~~~Chapter 7~~~
(AN: I'm back guys! The plot can continue and hopefully this chapter is edited :p. Sorry for such a long wait, but I am back and with a good amount of content! Also, this chapter introduces someone pretty important to Fairy Tail.)
I woke up to find myself in bed this time, similar to how I woke up the first night. This time, I was prepared for just what and who I was clutching and didn't release. I nudged my face in the azur hair and hoped that she wouldn't wake for at least another hour. It felt so natural.
"Gray-sama?" her small voice called out. I groaned in response, holding her tighter before she continued, "Juvia wants to ask you something. Can Juvia?"
"What is it?" I replied, still tired and not planning on letting her go any time soon.
"Well, it's just that… Juvia thinks that this time's Juvia comes back to her sometimes and she was wondering if the same thing happened with you. She wants to know if that's why Gray-sama's so bold," she said.
I was dreading that question. I just hoped that my answer wouldn't trigger some kind of fuss or whatever. After a sigh, I answered simply, "Yes."
She whispered sadly, "Juvia knew it."
"It doesn't matter. Mine's been pretty quiet anyway. Why'd you ask? Is yours talking to you?" I asked in return.
"Yes," she answered.
"What's it saying?" I questioned curiously.
She responded, "That Gray-sama should do this more often."
I propped myself up and used one of my hands to push away her hair from her face to look at her better. I said, "Well, we are kind of getting married in three days."
Realization fell on her face and I chuckled. She murmured, "We are, aren't we?"
"Yeah," I answered simply and leaned towards her.
"Gray-sama, stop a second," she announced, turning herself straight and pushing her hands lightly on my chest.
"What?" I questioned confused. Why would she say stop? This is Juvia, she'd never say that.
She answered, "Tell Juvia what makes you do this, please. Juvia wants this, but she needs to know why you're acting this way."
I blinked a few times before guessing, "Instinct?"
"Juvia's serious," she said.
"So am I," I returned. "Look, we're getting married, so in order for that to work, shouldn't we up our relationship a bit? It makes sense to me."
"Juvia supposes it does," she replied, a smile gracing her face. "But we should probably go to the guildhall soon."
I sighed, "I guess you're right."
After rolling out of bed reluctantly, we got ready and went to the guildhall. When we got there we stopped in our tracks at the sight in front of us. The inside of the guild seemed to be in shambles with a certain redhead standing in the center of the destruction. It looked as though the Master returned to the guild to find someone fighting again and destroyed everything. She was just as reckless as the Saber Tooth master, Sting.
"Erza, you know we'll have to pay for that, right?" a masculine voice called out to the beast-knight from the sidelines. "Come on, I thought we talked about returning to the guild and not destroying everything. It's your guild, after all."
I followed the voice with my eyes and as soon as I saw the blue hair, I knew it had to be Jellal Fernandes. I guess that four years allowed the most wanted man in Fiore to become a citizen. Though I didn't mind the news, I did wonder what happened to Meldy since she and Jellal were together.
"Sorry," Erza apologize to Jellal and everyone else in the guild, stepping over to the bar to calm down.
"It's fine," Jellal said, sitting next to her with an arm around her shoulders. "Just don't over exert yourself. You're due in a few weeks, you know."
That was all I needed to remember the story. Erza and Jellal had been seeing each other secretly, and didn't announce anything until she was knocked up and engaged. The member from the magic council had joined Fairy Tail and with the news, he wiped out the memory of Jellal's criminal days to the council so that they could live together with peace of mind from the authorities. And that all happened about eight months ago.
I understood what Levy meant about telling Erza about the situation. It probably wasn't the best idea to tell her since she was insane with emotions. It wasn't that big of a deal anyway since we were probably going to stay anyhow with our memories still coming back to us of what happened during the time that we 'missed'.
The only thing that still bugged me was really just that event Gajeel freaked out about the first day. All of the memories were coming back, so why not those too? It was also apparent that I couldn't remember any kind of trouble or anything since the Magic Games, so either there were none or those were blocked too. The feeling was strange to not know what your own life was like for some years time. I could remember the past year, but as it goes farther the memories just fade out.
Knowing that greeting Erza was inevitable, I got it over with right away as we passed the bar to join our normal table. I greeted, "Hey, welcome back, Erza."
"Thanks, Gray!" Erza chimmed. "Hello, Juvia. Everything going well?"
"Perfect, Erza-san. Nice to see you," Juvia said.
