A Change in Timing
Chapter 9
by Contrail

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


In the morning, Gray picked Juvia up from the inn she was staying at and brought her to where the guild hall had been. A hush fell over the members already assembled there as they caught sight of Juvia. She lowered her head, seeming to shrink into herself a bit, and he put a reassuring hand on her back as he lead her over to Gramps.

Turning to address the crowd, Gramps declared, "This young woman is Juvia Lockser. She has asked to join our guild, and I have accepted her as one of us." There was murmuring from the crowd, and Gray frowned as he caught the word 'Phantom'. "I am well aware of her previous affiliation," Makarov continued, "but I am satisfied with the accounting she's given of herself and believe she will be nothing but a loyal member of this guild from here on out."

"And anyone who gives her grief about having been in Phantom is going to have me to deal with," Gray added, arms crossed over his chest and expression determined. Juvia gave him a startled but grateful look, and even seemed to be blushing a bit for some reason.

When Gramps called Mirajane over to give Juvia her guild stamp, Mira was nothing but pleasant to her, thankfully. She chose to have her new guild mark placed on her left thigh, and Gray found himself blushing but unable to look away as Juvia lifted the edge of her skirt to allow Mira to place it there.

Once Mira was done, Juvia started looking around. "What're you looking for?" he asked.

Turning to him, she explained, "Juvia is looking for Lucy-san. She wants to apologize for her actions when kidnapping her."

Looking around himself, it didn't take him that long to spot Lucy. Pointing her out, he said, "There she is, towards the back of the crowd. Do you want me to come with you?"

She shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, Gray-sama, but this is something Juvia should do alone."

"Alright." He watched somewhat pensively as she walked over to Lucy, bowing deeply before her. Lucy looked a little nervous but seemed to be willing to accept Juvia's apology.

An arm being thrown over his shoulders dragged his attention away from the scene he was watching, and he looked to his right to find Cana grinning at him. "So, you've taken a liking to our newest member, huh? That was real white knight stuff, what you said about people giving her shit having to deal with you."

Gray felt his cheeks heating up a bit as he frowned at Cana. "It's not like that - she's an old friend, the one I've been writing letters to for years."

"Oh ho," she responded. "So we finally get to know who she actually is, huh? You never said she was cute."

He rolled his eyes. "I hadn't seen her in person for years until recently. And you sound like Loke." Gray looked around with a frown. "Hey, speaking of Loke, have you seen him around?"

Cana shook her head. "Haven't seen him since the questioning ended."

Gray's frown deepened. "I hope he's okay."

"Probably just visiting one of his girlfriends or something." Even though Cana waved off his concern, she looked a little worried, too.

Nodding, he replied, "I may go looking for him if he doesn't show back up soon."

Looking towards where Juvia and Lucy had been speaking, he only saw Juvia standing there now. After saying bye to Cana, he made his way over to Juvia. "Where'd Lucy go?" he asked.

"Her injuries are still painful, so she went home," Juvia explained, an expression of regret on her face.

"Did you get things straightened out with her?"

She brightened a little. "Yes, Lucy-san accepted Juvia's apology with grace."

"Good." He smiled. "You should probably go ahead and talk to Erza now, so she can help you get set up in Fairy Hills."

After pointing Juvia in the right direction, he joined the rest of the members of the guild in starting to clear away the wreckage of the old building so that they could rebuild in the same place. He went to bed exhausted from the backbreaking labor involved, but the lot was mostly cleared by the end of the day.

Construction work occupied most of the guild for the next few days. Juvia joined in on the rebuilding effort on the afternoon of the day after she'd joined the guild officially. She told him she'd spent the time in between getting set up in Fairy Hills and taking care of everything she needed to do to leave Oaktown for good.

Loke showed up with Lucy's keys the morning after that, but Gray's mind wasn't entirely put to rest - his friend looked terrible, and didn't even comment on there being a new young and female member of the guild. But he was distracted by the mystery of Lucy vanishing from Magnolia, and he put the matter out of his mind while they chased her down to her family's estate. (Man, he'd known the Heartfilias were rich, but how much land they owned had still been shocking.)

A couple of days later, as he and Juvia were walking to get lunch - they'd started to make a bit of a habit of that since Juvia had joined Fairy Tail - she was fingering a lock of her hair as she asked, "Do you think Juvia should change how she looks?"

"How you look?" he replied, puzzled. "In what way?"

"Juvia was thinking of maybe changing how she does her hair, and how she dresses. Since Juvia doesn't bring rain with her everywhere she goes anymore, and is in a new guild, maybe it's time for a fresh start. She could show everyone she isn't Phantom Lord's Ameonna anymore," she explained.

"Well, I can't blame you for wanting a fresh start," he said thoughtfully, "but you kinda sound like you're trying to reject the person you used to be. But she's the one who made all the choices that eventually brought you here, right? Good or bad, you can't deny what happened in your past. Besides, the old you is the one who became friends with me, so she couldn't be all bad, right?"

