*Gray slaps his hands together as if wiping dust from them as he walks on* Well, that takes care of Elfman. He's lucky I didn't set Erza and Mira on that baka. Man…

Well, I told you lot I would be back! Though now that I remember what chapter this is, I wish I wasn't. Mavis, do we really have to go through this one again?! I'd really rather not relive this moment…

Apparently I have to… Erza's glaring at me…

Let's just get this over with.

Chia: Matte o! I have something to say first!

Gray: *glares* Hurry up. I just want to get this over with.

Chia: *ahem* Everyone rejoice! You get this chapter a little early since I'm headed back to college in a couple of hours and won't have time after that! ...That being said, please keep rejoicing to keep from chopping my head off... The next scheduled update is the end of March/beginning of April. However, I'm not entirely sure where my spring break falls, so it may be earlier or later than that... Also, I appear to have miscalculated somehow with the number of months in proportion to the number of chapters I have in my possession. That being said, you're only getting one update after this one from me. That's all I have left. I was supposed to have enough to update once more in June, right before Elodie gets back, but now... *bows low* Gomen'nasai, mina-san! ...Okay, Gray; I'm done now.

Chapter 25 – For Love

It was Lyon.

"That's a mermaid," Toby stammered as he, Yuka, and Jura all made their way to stand at Gray's side. "A mermaid! A flippin' half-man-half-fish mermaid!"

"I think that's a merman, actually," Yuka pointed out, though he sounded just as awed.

Jura put a hand on Gray's shoulder. "I don't believe it," he muttered. "Prince Gray, merpeople are real!"

"I already knew that!" Gray growled irritably. "But why did their king have to be this jerk?"

There was no mistaking it was Lyon. The merman who had just swum up to the side of the boat had his slanted eyes, spiky bluish-white hair, sharp face and cold look. His chest was bare, showing off his toned pectorals and abs. From the waist down he was submerged in water, but Gray was sure he could see his long fishtail through the waves, the scales silver with a black diamond pattern similar to the pants the real Lyon had worn during Lamia Scale's alliance with Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus against Nirvana. Despite the similarities between the two, the crown on his head and the trident in his hand definitely marked this Lyon as the king of the mermaids, and unfortunately for Gray, the Merking had heard what he'd said.

"I beg your pardon?" the merman said in Lyon's cold, clear voice, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Gray sighed irritably. He had to remember this wasn't the real Lyon. The king of the mermaids didn't know Gray, and Gray had never met him. But it was hard to be respectful when looking at his old rival's face. "I'm sorry, your, um, majesty," Gray managed to grind out, grateful that the real Lyon was never going to find out about this. "You just remind me of someone I dislike."

"So do you," the Merking replied. "Then again, I generally dislike humans, so your face is nothing special to me. Shall I tell you what is?"

Lyon pointed at the conch shell still in Gray's hand. "That's my horn. The only reason I stopped the storm from tearing this boat to shreds was so I could get it back and personally punish the human who took it from me."

"I didn't take it!" Gray snapped. "This was given to me to use in order to call you!"

"I did not give anyone permission to take my horn and give it to a human! Who did this?"

At that moment, Scuttle chose to drop in. "That would be I, your highness!" he said, amongst the many gasps and cries of shock from the crew at a talking seagull.

Lyon looked infuriated. "Scuttle! You're meddling in the affairs of humans and merfolk again?!"

"It was necessary this time, your majesty," Scuttle assured him. "You see, Gray here is a prince! And he has a very urgent request to make of you at this time, sir! I ask that you please listen to him."

Lyon glared at Scuttle for several long seconds before slowly returning his gaze back to Gray. The temporary prince propped one foot up on the railing and leaned forward slightly to better address the marking.

"I've come searching for a friend of mine," he said clearly. "Her name is Juvia, and she's a human girl who was kidnapped by a sea witch named Ursula."

"Ursula?" Lyon repeated, recognizing the name and clearly disliking it.

"Yes. Ursula used a cursed seashell to transform my friend into one of your kind and took her to the sea. Scuttle here told me she had her trapped in an underwater cave. I came here in hopes of rescuing her."

