud.
"Gray, I'm walking on land!" she kept moving. Still a bit shaky, but she's got it for the most part.
"How's it feel?" I asked, letting one hand go.
"It's so strange," Juvia admitted, "I don't have the water resistance against me anymore."
"You'll get used to it," I assured, "Just don't use so much force when you take a step forward."
"It's exhausting," she leaned against me, using me to hold her up.
"We can stop if you want," I sat her down.
"Actually, Gray," Juvia stared back at her legs, her hands on her knees, "I don't want to stop. I want to see more. The furthest I've ever been outside my oasis has been a lake a few hundred miles away and I can only get there from the tunnels. I want to see more of the world than that. Could you show me the town you come to me from?"
"You..." I bit the inside of my cheek, "You want to see Magnolia?"
"Is it far from here?"
"Not really," I figured, "But are you sure? I mean, you said it yourself. Walking is exhausting."
"I can do it." Juvia never was one to shy away from biting off more than she can chew, was she? "I promise. I can do it."
"Mira," I asked, "How long is her transformation going to last?"
"As soon as she touches back into her oasis," Mira thought, "Until then, she's on land. She's got her legs."
"Please, Gray," Juvia begged, "I hear noises coming from Magnolia all the time. I want to see what's making them."
"Ok," I wasn't going to say no to her, "But if you start to get tired, I want you to tell me as soon as possible, ok?"
"I will," she promised, her eyes full of sparkle.
"I guess we're going back to Magnolia," I helped her back up, "Thank you, Mira."
"You're welcome," Mira smiled, "I did owe you one. Consider us even."
"What did she owe you for?" Juvia's radar went up.
"I don't want to get into it," I groaned, still trying to forget it ever happened.
"It's alright, Gray," she wrapped herself around my arm, "You can tell me."
"Well..." Juvia looked up at me with those big, beautiful blue eyes of hers. She knew how to get her way with me, "Mira and another member of our guild tried setting me up and the way they went about it wasn't exactly ideal. After I told them both not to."
"Why would you do that?" Juvia turned hostile, glaring daggers into Mira, "And after he said no?"
"We were worried about him," Mira somewhat cowered a bit.
"Easy, Juvia," I stopped her before this could escalate, "If they wouldn't have done what they did, I never would've gotten mad at them. And if I never would've gotten mad, I never would've come out in the woods to blow off steam. In a way, they helped me meet you. It's alright. It's over."
Juvia's grip on my hand tightened, only to ease in the same breath, "Alright..."
"Come on," I did my best to bring a smile back to her face, "I'm kind of hungry. And you wanted to see Magnolia, right?"
"Yeah." There it was. There's what I was looking for. I guess the prospects of this being a date were enough for her.
And so, the three of us started walking back towards town. Juvia's legs kept getting stronger and stronger as her steps got more and more stable. For being a first timer at this, I have to admit she's doing amazing. I've seen mothers in the square with their babies, trying to teach them how to walk. They'd all fall after the first step or two. Juvia's never had legs before and she's already ahead. What can I say? She may have had a good teacher. Not to brag or anything.
"Here we are." We came up to a big building with a familiar mark on its banners, "Welcome to the Fairy Tail guild hall."
"This is your guild hall?" Juvia stared up in sheer amazement. I never saw it that way. I mean, it's been built and rebuilt so many times that only thing original about it anymore is the foundation. And even that was hanging on by a thread.
"This is our guild hall," Mira confirmed.
"It's incredible," she gasped, "The palace wasn't even this grand."
"Palace?" I wondered.
"It's nothing," Juvia brushed it off, "I bet the inside of your guild hall is just as amazing as the outside."
"I don't know," I shrugged, "It's kind of just your standard guild hall."
"Could we go inside?"
My stomach did a flip of some sort. The thought of bringing Juvia into a place like the Fairy Tail guild hall seemed disastrous. For a girl that just got legs for the first time not even an hour ago to go into a guild hall that's notorious for inner sparring at any given time? That didn't seem like a good idea, "Maybe some other time. No one is ready for that kind of upset yet. The last time we brought someone new in, she shook the guild for a couple days. Besides, there's so much more in Magnolia than just the guild hall. Let's go get dinner."
"Alright," Juvia wasn't going to turn me down. She adored me too much, "But…"
"What is it?" I worried as her face fell.
"I…" she blushed, "I might need more than just your shirt."
"Yeah," I agreed, "Most restaurants in Magnolia won't let you in with no pants."
"I'm sure Lucy would let her borrow something," Mira suggested, "She and Natsu should be home."
