~~~Chapter 9~~~

(AN: Oh boy, last chapter was a roller coaster. A real mess. Short with the AN today. Here we go, what's Levy gonna say? Short chapter, but two in one day! Sadly, Fanfiction wasn't working for me to post earlier today for no apparent reason :/ but here it is made up for!)

"What is it, Levy?!" I asked, standing up with Juvia and walking to meet her.

"Come with me," the bluenette panted, turned on her heels, and ran out again.

I bolted after her with Juvia to my side and Natsu and Lucy following behind. Levy found something. She had to. We were probably stuck here. But then again, why would she run in and out of the guild like that?

Juvia asked as we came up to Hibiki and Gajeel, "What is it, Levy? Did you find something?"

Levy panted and caught her breath nodding. She answered, "Yeah, it's about that old abandoned house you came acrossed… Apparently a ghost has been spotted there many times before. It's probably what sent you here."

"Yeah, I figured that," I replied. "Can you reverse it? Because if not…"

"Yes, we can," Hibiki announced.

"W… Wait… You can?!" I exclaimed surprised. "But I thought that we were probably going to be stuck here forever or something. How'd you figure we can?"

Hibiki said, "The ghost of Evol sent you here, and she can send you back. There are many legends about her spirit. They say she sends people to different times to make them realize something important. Once they have realized what the thing is, they will be sent back to their own time. All you have to do is go back and meet this spirit again and you can go home."

Levy added, finally caught up of breath, "That is, if she thinks that you realized whatever she wanted you to."

"We'll try it," I said. "But we'll still exist here, right?"

"You should go back to how you were before you were sent here, yes," Hibiki answered.

I took a deep breath to take it all in. We could go home and our future selves can have their bodies back… Their lives back. But, Juvia probably doesn't want to go back. I can't just leave her here and go by myself. I'd never forgive myself. She may have the future me, but then what would I do while she lives here?

"Can we think on it for now? It's kind of a lot to take in. I kind of thought that we would be stuck here," I admitted.

"Sure, Gray," Levy cheerfully responded. "Just don't take too long, 'kay? Gajeel will take you up to the house of Evol tomorrow at eleven."

Natsu added, "I'll come with."

Lucy agreed, "Me too."

"Thanks, guys," I said.

I looked over to Juvia who stood still with a sad expression. I knew she wouldn't be thrilled with the news. So we parted ways as the day was slowly ending and made back to the house again. Chat number two, incoming.

Juvia muttered once we got inside, "Juvia doesn't know what to do."

"Me neither," I sighed. "I was kinda going on the idea that we would never go back. Kinda stuck now, hua?"

"Juvia wants to go back, but she wants to stay here too," she whinned as she sat down on the couch and pulled her feet up to rest her head on her knees.

I sat next to her. Of course she wouldn't want to go back. We were together here. Her dream come true. We have a lot to work out, but we're happy here. Yet, we were happy back there too. Just not in the intimate way… As in the marriage part… And everything that would go with that…

"Yeah, I know. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Why are decisions so hard? I mean, half of what has happened is because we don't have a choice and in the end everything turns out fine. So either send us back or don't, right?" I rambled.

Gods, why was this so hard? Go back to the time were we know and experienced everything we knew. But stay here to what we learned to adapt to. To live in the life of experience, or the life of learning the past and going with what we got. To go back to the time were everything I do is actually a conscious decision than a vision, or live where the decision was already made before I had a conscious choice.

*Go home to experience the decisions made.* Yeah. *Past Fairy Tail will miss us.* Yeah. *Juvia will be alright once it's all over.* Yeah, I hope so. *If we don't go now, we will never return.* I know. *Everything will work out fine.* Right.

"If we don't go back, then our friends will never know where we went. Just like the guy we were trying to find. Besides, if we stay, then technically we are taking away this time's us's lives, right?" I reasoned.

"Juvia guesses so. She doesn't want that," she admitted sadly.

"Everything will be fine, I promise," I soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

She looked up and nodded with a sad smile, "If Gray-sama believes so."

I nodded my head confidently, "It will."

After some silence, she fidgeted as her cheeks got pink and she asked, "C… Can Gray-sama sleep with Juvia again tonight one last time?"

"Sure," I answered.

(AN: Quick thanks to everyone for viewing and sticking with me through my long summer vaca (And Guest as always).)