Lyon gave Gray a long, hard look before nodding once. "I understand. I shall see what I can do about rescuing your friend."

"Hey, hang on!" Gray shouted angrily as Lyon turned and made to dive back into the water. "I was planning on saving her myself!"

Lyon turned and gave Gray a humorous look. "You think you're going to rescue a girl trapped at the bottom of the ocean? I wish you luck with that, human."

Gray felt a tick beginning to form above his eyebrow. This guy was just as infuriating as the real Lyon! "Scuttle informed me that you would be able to give me the means to save her."

"And why would I do that?" Lyon demanded, folding his arms across his chest, his trident shining in the fading sunlight. "To do so would mean to share the power of the merfolk with you, and that is not something I will do just upon request."

"Oh, but you must, sire!" Scuttle said urgently. "Gray has to reach her and perform the True Love's Kiss to mmph!"

Scuttle was cut off as Gray grabbed his beak in an effort to get him to shut up, but the damage had already been done. "True Love's Kiss?" Lyon repeated, looking at Gray. "You're in love with this girl?"

Gray refused to look Lyon, Scuttle, or any of the watching Lamia Scale crew in the eye. "I would greatly appreciate it," he said through gritted teeth, "if you could help me get to her."

"So you do love her."

Gray finally turned to give Lyon the coldest look he could muster, his temper reaching a breaking point. "Look, fishboy, are you going to help me or not?!"

The water around Lyon suddenly rose up into a wave that carried the merking up to eye level with the prince, leaning in so close to his face, Gray actually took a step back. "Is that really a way you want to talk to someone from whom you need a favor?" he asked in a low voice. "If I'm going to lend you the power of my people, I need to know your feelings are sincere, Prince Gray. Are they, or aren't they?"

"I don't see why my feelings are any of your business," Gray snapped.

"All I need is a truthful yes or no answer. Why are you so keen to avoid the question?"

Gray felt like he was being cornered again. This was just like what had happened back in Crocus, when the real Lyon, Juvia, and even Erza had all questioned him on whether or not he loved the water mage. Why couldn't they just leave them alone? His answer at that moment had been no in the end…

But now…

"Because I don't honestly know," Gray ground out in answer to Lyon's question, feeling the blood rush up his neck. Lyon back up slightly, though his spout of water kept him at the level of the ship's railing, and Gray could feel his eyes burrowing into his face, along with the eyes of Scuttle and the Lamia Scale crew.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Scuttle asked worriedly.

Gray leaned his elbows against the rail of the ship, his bangs swinging down around his eyes. "I turned her down once," he muttered. "A few months ago. Juvia has been infatuated with me from almost the moment we met, and though I considered her a close friend… I've never been good with relationships, and her method of expressing her feelings to me was a bit creepy: stalking, overreacting every time I talked to another girl, speaking her creepy daydreams out loud… it was rather disturbing. But I didn't want to hurt her feelings, and we worked well together, so I let her do what she wanted and ducked out whenever my relationship with her was questioned. But then…" Gray thought back to the battle with the dragons in Crocus and shuddered slightly. "Some stuff happened, and I decided it was better to officially turn her down."

"But you said just now that you didn't know," said Lyon pressingly.

Gray shrunk his neck back into his shoulders as if trying to hide in an imaginary turtle shell. His face was growing more and more red and his teeth were ground together. He'd never felt so humiliated before in his life. He hated talking about his feelings, he had ever since his parents died, and the only reason he was able to spill his guts now was that he knew that none of these people were actually real. But that didn't make this confession any less embarrassing.

"After I shut her down… she never stopped hanging around me and was still infatuated with me, but she did back off a little bit. The stalking stopped, at least, as did the daydreams and the declarations of war against my other female friends. She became less clingy, and I thought we might finally have a chance at a regular friendship."