"No," I shook my head. I'm sure Lucy would be more than happy to help her out, but subjecting Juvia to Natsu right now? Not in the cards. I have no doubt that he'd put her under a microscope and she didn't deserve that, "But thanks, Mira. We got it. I'm sure there's something open in town."
"There is!" she directed us, "Up a couple blocks, over one."
"Thank you." I followed Mira's directions to the letter and pulled some money out of my pocket, "Go ahead, Juvia. Anything you want. I'll be waiting outside."
"You're leaving me?" Juvia worried, her eyes swelling with tears, "Why?"
"I'm not leaving," I promised, "I told you. I'll be right outside. Shopping isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world, so I'm letting you go by yourself instead of me ruining the experience for you."
"Oh…" she sighed, "Fine. I promise I won't take long."
"Take your time," I allowed, "It's alright."
Juvia disappeared into the store behind me and I took a seat on the front steps. While she's in there, I gave thoughts to where I could take her next. My stomach was practically eating itself. Aquarius suggested that I don't take her anywhere that serves seafood out of respect. That ruled out half the restaurants in town. Well…There was one that was really nice just around the corner. I knew that place didn't offer seafood. Loke had talked about it once or twice and how it was his usual place to bring girls after a good paying job. That sounded like a plan.
"Gray…" Juvia came out of the shop in a tightly fitting blue dress and little white shoes…And…She's…
She's so…cute.
"Yeah?" I snapped out of my daze, "What is it?"
"Do…" her cheeks turned bright red, "Do I look ok?"
What do I say? This could be a double-edged sword. If I tell her she's cute, she'll burst into a volcanic nosebleed. If I tell her she looks awful, it'd be a knife in her heart. Middle ground? Middle ground seems safe, "You look fine. Good enough for where we're going."
"And where are we going?" Juvia asked, taking my arm back.
"I'm a guy of simple pleasures," I admitted, "And right now, I want food. Good for you?"
"Anywhere is good for me," she beamed. Awesome. I'm starving. And now, I get to say I've taken a mermaid to dinner. It's great. No one looked at her any differently. No one was the wiser. Mira did a good job. There weren't even any marks on her showing where her tail started or where her fins were. She looked so human…
When we got to the restaurant, we got a table tucked away in the back behind a paper screen. Perfect. The privacy wasn't exactly necessary, but we could chalk that up as an added bonus. On the off chance we ran into someone we didn't need to run into, no one would know we're even here. I didn't have Loke's planner memorized, so whether or not he had a date tonight was up in the air.
Regardless, this was nice. The restaurant was calm with the murmuring of different conversations coming together. The dark atmosphere put Juvia at ease. Everything was good. Maybe this wasn't going to turn out to be a mess. A night off from the craziness at the guild hall could be nice. And that usually happened when I was with her.
"Why'd we have to come here?" a voice whined from a couple tables over, "It's too stuffy and pretentious in here."
"Can't you at least try to enjoy it?" another begged, "I don't ask much of you. And just because I hated doing stuff like this when I was younger doesn't mean I don't miss it. Everything's fine. And we left Happy with the sitter. I'm sure he'll live. We had a good payout with the Star Lake job. Forgive me for not wanting something from a takeout box."
"Plue does not count as a sitter!"
Uh-oh…I spoke too soon. Immediately, I hid behind our menus. If I can't see them, they can't see me. But Juvia could see me just fine, "Gray? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I put her behind a menu, too, "It's nothing. We just…need to keep our heads down."
"Are you sure?" she worried.
"We'll be alright." I know they were bound to find out sooner or later. I just wish we could've gotten the later rather than the sooner.
"Shut up…" a head popped up over the screen, "Gray?"
"Hey, Lucy…" I might as well own up to it. It's not like I can hide anymore.
"Gray?" And there's the other popping up, "What would Gray be…"
I let out a heavy sigh of exasperation, hoping to all things holy and unholy they wouldn't draw attention to the elephant in the room, "Am I not allowed to eat anymore? Did I miss that memo?"
"Excuse me?" Natsu hopped the partition, his eyes falling on Juvia, "A girl? Gray! When did this happen?"
"Natsu!" Lucy snapped, "No!"
Kill me. Someone kill me. Put me out of my misery.
A/N: Poor Gray. He couldn't hide Juvia for long. Not when she's walking around Magnolia. I'm so proud of her. She's got mastery of her legs. Gray's somewhat salivating over her. And now, Natsu knows that Gray has a special lady in his life. God only knows what that fallout's going to be like. There's no way it can be pretty. See you next chapter! xx