When he looked over at her, she seemed to be blushing again. It was kinda weird, how she did that more now than she'd seemed to when she was younger. Or maybe he was just noticing it more now that he got to see her more often? "So, what does Gray-sama think Juvia should do?"

"Why don't you start by changing something small, and seeing if you like the change, instead of changing a bunch of stuff all at once?" he suggested. Looking her over, he saw that she was still tugging at a lock of her hair. "You could trying leaving your hair down instead of curling it, or something?"

There was an odd look in her eyes as she turned towards him. "Would Gray-sama like it if Juvia left her hair down?"

He shrugged. "I'm a little curious about it, I guess."

"Juvia will think about your suggestion, then."

After they returned from lunch, they got a couple of surprises - Fairy Tail had been found innocent by the Magic Council, so Mira was able to open up a temporary job counter while the guild was being rebuilt, and Laxus had returned from whatever job he'd been on while everything with Phantom Lord went down. Like usual, Laxus felt the need to talk down to the rest of them. They were standing near Lucy when Laxus mouthed off to Levy and her team about what Gajeel had done to them.

"How dare you…" Lucy hissed out from between gritted teeth.

"Well, well! If it isn't the chickie who's the root cause of it all!" Laxus sneered. Gray tried to subtly shift to block Juvia from Laxus's view, but he spotted her anyway. "And the old man is even letting in some of Phantom's leftovers."

Gray bristled at that, but Juvia put a restraining hand on his shoulder, shaking her head at him while looking down. Laxus spouted off for a while more about wanting Fairy Tail to be the strongest guild before leaving. Once he was gone, Gray muttered, "He's full of shit."

Juvia looked troubled as she said, "For as much as he kept calling Phantom weak, his attitude would've fit in better there than in Fairy Tail."

Doing his best to give her a reassuring smile he told her, "Don't worry about it, Gramps would never let him get away with something like that."

That was when Erza rejoined the conversation. "It's over," she told a fuming Natsu. "If we expend our energy on him, we'll just exhaust ourselves. Let's turn to a more pressing matter. What do you think? Do you feel like taking on a job?"

"Wha?" Natsu was clearly surprised by the question.

And Gray was just as surprised when Erza turned to address him as well. "Of course, Gray and Lucy will come along, too. We've been working together anyway since the Eisenwald incident. Why don't we officially form a team? Just us four - no, five, including Happy."

While Lucy seemed excited at the prospect, to say Gray was shocked by the proposal would be an understatement. Saying that they'd been working together since fighting Eisenwald was a bit of a stretch - they'd only gone on the Galuna Island job since then, and they'd hardly been united from the start on that one. And Erza had preferred to work solo ever since she joined the guild - why change that now? Vaguely registering that other guild members were commenting about the potential team, he gathered himself and spoke up before this could get out of hand. "Sorry, but I'll have to pass for now. Gramps asked me to show our newest member the ropes once we were able to take jobs again." As he showed who he was talking about with a jerk of his thumb, Juvia, who had been hanging back listening to the four of them, jumped a little at the sudden attention directed her way.

Considering this, Erza murmured, "Master's orders, hmm…" Her eyes regaining their determination as she reached a decision, she stated, "Then Juvia will just have to come with us for now. We can all show her how Fairy Tail does things together. Any other problems?" Everyone was quick to demur, including a taken aback Juvia. Gray wasn't thrilled to be forced into Natsu's company, but no one argued with Erza unless they liked pain.

Pulling out a flyer, Erza continued, "Very well. Here's our first job! We're to go and take down a secret magic fraternity in the castle town of Lupinus!" Looking over the group, she finished, "Let's go!"

After everyone's enthusiastic agreement, they left for the train station. As they walked, Juvia leaned towards him and whispered, "Erza-san really is a force of nature, isn't she?" He had to nod his fervent agreement to that.

With the strength of their group, the group they were sent after stood no chance against them. Unfortunately, certain pink haired Dragon Slayers have no sense of proportion or restraint, so they ended up wrecking half of Lupinus in the process. Well, okay, not all of the property damage was Natsu's fault. Just most of it. And he might have gotten in trouble for public indecency again if Juvia hadn't been doing her best to keep track of his clothes.

Speaking of Juvia, it turned out that they worked really well together - it was easier for him to make ice if she supplied the water for it, and when she trapped people with water he could freeze it to make it much harder for them to get out. And she clearly had plenty of experience with taking care of herself in a fight. On the train ride back, he told her, "You did really well."

She blushed again (seriously, what was with all the blushing?) as she lowered her gaze, her lips curling up in a small smile. "Thank you. Gray-sama is very skilled himself, and Juvia enjoyed fighting beside him."

"I think you'll be an excellent addition to the guild," Erza broke in, causing both of them to jump a little - they'd kind of forgotten that Erza, Lucy, and a passed out Natsu were sitting across from them.

"Thank you, Erza-san," she replied, still smiling. "Juvia will continue to do her best."

As Juvia continued chatting with Erza and Lucy, Gray couldn't help feeling pleased that his friend seemed to be settling into the guild quite well.


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