Author's Note: Okay...so we're on to 25? I really had no idea how long this story would be when I made the idea, and I still have no idea how much we have left. Um...I graduate on April 30th, so hopefully I'll be done by then? Lol, either way let's forget about the future and look to the now! NEW CHAPTER!

I had to start this one off by addressing a major concern with the last chapter's cliff hanger...why did Juvia run off to the bathroom?"

Also I do not own Fairy Tail

...and how amazing was Fairy Tail Zero!? Finale? The entire season? Leave your comments either way! Man I haven't enjoyed an episode that much since the end of Tartaros! Now they're on to Avatar [and Lucy comes back this friday! :D ]

Chapter Twenty Five - Define "Relationship"

Lucy left for the bathroom to chase down her new, eccentric friend Juvia. As she left Natsu and Gray alone, the blonde quickly walked into the women's restroom to find Juvia standing inside a locked stall. She rolled her eyes immediately because it was very clear Juvia wasn't using the toilet. "Oh great…I didn't know she was this nuts…"

She kept that last thought to herself and walked over to try and comfort her new friend. "Heyyy, you doing okay?"

Lucy knocked on the door and waited for a response. Juvia spoke up. "Who's that…? Oh it's you. Um, yes I'm totally fine."

The uncomfortable blonde didn't like the situation and had to quickly leave her comfort zone. "Okay…I can't believe I'm about to go here with a stranger…Juvia you and Gray had a pretty romantic night the other night right?"

"WHY WOULD GRAY TELL YOU THAT!?" Juvia yelled though the crack.

Lucy stepped back. "Um…Natsu just spilled the news a minute ago…remember?"

Juvia sighed. "Oh…right. I apologize…yes, as one might say we had a very, 'intimate' night together."

Lucy held her hand over her eyes. "Right…so did you guys…you know?"

Juvia responded. "YES! Oh yes what are you wasting your time for?! We made LOVE!"

Lucy slammed her head into the door. "Okay…I don't need to know about all the passion and details." She grabbed the bridge of her nose. "Juvia…it's just a little strange that you guys had a "date" a few weeks back, and now all of a sudden you're here running into the bathroom…"

Juvia collected her thoughts. "Beg pardon? I just needed some time to myself…you all were putting me on trial in there…"

Lucy spoke quickly. "Juvia…did Gray...ugh...wear protection?"

Juvia tilted her head. "I don't see why that's any of your business…but yes he did."

Lucy slammed her head back into the door. "So you're not…you know?"

"WHAT!?" Juvia finally threw the door open, all while knocking Lucy onto the ground as she grabbed her by the arms. "OH HEAVENS NO! WHAT KIND OF WOMAN DO YOU THINK I AM!? Oh what would Bora do if he caught me with one of those in my belly!?"

"I don't know…" Lucy brushed the dust off her bottom as she stood up. "…but I'd say it's best if you never find out."

Juvia then began to think of something. "Or actually…that might be a great way to solve my problem!"

"NO NO NO!" Lucy yelled out while grabbing Juvia's arms. "I am NOT instigating THAT! Look…I barely know you and I really have no idea what this Bora guy is like…but I can tell you and Gray seem to get along pretty well."

Juvia looked her new acquaintance right in the eye. "R-really? Yes I do like being around him…but I've been dating Bora for almost 2 years now…we're getting very close as well."

Lucy frowned. "Again I have no place here, but are you that close if you're trying to be with someone else at the same time?"

Juvia slowly nodded. "You're right. I'll just have Gray tell Bora about our night."

"NO JUVIA!" Lucy shook her head. "Ugh…look try just having like a dinner conversation with Bora. If you're not 100% ready to leave him, then see if a night alone will let you reevaluate him."

Juvia paused for a moment and then smiled. "Oh, gee I guess that is a good idea…thank you Lucy." She then followed by reaching out to give Lucy a hug, which made Lucy actually feel slightly warm as she smiled right back.

Juvia carried on. "I'll take your advice. From the sounds of things you seem like a very loose woman yourself, so I'm sure you will be able to help me out."