Gray ducked his head, his bangs now completely shadowing his eyes and his jaw relaxing as his lips turned down in a frown. "But then she was captured. We've been separated for five days now, and I didn't realize how much I would miss her until she was gone. For all of her theatrics and cheesy romantic ideals, she's also kind and compassionate and caring. Her capacity to love is greater than someone like me, with the emotional range of a teaspoon, could ever feel. Maybe I felt intimidated by that, and that's why I turned her down. Either way, I'd rather have her stalking me and creeping me out than not have her around at all. That's what I've discovered, anyway."

"So you might love her?" Lyon asked skeptically.

"…. Maybe," Gray said finally. Mavis, this was embarrassing! "But part of me doesn't want to, because other people I've loved… well, they never turned out okay."

"You mean you're a heartbreaker? A womanizer?"

"Heck no! I've never had a girlfriend or anything like that in my life! I mean…" The first thing Gray was going to do when he and his other friends got out of this book was rip it to shreds and erase every record of this ever happening. Because now he was going to have to talk about his past. "When I was a kid, my parents were killed. A woman took me in and taught me… some stuff, and she became my guardian. I was still angry about my parents' deaths so I didn't treat her the way I should have, but I loved her like a second mother. Not soon after we met, though, she died while protecting me."

Gray's hands were shaking. He clenched them around his arms, his fingernails digging through his shirt and into his skin. "Then just a few months ago... my teacher's daughter died. I hadn't known her long, but I felt pretty close to her. She sacrificed herself to save several lives… including mine."

Everyone on the ship was quiet. Gray was sure some of them were confused, since Gray's story didn't match whatever they knew about their prince, but he didn't care. He was just letting the words roll off his tongue now. "Everyone I've ever loved more than a friend has gotten hurt because of me," he said in a now quavering voice. "If what I feel for Juvia now is love… I don't want her to be put in harm's way. It might sound stupid, but-"

"Yeah, it does sound stupid."

Gray's head jerked up to meet Lyon's unforgiving gaze. "You break her heart and push her away because you're scared of love, and then you comfort yourself by saying you're doing it for her protection? That's selfishness and cowardice if I've ever seen them."

Lyon's words suddenly lit a fire in Gray's heart, and the ache in his throat and behind his eyes disappeared. He unclenched his hands and straightened his back, resting his palms on the railing as he leaned over it toward the king of the merpeople. "Help me change that, then," he asked, his voice strong and calm again. "I need to find Juvia and right my wrongs, and I need to find her personally." He bit his lip reluctantly before adding. "Please lend me your power. I'm begging you. I can't do this without your help."

Lyon stared at Gray for several long seconds, pondering his request with his lip pursed and his eyes narrowed as he tapped his finger against his chin. That expression mocked Gray in such a way that the ice mage decided that he would punch the real Lyon in the face the next time he saw him. He didn't care if the real Lyon Vastia didn't have any clue what was happening here, he was going to do it to make himself feel better. Finally, Lyon lowered his hand.

"Very well. I will assist you. Please stand still."

Before Gray even knew what was happening, Lyon pointed his Trident at Gray's chest and shot a beam of golden light from the end of it, which hit him right over his sternum. Gray staggered back from the impact only to fall forward again, crying out in pain as a sudden fire raced through his legs and seared his throat and eyes. One hand clutching his throat and the other clasping around his knee, which was starting to feel strangely rubbery beneath his palm, he knocked back against the railing of the ship and tipped over it. He heard the cries of his crewmates and Scuttle's squawks through the whistling in his ears, and then he hit the water head-first with a smack.

Gray was sinking fast. Holding his breath, which was difficult with the fire in his throat and now in his lungs, he tried to kick himself around and back up to the surface, but his legs screamed in protest and wouldn't work properly. Trying to figure out what was happening, Gray squinted down at his legs to see what was happening to them.

"Son of a-!" Gray burst out, forgetting that he was underwater, at the sight that met him. His legs had fused together from the ankles up, but he still had two knee joints and his pants had somehow meshed in with his flesh, his dark blue canvas pants melting in with his skin and his feet elongating and flattening. He didn't know if he wanted to scream or throw up, both from pain and shock, as he watched his knees conjoin and the fabric of his pants ripple and turn into scales from his waist all the way down to his feet. Webs appeared between his toes, and then grew over them, elongating to twice the size of his original feet and then turning pointed at the ends. He had a tail and fins.