"Great to hear!" Erza declared.
I nodded my head towards Jellal, who copied in exchange. I lead Juvia away from the bar towards our table, knowing that the girls would be gossiping and she would probably accidently slip about what happened to us. It surprised me that she hadn't told Lucy yet, but it was probably because she was asked not to. Sometimes that girl only understood words.
"Hibiki's here," Levy announced to me as she handed Chromium over to Juvia when we got to the table. "I'm going to pick him up from the train station. Watch Chromi for me?"
"Juvia practically does that every day," I chuckled. "Where's Gajeel?"
Levy pouted, "Probably still in bed, the bum."
I held back the snark remark that came to my head and asked, "Okay, are you guys going to be in the library or what?"
"Yeah, we're going to the few in town and come here with what we find," Levy answered.
"Alright, best of luck," I said as I watched Levy walk off to exit the building.
Lucy questioned, "So, what is this big project, Gray?"
Of course, all of the horrible questions today, hua? I answered, "Oh, don't worry about it. Something came up that I wanted Levy to search up for me, that's all."
"If it's not a big deal, then why's Hibiki here?" Lucy asked. "What's going on? You're not telling me everything."
"Your call, man," I said to Natsu.
Natsu exclaimed, "'S your problem, Ice-Face!"
I returned, "You're the one that said you didn't wanna tell 'er! So, you do it!"
Lucy asked frustrated, "Tell me what, exactly?"
"Juvia will say," Juvia sighed. "Come on, Lucy-san, let's go to the library. Chromi-chan, stay with Lisanna-san, okay?"
"M'kay!" the boy replied and smiled as he was handed over to the white haired maiden before the four of us disappeared into the library to talk in private.
"Don't tell me you're not going through with the wedding, Juvia," Lucy frowned.
Juvia shook her head "No" and the blonde sighed in relief. She announced, "Tenrou happened. Gray-sama and Juvia are from the past."
Lucy gasped and asked, "Really?! But… Natsu! Why the Hell did you tell them to keep that from me?!"
"Sorry, Luce," Natsu whinned. "It's just that… I didn't know if…"
"Just because I'm pregnant, that doesn't mean that I can't know this stuff!" Lucy declared, sending Natsu shivering in fear.
That was new information. Juvia gasped that time and asked, "You're really pregnant, Lucy-san?"
Lucy sighed, the vein on her forehead slowly disappearing, "Yeah, so we both have secrets to keep for each other. So anyway, what are we talking here? Months, years? How long?"
"Four years," I answered. "Grand Magic Games."
"Wait, and you're still going through with the wedding?" Lucy questioned surprised. "You know you don't have to, Gray…"
"It was my idea to go through," I confessed.
Lucy stopped and blinked a few times then asked, "Are you sure you're still Gray? Did you hit your head or something? I'm pretty sure that Gray from before all Hell broke lose would never have said that!"
Natsu commented, "They have select memories. They don't even know what Tartarus is, let alone my… You know what… Gray probably doesn't even know that he has Devil slaying magic!"
"I have what?!" I exclaimed.
"See," Natsu added.
"But, that only influences my point!" Lucy said.
I sighed, "Well, it's still me."
Lucy apologized, "Sorry, Gray, it's just a little hard to believe, that's all. I mean, who knew that you'd just be that acceptable of our future?"
"Yeah," Natsu agreed.
"Oh, well. So what? You're all ganging up on me for what? So I somehow in your mind turn into the 'Gray of the past' and hurt her?" I asked, pointing to Juvia. "Sorry, but I'd like to keep my head in tact and I'm pretty sure Gajeel wouldn't let it on for long should that happen."
"We weren't saying that, Gray," Lucy denied.
I growled, "Were thinkin' it."
Juvia said, "Juvia told you that you didn't have to do anything you didn't want to do."
"And I told you that we're going to go through with it!" I responded.
"Going through with what?" Erza declared from the entrance. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, Erza. Don't worry about it," I said. "Come on, Juvia. Let's go."
Juvia looked apologetically to the three left in the library before following me out into the dining hall. Why did it seem like they were against me? Wasn't I supposed to be doing the right thing? Things were so much easier in our time, but we were probably never going back. The time when I could run away from these kinds of things are over, damnit. Even if we did go back, it wasn't like I could just go back to hiding again. Ah, why was this so frustrating?!
(AN: Quick thanks to the following: gaara973, DeaR (Guest), TTcouple, Srobinso1.)