Lucy's eyes changed from cheery to twitchy, and very angry after hearing that remark. "Wow, thanks…Let's just get back to the dinner…"

Now the two young girls slowly return to their table, but before they made it there, Juvia grabbed Lucy's arm. "So would you like any advice on how to win Natsu over?"

Lucy stuttered in her response. "W-wha? I-I'm not even sure what that means!?"

Juvia gave her another smile. "Oh nonsense, I can tell you're having the same trouble I am! Otherwise why would you show up tonight to have dinner with a stranger?"

Lucy face started turning into that awful shade of embarrassing red. "Yea I tried to keep those thoughts from forming inside my brain…"

Juvia winked and looked to a goofy Nastu laughing in the distance. "Plus I can also see he really likes you in return."

"Really!?" Lucy blurted out. She then covered up her alerted reaction with a fib. "Um…hmm I can't say I see it."

Their conversation ended as they finally arrived to the table, and as they did Gray looked over to Lucy.

"Hey Lucy, I knew you were trying to write, but damn! Natsu just showed me your blog page. That thing's pretty legit!"

The aspiring writer smiled. "Oh you saw my page? Thanks! I put a lot of work into that site, but the traffic really never comes in the end."

Natsu reached over and patted her on the back. "Ah don't worry! I'll win us the championship in March and give ya an interview then! You'll be the biggest name in sports by the time that happens!"

Lucy smiled. "Haha, I think you guys winning would be enough to make me happy. Ever since my dad bought the team I've been waiting to see the Fairies win a trophy."

Juvia nodded. "Yes. That would bring quite the excitement to the town. I imagine the fans would love it too."

As they all enjoyed the conversation the waiters finally reemerged with the drinks. "Here you are!" One smiled with joy. "Now I hate to do this to ya…but our manager said we need to quit giving you Fairy players free meals. So I'm gonna have to charge you tonight."

Natsu waved his hands. "Ah I don't care! Just put it on two tabs instead of four! That is if this loser can cover his end."

Lucy and Juvia nervously bit their tongues from Natsu's suggestion as Gray rolled his eyes. "Yea that's fine by me…I didn't need the loser comment either."

Now, after a very long and friendly dinner the four guests of the Fairy Tail Tavern were ready to leave. Natsu walked with Lucy back to her parked car as they strolled down the night time street.

"Wow, it normally doesn't get this cold in October." Lucy said with a shiver in her voice as a small but chilly mid-autumn breeze rolled through the air.

Natsu laughed. "Cold? Nah I'm burnin up! See!" He held up his closest hand and placed it on Lucy's cheeks.

The gesture made her laugh. "Wow, no kidding. You feel like a walking heater."

Natsu shrugged. "I guess so!" He then saw that she wasn't lying, and now she was actually shivering a bit.

"Here take this!" He took off his black Fairies sports jacket and put it around her shoulders. Then he laughed again as he grabbed her closest arm and wrapped it up with his. "I'll let ya borrow that til we get to your car."

"O-oh, thanks…" Lucy kept her face turned towards the road to hide her rosy red cheeks. "Oh-kay where's my stupid car!? I can't keep this conversation going without making a fool of myself!"

Natsu started laughing again. "Wow, Gray and Juvia are pretty weird right? I'm not even sure what to start calling them!"

Lucy tried to respond normally. "Yea, they do seem to like each other, but then again Juvia has that Bora guy she's dating."

"Right! Eh maybe they'll figure it out soon." He then stayed quiet for a little while after. Lucy didn't like the silence and tried to distract herself from the fact that Natsu was still holding her arm.

"U-um, well now that you mention it…Juvia made this really weird comment about us too."

Natsu turned to look over at her. "She did? No kidding! What'd she have to say!?"

Lucy immediately regretted her choice of topic. "Eh, she was acting kind of weird when she said it, but I don't know…she liked how you paid for my dinner."