The pain dispersed as soon as the transformation was done, and Gray stared down at his lower body in shock, his breath coming in heavy gasps. Wait, he was breathing?! Gray wrapped his hands around his neck. It felt normal on the outside, but he knew something was different, both in his throat and in his lungs, because he was breathing in the water as if it was air. His eyes weren't stinging as much as they should have in salt water, either. He blinked, and he noticed he could see just as clearly as he could if he was above water. It was breathtaking, actually, the way the water moved silently around him, the sunlight filtering through in shafts. He'd never before known just how beautiful water could be.

Gray had just been turned into a mermaid.

As this realization hit him, Gray gave an experimental flick of his tail, shocked at how far just one stroke carried him. Twisting his upper body, Gray pointed himself toward the surface of the water and kicked his tail again and again, feeling strangely fluid and agile with his movements, until his face broke the surface of the water. Above his head, the crewmates of Lamia Scale were gawking at him and shouting at one another. Merking Lyon, who was back in the regular water without his towering spout, smirked at him.

"This is what you call sharing you power?!" Gray demanded of him indignantly. "Turning me into a mermaid?!"

"Merman, to be more precise," Lyon pointed out. "I have not, in fact, turned you into a woman."

It didn't matter to Gray. It still felt womanly.

"You're the one who begged for it," Lyon reminded him darkly, in response to Gray's furious glare. "This is the only way you'll be allowed into Atlantis to find your friend. If you want, I could give you your legs back and just let you drown right here-"

"Fine!" Gray snapped. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Scuttle informed me Sebastian and Flounder were awaiting you in the city," answered Lyon. "I'll lead you there, and from then on you'll be on your own. I should warn you, however, that your tail will only last you twenty-four hours. If you're not back at the surface by the time the effects wear off, you will most likely die."

Gray felt something hard knot in his stomach. He wished Lyon had told him this before he gave him fins, but it wasn't like doing so would have changed anything. He only had twenty-four hours left to find Juvia as well, so it wasn't like it would make much of a difference if his tail disappeared before he saved her. "Thanks for the tip," he said darkly.

"You're highness!" Both Gray and Lyon looked up, but it was Gray being addressed this time by Jura, who was leaning over the railing and shouting down at him. "What would you like us to do while you are gone?"

Gray hesitated. What would happen after he found Juvia? Would they immediately return to the guild, or would they need to be above the water again before that? Deciding it would be best to have the ship here as backup, he answered, "Keep sailing, but stick close to this area! The seagull should be able to help guide you! If I'm not back before sunset tomorrow…"

Gray didn't go on. He had no idea what he would say, anyway. "We got it!" Jura yelled, sending Gray a salute. "We'll be waiting for you, sire!"

Gray saluted his crew as they all wished him good lucks and farewells, and then he turned back to Lyon. "Alright, Lyon. Lead the way."

Love, something you know nothing of

Cause love don't turn and run

And leave you standing in the dark.

You, tell me that your feelings changed

And you don't wanna stay and break my heart

Well baby it's too late.

Love, what was I supposed to do?

Falling out can be so cruel

But I just can't ignore the truth.

So, don't tell me I don't understand

Cause I don't want this on my hands

But it's all that's left to do.

Everything you want's what we used to be

And I can't fight these feelings inside of me

As much as this hurts, it's the only way

Believe me when I say

I did it all for love

~"All for Love" by Lady Antebellum

…

Shut up.

No seriously, all of you, just don't say anything.

STOP LAUGHING, NATSU!

NO, LUCY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME THAT MY FACE IS AS RED AS ERZA'S HAIR.

Yes, I'm aware that I just got turned into a mermaid after being forced to pour my heart and soul out to a whole bunch of sailors. I am very well aware of this fact, thank you. Stop laughing!

I'll just let you guys go… I need to go beat up Gajeel and Natsu to regain my manhood… I really don't want to know what you guys have to say about me, but unfortunately for me, Elodie does, so… yeah, please do review.