Yozora no Shita de

Under the night-sky

We told the master about the second letter the following day. He was a bit suspicious to who they came from but other than that he didn't really react to the news. I guess he had expected another letter as well.

Juvia, Gray and I spend the rest of the day just hanging around in the guildhall doing just about nothing. Until Lucy entered and walked right up to us.

"Haruka," she said. "There are people out in town looking for you," she had a worried look on her face and I guess I felt kinda bad for her.

"Who?" Juvia asked.

"I don't know," the blonde girl was tearing up a bit.

Juvia looked concerned at me. "We need to do something," she said.

"What would you do?" I asked. I somewhat hoped she had a good answer to that question. Unfortunately: "I don't know," Juvia said. "I'm not sure," she didn't look at me. She looked down at her hands.

"I'm sorry, I'm not of much help," Lucy said looking down as well shamefully.

Just then Natsu – the fire boy – came up to Lucy with a wide grin on his face. "Hey Lucy! Hurry home so Happy and I can crash your place later tonight," he said. I guess he'd noticed her upset look because his words sure changed the look on Lucy's face.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" she yelled angrily causing Juvia to smile and me to feel entertained. I know it's not nice to laugh at others like that but I don't really care. What she doesn't know, she'll never find out.

"Natsu, why don't you leave her alone?" Gray asked slightly irritated. "You're both being noisy and we're trying to think here"

Natsu turned to look at Gray with narrowed eyes. "Oh yeah? Say that to my face Ice-princess!" he yelled.

"Oh, I'd love to!" Gray said sarcastically.

Natsu pulled back his fist and prepared to punch Gray in the face and Gray did the same when the armored girl – Erza – came to separate the two.

"Alright," she said. "That's enough now what's the matter"

"Nothing," I said. "Just leave it"

Erza nodded. "You're as silent as ever I see," she commented and I decided not to comment on that. What was there to say?

Nonetheless Gray stepped down and Natsu did too. None of them spoke to each other more that day. Instead Gray spend the rest of the day discussing what to do about the people tracking me and I listened to their conversation as much as possible. This was until the sun had set and people started to leave the guildhall. Juvia had gone to the restroom for a bit and Gray and I were just sitting.

"Juvia likes you," I said.

"Huh?" Gray asked his head snapping up and he looked at me.

"Juvia has feelings for you," I explained further.

"How do you know?" he asked.

How did he NOT know? "It's obvious," I said.

"That's what you meant by the question the other day?"

I nodded my head watching as Gray blushed slightly.

"Well," He paused "I guess I kinda like her too," he finally said and I think it was a relief to him getting it off his chest like that. "Would you tell her that?"

"Not unless you want it," I said not really being sure if he did or not.

"I won't mind if you did. I'm not sure I could confess. But don't tell her that I asked you to do it, if you don't mind," He said.

What I minded was that I had to do it. I'd rather confess my own love to Juvia if I had an option but they belonged together that was it and I had nothing to do in their relationship. I didn't even belong here. I was an outsider and had no rights in this world except what little I could do to make my love happy.

"I don't," I told Gray.

"Thanks Haru," Gray smiled "Then I guess I'll go home. I leave the door unlocked so lock it before you go to bed." With those words Gray left the guildhall.

Moments later Juvia came back from the restroom. "Where's Gray?" she asked.

"He went home," I told her not looking at her at all.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

I thought about that for a bit. What did I tell her? "What are your feelings… about Gray and I?" I asked.

Juvia looked surprised at me for a moment before answering my question. "I guess… you're both great friends and you both mean a lot to me…"

I sighed. "Don't lie to me," I said. "I know you're in love with Gray," I said letting her know it was obvious.

"You… know?" she asked flushing red. "Then why do you ask?"

"How much do you love Gray?" I asked looking at her and avoiding her question completely.

Juvia hesitated. "…I'm deeply in love with him," she finally said. "I fell in love with him at first sight. He's sweet, and he cares and he is really hot. I love him more and more by the second," she smiled dreamingly. "I could never imagine myself falling for anyone else but Gray"

I nodded my head. "I see," I said. "I happen to know something"

"What?" Juvia asked looking at me with curiosity.

"Gray likes you back," I said simply not really feeling like wrapping it up or anything. There was no need. I could see the light in her eyes as I told her that. It made me so happy to see.

"How do you know?" Juvia asked then, now the doubt snuck into her happy smile.

I wondered how to put it and finally decided to just tell her the truth. "He told me," plane and simple.

Juvia jumped up, excited. "Thank you so much, Haruka!" she cried happily pulling me into a tight hug. This surprised me so much I barely managed to hug her back before she let go of me. "I should go talk to him!"

"Juvia," I said reaching out, grabbing her wrist causing her to stop before she ran out of the guildhall. "Tomorrow," I said simply.

Juvia looked at me. Our eyes made contact for a moment before she nodded her head. "Of course," she said blushing. "I'm sure he's tired. Tomorrow is better. Thank you, Haru," she said. "I'll just walk home then"

I got up as well, preparing to walk home. We exited the guildhall together but outside I stopped her. "Don't tell him that I told you," I said just before we parted ways.

Juvia looked at me before nodding. "I won't," she said. "Goodnight Haru. And thank you. Be safe on your way home," she said.

"Goodnight," I mumbled turning my back to Juvia, only wishing that I could give her that goodnight kiss that was burning inside of me as I started walking back to Gray's place.