Natsu laughed. "Well duh?! I invited you, I'm not makin you pay!" He then started to chuckle like a kid. "Plus either way your dad's the one payin both of us, so in the end he gets to buy."

Lucy laughed. "Yea, well I try not to take that much money from my father…I like to earn it myself."

Natsu smiled. "Oh hey, that's pretty cool actually! You workin' anywhere right now?"

"Eh…" Lucy sighed. "Every time I get accepted somewhere my dad finds out and pulls me from the job...usually while saying I'm too good to work there. Now that I'm 18 I would be able to fight him about it, but I stay pretty busy with school stuff so I don't have time either way. Occasionally I'll help out at the stadium concession stands just to be nice. It's really funny because now they all know me by name instead of just Jude's daughter."

Natsu liked that story. "That's really cool, Lucy. Well hey maybe I'll just have you pay next time!"

Lucy made a double take. "N-next time?"

Natsu nodded rapidly. "Well duh?! I really liked hangin' out with you! And my apartment's getting kind of boring, plus whenever you're over you're usually helping Wendy with some paper or yearbook thing." Lucy had no idea how to respond, and as a result Natsu stopped walking. "Oh here's your car by the way."

Lucy froze for a short second to try and collect everything that just happened. "Okay, well that was a lot…so yea I'm cool if you want to hang out again, b-but you know since you have games this week I totally understand if you can't…"

"OH RIGHT! I'll bring ya back to the tavern after the game tomorrow night! Oh man you're gonna love it, I guess Laxus and Mira always invite you but you never go!"

Lucy had no choice but to nod. "Yea…okay that works." She walked around her car and left Natsu in a puzzled thought.

"Hehe…okay then see ya later I guess!" The confused Point Guard turned and scratched his head as he continued walking down to reach his apartment.

Lucy slowly creeped into her car, shut the door and locked it behind her. She then let out a massive sigh. "I have no idea what to say…" She sat for a rather long pause until a smile crossed her face followed by another blush.

"Well, maybe me asking him to that dance wasn't such a bad idea after all…" She then realized she was still wearing his jacket, which made her stomach flutter with even more emotions. She grabbed the collar and held it up to her nose. It smelled just like his apartment, which made her smile even more.

"Okay, now I guess I have to see him at the next game…after all I'm sure he'll want his jacket back."

Now, we return to Juvia walking back into her apartment. Gray had walked her down the street, but they noticed Bora's car parked along the curb, and resulted by awkwardly hugging one another and leaving it at that in separate directions.

Juvia's heart was still pounding from her wonderful night with Gray and the others, and she tried to milk the moment as much as she could before entering back into her normal life.

"Oh this is so ridiculous…I fell so wrong, but every time I see Gray I just get so excited…I really do like the forbidden element to our relationship." She then stopped walking for a moment.

"Wait…did I just refer to us as a relationship!?" She took a deep breath and kept walking. "Relax…maybe seeing Bora will shoot me back to reality." She slowly opened the door to her apartment where she heard Bora and a female laughing in the kitchen.

"Um…what is this?" Juvia asked herself as she slipped off her shoes and passed through the foyer. As she emerged in the kitchen, Bora and his distant employee Sornao Agria were enjoying a nice bottle of white wine, and as they both saw Juvia their faces lit up with excitement.

"Juvia my darling!" Bora smiled and grabbed a third glass. "Here have a seat. You remember Sornao from work, right? We both have wonderful news!"

"Okay?" Juvia timidly took her seat and slowly accepted the wine.

Bora looked to Sorano. "Okay, since it was your kind gesture I'll go ahead and let you spill the news."

Juvia had forgotten just how unbelievably pretty Sornao was. She was taken away by the white haired woman's face so much that it actually made her tense up in her chair as she waited for the explanation.

"Ah well there really is no need to thank me…" She affirmed with a sly grin. "But Bora here tells me you've been begging him for a nice vacation this coming summer?"

"Oh yes, I may have mentioned it." No. Juvia really wanted the money for her classes more than a vacation now that she wanted to cook.

