In the morning the ship docked at the nearest town. Lucy offered to pay for the clothes needed for Juvia as she had a pouch of money with her. Gray came along to carry her since her feet were too sore to walk on. Natsu told all three of them not be gone for too long because he didn't want anyone in town to recognize them as pirates.

As they looked for an appropriate place to find clothes, Juvia couldn't help but take in all the sights. She watched all the shops, stands, houses, and people walking around with great fascination. She knew it was probably rude of her to gawk and stare but she couldn't help herself, everything was just so amazing. Well at least to her it was.

At long last they found a local shop that sold dress, shoes, corsets, and other women's clothing. Gray waited outside while Lucy helped her pick out suitable clothes and put them on. First she bought her some under garments though Juvia refused to wear a corset which luckily Lucy didn't object to.

"These are all so pretty." Juvia said looking at the dresses Lucy had brought her to try on. She ran her fingers over the fabric of nearly each one. "And they feel so nice."

"Let's see how they look on you." The blonde said.

She tried on many dresses but settled on the white regency dress with lilac trimming around the bust and panels on each side of the skirt and bodice. Lucy then picked out some sensible but pretty shoes to wear on her feet. After getting dressed she combed her hair and adorned it with a lovely wreath of white lilies and beads.

"How do I look?" She asked Lucy.

"Perfect." She replied.

Lucy had chosen purchase a new dress for herself because her old one had become faded and smelled of salt and fish. She didn't buy anything extravagant, just a long sleeved yellow dress with a tight fitting bodice which was edged with green satin piping. Using a matching green ribbon, she pulled her hair up into a bun.

Once she had made her purchase and both young women were clothed, Lucy called Gray into the shop to carry Juvia out. He was shocked and impressed by how lovely the mermaid looked especially with her hair dry and properly combed.

She didn't want Gray to constantly be burdened with carrying her around so she decided to try and walk again but as soon as her feet touched the ground she felt the awful pain again and started to fall over, Gray quickly caught her.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Yes." She said. "I'm just trying to walk."

"Well hey if your legs don't work-"

"No it's not that." She said. "It's my feet, mermaids aren't supposed to be on land for such a long time. We have the ability to grow legs when we're dry but that ability is for emergencies like if we get stuck on land so we use our legs to get back to the sea. However to prevent us from staying on land our feet feel terrible pain when we walk on them."

"How terrible is the pain?"

"Every step I take feels as though I'm treading on knives."

"Ouch! No wonder you can't walk right. Here I'll carry you."

"No. I have to learn to deal with the pain. Please let me walk back to the ship."

"Alright but let me know if you can't take it anymore."

"I will."

So Gray, Lucy, and Juvia started to walk back to the ship. Despite the pain she felt, she stepped as lightly as a soap-bubble, so that all who saw her wondered at her graceful-swaying movements.

"You look like you're gliding in water." Lucy observed.

"I don't feel like it." Juvia sighed looking down at her feet.

Upon arriving at the ship Natsu was upset because apparently they were late.

"What took you so long?" He asked them. He got his answer when he saw that Lucy now wore a new dress. "You bought a dress? You already had one."

"It was old and dirty." She replied.

"Ugh! Why do women have to be so vain?"

"I am not vain. Unlike you I don't like to walk around in dirty clothes."

"My clothes aren't dirty. Are they?" He turned to Gray.

"Trust me man you really don't want me to answer that."

Natsu gave his jacket a whiff and suddenly felt the urge to puke in the ocean.

"Okay you have a point. Gray when was our last laundry day?"

"Well mine, Erza's, Laxus's, and Gajeel's was last week yours was last month."

"Ewwww!" Lucy gagged.

"Alright I'm a little behind on hygiene but it's just my clothes." Natsu said blushing. "Gray can you wash my clothes tonight?"

"No way man! You once threw your dirty socks into the sea and I swear I saw dead fish rise to the surface!"

"Gajeel will you do the honors?"

"Sorry Captain but I don't have a death wish." Gajeel said. "And just so you know if you ask Laxus to do it he's going to throw you overboard."

"Damn! And I don't want Erza to see my underwear. Looks like I'm on my own cleaning these clothes."

The trip to reach where the kraken was located was further delayed due to Natsu deciding to do his laundry which surprised his crew members because they had never seen him so desperate to get anything clean. So desperate in fact that he delayed a mission. They had never known him to do that before.

"Do they still stink?" Natsu asked Gray when he came back from washing his clothes. Gray nervously sniffed them.

"No they're fine. Since when are you so determined to do laundry?"

"What, are you saying that you like me wearing dirty clothes?"

"No but I'm surprised that you washed your clothes this quickly and didn't wait until after we got the ink from the kraken."

"I just felt like bring accommodating to our guests."

"Ohhhhh...Now I get it." Gray said with a teasing grin.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Accommodating my eye! You just don't want Lucy to think that you stink because you fancy her."

"That's not it at all!"

"You got it bad for the governor's daughter. It's cliche but I don't blame you. She sure is pretty."

"Shut up! I just didn't want to listen to her complain about how I smelled!"

"Uh-huh. Well that's good then because frankly she doesn't like you and she told me that she thought Laxus was cute."

"What?!"

"Yep."

"Why? What could she possibly see in him? What does he have that I don't?"

"How about brains, stupid? I lied. She never said that." Gray laughed. "You've been falling for that gag ever since we were kids."

"Why you-"

Natsu lunged for Gray and the two once again started fighting. From a distance Lucy and Juvia watched them, they hadn't of heard the argument but they figured that if it led to a brawl then it must've been important. It wasn't.

"Goodness do they always fight like this?" Juvia asked.

"All the time." Erza sighed. "Step aside ladies, duty calls."

Erza walked over to the two men and broke up the fight by slamming their heads together.

"Owww!" They shouted.

"Are you two done now?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am." They answered, rubbing the lumps that formed on their heads.

"Good. Now forget whatever stupid argument you two were having and make up!"

"Yes ma'am."

Lucy and Juvia both couldn't help but laughed at the situation.

"They're so stupid." Lucy chuckled.

"I like them. They're funny." Juvia giggled. "My sisters were always so serious, they never had much of a sense of humor."

"Well there's funny and then there's dumb."

"But you have to admit they're cute."

"You haven't been around a lot of men have you?"

"No but you don't really think they're awful do you?"

"I don't think they're awful but I do think they're annoying. Especially that captain! He's just frustrating."

"I thought you liked him."

"What on Earth would give you that idea?"

"Isn't that why you bought a new dress and fixed your hair? Because you wanted to look nice for him?"

"Of course not! I did it because I was sick of wearing a stinky old dress. As if I would ever care about the opinions of some dirty pirate."

"Oh... That's too bad because I think he likes you."

"Please. He'd be thrilled if I jumped overboard."

"Then why does he stare at you so?"

"I don't care if he- Wait he stares at me?"

"Yes."

"Okay that's creepy. Why is he doing that?"

"I don't know. I guess he thinks you're beautiful."

Lucy blushed a little.

"There it is again!" Juvia called out.

"What?"

"Your cheeks turned pink just like Gray's did earlier. How does that work?"

"It's called blushing. It happens when you feel shy or embarrassed."

"Really? I wonder what made Gray feel so shy or embarrassed."

"I couldn't say. On a different note how are your feet?"

"They still hurt but I know that if I just keep walking I can get used to the pain."

"No one should have to get used to pain."

"I don't know much about love but I do know that if you really want it you can't let anything stop you. Even pain."

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Me too."