Sorano rolled her eyes. "Oh come now you don't need to lie to me, darling! I imagine it's probably rather hard to stay here alone while this idiot leaves for our trips. But that leads me into my point. The reason Bora has been making so many trips down to Cait Shelter is because I've been personally holding a very loyal client for him to make a private commission. Normally my employees get the jurisdiction over local customers, but since Bora is the head of the company, and since he was in need of a big sale…I saved this one just for him. As a result, the deal was just finalized yesterday, and Bora…oh you can tell her!"

Juvia snapped her head over to Bora ad he smiled with pride. "I bought a new yacht!"

Juvia sat back in her chair. "Oh, w-wow that is quite the news."

Bora smiled. "Ha, you're speechless! Not to worry I imagined you would be. Yes like you asked last year, I got us a boat we can sail around Fiore next summer! And actually with the big deal signed I can take a break for a week or two as well…I was actually planning for us to take the trip down to Akane tomorrow and spend a week in the warm weather trying out our new toy!"

Juvia's brain was totally broken after hearing all that news. "U-um, you were really looking forward to that Fairy game tomorrow. Remember they play that foreign team in an exhibition match?"

Bora laughed. "Juvia that doesn't matter, it won't count for their record. Plus you're more important than any stupid basketball game!"

"R-really?" Juvia was now more confused than ever. After her conversation with Lucy she was almost sure it was time to end things with Bora, but now that he delivered his promise, she had no idea what to do.

"Um…okay, I have no reason to say no I guess. I'll begin packing tonight."

Bora and Sorano smiled and raised their glasses. "Splendid! Let's have a toast!" They quickly took their drinks as Bora spoke next.

"So where were you tonight, anyway? I was going to take you and Sornao out to dinner to share the news then, but you never showed up?"

Juvia looked guilty. "O-oh Meldy invited me out to dinner with her instead. Actually we saw some players from the Fairies there as well."

Sorano leaned on her arm and smiled. "Oh who did you see? Was that hunk Jellal there…ooh I haven't found time to talk with him since we met last summer…" She was clearly returning to a very comfortable memory as Bora looked over and narrowed his eyes.

"Yea, he's kind of a wash if you ask me…Gajeel and Gray though. They're the future of that team. Isn't that right, Juvia?" He asked his girlfriend but kept his annoyed eyes fixated on Sorano.

Juvia was distracted and snapped her head up after receiving a text from that same player. "O-oh right! They are amazing." She then looked down to read Gray's message.

"Hey, I guess Natsu just invited Lucy to our team celebration tomorrow at Fairy Tail. Win or lose, we always go and get drunk afterwards…you're welcome to come if Bora's still out of town. I'd feel rude not asking since you're such a big fan of the team."

Juvia was nervous with the idea of him being so comfortable with showing her off to his friends, but either way it didn't matter since she now had other plans. As Sorano and Bora continued to argue, Juvia found time to sneak a quick text to Gray.

"Actually…Bora's back in town. He wants me to go on a mini-vacation with him tomorrow…and I said yes."

It took a very long moment for her to receive a response, but once it came, the sight left Juvia with a hollow heart.

"Oh…sorry never mind. Have fun with that."

Hmm...a good bit of stuff happened:

1.) Okay so I guess in the last chapter I left the impression that Juvia was now "prego" after her night with Gray...lol that is SO FUNNY that people came to that conclusion! My audience is more clever than I am apparently, lol. I had fun with it either way.

2.) The HMS NaLu seems like it might actually launch for sailing soon...more than I can say about the real version of NaLu but I'll hold my anger towards Hiro in for another day...

3.) Meanwhile the SS Gruvia hit an iceberg...a very big ass iceberg with purple hair and an obnoxious smile. (AND WTF!? ANGEL/SORANO dated Jellal TOO!?)

New chapter soon! (Also look out for the real FT chapter now as well! I haven't read it yet, but I'll catch up soon!)

***EDIT*** So i just read the new manga chapter...guys stop what you're doing and go read it...it's pretty legit this week.